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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: April 6th, 2024

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  • Turkeys are super cool, but it’s still a bit silly to apply human values to wild animals. Pretty much all animals are wired to survive while expending the least amount of energy and reducing risk to themselves. Stealing catches from other animals is quite common across species because it’s easier and safer. The reality is that it’s brutal out there. I don’t have diminished admiration for a bear because it found some food in a trash can instead of catching fish from a stream.




  • Marginal cost is never zero though. That would imply truly free unlimited energy. There is a cost to build solar, wind, storage, etc. that needs to be amortized. We also want to incentivize folks to not waste energy, so a reasonably strong link between usage and price is helpful.

    It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out for gas infrastructure as folks electrify and cut their gas service. Once the spiral starts, fixed costs will grow for the remaining customers and push more people to cancel their service.





  • We’re talking about two different groups of people here. The working class trying to survive get a pass on individual actions because they have no means. They should probably vote and organize and get engaged to better their outcomes.

    I’m talking about the millions of people that have the means, but just don’t because they quite literally don’t care. I see them every day. It’s the millions of people buying new $60k trucks and SUVs every few years, and large suburban homes, and who have trash cans that are 5x the size of mine that still can’t contain their mindless shopping detritus, and spend tons of money on trendy home furnishings but “don’t think solar makes sense” or don’t bother trying literally anything that reduces carbon.

    I’m saying that giving millions of these people a pass because a billionaire is worse isn’t helpful, and expecting these folks to magically work towards sustainable collective action when they spend their entire lives living the opposite of sustainability is simply not going to work. If you can convince neighbors to get heat pumps solar and give them a test ride on your ebike and show them how easy it is to live without gas you can probably get them to vote for someone that is focused on the climate. Sitting around you and your neighbors matching F150s blaming China and Bezos and speaking in abstract terms about “collective action” seems less effective to me.

    Sorry for the rant!


  • spidermanchild@sh.itjust.workstomemes@lemmy.worldChoices
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    3 months ago

    The point is that if everyone did what you (and I) do, we’d actually get somewhere. Seems like we’re in the minority though, unfortunately. That doesn’t make the person you replied to wrong, it just means most people continue to just blindly consume, and when they can’t consume as much as they want they blindly vote for asswipes promising them even more. That’s the cultural problem at the heart of this all. I’m running out of individual actions I can do too, but that doesn’t mean those were not helpful.







  • You’re going to do great. Keep the seat low and push with your feet to get the feel of coasting, just like kids learn. Small steps and you’ll be riding in no time. Depending on where you live, see if there are community bike groups you can volunteer at - these are great for learning about bike maintenance, and some places will let you build a bike for yourself from donated stuff for your time. Bike shops are pretty much universally supportive too.

    For what it’s worth, I think you already did the hard part by coming here and expressing interest :)