My brother pointed out to me that in last week’s episode of his podcast, Ezra Klein namechecked solarpunk in a blink-and-you-miss it mention:
“One common argument I heard on the left - Lina Khan made this point actually in our pages - was that this proved our whole paradigm of AI development was wrong. That we were seeing that we did not need all this compute, we did not need these giant companies, that this was showing a way towards a decentralized, almost solarpunk version of AI development, and in a sense the American system and imagination had been captured by, like, these three big companies.”
The context isn’t as interesting as the quote. He was talking about different approaches to developing strong AI. It’s only interesting because he used the term “solarpunk” in such a casual manner in a discussion that wasn’t about solarpunk or even fiction. It reveals that it’s in his vocabulary, and that he’s ingesting this in his media diet. For those who don’t know Klein, he’s a very popular writer and journalist whose politics roughly resemble a quieter version of Elizabeth Warren’s.
After hearing this, the thought occurred to me that what I’m witnessing is an idea spreading from a fringe group into a mainstream concept. Eventually, if it gets big enough with mainstream progressive liberals like Klein, I bet it’ll one day get discovered and made into a boogieman on the right.
I wonder how long that will take? When is the first time I’ll hear a clip of like, I dunno, Ben Shapiro shouting, ‘Have you heard about this new thing they call SOLARPUNK??? It’s crazy! It’s like… imagine a cyberpunk dystopia: but they want THAT with like, vines and TRANS PEOPLE everywhere! Some ruthless Soviet dictatorship but without even the cool cars or wonderful corporate innovation! It’s just TRAINS and GARDENS instead! Ulgh!! [eyes bugging out for the thumbnail image]’
That might be interesting. I think that this idea has a viral quality, so perhaps I can look forward to that in 2025 or 2026. What do you folks think?
I hope so. Although I’m not sure whether it is solarpunk or some other term under which the ideas will be popularized (eg. degrowth, eco-socialism, minor paradise, doughnut economy, ecological civilization). But I find it likely that solarpunk will be packaged together with communism, as communism, by the right. And demonized.
Hey, don’t threaten me with a good time ;)
I think that would honestly be great. One of the biggest problems I’ve seen with Democratic messaging in the last 5 years is that they repeat terms and insist that we should champion them - such as democracy - or revile them - such as authoritarianism - without recognizing an obligation to communicate what those words mean to our everyday lives. I want christian nationalists to be put in that situation:
‘You don’t understand! Solarpunk is communism!!!’
‘Well… I heard they want to give everyone food and shelter and education and healthcare for free. And build parks.’
‘Okay, yeah, but didn’t you hear me? It’s COMMUNISM!!’
‘Wait… is that what communism is? Giving me food and shelter for free?’
‘No! I mean, supposedly! But it isn’t! Look, you need to stop saying that you’d like food and shelter to be free and just agree to fear this word because I told you to! Just stop thinking fondly about living outside of capitalism! I mean it!’