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The powerful are cooking our goose, and we need to stop basting it! Re: Dartagnan’s climate post [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-06-30
The powerful are cooking our goose, and we need to stop basting it! Re: Dartagnan’s climate post
Dartagnan’s recent post concerning media coverage of the Climate Crisis was powerful and disturbing.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/28/2178229/-Climate-change-is-finally-hitting-home-in-the-U-S-mainstream-media?utm_campaign=trending#comment_86489408
His and Mark’s recent climate article, provide a critically needed boost to climate awareness on Daily Kos.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/25/2177173/-Climate-Crisis-The-biggest-problem-in-the-Atlantic-is-both-below-and-above-the-surface#comment_86463322
But I also found Dartagnan’s a little ironic, as it was out of his usual topic range and that fact shines his light back on himself.
Dartagnan’s title could be altered to read: “Climate Change is finally hitting home on Daily Kos”.
For if the Washington Post has just come around to providing unvarnished climate news; aside from Meteor Blades and Pakalolo, it has been chronically sidelined by the majority of high profile posters on DK since I started accessing the site in 2016. Despite being a critical political issue, it was often and continues to be shorted and the same can be said of environmental issues linked to the war in Ukraine.
While I think this needs to be pointed out, the comparison ends there. Neglect of warranted coverage on DK is based in denial, while in the media, more sinister, self serving forces are at work.
Personally, I am profoundly grateful for Dartagnan’s very welcome input and I’m praying that both he and Mark will offer more of the same.
Aside from the horrors described, I was greatly disheartened by some of the comments left for Dartagnan’s article.
Right out of the gate, the dark horse of “Doom” charged into the lead.
One comment followed the next, like a cantata of “despair” and this quickly reached a crescendo, with dissonant undertones of panic.
All of this is to be expected, as it is a normal response to being overwhelmed when repressed fears breach the dam of cognitive dissonance. But it is still counterproductive and dangerous, as it can petrify pro-action, destabilize the resolve of others and consume valuable time.
I replied to a comment which I felt was attempting to tamp this down and direct the thread into a more productive vein.
FishOutofWater spoke of the
“comfortable sweet lie that lets them do nothing rather than a difficult truth that requires action”
In response I wrote: “One of those ‘sweet lies’ is that it’s ‘too late’, despite the fact that we are not being told this by climatologists and the scientists studying this and therefore in a better position to know. By adopting ‘doom’ action becomes avoided. ‘Doom’ in this case is another manifestation of denial and an illusory escape hatch. In many of these comments, it ‘kisses the cheek’ of panic.”
Too often I witness ‘finger pointing’ and despair in the comments on DK. This crisis is constantly blamed on corporations, corrupt politicians, and wealth interests as if the rest of us are helpless innocent victims.
We are not.
Although the aforementioned power aberrancies share the lion’s blame, we have a symbiotic relationship with them and as such we are accomplices to their crimes.
For decades we have chosen to ignore information exposing their lies, because as consumer ‘junkies’ these ‘inconvenient truths’ threatened our gluttonous life styles and our adoration of convenience.
This self-inflicted blindness continues barely abated on this very site.
Since I started questioning it: “this is a political website” became “we are all concerned about the environment, but there are more important issues” became “we know there is a crisis, so we don’t need to keep hearing about it” became “we’re doomed”, all of which are avoidance rationalizations stoked by denial.
If everyone on this site kept up with climate news as critical and imperative adult responsibility demands, those in despair would know that we still have time to avert the worst of this destruction and that we are better positioned to deal with it than it appears to them now. We have everything we need and we actually know what needs to be done, but we can’t get our heads together to do it.
Ignoring science and embracing ‘doom’ prematurely, are not conducive to the clarity needed for climate pro-action and panic is a smoke bomb loaded with shrapnel.
Meteor Blades has an absolutely phenomenal environmental track record, having absorbed information from tens of thousands of varying environmental sources and written countless diaries.
He consistently speaks out against succumbing to despair and adopting ‘doom’.
I think we would do well to defer to his expertise and rather than rend our hair,
roll up our sleeves.
Please note: I am posting this even though I will not be available to reply to comments due to work constraints. I apologize in advance.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/30/2178516/-The-powerful-are-cooking-our-goose-and-we-need-to-stop-basting-it-Re-Dartagnan-s-climate-post
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