Tomato plants. Pet fur. Orange blossom. Generic institution bathroom cleaner. Seaweed. My partner’s clean breath

I think this is a great ethical question!

Do you think the fable of the boy who cried wolf is in the same ballpark of conundrum?

In the sense that the kid overtly chooses to do the morally wrong thing -a thing that is universally socially damaging and stressful for the group - and eventually sympathy runs out and they leave him to be harmed?

I think there’s a lot of cool questions to be discussed in what you said.

What does it mean to deserve something?

What does it mean to be the person who gives someone something negative they ‘deserve’?

And my personal question would be - are there any bystanders in this situation and what’s their moral duty?

My gut instinct is a big tough guy “yeah fuck 'em”.

That of course elicits specific situations for me, like maybe the person is very high functioning autistic so they appear to be good at communicating but they’re not and can’t be held responsible for their actions in the same way as a neuro typical person…

I’d like to answer this question for situations where we’re just talking about people who are broadly speaking capable of being responsible and accountable for what they say.

I always see people saying oh it’s not worth it, solar won’t generate enough, it won’t work. I know it’s area-dependant but this comment gives me hope… I’d love to have a little eco flow to do things like charge phones or small batteries (if even that’s possible at 50/60°N in a flat… I have a window box and some ledges maybe I can put something small on).

This comment makes me hopeful it makes it sound like it’s not nuts to want to do this… Can you comment on what this general consensus of ‘there’s no point’? Obviously, you think it’s worth it! I’m hoping they’re just dooming

Again, those are real problems that money can’t solve

The important word in that sentence was “most”.

No, no, that would come under “real problem” because money can’t solve it.

Kindness, curiosity and a firm belief in treating everyone like they are actual real human beings who can do what they want. It’s important to ask people why they do things.

Anarchist with a small ‘a’ (that is, never going to be vegan, and I’ve had a managerial position [no, I don’t think anarchism means no leaders but I do feel gross about taking part in the paramilitary office structure, and how much I loved the money and status and power]).

The controversial one is ’if you have disposable income, your day-to-day problems won’t be real problems’. Most problems are not real problems because money addresses them. Existential, emotional difficulty? Great! You can afford to go to therapy whilst still not suffering any real day to day problems because you have the money 👍.

I’m also fed up of weird consumerist attitudes around ‘if I dont get to do everything I want, I’m struggling for money 🥺 I’m poor’

That needs to go fucking yesterday.

In the sink?