Climate change has toppled some civilizations but not others. Why? By Kate Yoder, originally published by Grist March 29, 2024
"...What matters most...is inequality and political polarization. Declining living standards tend to lead to dissatisfaction among the general population... As pressures rise and society fractures, the government loses legitimacy, making it harder to address challenges collectively. “Inequality is one of history’s greatest villains,” said Daniel Hoyer... “It really leads to and is at the heart of a lot of other issues.”
On the flipside, however, cooperation can give societies that extra boost they need to withstand environmental threats... “You need to have social cohesion, you need to have that level of cooperation, to do things that scale — to make reforms, to make adaptations, whether that’s divesting from fossil fuels or changing the way that food systems work.”
"Economic Democracy: arguments from the US" for #WorkersRights to self-management and against the employment contract
The #philosophy of economic #democracy shows that workers have an inalienable right to workplace democracy/worker coops. The #employment contract violates that right even if it is fully voluntary. An inalienable right is one that can't be given up even with consent
One of capitalism’s biggest accomplishments? It has indoctrinated people into demonizing the poor and working poor, while admiring and venerating the rich.
So many feel free to tell poor people what they need to do with the little means they have, but no one chastises and admonishes at the same scale the wealthy regarding their excesses, while they pay little to no taxes.
Traits like “genius” + “self-made” are attributed to the rich just because they are wealthy.
And the propaganda is EVERYWHERE: For example, Showtime’s series BILLIONS - a love letter to the ultra-rich. And spinoffs are planned.
If you think someone talking about how to fix the imbalances and intentional dysfunction of global monetary and economic policies isn't talking about how to stop the systemic antiblack racist violence of the most powerful white supremacists on earth and how their regime reproduces itself at the source... then you are just not seeing the big picture yet. Take all the time you need, but see it.
The modern predatory capitalist society completely ignores normal and natural cycles of nature and human biology. This expectation that people work like machines, this plantation mentality, is destructive and must be eliminated. We have to learn to live WITH nature, not in spite of it.
Necessary convergence: I'm on this zoom call for the aforementioned symposium on climate change disproportionately affecting Native American and BIPOC communities, and speaker Dr. Renee Salas (Harvard T.H. Chan school of public health), just made the call for considering air quality a fundamental public health issue in climate change, bc of its effect on asthma and other respiratory conditions.
"Doctors need to be able to write prescriptions for air filtration, home weatherization, and health-protective cooling."
Speaker Leslie Jonas of the Native Land Conservancy and the Mashpee Wampanoag exhorted the audience to seek the documentary "Seaspiracy". Seems to be a Netflix production.
“Under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. “The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not 'the most urgent problem.’ The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence."
~ Rabbi Joachim Prinz at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963, as quoted by Kevin Kruse
"A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.”
Every single ‘software engineer’ I know who has ever over-valued their own work over blue collar work has, without fail, turned out to be MAGAs or incels. They tend to be the people who have their self worth wrapped up in their compensation and status, and are quick to anger when transit workers or delivery drivers, who work long hours in ways that are taxing in every way, break their narrative for themselves
@skinnylatte The very notion of certain jobs/work being “no or low-skilled” is very classist and elitist. Someone once said, “if you have to be taught how to do something then that IS a skill.” Most of those snobs upset about the UPS labor agreement would crumble in 15 minutes if they had to do the taxing manual labor snd service work required to keep our nation operating. EVERYONE deserves a living wage.
@fulelo Andrew Bailey's stance is odd! The poorest are hit hardest as rates rise. It's a systemic issue, not an isolated problem. And, the Bank's inflation forecasts have been wrong 6/8 times, so should we rely on that 'solid evidence'? How about focusing on equitable growth instead? #InterestRates#EconomicJustice#Inflation
"Americans are dying younger and poorer than their parents. They are more likely to live their last few decades in chronic pain, and more likely to live in debt. This is not an accident or the accumulation of millions of individual random choices. It is the product of deliberate policy decisions that have stripped younger generations of opportunity so that older ones can live in relative comfort."
"And last week, the Republican Party made clear its decision to continue down that path, shedding all pretense of caring about young voters. A 2024 budget proposal released by the Republican Study Committee sets out the party’s priorities: Make the next generation work longer, and essentially guarantee them an unlivable planet."