• OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Who is to say even Bush wouldn’t have looked at those every day before deciding “let’s do the new electric ones” or whatever.

    That’s not how anything works. Bush didn’t oppose green energy because he just never saw a solar panel, he opposed green energy because it went against the vested interests of the oil companies he represented.

    That is the reason why we’re “terrible,” because we’re aware of the deeper systemic forces that are causing the problems, and of the fact that symbolic gestures don’t actually fix anything. We are terrible for the same reason your mechanic is terrible when he says that getting a car wash won’t actually fix your engine.

    • AmyAye@nord.pub
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      1 day ago

      Except, it is the way it works to some extent.

      People are influenced by things around them all the time.

      If you see some outdated solar panels on your office roof and have the power to update them to be more useful, eventually it might happen.

      It’s like shit like “rainbow capitalism”, that people bitch is “just corporations trying to make money”. Yeah, but it’s money off positive things and makes it all more visible to larger portions of the population.

      And who knows, maybe in this hypothetical scenario Bush updates solar panels as a fake will of good, while still supporting oil. But then the parts of the larger population sees it, and says “Oh, the white house has solar, that’s nice, maybe I should try solar.”

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        In that case, perhaps you should simply send a heartfelt letter to President Trump explaining the benefits of solar power.