extraction and periphery

#mining #monoculture #mafia #landuse #water #waterrights #waterscarcity

#chile
https://soundcloud.com/user-12248734

#monoculture #waterscarcity

@exaltresearch.bsky.social

water and avocados 🥑
https://podcasts.apple.com/fi/podcast/exalt-podcast/id1499621252?i=1000770122613

RE: https://social.lol/@untilted/116505787605867037

I feel like doing a Part 2 on this today, so I will.

When I appreciate something that wasn't around when I was alive, I'm more drawn to the actual qualities it may possess.

Aesthetics, design, significance to its given target audience (e.g. cultural, social, historical), and other types of appeal.

I don't make comparative judgements to other types of media, modern or classic, that have little to do with what I like just to make a point about how subjectively "better" it was back then.

There is no superiority to assert, unless I'm making an objective and reality/fact-based statement about something that has been observed by many people.

I don't wonder why more younger (or older) generations aren't into it, as I respect the possibility that maybe they'll come to appreciate it organically on their own.

I'm appreciating that aforementioned something rooted in what the thing is.

The problem, however, is that many people lose sight of this, and grow to end up defending a version, a feeling - a vibe, if you will - of the things of the past they experienced. They end up seeing things through glasses with rose or rainbow tints. It becomes less about the object(s) itself and more about their emotional investment in them. Whether it was about a sense of better stability, simpler times, etc.

The issue isn't the emotional investment itself. Emotional investment is a good thing. The issue is that most people take it to nonconstructive and unhealthy levels by claiming it's superior compared to what we have today, regardless of whether that is the case objectively or not.

The truth is, however, when they assert superiority like this, they're often just protecting their own emotional investment, because something newer and better than what they have feels like a threat to them personally. Regardless of whether it poses an actual threat or not. (to clear things up using examples: I would be more able to understand why someone older would be threatened by artificial intelligence due to its documented harmful effects on people and the environment, compared to someone older who's threatened by something like solar energy replacing fossil fuels and oils)

• It's why I could admit to liking one or more old songs that my parents used to listen to back home, and they hear it as validation of their nostalgia, not me simply enjoying something not modern.
• Conversely, when they make sweeping claims about how the music from their era was "so much better back then" compared to now (especially in a derogatory manner), attempting to push back on their arguments comes across as an opportunity to dismiss me at best or an attack on them personally at worst.
• They think I'm attacking or dismissing their lived experience. I'm not.

Another thing that adds on to this controversy is that I tend to happen to be drawn to older (not necessarily super historical or ancient, mostly retro) things, and so there's a power dynamic going on, where certain older folk will use nostalgia as a claim to authority whenever I attempt to question whether their nostalgia is rooted in genuine appreciation or a power play or just willful ignorance of the harsh realities back then. Think something like "Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch! I was there when it was written" from Narnia, but different. I also sometimes may get painted as dismissive of their perspective simply by valuing what they are invested in on its own merits rather than accepting their framing at face value. (I also realize that I myself may not be constructive about this)

My belief is not that nostalgia is inherently irrational or lacks any basis. I just recognize that it's often shaped by childhood perspective and incomplete understanding. That's a technical fact. However, I also recognize that it holds a deep significance to many, and I will not invalidate that nor do I ever want my words or actions to have that effect on anyone.

Still, it shouldn't be considered patronizing or condescending to recognize its technical limits openly. It would only really be so if I solely did that without being mindful of its universal meaning. In fact, I am acknowledging both and more.

I agree that the "reflexive cynic" stance, where asserting that things have always been bad and that it's foolish to have any longing for the past because that was always tainted too isn't a productive one to hold, and I do not hold such a stance.

But how is constantly telling the younger generations that their era is the worst, their cultural products are trash, and that they're doomed any better? Even if it's rooted in objective fact, that alone doesn't actually help young people improve.

People generally don't improve by way of third-party harsh criticism of their present actions without any real actionable solutions. They just double down. And even then, some will double down despite the solutions anyway, because they're reacting to your tone and the way you're saying things. It's not inherently "tone-policing" to point that out. It's basic psychology, no matter how much you believe the old "sticks and stones" adage to be true.

If you're going to critique a generation that's still establishing its place in today's world, do so with the same nuance and empathy you'd expect from others who observe your nostalgia, or your remarks will sound like hollow dismissal rather than sincere concern to that generation.

#nostalgia #monoculture #GenZ

I realized that I haven't written anything significant in a while, so I just want to break the silence with something that's been on my mind for a long time. It's regarding all this talk of nostalgia and "the death of the monoculture" (which is often just a way to say that you miss cultural homogeneity) and all that.

It's not that I'm completely oblivious to the mechanics of nostalgia. Rather, I have long been perplexed as to why I seem so immune to a sentiment that seems so universally pervasive, especially in American society. But now I do, and so I would like to share a little bit about me and my childhood.

My childhood was shaped by the culture of the 2000s and early 2010s. I can recall a handful of pleasant moments from those years, but there are also memories I would rather forget. We had some good entertainment back then, some good music, games, etc. and we also had some of the bad too. The Internet back then was full of more varied surprises. We had things like the Nintendo DS, the Disney website which used to have a whole drawing thing where kids could make comics with wolves and stuff, certain computer edutainment games on CD-ROM I used to play, and more. Those experiences were part of the broader cultural landscape that defined the turn of the century.

But if I focus on my personal experience with all the stuff that was available to me at the time, if I focus on what I think and not what the broader so-called "monoculture" of the time thinks, I honestly would hesitate to call the decades of my childhood nostalgic in a meaningful way that gives me a lot of personal comfort and reverence for them. The American pop culture of the 2000s feels, at least to me, oddly unremarkable. It occupies this weird liminal space that neither disappoints me nor leaves a lasting emotional imprint. The early 2010s, particularly the radio‑friendly pop hits of that period, rank slightly higher in my personal hierarchy, but even those moments are only really modestly memorable.

As a child, many things have captured my attention, yet few have endured as the deep, resonant touchstones that typical nostalgic narratives highlight. Some exceptions to this I can immediately think of at the moment include the Super Mario 64 DS and Nintendogs games (haven't touched a console game in over 15 years), that Kid Pix (?) design software thing (which I haven't played for longer than that), maybe Club Penguin (I don't even remember my old username anymore), and a lot of the music I used to listen to, most of whose titles and lyrics I no longer remember.

At the time, music played a larger role in my life than anything else, before I discovered art. I listened primarily to FM radio, hearing songs from artists such as Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Adele, Kesha, Pink, and Jessie J. Because I rarely focused on lyrics, artist names, or song titles, I retain only vague recollections of melodies and hooks, at least for most of the songs I really liked back then that barely got any time on the radio. And because of FM radio's inherent repetitive nature, I got easily bored of a lot of the songs that were played over and over, and I eventually drifted into the EDM scene, especially dubstep and drum & bass, which was prominent at the time, before I moved on to other different genres that resonated more with me. In hindsight, the early 2010s stand out as the most memorable musical period for me.

But, like... that's it? I struggle to articulate any strongly positive feelings about the rest of the 2000s and 2010s. I personally don't rank things like entertainment based on what decade they're from, yet the 2000s strike me as particularly mediocre. Apart from the titles that immediately captured my interest, there were few video games that held my attention. The cartoons, movies, and TV shows I watched offered occasional moments of interest, but the limited selection left me feeling resigned and underwhelmed. I did enjoy most animated films but never truly connected with live‑action movies; they seemed dull and unengaging. That effect still sort of lingers to today, expect now I recently find that I can't stand most of today's animation. I think I started losing much enthusiasm for animation around the 2010s when shows like The Amazing World of Gumball and movies such as Frozen came out (for some reason), and I noticed it declined more sharply when Disney began remaking its animated classics as live‑action films. The growing hype around anime and adult animation in the West added to my disengagement, though I do appreciate certain Studio Ghibli works.

I suspect this pattern reflects within myself a gradual loss of the curiosity and excitement that once accompanied new fiction, even though I was never really at all that much into most modern fiction anyway. Modern entertainment, for as long as I can remember, has failed to capture my interest, and so this has led me to gravitate towards the classics. I enjoy 1970s rock and 1990s dance music, and at one point I used to find comfort in way older shows like Dennis the Menace and The Beverly Hillbillies. I could never tolerate a single crime drama show, though somehow I was able to tolerate more procedural fare such as Dragnet. I also have a bit of a thing for older regional (mostly foreign) children's entertainment and music, which I am most drawn to, but that's a story for another day.

Notably, all of these preferences predate my own existence; I was not physically present for those eras. I don't feel like most people would consider this true nostalgia due to this fact, so I think it is simply a matter of personal taste in my case, an affinity for certain styles and works that happen to be older than me, if you will. I'm also not one of those people who gatekeep certain entertainment preferences based on how old they are and how popular they were back then, I've run into those types and they tend to be somewhat obnoxious about it.

I think that's why I tend to disengage from these kinds of conversations, as most of it tends to focus on how superior it is to present-day entertainment, and not so much on the merits of the works by themselves. Yes, it can be perceived that there was a drop of quality when big entertainment studios, publishers, etc. started to move towards immediately grabbing the audience's attention for shock value and heavily rely on things like CGI with inconsistent effort. But, despite all my lack of enthusiasm, I would never make such statements about inferiority or superiority unless it's actually objective, and even then, all opinions on entertainment are subjective anyway.

In short, I don't really have much nostalgia for the 2000s and 2010s with respect to my own immediate lived experience and limitations during this period. But I don't have an issue with nostalgia stuff in general, just the way it's presented and delivered by most people.

#nostalgia #monoculture #GenZ

'The dark, loamy dirt has been called #Ukraine’s “black gold,” and it’s some of the most fertile on earth [...] But environmental groups and farmers’ advocates have warned that the large-scale #industrialMonoculture practiced by #agribusiness threatens to degrade this prized soil through intensive harvesting and overuse of #fertilizers and #pesticides.'

https://thebaffler.com/latest/betting-the-farm-kruzman
#agriculture #monoculture #BigAg #industrialAgriculture #ecocide #privatisation

I love the bold #colours and the contrast between blue and yellow when the rapeseed is in bloom.
But there's also something that makes me feel vaguely uneasy about these bright fields ... an awareness, I think, of the industrial nature of these agricultural monocultures and the effects on the ecosystem. I also had it in my head that rapeseed was mostly GMO, but apparently not in the UK.

#photography #landscapes #ecosystem
#landscapephotography #tree #tracks #naturephotography #ukcountryside
#fieldnotes #agriculture
#monoculture

So, this is a timely topic! From the latest issue of #InTheseTimes! The connection between Amazon Deforestation and CEO land grabs in the Western United States -- bought with blood money!

Fortress Yellowstone

The #UltraRich are fortifying themselves inside one of America’s last intact #ecosystems—with money plundered from ecological #SacrificeZones around the world

by Joseph Bullington, April 6, 2026

Excerpt: "Some of these ultra-rich ranch owners celebrate the natural beauty of their land and are ardent conservationists when it comes to the Yellowstone ecosystem. In digging into their business dealings, however, I found that most of these landowners accumulated their wealth through industries that help drive the destruction of nature elsewhere. Their ranks include private equity investors, oil and gas billionaires and real estate developers. "

[...]

"Now, instead of forests full of fruits and animals and mandioca clearings, industrial soy plantations press in on #Açaizal like a closing fist. There is no escape from the onslaught of #monoculture. Manoel shows me where rows of broken cornstalks run right up against the edge of the community’s soccer field, which the soy farmers also want to plow. The soybeans and corn, like those in the United States, are genetically engineered to withstand the #herbicides and #pesticides the farmers dump on them to beat back weeds and pests, but the chemicals drift, says Manoel, making it impossible to grow fruits and vegetables and #mandioca nearby. The streams run low and full of poison."

Read more:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/yellowstone-billionaires-conservation-montana-deforest-amazon

#Billionaires #UberRich #CEOs #AmazonDeforestation #BigAg #SoybeanProduction #IndustralSoybeans #PoisoningTheAmazon #GMOs #Monoculture #Deforestation #Cargill #HomeDepot #SoyPlantations #SaveTheForest #SaveTheRainforest #Earth4All #DSA #DemocraticSocialism #ReadItBeforeItsBanned #TaxTheRich #NoTaxHavens #EatTheRich #YeetTheRich #BigCorporations

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V6pgZKVcKpw

If you only watch one video on cyber security this year, make it this one

#infosec #informationsecurity #security #computersecurity #internetsecurity #vulnerability #bugs #bugbounty #cybersecurity #monoculture #cyber