• for: climate crisis - voting for global political green candidates, podcast - Planet Critical, interview - Planet Critical - James Schneider - communications officer - Progressive International, green democratic revolution

• podcast: Planet Critical

• host: Rachel Donald

• title: Overthrowing the Ruling Class: The Green Democratic Revolution

• summary

  • This is a very insightful interview with James Schneider, communications officer of Progressive International on the scales of political change required to advert our existential Poly / meta / meaning crisis.
  • James sees 3 levels of crisis
    • ordinary crisis emerging from a broken system
    • larger wicked problems that cannot be solved in isolation
    • the biggest umbrella crisis that covers all others - the last remaining decades of the fossil fuel system,
      • due to peak oil but accelerated by
      • climate crisis
  • There has to be a paradigm shift on governance, as the ruling elites are driving humanity off the cliff edge
  • This is not incremental change but a paradigm shift in governance
  • To do that, we have to adopt an anti-regime perspective, that is not reinforcing the current infective administrative state, otherwise, as COVID taught us, we will end up driving the masses to adopt hard right politicians
  • In order to establish the policies that are aligned to the science, the people and politicians have to be aligned.
  • Voting in candidates who champion policies aligned to science is a leverage point.
  • That can only be done if the citizenry is educated enough to vote for such politicians
  • So there are two parallel tasks to be done:
    • mass education program to educate citizens
    • mass program to encourage candidates aligned to climate science to run for political office

• for: question - how do we organise a green democratic revolution when power is so entrenched?

• question

  • how do we organise a green democratic revolution when power is so entrenched?

• for: green democratic revolution - critique

• critique: green democratic revolution

• paraphrase

  • it is so difficult to get people excited about politics because
  • they've sort of seen through the two- party system now where it's just like the same thing over and over again
  • so you have to offer something new
  • but I think was quite difficult for the left to really bring about a progressive Revolution
  • Iif you take that kind of thinking to its logical conclusion, one essentially ends up just abolishing the whole system and end up at Anarchy

  • meanwhile, the right is doubling down and making itself a firmer force

• comment

  • in a sense, it feels like a moment when the traditional tension between liberals and conservatives is reaching a peak
  • over force is desperately hanging onto the past whilst smoother is forestry moving in a new direction

• for: definition - green democratic revolution

• definition: green democratic revolution

https://werd.io/2023/doing-it-all

Interesting to see what, in generations past, might have been a gendered (female) striving for "having it all" (entailing time with children, family and a career) has crossed over into the masculine space.

Sounds like Ben's got some basic priorities set, which is really the only thing necessary. Beyond this, every parent, especially of new babies, in the W.E.I.R.D. culture is tired. By this measurement he's doing it "right". What is missing is an interpersonal culture around him of extended family and immediate community of daily interaction to help normalize his conditions. Missing this he's attempting to replace the lack of experience with this area by reaching out to his online community, which may provide a dramatically different and biased sample.

Some of the "it takes a village" (to raise a child) still operates on many facets, but dramatically missing is the day-to-day direct care and help that many parents need.

Our capitalistic culture has again, in this case of parenting in the W.E.I.R.D. world, managed to privatize the profits and socialize the losses. Here the losses in Ben's case are on his physical well-being (tiredness) and his mental state wondering if his case is "normal". A further loss is the erosion of his desire for a family unit and cohesion of community which the system is attempting to sever by playing on his desire to "have it all". Giving in to the pull of work at the expense of family only drives the system closer to collapse.

Boroditsky, Lera. How Language Shapes the Way We Think. Streaming Video. TED | TEDWomen 2017, 2017. https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think.

See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k

• for: big ag, smallholding farmers, democratic agriculture, democratizing agriculture, democratizing farming

Potential Biden contenders: - Gavin Newsom, California governor - J. B. Pritzker, Illinois governor - Phil Murphy, New Jersey Governor - Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Governor

Currently running on the left: - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - Marianne Williamson - Cornel West (Green Party)

examples: - Ralph Nader (2000) Green Party - Bernie Sanders (2016) (less evidence of this)

Meador, Jake. “The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church.” The Atlantic, July 29, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/christian-church-communitiy-participation-drop/674843/.

Meador looks at how churches might offer better community as a balm to W.E.I.R.D. lifeways and toxic capitalism.

Why must religion be the source for these communal and social supports? Why can't alternate social structures or institutions handle these functions?

Is this why the religious right is also so heavily opposed to governmental social support programs? Are they replacing some of the needs and communal desires people in need have? Why couldn't increased governmental support programs be broader and more holistic in their leanings to cover not only social supports, but human contact and community building as well.

Do some of these tensions between a mixed W.E.I.R.D. and non-W.E.I.R.D Americans cause a lot of the split political identities we see in the last few decades? What is the balm for this during the transition?

Extreme focus on financial and professional success has driven people to give less time to communal spaces and experiences including religious life.

Is this specific to America's brand of toxic capitalism or do other WEIRD economies experience this?

What is the current separation of political and civil society in America in 2023? Do the differences in these two (particularly with respect to Antonio Gramsci's framing) still have distinguishing features?

I love this acronym!

Überflutungen haben in der Demokratischen Republik Kongo fast 400 Menschenleben gefordert. Kurz zuvor waren in Ruanda 131 Menschen durch Hochwasser gestorben. https://www.liberation.fr/international/afrique/inondations-dans-lest-de-la-rdc-le-bilan-salourdit-a-pres-de-400-morts-20230507_KAYXRPX3PZGVNLLFE3XDPUKVNI/

This site is a cesspool of authoritarian, fascist-apologist, conspiracist mind-mangling content. It's a good place to find out what kinds of bizarre notions people (particularly Catholics of an authoritarian bent) are being fed, and consuming — ridiculous fabrications and warped interpretations of the sort contributing (with giddy joy) to the suffocation of democratic inclinations and institutions.

The site does have some interesting images. I think this will be an inspiration for some dystopian and horror fiction ideas.

!- quotable : growing impact of democratic citizenry affect the steering institutions of governance

Context: Lindsey Graham had just proposed a bill for a nationwide abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

McConnell's position seems to be one that choice about abolition is an option, but one which is reserved for white men of power over others. This is painful because that choice is being left to people without any of the information and nuance about specific circumstances versus the pregnant women themselves potentially in consultation with their doctors who have broad specific training and experience in the topics and issues at hand. Why are these leaders attempting to make decisions based on possibilities rather than realities, particularly when they've not properly studied or are generally aware of any of the realities?

If this is McConnell's true position, then why not punt the decision and choices down to the people directly impacted? And isn't this a long running tenet of the Republican Party to allow greater individual freedoms? Isn't their broad philosophy: individual > state government > national government? (At least with respect to internal, domestic matters; in international matters the opposite relationships seem to dominate.)

tl;dr:<br /> Mitch McConnell believes in choice, just not in your choice.

Here's the actual audio from a similar NPR story:<br /> https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2022/09/20220914_me_gop_sen_lindsey_graham_introduces_15-week_abortion_ban_in_the_senate.mp3#t=206

McConnell is also practicing the Republican party game of "do as I say and not as I do" on Graham directly. He's practicing this sort of hypocrisy because as leadership, he's desperately worried that this move will decimate the Republican Party in the midterm elections.

There's also another reading of McConnell's statement. Viewed as a statement from leadership, there's a form of omerta or silent threat being communicated here to the general Republican Party membership: you better fall in line on the party line here because otherwise we run the risk of losing power. He's saying he's leaving it up to them individually, but in reality, as the owner of the purse strings, he's not.

Thesis:<br /> The broadest distinction between American political parties right now seems to be that the Republican Party wants to practice fascistic forms of "power over" while the Democratic Party wants to practice more democratic forms of "power with".

Summers, J. (2021). Little Difference In Vaccine Hesitancy Among White And Black Americans, Poll Finds. NPR.Org. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/12/976172586/little-difference-in-vaccine-hesitancy-among-white-and-black-americans-poll-find

Mumford (1964) - Authoritarian and Democratic Technics

• https://is.gd/LfOwBU
• urn:x-pdf:e96148abca1fcacf41856b98fe30de13

IJzerman, H., Dutra, N., Silan, M., Adetula, A., Brown, D. M. B., & Forscher, and P. (2021). Psychological Science Needs the Entire Globe. APS Observer, 34(5). https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/global-psych-science

Coronavirus Pandemic Data Explorer. (n.d.). Our World in Data. Retrieved March 3, 2021, from https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer

The deregulation part has hurt us immensely. Cross reference this with the thesis found in American Amnesia by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson.

Which parts of the Democratic party went along with this? Evidence? More of the deregulation parts seemed to be identified with the Republican party.

Quintana, F.-J., & Uriburu, J. (2020). Modest International Law: COVID-19, International Legal Responses, and Depoliticization (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 3659460). Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3659460

How Taiwan triumphed over Covid as the UK faltered. (2021, March 24). The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/24/how-taiwan-triumphed-over-covid-as-uk-faltered

ugh Fox you terrible pieces of shit. the only conservative media concerns there have ever been is that we aren't sufficiently horrible to people at the border. Liberals, unlike Conservatives, are happy to do own-side criticism. We want good. We want progress. We want to be decent to our fellow humans, who we recognize as worthy & good. Of course we're distressed at this bad situation. We don't shield our leaders from criticism, we expect active Democratic engagement.

You could not better show yourselves for who you are with this headline, you useless evil villians.

ReconfigBehSci. (2021, January 14). RT @jimtankersley: The Biden ‘American Rescue Plan’ goes big: $1.9T, incl almost every Dem stimulus priority under the sun: State/local… [Tweet]. @SciBeh. https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1349993219988328449

Tankersley, J., & Crowley, M. (2021, January 14). Biden Outlines $1.9 Trillion Spending Package to Combat Virus and Downturn. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/business/economy/biden-economy.html

Arceneaux, K., Bakker, B. N., Hobolt, S. B., & De Vries, C. E. (2020, October 5). Is COVID-19 a Threat to Liberal Democracy?. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8e4pa

there's a solid enough conceptual idea here, that society ought be able to voice some sense, direct & govern the platforms forward & along & upwards. there is something lacking, certainly, in that the companies have nothing to listen to, are so alone. (oh yes there are voices but it's a chaos of voices, there's no scheme for guiding oneself through, so the entity must keep picking for itself what to do.)

still though,

It sounds a little dystopian, I’ll grant.

no. it sounds a lot dystopian. very very dystopian.

society could use means to weave together coherence, to establish a democratic growth, proclaim the unity it does have. celebrates, accepts & socializes core things to itself.

Belmont, William, Bruce Sacerdote, Ranjan Sehgal, and Ian Van Hoek. ‘Relief Rally: Senators As Feckless As the Rest of Us at Stock Picking’. Working Paper. Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2020. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26975.

Raising informed citizens as a goal of education

Raihani, Nichola. (2020, June 14) "In the wake of recent events, I keep thinking about this paper, published by @damianjruck et al. earlier this year. https://nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0769-1 short thread:" Twitter. https://twitter.com/nicholaraihani/status/1272150848467087360

Pescetelli, N., Cebrian, M., & Rahwan, I. (2020, February 10). Real-time Internet Control of Situated Human Agents. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xn7sr

Personally, I did not believe the Democratic Writing Project to be helpful or well designed. It is a good idea but it would have been more beneficial if this conversation took place out loud among a class, rather than online. I will never read any annotations outside of my own and the four that I will comment on, and that is upsetting. This is nothing more than a way to force everyone to participate and have something tangible to grade, and the students are not retaining the value of analyzing this document. I think this would have been better if we all read it at home and we compared physical annotations in class.

Title: House Democrats Stage a Sit-in on the House Floor on Gun Control - The Atlantic

Keywords: john lewis, democratic majority, wednesday afternoon

Summary: He tweeted during the sit-in Wednesday afternoon that GOP leaders should put his proposal to prohibit suspected terrorists from buying guns on the floor.<br>Politico reports that Speaker Ryan’s office does not seem amenable to Democrats’ move.<br>This is reminiscent of when Republicans staged a protest against the Democratic majority during the summer recess in 2008, speaking in a darkened chamber to demand action on energy legislation.<br>Can we see?<br>CSPAN is still not broadcasting a live feed of the chambers, but the network is replaying members’ speeches online.<br>John Lewis has championed nonviolent protest his entire career.<br>House Democrats, led by civil-rights pioneer and Georgia Representative John Lewis, are staging a sit-in on the House floor to protest what they see as congressional inaction on gun control.<br>“We have to occupy the floor of the House until there is action,” Connecticut Democrat John Larson said, as his fellow members began to sit down late Wednesday morning.<br>Members have instead taken to Twitter to spread awareness of their action, tweeting statements and pictures from the floor.<br>#NoBillNoBreak #DisarmHate pic.twitter.com/C7BZpzNvxL<br>The 15-hour Senate filibuster led to votes Monday on four gun-control-related measures, but all failed.<br>Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is reportedly headed to the House floor to join his House counterparts.<br>Mr. Speaker, not one thing.”<br>She said a minority of pro-gun voices “are forcing a false choice between constitutional rights and safe streets.”<br>—Nora Kelly<br>

easier said than done.. but what are some suggestions for how this could succeed?