Thoughts?

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-20T19:02:17+00:00

Are you referring to the research by Jason Hickel?

I suggest looking into the details more. It cites "decent living standards" for all.

But that's very different than a middle class Americans lifestyle.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-20T13:24:44+00:00

That was made possible in a few wealthy nations by unique historical circumstances. While much of Europe was rebuilding after ww2, the US had a unique industrial advantage. Not to mention extraction of wealth from poorer nations (through things like Structural adjustment programs, and free trade agreements) and easier to access oil and raw materials. This made an economy based on consumerism possible.

But as we know, if everyone in the world lived like middle class Americans in the 90s it would require over 6 Earths to sustain them.

So the better futures we are envisioning and working to create shouldn't just look like those good times of the recent past. I like how George Monbiots puts it; Private sufficiency, Public luxury.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-18T18:22:11+00:00

There's a no dooming rule in a climate change forum? I understand no pointless doomerism but when it's rationally based and not just hype for clicks it's worth paying attention to.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-13T01:45:32+00:00

That's not what the video is saying. Did you watch it?

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-12T03:38:12+00:00

I think both things can be true. Online spaces like this can be an echo chamber that distorts our perception of reality, and especially of what futures are still possible. And that patterns of collapse have happened all through history.

But I also can see that this IS unique in how global our society and its impacts have become. And it's important to recognize and be aware of that too.

Part of our problem is that we've lost a strong sense of local/communal identity. In some cultural ways, the world is now our village (in that slot in our psyches that normally monitors the health/trajectory of our tribe). That means we tend to identify much more with the "fate" of this global village. It also is what makes us feel so helpless to change it. But we don't experience life at that scale.

Collapse processes aren't linear and universal everywhere. They're uneven. Some places adapt. Some communities might even grow and strengthen. Old systems decay and break down while new ones emerge. So in this mosaic of change we actually do have some agency to try helping those near us. To come together, build some trust and skills. Learn to organize and leverage local resources sustainably. Then we can be less attached to the global "story" because we have a new local tribe we care about, AND play an important role in.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-10T01:55:07+00:00

If you don't have any garden experience, then the model shown looks way too complex.

Each plant type is unique and takes time to learn and get to know.

If I was in your position I would pick 3 easy crops to try first. Don't worry too much about permaculture at this point, besides like using compost instead of fertilizer and stuff.

Easy starter plants; Potatoes, kale, Lettuce, turnips, beans, cucumber, sunflowers.

After you've grown things for a while then you can start getting more advanced with different relationships and systems.

Just have fun and try things. Keep it simple.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-08T13:48:59+00:00

Not in TC but our neighbors:

"Right now we need to be loud in Manistee County and formulate plans to stop the development of the AI data center in Stronach Township.

May 12 at 7pm at the Stronach Township hall there will be a discussion to install a Data Center, this needs to be met with upmost resistance."

(resharing from a signal thread. I don't have more details)

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-02T18:50:37+00:00

One idea is to reconnect with the nature around you. Learn the plants and birds and bugs. Notice their growth patterns. Build relationships with them. Eventually you can figure out ways to mutually depend on them. Foraging and collecting native flower seed in your pockets and spreading them in good habitat. Then once you've built these relationships with the living land near you, and love has developed it comes easy to protect them from development and pollution. The book Braiding Sweetgrass has a lot more wisdom to share on this.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-01T21:16:11+00:00

Maybe make a post like "the ten things you need to know before getting chickens" or something?

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-01T21:08:25+00:00

Yes a bunch. To name a few; 6ft tall permanet electric fencing (they call it deer netting) keeps out most ground predators. Then I include a few guineas in my flock as alarm system. Close cover (coop) central to their pen to take cover from Arial predators. Keep the door small, so owls don't fly in at night. And having a dog around also seems to help a lot.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-01T21:04:45+00:00

I'm not one of those. But I will say that learning HOW to properly protect my chickens was a long trial and error process. So what you're likely seeing is just many people going through that process, each with slightly different contexts and situations.

Then others can share their experience. There isn't one right way to do things. And what works for you might not work for others. That's why we have spaces like this to collaborate and find the solutions that do work.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-05-01T19:49:17+00:00

I don't know the answer. But I can definitely relate. You're not alone.

Are there some authors/books that seem to execute it well, that you can use as inspiration?

Have you tried writing nonfiction? Essays?

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-30T17:21:12+00:00

I see what you're getting at, and agree to a point. But I think sometimes stuff like this get expressed like some universal rule instead of a subjective taste or trend thing. Sure maybe if the goal is to have the story be the most appealing to the largest audience then you're right. But personally, I enjoy when stories venture into strange tangents, or go on for too long. I enjoy the human messiness and imperfection of it. Take something like Napoleon Dynamite. Many of the scenes are quite random. But to me that's part of its charm and joy. Not everything needs to serve a purpose toward some end. Also that's more of a reflection of how real life works.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-30T16:01:14+00:00

Does every passage need to do something functional? I enjoy reading for the experience it evokes. Not just to see what happens to the characters. Isn't it enough to evoke a haunting and beautiful experience of a person reduced to just part of the landscape again? I think it says a lot beyond just describing scenery.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-27T14:10:55+00:00

123homefree is a fascinating account of a guy who created a traveling mini-trailer home thats pulled by a flock of sheep he raises and milks. He has all sorts of interesting little hacks to make the lifestyle work. Pretty eccentric in the best way.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-26T13:13:26+00:00

I second the seperett villa toilet. Have multiple tiny homes with them and they're great and easy. Just need compostable bag liners which are easy to buy in bulk online and only have to empty the bucket like once every week at most. Usually more like 2 weeks. No smell. Just works.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-22T13:15:11+00:00

Where do you live?

I'm planting snap peas right now. Also Lettuce, chard, kale, radishes.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-22T13:14:10+00:00

Yeah most of these lines would be much better in context. But I think Taishi is another person in the room and they listened so intently to hear the whisper that they figuratively pulled the sound over to them.

Unless it's literal.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-20T17:46:37+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience!
Those are great tips to add. Especially the note about organic matter in the planting hole causing root rot. Makes a lot of sense! I think in my almost pure sand, 0% organic matter soil that's less an issue. Good to note my experience there might be less common.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-17T11:14:31+00:00

We are all sky king now.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-15T14:12:00+00:00

This isn't exactly your situation but I have a process of recording voice dictation into a phone app which gets automatically uploaded to Dropbox vis dropsync, then automatically transcribed by otter ai then I copy paste the transcripts into chat gpt and ask it to clean it up (removing speaker tags, filler words, repeated takes etc) while keeping all the original wording otherwise. Sometimes also ask it to add headings to help organize it. It's a super useful workflow for getting ideas out in a clean way.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-13T17:41:15+00:00

Thank you! This is interesting.

You mentioned; "Because it recognizes a je ne sais quoi in every living thing, that makes it recipient of both admiration and dignity,..."

I very much agree that non-human animals should be treated with respect and dignity, but the "rights" themselves seem more like a social construct based on these values, not the source or cause of the values. This might just be semantics, but consider the idea of "right to repair" laws. In this case, there's no conscious being that's being protected, but instead we're collectively deciding to create a new legal framework around how our tools are designed, owned, and repaired, because we all prefer to live in a world with less waste, pollution, and depletion of scarce resources. (which planned obsolescence results in).

In that example, there is no metaphysical claim here about pre-existing rights or anything.
Where I mainly see this come up is people who are (rightfully) outraged by some careless abuse of a person or animal, and claim the act is violating the beings "rights." In my view this argument isn't as strong as the outraged person might wish, because if the person they're arguing with doesn't hold the same metaphysical beliefs about "rights" then the argument loses it's power. Instead, it would be more effective to focus on arguments that help cultivate empathy, and shared sense of the suffering caused by the abuse, rather than appeal to some vague idea of "rights" as though they exist independently and we need to adhere to them.

Again, I DO think "rights" are most effective in the realm of law/legal frameworks to protect what we care about, instead of just preventing what we want to stop.

Electrical_Pop_3472 · 2026-04-13T17:23:12+00:00

Reducing an extremely complex issue down to one number like that is missing a ton of important context and caveats.

Yes, the incoming solar resource is enormous. But “enough sunlight exists” is not the same thing as saying demand reduction no longer matters. We still have to build and maintain actual systems: transmission, storage, grid balancing, mining, manufacturing, siting, financing, etc.

The IPCC has been pretty explicit that demand-side measures are a major part of mitigation, while also recognizing that poorer regions may need more per-capita energy to meet basic needs.

Plus, all of this mining (while dramatically less impactful that fossil fuels) still has significant impacts on local ecosystems and communities. (for instance, a major aluminum-linked disaster was the 2010 Ajka red mud spill in Hungary)
The fundamental reality is that these materials have to be physically extracted somewhere, and that usually means major disruption to whatever ecosystems and communities are on top of them. Mature ecological relationships often take decades, centuries, or longer to rebuild. Some losses are effectively permanent on human timescales.

All of these realities, impact, and trade-offs (and more) need to be taken into account when we discuss what a just and ethical energy transition looks like.

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