Embrace the Darkness
Either abolish Standard Time, or abolish time entirely!
When the sort of people correct me on which part of the year Daylight Savings Time applies to whenever I complain about it, they are referring to a specific thing and a specific type of thing. It refers to getting an “extra” hour of daylight in the morning, at the cost of plunging all of society into four months of extra early darkness.
Playing sports outside with your friends after 5? Fuck you.
Walking home drunk after happy hour? No, it’s pitch black outside and there may be black ice—the risk is too high.
If there was no Standard Time, you could watch the sunrise at 8 AM in January.
This is what they’ve taken from us!
One of the biggest inequalities in America is morning people vs. normal people.
These soul-sucking vampires clearly don’t understand how much it sucks to drive or take transit home from work at 5 PM and it’s pitch-black outside. Who cares if it’s dark at 7 AM on a frigid weekday? It’s not like most people will be doing anything worthwhile then anyway. Even the most dedicated morning people are awake for three hours at most before 8 AM, while all of us are awake for more than three hours after 5 PM. And it sucks when the sun starts peeking through your blinds and waking you up at 6:30 AM. And to anyone that will slide into my comments and say it’s for the safety of the children so they’re not going to school in the dark, have you counted how many children have been shot in schools this year in broad daylight?
We cannot let Big Nightime win.
I don’t care whether we choose Standard Time or Daylight Savings Time, as long as we pick one and stick with it. Most of America agrees, and this is one, and probably the only one, issue that unites us. This is neither a new or novel take—there are articles about this shit every year—which is why it is frustrating to see something so universally annoying continue to persist. I remember doing a presentation on this very topic back in high school.
I don’t care about being a little more rested one day a year. We get the exact same amount of daylight regardless of how we configure our clocks. The Senate passed a bill to adopt a consistent time year-round and the House didn’t vote on it, which is another perfect example of the glacial pace of bureaucratic process.
When it’s 4:30 PM and the sun is setting, it’s just another chance to spend more time indoors and on the internet—which is exactly what America needs. I’ll see you in the morning or the late-afternoon when it’s still dark outside.
Canada wants to remove DST as well, and some provinces have passed legislation against it in that regard. However, much of it is dependent on whatever the U.S. chooses to do....
Standard time, daylight savings time, split the difference and move it half an hour once and then leave it alone, PICK ONE!
Fun fact: The measure to make DST year-round failed because Pramala Jayapal felt it needed "further study." All I know is the older I get, the harder the change is on me, and the cats have never understood it.