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Solar Punk is just another version of the Nordic model
(lemmygrad.ml)
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this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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chapotraphouse
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Plenty of socialist artists come from these professions, many others have spent time actually studying the subjects and living with the people they portray. You're just showing your utter ignorance of the subject you're attempting to debate here.
I implore you to actually read the comment you're replying to.
i know artists often have other jobs, i was referring to the art of the welder and the rocket you posted, you can tell it was not made by a cosmonaut judging from the look of the rocket, unless that art piece was made by a cosmonaut?
i have read the comment, you're saying that solar-punk isn't fundamentally political, which i don't see how you think that unless you think combating climate change is fundamentally not a political project, and that a sustainable future is possible without ousting the capitalist hegemony
What I'm actually saying is that solar-punk is fundamentally hollow and lacks substance.
so have you engaged with any solar-punk media like the dispossessed by ursula le guin?
I have, and my point stands. Solar-punk fails to offer a realistic representation of what a society powered by renewables might look like. For example, this is what real life solar farms look like today in China:
It's quite clear that solar-punk vastly understates the role of technology that underpins its vision, and creates skewed expectations. It doesn't discuss how this technology would be produced, completely ignoring the industries and workers that underpin it. In a way, it's kind of ironic that you picked the dispossessed since that's basically what we can infer from solar-punk where we see the idyllic society, but we don't get to see what actually powers it.
solar-punk isn't realistic in the same way soviet sci-fi wasn't realistic, it's an idealistic anti-capitalist future
the dispossessed is as detailed as for instance the inhabited island in how its anarchist society works and how it is powered
what makes anarres society just another version of the nordic model?
Much of Soviet sci-fi art very much did strive for realism and plausibility, that's not at odds with painting an idealistic picture of the future in any way.
Not sure what this has to do with discussing solar-punk aesthetic to be honest. You just keep moving goal posts here.
The critique was of the solar-punk art that depicts a society without showing how the technology is produced. Last I checked, the dispossessed portrays a society that would be best described as anarcho-syndicalism. Anarres is also a highly industrialized society, relying on advanced technology for its survival and coordination. That does not sound like the solar-punk vision presented in the art.
one of the biggest themes of the dispossessed was how the non-hierarchic anarres workers focus on sustainability, it is one of the founding media of the solar-punk movement
how does soviet sci-fi like inhabited island strive for realism and plausibility more than the dispossessed does?
Pretty weird that a book discussing a society that bears no resemblance to solar-punk aesthetic is one of the founding media for the movement. This just further highlights the incoherence of solar-punk art as it doesn't even bear resemblance to the supposed subject matter you're claiming it's drawing inspiration from.
Have I somewhere claimed this to be the foundational media for Soviet sci-fi art?
the art style of modern solar-punk is largely based on earthships https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship, but its foundational ideas were largely inspired by the dispossessed
when did i claim that inhabited island was foundational media for soviet sci-fi art? i said the dispossessed was foundational media for the solar-punk movement, and then asked why you said soviet sci-fi art like inhabited island are more realistic and plausible than it. is there another piece of soviet sci-fi you want to use instead as an example for it being more realistic and plausible than the dispossessed?
edit: maximum depth reached, return to the surface for air: hexbear.net/comment/6329112
One would certainly wouldn't get that impression by looking at most solar-punk imagery. Nor does the imagery reflect any aspect of the dispossessed that I can see.
You brought it up as a contrast to me pointing out discrepancies between solar-punk art and what the dispossessed describes. If you agree it's not foundational to Soviet art, then what relevance does it have to the discussion?
There are plenty of examples of Soviet sci-fi that are more realistic and plausible than the dispossessed because Soviet sci-fi was rooted in a real-world socialist system that actually existed as opposed to a purely speculative one the dispossessed describes. Here are a just few prominent examples from the USSR that offer plausible (within their era's understanding) visions of a futuristic socialist society: