Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
Elvis » 30 Apr 2020 06:41 wrote:
Belligerent Savant wrote:^^^^
The current event may help push things towards a 'Bioregionalism' -- that may be one of the few silver linings to this situation. And a renewed focus on local produce, supply chains, self-sustainability, self-reliance. If there's another one of these events within the next few years (notice I typed 'If'; I remain an optimist, despite it all), many will have no choice on the matter.
...I’d like to encourage my readers to do two things over the course of the week ahead, and as far thereafter into the future as they wish.
1. Assess the choices you’ve made and the life you’ve accepted, and see if it’s time for a change. If the answer is “yes,” do something about it.
2. Assess the collective actions and structures of the society in which you live, and once again, see if it’s time for a change. If the answer is “yes,” consider taking both of the kinds of action discussed above: change your own relationship with the problematic features of your society, and see what measures you can take to help further the process of collective change.
On the far side of silence, new possibilities stand open. Joseph Campbell reminds us that in the journey of every hero or heroine there’s a departure from the familiar, and very often this takes the form of a withdrawal into solitude and contemplation. That period of reflection and reassessment is a crucial step toward unfolding the potentials for magnificence that we all have within us but so few of us ever use.
JackRiddler » Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:10 pm wrote:Wait, that was a parody, surely?
...the essential and overriding two problems with this film can be generalized as absence of class analysis, and an absent analysis of western Imperialism.
More succinctly, the military is never mentioned, not ever. And the open Malthusian meme ‘we are the problem’, or what is often called ‘the overpopulation argument’ (or Pogo argument) is a profoundly reactionary and racist idea based on classic eugenics, and the one glaring omission and the other rather disturbing ideology, eclipse the genuine (though limited) truths of the film.
And I say limited because while, yes, Al Gore is a ruling class vulture and Bill McKibben an opportunistic self-promoting liar, and pointing this out is correct and even satisfying, these points are subsumed by Gibbs greater political mystifications.
The curious result of these missing ideas and the criticism of them and by extension the film, means that finds oneself aligned, however fleetingly, with people who hate the film for exactly the wrong reasons — the pro capitalist DNC linked pro climate justice. Green energy supporters, among whom one can count Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who producer Michael Moore supports and campaigns for (cognitive dissonance exhibit A) and all the myriad other corporate interests that Cory Morningstar painstakingly catalogues in her Wrong Kind of Green blog.
There have been hysterical attacks on Gibbs from these people, and they are wrong. And their egregious *wrongness* here still doesn’t mean its not a flawed film.
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On an importantly positive note, the stuff that Gibbs gets right is important and one wishes dearly he were a more sophisticated political thinker. And that he wasn’t working with Moore. But details on industrial energy, palm oil, all the massive destruction caused by solar and wind power. That the hype for renewable energy is dishonest and manipulative. Gibbs is exactly right (though a bit late to the party one has to say).
The attacks on him from the proto-capitalist green energy people are cynical and dishonest.
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That this film (which was rejected, apparently, by major distributors, although I have no direct evidence of this) is released during the Corona panic (for free), during the global house arrest (and this, in turn, means a necessary sidebar on Bill Gates) is troubling.
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One of the most prevalent themes being repeated ad nauseam in media is one that depicts the suddenly clean waters of the Venice canals, the return of wildlife to the suburbs of America and northern Europe, and the generally breathable air of previously polluted big cities. And the message is, like the Gibbs film, “we are the problem”. Get rid of people, or keep them inside, and voila…an Edenic Gaia. The film then becomes tantamount to a marketing campaign for depopulation simply by virtue of its release date.
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Now, having said this, the subject Gibbs is tackling is important. Many of his conclusions are correct, but only up to a point because looming over everything is the spectre of de-population. And this Malthusianism is so threadbare at this point, so utterly at odds with the facts, that for Gibbs to promote it means he loses credibility for everything. And it’s sinister.
There are not too many people; thats simply not true, and in fact across the planet birth rates are cratering (why is IVF such big business?) But again, if one reads the reviews in corporate-owned media (Vox, or Salon et al.) it’s enough to make one root for and defend Gibbs…almost.
In fact, reading the mainstream press on the topic of this film is an object lesson in how propaganda is disseminated. It is a perfect illustration of the internalizing of the meta-narrative for climate, as it is for Covid 19. They can’t be separated, just as drone assassination and US/NATO Imperialist wars cannot be separated from SWAT teams kicking in doors in south-central.
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But cutting across this, as I say, is the frightening erosion of democracy in the Covid 19 emergency. Never mind Malaria killed 400,000 last year, or that even the slimy frontman for Gates and his friends, Dr Fauci, admits the case mortality rate will be very low. It doesn’t matter because this stopped being about the virus long ago.
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I am deeply sorry Gibbs did not resist, or maybe actively joined, the agenda of the eugenicists. And as to the lack of mention of the military, well, I honestly don’t know how that is even possible if you claim to be making a documentary about destruction of the planet. The US war machine cuts across ever aspect of human existence today. That is not hyperbole. And yet Gibbs ignored it. I want to defend Gibbs against the corporate attacks against him, but I find it hard.
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I want to quote Paul Haeder, who is a social worker and writer in Oregon. This is a comment he made on his blog (which you should all read) here:And the underlying message is population control. They great white hope of Michael Moore and I guess Jeff Gibbs is really the underpinning of the flick – and no credence is given to the millions upon millions of people fighting this bastardization of humanity, of life, called Western Capitalism. There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of groups that Gibbs could have put front and center who are local, indigenous, part of the peasant movement, others, who are real forest protectors and water protectors and life protectors.
The for Evidence-Based Medicine (Oxford University) has the infection fatality rate at between 0.1% and 0.36%. That is pretty much what seasonal flu comes in at. Something many of us said a month ago. The comparisons between the climate discourse and the Covid discourse are striking. One might even think there was an agenda here. But such topics are nowhere to be seen in the Gibbs film.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution is one meant to permanently eliminate humans from their work and livelihoods. This is the dream of the 1%. The fact that western capital continues to promote the “we are the enemy” meme should make us suspicious. It does not seem to have made Gibbs suspicious at all.
DrEvil » Wed Apr 29, 2020 10:39 am wrote:0_0 » Wed Apr 29, 2020 3:57 pm wrote:Bill Gates famously said that CO2 emissions should go to zero, that if we did a really great job with vaccines the global population could be reduced by 15% and now he actually used the phrase "final solution" vis-a-vis the vaccine that apparently will get us out of lockdown a year or two from here. So yeah, nothing to see here folks. Just the richest guy of the world with a heart of gold but unlucky in his phrasing. The skies are blue, the birds are singing and we're all saving lives and the environment. Yay!
He was talking about reducing population growth through reducing child mortality rates with vaccines (the logic being that if parents know their kids will grow up to support them in old age they won't have so many kids just to make sure some of them make it), not killing off 15% of the planet.
Whether that would actually work or not is still up for debate (my money is on education and easy access to contraceptives), but he wasn't advocating some Nazi final solution.
And CO2 emissions should go to zero as soon as possible. Right now would actually be an excellent time to start that. Let big oil fail and replace it with green industries.
Iamwhomiam » Sun May 03, 2020 2:54 pm wrote:I'll have more to add later, but for now, I'd like to thank Rex for his comment on the first page.
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