this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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I rarely consume beef. I actively advocate for clean energy projects, mixed use zoning, higher density housing, and free/cheap and reliable public transit. My AC is manually turned off right now as it is 72°F in my home right now, but since modern heat pumps are generally 300-500% efficient since they are moving heat rather than creating it, I wouldn't attack that in particular. But I'm doing all of the right things, yet I'm still reading victim blaming garbage like this for anybody daring to take up space and consume anything at all in their life.
The thing to note is that these billionaires own media outlets that run defense for waste and luxury that they enjoy. They're dumping resources into oil, gas, and coal; AI datacenters; strip mining; exploitative labor practices; and lobbying for favorable regulation and tax policies. At the same time, they're actively using misinformation and disinformation to steer the public to support those things and fight against social programs, higher efficiency, higher minimum wage, higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals, closing loopholes, etc. Generally speaking, billionaires are minmaxing wealth distribution from the bottom to the top in an extremely wasteful and harmful way.
The problem here is billionaires and capitalism. You can criticize people for using a Keurig all you want, but the reality is that they're using it at the office that insisted on having people commute in and spend dozens of hours per week in the building to contribute nothing of real value to the world in order to get enough existence tokens to exchange for food and shelter, and maybe they treat themselves to a burger once in a while for putting up with the hellscape we can't escape from.
You're right that people could and should make better choices. But out of decency, not because it could ever make any real difference to the climate. Recycling was never going to save the planet, but a public guillotine of the worst climate killers once in a while might convince some evil assholes to lay low and temper their greed enough to produce less of the shit that can't be reused or recycled, and broadly speaking reduce carbon emissions that are killing us all.
We could've avoided this whole problem if we'd started, 50 years ago, pointing a gun at every billionaire's face and telling them to divest or expect a closed casket funeral next week. Better late than never, I always say. It's too late to prevent climate catastrophe, but we can still save most species if we do something about these fucking parasites.