Post AlSoWpwjt1MJ3pcCEC by cian@post.lurk.org
(DIR) More posts by cian@post.lurk.org
(DIR) Post #AlSoWkBlIFoJCgb6oK by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T19:05:28Z
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Reading Leigh Phillip's astonishingly bad jeremiad against de-growthers.I was going to write a review/critique of it - but given he spends chunks of the book arguing against his own arguments, I'm wondering if there's any point.
(DIR) Post #AlSoWl5lw0c60Onq76 by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T19:10:00Z
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The book mostly seems to be an excuse to punch hippies, abuse Naomi Klein and take swipes at fashionable communists.I'd like to read a strong critique of degrowth - but this book has all the intellectual seriousness of Thomas Friedman.
(DIR) Post #AlSoWlhLgIffswNqgS by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T20:44:42Z
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The books gets worse. Now he's criticizing Malthus for not predicting the green revolution (Malthus, who nobody has apparently read, actually assumed something similar in his essay. He's an idiot, but not for the reason that pro-growth idiots seem to assume).
(DIR) Post #AlSoWpwjt1MJ3pcCEC by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T20:46:41Z
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And then he criticizes 'Limits to Growth' (a text he has clearly not read) based upon what some economists said. And weirdly another text, that accuses them of being neoclassical economics apologists. Which is really weird if you've read the thing.Whether economists are the correct ones to judge assessments of biological carrying capacity, or resource limits, never seems to occur to him. Because Leigh Philips, for all his 'Mr Science' macho bullshit, is an idiot.
(DIR) Post #AlSoWyLqdYCH81QMTY by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T20:47:50Z
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I hate this book so much... It's so stupid. For all his complaints about Naomi Klein, it's her stuff that this mostly reminds me of.
(DIR) Post #AlSoXBZnT04y933BWS by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T21:33:30Z
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This might be one of the stupidest things I've ever read. I'm only on chapter 3. Apparently there are 9 more to go.
(DIR) Post #AlSoXNd4edpZWgfyIS by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-14T23:44:22Z
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Chapter 4 is mostly a defence of ecocide. It's a convincing argument if you're a human supremacist, or if you think that it's okay to commit genocide given that plenty of humans have been killed by earth quakes in the past.Otherwise, not so much.Apparently because I think it's bad that we're killing other species so we can have more treats - that I'm a race traitor. Which is certainly an argument I can imagine being made in the 1860s.
(DIR) Post #AlSoXWaDMdtJIQPJaa by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-16T20:46:08Z
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Chapter 5 seems to mostly be a rant about how much Leigh Phillips hates Naomi Klein and anarchist students. I feel he should have just written a book about how much he hates Naomi Klein, given that's about a third of this book.
(DIR) Post #AlSoXdTNkRaKfGGSPY by rra@post.lurk.org
2024-08-15T02:11:41Z
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@cian disclaimer that I haven't read it yet, but this was recommended to me by several friends as a solid critique of degrowth https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/446381/growth-by-susskind-daniel/9780241542309
(DIR) Post #AlSoXi4kdRqywJmMDI by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-16T20:48:20Z
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It's supposed to be a defense of stuff, but it's mostly a defense of poor people against class based snobbery (don't disagree, but not hugely relevant). He does seem to make the case that we should be relaxed about Coltan being used to make iPhones, because disabled people and more iPhones means we'll soon have the medical diagnosis devices from Star Trek. I wish I was joking.
(DIR) Post #AlSoXmXG3P26lt9BCa by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-16T21:31:55Z
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Leigh hates compost toilets. I have no idea why he decided to spend 2 pages talking about this, but he did.
(DIR) Post #AlSoY7j1Grv2URoMwy by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-16T22:06:31Z
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"In addition, the big box stores themselves can have fewer deliveries than corner shops, resulting in fewer emissions per hammer or shower curtain or jumbo bag of kitty litter. In any case, is that hammer, shower curtain or kitty litter made locally anyway? Even local traders have transnational inventories."Those traders who can't extricate themselves from a global capitalist system that they have no control over... What morons eh Not like you - a socialist working for capitalist organizations for 'money'.
(DIR) Post #AlSoY7vQWjqN6vcHI0 by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-16T21:36:03Z
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Curious about where Leigh Phillips got his data for the claim that our ecological footprint has been declining since the 1970s, I tracked it down. A 2002 Economist article, which quoted Bjorn Lomborg to make this case.
(DIR) Post #AlSoY98w00F6t6wZyy by cian@post.lurk.org
2024-08-16T22:20:32Z
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"It is the _production_ of food that that has the largest energy appetite, rather than transportation. Again, it is simply more efficient to have the roses grown where flower production depends almost entirely on the warmth of the sun in equatorial Kenya rather than on the heating and lighting systems of the temperate Netherlands."Apparently Leigh Phillips thinks roses are food. Yes I'm being snarky, but the whole book is this careless. He's like a magpie with his arguments - so long as it's bashing the hippies, he doesn't care where it comes from, or whether it makes sense.