tl;dr The 'Bottom-Up' Grift (BUG) is the spinning of a line - for profit and/attention - that the true path to utopia is via 'bottom up' activity. This post defines the BUG, explains how to spot it, where it comes from, what to do about it. The Grift Making a career out of saying "we... Continue Reading →
Cartoon – The Scraped Knee Theory of Climate Activism
Word-y meme. Thanks to my friend Marc Roberts for the as-ever-on-point image. The longer rant... sorry "considered and structured viewpoint" from which the quote below comes is here. To be clear about what I am and am not saying I am NOT saying we don't need policy change, that we do not need to pressure... Continue Reading →
After Baudrillard and Thatcher – we’re in the “soup.” Of images, post-modernism, climate and the world historical defeat of society
It's Saturday night(1), and the people who are supposed to be the experts on this have not got a clue. And they don't even know that they don't have a clue. I at least know that I don't have a clue, which puts me 'ahead' (but on the same burning platform, on the same being-murdered... Continue Reading →
“What can we do, as individuals?” Unpopular answer to popular question
Quickly as ever, bringing two strands together. First, there was an excellent comment on a previous post about why get involved in social movement organisations/what happens if they try. "isn’t there an option about doing what you can, when you can, and doing your best to live coherently, talking to others when the conversation might... Continue Reading →
We need to wake up from “wake up” rhetoric
Quickly, because looong day (but good one) and my guilty pleasure Michael Connelly awaits. THIS SORT OF THING PISSES ME OFF. It implies that "world leaders" are asleep, not aware what is going on. a) that is horseshit b) if it were true, what would it say about the efficacy of 30+ years of academic,... Continue Reading →
How long will this go on? Until it doesn’t. But “we” won’t stop it… (Cut and paste a Twitter DM)
I have smart friends. Some of them are on Twitter (for now) We DM. See below, of me and VSF (Very Smart Friend) Me: how are you doing? Shit is fucked up, isn't it, to use the academic language... 1:28 PM Very Smart Friend: How far can political reality stretch from physical reality? 1:40 PM... Continue Reading →
Shooting from the lip on hopium and “social tipping points”
So, a friend tagged me in a Twitter (RIP?) thread which mentioned a rare (1) new article by Benjamin Sovacool, who is my boss and also - sorry, I know this is excruciatingly sycophantic and would get me a Private Eye OBN - a thoughtful and kind person, whose work is really useful (full disclosure... Continue Reading →
Schoolboy Powerpoint Fail AND “the costs of doing social movement.”
Two things before I feed the swans and then work into the evening on industrial decarbonisation and multiple streams approach ONE - I did a mostly good talk about ID and MSA today. Halfway through I realised I was sharing the screen of my penultimate powerpoint presentation and that I really ought to have the... Continue Reading →
“Project(ing) Fear” or “then it fell apart, like it always does.”
Roger Hallam has gone off on one again. It is, as ever, anthropologically fascinating and politically terrifying. You can read the thread here. https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21/status/1585720401359175681 I won't fisk the lot of it (life is short, it's not long until the Abrupt End of Everything). As ever with Hallam, there are some robust and intelligent takes on... Continue Reading →
Gormless “individual action!” vs “system change!” #climate “activists” talking past each other, as usual. My declaration of irrelevance, sorry, independence
Uggh. a) I have COVID b) I have had enough of climate "activists" and their gormless miss-the-point-"debates" about individual versus "top-down" action. The love-and-light brigade tell us our individual footprints matter, that we need to "be the change we want to see". They ignore the corporates (indeed, blah blah BP invented carbon footprints blah blah)... Continue Reading →
