Matisyahu's Blog

I went for a short walk after work today because light rain started and I wanted to avoid getting stuck in a downpour like what happened a few months ago when I thought that some drizzle wouldn’t turn into heavy rain. I came back and had a small snack – a tuna, rice and beans meal that I bought from the supermarket on Tuesday which is quite tasty and has a good amount of protein and fibre which is quite satisfying. I’ll probably buy a few more of them next pay day because they’re quite satisfying and throwing some hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon really lifts the meal quite substantially.

I was watching a recent video by Parkrose Permaculture:

Just to build upon what was covered in the video – it reminds me very much of those who are trying to discredit climate change activists and policy. There are three ways that it is done, the first is the most obvious which is to sow doubt and push climate change denialism – to a certain extent that kind of wins over those who understand climate change is real but they want permission to continue the status quo by having some sort of plausible way of pushing back. The second method is employing doomerism by perpetuating the ideal that all is lost, we’re totally screwed and any attempt to address it will be doomed to failure with a lot of pain but very little accomplished. The third way taps into the ‘well meaning, but entirely useless’ that are about preserving the status quo by commodifying being environmentally conscious by making it out to be something you can achieve through purchasing (the fallacy of dealing with climate change within the capitalist system would be a TED Talk in its own right – no, it cannot be done in any reasonable extent because ultimately the capitalist system is predicated on infinite growth on a finite planet all for the sake of worshipping at the altar of ‘line go up’).

The other point I am reminded of was a talk about was how the fight is never ending – this idea of fighting for something and once you achieve it then you can go back to what you were doing before ignores the forces within society that are always trying to push back against progress. Once you have fought for something and achieved what you set out to do it isn’t just a matter of moving on but a concerted effort to defend the gains made because there are always going to be those who wish to undo them – a good example is the constant pushback from the business community who want to roll back workers rights in the workplace under the guise of ‘workforce flexibility’. Another example is the recent challenge to the same sex ruling in the United States that could be undone by the supreme court – most people probably thought that society had moved along, that it was a settled issue but it ignores a significant portion of the population that are reactionary in their nature who bide their time and wait for the opportunity to reverse progress made. Keep in mind that the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the supreme court was a 50+ year concerted effort by the religious right to overturn the ruling (the religious right agenda is a lot more than just overturning Roe vs Wade) – they continued fighting and they struck the moment when large portions of the electorate convinced themselves that it was a settled issue and that the issue of abortion being overturned in the 2016 election was simply fear mongering rather than reality – unfortunately for those who took what they thought was settled ruling for granted quickly found out that the religious right had patiently played the long game and eventually got what they wanted.