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The comic seems as if it's targeted at degrowthers.
I thought it was targeted at ecofascists who want the global south to stay poor because having clean water and malaria treatments is bad for the environment somehow.
Like there's a lot of people saying that China's ongoing industrialisation and raising the standard of living is bad. But China is actually implementing renewables much faster than the West did, so China's industrialization is not the same story. Now yes, there are problems with what China is doing. For example, as they transition away from coal they are selling their leftover coal to poorer and less advanced countries, and that's fucked. But this isn't a technological inevitability of industrialization, it's simply a policy failure. China is doing better than the West did, and China has the technological potential to be doing even better if their politicians so chose. So the fundamental assumptions of ecofascism are not true. China should be industrializing in a greener way, rather than remaining a production center for cheap plastic garbage the West uses, which is what ecofascists prefer.
That's a lot of your own political convictions put into that reading. I don't see an ecofascist statement in the comic.
I think green shirt's statement is a dogwhistle. I don't think someone advocating degrowth would have used the same words. As a supporter of degrowth myself, I don't think degrowth means the same thing as "reducing living standards". For example I don't own a car, and I'm happier riding a bike every day. Less growth increased my standard of living. I'm also vegan, and I rarely miss meat. I prefer the lack of guilt over the taste of meat. So I don't think my standard of living is any lower for having abandoned my reliance on animal subjugation and excessive land and water use. I don't think degrowth has to mean giving up the internet, or clean drinking water, or medicine, or many of the actual benefits of living in a developed nation.
Yeah. IMHO, that means the strawman starts in the first panel.
I don't think it's a strawman of degrowthers. I think green shirt is supposed to be an ecofascist. He's talking like an ecofascist, and being made fun of with the arguments that work on ecofascists.