• chunes@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’ve been called eco-fascist for suggesting anything that might help the environment, no matter how small. I’m not impressed by this buzzword.

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      I feel like you can’t blame the corpos 100% and then proceed to do nothing to help the environment. Like I get that capitalism and unnecessary waste driven by it are by and large the problem, but it feels like people just use that as an excuse to put in zero effort personally and continue to live their lifestyle of overconsumption. It’s very defeatist imo.

    • Dragonstaff@leminal.space
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      “Humans are the virus” is related to the racist “overpopulation” myth which leads straight to eugenics. Sure, many words are overused, but “political ideology that combines environmentalism with fascist principles, often advocating for authoritarian measures to address ecological issues” is a bad thing.

  • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    When I am ill with an infection, I care not that “Not All Bacteria” cause the illness, I still take antibiotics all the same. If I have cancer, I do not give a shit that Not All Cancer Cells will destroy my organs, I still seek chemotherapy.

    Capitalism is entirely a human invention, and the most widely adopted ideology. I care not that “capitalism is the problem” because if humans can’t get their shit together, then they are the root cause of the problem and Capitalism is just another symptom.

    Put another way, in the words of Jesus Christ (paraphrased): “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they don’t destroy their home and then pretend like they aren’t the problem because ‘Lily Capitalism is the actual problem’”

    Oh, btw: Misanthropy != Fascism. Ecofascism is a belief that all people should stick to their racially segregated “homelands” and live in harmony with nature. Whatever people who say “‘Humans are a virus’ is literally ecofascist rhetoric” believe it to be may be the actual solution to the oncoming apocalypse we’ve gotten ourselves into. I’m a misanthrope who loves the biosphere more than humanity’s right to do whatever it wants and get away with it because “it’s the ideology, not the people who participate in the ideology.” I’m not a fucking racist.

  • JoYo@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    2 days ago

    If there are no more humans than no one will care about the environment.

  • nexguy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    2 days ago

    If humans weren’t greedy dicks then capitalism or any other form of government would work perfectly. You can’t force humans to not be greedy dicks. No matter what system is being instituted it is susceptible to greedy dicks.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      capitalism or any other form of government

      But capitalism isn’t a form of government tho.
      Nor is communism of even feudalism.

    • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Yes we can, via laws & regulation (which are also laws). You have no clue about what unrestricted greed does to people especially, on the recieving end

        • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          Yes if you don’t enforce it, but you don’t want to enforce it now, do you. You love greed until you are on the receiving end

          • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            2 days ago

            You can’t even understand your own mother and here you are making bold assumptions about the personal values of someone you met on the internet half an hour ago. Fucking classic reddit right there man

            Greed is the source of nearly all human misery and it is not necessary for life at all, and I have personally witnessed what it has done to people

            I do not love greed in any form and the fact you just stated that with such effortless confidence tells me our society really isn’t worth saving.

            And now these statements, despite being only minor glimpses into my value system will of course immediately fill you with ten thousand assumptions as to who I am or what I think.

            That’s mental illness friend

            • Senal@slrpnk.net
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              <Complaint about bold assumptions of individuals values>

              < Bold assumption about all of humanity >

              <Assertion of personal perspective>

              <Further complaints about assumptions>

              <Name calling/Labelling>

              • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                16 hours ago

                If you don’t have anything to contribute but meta tags, you don’t need to make the effort

                Think of the trillions of electrons that died to post your mindvomit

                • Senal@slrpnk.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  14 hours ago

                  I mean, nobody has to reply on a public internet forum.

                  Unless you are being forced to reply…wait…that would explain a lot.

                  Ok, if you are being forced to reply to internet messages against your will, try and add some sort of code in the replies so we can try get you out of that environment, it sounds awful.

                  Also electrons don’t die, don’t be silly.

                  There is, of course, the electron cycle of transmigration of states.

                  It’s like they don’t even teach basic electrotheism in school anymore, smh.

                • Senal@slrpnk.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 days ago

                  Dammit, missed the code tags

                  @page "/lemmy-reply"
                  @using HypocrisyManifest
                  
                  <p>Complaint about bold assumptions of individuals values</p>
                  <p style="font-weight:bold">Bold assumption about all of humanity</p>
                  <p>Assertion of personal perspective</p>
                  <p>Further complaints about assumptions</p>
                  <p>Name calling/Labelling</p>
                  
            • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 days ago

              Are you familiar with anti-trust laws ? Anti-corruption laws ?

              According to you they shouldn’t exist, because a crafty psychopath will get in anyway & yes you do love being greedy as long as it benefits you, why else would you be defending capitalism.

              Socialism HAS been tried & it works. You see I want everyone to get welfare, because with it you can have a safety net against the abusive owner-class. BTW, I’ve never been on reddit (I don’t even have a twitter account)

              • Senal@slrpnk.net
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 days ago

                So I’ll be upfront and say i don’t know shit about socialism as a concept.

                Do you have any examples of socialism that has worked (or is currently working) at modern nation scales ?

                I’m genuinely not picking a fight, just looking for examples to read up on.

                • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  2 days ago

                  Cuba, Laos, Vietnam & the state of Kerala in India. China too (but they shifted to state-capitalism). Most of Latin America were electing socialist leaders as well. (Until some coup came along)

    • Taleya@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      Our entire schtick is co operation, it’s literally why we’re the dominant life form

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      2 days ago

      Your generalization is false

      The majority of humanity are not greedy or obsessed with profit

      The problem is that the few ridiculously greedy sociopaths that do arise per-capita are just so FUCKDAMN good at amassing power and wealth that we assume it’s the natural lot of all people

      So we just test and dispose of sociopaths at birth, problem solved. We already have the tests for it.

      Don’t look at me like that

        • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          Yep, which is why we need to use nontraditional power tactics like leveraging drones and cyber attacks as well as flashmob tactics and social media control

          Money buys you a private army but not loyalty, we need to start early and get idealists positioned in those private armies

          Make inroads with the children of billionaires tired of their parents’ excesses, this was a valuable vector during the French Revolution that almost no one talks about

          More than anything we need to accept the fact that no amount of signs or shouts are going to stop the ultra wealthy from destroying everything for more imaginary numbers in an already unspendable bank account

      • nexguy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        Which ones? Which ones don’t damage their land or steal children from enemies or rape or steal? Please don’t try to say any indigenous tribes because they are all guilty of one or more these.

        • RockBottom@feddit.orgOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          2 days ago

          Any indigenous tribe. But seriously it was not long ago that no professional fishermen anywhere would ever overfish.

          • Ridgetop18@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            Only because they weren’t capable of it lmao.

            There’s at least some evidence supporting human driven extinctions as far back as some of the earliest ‘modern’ (ie Homo sapien) hominid populations.

            • nexguy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 days ago

              The Amish are highly discouraged from getting an education of the high school level and beyond.

              Members are shunned by the community and family of they decide to leave the faith.

          • desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 days ago

            this is only true to the smallest of extents, there were plenty that had those behaviors, survivorship bias is not a good footing for an argument.

            • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 days ago

              Survivorship bias is so important to remember when talking about human societies. Even our perceptions and knowledge of indigenous tribes is limited by survivorship bias. Consider that there may have been many more “peaceful” or “non-greedy” tribes, but they were conquered by groups of people that were more violent and selfish. There must be so many tribes that have been wiped away without a trace, tribes we know nothing about.

              But the real barrier to this hypothetical “non-greedy population” idea is the matter of scale. A peaceful village of 100 people is easier to create and maintain than a peaceful global population of 8+ billion. Even if indigenous villages managed to build such utopias where greed doesn’t exist, their models wouldn’t easily scale to the world we live in now.

    • Walk_blesseD@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      You’re putting the cart before the horse. Capitalism uses the threat of poverty and the profit motive to condition humans into being greedy dicks.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    Destruction of nature & unwise use of resources, or even just multiplying to a point where even the most prudent resource management & minimal environmental impact per capita is the absolute goal could still destiny biodiversity.

    This has to do with economical tendencies of living beings, not a particular socioeconomic system.
    (Yes, capitalism is accelerating the process by taking away freedoms from the masses - but even a commune can decide to chop up the whole forest for wood. World is a fuck.)

    “Virus” might not be the best word for it tho (infestation maybe? Fits the capita growth statistics), but successful animals that oversaturate their environment (eg lots of food, no predators, longevity after procreation, tech) cause biodiversity loss (anything from local collapse to a global extinction event with cofactors like climate change or air structure change - what is novel with humans is how rapidly we are developing in our last 0.5% of existence, and how rapid the global impact we case is, it won’t take us 10s of thousands of years, we can speedrun in less than a millennia).

    • sunflowercowboy@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      The lack of empathy and true understanding of reverence is the issue.

      People do not respect the meat that befalls their plate, the bacteria that ferments their beers, the trees that warms their homes.

      Capitalism has two routes, horde through meekness or horde through exploitation. When you horde through meekness, any worth is solely yours - you submit and embrace this moment of life wholely separate from you. You cannot control the world.

      Humans are a virus, because we reach for the stars as we eviscerate our host. Lest we learn compassion and empathy, we will consume this earth. The flooding isn’t biblical this time, it’s predicted by science as man decays.

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    3 days ago

    A bunch of people thinking they outsmarted the meme by asking “who made capitalism”.

    A better question is “when you say humans are a virus, which humans exactly do you propose to exterminate in the name of saving the planet?” Because the bunker-state ethnonationalist, the trumpists, the Peter Thiels and the Mark Andreesens, the Dark Enlightenment and Network State and Tech Zionism neofascists, they know exactly what they mean.

    The earth is big enough to support modest human life. It’s not big enough to support billionaires’ delusions of singularity. So they imagine to purge the parts of humanity that are not their particular version of white.

    Don’t fall for their fascist propaganda.

    • creamlike504@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      When I said “humans are the virus,” I think people heard “so we should kill the people I don’t like,” and missed the part where I don’t like all humans.

      I don’t say it anymore, because I don’t want to be overlapped with fascists who apparently say the same thing.

    • go $fsck yourself@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 days ago

      I’m sure the rhetoric stems from propaganda, I won’t disagree there. But I don’t think that trying to logic the analogy itself is the way to outline the problem with it.

      Calling humans a ‘virus’ may not mean an extermination is the intention of the person regurgitating it. You can control a virus instead of just exterminating it, for example. It’s just a term people are familiar with that they associate with abusing resources and multiplying beyond a sustainable level, thus creating a toxic environment around them.

    • Ginny [they/she]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      A better question is “when you say humans are a virus, which humans exactly do you propose to exterminate in the name of saving the planet?”

      I don’t propose to exterminate anyone. I think it’s inevitable that the human virus will eventually kill its host.

    • someacnt@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Can I achieve something by exterminating myself? It should do something, right?

      Maybe not having to live in depressing world itself would be a great achievement.

    • Azzu@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      3 days ago

      Ah, so just exterminate the correct people. Got it.

        • xzot746@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 days ago

          I disagree, there are some psychotic people in power and they don’t care one iota about anyone but themselves and maybe a small handful of like minded people. To me they should be wiped from the earth.

          You are correct that the planet can support a certain number (whatever that number is), but not with these people in power.

          Now will we be able to truly figure which ones are the correct ones, probably not but we need to keep looking and root them out, expose them to the world and then let nature take its role once they are all hanging from the highest most visible place for all to see what happens when you are the virus that is continuously trying to destroy the world.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      39
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      And it’s not just capitalism, living beyond their means was rather common for many civilizations in the past and some of them paid dearly for it. And look at who ruled the area when the aral sea started to dry up, which fucked the entire area to hell. That wasn’t capitalism, just a short-sighted communist (or “communist”, but that definitely wasn’t capitalism) regime.

      It’s definitely possible for humans to not suck in this aspect, but once you get to a certain level of technology and organization it gets pretty hard.

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        44
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 days ago

        People often conflate capitalism with greed because the core of capitalism depends on people acting selfishly. But other systems can also reward the greedy.

        • ProfDrDr@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          I completely agree, other systems have the potential to screw the environment as well. But capitalism is inherently like that and reached environment destroying records. I believe these things are simultaneously true.

        • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          3 days ago

          I think it even goes beyond that. e.g. the sowjet union genuinely had issues with food security, but they still fucked up when they dried out the aral sea because they were acting shortsightedly.

          • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            3 days ago

            Supporters of socialism/communism/anarchism/whatever-ism don’t believe that their system will never make mistakes or that it prevents all bad people from having power. But it lessens it, hopefully. If a capitalist nation were in charge during the time the aral sea disappeared, you can bet your sweet ass it would have just the same or faster.

            • belastend@slrpnk.net
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              3 days ago

              There are a lot of people who do believe that these systems could do no wrong or repeat the narcissist’s prayer to justify any wrong doing.

            • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              edit-2
              3 days ago

              But it lessens it, hopefully

              It’s true that capitalistic societies don’t do any better for the environment (which was the point of my comment, they’re BOTH bad in this aspect), but at least in capitalist Europe the common people got relative wealth out of it. In the soviet union, people were oppressed by the state, poor, and got their environment destroyed.

                • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 days ago

                  We have many decades to go until our common people are as poor as they were in the soviet union (at least in countries that were on the capitalistic side of the iron curtain), though that does seem to be the general trajectory. But soviet poverty went beyond not being wealthy - there was always a very distinct risk that the local store was out of basic necessities, and I really don’t think this is going to be common in most western european countries in this century.

    • ProfDrDr@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      You are still shifting the blame away from capitalism. If we acknowledge capitalism as the problem, then we can change things. If we claim humans are inherently the problem, then it seems pointless to improve.

    • Swedneck
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      so you’re just saying we should all kill ourselves? yeah that sounds great, i assume you’re willing to go first since you believe it so strongly?

      I for one don’t want me or others to die, and so i don’t go around saying poorly thought-through things on the internet.

    • PotatoLibre@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      For them is capitalism for other is the immigrants.

      Some people just don’t get nuances.

    • someacnt@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Thank you for putting it well, I had similar thought that I wanted to express but I can never write it so coherently.

    • Turret3857@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      humans also invented socialism, communism, fascism, monarchy, democracy so on and so fourth.

      like, you can’t just take the worst and be like “you see this is why we need to get rid of them!”. its literally the point of the post. thats what is going on right now in the US with literally any person below the top square on the family guy race card. Would you say just because less than 1% of immigrants that are in the US have committed violent crimes, that all of them are violent criminals? If you do, I have bad news for you.

      Famous screenshot from Family Guy episode "Are You There God? It's Me, Peter (Season: 16 Episode: 20). The screenshot depicts Peter in his car wearing stereotypical Muslim garb, while being stopped at a bridge checkpoint. The guard at the checkpoint who is not in frame is holding a card which is in frame that showcases 6 race "color squares". The lightest 3 are separated into the "Okay" category on top, the darkest 3 are separated into the "Not okay" category on the bottom.

      • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        on the other hand when a virus like flu or covid replicates, it produces thousands of its variants but it is only defined by the one that causes the most damage

        • Cactus_Head@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          That metaphor doesn’t work. It be more accurate to compare humans to in general bacteria and most bacteria are not harmful, there are even some know useful viruses

          • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            good point on the usefulness, I agree the analogy is not an exact one between humans and viruses as an individual per se but the fact that in both populations damages caused takes precedent over damages not caused (and in the case of humans also takes precedent over the good things humans try to do)

        • Turret3857@infosec.pub
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          3 days ago

          Right… so less than 1% of immigrants being violent criminals, makes them equivalent to a virus?

          I mean sure. yeah. You have an opinion. I won’t be continuing this conversation.

          • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            nope I am talking about the top billionaire class, %1 immigrant criminals are nothing compared to the damages caused by these people. you are forcing a racism twist to the topic to win the argument but local level criminals are unfortunately irrelevant in this conversation.

  • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    45
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    You don’t need capitalism to suck, though. The Spanish conquistadores were slavers and genocidal murderers but they certainly weren’t capitalists.

    • stickly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      There’s a bit of a fundamental difference between capitalism and other systems. Mercantilism sucked but conquistadors got some level of pushback for their atrocities. The Spanish crown fought a war over illegal slavery and the vast majority of conquistadors died poor or in obscurity.

      Modern capitalism has no such brakes. Naked avarice is the mathematically correct play, exponentially growing the power of an individual at the expense of literally everyone else.

      It’s not likely that other economic systems could result in this level of global instability and ecological collapse. A king used to have some incentive to keep his society functioning; his personal power was tied to the power his kingdom could project, not his personal wealth. Our modern overlords have no problem destroying their country or environment, their wealth is fungible and can be taken wherever they want.

    • RockBottom@feddit.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      3 days ago

      Every system finds ways to shift the blame. What they need are folks who drink the cool aide. Currently it‘s capitalism.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      That doesn’t mean capitalism isn’t any less cruel

      In fact it allows for blind institutional cruelty that no one has to take responsibility for.

      In a very real way, more people have died from capitalism than ever suffered at the hands of the inqisition

      But go ahead and keep trying to handwave the horrors of capitalism

  • andybytes@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 days ago

    Sometimes I get frustrated with people and I think this. But then I quickly snap my mindset out of this because I know really what’s the problem. Capitalism.

      • Godric@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 days ago

        Unfortunately they don’t seem to be on course at all, with coal production and new coal power plants rising in 2024 to an all-time high.

        While they have been implementing green energy, which is laudable, they aren’t phasing out coal at all. China seems to crave energy and has no bias about where it comes from.

  • TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    They are the same piece of generic rhetorical label you slap on or argue you can’t slap on whenever it conveniences you. If your solution is just a sentence long, you are an over-simplifying things.

    So what happened to the ancient civilizations that collapsed before capitalism existed? Ducks. It’s the ducks that need to be shot.

    • Ordinary_Person@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Easter Island comes to mind. They showed up, took every tree on the island, then the vegetation went away and the island had nothing left to give.

  • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    We live in a religious society that promotes a culture of bigotry. Does this mean we shouldn’t blame bigots?

    We live in a patriarchal society that doesn’t take violence against women seriously. Does this mean that wife beaters aren’t to blame?

    We live in a capitalist society that promotes selfishness and greed. Does this mean we shouldn’t blame selfish people? (Which is most of them.)

    We live in a racist society… etc.

    You are responsible for your actions and your beliefs. Step one to improving our society is accepting the reality that most humans have a poor (nearly non-existent) relationship with morality. They’re easily swayed by fallacious arguments because they are irrational and stupid. These are empirical facts about human beings that we ignore (with memes like this) at our own peril.

    • RockBottom@feddit.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Blaming individuals is ok of course, but after we’re done we should look what situation gave their lacking personalities power to have any individual impact upon our society. And change that. The blaming of actors is one thing, but there are shitty scripts, too, you know?

        • Swedneck
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          so what exactly is your solution, magically making people not be gullible?

          you’re just perpetuating the idea that there’s nothing to be done, you’re saying these things so you don’t have to think about the uncomfortable reality that things are as they are for a reason, that we can and should be taking action to change the systems that promote misery.

      • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        And this right here folks is why nothing will ever change. Because phantasmagorical ideological abstractions get blamed instead of actual features of reality, such as psychopathy, ignorance, greed, selfishness, and so on.

          • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            Moral progress! It takes a long, long time to convince average people to accept moral claims, such as the badness of slavery. There’s a kind of tipping point when normative facts are FINALLY absorbed into the culture and propagated through non-intellectual means (such as media and social pressure).

            Democracy is actually the best vehicle for moral progress in that respect, as democratic scholars have been pointing out for the last century or so.

            • RockBottom@feddit.orgOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 days ago

              Democracy is great. We should really aim for it, instead of giving political power to the wealthy.