Look man, you’re only saving 50% of the children from starvation, so obviously your idea is bad and we should continue letting 100% of the children die until someone comes up with the perfect solution.

Perfect is the enemy of good (or good enough).

Don't make Perfect the enemy of Progress.

I see way too much of this on the internet, here on Lemmy included. Thanks for posting this. I have this thought a lot but haven't see this good of a way to put it before.

Yeah I've had this kind of discussions with right wing folk. We were discussing socialist policies, which I was in favor of and they were against. They were pointing out there were people abusing current socialist policies and getting a free handout, so all of those policies should be cut to prevent the freeloaders from freeloading. I argued that any kind of policy, no matter what the policy is, is going to be abused by a small fraction of the population. It's not possible to create something without loopholes and people exploiting them. We should try to prevent it in the design, but in the end we should accept that's going to happen and instead focus on if the policy is also actually helping the people it was designed for.

Nothing is perfect, problems won't be fully solved and / or new problems will be created. That isn't failure, it's life.

I do things that make no difference globally because I don't want to take part in the bad things.

I did not vote for the government that is ruling my country. My single vote did not make any difference, but it makes me feel better that I did not vote for this government.

I travel by train instead of a plane and I ride a bike instead of driving a car because I don't want to be part of the club of high CO2 emission citizen.

Doing that does not matter globally, but I feel better about myself that way. I don't tell other people what to do or to follow my example, but I think some people around me do notice and maybe it does get them thinking?

But I have no illusions, most people are busy enough and do what is most convenient every time. I am the only adult in my circle that does not own a car. But I feel powerless beyond my personal life to change anything.

I know it is not good enough, but I don't know how to change other people.

I did try and sometimes I still do try, but to no effect besides annoying people. 🤷

I have been told this my whole life, how our silly little actions didn't mean anything because they were too small or fringe or whatever.

The difference is I can look back across the decades and see a lot of people who I have helped, and who have helped me in turn, things have been directly made better as a result (well, at least some of the time). Meanwhile, their "more realistic" approach centred on voting has seen periods of glacial progress and rapid retreat, leaving them further back than ever before in my lifetime.

It's a demoralization propaganda tactic to effectively blunt any issue. People have internalized the idea that they can do nothing on an individual level. Like habits that form out of persistent actions, people have been demoralized into giving up completely. It's some sort of ego trap. Where the presumption is that an individual is supposed Superman saving the world, but of course they aren't. Nobody is. So why bother at all. That's not the point. It's about the the population as a whole determining the norm. Everyone is convinced it's pointless and hopeless. That sets the tone. The issue is dead in the water. Any issue can be killed this way. It's extremely effective. People fall for it every time.

That's where climate change is right now. That's where wealth inequality is right now. People have listened to social media. They've internalized the quote repetitions. The demoralization mantras they saw on social media.

Your adversaries can handle words on social media. It's meaningless to them. It has no effect on their daily lifestyle or their bank accounts. Throwing words into the cloud. Somebody else's computer. Those servers are owned by your very adversaries. You're throwing your comments into a meaningless suggestion box. In all likelihood the quote repetitions were seeded by them.

Everyone is convinced that "the rich" consist of a few billionaires named Musk, Bezos, or Zuckerberg. This blinds people from seeing local issues. Like crony politicians or localized inequality issues. Ones where they actually have more of a voice. One where they can actually effect change.

There's no more blatant manifestation than when reddit (happens on lemmy too) bleeds their hearts over those posts about some rich asshole. Those carbon copy posts about how hard it is to be making techbro level money while "struggling" to live in the most wealthy cities in the world. Who gives a shit. Why does everyone have sympathy for those rich people at all. Everyone crazy? These people are part of the problem. They are the rich too. They are the source of issues that affect you locally. The guillotines are for them as much as Musk, Bezos or Zuckerberg. They're out of touch rich people who have dragged you all into their reality where they're victims too. How convenient for them to have a few billionaire scapegoats that are untouchable. Whereas the average working class person can actually effect change on a local level.

People have given up on climate change because they're convinced the one or two people must stop flying private jets then the problem will be solved. It's quote repetitions. Fed to them from social media. "If those jerks can fly private jets, then why can't I consume as much as I want myself. I'll use all the plastic bags and straws that I want." It's not about the bags or the straws. It's about the collective demoralization. The propaganda is so effective.

Remember, that is exactly what an exploiter will say to you. They'll always try to place the blame on the individual for the damage they're doing collectively. Same with the BP Oil campaign when they invented the "carbon footprint of the individual" while being one of the worst polluters in the world.

If you look at real, concrete, systemic changes in the world, the times where it has happened because of "optimism" is close to zero.

Remember that the exploiters will always demand that people use the proper channels, because they own those channels, and can make sure nothing ever gets through.

There are only two ways to deal with exploiters. You can try and use your voice a few times, and if that doesn't work, you start using your hands.

"This is not a perfect solution, and therefore it is not a solution" is called the nirvana fallacy, and is poor reasoning. Somehow people are really susceptible to it.

The argument "this solution only partially solves the problem, and further entrenches us into a system that makes the problem this solution aims to solve much, much worse in the long run, and as such the benefits do not outweight the costs" is a different argument, but it is often mistaken for the former argument because people are incapable of long term thinking.

This is only valid as long as your partial/incomplete solution doesn't encourage people who would otherwise keep working on solving the whole problem to decide that since there's a solution they can just knock off for brunch and leave you to it.

Partial solutions to a polluted creek that's choked with litter? Yes please, then we can see what comes next

Placebo solutions that make people who've made no difference feel like they've done their part to fight fascism and can go back to brunch? Gtfo with that shit.

Hint: if the "problem" is a societal one, nothing you see or hear suggested by anyone who has advertisers is going to actually solve anything, and is likely to work against anyone trying an actual solution.

Sorry, can’t hear you over your failure to solve the entire problem. /s

Perfection being the enemy of good (enough).

There’s a good chance that anyone making this argument doesn’t see it as a problem in the first place.

I feel like this is type of thinking is a cope for people who don't want to actually do anything but maintain what they think is the moral high ground.

They realize that if they admit that you doing something is positive, then they'll be forced to confront why they aren't doing it.

Because people are fucking stupid, i deal with this shit at work everyday nothing to do with global politics or whatever. Sometimes our vendors fuck things up for us, so therefore there's no point in us getting more organized at work -- literally how my supervisors think.

Sometimes layering bandaid improvements is ultimately worse than solving the problem correctly.

Things have gotten worse over my lifetime in small, almost imperceptible ways, which have all accumulated into the humungous shit sandwich we find ourselves consuming daily. The only way things will get better is in the same small, incremental way. Should we fight for more, faster, better? Absolutely! Should we let that get in the way of small wins? Hell no. It's not sexy, it feels like trudging through mud every day and requires a level of faith to believe that the small contributions each of us make will matter in the long term. But it is the only way given the realities of the world we live in. Everything else is apathy or accelerationism.

It's such a lazy answer and we see it everywhere. Check any discussion on veganism and you'll spot it.

Make a comment about the benefits of fully eliminating direct usage of fossil fuels from your life and inevitably you get replies like: I can't do that because I rent. You are so privileged, most people can't afford an EV.

I think many have this idea that removing fossil fuel usage has to be expensive. It can also be by just not buying them. Yes I know not 100% of people can remove 100% of their direct usage right now, but a lot of people could do more than they are doing but don't. Some because they don't care, but others may not realise options they have, and positivity posting can help spread that kind of message.

How I fully removed direct fossil fuel usage from my life: never learnt to drive because I couldn't afford it, for years used the bike from my teens before getting a new bike in my late 20s. Once I bought a house I had the broken boiler replaced with a heat pump, due to how old the central heating system was it all needed replacing anyway do it didn't really cost any more than staying on fossil fuels. Had the gas meter removed from the house after a long conversation with the provider that no I really don't need or want it, get rid of it. The engineer said he would see me again when I need it turned back on, not seen him in a few years now. Still don't want it.

Total electricity cost is under £1k a year and winter usage is 3-4x summer usage. Recently switched to working in office so I can adjust the heating timing and zone layout this winter which should save some energy too.

for all the good tankies might do in a moment at the end they just create new issues, which if they are successful will be quite bad again. so not worth it since it's completely unnecessary