The point is that it’s your choice where to make sacrifices for the causes you believe in. Everybody already knows that fossil fuels cause pollution, this is not some big secret. People don’t just get to hide behind “brainwashing” as a defense.
It’s not really a choice though. We have to work harder, longer, faster for a wage that doesn’t increase anywhere as fast as the efficiency of the workers. We have no time to do things the old way. I literally sacrificed a week of vacation to set up my homelab because I want to reduce my dependency on techbro bullshit. In many countries everything is done via smartphones. It’s near impossible to live without one. It wouldn’t be so bad if techbros wouldn’t come up with addiction driven software, but here we are.
And yes, many people are brainwashed into hating vegans. They are being controlled by the media they consume.
If our schools would teach the children his fucking bad all this tech is, we might stand a chance. But again, schools are controlled by rich assholes in power.
You just said that you sacrificed a week of vacation to reduce dependence on big tech. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Some people choose to spend effort on tech independence. Some people focus on veganism. Some people make sacrifices for the environment. Etc. These are all choices.
Yeah I think everyone gets that, but what then? We can acknowledge that the path of least resistance is destructive, while also acknowledging that some folks will be on that path through no fault of their own, and the rest of us are heavily incentivized to follow that path. It’s far more efficient to try and fix the system routing the paths, than to individually change everyone’s behavior en masse.
To clarify, I’m all for fossil fuel regulation. The fossil fuel industry is different from most in that it has huge externalities, and those can only be controlled via regulation (as explained by Tragedy of the Commons). However, what I’m saying is that personal responsibility is still important. In fact, in a democracy it’s basically all that matters. Whether you vote for public policy or you vote with your wallet, both have the power to affect change.
Changing the system and rerouting the paths and forcing everybody to follow, sounds nice in theory. And in this case I do agree that some regulation is necessary. However changing the system can end up enormously good and also enormously bad. It has both incredible power and risk. The problem is that nobody agrees on how to change it. Every few years the group in power changes, and reverses the policies created by the opposing group. I am not confident that this is as efficient as you say it is.
What I don’t like about resorting to regulation, is that it’s all or nothing. The policy passes or it doesn’t. The free market is much more flexible. If 20% of people vote with their wallet, that wouldn’t have been enough to get a policy to pass, but it sure is enough to get an industry to re-think their strategy and try to re-capture that 20%.
The point is that it’s your choice where to make sacrifices for the causes you believe in. Everybody already knows that fossil fuels cause pollution, this is not some big secret. People don’t just get to hide behind “brainwashing” as a defense.
It’s not really a choice though. We have to work harder, longer, faster for a wage that doesn’t increase anywhere as fast as the efficiency of the workers. We have no time to do things the old way. I literally sacrificed a week of vacation to set up my homelab because I want to reduce my dependency on techbro bullshit. In many countries everything is done via smartphones. It’s near impossible to live without one. It wouldn’t be so bad if techbros wouldn’t come up with addiction driven software, but here we are.
And yes, many people are brainwashed into hating vegans. They are being controlled by the media they consume.
If our schools would teach the children his fucking bad all this tech is, we might stand a chance. But again, schools are controlled by rich assholes in power.
You just said that you sacrificed a week of vacation to reduce dependence on big tech. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Some people choose to spend effort on tech independence. Some people focus on veganism. Some people make sacrifices for the environment. Etc. These are all choices.
Yeah I think everyone gets that, but what then? We can acknowledge that the path of least resistance is destructive, while also acknowledging that some folks will be on that path through no fault of their own, and the rest of us are heavily incentivized to follow that path. It’s far more efficient to try and fix the system routing the paths, than to individually change everyone’s behavior en masse.
To clarify, I’m all for fossil fuel regulation. The fossil fuel industry is different from most in that it has huge externalities, and those can only be controlled via regulation (as explained by Tragedy of the Commons). However, what I’m saying is that personal responsibility is still important. In fact, in a democracy it’s basically all that matters. Whether you vote for public policy or you vote with your wallet, both have the power to affect change.
Changing the system and rerouting the paths and forcing everybody to follow, sounds nice in theory. And in this case I do agree that some regulation is necessary. However changing the system can end up enormously good and also enormously bad. It has both incredible power and risk. The problem is that nobody agrees on how to change it. Every few years the group in power changes, and reverses the policies created by the opposing group. I am not confident that this is as efficient as you say it is.
What I don’t like about resorting to regulation, is that it’s all or nothing. The policy passes or it doesn’t. The free market is much more flexible. If 20% of people vote with their wallet, that wouldn’t have been enough to get a policy to pass, but it sure is enough to get an industry to re-think their strategy and try to re-capture that 20%.