Kyval

Nah. You were right. There’s nothing we can do about it so why bother trying? Guess I’ll start rolling coal, trowing my trash directly into the river, and not voting at all as my impact means nothing. I’d also say let’s celebrate but it’s not worth it to start small get together outside that our neighbors might join us for the festivities so we might as well just cough ourselves to sleep.

That’s exactly the response that I’d be going for as a pro-oil propagandist: Nothing you can do matters! The government (the only entity that can rein in these corps though regulation) won’t listen to you so don’t even bother to vote!

People who pay attention to their carbon footprint are much, much more likely to vote for candidates that support climate change infinitives. Many don’t see it as blaming themselves, but as a roadmap on how to do things better. Again, everyone starts somewhere. For many people, that starting point is their own impact, how ever so small.

I agree but, again, if they want to spread propaganda that they think it benefits them but, in reality, it only hurts them in the long run, I’m not going to stop them.

Getting some uncaring person to the level of going after oil companies and billionaires doesn’t come at a flip of the switch. It’s a process that starts with small actions, like these, and can lead to them attempting bigger actions. “If I can make an impact, my family/social circle can make a larger impact, getting Big Company to do something similar will make a massive impact”.

The Perosnal Carbon Footprint and similar small scale activism has done more to inspire new climate change activists than most things in recent years. There is no logical way this helps the oil companies. If anything, it hastens their decline. If what you said is true about them being behind the personal carbon footprint, they really fucked up. The fastest way to change a systematic issues is to give people hope that it can change at all, even if their individual change at the begining is negligible.

Meh, and I’ll get downvoted to hell for this but getting people to care about an issue is the only way to bring about real change. Showing how they could actually make a difference, no matter how small, on their own power is the first baby step in the process. If this is anti-climate propaganda, it is an absolutely terrible choice that has and continues to backfire. If I was a corporate propagandist, I’d be telling everyone how they cant do anything about it so why try.

That’s pretty much what emo/scene was back in the mid 2000s. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

how many of these do you think will be on the road 20 years from now?

While I agree with the basic premise of your argument, this isn’t the knock you think it is. The majority of passenger cars won’t be on the road in 10 years, let alone 20. Between poorly designed cheap econo-cars, people who want the latest new thing, and people who abuse their car (insanely long commutes, deferring maintenance, etc), they just don’t last that long on average. I rarely see a 2013 model or earlier let alone a 2003 or eariler.

Doesn’t change expectations of others for you to respond to work emails or other shit at all hours.

That was still a thing before the internet/cellphones. My dad would receive phone calls at home at all hours back in the 90s and he was just a low level manager. He just pretended to not be home. When work gave him a cell phone, he would just turn it off when he left work and pretend his phone died.