I feel like there’s also a similar kind of perspective that is widely normalized in these kinds of discussions that boils down to simultaneously blaming everyone on an individual level and being defeatist about ever solving it. Specifically, I’m talking about when people say things like:
Oh, we destroyed the rain forests / polluted the environment / strip mined 3rd world countries / ruined space with our junk / killed the coral reefs / etc
No, we the working class didn’t do that. Humanity as a whole didn’t do that. The owner class did all of that to feed their addictions to wealth and power under capitalism. We the working class by and large criticized all of those things whenever we happened to have enough agency to consider it.
we the working class by and large criticized all of those things whenever they happened
I don’t recall working class at large protesting car centric infrastructure and factory farming. Some niche groups did but by and large a functioning highway system with free parking everywhere and cheap meat have been very popular with the working class.
I agree we need to liquidate the capitalist class but not everything can be blamed on them. If we had socialism tomorrow we’d still need to deal with the fundamental issue of the unsustainability of the consumption based lifestyles that most people in the first world of become accustomed to and will not give up easily.
The very fact that you’re getting downvoted here proves your point. Most working people love their cars and cheap meat and it offends them to suggest it’s a net negative on society.
I feel like there’s also a similar kind of perspective that is widely normalized in these kinds of discussions that boils down to simultaneously blaming everyone on an individual level and being defeatist about ever solving it. Specifically, I’m talking about when people say things like:
No, we the working class didn’t do that. Humanity as a whole didn’t do that. The owner class did all of that to feed their addictions to wealth and power under capitalism. We the working class by and large criticized all of those things whenever we happened to have enough agency to consider it.
Yes, exactly.
I don’t recall working class at large protesting car centric infrastructure and factory farming. Some niche groups did but by and large a functioning highway system with free parking everywhere and cheap meat have been very popular with the working class.
I agree we need to liquidate the capitalist class but not everything can be blamed on them. If we had socialism tomorrow we’d still need to deal with the fundamental issue of the unsustainability of the consumption based lifestyles that most people in the first world of become accustomed to and will not give up easily.
The very fact that you’re getting downvoted here proves your point. Most working people love their cars and cheap meat and it offends them to suggest it’s a net negative on society.