I had a curious conversation at the Oregon Country Fair
-- there was a woman there who had some sort of carbon tax proposal. I explained to her that, instead of trying to mitigate climate change while leaving everything else about society the same, we should ask ourselves what kind of society would be able to mitigate climate change, and then we should ask ourselves what we would have to do to get that kind of society. (The fundamentals of the argument can be found here, and the password to open the PDF is: AddletonAP2009 .)
She responded that my approach was the exact opposite of hers. I suggested, hoping to offer an olive branch, that she would be doing good by doing something, regardless of the content of what she was doing. I also offered, however, that I did not think climate change could be mitigated with criminals in charge. I gather she didn't like that.
At any rate, this is the video which reminded me of that conversation:
But maybe he's less of a criminal than the other crook. Who knows? At any rate, I am waiting for the political campaigns to heat up. "Vote Biden/ Trump, because whaddaya gonna do, eh?"
Comments
Imagine a political world post duopoly
thanks for the vid! there is hope for creative pathways yet to be explored
Or maybe the campaigns will go like this:
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
when people say outlandish things about politics
(criminals in charge lol) I disengage quietly and hope they aren't armed.
what is outlandish about criminals in charge?
it is fairly well known that sociopaths float to the top of
crooked regimes and other social constructs. Dirty dealing
is how they get there. Ever met a prison warden? Scary.
The crazies are running the asylum.
I'm sure our political class is totally clean.
I do however appreciate your honesty in admitting that you don't look at facts or evidence when deciding what to believe.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
yes, that makes plenty of sense
have long wondered how people get by with minimal thought
guess I just wasn't wired that way, seem to have little choice
but to get the bottom of it, whatever it is
Here's the cheery video
Make of it what you will.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Thank you for having and sharing that curious conversation
It inspires further conversation here, and could possibly register with the woman, on reflection.
She was probably thinking ,"here I am, doing good and all you do is complain", without realising that it’s not complaining, it’s showing the potential of meaningful change. Possibly it is her concept of ‘doing’ that she is stuck in, which is limiting because of it’s narrow focus? Like you said to her, she is doing something to try and help, but there is more to consider. I think with the ever-growing polarisation there comes a kind of stubbornness.
It’s so important for all of us to keep conversing.
Ticks me off that on the spare the air days
I’m told to drive less while I watch the jets fly overhead for hours on end. Or know that our military is driving stuff that gets 5 mpg all over the world as do other country’s military. And practice war with ships floating around and firing off their weapons…and, and, AND which all adds to the pollution that I’m supposed to be responsible for.
I’ve stopped recycling my trash after finding out that it goes to the same place as the other trash. What a scam they have played on us. I’m supposed to water less and let my lawn die while the many wards and golf courses have nice green grass so I can help the drought and refill the great salt lake. Boy the PTB have played us like suckers.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
I hear you
Unlike Germany, as I experienced it in the 90s, recycling in NZ has always been very poor in comparison. No matter how many times I google the latest approved #s of plastics that can be recycled it still seems like an ever changing lottery of numbers. It's still better than what I know of recycling in America. The fairly local recycling centre here offers a tour and information about recycling to school classes. I’ve been thinking about trying to join one of the classes to get a first hand look. I recently made a trip there to dispose of a collection of old, useless things and saw a little bit about its workings, but not enough.
Before you give up on recycling completely maybe try to see what the procedure really is.
I probably won't vote
some might remember Big Al who was here at the beginning of the site but has drifted away. He maintained that voting was pointless. Now, several years later, I agree.
One party, the Repubs, are authoritarian loving nutjobs. Another party, the Dems, are lying grifters who will fight anything they say they're for. These groups control the voting process.
In Oregon this last election we had three women running for Governor. Whoo-hoo!! yeah! women!
They are/were all terrible so I left that line blank. In fact I only voted for one candidate...who lost, of course.
After 50 years of voting I've caught on that it's not going to work. I know some friends might tell me it's my fault if Repubs win but I'm not the one who did zero in all the years the Dems had power.
I agreed with Big Al after my first vote for Obama
Then I watched as he gave Bush/Cheney a pass for their crimes against humanity and continued most of the things that we objected to and watched as shitlibs gave Obama a pass for doing it.
It’s taken a long time to see that voting is a scam, but now new voters are entering the scam and how long will it take for them to realize what you have finally realized? By the time they figure it out there will be another generation that enters the voting game and thinking they can change things if they just vote in the right people.
Many people tried to warn me about Obama, but I wouldn’t listen…I really regret that now.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
The death of innocence
is a painful thing, innit? I'm there, too. I'll vote again out of spite, more than anything, but only because they mail me my ballot and I drive by a dropbox every day. I am sorely tempted to fill it out with a Hershey bar, though.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
It’s nice of you to use a Hershey bar
I can think of something else that would send the same message….
But yeah the loss of innocence is truly an eye opener. During Obama we also watched Pelosi be a roadblock to any legislation that would help the working class. But once McTurtle took over the Senate she sent bills that would help knowing damn well that he wouldn’t even bring them up for a vote. I remember the shitlibs giving her kudos for doing that and giving the turtle the stink eye. They refused to see that both of them were in on it. This is the old guard who thinks that Democrats can do no wrong. I wished I had magical powers so I could reach out and slap them into sense.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Here's another perspective --
-- albeit a boringly mass-produced one -- of America's slide into Third World status.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
What is that
I got it yesterday on substack and just got it in the photo essay.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.