4 ms·

Okay great. We’re out of time. Fine, we get it. But the problem with this article, and many other similar articles, is it seems like it’s just designed to scare

by 40four 2mo ago

Okay great. We’re out of time. Fine, we get it. But the problem with this article, and many other similar articles, is it seems like it’s just designed to scare the shit out of us. No call to action, no recommendations in what to do about it. It’s basically insinuating that we, the regular people, are the responsible. As there in-lies the problem, and it makes me furious. The onus to engineer our way out of a climate catastrophe is not on the regular people. The onus is on the people who engineered is into this problem. Government, industry, politicians, scientists, literal engineers. If this is really as urgent they say it is, then why aren’t they acting faster to retool our infrastructure? Joe Schmoe doesn’t have the ability to build more electric cars. He can’t go out and build more nuclear power plants, or build solar farms. The problem here is every time you read an article like this you’re left feeling guilty. We’re told we’re the problem. Joe Rogan (and others) are the problem. Not the people who actually got us into this situation. The energy here is so misguided. It’s infuriating. I love you Adam McKay and your art, but us normal folks are just living life, with the tools & systems that were engineered for us by other people. Stop telling us we’re the problem.

striking 2mo ago
I don't see him as blaming us regular people. Just liars (which he takes pains to enumerate thoroughly). Of course most of us are just living our lives. But sometimes even us normal folk have an opportunity, when we bump into one of these liars or have a conversation about one, and we can at least remind folks this is still a problem. The main thrust of the article is that the attention to the uncomfortable issue of climate change has been replaced with noise about everything else and comfortable lies about things being fine, and that the drop in attention correlates strongly with climate change worsening as such making the case that even just bringing more attention back to the issue could help prevent it.
sdellis 2mo ago
If you are looking for the "call to action," you are missing the entire point of the article. There have been millions of calls to action for over 50 years and they have not made any difference. The point is that we must sit with the fact that it is too late. We have made our death bed and now we must be prepared to deal with what comes next.
GeoAtreides 2mo ago
you: >It’s basically insinuating that we, the regular people, are the responsible. the article: >Like all grand lies, “we have more time” takes many different forms, often focus-grouped. [...] There are the queries of “What’s your carbon footprint?,” as if individual people with plastic bags or straws were the problem and not gigantic multinational corporations.
- 40four 2mo ago
  Yeah I probably overreacted a little bit, I got a little fired up :) I re-read it and caught that line as well. So Adam isn’t directly saying normal people are the problem, he does apparently believe it’s on the mega-corps, politicians, media, etc. But the end result is kind of the same. Okay fine, maybe grifters and liars in politics and media are subduing the population into caring less about climate change. I don’t really agree with it, but let’s accept it for arguments sake. Okay now what? The thesis here is that nothing is changing because not enough people believe (even though he admits a small minority of people deny climate science), or not enough people are speaking up loudly about it. So back where we started. Whether in our own accord, or because the media is manipulating us, he believes the crux of the problem is not enough people are getting loud and angry about climate change. I would argue it’s more likely we’re entering into a period of “climate fatigue”. We’ve been bludgeoned over the head & brow beaten about climate change for so long, and’s seen little to no change in the systems at scale that are at the root, we’re all exhausted.

by 40four 2mo ago

striking 2mo ago

I don't see him as blaming us regular people. Just liars (which he takes pains to enumerate thoroughly). Of course most of us are just living our lives. But sometimes even us normal folk have an opportunity, when we bump into one of these liars or have a conversation about one, and we can at least remind folks this is still a problem. The main thrust of the article is that the attention to the uncomfortable issue of climate change has been replaced with noise about everything else and comfortable lies about things being fine, and that the drop in attention correlates strongly with climate change worsening as such making the case that even just bringing more attention back to the issue could help prevent it.

sdellis 2mo ago

If you are looking for the "call to action," you are missing the entire point of the article. There have been millions of calls to action for over 50 years and they have not made any difference. The point is that we must sit with the fact that it is too late. We have made our death bed and now we must be prepared to deal with what comes next.

GeoAtreides 2mo ago

you: >It’s basically insinuating that we, the regular people, are the responsible. the article: >Like all grand lies, “we have more time” takes many different forms, often focus-grouped. [...] There are the queries of “What’s your carbon footprint?,” as if individual people with plastic bags or straws were the problem and not gigantic multinational corporations.

40four 2mo ago
Yeah I probably overreacted a little bit, I got a little fired up :) I re-read it and caught that line as well. So Adam isn’t directly saying normal people are the problem, he does apparently believe it’s on the mega-corps, politicians, media, etc. But the end result is kind of the same. Okay fine, maybe grifters and liars in politics and media are subduing the population into caring less about climate change. I don’t really agree with it, but let’s accept it for arguments sake. Okay now what? The thesis here is that nothing is changing because not enough people believe (even though he admits a small minority of people deny climate science), or not enough people are speaking up loudly about it. So back where we started. Whether in our own accord, or because the media is manipulating us, he believes the crux of the problem is not enough people are getting loud and angry about climate change. I would argue it’s more likely we’re entering into a period of “climate fatigue”. We’ve been bludgeoned over the head & brow beaten about climate change for so long, and’s seen little to no change in the systems at scale that are at the root, we’re all exhausted.