I've been a lurker in this subreddit for a while, but as someone from Europe it has become a bit frustrating to visit in the past year as it has become dominated by posts focused on US politics.
I don't mind reading US energy news and I share the frustration and worry about the actions of the current administration. But the sheer volume of these posts is completely displacing other discussion and many of them don't even add anything new, just boil down to Trump bad, upvotes to the left.
Here are the top 10 posts from the past week:
Top 10 posts from the past week
Of these 7 are about US politics, many about topics that have already been extensively covered (like the offshore wind cancellation).
If you look at the top posts from the past month it's even worse. Of the top 15 posts, only 3 aren't about Trump
Top 15 posts from the past month
What's even more frustrating is that when energy news from other countries get posted some commenters still can't resist making it about US politics.
For example under Why China Built 162 Square Miles of Solar Panels on the World’s Highest Plateau one of the top comments is:
Let's also not forget that Trump killed America's biggest solar project, in the Nevada desert, which would have produced somewhat less than one third as much energy as this one.
It is understandable that on a website where 44% of users are from the US, US politics would be more extensively covered than other news. It's also true that energy is intertwined with politics to a degree and US policy can have global effects. But it feels like it has become impossible to discuss energy on this subreddit without it revolving around 1 senile old man.
/rant
It feels like American politics is displacing all other energy related discussions on this subreddit. Of the top 15 posts from the past month, 12 are about Trump. Even when there are non-US topics some comments can't help but make the discussion revolve around this senile old man.
byu/MiniBrownie inenergy
Posted by MiniBrownie
5 Comments
How dare a sub about energy talk about energy policy!?
Trump and resulting uncertainty about the future of the United States and its role in the world is the biggest news story happening now. I am no fan, but that’s the truth.
Because the senile old man is burning the world
Trump does everything possible to make himself the center of discussion. He is a small man with a huge fragile ego, so here we are… the ENTIRE world is sucked in on this.
Trump kowtowing to Putin on one hand, and to the oil companies on the other, means that every action in the energy sector is tainted with Trump leaking diapers. There is no escape.
Well, that makes me feel less bad about posting about china all the time lol.