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Malthusian & eco-fascist arguments making the rounds is getting tiresome. Problem is over-consumption by the wealthy at the expense of the many. It’s about unequal power relations, maldistribution, class/race/gender inequities, etc. Population myths have been debunked already.
https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1326818126508548096
https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1326818126508548096
There are great replies to this tweet with resources, please do the readings first. Condensed: Population debates are sexist (control women’s bodies), racist (white anxieties of brown planet), colonial (control again), fetishize growth & consumption (capitalist) + SO MUCH MORE!
Folks expecting me to provide nuanced answers in one tweet or asking inane questions addressed by existing scholarship (e.g. Betsy Hartmann, many many others) should consult the various resources curated by a colleague here: https://twitter.com/costasamaras/status/1327825771872858123
All this relates to many topics (climate justice, environmental racism/justice, decolonizing international development, gender empowerment, etc). There are multiple entry points of deconstructing this persistent myth, which deflects attention from structural problems/injustices.
If folks would like other readings beyond those contained in thread by @CostaSamaras, see this one collectively curated a while back: https://twitter.com/prof_fsultana/status/1191880573284954117
Also, for the folks invoking ‘we’, please reflect on who the ‘we’ is. Do a critical intersectional analyses that takes into account race, colonial history, luxury vs survival emission/consumption, etc. Who is the ‘we’ of the population you would like to see reduced? Where? Why?
I will NOT engage with people who refuse to actually do some legwork themselves by reading the resources suggested upthread & elsewhere. It is not worth my or anyone’s time to deal with bad-faith arguments, ad hominem questions, willful ignorance, whataboutery, etc. Read first!
I am going to mute this thread since too many people are making bad-faith arguments & unwilling to read any of the resources provided here already before saying stuff. Goodnight.
One last thread of info for folks, since people are fetishizing overall numbers of humans instead of asking which type of humans (tho it’s obvious there’s white anxiety there too), the over-consumers who are living longer, capitalist exploitation of the planet & communities, etc. https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1258364688435478528
More readings/resources here: https://twitter.com/junglegymqueen/status/1329461576471097346
