this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Meh I don’t think you have a very clear understanding of this topic. The American public voted for gore, the British public voted for corbyn. Both elections were stolen. Oil companies spent vast unimaginable sums of money popularising the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘carbon footprint’ to minimise public conception and maximise the concept of personal responsibility. Global climate disaster is not a personal problem, it’s a systemic problem of governance, and it needs systemic governmental solutions.
Ok, so we're not responsible for anything we do. We are completely controlled by our government and corporate overlords. We are incabable of thinking for ourselves or making any decisions not dictated by marketing and anyone daring to suggest we should consume less is asinine. Maybe we really deserve what's coming to us.
I mean, people in the U.S. have the largest impact on the environment compared to other first-world countries. And first world countries have a much, much larger impact on the environment compared to the rest of the world. It's not linear, either. I agree with the argument that much more culpability rests on those with more power, but I think that also translates into socioeconomic power individually.
I also agree that there is a blame-shifting propaganda campaign, but I think that also includes a point about not blaming consumerism, which also is a huge determinant in the status quo.
Personally, I think as usual, complex topics will have complex solutions; I think you're both right up until the point where it excludes each other's points. No-one is forcing anyone to choose only one thing to work on.
Oh, we can totally blame consumerism. We just can't do so entirely and relieve ourselves of the burden of the future because we found a partial root cause.