It really gets me that life was plenty nice and convenient in the 70's when I was young with there being very little plastic. I really wish we could go back to that.
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Like it or not, lifestyle choices are an extremely efficient political pressure.
It also has the advantage to exist, unlike the revolution we all dream of. Sorry, I meant "bold collective action".
You turn up. In person. You show the ability to interfere with political fundraising. You work to turn out voters on your side. You areange boycotts and other measures.
It happens when you start making it happen.
It's labour day long weekend where I'm at. If it's a long weekend for you there's probably something happening that you could get involved in, lending your skills or just emotional support.
Like I just got roped into an action when I'd much rather be staying at home, but you'll never know what's happening until you put yourself out there.
A global climate crisis is coming that I can't do anything about, but I can do my part to build local resilience so the people I know have a better chance of surviving in one piece.
Why won't you show up?
lenin wrote a pretty good book about just this kind of pressure. marx did too.
I do my part for the environment. Separating my garbage into trash, recyclable, or composting. Try to keep the speed down to conserve fuel, etc. I even returned some cans to today to get the deposit back ($38!).
It is always in the back of my mind that billionaires take private jets everywhere. Nothing I can do will overcome that.
Yet I still persist knowing I don't have to be perfect to still help the environment.
political pressure and bold collective action
as that doesn't really exist, it has to start. To start it, it requires individual action, including individual sacrifices. There is no secret vanguard lurking, waiting, to "do actions" while everyone else acts the same as before.
It is also essential to understand what changes look like down to the individual, to you, otherwise there's a risk that the needed systemic changes will be rejected by collectives. We already can see widely popular science denying populism.
So the only way to change things is by forcing other people to change their ways? Except for the leftist movie/pop stars, I'm sure they'll get waivers to fly their private jets all over the world so that they're left as fans could enjoy the concerts. This is what the whole of the United States thinks of this, it's a trojan horse for control of the out group and exemptions for the in group
I think the actual point is that making people personally responsible isn’t a sustainable solution long-term.
Just as an example I’ve been recycling probably 99% of plastic that comes into my home. Though I actively avoid buying products with plastic packaging it’s impossible to do this on any meaningful scale alone.
We need to incentivize producers to find better ways to package their products. If we can prevent waste at its source rather than having to convince everyone “please recycle bro” we could actually improve the world. (Also, have you seen people “sort” their curbside recycling bin?)
Well I wish this would happen but I think corporations would assassinate politicians before trying to save the planet
Jesus Christ, there's more money in a living planet than a dead one. The moment regular people like you just start expecting corporations to do better, and punish the ones that don't, this all gets fixed in one or two financial quarters.
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