Liberalism and the Challenge of Climate Change
Christopher Shaw (Author)
Interview:
Liberal Blindspots
Tim Sahay
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/liberal-blindspots/
The Metacrisis is primarily a class and resource allocation problem.
It will not be solved without changing the economic climate, that fosters, preserves, economic Inequality.
@corlin I _am_ a liberal/leftist, and I have to say I can relate to that, too. We adopt more environment-friendly (or rather, branded that way) products or practices, while our bills go up, our purchasing power drops, and we work harder and longer.
Even when there are environmental savings, like people lowering energy use, they're passed on to the shareholders and owners, not us.
So to lots of people it looks like "green" is a fake-out to make us comply to more rules and pay more for it all.
@corlin I've been hearing for years, stuff like "those pinkos are telling us this is for the enviroment, but I think they're just trying to keep me from getting ahead. This system costs twice as much and there's all these licenses."
Thing is, the environment _is_ in trouble, but we've just been sold snake oil fixes for that, and for social ills, instead of real ones. The people who didn't believe in all that "green" stuff anyway noticed, and now we are, too.
@corlin At every turn, as we make rules ostensibly for safety and sustainability, they turn out to not actually be the best recommended method, just the method that funnels money towards some profit-making enterprise, while the access to participation is made so high that only big players can compete.
So when the business and government side of "green" is phony, there's people who think _environmentalism_ is phony.
And the bad guys get away with it.
all this is well said.
Yep.
There was widespread approval of "The New Deal" as it directly supported the poor and working class.
Not so much for "The New Green Deal", precisely because it does none of the above.
If going green does NOT make the lives better for the vast majority, it won't happen.
Of course it does not have to be this way. There is a way forward. But it very disruptive to the rich and powerful.
@corlin I believe I have seen a pattern too, where people ask for something, politicians give us a broken, half-assed version of it (that usually funnels money to rich people to boot), and then say the thing we wanted is clearly broken and won't work, so we shouldn't have it (unless it keeps funneling money to rich people, of course).
@corlin And honestly I don’t think we should be focusing on stopping climate change at this point. It’s too late for that. It’s been too late for decades what we should focus more on is adjusting to the changes that are coming and will come. But back to the point, yeah I see people screaming about all the things I should be doing that I honestly can’t do because living green is in truth only for rich people not poor people. I try to gently make those points when I respond but yeah.
Both.
We need to do both.
But yes. The economic incentives are upside down.
@corlin this 👆 right here. Ty for that article. My neighbors complaint and hatred here for pretty much anything and everything liberal isn't just too much fox news, it's because there is a very real disconnect in the way that the educated talk about the working class, or about working class issues. If you're ignorant of the things that the working class value, worse if you are condescending about the things that they value, they react very badly to your "agenda".