• darthelmet@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    In general I just get frustrated with the human slander. No. We’re not all evil assholes. We’re not stupid. We’re a bunch of animals that managed to break out of the normal fight for survival primarily by working together. This all only works because we help each other most of the time. And stupid? Why? Because we don’t all individually understand the massively complex world we’ve created for ourselves?

    The bad people and things that happen are bad because they’re exceptional. They break from the norm and aren’t representative of the whole of the human experience. It really sucks that some psychos can take advantage of our behaviors to get us to do awful stuff, but the solution to that isn’t “Woe is me, humans are just bad. Maybe we should all just go away.” Are their victims bad? Do they not deserve to be saved because their oppressors are evil?

    You can’t really have any social progress before you recognize that “we can do this” and “we are worth it.” Otherwise what would be the point?

  • lime!@feddit.nu
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    4 days ago

    literally nobody thought that was the case. this is just holier-than-thou fartsmellery.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      “Humans are destroying the planet” has been a great way of off-loading the social responsibility aspect from multi-billion dollar gas guzzling AI-generated farts factory to Grandma, who forgot to put out her recycling last week.

      • lime!@feddit.nu
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        4 days ago

        the prefix “some” is implicit there. but also, like, the hundreds of millions of people commuting to work is a bigger problem than the thousands of people driving loud sports cars. it’s just that the hundreds of container ships going around the world is a way bigger problem still.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          the hundreds of millions of people commuting to work is a bigger problem than the thousands of people driving loud sports cars

          Sure. But it’s not the individual commuters who are setting national transportation policy.

          The folks driving the sports cars (and in the yachts and private jets), on the other hand…

          • lime!@feddit.nu
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            3 days ago

            that’s why i continued my post. to illustrate that the issue is not the individual within the system, but the system itself and the people who shape it.

    • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      are you sure about that? the “oh, humans are so evil, we’re destroying our planet! i wish all humans were dead” sentiment is extremely common

      • lime!@feddit.nu
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        4 days ago

        yeah that’s called ecofascism. it’s about as well thought through an ideology as anarchocapitalism.

        • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 days ago

          i mean, it has its roots in how we discuss climate change. we call it “human-made”, so yes, people will jump to “humanity is to blame for climate change”. it’s a very logical leap, and not entirely wrong, even if it doesn’t tell the whole story (which part of humanity is responsible?)

          • lime!@feddit.nu
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            3 days ago

            i feel like that part comes naturally. it’s pretty easy to go from “i’m trying to help” to “no matter how much i help i can’t make a difference because the system makes it useless” to “who designed the system?”

    • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      I do agree that this is very rare take from climate activists. Those folks usually know their shit and are pretty radical.

      However, this line of reasoning is definitely a thing among laypersons. It has historical precedent that has its roots in Malthusian population theory.

    • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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      4 days ago

      Unfortunately the misanthropic sentiment is the foundation for a whole plethora of ecofascist tendencies, both intentionally and unintentionally so, that are shockingly common.

    • DarthFrodo@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      For climate activists it’s very unlikely, but there are people who believe Africans are the issue because of high birth rates, conveniently ignoring that richer countries do the most damage by far.

  • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Neither is the average human being anywhere, just trying to survive a hostile narcissistic environment they have no control over

    Rich people are destroying the planet. It’s nobody else’s fault.

    • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I don’t like this argument that it’s just the rich screwing us over. Ya, they’re dickbags with no small responsibility for perpetuating our current situation and their insane lifestyles. But all of us need to use less junk, travel less, and eat a whole lot less meat.

      I know so many people who will talk about the environment, but will still think nothing of hopping on a plane for the most frivolous of reasons. Won’t even consider public transportation. Eats meat every day.

      Ya the oligarchy is fucking us over big time. But that doesn’t absolve you of any sort of personal responsibility. Reduce, reuse, recycle. And plant a garden while your at it!

      • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        No, we don’t. That’s part of this sick game. Convince the least powerful to sacrifice ever more while the most powerful sacrifice nothing? No. I won’t play this game anymore. I won’t voluntarily impoverish my options in life. Until the wealthy and powerful change, I refuse to make my life more costly or difficult than they’ve already made it. Life is hard enough as it is for the working class, I’m not making it more difficult and for almost zero measurable impact. The magnitude of difference between my impact and theirs makes mine completely, statistically, insignificant. The impact on navigating my life, however, is significant.

        No more. Either the rich are brought to heel or we all die together.

        • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          And so nothing changes and the planet continues to burn. Keep up your conspicuous consumption because some dickbag has a yacht and custom tax scheme. It’s whataboutisim. For sure fuck the oligarchy. But if all the billionaires died over night it would barely make a dent in our co2 emissions.

          But hey! At least you got yours. Don’t worry, the global south will suffer sooner and worse than you.

          • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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            3 days ago

            I don’t have anything. I survive. Almost all I spend is on basic survival. I don’t know who you think I am but I don’t have the luxury of purchasing choice and I especially don’t have the luxury of making my life more expensive than the wealthy have already made it, by sacrificing to resolve your discomfort with the world.

            I’d tell you to go talk to the people with power but you already know they don’t care about what you have to say, that’s why you harass the working class, instead.

            • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Lol I’m not trying to harass anyone. Just push back on the notion that all the world’s problems can be laid at the feet of the rich. And if we’re gonna collectively pull ourselves out of this ecological disaster we’ve gotta change. Be willing to eat less meat travel less, consume less overall. And plant a damn garden while you’re at it!

              You’re right in that I don’t know anything about you. Except that you’re willing to completely miss the point of what’s been said and decide to take offence.

              • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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                2 days ago

                Why do you care to protect them in the first place? Are you one of them? Lurking on the peasant’s media space, defending the wealthy from their own selfish behavior? Why is the lesson that must be given that the wealthy aren’t as evil as their behavior suggests? Why is that your priority at all?

                You give offense with every guilt layden demand that the poor and working class further disempower ourselves to satisfy you. Go nag the wealthy who caused this mess, go guilt them into stopping their companies from despoiling the air, the land, the water. Go demand they end the fossil fuel industry that they own and profit from that we are all forced to participate in.

                We will never get out of this without the wealthy changing. So long as they refuse, we are lost. Eat less of the meat we can already barely afford with food prices where they are? Travel less!? Who can afford to travel anywhere? Plant a garden? Where the hell are we supposed to do that? Land is too expensive to even have any of it because the wealthy keep buying it all FFS.

                You’re completely out of touch and yet you come here to lecture us about our responsibilities? You’re a class traitor and wealth apologist. If the wealthy refuse to sacrifice to fix the problems they caused then I’d rather watch the world burn.

                • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  Lol what part of fuck the oligarchy do you interpret as me “protecting the rich” fuck em. Bring out the guittiones I say. Fuck dude. I’m done

            • OryxAndCake@slrpnk.net
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              2 days ago

              Us. There will always be people who enjoy power games and needless cruelty, that’s just how we are as a species and what all the religions, empires and industries we’ve ever had have been based on.

              We’re not capable of being better, the power games and cruelty have always been too well rewarded. It’s ingrained.

              Step on the little man to get ahead, prove your place by ostracising the witch, genocide/crusade/colonise to acquire land and spread your religion, fabricate wars to steal resources, vote for the leaders who hate the same people you hate, etc.

              It might not be all of us who do this, but it’s always been the majority and they keep winning.

              Any attempt at a moral and just society full of like minded people, is always going to end by power games and needless cruelty, either from the people within it or from the people outside it.

              That’s just how we are as a species. Collectively, we suck.

              It’s guilt by association for those of us who aren’t needlessly cruel and power hungry, but it’s still valid as we will never be able to escape these systems of oppression created and upheld by the rest of our species.

    • cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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      4 days ago

      It could be. We might be stabbing it with a pretty scary knife it wouldn’t survive, but the capitalists stuff a hydrogen bomb down its throat every day so that doesn’t really matter.

    • nomad@infosec.pub
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      Let’s call that greedy people. I would not mind them being rich if they chose to be a little less rich to pay their people well and earn their money while respecting the environment and protecting the climate.

      • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Nobody earns their way to have hundreds or even tens of millions. That’s a broken system of incentives and resource distribution that they exploit to enrich themselves. All of it, fundamentally, backed by the threat of violence.

  • hexdream@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I don’t know man. I know some of those kids in Africa, and they don’t all prioritize the environment over things like food and shelter.

    • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      For sure, but when we total up the list of top contributors, they’re nowhere near the top. So let them, because they’re not “the cause”.

      • NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        That’s not entirely true though. Emissions from Europe aren’t really that high compared to China and India. I could be wrong but I don’t think the CCP have the same beliefs as the governments of Germany or France or even the USA.

        • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Emissions from Europe aren’t really that high compared to China and India

          India’s per capita emissions are lower than any European country except Albania, and China is only moderately higher than EU countries compared to the US, Canada, and Australia.

          Total emissions are useless when populations vary so widely between countries.

          • NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 days ago

            That’s mostly because India and China don’t have the same standard of living as Europe and the USA. Though China in particular are trying very hard to fix that. I think some anti-climate and anti-renewable forces in the USA also don’t help.

  • dumnezero@piefed.social
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    4 days ago

    This enemy classification includes the settler/colonialist workers in the Amazon who are working as the frontier of capital accumulation.

  • Polyphilic@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Its easy to criticize, but when you ask for a solution, they’ve got nothing. Literally zero.

    Except for a large scale die off of humanity.

    something something, the planet can only support 1 billion

    As if 80% population loss is somehow a solution

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      4 days ago

      Uh… who’s “they?” Because I’ve seen plenty of people propose solutions (usually some combination of renewable energy and environmental protection at the national level).

      • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        That’s not a solution. It’s the title of a synopsis of the summary of an omnibus of a solution.

        People aren’t concerned with implementing solutions or policy development to achieve solutions. They just want to blame petroleum companies and then spend their paychecks on plastic and airfare.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          4 days ago

          I think people complaining about the climate generally support at least carbon taxes on these things.

          People aren’t concerned with implementing solutions or policy development to achieve solutions.

          That’s a strong assertion to make without evidence.

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    Well akshually, the rising standard and of living in the developing world in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular means that kids in Africa are contributing to climate change. Now when you ask why kids in Africa can’t fuel their improving standards of living with solar panels instead you’re going to end up at these things, but still.

  • yucandu@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    maybe if yall spent less time on wordplay and more time on finding out where these people live something might get done

    • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Oh, we know where they live. You’ll see. We just need critical mass. A revolution doesn’t happen over night and certainly not all at once everywhere.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        It’s easy to forget that sadly most people do no support actually doing anything about it at all. Either they’d rather believe it’s OK, or they’d rather believe that we’re nearly winning.

        • MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          9 meals. Feast or famine. Blah blah blah. The point being that people’s priorities can and do change very quickly when their material conditions are threatened.