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Onward to Uranus (i.imgur.com)

submitted 1 year ago by rastro@sh.itjust.works to c/funny@sh.itjust.works

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[–] uniqueid198x@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I actually soft hate every version of this meme, even the cute ones (this is cute). The planet is not endangered by human activity. The most endangered being from human activity is humans. We need to think of fixing this less as a favor to the planet spirit and more as a basic survival issue.

Plus the whole "we are the virus" framing smacks of Malthus and just opens the door to "which people are most the virus and who do we get rid of?"

[–] rastro@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I get what you’re saying, but I think memes like this are trying to do a few things:

frame mankind’s unique ability to think beyond just the interest of self to drive a sense of common purpose (i.e., increase our chance of survival and avoid self destruction).
to that end, evoking the construct of a helpless and fragile planet as the calling to fight for self preservation as a species probably works better since all signs point to our inability to act on behalf of a greater good for mankind.
the imagery and framing of this sort provides subliminal messaging that we collectively and individually have a power to do something about it (humans can create the problem as well as the solution). Honestly, even if it weren’t true, it feels better to think we can affect change rather than not.

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