Okay strap in this gets wild:

I am currently reading “Silent Coup” - very interesting book.

It talks about the international mechanisms by which we legally took the sovereignity of nation states.

As byproduct of free trade agreements most countries are liable to be sued by foreign companies. There are absurd cases where forein investors undermine democratic decisions in order to ensure their pofit interests.

South Africa - for example - after ending Apartheid wanted to change the deal with diamond mining rights. They wanted to add a tax to ensure that black people get a fair share of the wealth extracted from their soil. But one italian multinational didn’t like this - so they sued and won. SA wanted to keep this as silent as possible so that no other company would sue. But they had to grant them a huge cut: from 26% of profits to 5%.

Many other examples, this one just stood out to me.

On first glance it seems absurd that some company can sue a sovereign country over democratic decisions, but this is the world we live in. Fuck free trade agreements, fuck coorporations, fuck the whole World Bank & Breton Woods machinery.

https://www.counterfire.org/article/silent-coup-how-corporations-overthrew-democracy-book-review/

https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database/case-detail?CaseNo=ARB(AF)/07/1

to a certain degree even in democracies. Manufacturing consent

So I guess we just die? What is your solution? All people of the world have to change what they CAN change. For me that is myself, my region and my country.

there is no absolute, global decoupling happening. it is a lie used to propagate dreams of green growth.

That’s why I said we need a wide spectrum of movements.

A wide, moderate base for people to use their passive democratic rights is the base for more radical people actively demanding change. As I said: look at the historical examples. Without the radical parts of the larger movements nothing would have changed.

Moderate change is insufficient. We need to reduce CO2 by 10% per year if we want to keep the 1.5° goal. We need a wide spectrum of civil protest.

Look at the history of womens’ voting rights. Or the anti vietnam war movement, or the no nukes movement.

Edit: The workers’ movements for 48 and 40 hour weeks were also militant, violent protests. Obedience is not everything in a democracy.

it is also a lot more expensive and takes more time, effort and knowledge to prepare. there is a reason obesity correlates with low socioeconomic status.

i don’t like to throw the bad lefty “p” word around, but check it

I recommend you to go read or watch anything including the geneticist Giles Yeo. There are reasons people eat more than they should and it has lots of variables including genetics, personal variance, food environment and the composition of foods.

Bashing americans is fun and all, but if you want to solve a social problem you need a social solution, not blaming individuals.

There is a lot going on in Austria. It’s just that it is climate change related floodings, and far-right people don’t like that kind of debate.