That’s literally just politics.

This gives the same energy as saying “it’s just business” after doing some heinous shit.

It may not be this particular case, but I remember looking into something similar before where an oil and gas company claimed a similar reduction in emissions at one of their plants, but the fine print made clear that the number came from a device installed on only one of several exhaust towers that was only able to operate for short periods of time, and was removed shortly after getting the publicity because it was considered too expensive to maintain.

I see lots of liberals online insisting that the US pulling out of the Paris accord will make everyone else, including China, abandon their climate initiatives.

If any nation does so then - just like the US - they weren’t truly committed in the first place, and they would have quietly rolled back their climate goals like the US has been doing already anyway.

Maybe they’ll self-reflect and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions when they see the harms that they contributed to but, I’m not holding my breath as it hasn’t happened in my lifetime despite Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Rojava, not to mention the impending Project 2025.

Allow me to restore your hope a little bit:

Not all of them will, and those that do might take quite a while to get there, but it happens. Those who see others express such regrets will be inoculated against making the same error.

The neolib captured Democratic party refusing to move left at all didn’t help but, lack of participation is what allowed it to happen in the first place.

Bit of a chicken or the egg situation, don’t you think? I recently watched a documentary about union coal miners in Harlan County, KY, and while watching it felt like I was watching a culture of resistance transition to a culture of defeat as a result of compounding traumas coinciding with minor improvements to material conditions that made it tempting to settle.

The left has had a culture of defeat for some time, and I believe we are now witnessing the early developmental stages of a new culture of resistance. It is young and naive, and chose too early to abandon electoralism entirely, but it will either mature or be stamped out by the fascism they thought they were ready to face. If we are to survive fascism we can’t hold grudges against one another for their errors in judgment.

Edit: Here is the documentary I mentioned, and here is a video that explains what I mean by culture of resistance.

I made it clear that I don’t agree with their decision. I despise accelerationism as much as you do. I am trying to make the point that those who made the decision not to vote or to vote third party were driven to do so by a variety of factors that could have been avoided.

They should accept responsibility for the consequences of their decisions, but many of them are not, and it’s fair to be frustrated with that. Another who will not accept responsibility for this outcome is the Democratic party, and they will be very happy to shift blame to leftists who did not vote.

I know you’re all going to have to get this out of your system, so go ahead. Mock the leftists who stubbornly refused to vote for Kamala. Assign the blame for fascism taking over on those who could not see past their principles to the bigger picture (at least, as you see it). Eventually, you’re going to have to move on and acknowledge that the blame cannot fall solely on them.

I voted for Kamala Harris. I, like most of you, felt strongly that doing so was necessary to prevent a far worse outcome. In the short term. The truth is, those that you mock for failing to see what was so plain to you were looking past it to an even larger picture, and that is why they could not see the strategic necessity of their vote. Why they chose not to see it, just as many of you choose not to see something that is very plain to them, the inevitability of this outcome.

Kamala Harris began her campaign to thunderous applause from those who were hopeful that the Democratic Party was finally embracing progressive ideals, only to then abandon and insult those very same hopefuls while moving further to the right than even Biden dared go. Kamala Harris then also proceeded to approach the economically anxious right with the same limp-wristed and tired economic messaging that has consistently failed to address the concerns of the working class. She campaigned as a moderate old Republican, the very same that the Republican electorate abandoned in favor of Trump.

A large number of progressives and radical leftists saw this and surrendered. They sacrificed their hope for change and reform to preserve their principles, and embraced accelerationism where previously they resisted it. I felt what they felt but held onto hope not because I truly believed Kamala Harris would turn around, but because I feared that we were not ready. I voted for Kamala Harris because I wanted to buy just a little more time, but fascism is here now, and we’ve run out of time.

Accept responsibility, stop assigning blame, we can’t afford to. Accept responsibility not because you are at fault, but because no one else will.

It isn’t the city getting wealthier, it’s the capital owners. This is one of many mechanisms by which they absorb all wealth increases.

Put those monkeys underwater and you might conclude that drowning is in their nature. I know of the studies you’re referencing regarding monkeys being taught to use money and I’m aware that they were done with monkeys in captivity. In the same vein, the debunked study about “alpha” wolves was done on wolves in captivity and observations of wolves in their natural environment countered the study’s findings. Our actions are a result of the context and material conditions that we are in.

People dominate others for personal gain because they live in a system that rewards them for doing so. Place those people in a system that rewards them for helping others and the very same selfish impulse will make them saints. The “tragedy of the commons” is enlightenment era defeatist bullshit. The commons existed and were managed by people for thousands of years before capitalists enclosed them and dared to claim that it was the inevitable result of human nature.

If that’s something they need then that’s something they should get. No one will be happy doing nothing forever, in that year they will likely find something that makes them happy, especially if opportunities are made available to them.

These kinds of movements are a consequence of over-exploitation. The “lie down” movement - also “let it rot” - is similar to the “quiet quitting” movement in the US. People will not be motivated to contribute when they are struggling and do not see any benefit to trying harder. If these people were fairly compensated for their labor and had greater autonomy over how to contribute they would not lose motivation. Alienation from the result of their labor is also a huge contributor; feeling rewarded for your work can be as simple as seeing the result (a teacher seeing their students find their passions, for example).

Communism envisions a society where there are no haves and have nots (classless) and socialism is put forward as the economic system that will get us there eventually. There are criticisms to be made about the method but the vision is good.

Capitalism does what you’re doing here, snarkily talk down to anyone who dares suggest such a society might be possible and is worth working towards, and puts forward instead that there must be haves taking advantage of have nots for society to function and that no other way is possible.

Thank you, this looks great! Permaculture is exactly the purpose I intend to use the software for so this seems like it could be the right fit.

Thank you, this is a great resource. Some of these look promising.

Try thinking on longer timescales. Even if you’re resigned to the fact things aren’t going to get better in your lifetime, it might bring you some comfort to know that possibilities remain for a brighter future. Even if all of civilization collapses and humanity is reduced to a few survivors struggling in a few isolated regions, that can grow into something beautiful. Acknowledging that also means acknowledging that what you do in the present might contribute to the survival of a group of people, a way of life, a wealth of knowledge, or anything that is important to you.

You know vaccines work by stimulating your immune system, right? If you actually take the time and effort to try and understand something, you don’t have to trust the government fully to come to the conclusion that the vaccine is safe.

It’s just too bad you all facilitate the weak to reproduce. There’s a lot of blood on your hands.

Are you suggesting we’re all bad people for not engaging in eugenics?

The revolution was justified, the subsequent oppression was not. Both were done in the name of communism but the revolution failed to achieve it and the state never actually meant it.

I changed “freedom and liberty” to “democracy” in my comment above to make my point more clear. While democracy is a political system and not an economic one, it does require the previous system to die in order to be established.

The US invaded Iraq for the sake of “democracy,” in their own words. Did “democracy” kill all those Iraqis, or did the US government?

Edit: changed “freedom and liberty” to “democracy” for better clarity and accuracy.

regardless, these states[emphasis mine] did engage in genocide against dissidents and minorities, which you cannot deny.

I don’t deny it, I just disagree that those actions are attributable to the economic system. The economic system of communism is fine, it’s the marxist conception of the intelligentsia seizing the state and establishing a “dictatorship of the proletariat” that leads to problems. The responsible party for genocide is the state that carried it out, not communism. If not in the name of communism, they would have done so in the name of some other belief system.

Are you seriously suggesting that all it should take to become rich is to do freelance work?

The way people actually get rich is by exploiting the labor of others. Freelance work is only practical in very specific niches, and even then you’ll be forced to compete with conglomerates that have far greater resources.