A Climate Sociologist Explains the Green New Deal (Pt 1/2)

Daniel Aldana Cohen, a sociologist and writer for Jacobin Magazine, explains why the Green New Deal must harness and expand the power of the public sector, and why its proponents cannot cut deals with the fossil fuel industry

[amyjones]

Farmers should be rewarded for using regenerative and organic practices while being fined for using pesticides and herbicides instead of the other way around.

[almaggie]

I wish that this would air on every major network we the people own the air waves it's time to take them back i hope the next P.OTUS will do this we need this information great job by you guys thanks

[fearlessway]

You vote for the system you want with your consumption $.
This is lost on many who like to blame capitalism or free markets for the problem we have today. Be accountable and responsible for your own choices and the system will change... keep buying new cell phones every year and think spending money and not saving is good, and nothing will get fixed.

Millennial's are removed from being savers, they are the most irresponsible consumers we've had in generations, since the roaring 20's.

[richdiana]

What's not exciting is telling the masses the amount of material sacrifices desperately needed. Use bait and switch like the Republicans.

[daddygad]

A "climaate socioligist" huh? People need to read this proposal for a "green new deal" or at least watch Naomi Klein's breakdown of it. Its basically a proposal to establish a commitee of 15 people like a soviet polit bureau with zero accountability who will oversee a massive mobilization in a way that is completely undemocratic and totally centralized. It leaves the door wide open for handing over the economic boon of this "new deal" to a bunch of giant tech companies and while it may seem to uplift some marginalized groups it will come at the cost of basically everyone's sovereignty. Its not the grass roots movement we need and it makes me angry that the "green new deal" phrase has been stolen from the Green party who originated it and appropriated by would be technocrats. Meanwhile what happened to the green party? Seems it has been all but crushed along with most of its best ideas. THIS green new deal IS nothing more than a trojan horse for a massive power grab with some candy sprinkled in to make it seem nice and of course AOC puts a nice face on it that everyone can trust because she says all the right thing is ethnic and is social media savvy, but why isn't the machine destroying her like they have done to the GREEN party but instead seeming to widely embrace her? People need to be highly skeptical about optics when it comes to legislation and proposals to create new rules in congress which is what this is. Its NOT legistlation its a proposal for a new process that pretty much just circumvents the entire government and places the fate of ev eryone in the hands of 15 people.

[johnhirtle]

This is the psy-op friendly face put on the UN's Agenda 21. There is nothing good or realistic about this propaganda campaign. Research Agenda 21. This is the "New World Order" zeroing in on finalizing their elimination of national sovereignty, religion, racial diversity and the family unit, and a One World Totalitarian Government with ultimate consolidated power over all. The elimination of private property is a priority with the stated reason being that the public are not qualified to live in an "energy responsible" way, and thus the government must "manage" all environmental resources and the populace must be moved from outlying areas into "smart cities" where they can be tightly managed and controlled. The REAL cause of "climate change" - Global Aerosol Geoengineering - that is admitted, documented and has been ongoing with disastrous consequences for decades, is NOT MENTIONED ONCE.

[yorkpa]

These concepts are as insane as concepts from the far right. Whatever happened to common sense and moderation?

[barbarajohnson]

Where is the carbon footprint of the military complex challenged????

[bumblebee]

The job guarantee is a macroeconomic stabilizer.

[dancisinglunalight]

Thank you for asking the question about consumption.

[merbst]

I like this guy's appeal to the power hungry politicians "Those who led the large public agencies gained the most power by helping the most people."

[sirmayse]

I dont think these people have any clue about how an economy works and what freedom that our Constitution has afforded us.

[captainjax]

I think this should be talked more in main stream, so people can understand what the GND means to everyone, its seems like none of these talking points are being debated or talked about, people instead knit pick and talk badly about GND because majority of them don't understand and jump to conclusions like they are going to loose their hamburgers, cars and planes etc ... Great discussion guys!

[davidfaubion]

Economy and ecology have the same Greek entomological root and origin. Both are moral philosophy and absolute science.

[d.russellmoros]

That we need to address anthropogenic caused biosphere destruction and disruption, poverty, the lack of affordable housing issue, unemployment, etc. is obvious. But, attempting to explain these urgent social issues through the prism of racialist conceptions is not helpful 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 maybe one's intent is to create confusion around these very issues.

Jacobin magazine that this bourgeois sociologist Daniel Aldana Cohen writes for is a publication associated with the DSA and thus Democrats. Socialists don't use identity politics/racial analysis but class politics/class analysis. Host nor guest want to transfer society's productive forces into producer's hands but to let them stay in the hands of their current owners/controllers i.e. capitalists, land owners, bankers, etc. Host and guest want the ruling class to throw some money and resources to their particular constituencies; 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 want privilege, authority, luxury too. Identity politics doesn't address the crucial question of who controls social production, appropriation and distribution. 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 organises these necessary aspects of society today in the USA 𝘯𝘰𝘵 the actual producers. You all ignore class politics and utilise identity politics exactly like Democrats/the ruling class to confuse the central issue of who should control society's productive forces the producers, or the present owners who are the exact group of owners responsible for pushing us to the brink of ecological suicide. This analysis and prescriptions are bourgeois reformist subterfuge.

2:05...most specifically you can redress the sort of savage economic and racial inequalities in this country..."

Capitalists and capitalist relations of production, appropriation and distribution, commodity production by wage labour for surplus value/profit created today's social reality here in the USA.

2:16..."prioritizes communities that have suffered disinvestment and pollution in the past that combines a really significant increase in social services"...

"disinvestment and pollution" = capitalist activity and the result of capitalist relations

3:40..."the fossil fuel industry is the number one barrier to climate change politically"...

Yeah, and social analysis (identity politics/racialism) such as this is a barrier to revolutionary class consciousness that's really needed here in the USA within the working class.

5:01..."take advantage of this opportunity to start to redress some of the massive inequalities of race and social class and gender and nationhood and on"...

"massive inequalities" created by capitalist social relations

5:25..."nothing has polled in climate policy as well as the Green New Deal historically"...

Historically? AOC only introduced it a month or two ago. Oh, that's right, the Green Party, Jill Stein has run on a Green New Deal (not AOC and the Dem's GND) since 2008. It does have a history but host and professor conveniently leave that fact out.

13:18..."the New Deal in many ways preserved patriarchal social relations"...

The New Deal "preserved" capitalist social relations. Is this the kind "analysis" you teach your students?

16:48..."housing guarantee"...

There's no mention of a "housing guarantee" in AOC's Resolution. It states:

providing all people of the United States with—
(i) high-quality health care;
(ii) affordable, safe, and adequate
housing;

[MrJojowasaman]

A good concept, good policy, but how do we get there?

[davidschlessinger]

a climate sociologist. Amazing job title

[AdmiralDarius]

I don't really like it when you combine sexism and racism issues with the green new deal. those things are important for sure but they are not an existential issue like climate change. let's just survive the climate change and then we have an eternity to solve other things.

[marthamayo]

Please tell us what issue of Jacobin, where to get it, show us the actual magazine in which we can find the information. Thanks for explaining this. I have not found any other news outlet that explains the GND - So important for us to know~! Please also ad links to articles that will expand our understanding.

[davidfaubion]

Industry and the market can only lead the way forward in a marginal step approach. That is far too slow. The New Deal suggests the pace we need and of course the directions to and from the two real centers of power.