This is why, at the end of the day, even amidst my anger and frustration… I do have empathy for people who don’t understand solarpunk. Because they are falling prey to the actual critique I have of the genre. That we simply need more of it. That there’s not enough out there that really delves into the nuts and seeds. At least not enough to overpower the AI slop and greenwashing and capitalization of these concepts.

It feels like solarpunk is suffering from the same problem that communism and socialism have for decades: the people who are trying to build a real movement under that name are getting drowned out out tourists and haters, to the point that the strawman version is more recognisable than the “real” version.

When I first learned about the movement, I was excited and started building my own project under the banner. As I explored more, I was disappointed by how much AI slop and pie-in-the-sky roleplay there was.

I’m still building my project, but I may not publish it as a solarpunk work because I don’t want it to be tainted by association with the strawman.