Greta's Getting It Wrong Also

As much as I respect the young activist for her passion, her message that we should simply "listen to Scientists" is problematic. While they may have consensus that Climate Destabilization is happening, they have no coherent plan to combat it. Saying "reduce carbon emissions" to our current political establishment is basically shouting into the void. We've built this consumptive and polluting extinction machine, and nobody is organizing to destroy it...we may want it gone...but nobody is ACTUALLY organizing a step by step plan to dismantle it, and that is why we'll die if RADICAL change does not occur. Our inability to address population explosion, out inability to focus on anything but "economic progress," our selfish culture that prevents us from working together...we need a complete overhaul of civilization. In the United States the "progressives" are the only ones even approaching the first baby steps towards the change we need...while politically they may be branded as "radical," they are vanilla apple pie. I appreciate their work, but we need to be even more radical. This is a Global problem, but how do you convince a billion of the most comfortable people on the planet to completely change the system that they are at the top of? It's the riddle of our time.

Health Food = Expensive and Shitty

I would love to eat healthily...and I would love to eat food that is more clean and less environmentally destructive. That said, all the "health food stores" sell garbage food and are ridiculously expensive. I have never eaten a Trader Joe's branded item that didn't taste like cardboard and used the absolute lowest quality ingredients. Similarly, some friend insists on shopping at Whole Foods...that place is like the Gucci of food...so overpriced, and mediocre at best.

Look, the whole industry is already shady, there is so much misinformation about what is "balanced" or "healthy." I can't believe something as essential as FOOD, has such poor public information and such low standards. As most things, this is largely the fault of our economic incentives...but we need to push hard on standards for food and water safety on the regulation channel, and a socio-informational revolution regarding food quality and nutrition.

Quality, nutritious, tasty food, should not be a rare hobby for the elite, it should be at the center of human civilization.

A Carbon Tax Is Fisher-Price

We are beyond -only- Carbon Taxes, we need HARD cut-off DEADLINES for carbon, and we must heavily incentivize Carbon SEQUESTRATION. We waited so long, we can't just slow what we're doing, we need to go full REVERSE. We must stop using any new lands for development, we must abruptly reduce birth rates, and we must greatly reduce consumption. We must stop worrying about economic impact and start treating this as the existential threat it is.

Richard Stallman

Stallman has always had a very nuanced and intelligent morality. He is an eccentric for sure, but I am sad to see him ousted from MIT and the FSF. Misogyny is very common in the tech world but in Stallman's case, I'm inclined to think his statements are the result of him being on the spectrum, and less that he has a hatred for women leaking out of him. I must admit, I am a bit biased, his creation of the Copyleft was nothing less than brilliant and bold, his leadership in the GNU project has shifted the paradigm of open ideas and software freedom, and nobody wants to see their heroes fall. For someone who has given the world so much, I really hope these actions were carefully considered, he deserves nothing less.

The Paper Straw

Recently, I keep hearing that "paper straws are a distraction," etc. Well, yes and no...yes we do need to push for more radical actions to preserve the environment and stop climate destabilization, but the "single-use plastic" paradigm is VERY much at the heart of our problem. The world is disposable to this culture...and plastic is almost entirely made with petroleum products...so in a way, paper straws represents a good first step forward. Stop nit-picking, every step forward is a step forward, keep pushing for "everything at once" as Bill Nye says.

Labor Unions

In the 50's the US was in the "Golden Age" of labor...unions were at their strongest...and yet why just a few decades later, the whole thing came crashing down? Answer: The "capital" in Capitalism. When you have an owner class, the struggle will never end; if employees are paid more, the employer will ask more, and so on and so forth until the Unions go away OR the Unions become corrupt and the employees are overworked and "overpaid." What we really need is the next step in labor, that is, WORKER OWNED businesses. It will force intelligent decisions be made about how to treat workers, how much to pay workers, and how much to reinvest in the company. Labor Unions are the fantasy of the age of Marx, most of the gains that were imagined with this method are already realized...we need to march forward.

In the more distant future, we need to look even further beyond, towards a society where we don't work for money but as they say in Star Trek, "we work to better ourselves, and the rest of humanity."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH9Of4OVaTE

Universal Health Care

Here is the debate right now...

"We propose a deluxe better burger for cheaper than you currently pay for worse burgers. You can have all the same ingredients you're used to plus more."

--"How you going to pay for it? How you going to pay for it? HOW YOU GOING!!"

"Actually it's substantially cheaper than what we're paying now. It's $3 instead of $6."

--"I used to pay with a Five dollar bill plus a single One dollar bill...but now I have to use THREE One dollar bills?"

"Maybe, but it's cheaper."

--"Won't this raise the number of One dollar bills I might have to use? Why can't you just admit I might have to use MORE One dollar bills than I'm used to!"

"Look, every other good burger joint is already implementing this deal, it's not radical or new."

--"Nobody wants your Commy burger, with better ingredients...cuz...Capitalism!"

Let The Climate Wars Begin

For the United States, the Bahamians may be the first, clear Climate Refugees we've seen. The first of many, many, many more. This will clash with the rampant racism in the U.S. I think this is far more historic than 9-11...when the prerequisites for the Climate Migration Wars began.

Fetishizing Feudalism

Basically every culture romanticizes their history, and remakes it for the silver screen. That is because, of course, they've never seen the feudal era...and would die instantly if they did. Our past is filled with horrible values, deadly diseases, and -surprisingly- even worse economic systems. I wish people would look forward more and try to use the past, only to understand, avoid potential mistakes, and experiment with things that have worked.

How History Will View Trump

We all know that Trump is a disaster...while he is objectively dangerous, I think history will pity him. Trump is mentally ill and/or senile, and clearly doesn't even know what he doesn't know...we can't expect him to shoulder the burdens of the human species. The failure of Trump is a cascade of failures by everyone. The media portrays him as villain...I see him as a failure of the system and I think history will see it that way also.

Social Media Censorship

I don't dox people, I don't threaten or harass...and yet every single account I've had on social media they've either severely censored me or locked my account outright. They came for me... act now or they will come for you. Speaking truth and reason is now against "Terms and Conditions"... Democracy cannot exist inside of Capitalism, Period.

The Universal Alt-Right Response

Climate Destabilization? "I'LL RAPE YOU!"
Universal Health Care? "I'LL RAPE YOU!"
Less Inequality? "I HOPE SOMEONE RAPES YOU!"

Seriously people, get help.