Also therapy. Getting it out in one way or another helps too - ugly crying and a heavy bag has been a welcome addition, but I like journaling too. Thought I could outpace it with endurance running or endurance drinking, but neither my knees nor my stomach could keep up lol. So everything in moderation unfortunately. Also weed lol.
FedPosterman5000
joined 1 month ago
Yeah it’s been worse lately for sure, menty b’s used to be an annual/biannual thing but now are much more regular- for the same reasons others have mentioned- grief for a world in pain, grief for powerlessness, grief for seeing capital warp some and crush others. What’s helped? Idk. Been getting into philosophy/theology a bit and my takeaway has been, “existence is suffering, our purpose is to lessen that suffering for those around us in whatever way we can”. At its minimum that’s carrying a lighter or cash so I can share with someone who asks, and that’s led to lots of interesting conversations with people…and often hearing fun new ways how they’re being fed headlong into the woodchipper :/ BUT it’s reinforced my connection and commitment to exactly who we’re hoping to shape a better world for.
TLDR: life is an endless cycle of suffering, but as you have the capacity, you can be a port in the storm for others and thereby find solace in their camaraderie. It doesn’t fix the suffering, but it gives a small ember of hope.
Ptarmigan are ptotally ptubular
Hey nice to meet you folks, Ray Tracing here - director of photography- nice to see my work appreciated
Shit someone please remind me to find the newspaper clipping I dug out of the walls from the 1930s - it’s essentially “hmm this hitler guy seems like bad news but let’s see where this goes”. (This isn’t a bit I keep meaning to post it)
They cracked the code- your autistic child isn’t non-verbal they’re just getting a head start at going no-communication with you down the road lol
Hell of a toll on the expressway though, but at least the metra goes all the way
Cmon France surely you have better ideas for addressing corruption….
Just mediating here - you’re both getting at the same point - albeit from different levels of optimism - so I don’t want either of you catching strays.
Unfortunately, peppersky is correct, we’ve absolutely blown past the understood “point of no return“, and not just in a minor way like “ahhhh we eased off but didn’t quite make it to the 2c goal” but in a major way that we’re continuing to accelerate to this day - but if we stopped science at the “understood” we’d never get anywhere. So in order to survive the present moment and make it to the next we need: science, policy, and the abolition of capitalism by any means necessary. Science to inform ways to capture carbon, desalinate drinking water, adapt food systems, etc to try and halt the exacerbation of ecological destruction/protect communities. We need policy (very broadly speaking) to protect vulnerable groups- otherwise the crises of the coming years will be used to exploit them and extract wealth in unprecedented ways. Lastly, to ensure any long-term stability in the science and policy, capitalism needs to end, overconsumption needs to end, sacrificing the many for the comfort of the few needs to end - it has thrown off the natural balance of the biosystem and will be the death of us all.
At present- it’s a matter of resource allocation. Do we spend time and money in science? Policy? Overthrowing capitalism? Movements have been co-opted, capitalist government efforts are dismantled by capitalists, policy-makers and scientists have relented to funders or been silenced through other means. So at this point, I’m hammering on option number 3 as a means to support number 2, and understand both are needed to have success with 1. Science under capitalism is not going to achieve the conditions necessary for its survival, but its high priests will continue sacrifice us and our futures in the hopes that it will. Frankly there need to be actionable steps that can be taken by the international proletariat independent of their governments - at a personal level (so it can not be co-opted) but an organized, global scale (so it can not be quashed).
There are lot more people who suffer from the biosystems demise than there are who profit from it. And while those who profit will sacrifice us time and again - if we stand together …. Idk I won’t say we’ll succeed necessarily but we’ll do whatever we can for each other (regardless of setting) - and that’s life
Okay so I’m going to be all over the place in this comment, but try to organize things and provide useful links. But my major takeaways are:
- focus on trauma-informed communication and empathetic science communication,
- learn the stages of grief and how they apply to climate conversations
- build communities and support networks,
- reform/abolish systems of power such that marginalized groups have an equal seat
- overthrow capitalism by any means necessary
I’m learning more and more (I’m still young) that quality of science has not been the issue, but rather communication linked to painting rosy pictures (with the intent to not cause panic) instead of facing harsh realities and discussing how to approach them. Trauma-informed communication and general, empathetic communication of science rooted in community-building and “meeting people where there at” is our strongest tool at the present.
We’re well past the time for discussions of whether climate change is real, and as a rule I automatically treat any discussion on the matter as in bad faith and don’t waste my time - people who have experienced climate trauma will not argue this - only soft fucks who have never left their culdesac. Unfortunately, this is an expected stage of grief, and your ultimate goal is to get everyone through those stages and on to doing something about it.
Generally- things aren’t looking good in terms of habitability of coastal areas, shifts of arable land (and the food production industry’s inability to adapt accordingly), water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, disruption of feedback loops regarding ocean acidification/loss of buffer capacity/wind patterns/food webs - and frankly are getting worse faster than I was ever taught they would. It’s running headlong into the “socialism or barbarism” decision and the “most developed” nations are following the US in lockstep with hammering that motherfuckin barbarism button.
This is of course inextricably driven by the capitalist systems need to maintain a status quo, until capitalists are well-positioned to make the jump to take advantage of the next status shift. (E.g. bill gates and Microsoft have been positioning physically and politically in North Dakota, and i would say they’ve successfully done so.) Essentially, capitalism cannot survive if we intend to. Concepts of nationality must also be left behind in favor of open borders so that systems of productivity and distribution of food, water, and commodities are able to adapt based on shifting global population centers.
With sea level rise we will of course see major disruptions to sea ports and their connections to rail, population shifts away from the coasts, and general failure of infrastructure that’s not meant to be submerged. Inland we can expect changes in precipitation patterns leading ultimately to movement of communities away from floodplains- where many established for production/transportation.
I think we will be more limited in areas we live within leading to lots of necessary migration- and it’s of the utmost importance then to be sure that groups in precarious positions are not taken advantage of.
I don’t know where things are going in 70 years (presumably the longest I’ll live) - but my most optimistic viewpoint is bleak, especially if systems cling to the status quo. In that case I will cling to my family and comrades and save all we can.
https://www.ctipp.org/post/integrating-near-science-into-trauma-informed-efforts
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level
Very cool - thanks!
One doesn’t graduate from Juilliard and just leave without a flourish