#solarpunk ideals

[solarpunkcast]

Is there a solarpunk masterpost I can read to find out what all of this is about? I followed this blog out of curiousity and I’m kind of confused as to what kind of ideology this blog supports and what kind of world it wishes to create, if that makes any sense.

there’s really no masterpost though i have some pages 

https://solarpunkcast.tumblr.com/whysolarpunk

https://solarpunkcast.tumblr.com/solarpunkers

https://solarpunkcast.tumblr.com/post/161395804871/what-can-i-do-solarpunk-edition

the original notes toward a manifesto: https://hieroglyph.asu.edu/2014/09/solarpunk-notes-toward-a-manifesto/

i call myself an ecosoc/ecocom but honestly it’s “left wing whateverworksism” at this point. power to the people, fire to the prisons, trans rights are human rights, black lives matter. I don’t want marginalized people left behind in the future I imagine, because there’s zero reason for them to not be standing with us when it happens.

solarpunk doesn’t have one singular ideology, but it needs to be anti-capitalist and pro-human at its core so it has a very leftist slant. the world we want to see is one where people don’t struggle to survive, where they don’t live in fear because of their identity, where technology works for us not to control us, and where capitalists are no longer destroying the earth.

It’s also about choosing hope, even when faced with the dire realities of the climate crisis. Because millions of people around the world aren’t working to change things for nothing.

I’ll let Pete close this one out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVcWEtFXwnc

[solarpunkcast]

Afro-solarpunk

When I first started this blog, I made an intro post about solarpunk and related movements to it. Though it is not limited to this particular futurism, I named afrofuturism as a sister movement that would have an inevitable intersection with solarpunk.

On July 23 2019, there was a panel about exactly this topic! The panel moderator has also written two short essays on these genres, and how they should work together to form something greater.

Here’s an intro blurb:

Afrofuturism and solarpunk have been around long enough to have met in a crowded SOHO bar and taken a selfie together. Yet here we are. What follows is an examination of the barriers between the two and how we might break them. But first, let’s get better acquainted with our subjects on their own terms. This essay, part one, will explore Afrofuturism: the name, the need, its position within or adjacent to science fiction, and some of its characteristics that I believe make for a fruitful pairing. The following essay, part two, will do the same with solarpunk, try to understand the barriers, and discuss possibilities for bringing these subgenres together.

Part 1: Elements of Afrofuturism

The arc of history does not naturally bend towards justice. Neither does the trajectory of science fiction. Both must be bent. Producing and disseminating Afrofuturist stories and integrating them with sci-fi are integral to that great feat of emotional labor. However, there is no just future built atop (or buried under) the dystopian wreckage of an environment in freefall. Make way for Afro-solarpunk.

Part 2: Social Justice is Survival Technology

Despite diverse admins, you have to scroll pretty deep into the membership before you count more than ten black faces in these platforms and communities. The Facebook group actually has a breakaway called “Solarpunk But With Less Racism.” And while, relative to mainstream sci-fi, people of color are overrepresented as main characters in solarpunk, the majority of authors who write them are not. It is difficult to see how this explicitly anti-racist movement can develop without direct engagement with those whose collective recent experience involves pulling themselves off the pointy end of Western utopic aspirations. The solarpunk anti-racist mission is in grave danger otherwise, and there are real-world consequences.

...If the “solar” stands for hope, then the “punk” part of the equation is the kernel of open source programming that maintains the genre’s anti-racist,  pro-social justice drive, despite the inherent pressures of the (mostly affluent, White, English-speaking) community in which it was created. For solarpunk to grow into what it truly wants to be, it needs Afrofuturism. 

Part 2 is a very good explanation as to why solarpunk is not compatible with things like cottagecore, green capitalism, and other utopian dreams. We should instead be reaching out to marginalized creators and futurists of color in order to properly build an anti-racist, decolonial genre.

[solarpunkcast]

Hello friends and comrades! Something to show solidarity and support with your fellow humans can start with a simple greeting. If you have Muslim co-workers or schoolmates, help them feel more at ease by showing them their language isn't unwelcome. Especially if you live in the US, we have no official language! We have to meet people halfway if we expect them to know an entire second language. And knowing simple greetings is the least we can do.

[solarpunkcast]

Solarpunk should and will explicitly include space for Muslim and Jewish faith. Solidarity and Love to my cousins today and all days. You are not alone.

[solarpunkcast]

You can either choose to be mad at everyone else, or be mad for everyone else.

One of those choices helps no one, not even yourself.

[solarpunkcast]

why is it so revolutionary to want to care about and help each other out?

why is it that talking about providing basic needs for one another is such a radical idea, when we have the technology to easily and simply accomplish it? why is it that solarpunk is “utopian hippy crap” because we’ve based our ideals around loving and supporting one another? nothing is ever accomplished without cooperation, and life feels meaningless without love.

[solarpunkcast]

Hey so umm...all of us on the left need to watch this and gain some mf perspective, thanks.