this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2025
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Damn, that is grim
It's not necessarily about extinction (though we're headed for, optimistically, at least +4C warming this century) but also about the incredibly uncertain future given the volatility of the current neoliberal order. I don't think anything is certain, nothing negative or positive. I guess that could be reason to have hope (better to be uncertain than certain of having no prospects) but I think you also have to acknowledge there's no reason to be optimistic either.
Yea this pretty much, everyone who's optimistic is ignoring climate change. Like always.
Yes, this. I've been called doomer for talking like this before, but I don't think even most leftists, many of whom I look up to and defer to on all things historical and political, really grasp how fundamental and existential climate change really is as a threat to humanity and to much of the biosphere. A lot of times I see otherwise cogent and thoughtful conversation about potential future trajectories, discussing how climate change is going to throw an extra wrench in the machinations of the evolving material conditions, adding more variables that could slow or speed sociopolitical development towards communism, basically make geopolitics more chaotic and unpredictable for a while, but that ultimately, communism will emerge the dominant form in the next couple centuries. And it's like... my siblings and comrades, the shit that's coming down the pipe is a lot bigger of a game changer than a wrench and some extra variables. It's a mass extinction event we've only just barely entered.
I would agree, given enough time, communism will win. But that "given enough time" piece is the load-bearing part of that phrase. What we are looking at from realistic projections right now for what is locked in to happen over the next couple centuries is literal civilizational collapse. Not just the collapse of an empire, but a total destruction of the systems we rely on to maintain, for example, intercontinental interaction, let alone global trade and complex distribution of labor. That means no global communism. IF our species survives, which is also by no means a guarantee and also teeters on the precipice of exactly how much average global heat ends up increasing, it means primitive communism in small pockets if we're lucky. Our only hope of avoiding this is large scale revolution basically immediately. It may not have to start in the imperial core (which I think we all agree is extremely unlikely), but it will have to quickly subdue the imperial core which is responsible for the vast majority of climate change, and obviously is the biggest threat to revolution anywhere. The imperial core will have to be forced into rapid degrowth. The fucking clock is ticking here, and it's not looking promising. But that's no excuse to be "doomer," (and by that, I mean "give up") it's the opposite, it's all the more reason we need to do everything we can no matter how significant the sacrifice to tear down capitalism and imperialism now.
I once had a heart-to-heart with my sister, who is a kind, intelligent and perceptive person, who set me on the path that led me to communism, but is now a comfortable suburban lib, and I tried to explain this to her- the gravity of climate change. She looked at me and just said "I have two kids. I need to believe that things will get better." There was such a pleading, desperate look in her eye that I just had to drop it. If I'm right, she's going to have to face it someday anyway, and if I'm wrong - well, then the future is better than I can imagine right now.
Same with my parents, who are at their best well-meaning libs. There's just no point in trying to get them to understand what's happening. They'll be long gone by the time everything truly breaks down. I don't really feel like I have the right to force the realization that the world they've inhabited all of their life won't really be there for their grand-kids.
I totally get it but at the same time this is a great example of why we're fucked. Anyone with the power to change anything flatly refuses to. Anyone decent enough to want to change anything refuses to acknowledge the necessity, because it's depressing. But refusing to admit it's happening doesn't make it not happen. And so humanity as a whole has their head wedged firmly up their ass and we march straight into hell.
I think we're deeply steeped in a moral code that makes the proposition that the kind, most loving thing to do right now is to form an armed guerilla secret army absolutely unthinkable.
I deeply sympathize with both your position and your sister's. But I also can't help but remember that the only thing that can possibly save us from the worst outcome is the full recognition of how bad the situation is, how immediate it is. That desperation in your kind-hearted sister's eye is the only thing, on a mass scale, that has a chance of mitigating the worst of the apocalyptic scenarios. I know it's easy for me to say, and I'd be lying if I claimed to be doing everything within my power to stop capitalism, but I think confronting reality must happen if we are to have any hope at all for a world worth living in for our children. Because confronting it and truly recognizing the unimaginable horror of it is the only way that people will ever get mobilized to do something about it (beyond the bullshit pressure-release-valve feel-good non-solution pablum like "green capitalism"). If she let down that wall of pretense that things will be ok for her kids, that wall she already knows at least on some level is a lie, and actually internalizes the hell that her children are going to have to face (whether she acknowledges it or not), then what's left to do but to fight against it? Fight it for their sake, because there will come a time for them when they will have no choice but to fight it. Existential-scale climate catastrophe is coming either way, but even as merciful as the sand is, the longer we keep our heads buried in it in lieu of action, the worse the catastrophe will be. And by worse, it could even be the difference between extinction or survival.
They're murdering our children. It is absolutely understandable that we would want to look away and deny this. But if staring that fact in the face is the only way to get them to stop murdering our children, then aren't we obligated to look? There's no easy answer here, but I do think there is an answer.
jesus christ having kids is a horrible thing to do to kids
The imperial core has nukes. We are in fact screwed beyond any hope of redemption.