I don’t know where else to put this. I’m sorry if it’s in the wrong place and will move it if it’s not appropriate here.
Every time I read anything from so-called solarpunks, it reads like slightly left of centre ravings of doomsday preppers. They seem to love many of the same fascist talking points. For example, individualism self-sufficiency , which sounds a lot like the frontier cowboy fantasies of right-wing nutters. They promote what essentially is subsistence farming, which is a terrible way to live. There’s a reason this kind of shit leads to famine in developing countries. An almost enthusiastic fantasy surrounding primitism and the loss of technology. There are so many issues, I could go on. Unless I’m missing something (possible) I don’t see much appealing about solarpunk because it seems to have a delusional nostalgia for the “good old days”, much in the way conservativism does.
Is it really as crackpot as it sounds? If not, what am I missing?
I am not one of these types, but I did want to ask you if people wanting to grow their own crop always brings up these critical views for you.
I personally think “self-sufficiency” (may be the wrong term) in vegetable gardening is a great way for people to increase resilience against famine.
Others have pointed out the anti-consumerism angle - for small scale food gardeners, non-chemical pest deterrance becomes viable in a way impossible for manufacturers of scale, while they can still benefit from any increases in health of the food stock through both traditional selection and genetics research. Very not-Luddites, in that example.
I would also say - and it is possible that I just haven’t checked in on solarpunks recently enough, and I am missing something - but I always thought it was supposed to be the positive answer to doomerism, and to systemic or social collapse, and to the endless barrage of climate collapse news many of us have grown up with. With that in mind, I would question how much the aesthetics and how much individual examples may distort the overall perception of a movement or community.
Overall, is it an obsession with primitivism? I don’t think you are completely wrong. Aesthetics have a major impact on people, so it seems reasonable to me that you are reacting to a dizzying mix of politics and motivations, a lot of c/collapse -grade “this stuff is all gonna fall apart”, and maybe seeing some false positives based on your past experiences having to deal with fringe politics.
Hopefully all of that made any sort of sense