this post was submitted on 25 May 2024
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as an aside in the latest Trillbillies episode Terrence said that we need degrowth communism and it got me wondering what that means to everyone. to hopefully stifle any silly debates i'll clarify that i'm talking about the West, not underdeveloped/overexploited nations in the Global South.

an end to oil drilling, gas extraction, and coal mining will obviously be necessary to stop climate change. how much modern technology can we replicate without relying on those things or other ecologically violent resource extraction? what does an agriculture system that doesn't rely on petrochem-derived fertilizers and herbicides look like? how do we repair the immense damage that's already been done?

i'd really appreciate some book recommendations on this topic as well as everyone's thoughts

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Are you talking about email jobs? Because those don't produce much carbon when done at home

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

scammers, speculators, rentiers, consultants, crypto, ai, marketing, propagandists, surveillance, weapons development... i feel like we could go on for an hour

ooth 'email jobs' just describe an environment work takes place in, some people in cubicle email jobs are involved in pro-social work, i assume.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

My concern is that this kind of labor doesn't generate huge carbon emissions (sans ML, weapons, and commutes) and the majority of jobs that need to go are industrialized or logistics jobs that are critical. I didn't think getting rid of marketing would save much carbon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

on the contrary, liquidating marketers would net the largest decrease in hot air ever seen garf-troll

emissions are half the equation tho, GDP counts these things and decoupling the idea GDP & the per capita to actual living standards is important for a degrowth conversation. no humans would hurt from the billions lost in 'value' in marketing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Eliminating completely useless sectors frees those people to do things that are actually beneficial to society

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But they also don't produce rail, solar panels, food, housing, or clean water. They're completely bullshit jobs that exist to keep the proletariat from having the time and energy to revolt.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You're average marketer probably isn't fit to start building train tracks. Most people in white collar jobs would be unwilling to do blue collar labor and construction of all of those goods is incredibly expensive and emissions producing. A very large portion of Marxist thought is about industrialization and has been applied to China and the USSR, but when deindustrialization is needed the road is less clear.