I agree with much of what Caitlin is saying except that I think it is important not to join the destroyers of the earth by allowing ourselves to hate. Disagree or desrespect for sure but hate is making the world a dangerous place. I sometimes do feel hatred toward Zionists and other destroyers of the earth, but I also work on rethinking that because I see around me that hate accomplishes nothing. Capitalistic greed is destroying our planet and I hate that. I don't really care if it is socialism or something else that stops this destruction. In order to collaborate, we really need to not hate. Faith based capitalism is no different than any other religion. It is based on foolish fantasies. We need to understand that we are all just a small part of everything else around us even if it is not something that can be scientifically proven. No more or less important than anything else until we start hating and destroying, then we are much less important and need to disappear.
Don't hate Zionists, hate Zionism. Zionism is a philosophy premised on hate, and its ok to hate hate. Zionists are human beings after all, and humans (for the most part) can achieve redemption. There's no need to hate people in this equation. Having said that, hatred is not the same as anger or rage. Harness your anger and rage in useful and creative ways to destroy Zionism. As Zach De la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine sang, "Your anger is a gift."
Yes, I agree with you. Don't hate people, hate the ideology that they believe in. I also agree that anger is a gift. I do occasionally slip though and catch myself hating people who are Nazis or Zionists. But I also know that it will not make anything better.
Hatred makes you weak. Your fear makes your adversary stronger. If that feels counterintuitive, then learning to understand and accept it will be that much more of a victory.
why not? because when you hate you are continuing the cycle. Morally depraved people get there somehow. How? We don't have to like them, but we need to go a bit further than just hating. We need to try to figure out how this mess has come about and hating won't help us to figure out anything.
you aren't breaking any cycle. Maybe you can eliminate them, but they will have supporters who will then try to eliminate you. And so it goes. You have to be a bit smarter about surviving.
if you can show me an example where hating other people has made the world a better place, I will happily allow my hate to grow. Working on not hating people is not something I find to be easy. Not respecting or disagreeing does not create the same chaos as hatred.
I don't care whether they hate me or not. I don't want to be like them. I don't want to hate. I don't want to like them either. I don't even want them in my life or in anyone's life. I am not on any moral high ground. It is a real struggle not to hate. That does not mean I like, love or respect those I try not to hate.
And thanks again for another good link. That 1986 Bookchin article is excellent, and had I read it before 2016, I might (not completely sure though?) have saved myself a couple Sanders donations (and instead would have just added them to my usual Green Party donations). And furthermore, I would have saved myself the intense disappointment I've experienced (in addition to basically just feeling like a sucker to have fallen for his words) by previously supporting him (2016 and 2020)... I even briefly/momentarily, like for a week or two, changed my party affiliation from Green Party (for whom I have been voting since 1996) back to Democrat (how I was registered for a couple decades before 1996), just to be able to vote for him in the NY primary, and then, of course, changed it back to Green immediately thereafter.
The Bookchin article makes great points, and although it discusses a different topic, reminds me of, aligns itself perfectly with, this 2012 (but even FAR more relevant now!) CounterPunch article (by B. Sidney Smith, a Virgina university math/logics professor), which is a fairly short, but essential, piece of reading: https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/26/voting-green-in-a-swing-state/
We vote similarly, for the same reasons. I sent Sanders AND Gabbard money in 2016, and voted for Jill Stein twice, and wrote-in Gabbard & McKinney in 2020. I have been voting since 1976 and have not picked a winner yet, but voted for the most honest candidate each time. Yes, I voted Nader and got Bush...
Morally speaking, Americans (and we Canadians, for that matter) collectively want and deserve better than just either the usual establishment callous conservative or neo/fake liberal candidate thus president. … One almost gets the impression that the Republican and Democratic parties are still unaware of the non-corporately-commissioned polls showing that a majority of Americans favor the governmental implementation of some public programs, especially universal health care.
One would think the Democrats would finally support thus implement the latter, so why is the DNC refusing to allow it — even if only by disallowing the fiscally progressive Senator Bernie Sanders to run as its presidential nominee, however many Democrat-voters want him? I mean, other than the DNC being afraid of crossing the corporate lobbyists, especially those hired to represent the healthcare industry’s unlimited-profit interests, who make some of the largest donations to the party election coffers.
(Every county in West Virginia voted for Sanders in the 2016 primaries, yet the DNC declared them as wins for Hillary Clinton. The voters there wanted Sanders, but the DNC overruled them. That's not democratic; that’s complacency and arrogance. And the 'Democratic' party needs to change that, otherwise such great election defeats can/will reoccur.)
Hahaha... it took me a little extra time to reply to you John... I had to just go research what "single-ended-triode" even means! ...and I'm still not completely sure, as my understanding is just in its infancy stage (lol). However, I am not an audiophile (even though "music" is part of my screen name... but I AM a real/ecstatic lover of music, and still very often get drawn out to live shows, and especially when all my kids come into town).
I am going to research "single-ended-triode" much further now. One of my friends is a true audiophile, and actually sells very high end audio equipment here in upstate NY (like, for example, a $30,000 turntable and stuff like that... stuff I would/could never own). I am going to ask him about "s.e.t.".
Oh yeah, and btw, Tulsi Gabbard was also the other non-Green-Party candidate who I contributed to as well. On the same wavelength apparently, at least in that regard.
...and also, here is one (of many) video interviews he's done talking about audio stuff WAY WAY WAY out of my understanding:https://www.beautyofsound.com/index.html
You definitely may very well find these videos ... interesting... but they just get my head spinning... and I've been over to his place to listen in person... awesome!... and I can appreciate it for what it is and represents... but still... give me the full live band experience.
One can only wonder now how Bernie would have behaved as POTUS, had Clinton and then Obomber not stopped his successful runs in their tracks. Revolutionary? Not a chance. Socialist? Who knows - perhaps those student debts could have been erased, and some form of expanded medicare achieved. We'll never know, because his obvious mendacity has now been revealed, and he'll never get the mass of indie support again.
Would he have been better than the Biden/Blinken/Sullivan psycho team? Almost certainly. Would Americans have had a slightly easier life, and had less foreign genocides in Ukraine and Palestine? Perhaps.
He's still the best leading demonrat, but that's like saying this turd doesn't smell quite as bad as the others.
His refusal to support Tulsi was the last straw for me.
Sadly 'hell' doesn't actually exist, but I hope he believes it does, and thinks he's doomed to rot there.
I was ready to vote "lesser evil" Sanders in 2016, and said that no Clinton or Bush would be elected, and was accidentally right, but look where we have gotten to, Red Kryptonite World.
Then yesterday's new article by The Dissident should disgust you even more. I know it certainly did for me. Bernie Sanders is just my constant personal reminder of what I sucker I was (and twice!... 2016/2020) for donating to him (when I should have just added that money to my yearly Green Party donations). Here's some more "fuel to the fire"...
Bernie could have easily avoided the hate. South Carolina debate " (Genocide ) Joe is a friend of mine, he would make a great President" didn't need to be said. Voting for more bombing and Genocide. Those votes revealed who he is. I was introduced to Bernie through a friend teaching in Vermont in 1993, when Bernie began his run for offices. I never would have believed he would turn his back on us. Will Bernie go to the Workers Strike Back? We shall see.
Really? What kind of “socialist” calls Joe Biden “A friend of mine,” owns three huge houses (or mansions), & becomes a multi-millionaire by letting corporations such as Big Pharma buy him off? Pathetic.
Is she turning on her supporters? Is it not a "Liberal" value to speak the truth and think critically? I took umbrage with the opening headline of this article, but quickly realized the reality of its content. The issues "we" have with the "right" are that propaganda and obfuscation, if not outright lies are used to further their goals. Those of us who seek to fight these forces must go forth with eyes open and constant self evaluation. This article gives pause for thought whether you agree with it or not.
I'm 70 years old and we had some semblance of socialism decades ago. I've watched prices go sky high and wages stagnate like crazy. I was a single mom and needed help. Went to the welfare office, that's what is was called back then, and they gave me money for rent, a food card, and a grant for a year of school. It took a year to get my LVN license, got a job, and got off "welfare" That socialism...giving people a leg up. Today we have homeless people, housing shortage for low income people, food prices people cannot afford, and the welfare system barely exists. And I hear more poor saps today complain about welfare recipients but they have no problem contributing to the millionaire welfare recipients. Socialism is so much more than that. Capitalism KILLS. We have homeless people in every city and even in rural. Drug infestation, created by the fed., human trafficking including babies and children. People have to depend on food pantries which have nothing other than canned food, yucky white bread and crap that most would not touch. Oh but it's better than nothing. RIGHT? Well the fucking poor have dignity and pride as well. We wouldn't need "welfare" food if we had JOBS that pay a standard of living. Do people realize the federal wage is still 7 something? The zio run colleges teach only Capitalism works. But many college educated cannot get a decent paying job and then owe their soul to the Capitalist company store. Rant over.
I love your story of what is best about us. Community and Solidarity are so important. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Keep ranting my friend, the world needs to hear your story : )
The proliferation of drugs and the breakdown of the institution of family in the last 50 years contributed to the scope of the homelessness we see today.
Yes, and the decline of healthcare, education and employment for those that are not wealthy. If I were young today, I would be renting from BlackRock rather than owning a home. BlackRock gets around the evil by saying we don't own homes. We own Real Estate companies who own homes. Bill Gates owning 27% of u.s. farmland.....................
People also hate being reminded that they have no conscience. That's why neolibs or "BrunchLibs" get all up in your face whenever you point out that Biden was the one to start both a proxy war and fund a genocide in his one term in office.
Finally I get to disagree with something Caitlin has written : ) I agree with almost everything EXCEPT, going to space. Some would say since I work in science and have written a story Dirty Dozen to Mars I can not be objective about this topic. I understand why many people feel this way. My own Sister sat across from my at my Mother's kitchen table challenged me on why I want to know how the Universe was formed. At my Sister's funeral her In-law family who are Amish surrounded me and asked me why I work in Science asking questions " Why do you need to know about the Universe when God has given you the answer". Yes, that happened and ended in understanding my failures as a human : )
Using Dirty Dozen to Mars to explain my thoughts on why we need space exploration, Global Project that doesn't include nuclear war or continued war on all countries. Exploring space does not have to be 100% human and most likely will never be 100%. Not only the challenge of zero atmosphere, cosmic radiation is deadly over much shorter time. So the question is why go to the Moon if you have to live underground, Mars, live underground? Stepping stone because humans on Earth have a finite existence and maybe that is a good thing, I choose not.
The Sun will go into a accelerated fusion of Helium all that is left when the Hydrogen is fused. The fluffing of energy will cause the Red Giant phase burning away the planets in our orbit. Then the Helium fuses into Carbon but we are long gone one way or the other : )
I think we human have a need to know and build always have. Even as a little boy I made a crane to lift apples from the fruit bowel using the kitchen cabinet doors. My Mother was extremely unhappy having bruised a few in my design changes ha. My father, went out and bought me a mechanical eng. drawing board/compass/square/protractor ha. I was five but my need to know was there always.
Sleeping outside in the Summers looking up at the sky asking WHY, what are those lights. Adults, go to the library ha. So I did, the Librarian made the mistake of letting into the adult section for planetary science. What she didn't know you can also learn to build rocket engines hahahahhaha. Yes, Charcoal from Dad's grill, a farm town Pharmacy, not unusual to buy , Sulfur and Salt Peter ( Potassium Nitrate), I have no idea what farmers do with that. And with that you have the ability to dream. I did, school and now I work trying to find Dark Matter with a brilliant group of people from all over the world. Do I waste money in the eyes of most, probably. Elon Mush thinks so. Mush fired an old friend of mine working at the National Science Foundation along with a few hundred of his co-workers. NASA a few thousand were fired, Los Alamos a number of friends there told me, they fired so many, Mush forgot , nuclear weapons need testing and storage. Mush making mad calls to re-hire them, no one answered him.
We are at the End of Capitalism, the rate of profit has fallen to nothing. AI isn't going to save us unless you think that's our replacement. After having the ability to give each person in the world a new phone every week, and war has destroyed everything, we need a global project that protects the Earth and allows us to believe in ourselves maybe for the first time. Sorry, I would love to speak over coffee with you Caitlin : ) Don't forget Workers Strike Back Starts this weekend : )
Well Landru, I certainly admire those of you with scientific brains. Biology is the only such subject I was ever interested in; all the rest bored me to tears.
Math was another subject I despised because there were only absolutes. No room for interpretation (or mistakes!)
I don’t feel inferior; just different. I can execute an image that is instantly recognizable. I can take a blank yard and turn it into paradise. Like I said, it takes all of us 🙂
Ha, my Son is the Dir. of Microbiology for a large company. He wasn't so interested in my lab, he went crazy over the Universities summer biology classes as a 1st grader. Never ended his fascination with beings. To this day we save spiders, flies, snakes, mice, frogs from certain death dealing with humans. Thank you for taking those spaces and turning them into what the world should be. Much love and hugs to you and yours.
Oops, replied in the wrong area. Here you go... This is in reply to "John Day MD"...
Thanks for the link you provided above. It is very interesting stuff.
And now I'm wondering, does this technology have anything at all to do with something that I was reading about (and although not any kind of "official" scientist, I found absolutely fascinating) over 30 years ago (and then suddenly I couldn't find any more info about the topic for years)... it "roughly" had to do with storing data at the atomic level (whether an electron is in its excited state or not... or perhaps, I don't know, at some level in-between excited and not). At that time, they were claiming that you could fit something like all of this country's stored data in the size of a sugar cube (something to that effect). It was around the early 1990's (1990 to 1993) I was reading about this, by a research company called "Optex" (not the same as a company by the same name now), and after a cursory search, just found this link: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19930022786
Yes, that is the only money coming into science now, Quantum. We are working on a Quantum imager (photon to single pixel) detector, with sub electron noise. The rage is Quantum Entanglement communication. I call it On The Beach communication when all the worlds satellites are destroyed and you need to communicate to launch the last of us.
Your superior intellect and ability to respond with a clear argument and facts is humbling... and typical. Perhaps you should go back to yelling at your TV.
This article is tremendous!... one of Caitlin's best.
I would like to add that I "think" that one of the main reasons that these so-called "liberals" (a term which no longer seems to have any particular meaning) dislike true progressives (which I also "think" may be a better term for people like many of us/myself, rather than just the blanket term of "socialist") is because their brain goes thru this sort of processing pattern every time they are confronted with issues which require far more engagement than just cheerleading. So what happens is then their brain says something like "uh oh, lining up on the correct, humanitarian side of this issue might actually require me to be an active participant in a real movement/protest/etc, instead of just sitting on the sidelines, and... cheering for one of the two teams... but jeez, I'm kinda tired, and really just want to hang out and watch my sports... and... and...and...", and then their brain says "woah, I better shut this one down quickly before too much more discomfort sets in", then... the lame rationalizations start flowing forth, and piling up... and then... their ensuing animosity. Anyway... something like that perhaps (I'm probably cutting out, overlooking, a bunch of their intermediate mental "processing steps" but you hopefully you catch the drift).
It's so good to see Caitlin tackle environmental issues for once, especially since she both ties it appropriately to capitalism and narrative control, and finds exquisitely right wording (like the scuba analogy). But another thing needs to be added, about the space fantasy--attempts to bring it about, never mind how unrealistic they are, will rob this planet of resources it can ill afford to lose at a time of overpopulation and relentless assault on the environment. Yesterday I read that the EU proposes to allow AI to use genetic engineering to dream up and deploy new organisms, without testing or barriers, as long as there aren't more than 20 modifications ! And the breakneck deployment of AI requires zillions of new data centers which in turn require thousands of new power plants, mostly fossil fueled.
Absolutely not. I'm not young enough to be ignorant of the many reasons they're dangerous, also expensive and slow to construct. We don't need ANY more data centers and we don't need AI. Sacrificing the Mother Earth on which we intimately depend lie a newborn baby depends on its mother, in order to play out billionaires' science fiction fantasies is madness. I don't know whether AI is as dangerous as many say, but I'm sure that even if it delivers the things it's soberly said to be ready to deliver (excluding silly crap like "it'll solve climate change because it'll be so smart") those things are TRIVIAL
Well, putting data centers aside, you are aware that wind and solar do not provide enough energy nor is it constant so they must find a way to store the energy. Batteries are expensive and rape the earth while mining for the required elements to create them. This is to say nothing about the swaths of land eaten up by solar fields and the disruption to that natural environment as a result. Plus a solar panel only lasts 15 years before it severely degrades. And how do we recycle wind blades?
How do you suggest we move from fossil fuels for just our regular energy consumption? Nuclear is considered a green energy. Small modular nuclear reactors are an interesting solution. Have you looked into them?
I disagree on several points. For one, where do you get "solar panels only last 15 years"? That is simply false. I know of panels still working, albeit at lower efficiency, after 60 years. The first four of the six panels that power my house are now 15 years old; my husband recently did a rough test and could detect no loss of efficiency. Many have a 25 year guarantee but that doesn't mean you have to retire them after 25 years. True, wind and solar are not constant so batteries are needed. It's true that panels, batteries and windmills require more mining, which is inherently unjust and destructive, the more so as deposits are depleted and more must be combed through to get the remaining useful ore. It also takes a lot of energy to build these things, and for now that energy must co me primarily from fossil fuels. This is why the Green New Deal notion that we can just replace fossil fuels with renewables and continue on with growth and a rampantly wasteful way of life is false. But no, nukes are no solution--in all these years, no solution to the waste problem has been found. Fukushima happened because of a tsunami; most nukes are located on shores because they need cooling water; with sea level rise, this will be problematic many places, and the warming ot he rivers and shores caused by this cooling exacerbates the warming already happening. Nukes are a target for terrorism and they enable more nuclear weapons to be built. As for the SMR, or Cute L'il Nukes as I call them, it seems to me they solve none of the problems and give up the advantage of scale that old nuclear plants do have. I think they're simply a gambit by the nuclear industry to prettify their proposal to inflict more of their poisonous solution on us. Some of the material from nukes can remain dangerous for a quarter of a million years, endangering how many generations--of humans and everyone else--so we can power our hair dryers?! The main solution has to be cutting back, accepting the end of growth and a way of life that prioritizes meeting everyone's needs, not meeting the demand for luxuries form the rich. My off-grid household lives quite well using an average of 2 kilowatt hours a day, a tenth of the US average.
It’s quite easy for you to tell everyone that they cannot have electricity and cars (as I’m sure you do) because our climate dictates that they can’t. Fossil fuels have brought millions out of poverty and death. But, please, go pick your own cotton and make your own clothes and live with a wood burning stove and candles.
How much fossil fuel burning did it take to make your solar panels which likely came from China and had to be shipped here?
Take a look at the recent Sandia labs study on solar panel degradation and realize that even IF they lasted 20 years without being destroyed by a hailstorm they still disrupt the ecology of the huge areas that they cover and end up in a landfill.
Are you aware that what used to fill a football stadium in spent nuclear fuel now fits in a coke can and can be recycled?
Until the climate nuts take nuclear energy seriously, no one will take them seriously. 🤷🏼♀️
I didn't say "no one can have cars or electricity' although I don't think cars can last too long--unless we accept what I call microcars, very small light cars that can go 20 or 30 MPH, take an elderly or handicapped person uphill, keep the rain off, and carry groceries or a child--most of the important things cars can do for us, Such vehicles could use enormously less energy, generate enormously less emissions.
But the real issue here is whether we can continue to live like we do now in rich countries, just switching out fossil fuels for renewables or nuclear. fact is, no matter what the energy source, if we keep burning so much the waste heat alone will cause the planet to be unlivable in a few centuries. I've come to the conclusion that attempting to maintain the "modern" way of life, even excluding those now excluded, will result in a nightmare world for our children and grandchildren--it's not just climate change, we also have crises in loss of biodiversity--our ecosystems aren't just pretty, we DEPEND on them in ways we do understand and ways we don't, for our own human lives. And then there's plastic pollution, endocrine disruptors, PFAS... if we insist on maintaining our conveniences and luxuries without change, we condemn future generations to a miserable existence--or non existence. Faced with this, many cling desperately to the hope that a magic wand will be found, a technofix. For you it's nuclear.
Even with our current too high population we COULD--just barely still--transition to a sustainable way of life that does allow electricity nd e-bikes, public transit, some modern medicine. But it would require immediate, drastic change and the only change our rulers will allow is regression. I should also mention that in the late 1970s I lived without electricity for five years--and when I recently wrote memoirs, going over all my old journals, I found plenty of bitching in that time--but it was all about my love life (or lack thereof), not the hardship of doing without electricity. People survived for hundreds of thousands of years without it--and now have used if for about four generations. It is not a necessity. But we COULD have the convenience it brings, if we ratcheted down to a reasonable level, instead of thinking we must have ever more money, ever more stuff, ever bigger houses to put the stuff in, and ever more gadgets that we leave turned on because we can't be bothered to turn them off.
Unfortunately (or as a product of cognitive infiltration) today most so-called 'conspiracy theorists' have the same view of 'socialism' as the right-wing do of 'liberals'. In other words they've fallen for it, and become the very nasty right-wing bigots they pretend to resist. They think 'the left' are 'liberals' (like AOC).
The left have nothing to do with genuine socialism.
Even the anarchists, I've noticed, have fallen for this too.
Well done, cognitive infiltrators on a job well done. No, of course I'm not being sarcastic, you nasty little sociopaths.
I'd also like to point out something on the "space travel will save us" front: does anyone really think they're going to make enough space ships to fly 8 billion people to mars? Or, is it more likely they'll build a few spaceships and fly off with some chosen few? Not that space travel is a real option, but for those that believe it is, you're definitely not going to be on those ships
Anyone who believes that successful development of mass space transit, extraterrestrial logistics and supply chains, and terraforming would lead to anything but a tiny self-selecting minority passing beyond the confines of earth hasn’t learned much about life on earth!
I laugh my butt off at an article about the Human Virome project in today's Times. All of a sudden, the realization that we're full of viruses, our own and the phages (bacterial viruses) of the bacteria that are part of our microbiomes and essential to our bodies. And whoa, this could be normal -- they're not all out to kill us.
Guess what puppies: what we don't understand about the biosphere -- and our own physiology -- is still an immense body of knowledge.
What we do understand is that the biosphere is a finite tightly integrated complex adaptive system of systems (CASoS) and that neither bold entrepreneurship nor AI can alter the laws of thermodynamics or change the evolution of biological energy metabolism.
Lichens may be quite suitable subjects for successful astrobiology. As for humans, the jury is very much still out in deliberation.
What if there IS no future? If people don't stop breeding like rabbits, there is no hope regardless of the economic or political realities. There are already too many of us, and the thing we do best, besides sexual intercourse, is creating more trash.
Excellent takes as usual. The only thing I’d add to the liberals vs socialists part is that I think it’s not just the exposing of their lack of integrity in standing for their purported values and the cognitive dissonance / ego wound that makes liberals punch down on leftists. I think their stated values are a purposeful manipulation tool to get more people to abandon the quest for liberation they might take up if the game were laid bare, and the propaganda attempting to cover up their inhumanity is constant. I mean so many people still think Kamala would have been significantly better on Gaza despite her stating that she would never stop sending $+arms to kill babies. Somehow the joy/Beyonce campaign was enough to give people the idea that she has a fully functioning human heart in her cavernous chest cavity. It’s fully absurd, but the truth underneath the liberal facade is that it’s fine to kill or harm anyone as long as comfort and access to privilege and property are protected.
Here we go again - infantile use of "capitalism" along with many other isms.
Pure capitalism is an ideal and as such can never be reached, just like communism. Why? Because human nature (propensity to greed, corruption, love of power, etc etc).
What we have is corporatism fused with power - ie government - which is called fascism. It's nowhere near what capitalism is supposed to be.
I've never understood why anyone thinks pedantic quibbling about the correct definition of their favorite word is an interesting or worthwhile response to criticisms of the status quo we live under. To be clear, my definition of capitalism is the only correct one, since I use it the way it's always been used by the people who invented the term, namely the communists. But even if it wasn't, this would still be a stupid criticism because it's just pedantic word-diddling and not a response to the substance of the argument. Nobody cares if I'm being mean to your pet word; make a real argument.
"their favorite word" - I don't have favorite words. I just care about misused ones.
If you believe capitalism has been implemented anywhere or is possible to implement, then you must also believe communism has, is, or can be. Or some other ism, like idealism, to take it to the extreme.
That's silly nonsense. "Capitalism" doesn't mean "the opposite of communism"; it's a clearly defined word that has been used by Marxists in the exact same way since they created the term. The word capitalism is clearly defined in Marxism, and its definition describes exactly what we have now.
Capitalism could not stay as is and Lenin wrote about it in his "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism". Meaning, attempts at capitalism degenerate into something else and quickly. You can argue similarly about communism, various attempts at which in post-1917 Russia failed miserably. Khrushev famously promised communism in the USSR by 1980 as I recall. What a thinker that one was!
Capitalism would not need to stay in the exact same form all the time for the Marxist definition of capitalism to apply. It still applies. Look it up. It's very simple.
It is uncanny how many times this writer hits the damn nail on the head. Thank you. Will share.
I agree with much of what Caitlin is saying except that I think it is important not to join the destroyers of the earth by allowing ourselves to hate. Disagree or desrespect for sure but hate is making the world a dangerous place. I sometimes do feel hatred toward Zionists and other destroyers of the earth, but I also work on rethinking that because I see around me that hate accomplishes nothing. Capitalistic greed is destroying our planet and I hate that. I don't really care if it is socialism or something else that stops this destruction. In order to collaborate, we really need to not hate. Faith based capitalism is no different than any other religion. It is based on foolish fantasies. We need to understand that we are all just a small part of everything else around us even if it is not something that can be scientifically proven. No more or less important than anything else until we start hating and destroying, then we are much less important and need to disappear.
Don't hate Zionists, hate Zionism. Zionism is a philosophy premised on hate, and its ok to hate hate. Zionists are human beings after all, and humans (for the most part) can achieve redemption. There's no need to hate people in this equation. Having said that, hatred is not the same as anger or rage. Harness your anger and rage in useful and creative ways to destroy Zionism. As Zach De la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine sang, "Your anger is a gift."
Good God, why do so many one another hate
—neighbour against neighbour, nation against nation
don’t they know the hour is nigh when it’ll all be too late
for them to convince You to not damn Creation?!
.
All too readily red resents yellow, white stabs at black
relentlessly yellow despises red, black beats on white—
compassion and forgiveness they collectively lack,
they do naught but argue, threaten then physically fight.
.
Their fighting causes innocents’ flesh to be torn, them to mourn,
the fighters’ ignorance and hate insist upon their continued wars
—bloody wars leaving countless to cry out ‘Why were we even born!?’
because the evil will not stop till the fighters have all settled their scores.
.
Theistic person please practice the true teachings of your religion
telling you to love and forgive your enemies as ye do yourself
so that you and those you hate may break from brutal tradition
instead place your vile venom and bigotry on the very back shelf.
.
People, people! while on spaceship Earth you’re all confined
your hate will continue to grow until your frail race does fall
and your self destructive nature annihilates all mankind
because you allowed your differences to form a formidable wall.
Yes, I agree with you. Don't hate people, hate the ideology that they believe in. I also agree that anger is a gift. I do occasionally slip though and catch myself hating people who are Nazis or Zionists. But I also know that it will not make anything better.
Hatred makes you weak. Your fear makes your adversary stronger. If that feels counterintuitive, then learning to understand and accept it will be that much more of a victory.
why not? because when you hate you are continuing the cycle. Morally depraved people get there somehow. How? We don't have to like them, but we need to go a bit further than just hating. We need to try to figure out how this mess has come about and hating won't help us to figure out anything.
you aren't breaking any cycle. Maybe you can eliminate them, but they will have supporters who will then try to eliminate you. And so it goes. You have to be a bit smarter about surviving.
Spoken like a true liberal.
if you can show me an example where hating other people has made the world a better place, I will happily allow my hate to grow. Working on not hating people is not something I find to be easy. Not respecting or disagreeing does not create the same chaos as hatred.
oh, and Carolyn, I am an anarchist. Socialism is better than capitalism, for sure. It is a step toward anarchism at least.
I don't care whether they hate me or not. I don't want to be like them. I don't want to hate. I don't want to like them either. I don't even want them in my life or in anyone's life. I am not on any moral high ground. It is a real struggle not to hate. That does not mean I like, love or respect those I try not to hate.
I still hate Bernie for what he did, and continues to do under the auspices of caring.
Special place in hell for that one.
Murray Bookchin, from 1986, The Bernie Sanders Paradox, When Socialism Grows Old, is worth a read.
Sanders is the same. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bookchin-sanders
Sanders is not a socialist.
Read the Bookchin piece from 1986, please.
It does not make the case that Sanders was a socialist, does it?
The fact that he owns three huge houses (or mansions) & has been bought & paid off by Big Pharma should’ve been a big clue that he’s not a socialist.
And thanks again for another good link. That 1986 Bookchin article is excellent, and had I read it before 2016, I might (not completely sure though?) have saved myself a couple Sanders donations (and instead would have just added them to my usual Green Party donations). And furthermore, I would have saved myself the intense disappointment I've experienced (in addition to basically just feeling like a sucker to have fallen for his words) by previously supporting him (2016 and 2020)... I even briefly/momentarily, like for a week or two, changed my party affiliation from Green Party (for whom I have been voting since 1996) back to Democrat (how I was registered for a couple decades before 1996), just to be able to vote for him in the NY primary, and then, of course, changed it back to Green immediately thereafter.
The Bookchin article makes great points, and although it discusses a different topic, reminds me of, aligns itself perfectly with, this 2012 (but even FAR more relevant now!) CounterPunch article (by B. Sidney Smith, a Virgina university math/logics professor), which is a fairly short, but essential, piece of reading: https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/26/voting-green-in-a-swing-state/
We vote similarly, for the same reasons. I sent Sanders AND Gabbard money in 2016, and voted for Jill Stein twice, and wrote-in Gabbard & McKinney in 2020. I have been voting since 1976 and have not picked a winner yet, but voted for the most honest candidate each time. Yes, I voted Nader and got Bush...
Are you a single-ended-triode audiophile, Bob?
Morally speaking, Americans (and we Canadians, for that matter) collectively want and deserve better than just either the usual establishment callous conservative or neo/fake liberal candidate thus president. … One almost gets the impression that the Republican and Democratic parties are still unaware of the non-corporately-commissioned polls showing that a majority of Americans favor the governmental implementation of some public programs, especially universal health care.
One would think the Democrats would finally support thus implement the latter, so why is the DNC refusing to allow it — even if only by disallowing the fiscally progressive Senator Bernie Sanders to run as its presidential nominee, however many Democrat-voters want him? I mean, other than the DNC being afraid of crossing the corporate lobbyists, especially those hired to represent the healthcare industry’s unlimited-profit interests, who make some of the largest donations to the party election coffers.
(Every county in West Virginia voted for Sanders in the 2016 primaries, yet the DNC declared them as wins for Hillary Clinton. The voters there wanted Sanders, but the DNC overruled them. That's not democratic; that’s complacency and arrogance. And the 'Democratic' party needs to change that, otherwise such great election defeats can/will reoccur.)
Screw the Ds. After 2009 I gave up on them. Today they are much worse.
It's a criminal cabal, which is harder and harder to hide...
;-(
I began voting for the Socialist Equality Party in 2000. If you are still supporting any capitalist parties, you are a liberal.
Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.
;-)
Hahaha... it took me a little extra time to reply to you John... I had to just go research what "single-ended-triode" even means! ...and I'm still not completely sure, as my understanding is just in its infancy stage (lol). However, I am not an audiophile (even though "music" is part of my screen name... but I AM a real/ecstatic lover of music, and still very often get drawn out to live shows, and especially when all my kids come into town).
I am going to research "single-ended-triode" much further now. One of my friends is a true audiophile, and actually sells very high end audio equipment here in upstate NY (like, for example, a $30,000 turntable and stuff like that... stuff I would/could never own). I am going to ask him about "s.e.t.".
Oh yeah, and btw, Tulsi Gabbard was also the other non-Green-Party candidate who I contributed to as well. On the same wavelength apparently, at least in that regard.
SETs have a natural sound, but are low-power-output, so sensitive speakers are needed. I designed and built a lot of systems like that as a hobbyist.
Here is the key-to-the-city the archive of Sound Practices Magazine, all 16 issues, by my friend Joe https://www.hificollective.co.uk/magazines/sound_practiceshome.html
Your friend will know of this, and may even be on "The Joelist" of such geeks.
These "BD Pipes" are the cheapest and simplest speakers that will sound good with a watt or 2, and what I have set up with a 2 WPC SET amp in my laptop-ready system here. You can't get Radio Shack drivers any more, but Fostex 4" full range are what I use in mine. https://diyaudioprojects.com/Speakers/BD-Pipes/index.htm#:~:text=While%20the%20treble%20is%20extended,small%20SE%2050EH5%20Tube%20Amplifier.
Sorry John, left off last link... here's the video link you should watch/listen to... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si5xObVKkBA
Thank you John. I will forward that link to my friend today, and here is my friends site: https://www.beautyofsound.com/index.html
...and also, here is one (of many) video interviews he's done talking about audio stuff WAY WAY WAY out of my understanding:https://www.beautyofsound.com/index.html
You definitely may very well find these videos ... interesting... but they just get my head spinning... and I've been over to his place to listen in person... awesome!... and I can appreciate it for what it is and represents... but still... give me the full live band experience.
One can only wonder now how Bernie would have behaved as POTUS, had Clinton and then Obomber not stopped his successful runs in their tracks. Revolutionary? Not a chance. Socialist? Who knows - perhaps those student debts could have been erased, and some form of expanded medicare achieved. We'll never know, because his obvious mendacity has now been revealed, and he'll never get the mass of indie support again.
Would he have been better than the Biden/Blinken/Sullivan psycho team? Almost certainly. Would Americans have had a slightly easier life, and had less foreign genocides in Ukraine and Palestine? Perhaps.
He's still the best leading demonrat, but that's like saying this turd doesn't smell quite as bad as the others.
His refusal to support Tulsi was the last straw for me.
Sadly 'hell' doesn't actually exist, but I hope he believes it does, and thinks he's doomed to rot there.
I was ready to vote "lesser evil" Sanders in 2016, and said that no Clinton or Bush would be elected, and was accidentally right, but look where we have gotten to, Red Kryptonite World.
;-)
Then yesterday's new article by The Dissident should disgust you even more. I know it certainly did for me. Bernie Sanders is just my constant personal reminder of what I sucker I was (and twice!... 2016/2020) for donating to him (when I should have just added that money to my yearly Green Party donations). Here's some more "fuel to the fire"...
https://the307.substack.com/p/bernie-sanders-goes-full-neo-con?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=400703&post_id=157588377&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=17e0g&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I am well aware.
Under no illusions about him.
Turning on your supporters is a hallmark of failure. Stop it.
Bernie could have easily avoided the hate. South Carolina debate " (Genocide ) Joe is a friend of mine, he would make a great President" didn't need to be said. Voting for more bombing and Genocide. Those votes revealed who he is. I was introduced to Bernie through a friend teaching in Vermont in 1993, when Bernie began his run for offices. I never would have believed he would turn his back on us. Will Bernie go to the Workers Strike Back? We shall see.
As if the readers here were entitled to be told only what they want to hear.
You can “hear” what you want; but, one does not have the right to manufacture facts. Opinions should ALWAYS follow FACTS, not tribes.
Really? What kind of “socialist” calls Joe Biden “A friend of mine,” owns three huge houses (or mansions), & becomes a multi-millionaire by letting corporations such as Big Pharma buy him off? Pathetic.
Marcus throws a fit. Bernie isn’t as perfect as Marcus. But at least, Bernie has one friend.
Calling out on the BS is “throwing a fit?” Laughable.
Is she turning on her supporters? Is it not a "Liberal" value to speak the truth and think critically? I took umbrage with the opening headline of this article, but quickly realized the reality of its content. The issues "we" have with the "right" are that propaganda and obfuscation, if not outright lies are used to further their goals. Those of us who seek to fight these forces must go forth with eyes open and constant self evaluation. This article gives pause for thought whether you agree with it or not.
I'm 70 years old and we had some semblance of socialism decades ago. I've watched prices go sky high and wages stagnate like crazy. I was a single mom and needed help. Went to the welfare office, that's what is was called back then, and they gave me money for rent, a food card, and a grant for a year of school. It took a year to get my LVN license, got a job, and got off "welfare" That socialism...giving people a leg up. Today we have homeless people, housing shortage for low income people, food prices people cannot afford, and the welfare system barely exists. And I hear more poor saps today complain about welfare recipients but they have no problem contributing to the millionaire welfare recipients. Socialism is so much more than that. Capitalism KILLS. We have homeless people in every city and even in rural. Drug infestation, created by the fed., human trafficking including babies and children. People have to depend on food pantries which have nothing other than canned food, yucky white bread and crap that most would not touch. Oh but it's better than nothing. RIGHT? Well the fucking poor have dignity and pride as well. We wouldn't need "welfare" food if we had JOBS that pay a standard of living. Do people realize the federal wage is still 7 something? The zio run colleges teach only Capitalism works. But many college educated cannot get a decent paying job and then owe their soul to the Capitalist company store. Rant over.
I love your story of what is best about us. Community and Solidarity are so important. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Keep ranting my friend, the world needs to hear your story : )
Kimberly Young, fantastic comment. Simply wonderful! Thank you so much!
The proliferation of drugs and the breakdown of the institution of family in the last 50 years contributed to the scope of the homelessness we see today.
Yes, and the decline of healthcare, education and employment for those that are not wealthy. If I were young today, I would be renting from BlackRock rather than owning a home. BlackRock gets around the evil by saying we don't own homes. We own Real Estate companies who own homes. Bill Gates owning 27% of u.s. farmland.....................
Yes, thank that to another Democrat, Clinton who put the final finishes on deindustrialization of the U.S.
Absolutely!!! Probably the truest thing you've ever written. I simply can't stand liberals, and for all of the reasons you so perfectly articulate.
I am not a liberal or a socialist, per se, but sellouts hate anything that reminds them that they sold out.
People also hate being reminded that they have no conscience. That's why neolibs or "BrunchLibs" get all up in your face whenever you point out that Biden was the one to start both a proxy war and fund a genocide in his one term in office.
Finally I get to disagree with something Caitlin has written : ) I agree with almost everything EXCEPT, going to space. Some would say since I work in science and have written a story Dirty Dozen to Mars I can not be objective about this topic. I understand why many people feel this way. My own Sister sat across from my at my Mother's kitchen table challenged me on why I want to know how the Universe was formed. At my Sister's funeral her In-law family who are Amish surrounded me and asked me why I work in Science asking questions " Why do you need to know about the Universe when God has given you the answer". Yes, that happened and ended in understanding my failures as a human : )
Using Dirty Dozen to Mars to explain my thoughts on why we need space exploration, Global Project that doesn't include nuclear war or continued war on all countries. Exploring space does not have to be 100% human and most likely will never be 100%. Not only the challenge of zero atmosphere, cosmic radiation is deadly over much shorter time. So the question is why go to the Moon if you have to live underground, Mars, live underground? Stepping stone because humans on Earth have a finite existence and maybe that is a good thing, I choose not.
The Sun will go into a accelerated fusion of Helium all that is left when the Hydrogen is fused. The fluffing of energy will cause the Red Giant phase burning away the planets in our orbit. Then the Helium fuses into Carbon but we are long gone one way or the other : )
I think we human have a need to know and build always have. Even as a little boy I made a crane to lift apples from the fruit bowel using the kitchen cabinet doors. My Mother was extremely unhappy having bruised a few in my design changes ha. My father, went out and bought me a mechanical eng. drawing board/compass/square/protractor ha. I was five but my need to know was there always.
Sleeping outside in the Summers looking up at the sky asking WHY, what are those lights. Adults, go to the library ha. So I did, the Librarian made the mistake of letting into the adult section for planetary science. What she didn't know you can also learn to build rocket engines hahahahhaha. Yes, Charcoal from Dad's grill, a farm town Pharmacy, not unusual to buy , Sulfur and Salt Peter ( Potassium Nitrate), I have no idea what farmers do with that. And with that you have the ability to dream. I did, school and now I work trying to find Dark Matter with a brilliant group of people from all over the world. Do I waste money in the eyes of most, probably. Elon Mush thinks so. Mush fired an old friend of mine working at the National Science Foundation along with a few hundred of his co-workers. NASA a few thousand were fired, Los Alamos a number of friends there told me, they fired so many, Mush forgot , nuclear weapons need testing and storage. Mush making mad calls to re-hire them, no one answered him.
We are at the End of Capitalism, the rate of profit has fallen to nothing. AI isn't going to save us unless you think that's our replacement. After having the ability to give each person in the world a new phone every week, and war has destroyed everything, we need a global project that protects the Earth and allows us to believe in ourselves maybe for the first time. Sorry, I would love to speak over coffee with you Caitlin : ) Don't forget Workers Strike Back Starts this weekend : )
Impressive as hell, Landru ( coming from an individual who is lacking a left brain!)
While you were constructing an apple crane, I was skipping stones on the local pond, hunting Will of the Wisps, and drawing behind my books in class.
I guess it takes all of us to make the world go ‘round 🙂
Yes, and that is one of my points. I would rather go out asking why rather then having my eyes scintillated : )
Well Landru, I certainly admire those of you with scientific brains. Biology is the only such subject I was ever interested in; all the rest bored me to tears.
Math was another subject I despised because there were only absolutes. No room for interpretation (or mistakes!)
I don’t feel inferior; just different. I can execute an image that is instantly recognizable. I can take a blank yard and turn it into paradise. Like I said, it takes all of us 🙂
Ha, my Son is the Dir. of Microbiology for a large company. He wasn't so interested in my lab, he went crazy over the Universities summer biology classes as a 1st grader. Never ended his fascination with beings. To this day we save spiders, flies, snakes, mice, frogs from certain death dealing with humans. Thank you for taking those spaces and turning them into what the world should be. Much love and hugs to you and yours.
Hi Landru
I too rarely harm another living being, the exceptions being mosquitos and ticks 😉
I love spiders. I love snakes. More than any other insect, I love bumblebees; I enjoy petting them ( they’re soft and fuzzy!)
One year we had a hive of honeybees; they all eventually perished due to hive collapse. We were so heartbroken that we never had another.
Landru, do you know that in all my days of.horticultural work I’ve never once been stung by a bee? Plenty of hornets, yes, but never a bee!
Love back to you.
Dear Landru: See this: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/quantum/2025/02/19/microsoft-unveils-majorana-1-the-worlds-first-quantum-processor-powered-by-topological-qubits/
and this: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08445-2
if you "will"...
;-)
Oops, replied in the wrong area. Here you go... This is in reply to "John Day MD"...
Thanks for the link you provided above. It is very interesting stuff.
And now I'm wondering, does this technology have anything at all to do with something that I was reading about (and although not any kind of "official" scientist, I found absolutely fascinating) over 30 years ago (and then suddenly I couldn't find any more info about the topic for years)... it "roughly" had to do with storing data at the atomic level (whether an electron is in its excited state or not... or perhaps, I don't know, at some level in-between excited and not). At that time, they were claiming that you could fit something like all of this country's stored data in the size of a sugar cube (something to that effect). It was around the early 1990's (1990 to 1993) I was reading about this, by a research company called "Optex" (not the same as a company by the same name now), and after a cursory search, just found this link: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19930022786
Yes, that is the only money coming into science now, Quantum. We are working on a Quantum imager (photon to single pixel) detector, with sub electron noise. The rage is Quantum Entanglement communication. I call it On The Beach communication when all the worlds satellites are destroyed and you need to communicate to launch the last of us.
"Spooky action at a distance" is lovely, and they've got it out to 2 meters, or so, I hear.
We'll die when we die, as is Thy Will, Landru.
;-)
Probably related.
That sounds like an early quantum-computing projection.
We have the largest quantum computing site now, or did ha. With cuts who knows now : (
Landru is dead!!!
Shut up mother fucking "democrat". Burn in hell.
Such an eloquent intelligent response. Your mother must be so proud of you. Are you another paid Zionist troll, or just angry and uneducated?
You don’t deserve anything else. I’m anti-zionist. Anyone who attempts to defend modern American “liberals” is an idiot.
I stand by my previous post...
pfffft. Arrogant little fuck.
Your superior intellect and ability to respond with a clear argument and facts is humbling... and typical. Perhaps you should go back to yelling at your TV.
Well this is useful! Saint Jimmy.
Sorry, who is this directed at?
This article is tremendous!... one of Caitlin's best.
I would like to add that I "think" that one of the main reasons that these so-called "liberals" (a term which no longer seems to have any particular meaning) dislike true progressives (which I also "think" may be a better term for people like many of us/myself, rather than just the blanket term of "socialist") is because their brain goes thru this sort of processing pattern every time they are confronted with issues which require far more engagement than just cheerleading. So what happens is then their brain says something like "uh oh, lining up on the correct, humanitarian side of this issue might actually require me to be an active participant in a real movement/protest/etc, instead of just sitting on the sidelines, and... cheering for one of the two teams... but jeez, I'm kinda tired, and really just want to hang out and watch my sports... and... and...and...", and then their brain says "woah, I better shut this one down quickly before too much more discomfort sets in", then... the lame rationalizations start flowing forth, and piling up... and then... their ensuing animosity. Anyway... something like that perhaps (I'm probably cutting out, overlooking, a bunch of their intermediate mental "processing steps" but you hopefully you catch the drift).
It's so good to see Caitlin tackle environmental issues for once, especially since she both ties it appropriately to capitalism and narrative control, and finds exquisitely right wording (like the scuba analogy). But another thing needs to be added, about the space fantasy--attempts to bring it about, never mind how unrealistic they are, will rob this planet of resources it can ill afford to lose at a time of overpopulation and relentless assault on the environment. Yesterday I read that the EU proposes to allow AI to use genetic engineering to dream up and deploy new organisms, without testing or barriers, as long as there aren't more than 20 modifications ! And the breakneck deployment of AI requires zillions of new data centers which in turn require thousands of new power plants, mostly fossil fueled.
So are you pro-nuclear?
Absolutely not. I'm not young enough to be ignorant of the many reasons they're dangerous, also expensive and slow to construct. We don't need ANY more data centers and we don't need AI. Sacrificing the Mother Earth on which we intimately depend lie a newborn baby depends on its mother, in order to play out billionaires' science fiction fantasies is madness. I don't know whether AI is as dangerous as many say, but I'm sure that even if it delivers the things it's soberly said to be ready to deliver (excluding silly crap like "it'll solve climate change because it'll be so smart") those things are TRIVIAL
Well, putting data centers aside, you are aware that wind and solar do not provide enough energy nor is it constant so they must find a way to store the energy. Batteries are expensive and rape the earth while mining for the required elements to create them. This is to say nothing about the swaths of land eaten up by solar fields and the disruption to that natural environment as a result. Plus a solar panel only lasts 15 years before it severely degrades. And how do we recycle wind blades?
How do you suggest we move from fossil fuels for just our regular energy consumption? Nuclear is considered a green energy. Small modular nuclear reactors are an interesting solution. Have you looked into them?
I disagree on several points. For one, where do you get "solar panels only last 15 years"? That is simply false. I know of panels still working, albeit at lower efficiency, after 60 years. The first four of the six panels that power my house are now 15 years old; my husband recently did a rough test and could detect no loss of efficiency. Many have a 25 year guarantee but that doesn't mean you have to retire them after 25 years. True, wind and solar are not constant so batteries are needed. It's true that panels, batteries and windmills require more mining, which is inherently unjust and destructive, the more so as deposits are depleted and more must be combed through to get the remaining useful ore. It also takes a lot of energy to build these things, and for now that energy must co me primarily from fossil fuels. This is why the Green New Deal notion that we can just replace fossil fuels with renewables and continue on with growth and a rampantly wasteful way of life is false. But no, nukes are no solution--in all these years, no solution to the waste problem has been found. Fukushima happened because of a tsunami; most nukes are located on shores because they need cooling water; with sea level rise, this will be problematic many places, and the warming ot he rivers and shores caused by this cooling exacerbates the warming already happening. Nukes are a target for terrorism and they enable more nuclear weapons to be built. As for the SMR, or Cute L'il Nukes as I call them, it seems to me they solve none of the problems and give up the advantage of scale that old nuclear plants do have. I think they're simply a gambit by the nuclear industry to prettify their proposal to inflict more of their poisonous solution on us. Some of the material from nukes can remain dangerous for a quarter of a million years, endangering how many generations--of humans and everyone else--so we can power our hair dryers?! The main solution has to be cutting back, accepting the end of growth and a way of life that prioritizes meeting everyone's needs, not meeting the demand for luxuries form the rich. My off-grid household lives quite well using an average of 2 kilowatt hours a day, a tenth of the US average.
It’s quite easy for you to tell everyone that they cannot have electricity and cars (as I’m sure you do) because our climate dictates that they can’t. Fossil fuels have brought millions out of poverty and death. But, please, go pick your own cotton and make your own clothes and live with a wood burning stove and candles.
How much fossil fuel burning did it take to make your solar panels which likely came from China and had to be shipped here?
Take a look at the recent Sandia labs study on solar panel degradation and realize that even IF they lasted 20 years without being destroyed by a hailstorm they still disrupt the ecology of the huge areas that they cover and end up in a landfill.
Are you aware that what used to fill a football stadium in spent nuclear fuel now fits in a coke can and can be recycled?
Until the climate nuts take nuclear energy seriously, no one will take them seriously. 🤷🏼♀️
I didn't say "no one can have cars or electricity' although I don't think cars can last too long--unless we accept what I call microcars, very small light cars that can go 20 or 30 MPH, take an elderly or handicapped person uphill, keep the rain off, and carry groceries or a child--most of the important things cars can do for us, Such vehicles could use enormously less energy, generate enormously less emissions.
But the real issue here is whether we can continue to live like we do now in rich countries, just switching out fossil fuels for renewables or nuclear. fact is, no matter what the energy source, if we keep burning so much the waste heat alone will cause the planet to be unlivable in a few centuries. I've come to the conclusion that attempting to maintain the "modern" way of life, even excluding those now excluded, will result in a nightmare world for our children and grandchildren--it's not just climate change, we also have crises in loss of biodiversity--our ecosystems aren't just pretty, we DEPEND on them in ways we do understand and ways we don't, for our own human lives. And then there's plastic pollution, endocrine disruptors, PFAS... if we insist on maintaining our conveniences and luxuries without change, we condemn future generations to a miserable existence--or non existence. Faced with this, many cling desperately to the hope that a magic wand will be found, a technofix. For you it's nuclear.
Even with our current too high population we COULD--just barely still--transition to a sustainable way of life that does allow electricity nd e-bikes, public transit, some modern medicine. But it would require immediate, drastic change and the only change our rulers will allow is regression. I should also mention that in the late 1970s I lived without electricity for five years--and when I recently wrote memoirs, going over all my old journals, I found plenty of bitching in that time--but it was all about my love life (or lack thereof), not the hardship of doing without electricity. People survived for hundreds of thousands of years without it--and now have used if for about four generations. It is not a necessity. But we COULD have the convenience it brings, if we ratcheted down to a reasonable level, instead of thinking we must have ever more money, ever more stuff, ever bigger houses to put the stuff in, and ever more gadgets that we leave turned on because we can't be bothered to turn them off.
Unfortunately (or as a product of cognitive infiltration) today most so-called 'conspiracy theorists' have the same view of 'socialism' as the right-wing do of 'liberals'. In other words they've fallen for it, and become the very nasty right-wing bigots they pretend to resist. They think 'the left' are 'liberals' (like AOC).
The left have nothing to do with genuine socialism.
Even the anarchists, I've noticed, have fallen for this too.
Well done, cognitive infiltrators on a job well done. No, of course I'm not being sarcastic, you nasty little sociopaths.
I'd also like to point out something on the "space travel will save us" front: does anyone really think they're going to make enough space ships to fly 8 billion people to mars? Or, is it more likely they'll build a few spaceships and fly off with some chosen few? Not that space travel is a real option, but for those that believe it is, you're definitely not going to be on those ships
Anyone who believes that successful development of mass space transit, extraterrestrial logistics and supply chains, and terraforming would lead to anything but a tiny self-selecting minority passing beyond the confines of earth hasn’t learned much about life on earth!
I laugh my butt off at an article about the Human Virome project in today's Times. All of a sudden, the realization that we're full of viruses, our own and the phages (bacterial viruses) of the bacteria that are part of our microbiomes and essential to our bodies. And whoa, this could be normal -- they're not all out to kill us.
Guess what puppies: what we don't understand about the biosphere -- and our own physiology -- is still an immense body of knowledge.
What we do understand is that the biosphere is a finite tightly integrated complex adaptive system of systems (CASoS) and that neither bold entrepreneurship nor AI can alter the laws of thermodynamics or change the evolution of biological energy metabolism.
Lichens may be quite suitable subjects for successful astrobiology. As for humans, the jury is very much still out in deliberation.
What if there IS no future? If people don't stop breeding like rabbits, there is no hope regardless of the economic or political realities. There are already too many of us, and the thing we do best, besides sexual intercourse, is creating more trash.
Excellent takes as usual. The only thing I’d add to the liberals vs socialists part is that I think it’s not just the exposing of their lack of integrity in standing for their purported values and the cognitive dissonance / ego wound that makes liberals punch down on leftists. I think their stated values are a purposeful manipulation tool to get more people to abandon the quest for liberation they might take up if the game were laid bare, and the propaganda attempting to cover up their inhumanity is constant. I mean so many people still think Kamala would have been significantly better on Gaza despite her stating that she would never stop sending $+arms to kill babies. Somehow the joy/Beyonce campaign was enough to give people the idea that she has a fully functioning human heart in her cavernous chest cavity. It’s fully absurd, but the truth underneath the liberal facade is that it’s fine to kill or harm anyone as long as comfort and access to privilege and property are protected.
Here we go again - infantile use of "capitalism" along with many other isms.
Pure capitalism is an ideal and as such can never be reached, just like communism. Why? Because human nature (propensity to greed, corruption, love of power, etc etc).
What we have is corporatism fused with power - ie government - which is called fascism. It's nowhere near what capitalism is supposed to be.
I've never understood why anyone thinks pedantic quibbling about the correct definition of their favorite word is an interesting or worthwhile response to criticisms of the status quo we live under. To be clear, my definition of capitalism is the only correct one, since I use it the way it's always been used by the people who invented the term, namely the communists. But even if it wasn't, this would still be a stupid criticism because it's just pedantic word-diddling and not a response to the substance of the argument. Nobody cares if I'm being mean to your pet word; make a real argument.
"their favorite word" - I don't have favorite words. I just care about misused ones.
If you believe capitalism has been implemented anywhere or is possible to implement, then you must also believe communism has, is, or can be. Or some other ism, like idealism, to take it to the extreme.
That's silly nonsense. "Capitalism" doesn't mean "the opposite of communism"; it's a clearly defined word that has been used by Marxists in the exact same way since they created the term. The word capitalism is clearly defined in Marxism, and its definition describes exactly what we have now.
I used "communism" as an example, not antonym.
Capitalism could not stay as is and Lenin wrote about it in his "Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism". Meaning, attempts at capitalism degenerate into something else and quickly. You can argue similarly about communism, various attempts at which in post-1917 Russia failed miserably. Khrushev famously promised communism in the USSR by 1980 as I recall. What a thinker that one was!
Capitalism would not need to stay in the exact same form all the time for the Marxist definition of capitalism to apply. It still applies. Look it up. It's very simple.
Excellent essay! I could not agree more with your analysis which spans the generations to
me, a 93 yr old humanist.