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I live here and am very angry. At the blue cloudless sky, at the once powerful river turned to a stream and consequently at many people's life style. As I wri

I live here and am very angry. At the blue cloudless sky, at the once powerful river turned to a stream and consequently at many people's life style. As I write this, millions of cars are criss-crossing France to spend a few days here, a week there. I live very modestly. Small studio, no car, no TV, no AC, no e-bike, computer made of 2nd-hand parts. To buy food, I grab a bag and walk to the store even 2km away. It's free and good for health. I would be very happy like this if all had gone reasonably. But no, people made choices that fry the ALU in my brain. Built a home far from the city to be 'in the country-side' ? Now you drive everywhere, like your neighbours, making the 'country' a noisy racing-circuit. Oh! and you realize you lack exercise so you drive to the gym or such and do useless efforts. So I judge people, I fucking do. The boomers in particular. 'You shouldn't generalize!'. Oh yeah? then how do you reason about classes of people ? It's not boolean logic, but rather perceptual statistics. And I'll tell you : the boomers are very chiefly to blame. Not the poor ones, the masses of middle+ ones. The ones I know and the ones through official data. They're massively owning second houses where they go on holiday and leave empty most of the year, turning villages into ghost towns but with prohibiting estate prices ! Oh, and they go driving their new car. The median age of new car buyer in France is.. 62 years old. When I hike, I keep bumping into them on e-bikes, 'enjoying nature'. Did you know a bus is following them from hotel to hotel, carrying their luggage ? Oh and they massively vote for whoever guarantees their fat pensions. The average income (not counting possessions...!) of retired boomers in France is superior to the one of working people ! I feel a solid resentment for them, to say the least.

Glawen 4y ago
take a deep breath. I agree with you with boomers which are being completely selfish and have the nerve to patronise us. However making us in Europe going back to travel by horse, living all in the same family house and sleep with cows to keep warm like the good old days won't solve anything to the global warming issue.
vixen99 4y ago
I think you have a bit of a point though you know very well that most people will never voluntarily choose your lifestyle and you make some contentious statements. However - we do have the largest population of humans ever, often located in dense cities and we've covered our Earth in concrete and asphalt to an extent such that its mass (since 2020) now exceeds the total biomass on Earth including ourselves (our bodies). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5. Our attention to the problems of providing appropriate infrastructure to support this desired expansion is evidently very patchy. That's certainly true for instance with the issue of the water shortage in the UK which is certainly a political failure. In view of the above why do we expect the environment to adjust itself with a view to our best interests and why are we shocked when it doesn't?
schroeding 4y ago
> then how do you reason about classes of people? In my experience: By using a "defensive approach" when formulating such statements. Like "The majority of boomers are very chiefly to blame.", even if you think 99% are responsible. Yes, this has the "risk" that people who should feel called out are telling themselves "oh, but they don't mean me!". In the end, you probably will never win the hearts and minds of those people anyway with such statements, so it doesn't matter. But you prevent offending and driving away people who are not "guilty", boomers who don't show the behavior you described, who tried to prevent this whole desaster in the 70s and 80s, those that no one listened to, the (at that time) poor. Ostracization is one of our primal fears, our brains are very boolean in that regard and emotions are often not processed with the highest precision. IMO that's an okay tradeoff and more effective than to only weaken a generalisation with additional statements afterwards. What do you think? I agree with your text, btw, and am in almost the exact same situation you described except that I live one country to the north-east, have a used laptop instead of a PC and only have to walk 1.5km to get food :)
- alcover 4y ago
  IMO that's an okay tradeoff and more effective than to only weaken a generalisation with additional statements afterwards. What do you think? I think you're right. I shouldn't write when angry. My point still stands, with all the obvious nuance that 'boomers' is more than an age group.
ecmascript 4y ago
You speak of living in the city as somehow being better for the climate? My dream is to live in the country side so that I can grow my own food, have animals and take water from the earth and not being as dependent on a big functioning society. Partly because I believe this life is way better to simply live but also partly because I think it is better for the environment. I grow my own food so that I get more nutrient dense food and don't contribute to the monoculture that is the case of all agriculture today. Also, I will never use any chemicals on my food that destroy the environment. I salute the insects and the animals and thanks to not having a monoculture I can grow food without it being destroyed. I will host bees in my garden and raise my own animals which I then will slaughter and eat. They will live as good of a life they can, I won't support the horrible practices of many meat industries. I will live pretty far from a big city though, not by choice but because I can't afford to live closer and because all the municipalities focus on building big apartment blocks where crime is high and you are super dependent on society. Also, since I have my garden I will not have much waste since animals eat most of the food waste and the other I can easily recycle. Sure I will need a car to get into town but I plan for it to be electric and I will also utilize my electric bike whenever I can. Not by choice but because there is no stores nearby. I am not a boomer, so I guess your anger is not directed towards me, but you should be more careful of hating on people in which you don't know.
- alcover 4y ago
  You speak of living in the city as somehow being better for the climate? I wasn't but I'd think yes it's better. Collectively more 'efficient' w/ infra & logistic scaling. My dream is to live in the country side so that I can grow my own food, have animals and take water from the earth and not being as dependent on a big functioning society. Me too! Dearly. While trying to minimize driving around, and live the most 'organic' possible (Self water, dry toilet. etc..) I will live pretty far from a big city though, not by choice but because I can't afford to live closer Can't blame you. I am not a boomer, so I guess your anger is not directed towards me, but you should be more careful of hating on people in which you don't know. 'Boomer' is mainly a lifestyle. I'm not rabid at an age group. I perfectly know some boomer-aged people are well aware and caring and acting. For the others, there is no time anymore to be 'careful'.

Glawen 4y ago

take a deep breath. I agree with you with boomers which are being completely selfish and have the nerve to patronise us. However making us in Europe going back to travel by horse, living all in the same family house and sleep with cows to keep warm like the good old days won't solve anything to the global warming issue.

vixen99 4y ago

I think you have a bit of a point though you know very well that most people will never voluntarily choose your lifestyle and you make some contentious statements. However - we do have the largest population of humans ever, often located in dense cities and we've covered our Earth in concrete and asphalt to an extent such that its mass (since 2020) now exceeds the total biomass on Earth including ourselves (our bodies). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5. Our attention to the problems of providing appropriate infrastructure to support this desired expansion is evidently very patchy. That's certainly true for instance with the issue of the water shortage in the UK which is certainly a political failure. In view of the above why do we expect the environment to adjust itself with a view to our best interests and why are we shocked when it doesn't?

schroeding 4y ago

> then how do you reason about classes of people? In my experience: By using a "defensive approach" when formulating such statements. Like "The majority of boomers are very chiefly to blame.", even if you think 99% are responsible. Yes, this has the "risk" that people who should feel called out are telling themselves "oh, but they don't mean me!". In the end, you probably will never win the hearts and minds of those people anyway with such statements, so it doesn't matter. But you prevent offending and driving away people who are not "guilty", boomers who don't show the behavior you described, who tried to prevent this whole desaster in the 70s and 80s, those that no one listened to, the (at that time) poor. Ostracization is one of our primal fears, our brains are very boolean in that regard and emotions are often not processed with the highest precision. IMO that's an okay tradeoff and more effective than to only weaken a generalisation with additional statements afterwards. What do you think? I agree with your text, btw, and am in almost the exact same situation you described except that I live one country to the north-east, have a used laptop instead of a PC and only have to walk 1.5km to get food :)

alcover 4y ago
IMO that's an okay tradeoff and more effective than to only weaken a generalisation with additional statements afterwards. What do you think? I think you're right. I shouldn't write when angry. My point still stands, with all the obvious nuance that 'boomers' is more than an age group.

ecmascript 4y ago

You speak of living in the city as somehow being better for the climate? My dream is to live in the country side so that I can grow my own food, have animals and take water from the earth and not being as dependent on a big functioning society. Partly because I believe this life is way better to simply live but also partly because I think it is better for the environment. I grow my own food so that I get more nutrient dense food and don't contribute to the monoculture that is the case of all agriculture today. Also, I will never use any chemicals on my food that destroy the environment. I salute the insects and the animals and thanks to not having a monoculture I can grow food without it being destroyed. I will host bees in my garden and raise my own animals which I then will slaughter and eat. They will live as good of a life they can, I won't support the horrible practices of many meat industries. I will live pretty far from a big city though, not by choice but because I can't afford to live closer and because all the municipalities focus on building big apartment blocks where crime is high and you are super dependent on society. Also, since I have my garden I will not have much waste since animals eat most of the food waste and the other I can easily recycle. Sure I will need a car to get into town but I plan for it to be electric and I will also utilize my electric bike whenever I can. Not by choice but because there is no stores nearby. I am not a boomer, so I guess your anger is not directed towards me, but you should be more careful of hating on people in which you don't know.

alcover 4y ago
You speak of living in the city as somehow being better for the climate? I wasn't but I'd think yes it's better. Collectively more 'efficient' w/ infra & logistic scaling. My dream is to live in the country side so that I can grow my own food, have animals and take water from the earth and not being as dependent on a big functioning society. Me too! Dearly. While trying to minimize driving around, and live the most 'organic' possible (Self water, dry toilet. etc..) I will live pretty far from a big city though, not by choice but because I can't afford to live closer Can't blame you. I am not a boomer, so I guess your anger is not directed towards me, but you should be more careful of hating on people in which you don't know. 'Boomer' is mainly a lifestyle. I'm not rabid at an age group. I perfectly know some boomer-aged people are well aware and caring and acting. For the others, there is no time anymore to be 'careful'.