the_dunk_tank
It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
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Did The Atlantic grow this toxic fucker in a lab test tube? - https://xcancel.com/leigh_phillips
A recent tweet
He wrote People's Republic of Walmart. I want the people of the global south whose homes will be underwater soon to be allowed to execute him and Matt Huber.
I would say most of the time Leigh's takes are correct, but some of his opinions are definitely questionable (particularly on Palestine as you've pointed out). He is very, very well read, and his book Austerity Ecology is pretty much the definitive guide for eco-modernism. He's highly educated, and presents some unorthodox opinions on climate change (he is - strangely - quite optimistic about our ability to curb it, and backs up everything he says with evidence, which I appreciate)
On the other hand, there's shit like this lol.
I'm gonna go with a thanks but no thanks on Austerity Ecology
It's a fantastic book. But if you're pro-degrowth you'll absolutely hate everything he says.
Hard to see an alternative to degrowth when its opponents feel the need to write articles with the thesis "actually, extinction isn't so bad"
Based on the review, it doesn't seem like he has much of a handle on what proponents of degrowth are actually arguing. The idea isn't to stop technological progress in its tracks, it's to orient the economy away from emphasis on productivity per se to meet everyone's needs at a lower resource intensity.
His argument is actually that the degrowthers don't understand what their own position actually is:
That article doesn't do anything to dispel my suspicions that he has no idea what he's talking about.
The most egregious aspects of the article were addressed in Jason Hickel's response to Milanovic. I think it's funny that he's citing a World Bank economist for a major chunk of his article given that the World Bank's position is that we can grow our way out of global poverty (it'll only take 200 more years!) and currently defines the threshold of extreme poverty at $770 per year, so it's a little bit hard to take the argument that $5,500 is unacceptable (even if that were the degrowth position, which it is not) with a straight face.
As far as the argument for decoupling goes, the evidence is that to the extent that it's happening, it isn't fast enough.
I mean yeah, I agree of course. Capitalism is of course incapable of doing it sustainably, this is all too obvious. We need to take control of the machine.
Just take transportation as an example. There's no need for everyone to be driving around in single occupancy vehicles when we could just have trains instead, I think everyone on this website would agree with that. It would reduce production overall, reduce GHG emissions, and improve everyone's lives. But it would still require building more things (train tracks, trains, etc).
I don't know what his opinions on veganism are but I can almost guarantee you he is not a vegan lol.
If you're doing a bit I have admit - whoosh - it went straight over my head.
Not at all.
Like I said, overall I agree with most of what he says (mostly regarding the environment and modernism, which is the primary subject that he writes and talks about), but there are other times that I'm fundamentally at disagreement with him.
That's one of the strangest sentences I've ever heard from a rational Hexbear. I'm not against contrarianism. But you're going to have to explain yourself. I have a couple questions.
Strangely? C'mon. This isn't rocket science. He's an obnoxious turd who surely wants some sugar-daddy billionaire to fund him the rest of his life. And being quite optimistic and dismissive douchebag is a possible ticket to Cash City.
Evidence? What is this "evidence"? I really want to know.
I've done the numbers and there are lots of hopeful and deceptive bourgeois who tell me that their technological solution will work.
I do not see any indication of this at all.
Pretty much everything he writes is very well sourced, citing studies etc etc. His seminal piece on anti-degrowth is here if you want to give it a read
As you know the article was written in 2019. It's pretty funny that now in 2024 we have a symbolic representation of the evils of growth and capitalism. It's called AI. Maybe you've heard of it?
All right - how long is the article. 7.5k words? I won't be lazy. I won't be lazy. I won't— Oh, I can't resist. I shouldn't do it because I'm going to read that thing but I'll do a ctrl-f for "climate".
The hell with reading that thing. Yet "the real source of the problem" intrigues me. What sort of nonsense- I mean argument - did he put forth???
What does he say at or near the end?
What a strange thing for a self-proclaimed socialist to say. In some regards - he sounds exactly like a right-winger.
Right-wingers love to spout ridiculous, hyperbolic nonsense. In the US - they do it every single day. I'm sure you're aware that Senator Snowball just died.
"My way or the highway" is a classic, simplistic tool of the right-wing to make something highly complex into a binary where - surprise - the speaker is 100% correct in their ironclad reasoning which is: "I am right and you are wrong!"
It's especially amusing when one and two are combined as they are in the article.
Degrowth does not proclaim such stuff as we need to turn off all the electricity and use only horses (and other beasts of burden) for transportation. Does he envision everybody getting fired and then being forced to fight for scraps just to survive? Where does here get that crap? I'm not expert on anything but I'm pretty damn sure using electricity is still okay and using buses is encouraged.
Pffft. I'm not reading that folderol article. Sorry.
Now, that's unfair to anprims. Their theorists also include the illustrious Leslie Keith, whose claims to fame include making explicit transphobia a part of the movement and writing a book about how veganism is bad.
If you're gonna be a mid tier poster that dies on a strange hill and gets banned, can you at least choose a funnier one?
What in the fuck are you hucking?