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Time for another obnoxious essay!
being respectful especially to people who are worse off than you.
That's the nub of what I'm getting at really. If we are being honest and proportionate, the concerns of a poor ex-miner in Wigan/an alienated religious person/a sidelined person-of-colour/an anti-capitalist/whomever in the UK pale in significance compared to those of people in island nations/Bangladesh/etc. and the people who will live through the next few centuries.
Not to start a fight here, but the video @Drano posted is a good example. It's criticism of XR on the basis that they are operating within a capitalist system rather than trying to overthrow it. Clearly to the person who made that video, abolition of capitalism is more important than climate change, and it ought to be clear that that is a nonsensical position to take - I mean, you wouldn't spend your money on laser eye surgery if that meant you couldn't afford to eat, would you? Because your eyesight doesn't matter if you're not alive. Similarly, living in a hyper-capitalist dictatorship is better than not living at all. The expenditure of time, money, effort, political capital towards any other problem with modern society is not rational unless those diversions will help to stop climate change sooner.
Maybe if we'd started 30 years ago... but we didn't, so all we can afford to do now is try to resolve this problem just barely in time
frankenbike-
Not to start a fight here, but the video @Drano posted is a good example. It's criticism of XR on the basis that they are operating within a capitalist system rather than trying to overthrow it. Clearly to the person who made that video, abolition of capitalism is more important than climate change[...]
The point is that any movement like XR that focuses on green reform of capitalism is ultimately doomed to fail (or a dead end, as the video puts it) because a system based on endless growth is inherently at odds with environmentalist goals. Don't get me wrong, it's great that people are starting to take direct action, but if we're unable to pivot this anger into demands for more radical change then we are all very much doomed.
Drano
On the one hand I think it's quite a good article (longer version maybe has better context in a hope not hate climate change special) on the other hand I think some of the points it makes are a patronising. ie. I think most people are quite capable of grasping the importance of clean energy even if (or maybe especially if) they are ex-miners. I think the good points are about being aware/conscious of the range of situations that people are in, and basically, being respectful especially to people who are worse off than you.
Edit: that sounded way fluffier than I meant it. But I can't be bothered to rephrase.