| ▲ | blfr an hour ago |
| The comments section reminds me of The Dead Great-Grandfather Test [Science fiction writer Bruce] Sterling was using the term specifically to describe the hairshirt green lifestyle that is driven by eco-anxieties. For hairshirt-green types, life is all about saving water, recycling, composting, reducing eco-footprints and various other behaviors marked by a kind of fearful, non-generative retreat from living. Permanent existential hibernation. Sterling's rule of thumb for spotting acting-dead behaviors is a great one: if it's something your dead great-grandfather can do better than you, it's a case of acting dead. Your dead great-grandfather uses no water or plastic, and is actually recycling himself as we speak, not just his possessions. Try and top that. But acting dead goes beyond hairshirt-green behaviors. While spartan frugality is a virtue, when it becomes the entire purpose of your life, there's a problem. For a portion of the dying American middle class, frugality has turned into a life purpose. https://ribbonfarm.com/2011/12/08/acting-dead-trading-up-and... |
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| ▲ | Euphorazine an hour ago | parent | next [-] |
| “You’re just acting like your dead grandpa!” I holler, as I push the earth towards ecological collapse |
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| ▲ | kubb 39 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Thanks for the ragebait. Reminding myself that the flaw here is obvious, there’s no need to respond, arbitrary „tests” aren’t binding to anyone, protecting the future is perfectly defensible as a moral stance even at cost of present convenience. |
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| ▲ | alpineman 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is getting in touch with nature, appreciating the value in things and protecting complex ecosystems really 'Acting Dead'? I would say 'Acting Dead' is actually sitting at home ordering on Amazon/Temu, watching brainless TikTok/Instagram/Netflix/YouTube videos, and talking to a transformer model all day. |
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| ▲ | solyin 34 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Both of those are entertainment. What work are either of those accomplishing? People need houses and food, and more people are happening. "Acting dead" is people who are getting in the way of providing for people. | | |
| ▲ | alpineman 29 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Ecosystems are incredibly important for human survival. Once they are gone, we are in a lot of trouble. |
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| ▲ | locallost an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is a fallacy. People 100 years like your great grandfather ago solved problems they had 100 years ago. People today solve problems they have today. |
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| ▲ | blfr an hour ago | parent [-] | | This is about a dead grandfather as he is decomposing in the ground. Not about his life which might have been more energy-intensive than that of many moderns. | | |
| ▲ | rob74 an hour ago | parent [-] | | Not sure about your great-grandfather, but mine didn't own a car, didn't travel on vacation by airplane, and, while he may have used a stove to heat his house, he probably only used it sparingly, because coal was expensive. So I doubt his life was more energy-intensive than mine. | | |
| ▲ | EdwardDiego 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Now I'm wondering what the CO2 efficiency of a modern airplane per tonnage of cargo/people is compared to coal fuelled ships, obviously ignoring the aspect of _where_ aircraft emit their exhaust in the atmosphere which IIRC makes a difference. It's nothing relevant to your comment, I thoroughly agree, but just got me curious. | |
| ▲ | blfr an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Mine drove a gas-guzzling GMC CCKW 353 truck, putting out up to a kilogram of CO2 per 1 km on inefficiently planned (but scenic) routes. |
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| ▲ | matsemann an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| What a shitty way to dismiss anyone with any concerns whatsoever. |
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| ▲ | ant6n an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is this some sort of straw man against trying to stay within your CO2 Budget? I really don’t understand the aim of this comment. |
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| ▲ | muvlon an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | It's a really dumb test. You can apply it to argue against reducing or stopping literally anything. My dead great grandfather uses no fentanyl and commits no murders. If we're not doing those, we're as good as dead! | | |
| ▲ | saidnooneever 43 minutes ago | parent [-] | | well thank god for the US citizens then taking one for team earth <3 ill keep supporting my local politicians who take a private jet for 100 kilometer journey to advocate for co2 reductions |
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| ▲ | jimbob45 41 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I think it’s along the lines of “premature optimization is the root of all evil”. These little micro optimizations take your attention and energy away from places that might be less visible and less enjoyable but more consequential. | | |
| ▲ | ant6n 12 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Whoever responds "we need to stay within our CO2 budgets, otherwise we'll be in real trouble in 20 years" with "being a hippie and organizing your life around recycling" is really building up some sort of weird straw man and not really usefully engaging in solving the problem. |
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| ▲ | streetfighter64 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Basically "Don't live beyond our collective means" = "Die". Are you buying the latest iPhone every year? If not, you might as well be dead. I wish people would realize that life is not about stuff. Living within your means, being frugal and focusing on what really matters (time with family, experiencing nature, thinking interesting thoughts) is not at all "permanent existential hibernation". I resent the "The Dead Great-Grandfather Test" and similar "growth"-at-all-costs ideologies. Its implications are disgusting. |
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| ▲ | rob74 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Yeah, the average Swede emitted 3.43 tons of CO2 in 2023, which is less than a quarter of what an average US citizen emitted. Does that mean that a US citizen is four times more "alive" than a Swede? | |
| ▲ | vasco an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Yes exactly what's the problem with profiting from child slavery if I only do it every 3 or 4 years? Pfff, get good guys. | | |
| ▲ | streetfighter64 43 minutes ago | parent [-] | | What's your point? Do you mean "everyone is equally bad", so reducing your resource usage is pointless? Because that's not true, clearly. Do you mean that owning any electronics at all is morally wrong? That's a more consistent point, but what are you posting from then? This sort of all-or-nothing mentality is really reductive and pointless. It's like saying you shouldn't go to the gym unless you plan to become the worlds strongest man. |
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| ▲ | inSumErgoCogito an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
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| ▲ | reedf1 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's funny because this comment reminds me of something else... cope. |
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| ▲ | vasco an hour ago | parent | prev [-] |
| You can apply the same to FIRE if you want to trigger half this board. |
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| ▲ | deaux an hour ago | parent [-] | | Good that he didn't or the comment would be long [dead]! |
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