https://nitter.lucabased.xyz/ContraPoints/status/1808529692405662047#m
Any fucking questions
And no, posting a picture of me next to Hillary does not count as an argument
New site tagline?
Thereās a concept in the philosophy of climate change called āintervention responsibility.ā Basically, it just involves the recognition that āx is responsible for yā is only intelligible if x has the power to intervene in a way that prevents or changes y. The upshot of this is that different kinds of agents have different responsibilities with respect to big, complicated problems in light of the power (institutional and otherwise) that they have: I have a certain set of things that I can intervene on as a relatively wealthy white guy in the Imperial Core, giving me a different set of responsibilities than a subsistence farmer in the global South. Neither of us has anything close to the kind of intervention responsibility that, say, the US President or the Chevron Corporation has though, because those sorts of agents have access to causal levers that neither I nor the subsistence farmer could possibly get near, let alone pull.
Asking āwhat has the disempowered, disenfranchised left done thatās more effective than the wealthiest empire in the history of the worldā is a category error on par with asking what the color blue has done to make itself larger than the color orange. Itās nonsensical, because youāre comparing totally different kinds of things with access to totally different sorts of influence, and thus totally different responsibilities.
It is nonsensical. Not to mention delusional. She is chastising people who wonāt vote for biden and will blame tankies for a loss. Which is bizarre cause not even Democrats are sure to let him run. If they lose it is their making. But nah its the people refusing to vote.
Not to mention these people donāt care for climate change or anything. They just wanna handwave it away. At best they will say āThird world does too much pollution, not our problem, sucks to suckā
Americans buy big dirty trucks and oppose public transportation. They defend the existence of the multinational corporations that depredate their environment and poison the air and water. They eat the meat of tortured animals. They absolutely donāt give a flying fuck about the future of their children, let alone humanity. And you want to tell me theyāre not responsible? Give me a break. Old people are many things ā poisoned by lead, delusional, ignorant ā but innocent is not among them. Everyone who voted for Trump or Bush, everyone who failed to make the modicum of effort required to support people like Bernie, theyāre all to blame.
Never let anyone tell you that Americans didnāt choose this outcome. They did. It was presented to them, they were told the consequences and they chose it. And unless youāre a vegan who votes in every election and doesnāt own a car, youāre probably not so innocent either. My pity is reserved for the children and animals who will inherit this poisoned world ā the only creatures who are genuinely blameless.
Americans choose big trucks because they live in a society that incentives it. They oppose public transport because it is perceived as a hindrance. They do not do these things because theyāre evil, but because of the way society has been structured and the way their society describes different modes of transport.
Read Making Mobilities Matter or something else about Theory of practice
So to be clear, if I gave Trump supporters a tax incentive and some education, theyād abandon their gas guzzlers and stop eating meat? Are you actually hearing yourself?
The social āstructureā youāre describing is literally the manifestation of their will. Yes, itās a self-perpetuating system, but itās their system shaped by what they want.
You tell me theyāre not evil, and then point to a system responsible for making them evil. Unbelievable.
Iām not saying Americans are innocent. The point of intervention responsibility is to pry apart responsibility in the moral or casual sense and responsibility in the ability-to-effect-meaningful-change sense. The idea that climate change is happening because ordinary people wonāt give up their SUVs and stop eating beef is wrong and deliberate misinformation on the part of companies and governments who want you to think that you bear individual accountability for the problem. Thatās insane. The overwhelming majority of damage is being done by the wealthiest 1,000 people in the world, the 100 largest companies, and the US Military. Those people (and those institutions) bear the intervention responsibility here, because theyāre in a position in which changes to their behavior will meaningfully affect the global environment. Becoming a vegan or never flying as a consumer are morally good, but theyāre not meaningful interventions in the grand scheme of things, even if the overwhelming majority of ordinary people pursue them.
Consider the inverse case: white supremacy and systemic racism. Virtually none of us bear moral responsibility for this: we never owned slaves, didnāt design a racist oligarchy of a government, and so on. That doesnāt mean we donāt have intervention responsibility to fix it, though, because we can enact meaningful resistance to white supremacy in our day-to-day lives by being anti-racist in our actual deeds, fighting for the dignity and rights of marginalized people, and generally enacting resistance.
The idea that climate change is happening because ordinary people wonāt give up their SUVs and stop eating beef is wrong [ā¦ because] theĀ overwhelmingĀ majority of damage is being done the 100 largest companies.
Exxon, Alphabet, Tyson are all guilty of pollution, but they only exist ā indeed, they can only exist ā because people pay them to do so. Americans elect the politicians who shield Exxon from consequences, they endorse the policies that enable the ownership of private jets, of mansions, of sports cars, of cruise ships.
Exxon is literally the manifestation of their desires. If people werenāt willing to die over access to cheap fossil fuels we wouldnāt be in this predicament.
You think Americans care that Tyson tortures chickens? Have you met average Americans?? They do not give a fuck! They love cheap, unregulated, dirty meat. They love cheap gas. They love big cars, big houses, cruise ships, and they will die to stop you from taking these things from them.
Itās funny because folks keep saying this over and over: they say it at the polls, in voting booths, at primaries, and you donāt listen. Thereās this fantasy that if only we could educate the 50% of Americans who are irremediable shitheads, theyād change their minds. No. They wonāt. Only generational turnover can fix this issue. We wait for them to die out until we can outnumber them at voting booths. Thereās no other practical option. Unless you have another pandemic up your sleeve?
trucks and meat are especially interesting, as its not by ānatural inborn consumer preferenceā (a story you seem to share) they were chosen, just as poisoned water is not chosen.
i rather suspect if epa fined dupont/exxon to bankruptcy over their shit, they would get much more popular. small republicans popularly rebel against regulations not only because they annoy them, but they also perceive deep unfairness that giant corporation can poison half the earth and government will just eat shit over it, while their business become closed over something minor like improper engine oil runoff. And iām not advocating exclusion of small business owners from it, rather large corporation death penalty over their shenanigans.
Its a confused mess (as projected onto political parties) because messaging by large corporations intentionally obfuscates and emphasizes different stories to different groups. Republicans were mega angry about bank bailouts, for example, until kochs hijacked the tea party, the anger was there to make them democrat voters, while democrats at the time were whimpering about the sacred markets
p.s. if you collapse into wild misanthropy, how can you be a communist/anarchist?
The EPA canāt fine anyone precisely because Americans overwhelmingly support ecological depredation and overconsumption. Read the political data! Almost nobody wants the EPA to āfine Exxon into bankruptcy.ā A lukewarm slap on the wrist is barely justifiable to most Americans, who demand cheap gas, are falling over themselves to sacrifice the future of their children for cheap gas. Itās a political demand yodeled from the mountaintops.
And you want, what, the EPA ā the EPA that belongs to these animals ā to fine the large corporations that also belong to these same animals?
That makes absolutely zero sense.
Again, the government serves those who give it power. For years this has been the voters of this country, and they have made their wishes loud and clear, repeatedly.
They donāt control the media either. They are brainwashed, disenfranchised, and overworked. The establishment has decades of experience manufacturing consent, and when that doesnāt work, they ignore the people outright. 70% of Americans want public healthcare and itās not even in the realm of political possibility.
Correct. For all practical purposes, most human beings are just animals ā scared, stupid, and impulsive. You live in their world. They outnumber you 10 to 1. So vote in their elections, or donāt. But donāt call them disenfranchised. Thereās nothing disenfranchised about those shitbags driving $70k pickup trucks eating meat at every meal. At best theyāre complicit, at worst little more than zombies.
As for the survey you just cited, try this. Put out a poll asking:
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āDo you want to save the rainforest?ā My guess is 90% will answer yes. Now ask:
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āWould you be willing to stop eating cows to save the rainforest?ā 2% might answer yes.
Thatās why people elect politicians who act against their best interests: because their best interests and their ugliest desires often misalign.
major climate bill
Didnāt these ghouls put massive tariffs on Chinese EVās and solar panels? How the fuck is that helping?
Didnāt these ghouls put massive tariffs on Chinese EVās and solar panels? How the fuck is that helping?
Oh, okay tankie, I guess you just donāt understand how protectionist measures work, but thatās unsurprising as communists never even understand Economics 101. They boost US industry by encouraging domestic prodā
Will these protectionist measures work? While the previous tariff measures did reduce the number of Chinese solar panels coming to the US (with an 86% drop over the 2012-2020 period), the billions in subsidies, from first Obama and then Biden, did not revitalise the US solar industry. On the contrary, the American global market share of the solar industry has considerably decreased since the original tariffs were placed ā from 9% in 2010 to 2% today. Meanwhile, Chinaās share of the industry rose from 59% to 78%. Thereās no reason to believe that the recent tariff increase will reverse this trend. Thereās even less hope that they will help spur a domestic EV industry.
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It is thus no surprise that while the US government tries to block Chinese EV imports with tariffs, US firms are trying to recapture the EV market by licensing the superior technology of lead Chinese firms! Ford (in Michigan) and Tesla (in Nevada) are partnering with Chinaās CATL to make batteries. CATL says that it has structured its licensing deal with Ford so that it is compliant with āforeign entity of concernā rules. For its part, Tesla already uses Chinese BYD cells in Germany; Ford and GM use BYD batteries. Even Trump doesnāt like the idea of a āgreat wallā against Chinese FDI in America. Speaking at an Ohio rally in March, he signalled an openness to Chinese firms building plants āin Michigan, in Ohio, in South Carolinaāāso long as they were prepared to employ American workers.
ā¦
US manufacturing hasnāt seen productivity growth in 17 years. That makes it increasingly impossible for the US to compete in key areas, and Bidenās āindustrial policyā will fail to deliver unless it can end that stagnation. Chinaās manufacturing sector is now the dominant force in world production and trade. Its production exceeds that of the nine next largest manufacturers combined.
okay, well, look. itās actually very unfair to draw upon the history of uh, 14 years ago. what really matters here is that china is 1984 orwell 429,024,902 dead in tinyman square mao killed 1000 billion ughyurs.
Libs always fucking do this when comparing their āachievementsā to anyone who isnāt in a position of power.
We made this symptom of the problem 10% better while continuing and exacerbating the root cause! You activists and complainers havenāt done anything!
Perhaps not making the root cause worse is preferable.
And no, posting a picture of me next to Hillary does not count as an argument
