First - I must thank you for responding, and I do think we agree a bit more than you think, and I respect your viewpoint.

Collective action is needed to face, address, and solve our problems - especially climate change. It needs to manifest imminently. The solutions to our problems are usually simple, as you suggest, but translating those solutions into physical reality requires collaboration and coherence. We simply aren’t meaningfully collaborating in ways that change our collective trajectory, nor are we coherent.

Many believe voting is enough, many argue to me that organizing around established political parties will eventually change them for the better (translating to real change at some point), and many believe that change or progressive policy isn’t popular enough to merit consideration. These viewpoints are common in political spaces, and they show me that people don’t understand the dire urgency of our collective situation - even if they are politically active. This isn’t just about the rise of fascism and individuals like Trump - it’s about our fresh water, it’s about our agriculture and ability to grow food and eat, it’s about whether or not we are able to be comfortable broadly (or even live at all on an increasingly inhospitable planet).

I believe that simply demanding change or simply voting every few years, in the absence of a larger movement, isn’t enough. Neither is online discourse enough, nor is local action and collaboration enough.

Every action and person plays a role, but I feel it is critical for more people to understand who currently wields the power to shape our societies, and the radical change that is needed to take back our collective power. One expert or leader isn’t going to save us. Even a wave of new, progressive leaders or experts rising to prominence won’t be able to save us. Most people think they can still ignore the elephant in the room - out of control and broken economies. People are about a half of a century or so too late to seriously advocate for reform, and many don’t realize this simple fact - myself included from time to time.

As you loosely suggest, collective action requires us to face uncomfortable truths, and I feel it is important for others to understand that our comfort has been weaponized against us, so the few can profit and lord over us.

Our societies have been shaped around unhealthy and unsustainable systems to enable our comfort; but where we mostly differ is my belief that there are already many solutions all around us, just waiting to be watered and allowed to grow to enable our comfort. The switch just needs flipped, but first people need to realize the switch is even there. And I believe it does take some level of discourse to come to those understandings, despite the many decades that we’ve already had to discuss these issues. I’m not saying we need to wait for anything, but more productive discourse and greater collaboration will help make these solutions more obvious and clear for the majority of people, myself included.

I don’t think many billions need to die for change to manifest, I don’t feel like change overshadowed by violence (organized or otherwise) is desirable to wish for or is necessary, and I don’t think just talking about what options we have is enough.

There has to be a way forward that doesn’t result in total chaos and destruction, and there has to be a way forward beyond accepting that only unsustainable production and fossil fuels can grant us comfort. It is important to realize that fossil fuel use is an addiction, but I don’t believe the comfort we are used to is unsustainable if we put our heads and hands together.

Maybe people do need to become uncomfortable to also come to some of the realizations we generally have, but I don’t want to believe that is necessary.