How "hippies" and "lefties" perpetuate Climate Change
Psychological insights on why change doesn't happen
A few, not=perfectly-assembled ideas…
Subcultural groups, popularly known as “hippies” and “lefties” perpetuate climate change by their way of thinking. They want to see themselves and their behaviour as "good," in opposition to their notion of global capitalism, which they see as "bad." But, by creating an emotional investment in a specific position in this manner, they end up simply perpetuating the issue.
A real-world example. A fast food manufacturer is creating environmental harm and consumer health issues in his wake. But the costs of those things are not borne by the manufacturer, rather by the taxpayer. Over time, people start petitioning Gov to create change and introduce laws to get the manufacturer to change his ways. Trouble is, the fast food manufacturer is making so much profit than he can pay lobbyists to essentially bribe enough politicos to ensure that his business can continue as before.
In economic game theory, this is simply a vulnerability in the “free market algorithm.” When understood clearly by large numbers of people, it naturally begins to change.
But what hijacks this process are the large numbers of people who are emotionally invested in applying labels of “good” and “bad” to elements of the process. By seeing the manufacturer and the Gov as “bad,” they get to see themselves as “good.” They thus get a dopamine hit from perpetuating their label model. But by choosing the feel-good hit over the clarity of understanding without judgment, the issue never actually gets seen and addressed.
Thanks for reading.
Addendum: Whilst I am a bit down on certain subcultural or political groups in this post, I am more really pointing to certain principles in how we use our minds, as opposed to assigning blame.