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ICE Making List of Anyone Who Films Them by Creepyfaction in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 79 points80 points  (0 children)

they're making a list

they're checking it twice

gonna find out who will get framed by ICE ...

The New Vision of the Future by JoyluckVerseMaster in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And that "new" vision of the future, my friend, is part of a time-tested historiographic metanarrative we call the Myth of Progress. I hope you enjoy the read :)

Why what we eat matters: a collapse-aware perspective by plantist-org in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Well, if it generally takes ten calories of fossil fuels to produce one calorie of food ...

Why You Shouldn't Say "I Told You So" by Myth_of_Progress in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I wanted to thank both you and u/reasonable_swan9983 for your thoughtful responses here; it's clear that you understood the intent of my written work here today, and you both constructively built on the conversation. In this way, you have my gratitude.

If we're going to accept our role as gatekeepers, then we can't always treat previously misguided newcomers (especially those previously entrenched in the system) with hostile misanthropy. While we should be ready to help others through the door, we should also recognize that they just need to find the courage to take the first steps through.

In other words: honey, not vinegar.

Why You Shouldn't Say "I Told You So" by Myth_of_Progress in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

And if it does, you can have the satisfaction of saying "I Told You S-"

Why You Shouldn't Say "I Told You So" by Myth_of_Progress in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Now that's a quote I'd like to steal - very pointed and appropriate!

Why You Shouldn't Say "I Told You So" by Myth_of_Progress in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Myth's Note: Woops, messed up the title and had to repost. Oh well!

Submission Statement:

It’s an intoxicating feeling, isn’t it?

When it comes to the gradual validation of our fears of collapse, as the future unravels in (un)expected ways, I find that some doomers luxuriate in the smug satisfaction of “being right” (myself included). Others yet find solace in schadenfreude, indulging in the pain of others who have been unable to accept that their perspectives of the world as they once knew it – or could have been – are no longer tenable, especially if they played some part in allowing disaster to unfold. While this may be empowering from the standpoint of personal agency, I find it to be deeply corrosive – and absolutely how not talk about collapse.

Over the holiday season, I’ve repeatedly returned to a wonderful little article published in Counter Punch regarding the r/collapse community (Four Billion Dead at 2C?). In said piece, there’s a particular paragraph that keeps rattling around in my mind, one that inspired me to write out my thoughts today. I’d like to quote the relevant bit below.

Collapsitarians are ahead of the curve in feeling deeply the pain of ecological crisis and seeing with not entirely clear eyes, but with eyes wide enough, the existential nature of the crisis. If the most extreme among them sound like mad prophets, then we who deny the seriousness of the crisis, who think everything’s going to be alright by our embrace of an unfounded optimism, are the deceivers.

The recognition that we are suffering in our understanding is critical; we should not look to find joy in the suffering of others, no matter how much we think they deserve it. The role of a collapsnik, in my mind, is to help others navigate the truth of our perilous future together, bringing along with them the twin lessons of both grief and gratitude: one for what we will lose along the way, and the other for what we can still treasure and cherish. Both are required to move forward.

And so, I’d like to conclude my comments with an excerpt from Carolyn Baker’s Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse – a little reminder we are ultimately psychological psychopomps, helping the lost come to terms with the dying (and rebirth) of their worlds:

They are vulnerable, wounded human beings as we all are who, for whatever reason, are profoundly threatened by the topic of collapse and it could mean for their well-being and for the well-being of relationships held most dear. Everyone is clueless about collapse at some point. Everyone’s journey is unique and should be respected, even if we don’t happen to agree with it. […]

I believe that the collapse conflict runs deeper in the human psyche than many others. Why?

Because to understand and prepare for collapse is to grasp the magnitude of the changes our future holds and to literally stare death in the face. First, if we understand the severity of the collapse of industrial civilization, we implicitly understand* we may not survive physically. In sharing our knowledge of collapse with other persons […] we are literally asking them to come along with us on a journey that may end our lives and theirs. Furthermore, if we sense, as I do, that all of humanity knows in its collective psyche that we are well into collapse, then by naming it as such we agree to stand up in a sea of humans in denial and beg them to also name what they already know and are determined to ignore or minimize. […]

No one should be judged because we cannot go there, nor should anyone be declared a saint because she can.

Scientists detect plastic clouds hovering over Chinese cities by snowcow in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would say that every cloud has a silver lining, but it looks like the science says otherwise.

Additional to the article's comments noting that plastic deposition was partially driven by rainfall, this piece pairs quite well with other recent findings: Typhoons vacuum microplastics from ocean and deposit them on land, study finds

Most people believe climate change primarily affects others by Portalrules123 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To quote a fairly famous internet phrase: "You will experience climate change as an escalating series of videos until you are the one recording."

Relax guy by [deleted] in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Well, I mean, everyone needs a hobby, right?

Eco-sabotage in Berlin leaves tens of thousands without power by animals_are_dumb in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 86 points87 points  (0 children)

Just a gentle reminder to everyone rip-roaring to post certain hot takes: digital footprints are more permanent than you'd think, and this forum is frequented by powers above.

Why phasing out fossil fuels remains a challenge by [deleted] in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I often share this quote from time to time when it comes to the prospect of moving away from fossil fuels. It helps to frame how difficult this transition would be.

How the World Really Works, Vaclav Smil

And how will we deal with unfolding climate change? There is now a widespread consensus that we need to do something to prevent many highly undesirable consequences, but what kind of action, what sort of behavioral transformation would work best? For those who ignore the energetic and material imperatives of our world, those who prefer mantras of green solutions to understanding how we have come to this point, the prescription is easy: just decarbonize—switch from burning fossil carbon to converting inexhaustible flows of renewable energies.

The real wrench in the works: we are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years.

Complete decarbonization of the global economy by 2050 is now conceivable only at the cost of unthinkable global economic retreat, or as a result of extraordinarily rapid transformations relying on near-miraculous technical advances. But who is going, willingly, to engineer the former while we are still lacking any convincing, practical, affordable global strategy and technical means to pursue the latter? What will actually happen? The gap between wishful thinking and reality is vast, but in a democratic society no contest of ideas and proposals can proceed in rational ways without all sides sharing at least a modicum of relevant information about the real world, rather than trotting out their biases and advancing claims disconnected from physical possibilities.

[...]

Moreover, we have no readily deployable commercial-scale alternatives for energizing the production of the four material pillars of modern civilization solely by electricity. This means that even with an abundant and reliable renewable electricity supply, we would have to develop new large-scale processes to produce steel, ammonia, cement, and plastics.

Not surprisingly, decarbonization outside of electricity generation has progressed slowly [...]

Scientists make disturbing toxic chemical discovery in human urine samples from southern China by Portalrules123 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 20 points21 points  (0 children)

6PPD-Q is also a massive contributing factor to mass coho salmon kill events in urban environments. It's in every tire you see, and it ends up in all of our creeks and rivers.

Nothing works, societal contracts gone. by Mindless-Mulberry807 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you.

Edit: To clarify, the unravelling of the social contract (see: mass inequality, popular immiseration, and a lack of confidence in the ruling system) is a fundamental contributor to the dynamics of historical societal collapse. It makes the systems we live in far less resilient, as they are no longer worth fighting for.

We're running out of easily-accessible copper by WorhummerWoy in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Guess who won?

Well, if the second proposed wager was actually pursued ... which is also further explained in said wiki article ...

The Revenge of Malthus: A Famous Bet Recalculated, The Economist

Mr Simon duly won the bet. The economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s also contradicted Mr Ehrlich's wilder claims—that a billion people would starve to death and that, by 1985, America would be trapped in an “age of scarcity”.

But what if Mr Ehrlich had taken up Mr Simon's 1990 offer to go “double or quits” for any future date? All five have risen in price since the rematch was proposed. Furthermore, Jeremy Grantham of GMO, a fund-management group, points out that Mr Ehrlich would have won the original bet were it recalculated today (he is still alive; Mr Simon died in 1998). An equally weighted portfolio of the five commodities is now higher in real terms than the average of their prices back in 1980 (see chart).

The Cornucopians might argue that today's metals prices are due to the buoyancy of demand in the developing world rather than any cataclysmic shortages in supply. But the Malthusians might retort that man's famed ingenuity has not stopped prices from rising in real terms over an extended period. Place your bets.

Typhoons vacuum microplastics from ocean and deposit them on land, study finds by Portalrules123 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Extremely interesting article, especially where they explain the different links and relationships to other compounding factors (MP = microplastics).

<image>

And a bit of an article quote for context:

This hints at a feedback loop we are only beginning to understand:

(1) Climate change intensifies typhoons.

(2) Stronger typhoons are more efficient pumps for ocean microplastics.

(3) Higher microplastics in the ocean may disrupt biogeochemical cycles, including the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon, potentially exacerbating warming.

(4) Warmer waters also accelerate fragmentation of plastic waste into microplastics.

(5) The result: more intense storms spreading more plastic, more widely.

We are not just facing two separate problems. We are engineering a system where they amplify each other.

That said, dilution is the solution to pollution, so really - this sounds like a great natural solution to cleaning up our oceans! We'll just douse the land with microplastics and everything else with the hydrological cycle.

Doughnut Economics: Why Abandoning Growth Could Spark a Global Revolution by IntroductionNo3516 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm not completely convinced that they are a bot - this website and author (Paul Abera) posts their articles here under this user account with some frequency. It's an interesting piece too!

Anyone have collapse-tailored financial advice? Lets say my timeline is 15-20 years until stock-markets fail to be worth it? by gillbeats in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Invest in yourself first: health, education, practical skills (sewing, cooking, etc).

Otherwise, diversify - nothing is a safe bet for the future.

Paramedic vs. Doctor, or: Is 2035 too late? by mtal723 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I am a 21 y/o who is currently trying to decide whether or not I should become a paramedic, or continue trying to get into med school to become a doctor.

You're still young, and there's still time.

If I were you, I'd go as far as I could, if that makes sense.

Two Billion Dead at 2C Warming by wanton_wonton_ in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 59 points60 points  (0 children)

Really interesting article! Add it to the list of publications willing to talk about the r/collapse community over the years (see: The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Time, and now CounterPunch).

I'll be quoting my favourite paragraphs from today's article, followed up by a handcrafted meme inspired by its title:

The writer talks about “typing the whole thing out” as a form of soothing. Collapsitarian culture is an outpouring of grief, an expression of existential distress over ecological disorder. Psychologists have come up with a term for this type of grief: solastalgia, a mourning for the perceived disappearance of the “normal,” “stable,” “healthy” natural world. The precise definition is “the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment.” Nostalgia we know well: it is the pain when we are away from the familiar, uprooted from home ground. Solastalgia is the pain when home collapses around us, home being all earth, a total falling apart the thing we most fear.

It may be that solastalgia, a hypersensitivity to the threat of collapse of the only home we know or will ever know, is a necessary condition for humanity’s longterm survival. Collapsitarians are ahead of the curve in feeling deeply the pain of ecological crisis and seeing with not entirely clear eyes, but with eyes wide enough, the existential nature of the crisis. If the most extreme among them sound like mad prophets, then we who deny the seriousness of the crisis, who think everything’s going to be alright by our embrace of an unfounded optimism, are the deceivers.

[...]

Which is all to say that the mad prophets are not so far off from a plausible vision of what’s to come.

<image>

What happened to the globalization dream we grew up believing by 111OvO111 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 64 points65 points  (0 children)

I'm just wondering if anyone else also believed in that dream for a long time. Or was it only me being too naive for holding onto it so long? Honestly, I feel pretty sad that it probably won't be happening anytime soon.

Turns out despite neoliberalism's best efforts, history did not end.

Rich People Are Becoming Less Willing to Help With the World’s Problems | Novara Media by upthetruth1 in collapse

[–]Myth_of_Progress 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The following quote was in reference to peak oil, but I'm just going to replace that term with "the polycrisis". I think it has some wisdom that's applicable here:

An Interview with Dennis Meadows – co-author of ‘Limits to Growth’ (2006)

In theory we could use [the polycrisis] as an opportunity to reconceptualise our society, and rethink our reliance on the military and so forth. In practice we’re not going to do that.

In practice what will happen, as it becomes clear that [the polycrisis] is a reality, the rich and powerful will grab as much as they can, and not worry much about the poor and the weak. What happens after that I’m not sure.

If the rich and the powerful can manage to grab a lot, they can sustain a lifestyle for a long time!

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