The secret to winning the meme war is too be able to give the reader a sense of smug superiority without having to work too hard to actually learn something.
The secret to winning the meme war is too be able to give the reader a sense of smug superiority without having to work too hard to actually learn something.
You can do both. I'm literally meeting with my congressperson next week in person to push for a suite of legislation that will have an impact, and which in my opinion has a very good chance of...
You can do both. I'm literally meeting with my congressperson next week in person to push for a suite of legislation that will have an impact, and which in my opinion has a very good chance of passing, ranging from reforestation to more wind energy.
It'll help though if we push the zeitgeist away from the climate denalism pushed by oil companies' PR firms. I want their stuff to get downvoted and flooded out of the meme space so that the average Joe doesn't have a chance to get indoctrinated.
Stop with the defeatism. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Every bit helps.
I feel you. Every bit helps. It's such a bummer that all bad actors have to do to is flood an issue with bad information. None of it has to be accurate, just plausible. They sew doubt to create...
I feel you. Every bit helps. It's such a bummer that all bad actors have to do to is flood an issue with bad information.
None of it has to be accurate, just plausible.
They sew doubt to create hesitation, which turns into inaction, But to get someone to do something about anything, every point must be bullet proof or the bad actors will just winge and moan and sink your boat.
Some example posts of their darkly satirical humor: 13 Differences Between Oil Executives and AI Robots: They may appear similar, but here’s how to tell them apart. Money, it's great! How does...
Some example posts of their darkly satirical humor:
There's definitely a time and place for serious factual debate, but given that oil companies are well-known to act in bad faith with "public relations" misinformation (aka propaganda) campaigns, we might as well fight the firehose of falsehood with humor. In the Ukraine war, for example NAFO has been quite effective in countering Russian propaganda and disinformation by means of shitposting, more or less bullying Kremlin stooges off the Internet by spamming doge memes.
I think a past me would have found these funny. Read the article and watched a few videos, and all I can think to do is to curl up and cry. I do think that laughter and ridicule has a better...
I think a past me would have found these funny.
Read the article and watched a few videos, and all I can think to do is to curl up and cry.
I do think that laughter and ridicule has a better chance of changing public opinion than adding to the list of sad documentaries and hearing Sir David Attenborough silently screaming into the void.
But I also pessimistically think that majority public opinion has already on the side of climate change for the last several decades and nothing will change in a democracy. I was part of the reduce reuse recycle generation of small kids, and we were decades behind the unibomber.
Case in point: the yellow dot video on applying for retrofit energy grants. My elderly neighbor, on pension, living in an ancient house, asked me how to apply for the grants that will help switch her off of oil tanks and to electric heat pumps. I had to be the one to tell her, well first you need more than $5000 in cash to upgrade your electrical panels. Then you need $15000+ paid fully in cash for the heat pump, assuming your decades old ducts are up to date. Then you can apply for $6000 back which you will then pay back into the electricity bill owned by the same energy company you're switching away from. Sorry. Looks like you're going to continue to pay $600+ a month, and rising all the time, for dirty oil instead.
Also I think it is all simply too late. We should put effort into cateloging as much DNA as we can. The whole place has been on fire forever and we should take pictures of what's left before it all comes down.
The idea that it's too late and we should give up is actively being pushed by oil companies. To give in to pessimism is to aid them. There is a case for optimism. Severe consequences are likely,...
The idea that it's too late and we should give up is actively being pushed by oil companies. To give in to pessimism is to aid them. There is a case for optimism. Severe consequences are likely, but incremental changes can still save lives and livelihoods. In the US, air pollution kills about 250,000 people per year, but some 92% of new energy projects in the permitting pipeline are solar and wind, only 7.5% natural gas. If legislation (something from about dozen current proposals) can speed that buildout by 1 year, that's thousands of lives saved. More systematically, Canada, Europe, Japan, and other countries already have carbon pricing to reduce emissions.
The secret to winning the meme war is too be able to give the reader a sense of smug superiority without having to work too hard to actually learn something.
You can do both. I'm literally meeting with my congressperson next week in person to push for a suite of legislation that will have an impact, and which in my opinion has a very good chance of passing, ranging from reforestation to more wind energy.
It'll help though if we push the zeitgeist away from the climate denalism pushed by oil companies' PR firms. I want their stuff to get downvoted and flooded out of the meme space so that the average Joe doesn't have a chance to get indoctrinated.
Stop with the defeatism. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Every bit helps.
I feel you. Every bit helps. It's such a bummer that all bad actors have to do to is flood an issue with bad information.
None of it has to be accurate, just plausible.
They sew doubt to create hesitation, which turns into inaction, But to get someone to do something about anything, every point must be bullet proof or the bad actors will just winge and moan and sink your boat.
Positivity! Move forward! Fix as you go!
Some example posts of their darkly satirical humor:
13 Differences Between Oil Executives and AI Robots: They may appear similar, but here’s how to tell them apart.
Money, it's great!
How does Bernard Looney, CEO of British Petroleum, stay so positive?
There's definitely a time and place for serious factual debate, but given that oil companies are well-known to act in bad faith with "public relations" misinformation (aka propaganda) campaigns, we might as well fight the firehose of falsehood with humor. In the Ukraine war, for example NAFO has been quite effective in countering Russian propaganda and disinformation by means of shitposting, more or less bullying Kremlin stooges off the Internet by spamming doge memes.
The old "ending with a call to action," I guess?
I think a past me would have found these funny.
Read the article and watched a few videos, and all I can think to do is to curl up and cry.
I do think that laughter and ridicule has a better chance of changing public opinion than adding to the list of sad documentaries and hearing Sir David Attenborough silently screaming into the void.
But I also pessimistically think that majority public opinion has already on the side of climate change for the last several decades and nothing will change in a democracy. I was part of the reduce reuse recycle generation of small kids, and we were decades behind the unibomber.
Case in point: the yellow dot video on applying for retrofit energy grants. My elderly neighbor, on pension, living in an ancient house, asked me how to apply for the grants that will help switch her off of oil tanks and to electric heat pumps. I had to be the one to tell her, well first you need more than $5000 in cash to upgrade your electrical panels. Then you need $15000+ paid fully in cash for the heat pump, assuming your decades old ducts are up to date. Then you can apply for $6000 back which you will then pay back into the electricity bill owned by the same energy company you're switching away from. Sorry. Looks like you're going to continue to pay $600+ a month, and rising all the time, for dirty oil instead.
Also I think it is all simply too late. We should put effort into cateloging as much DNA as we can. The whole place has been on fire forever and we should take pictures of what's left before it all comes down.
The idea that it's too late and we should give up is actively being pushed by oil companies. To give in to pessimism is to aid them. There is a case for optimism. Severe consequences are likely, but incremental changes can still save lives and livelihoods. In the US, air pollution kills about 250,000 people per year, but some 92% of new energy projects in the permitting pipeline are solar and wind, only 7.5% natural gas. If legislation (something from about dozen current proposals) can speed that buildout by 1 year, that's thousands of lives saved. More systematically, Canada, Europe, Japan, and other countries already have carbon pricing to reduce emissions.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-deniers-shift-tactics-to-inactivism/