this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
556 points (98.8% liked)
The memes of the climate
1630 readers
4 users here now
The climate of the memes of the climate!
Planet is on fire!
mod notice: do not hesitate to report abusive comments, I am not always here.
rules:
-
no slurs, be polite
-
don't give an excuse to pollute
-
no climate denial
-
and of course: no racism, no homophobia, no antisemitism, no islamophobia, no transphobia
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Capitalists: Climate change is your fault and here's an exhaustive list of every little thing a normal person does and how it negatively impacts the environment
You: fails to either learn to photosynthesize, or starve to death
Capitalists: Ugh, I can't believe you would do this to the environment! This is all your fault!
Here it is, blaming emissions on capitalism again though plenty of non capitalist societies were just as poor for the environment within the context of their time. Just because in your preferred system you think you could force through the changes you want does not mean that that is a better system. What makes you think you will be in power or in the majority? If your preferred system is decentralized, that requires a lot of education, the same type that could literally solve this issue with the current system. If your system only works with massive amounts of education and trust, it cannot scale.
Maybe we should focus on the task at hand instead of trying to focus on radical change that will likely make the problem much worse before it gets better. You are literally making the situation worse because you are turning people against actual progress over your ideology.
Emissions based regulations are completely achievable and capitalist. It's called addressing an externality. Additionally, avoiding the tragedy of the commons requires international treaties which take time, economic alignment, and robust demand on all sides.
Yes, that's my whole point. They put the blame on us to distract us from enacting regulations with teeth. I'm not a hardcore socialist, just don't like billionaires and companies lobbying to keep laws in their favor while simultaneously blaming us for everything.
But then those are not capitalists. That's just anti environmentalism. Your language does not win you allies.
There's a fundamental contradiction between the capitalist reach for yield and environmental regulations.
In the long run, not having environmental regulations is bad for the market. In the short run, though, businesses can make a lot of money very quickly when they're not regulated. This tension has lead to deadlock in every capitalist nation on Earth and it's not getting better.
We may disagree on these points but it should be obvious that there's plenty of opposition to your preferred system in the majority of the modern world. That's why insisting on radical change as a precursor to action is counter productive to actual mitigation of climate effects. Even if you are right about the system being less effective at environmentalism, you are hiring the efforts to do something about the issue now and drastic action is needed.
That same tension existed in regards to national parks, CFCs, water management, wildlife management, waste management, and many other issues. What makes you think climate is any different other than bigger?
All of that was implemented while the USSR was still around. Without the boogyman around to scare capitalists into reforming themselves and implementing sustainable business practices, they won't do it. That's why we've been seeing all those Cold War era reforms eroded one after another, there's just no need to placate the masses.
Maybe climate change can be the boogyman that the USSR was. It doesn't seem to be working, though.
I don't think it was the USSR that was the motivation behind it, at least the ones during that period. It might've been more the hatred of cities, cancer, disease, and pests respectively. I will admit, giving the USSR credit for the environmental movement in the US is a creative and new one for me. You are off by about 25 years there for the beginning but it's close.
The USSR deserves credit for pretty much every good idea the US has ever had since the New Deal.
And now that the USSR is gone, everything good the US has ever done is being eroded by fascists.
Makes you think!
No, that was me. I take credit for it all. No autonomy for anyone.
Ideas are great. Execution begets prosperity.
It has nothing to do with autonomy!
The US only implemented reforms to placate the working class and stop them from getting any ideas of revolution. The Cold War was an ideological war, so once the USSR fell the spectre of revolution was gone. The Cold War "proved" that communism doesn't work and there will never be a global proletarian revolution and there's no need to placate the masses to keep them passive.
So, like I keep saying, that's why everything good is being destroyed. They believe it's not necessary because the threat of communist revolution is gone. The illusion of democracy is gone, now the ruling class can just do whatever it wants with no consequences.
Who cares if climate change kills the poors?
I'm sorry to break it to you but not everything is about your oppressive communist revolution. Not any more than any other historical counter to the liberal world. Don't go through the world thinking everything is about what you care about.
All the hammer sees is nails.