Conservative author and humorist Mark Steyn mocked Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday for suggesting racial injustice causes climate change, joking that “climate change is racism and racism is everything.”
“If everything is racism, nothing is racism,” Steyn told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“If everything is infrastructure, nothing is infrastructure. Infrastructure is racism and racism is climate change. That is all ye know and all ye need to know,” Steyn continued, comparing Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure project that some critics say is consumed with wasteful spending.
“Yes, everything is infrastructure. Infrastructure is climate change. Climate change is racism and racism is everything,” Steyn said. (RELATED: ‘Let’s Do This’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Challenges Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez To Debate On Green New Deal)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed Tuesday that racial injustice and the violation of indigenous rights are related to climate change.
Steyn said that although his reaction to those words “is to roll my eyes … nobody who matters rolls their eyes at AOC. They all take her seriously,” adding that even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is afraid to contradict the congresswoman.
Steyn noted that “the transatlantic slave trade reached its height during the Little Ice Age, which was also when the French and Indian wars occurred. So there appears to be no correlation at all between racism and climate change.”
But he reprimanded himself for even taking the remarks seriously.
“Then I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing? This is rubbish. This is supposed to be science!'”
Steyn suggested that people who believe climate change has happened throughout the millennia are captive to “a completely idiotic theory but at least [they’re] not trying to sell the world on the idea that somehow climate change correlates to racism.”
He suggested that while he and host Tucker Carlson could “laugh at this,” others found it more amusing. “You know the people who really laugh at this? Chairman Xi [Jinping] and the Chinese politburo. Because they don’t have to bother thinking about all of this and it frees up all of their time to talk about something important and something true.” (RELATED: Mark Steyn Ridicules ‘Totalitarian’ Green New Deal With Tucker Carlson)
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, attends a press conference about a postal banking pilot program outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 15, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The Green New Deal seeks a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, with a view to slowing climate change, the American Action Forum (AAF) reported in 2019. The wide-ranging legislation also includes initiatives such as socialized medicine and “guaranteed green housing” while insisting that all Americans have access to food and a “net-zero emissions transportation system.”
The cost of the project could be as high as $93 trillion, according to AAF estimates.