no, “humans are a plague” is just blatantly misanthropic. it has nothing to do with pointing out the failings of capitalism, it’s just here to say that humanity, by its very nature, is bad and to be exterminated. it serves to distract from the real issue (capitalism and the fantasy of infinite growth) even, by pretending that the issue is innate to humans (and thus unfixable except by mass genocide)
I guess I just respectfully disagree, to me capitalism is misanthropic. And people who use the phrase are being embarrassingly hyperbolic but I want to meet them where they’re at. I see their emotional position as more workable in terms of changing how we treat the world and eachother (most people aren’t ready to engage with the idea of stopping capitalism in a nonemotional way)
But, we don’t have to approach it as an all or nothing thing. In our lives I can engage with people who need to conceptualize people as a disease and you can work with people who need to not do that. This is an improvement over previous situations where progressive politics required toeing the line on rhetoric
no, “humans are a plague” is just blatantly misanthropic. it has nothing to do with pointing out the failings of capitalism, it’s just here to say that humanity, by its very nature, is bad and to be exterminated. it serves to distract from the real issue (capitalism and the fantasy of infinite growth) even, by pretending that the issue is innate to humans (and thus unfixable except by mass genocide)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
We’re causing a mass extinction event, and I’m happy to call humanity a plague while you kill off the nature around me.
I guess I just respectfully disagree, to me capitalism is misanthropic. And people who use the phrase are being embarrassingly hyperbolic but I want to meet them where they’re at. I see their emotional position as more workable in terms of changing how we treat the world and eachother (most people aren’t ready to engage with the idea of stopping capitalism in a nonemotional way)
But, we don’t have to approach it as an all or nothing thing. In our lives I can engage with people who need to conceptualize people as a disease and you can work with people who need to not do that. This is an improvement over previous situations where progressive politics required toeing the line on rhetoric