this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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@Nacktmull @poVoq - "just". Solarpunk absolutely is a coping strategy.
That's the whole point.
It's a way to cope with this bullshit and get through it.
- cope /kōp/ (intransitive verb)
To contend with difficulties and act to overcome them
How would (or how do) *you* deal with a terrible world?
I very specifically:
- Imagine what a better world could be.
- Describe and discuss with others what a better world could and should be. Giving my ideas and hearing their's. Disagreeing with methods but agreeing on the overall goal to fight and strive for that better world
- Actively work towards that better world
- Comfort and support those who are working towards that better world
- Comfort and support those who are hurt by the current world
- Receive comfort and support from others so I can get through this current world
You're damned right it's a coping strategy.
What is there to do besides cope?
- Despair
- Give up and be destroyed
- Join the oppressors with a hope to not be destroyed and still be destroyed
Or... as you seem to be doing...
Lash out, not at the oppressors, but at those holding on to hope and those who are fighting the oppressors?
That is a thing you can do, certainly. And I bet it feels cathartic - spreading your disappointment and fear onto those who would have hope and find ways to quell their fear.
Please stop.
We are finding ways to cope. Dealing with the actual bad is bad enough. Dealing with folks like you who get in the way and bring others down makes it incredibly more difficult.
"just" a coping strategy.
@tinker
I shared your post, and in response I got a snippet from https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/208840291-the-serviceberry.
I'll try to type it up in following posts
@poVoq
@tinker @poVoq
As a botanist, I know that there is guidance from the world of fields and forests. Plant communities are changing and replacing one another all of the time, in a dynamic mosaic we know as ecological succession. Far from the stereotype of the “forest primeval,” plant communities are constantly in flux. From a bird’s-eye view, the “unbroken forest” is in fact a patchwork of stands of different ages and experience. [1/n]
@tinker @poVoq
Fires, landslides, floods, windstorms, outbreaks of insects, disease, and disasters of human origin disrupt the green blanket in unpredictable ways—and yet with a somewhat predictable response. Oftentimes a major disturbance that clears the former forest creates a gap, with full sun, disturbed soil, and plenty of resources, since the previous inhabitants are now gone. [2/n]
@tinker @poVoq
Such places are colonized by fast-growing species in high density, trying to take advantage of the transitory conditions. These pioneer species are opportunists, with traits that consume resources, crowd out others, and reproduce like crazy. It’s all “me, me, me,” investing only in their own exponential growth with no regard for the future, their relatives, or longevity. Sound familiar? [3/n]
@tinker @poVoq
It’s a field of fast-growing weeds, or a stand of aspens. It’s as if Euromericans, in the age of colonization and displacement of “old-growth cultures” are behaving like colonizing plants after a massive disturbance, dominating the landscape. But those colonizing plants find they cannot continue this rate of growth and resource extraction. They start to run out of resources, disease may attack the overdense populations, and competition begins to limit their growth. [4/n]
@tinker @poVoq
In fact, their behavior facilitates their own replacement. Their rampant growth captures nutrients and builds the more stable conditions in which their followers can flourish. Incrementally, they start to be replaced.
The ones who come next are different, growing more slowly in a resource-limited world. Stressful conditions incentivize nurturing relations of cooperation alongside competition. [5/n]
@tinker @poVoq
The extractive practices of the colonists must be replaced with reciprocity and replenishment if anyone is to survive. Investing in persistence, the new inhabitants are in it for the long haul. These communities have been called “mature” and sustainable, in contrast to the adolescent behavior of their predecessors. [6/n]
@tinker @poVoq
This transition from exploitation to reciprocity, from the individual good to the common good has been seen as a parallel to the transition that colonizing human societies must undergo, from hoarding to circulation, from independent to interdependent, from wounding to healing, if we are to thrive into the future. [7/7]
@tinker @Nacktmull @poVoq despair is a luxury. Hope is a discipline.