#solarpunk healthcare

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Solarpunk … orthodontics?

My jaw hurts.

It’s hurt for decades; I started clenching it at night when I was asleep when I was a preteen. This coincided with several factors, none of which I think are wholly the source but were probably contributors to the issue: we had just moved cities and I was under a ton of stress moving to a new neighbourhood and starting at a new school for the first time, I had just begun an orthodontics saga of many years which started with wearing headgear to forcibly shove my upper back molars further back into my skull in order to make room for the rest of my upper teeth to move backwards (with the eventual help of braces) to correct an overbite that was starting to affect my bite, and that I was an extremely anxious eldest child. Looking back, it’s clear I was on the spectrum and had a diagnosable anxiety disorder. But discovering that would be much further in the future.

All I knew at the time was that my jaw hurt. I told my dentist and orthodontist and they recommended I sleep on my back, so that I would have less chance of clenching. I did this, and still to this day must choose: do I sleep clenching my jaw, or with my mouth wide open? I have a choice between a) painful muscles or b) terrible breath in the morning + slowly yellowing teeth. Hoorah. I wasn’t given any other advice.

It is at this point that I would have liked any of the professionals involved in the process to have talked to me about the ramifications of seriously and irrevocably altering the shape of my jaw on the surrounding musculature but frankly, I’m not sure they were trained to do that. And by “that” I mean talking to children, communicating professional knowledge to a lay audience, and knowing about the muscles of the face all at the same time.

I would hope that in a future solarpunk society, there would be people with those skillsets employed by health professionals to communicate and emphasize a more holistic look at healthcare - in a way that meets people where they’re at. I was thirteen; I wasn’t ready to hear or understand even the little that dentists would tell me now in my late thirties. I needed someone skilled to discuss this with me. The braces and headgear needed to happen: my bite was getting painful, my overbite was growing so extreme. But even a knowledge of the side effects would have been empowering to me, as a child. I had very little say in any of this process, though I got to pick the colour of the elastics around my braces, yay.

My jaw still hurt.

In the early days of 2012, I woke up one morning and couldn’t chew my food without pain: not even soft foods such as pancakes were safe. I made an emergency appointment with my dentist at the time, who quickly assessed the issue and whipped up a mouthguard for me. I didn’t have insurance at the time (having aged out of my parents’ coverage, and none afforded by my college), and the dentist was sensitive to that, and gave me a discount. Bless him; I’m sure he’s long retired, but I hope that if that little family dentist office off the Danforth in Toronto is still in operation, that it’s seeing some good years.

Wearing a mouthguard every single night to bed wasn’t foreign to me, because I’d worn the retainer I was given after my braces came off religiously for many years until about two years before this. I still wear a retainer to this day: it not only makes it so that I am not clenching quite as hard, but it saves my teeth from the bone-cracking pressure. (I was informed by my current dentist that clenching my teeth is a major contributor to my receding gums, which is a current dental issue I have, yay again.)

My jaw still hurts now, though.

In that future solarpunk world, I’m sure young people wouldn’t wake up with debilitating pain in their jaw and be forced to think above all else about how this is a financial setback. In a future solarpunk world, I would hope that insurance coverage would be a thing of the past, as it would be unnecessary. I don’t know how the details of that would work out. I just know it would save so many young people from worsening the anxiety that was already so bad that it led to jaw pain.

When I moved to a new city and saw a new chiropractor, he would help me to mobilize and relieve the tension somewhat in those muscles at the end of each appointment. It helped, somewhat, especially to mitigate the damage caused by the stress of graduate school - and then a car accident, and then COVID.

I was finally diagnosed with an anxiety disorder several years ago, and though I’m mitigating it to my best abilities, I haven’t stopped clenching my jaw while I sleep, or during the day subconsciously. I’m still searching for some sort of relief other than constantly wearing my nightguard, which is just an automatic thing that I do after brushing my teeth every night. (I don’t think that this sort of wearable tech makes me a cyborg, just a boring responsible person.)

In a solarpunk world, many people are going to need dental surgery. Many people are going to need orthodontic interventions. It’s just a fact. But what can we do now to make sure that the dentists and orthodontists of the future actually work to make their patients’ lives better, not just their teeth?

This is my two cents’ worth. What do you think?

PS: I should mention that though I live in Canada, dental is not covered by our (ailing, politically besieged) social healthcare system.

#healthcare #dentistry #solarpunk healthcare #jaw pain #orthodontics #dentist #dental #bones #anxiety #muscles #teeth #headgear #braces

[macleod]

Rules for a reasonable future.

#mine #solarpunk #uhc #universal Healthcare

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

it's time now. it's time to imagine the brightest future you can, and talk about it.

a future where people only work 8 hours a week and everyone's basic needs are met. a future where we are more connected to nature and eat seasonal, local produce. a future where you look out for your neighbours and they look out for you. a future where you actually know who your neighbours are. a future where everyone is just a lot more relaxed and able to do whatever they want to do - this 8 hour working week has given people their lives back and now they're able to make community events, work in community gardens, sing and dance and spend time with their kids, play whatever sport they want, travel, read, create art and music.

People are interacting with each other in good faith again because money as an ulterior motive has all but disappeared. Cus you see a few decades ago they made profits illegal. All money has to be put back into the company and CEOs can take home a salary only, no bonuses and it can't be more than 3x what the lowest paid employee makes. You can go to jail if your company is found to make profits, advertise on a large scale or pay its high ranking members more than what's allowed.

Jail still exists but mostly people go in for financial crimes (greed still exists); drugs are decriminalised and available to use safely. people are not as desperate now so there's been a massive reduction of violent and petty crime and most of the people who still do this are teenagers who get away with a slap on the wrist. police are not armed anymore and are heavily penalised if they abuse their power or hurt a civilian, and their role is more that of mediator, signposter (to community services, social services, and free and accessible healthcare including for mental health) and security. together with the former military they make up an "emergency task force" which are called upon in times of need and crisis, for floods, fires, other such disasters.

the stock market completely collapsed after profits were made illegal and people had to find other ways to figure out what a company was worth: such as how they treat their staff or how accessible their processes are. as a result of this, as well as more widespread disability thanks to Covid and an ageing population, accessibility is fucking incredible now. most places are accessible to the vast majority of disabled people even without them having to ask for a single thing. If they have to ask, accommodations are made quickly and without fuss and this is completely normal now. disabled people are more visible than ever in public life and this has led to a generally kinder, more tolerant public life.

Everything is slower now. Social media as we know it died decades ago and Internet 4.0 is efficient, will find you accurate answers and the websites you're looking for very easily and fast. there's monopoly laws restricting how large companies operate online. online ads are all but illegal - there's "phone book" esque pages where you can promote your business or service and that's allowed but not anywhere else. Lots of people are still annoying and some of them are still cruel but overall living together as humans has gotten so much more chill. We've tackled climate change and reversed much of it, now it's a global day of mourning whenever a species is found to be extinct through human intervention. these days used to happen much more frequently but it's very rare these days. Most everyone gets the day off and is encouraged to read about the lost species or hold themed funerals. Globally everything has gotten better - there's much more global equality now after a bunch of western/formerly colonising countries almost self destructed and then instead decided to own up for colonialism, pay reparations to a lot of countries in Africa Asia and Latin America, as well as indigenous nations of North America, Oceania, even in Europe. The USA doesn't exist anymore instead its a whole host of separate nations all managed by the native people whose land it is. The UK doesn't exist anymore. England is still sad about it but Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall are called Cymru, Alba, Eire and Kernow again and they've formed a Celtic Union for better collective bargaining power in the EU (which still exists, somehow. Its better now. England may still be out of the EU I'm not sure). Migration is common and foreigners are welcomed into any country with open arms.

I may try to write something about this. I have a vision for a future and it's so lovely. Here, on earth, with the starting point being now. We have a lot to work with and only a few changes could make such a difference. Demilitarisation, UBI and maximum working hours, greedy financial practices made illegal. Conservation and education on local plants and nature and food. Community building on every level. Giving people their lives back.

This is all extremely possible. If it were up to me, very little in society would be left unchanged but it would all be people friendly changes. changes that aim to support the poorest and most marginalised, changes that aim to punish greed and exploitation. It's a work in progress of course. But I have a vision for a better world and dammit if I'm not going to share it with you.

#i need a tag for my own rambles #hopepunk #solarpunk #community building #decolonialism #demilitarize #ubi #universal basic income #defund the police #public healthcare #free healthcare #please feel free to add on #i need to expand on this more cus i have so many thoughts on this

[void-thegod]

We should have councils of people who are the best in any given field of knowledge:

Science

Medicine

Politics

History

Psychology

Sexuality/Gender

Economy

Ecology

Etc

They will be diverse - of many ethnicities, religious, genders, and backgrounds.

Have these councils come to various conclusions about how to save humanity in the most rational way.

That means dealing with the ultra rich.

That means dealing with the super corrupt "democracy" we have that still oppresses minorities

That means dealing with the military and prison industrial complexes

That means dealing with Western (and other types) Imperialism

That means dealing with corporations

That means dealing with the environmental disasters we've wrought.

#solarpunk #hopepunk #new civilization #civilization #politics #anarchy #democracy #socialism #anti work #anti capitalism #universal healthcare #universal basic income #voidpunk #queer #lgbtq #history #humanity #science #human rights #capitalism #late stage capitalism #climate crisis

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Solarpunk Sunday Suggestion:

Donate blood (if you can!)

#solarpunk #hopepunk #environmentalism #cottagepunk #social justice #community #optimism #bright future #climate justice #blood donation #solidarity #healthcare

[cognitivejustice]

Stable electricity is essential to patient care, enabling health workers to run medical devices like heart monitors, quickly heat water to disinfect surgical tools, and refrigerate medications and vaccines.

Electricity has been one of the major challenges for health centers in Masisea and Iparia, rural communities in the Amazon rainforest, reachable only by boat. More than 12,000 people live in these communities, representing 87 indigenous groups, such as the Asháninka and the Shipibo-Konibo.

The panels installed by Socios En Salud store this energy in a battery, ensuring electricity is available even on cloudy days. As part of its efforts to strengthen health systems sustainably and for the long term, Socios En Salud trained clinic staff on how to maintain the solar panels and their batteries.    Ever since the panels were installed, they’ve been powering the health centers in more ways than one.    “Now, patient demand is more regular,” says Mónica Córdoba Macuy, an obstetrician at Masisea Health Center. “Before it was not much.”    The stable, 24/7 electricity supplied by the solar panels has directly impacted care for at least 1,200 patients in Masisea.    “Now that they’ve put in solar panels for 24-hour lighting, that helped us a lot,” says Vázquez. “It’s the first time in my life since I was born that I’ve seen lights 24 hours a day.” 

#solarpunk #community #indigenous people #peru #solar power #healthcare

[atmosphericradar]

Homelessness is a problem across American cities right now because the systems of society and governance currently in place are striking downward at homeless people.

Here is an example of a small project to extend some basic sanitation services to the homeless people of Seattle, WA (a historically left-leaning major city in the USA): installing some public hand-washing stations.

Here is an article from the Seattle Times trying to identify why a $100,000 community project to install less than 50 public sinks, started in 2020 to help combat the pandemic, yielded only 5 installed sinks as of early 2023.

"It was with urgency that council members approved the $100,000 for the street sinks, based on a cheap and easy-to-install prototype by the Clean Hands Collective — a group formed in 2020 of architects, University of Washington professors and students, and a then-middle-school-age student who teamed up with Real Change, Seattle’s street newspaper. The design uses plants and soil to filter gray water.

An original pitch by the Clean Hands Collective estimated $100,000 could pay for 63 sinks.

Later, after the money was awarded between Clean Hands’ and a more high-tech design, the two groups estimated closer to 43 sinks."

This is a slam dunk project for the city! It's cheap, it's feel-good, and it helps vulnerable people during a time of crisis. Remember that most public places with washrooms and restrooms closed their doors during the Pandemic. These public sinks are intended to provide a temporary solution for homeless people unable to access previously-available sanitation services. In November of 2020 this was an easy political win, so of course the City signed on.

What happened? Well, the City abandoned the public sinks project, letting it slam directly into the wall of bureaucracy that currently impeeds an untold number of other grassroots public works infrastructure projects.

Firstly, the City took six months to actually provide any of the allotted $100,000. Seattle Public Utilities (under then-Mayor Jenny Durkan) "wanted to open up bidding to more people, expand the scope of the project to include things like food waste disposal, and address concerns such as ADA compliance, greywater disposal, and tripping hazards, among a long list of other issues," according to this article published in the South Seattle Emerald. All of these stumbling blocks are common in US politics: feature/scope creep, opening the project to additional bidders, and safety concerns & ADA compliance. The last thing in that list is the most reasonable, IMO.

But the first two are classic American Political Bungles. There's a pandemic, and homeless people in the city are also dying of various other preventable diseases. So instead of moving forward on a cheap and good enough sanitation solution, the City wastes time by: looking their gift horse in the mouth by asking for an additional solution to another unrelated problem, and also by asking around for other organizations to propose a competing solution. And the City did find another competitor: the City directly asked a makerspace in South Lake Union, Seattle Makers, to propose a design. Seattle Makers proposed a more expensive sink design, which successfully won the bid and got 40% of the total $100,000 project money.

OK, so it's now May of 2021. This $100,000 quick-fix public sink project now has two separate volunteer-driven feel-good organizations making two separate sink emplacements (one of which is signifigantly more expensive), and no sinks on the ground after six months. At least the sinks are ADA compliant? Sure, but the cheap portable restrooms that the city has also been deploying during the pandemic (aka "portapotties" or "sanicans") are not ADA compliant. The City is imposing restrictions on this lightly-funded volunteer project that the City won't hold itself to! Rules for thee, not for me.

Now it comes time to deploy the sinks. Except there are rules on where the sinks can and can't be. As the South Seattle Emerald reports: "The Clean Hands Collective hired a contractor to work with the seven district-based councilmembers to identify appropriate sites for 63 sinks — nine in each council district — but the City now requires the sinks to be near a storm drain and a fire hydrant, which knocks many sites off the list. “If we’d known these specifications [from the beginning], we could have saved a lot of work and money,” McCoy said." If the City truly wanted these sinks deployed ASAP, they would have presented these restrictions to the organizations building and deploying the sinks at the start of the project, ideally during the bidding process they demanded occur, so that the organizations signing on have the clearest possible idea of what they are signing up for.

And you had better believe it doesn't stop there, because according to the earlier Seattle Times article: "organizers have not installed one sink on city land due to strict permitting requirements and “outright anti-homeless sentiments.”" That's right, the City refused to allow the sinks on any City-owned land as of early 2023! The same government that paid for these public-access sinks to be installed won't permit them to be installed on public land!

As a result of this, all of the deployed sinks are on private land. And both sink-making organizations are having trouble finding additional landowners who are willing to host the public sinks (shocking, I know).

There have been other hurdles as well. Real Change claims that the City required: "every site had to receive an individual permit, versus receiving a blanket permit that could work across sites." This follows the trend of the City obstructing its own project. Seattle Makers ran into an issue with insurance: "Jeremy Hanson, director of Seattle Makers... spent the first several months getting appropriate insurance so he could haul the sinks and large amounts of water. He also had to get the sink design approved by Seattle Public Utilities." Note that these "first several months" occured after the City's six-month post-approval rigamarole. And why couldn't the city send insured tow trucks or City-owned maintenance vehicles to move these sinks? Surely that would be a better use of time and money, both of which are at a premium as people are dying.

What does the City of Seattle have to say about all this? A lot, and very little. Firstly, the City as an organization clearly understands the need for such facilities. According to the Seattle Times: "[the City] stood up six sinks around the city, separate from the street sink program. And today, the city currently manages three shower trailers and eight hygiene stations." So the City was deploying it's own hygiene project in parallel.

This begs the question of why the City invested in this community-driven public sink project in the first place, if they planned to deploy their own facilities? In the same Seattle Times article as above, the paper reports:

"Jamie Housen, spokesperson for [now-Mayor] Harrell, said he sees this delay as evidence that city-led implementation would have worked better than community-based implementation.

“The city’s staff are equipped to site and install this kind of facility,” Housen said, “as they did when they used their ongoing experience with hygiene programs to quickly deploy portable toilets, sinks, showers and laundry facilities for flood victims in South Park earlier this year.”"

Fuckers! If the City has the best ability to install these public sinks, why isn't it doing anything to help install them??? This was supposed to be a cheap and fast-deploying temporary relief measure! The City is the one holding up the process for years via red tape and denying use of public land!

As of early 2023, Seattle Makers "have four sinks that are built and looking for a home," and Real Change said "a few sinks are built and sitting in storage, waiting to be installed." But it's doubtful the city will ever allow them to be installed. It appears as though Seattle spent $100,000 on optics, then got cold feet and strangled the project. Gallingly, the City also went so far as to deploy 6 of its own sinks, despite the fact that the community project had built sinks available to deploy! In theory and practice this is a good thing, but the City imposed onerous restrictions in order to subdue it's own homeless aid response, from more than 40 sinks down to just 11. And this is just sinks!

Seattle is commonly touted as one of the most progressive cities in America, and its citizen community might embody that, but the City itself certainly does not. It refuses to help homeless people, and it refuses in the most Neoliberal way possible. If it truly cared, it would lift the bureaucratic barriers to helping them. It could clearly deploy all kinds of emergency sanitation services to the South Park flood victims; but those people were homeowners.

Governments should enable the community to help the community. The people of Seattle want to help the homeless, but the City won't let them. I can only imagine what cities with less progressive reputations are doing to their homeless people.

#housing #humanism #bureaucracy #news media #my posts #the opposite of #solarpunk #pacific northwest #long post #healthcare #planning and organization #neoliberalism

[tooth-fairy-vinni]

DIY Dental Preventative Care

We've prepared a fresh batch of Nano-Silver-Fluoride Cavity Prophylaxis for free distribution. One batch is ~100 x 1ml doses. Offer good until we run out...until we make another batch.

If you'd like one (or more?) email your mailing address to [email protected] (this is an encrypted email, and we delete every request once fulfilled - no storing of your personal info here!) and we will get 1ml (or more?) into the mail for you at no charge!

Nano Silver Fluoride (NSF)

Nano silver particles have the ability to remineralize enamel, in adult and children’s teeth [yes also “baby teeth” aka “milk teeth”] even at a low concentration. It is bactericidal to a wide range of organisms like Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis, and Escherichia coli. It has anti-biofilm properties as well.

HOW?

ANTI-BACTERIAL – Silver ions in solution are toxic to bacterial cells, and are especially effective against acid-producing bacteria, like S. mutans, the bug that causes dental caries (cavities), so it mechanically kills the infection already there.

PREVENTS BIOFILM FORMATION – A two-drop treatment lasts about a year, and during that time prevents new bacteria from colonizing the tooth surface, e.g. prophylaxis against new infections. This preventative strategy does not select for a population, so it doesn’t create drug-resistant bacteria! (phew!)

REMINERALIZATION – Nano Silver Fluoride not only prevents further decay of the dentin, it can actually help to rebuild and recover from damage that has already occured.

So, how do I use this inexpensive, completely safe, super-effective treatment???

CLEAN

This is a critical step as you do not want any particles of trapped food to prevent the solution from making contact with the tooth surface.

To prepare the tooth, first brush your teeth, then floss. Because the solution is itself anti-bacterial, it is not required to rinse with antiseptic mouthwash, or to debride the tooth surface any further.

DRY

Moisture will prevent the Tooth Seal from bonding properly with the tooth. Dry the tooth using cotton balls or paper towels. Place dry cotton balls or paper towels between the cheek and gum to keep the cheek away from the tooth, and to soak up any saliva being produced. Keep saliva away from the tooth during the process.

APPLY

Two drops placed on a cavity or on a tooth you’d like to protect, creates a concentration of encapsulated silver that adheres to the surface of the tooth and provides protection for about a year. If you use a cotton swab to apply, add one additional drop to account for what gets absorbed by the swab. 

The solution should be left in contact with the tooth surface for 2 minutes. • Do not lick your teeth during that time. • Don’t eat or drink for 2 hours after application. If necessary, repeat the process in 10-12 months.

Further reading, including a bibliography, can be found here:

https://fourthievesvinegar.org/tooth-seal/

#dental #diy health #dentistry #dental health #healthcare access #solarpunk #healthy teeth #science

[soul-our-punk]

What are we even doing here?

The more people who understand there are ways to meet your needs, and not at the cost of someone else's needs, the better. Particularly if they don't hold bigoted views which lead to silly things like going out of your way to prevent someone else from having their needs met. Making the world worse for someone because you don't know how to make it better for yourself. Life's hard enough without wasting your precious time, energy, and creative force on how to afflict your neighbor.

For my part, I like to think there are more people in the world who like the concept of mutual aid and are merely making do with the current capitalistic-zero-sum game until something better crystalizes--in spite of the system shouting so loud about itself, good or ill, in an effort to make it difficult to hear alternatives. Which is why I believe "solidarity over charity" is such an approachable proposition, regardless of the generation to which you have been ascribed by whomever does the sorting. I mean, Peter Singer was talking about this in the 70's. You have an obligation as a member of society to take measures to preserve wellness and uplift the vulnerable--give until giving any more would cause you harm. You get to decide where that dividing line is based on your finances, energy levels, social support network, available time, mobility, etc. As long as you set that line earnestly, then you are fulfilling the obligation which entitles you to the benefits of other member's solidarity.

The thing is, we're cornered. Restricted in analyses of all the options we could use to compose more humane systems. Isolated from what we could become, by a constant stream of shock doctrines induced by manufactured-disasters. So, mutual aid remains considered a coping strategy, rather than a cultural driving force for fundamental change, for the time being. Though, there's the rub, in that if there is always a new disaster, there is always a perceived need of relief prioritized over sustainable growth, which means the mutual aid has to become a political driving force to get ahead of the source of constructed woes.

I say that while also being painfully aware that discussion of any ideology beyond the current paradigm is defined by capitalistic expectations. Alternatives are invariably framed as monstrous inevitabilities in the supposed disastrous event of dismantlement, at least until they're cut open and adapted to fulfill a material component requisite to quell dissenting voices. "We can have social programs, yes, but it's not socialism, socialism is bad. Capitalism is good, which is why you have these social programs. Ignore other countries that have been providing more of these benefits for much longer, and devote more relative resources." Every other ideology is either fodder to be exploited for some new way to market what we have, or is dismissed/reviled for significant lack of traits that we already have in the devil we know. Which is very convenient for finding more fodder. Why would we want any system we make from here on anything like capitalism? We have to keep in mind that we are not looking for a better release appeal to make before an intractable captor. We are looking for the strategy that will attract enough confidence from fellow captives. To disenchant the captivated of the all consuming capitalist notion that virtue is derived from the free market's advertised high proficiency value generation.

What value? It definitely lets select groups pool resources, making their coffers more "valuable" in a fiscal sense, but where is the Value in that for a society? If its only claim to fame is that it can move numbers around faster and wont judge you for neglecting people's needs, then what does it actually do for us collectively that another system can't? Capitalism's whole premise relies on you not having enough, on you believing that there is not enough out there, that the only way you can have enough is to get there before someone else gets it and you're left with The Zero-Sum. But why would we take that on blind faith? What if there is a way to play the Positive-Sum game and we're just sitting on that because we assume its a fantasy?

How tragic to realize that the whole time you were suffering an obscene Sallie Mae loan, there could have been a non-tuition option. How mortifying to learn the medical bills that were artificially inflated by the relationship between the hospital and your insurance could have been handled by the taxes you already pay. The rent that serves as your proof of earning the right to live, assuaged with universal basic income. The chronic anxiety, stress, and aggression born from a machine of impersonal jobs that can leverage social class and basic needs to claim a third of your life for the least possible compensation possible; replaced with all the possibilities of a well rested mind and body.

Why would we as a collective people ever opt-in to the gamified social hierarchy?

What are we even still doing here?

#this was originally supposed to be a two sentence post #solarpunk #anti capitalism #mutual aid #zero sum #positive sum #solidarity not charity #universal healthcare #universal basic income #free education #right to housing #Also the internet should be recognized as an essential utility

[mistprints]

I was watching the news about how LA banned homeless encampments near schools, as well as how Nevada was demolishing tiny homes made for the homeless based on a technicality about square footage allowed..and like. People demonize the homeless and try to make other people see them as immoral and criminal. While the US needs to handle its homeless problem like every other developed nation, with housing and the opportunity to get employed again once back on their feet, demonizing them under the pretense of "think of the poor children" is not going to help anyone. "But why do they deserve to get free help? We are all struggling and it's their own fault they're homeless." So many homeless were veterans and people that had one bad month or one bad disaster that any one of us could have gone through. And to say they aren't deserving of help when we DO have the capacity to do so....well, we are constantly lied to that it would cost too much and that the everyday taxpayer would suffer. It costs us more in taxes when the city builds hostile architecture, and when these people get very sick from being outside and are taken to emergency rooms. We fund and throw money into programs that don't do anything to help people *out* of homelessness, just temporarily slap a bandaid on it. And while that isn't nothing, it is not what the end goal should be. It is a lie that people end up homeless only due to laziness. It's a lie that the majority of homeless people are homeless from laziness. In America, it is so damn expensive to live, that 70% of Americans are one disaster away from living on the streets. Some of these people had to choose between their house and live-saving medical treatment. The way we treat them is disgusting, like untouchables and we pretend they aren't there except when it comes to putting them out of sight. I've known people who were working 9 to 5 jobs while living out of homeless shelters still. The wages weren't enough to get them any sort of rent. The median rent right now is $2,000 here. $15 minimum wage isn't going to cut it. We are being conned and lied to about not getting more pay than that. This is a capitalist hellscape, hostile to working-class (everyone who is not the 1%) human life. It shouldn't and does not have to be like this. Higher taxes for free healthcare would cost less than a monthly premium we would no longer have to pay, but we don't talk about that. We keep getting gaslit by politicians whose motives are not in our best interest. They are bought out [read: bribed] to keep the status quo and make the rich richer while ignoring our crumbling infrastructure, a predatory housing crisis, flagging wages, environmental crisis for the future of humanity, and healthcare. We fail at everything except profits, which get directly funneled to this vague "rich" class and hoarded. And more people will become homeless while the rest have a worse and worse quality of life. This is not sustainable. There are several things that could be done to fix these issues in a decade at most; I could narrow it down to 5 broad ones:

Raising the minimum wage -honestly one of the most effective ways to give the working class more spending money. Wages have not grown with the rest of the economy in decades. We work harder for less.

Capping Rent universally -can be adjusted for the cost of living in each city, but cannot exceed 30% of the minimum paycheck. ideally for at least 3 years. We also should not allow companies to buy up homes for sale in mass so they can rent them out eternally.

Universal Healthcare -take out the insurance company middle man. it is cheaper for everyone even for those that don't have health insurance (because we pay with higher taxes for high-risk people such as the homeless when they are taken in for dire situations.)

Education Reform -The American school system is deeply flawed. The curriculum has not been updated since the 60s. We fall far behind much of the world. This would include language classes and equitable funding for all departments. Ideally, this would include daycare too.

Environmental Action -Probably the hardest one to tackle and with a time crunch. This goes hand in hand with infrastructure reform; the energy grid wastes a ton of power because of how old and crumbling it is. Water infrastructure is also in danger with the recent droughts part of the country is seeing and the floods in the other. Reducing carbon emissions, using the other better and available energy options...I could make a whole post about this alone because it is what I majored in, but requires a lot more than just switching the lights we use and saving energy. This is bigger than just a consumer-level problem, and the biggest polluters are a handful of companies that ruin the environment, reap the benefits and keep them, then put the environmental costs on all of us. They need to be strictly regulated and required to change wasteful and environmentally harmful practices; and not just with carbon offsets.

our issues are way more complicated and numerous, and I do have more ideas on smaller issues too. But I think handling these would significantly impact the others to raise the quality of life here. We have to divert from the path we are charging down, because not all Americans are the bigoted and ignorant people shown all over the news. A majority of us want the best for each other and to live our lives rather than just survive until we die. Many don't know what to do to begin to change things and can't afford to even leave while a handful of men in powerful offices toy with people's lives all over the world just because they can and have the guns to force the rest of us into thinking we are powerless against them. They keep us divided and uninformed and we often get to choose between a bad and horrible choice for who ends up in charge.

If anyone reads this and wonders what they can do, the biggest impact an individual can do is vote. Vote in people that will make these things happen and who aren't being paid on the side to work for corporate and stock and pharmaceutical and defense industry interests. Vote in your primaries so that when the big decision finally comes, we aren't left with the worst options. Don't let them scare you and don't let them destroy the shreds of democracy we have left.

#homelessness #america #politics #us politics #solarpunk #the machine is dystopian #healthcare is a human right #people before profits #intro to leftism #bernie sanders 2024 #usa #america news #please vote #don't let anyone tell you otherwise #important #government #corporate greed #late stage capitalism

[steampunkforever]

To be clear, and I bag on it enough that it should be, Solarpunk is a nothing-genre working as a synthesis of generational Toyota Prius stockholme syndrome and the consequences of corporate and social reduction of “punk” to mere aesthetics.

Though littered with trashy romance novels (thanks to its high percentage of bodices ready for ripping) Steampunk had antiimperialism at its core. Dieselpunk, which I’m less familiar with, provides opportunities to critique industrialization* and nationalism by its inherent interwar setting. These are ‘punk genres that, though often misused (insert debate on efficacy of cyberpunk here, or at least copy and paste it from my capstone paper) have a sort of basic ideological discussion baked into them. It might be just a dusting of commentary, but its ingrained into the genre.

Solarpunk has none of this! It’s sci-fi with a kudzu problem! There is no punk. It’s just futurism with extra trees. 

Look at you, you’ve managed to place some shrubs on top of a tower. unfortunately, that does not a genre make. It’s not even a new idea architecturally. The city of Lucca’s had that on lock for centuries.

Fixing Solarpunk and making it earn the title of genre means putting some substance in the aesthetic and filling the hollowness with some conflict, be it against social engineering/ecofascism (Logans Run, a bit of a reach), or greenwashing (Soylent Green, also a reach) Or government over-regulation (Red Barchetta, right on the money). But that’ll never happen, because the solarpunk aesthetic is inherently built on a naive ever-smiling idiocy. And you need the cynicism of counterculture to be punk.

Solarpunk has no counterculture. Its entire aesthetics point to there being no counterculture. The literal architecture of the “genre” tells us: “the establishment has accepted and is actively supporting sustainable living. You have nothing to fight for, the war on pollution is won.”

Solarpunk is to its twee fans what The Libertarian Free Market is to guys who think we should privatize healthcare MORE or what the “Revolution” is to tankies who treat it like a Government-funded-rapture-utopia. Everything will be all right, Society is on our side, and the sun comes out precisely when we tell it to.

That’s not a genre, and it certainly isn’t punk.

*By this metric, Dieselpunk would’ve been the logical wellspring for cottagecore, but funnily enough the cottagecore aesthetic actually owes more of its existence to the same cultural impulses that popularized Solarpunk stock photography. I’m gonna say the word “hopepunk” here because you can only look at the word solarpunk so many times before written language has ceased to maintain any semblance of coherence so why not embrace my role as a monkey seated at a overused typewriter?

#solarpunk

[alpaca-clouds]

Pokémon is kinda Solarpunk, right?

Something I feel is nought talked about enough is, how kinda Solarpunk Pokémon is in terms of worldbuilding.

Sure, you might say: "But the animal fighting!!!" Which on surface is of course true. But if you dig deeper it is a little more complicated than that, given that said animals have a) above animal intelligence and are at least somewhat able to consent to the entire thing and b) do have natural instincts to fight. (But let me please not start with the fact that apparently they do instinctively understand human language and are in fact aware of what human word correlates to what ability they posess...)

In general the Pokémon games and series show in general a world where humans and nature kinda have managed to co-exist. This was not as heavily emphacized in the first two generations, but became more pronounced as the franchise went on.

For the most part, instead of burning fossil fuels and what not, the society works around energy they get by cooperating with the Pokémon, with a heavy helping of other renewable energy sources. (Especially wind energy. We see a TON of wind energy in both anime and games.)

Outside of that, it seems that healthcare is completely free for everyone and their Pokémon. Just as it appears that food is anywhere from cheap to free, depending on where you are. And of course the society seems to have enough stability, that it totally is fine with lots of folks just traveling the lands.

Sure, cynacally speaking one could argue, that the entire Pokémon league might make tons of money both through entrance fees and merchandising, which might be, what pays for all the healthcare and amenities for the trainers... But... You could also look at it in a more pure way and just see... that maybe they just have figured it out.

And yeah... I kinda find that nice.

To imagine a world, where all of that is possible.

That's all I have to say. xD

#Solarpunk #pokémon #pokemon anime #pokemon games #hopepunk #scifi #pokemon world #solarpunk media

[necron123-block]

Solarpunk needs its own 1984

After reintroducing myself to degrowth and more specifically solarpunk again. The idea that solarpunk must be optimistic in some sense and never dystopian struck me with fear.

I admire the principles of solarpunk and also wish that we could live in a more sustainable world.

But by saying that solarpunk can never be dystopian, we open the door to uncritical optimism. The idea that Solarpunk is THE solution, we just need to find the best and fastest way to get there.

I could spend my time critiquing solarpunk and how it could indeed lead to dystopias. How it promotes techbro thinking where any problems with subsistence lifestyles are whisked away by 'the tech will get there'. Or how abstaining from wasteful practices is incompatible with the ideals of healthcare as it has no upper limit to how much it might waste.

But that whole line of critique is a priori rejected in favour of optimism. That we don't need any more hopelessness. However, Solarpunk wants itself to be more than an entertainment genre: an ideological movement.

You don't nuh uh critique when you want to change society.

One of the elements of 1984 is that when we're scared we can blindly run into the arms of authoritarianism. Much the same, when we feel hopeless about climate change we might blindly run into the arms of solarpunk's hidden horrors.

And I believe that by excluding dystopias, we fail to uncover those potential horrors.

#dystopia #solarpunk #rant

[tiny-space-whale]

I think utopian literature (incl. solarpunk, hopeful future, &c.) actually makes me more angry than the dystopian variety.

I just keep thinking about how achievable it feels while I'm reading, then I have to snap back to reality. Reality where I have a degree and work 55 hours a week yet can't afford to fix my teeth or my car or live somewhere even remotely comfortable while the people that decide how much I get paid and how much a house costs and whether or not to invest in functional public transport or healthcare would rather donate a trillion dollars to fund a foreign genocide than fix anything anywhere. And I'm on the more fortunate side of the bell curve.

And we'll never get to the world I was just reading about in my lifetime, even if everyone starts working toward it right now. And it feels like there's nothing I can do to even nudge things in the right direction.

I'm already in the dystopia.

It's the dreaming of better that angers me.

#literature #dystopia #utopia #solarpunk #hopepunk #anti capitalism #socialism #get me out of here #did nobody ever teach any of these bastards the golden rule

[void-thegod]

We need a new civilization.

#society #civilization #humanity #voidpunk #solarpunk #hopepunk #futurism #earth #climate change #democracy #socialism #universal healthcare #universal basic income #something much much better than this #i think we need to come up with something new #anarchy

[anistarrose]

I can't speak for everyone who's ever said some variation of "Disabilities will still exist under communism," and I'm sure that peeling back the intent of every such person to say it would reveal plenty of capitalist shills, true. But when disabled anti-capitalists such as myself say "Disabilities will still exist under communism," I cannot stress enough that a lot of us actually mean:

Accommodation and societal attitudes may play significant roles in the construction of disability, but are not a systemic "disability on/off switch" — I will remain chronically ill no matter how many sick days and how much free healthcare I have, for example.

An end to capitalism is a necessary condition, but not nearly sufficient condition, for the average disabled person to live with their best possible quality of life.

Corollary to 2: Communism (or any post-capitalist leftist system of your choice) is not necessarily mutually exclusive with systemic ableism.

A world where the hard work of dismantling capitalism is complete is not necessarily a world where the hard work of accommodating disabled people is complete by default.

Notice that none of these are arguments against the benefits, or urgency, of dismantling capitalism. But they are a frankly desperate plea for people to start imagining disabled people existing in their idealized post-capitalist utopias — and start seriously considering what disabled people's lives will look like in that world.

Sure, no one is forced to work a 9-to-5 to survive, and that's genuinely great. Five stars! But are the walkable cities and public transit accessible to wheelchairs and other assistive devices? Are people with allergies to all the environmentally friendly plant proteins still able to eat meat without jumping through hoops to find it, or having to "prove" their dietary need for it? Have medical ableism (and racism, and misogyny, and all other intersections) really been dismantled? Are people allowed to use single-use plastic, in forms that range from straws to syringes?

Are we, the disabled, just the acceptable collateral damage of your environmentally sustainable solarpunk utopia? Or is disabled liberation at least a consideration, but merely as a sidequest?

When I say "Disabilities will still exist under communism," it is not a defense of capitalism. It's a desperate plea for people to understand that overthrowing capitalism isn't the only thing on our plates here. It follows years of realizing the sheer magnitude to which so many leftist movements exclude me and my disabled siblings. It's a plea to start envisioning a future that includes us — a better future, that also gets better for people continuing to have disabilities.

#disability #ableism #this isn't in response to any particularly recent discourse (that i've seen in my curated bubble) #but something i've been mentally drafting for a while nonetheless