Culture is so obsessed with the idea of lone geniuses that it doesn’t really appreciate that most of the progress of science (and likely every other discipline) occurs collaboratively, in babysteps, and usually through a lot very tedious, utterly unsexy, work.
This is what’s so faulty with our short sighted coverage of scientific discoveries. You hear politicians question why we spend money on science studying insect wings and then decades later that research gets used by NASA for the most efficient way to fold/unfold solar panels on spacecraft. All of science is connected and useful because it enhances our understanding of the universe
“Given the extent of ecological overshoot – and bearing in mind that the
poorest nations still need some room to develop their economies and
allow the poorest billions to attain a dignified level of existence –
the transition will require the richest nations to downscale radically
their resource and energy demands.
…
“The very lifestyles that were once considered the definition of success
are now proving to be our greatest failure. Attempting to universalise
affluence would be catastrophic. There is absolutely no way that today’s
7.2 billion people could live the Western way of life, let alone the 11
billion expected in the future. Genuine progress now lies beyond
growth. Tinkering around the edges of capitalism will not cut it. …
“Degrowth would liberate us from the burden of pursuing material excess.
We simply don’t need so much stuff – certainly not if it comes at the
cost of planetary health, social justice, and personal well-being.
Consumerism is a gross failure of imagination, a debilitating addiction
that degrades nature and doesn’t even satisfy the universal human
craving for meaning.
…
“Actions at the personal and household levels will never be enough, on
their own, to achieve a steady-state economy. We need to create new,
post-capitalist structures and systems that promote, rather than
inhibit, the simpler way of life. These wider changes will never emerge,
however, until we have a culture that demands them. So first and
foremost, the revolution that is needed is a revolution in
consciousness.”
“Economic freedom” vs “economic regulation” is a bourgeois false dichotomy that ignores history and class analysis – this ought to be the main reason to dislike political compass charts. Since the charts are overwhelmingly made by liberals or ancap types, they always presume that capitalist private property acquisition and maintenance is “freedom” in its purest form, while democratic operation and accountability is “regulation” in its purest form. No attention paid to primitive accumulation, enclosures, the class nature of private property that subordinates the many to the few, etc.
It’s like….freedom for whom? Regulation for whom? It’s obvious who is kept in mind when they write up these charts: capitalists. If a capitalist is allowed to exercise power in society, it’s beautiful economic freedom; if workers are able to exercise power in society, it’s gross economic regulation. Objectively, most people experience a greater breadth of freedom (freedom from hunger, freedom to help determine the course of society, etc.) under leftist economic democracy – it’s only “regulation” and “unfreedom” for the capitalists who hope to close off the commons and profit off the backs of workers and communities.
There is no deregulation, just regulation in favor of business over people.
i don’t want to be rich i don’t want to be famous i don’t want a million tiktok followers or what the fuck ever i just want a one bedroom apartment in a walkable community with neighbors i could borrow sugar from or bring cookies to when i bake extra and a job that i enjoy and that helps someone and pays me enough to afford my silly little one bedroom and groceries and something fun too at the end of the day and enough free time to sing and dance and read and write and spend time with the people i love and maybe have a dog and some plants to water and a shelf of books to read and a thrift store where i can buy weird clothes and faded denim jackets like i am not asking for anything big or grand or exciting i just want peace i want contentment i want just a little love how the fuck is this too much to ask for
lmao @ people who think being a communist is about being selfless and not greedy, or that being a capitalist is about being selfish and greedy. sure, there are those who argue that it’s a scientific predictable system and there are determined, inevitable forces at work. and that’s true on a larger scale, but! personally? i’m a commie because i’m a fuckin selfish bitch, and my greed is far less myopic than capitalist greed. capitalist greed can’t see how other people benefit it. capitalist greed would destroy the world in the long run because it can’t fathom how short-term gains might fuck everything up. a capitalist sells you the noose you hang him with because, in the moment, he gets more cash. capitalism destroys itself in this way, because its greed is not grand enough.
i want my family to grow up in a world free of environmental devastation, and i want full access to healthcare. i know my liberation is tied intimately to everyone’s liberation. my greed is collective! you think i’m giving out food or going to protests or agitating for higher wages and collective bargaining rights and fighting against racism and protesting ICE’s existence out of some patronizing white savior goodness of my heart bullshit? no!! it’s all for my future world!!! a world in which my is synonymous with our, because there can be no other way!!!!
All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!
ask yourself why you’re living paycheck to paycheck in 2022. ask yourself whose fault it is and look up at your bosses, at the shareholders, at the government. there is no fucking reason for anyone in Britain to be living in poverty in 2022. this is an active choice by the people in power, who refuse to tax effectively, who refuse to use the money from taxes effectively, who look down on you and laugh as they drink bottle after bottle of champagne, the grand total of which is equivalent to a month of your wages.
why isn’t your boss giving you a raise? they’re giving themself a bonus. ask who the ‘profit’ and ‘savings’ are going to, the ones that were announced a week after you were told that your wages were stagnating again. remember that you were denied a raise because of the increase in the cost of utilities for your workplace, the same increase in cost which is having you avoiding watching television and sitting in the dark.
our taxes have gone up. where is that money going? why are we paying more for a lesser quality of life? why are we denying ourselves social interaction, when politicians are building new swimming pools and going on multiple holidays. why is a single pint of milk over £1? why is filling up my car costing me £100? why is everything getting expensive and why is the quality only going down?
why are food banks a necessity for anyone in 2022?
