otherwise well-meaning leftists¶

Really sick of otherwise well-meaning leftists talking about "science" as some western chauvinist, inherently capitalist enterprise. Science is a tool for understanding the natural world. It can and has been done by anyone, whether they have gone through "the system" or not. And if you are truly committed to that path of understanding, it leads you--just like a committed investigation of history or sociology--to radicalism. Hence the mass of scientists screaming at the top of their lungs that the only way to stop climate change is to end capitalism. We don't often see radicalized scientists, for the same reason we don't see radicalized historians or sociologists. Whether or not you make it through the gauntlet of academia with your morals unscathed, the system of information dissemination is still controlled by capital. We could lazily refer to this as "mainstream media," but it goes much further than mass news outlets. Capital screens which books get published, which research gets grants, which politicians stand a chance of getting elected, and which experts they listen to. Capitalists see the problem of biosphere collapse and even when they do acknowledge that the system that empowers them is the cause, their instinct is to figure out ways to maintain their power first, and then, if possible, address the symptoms of the climate change disease. They use their tremendous resources and prestige to flood the "marketplace of ideas" with fake solutions. Finagling the tax code, market-based solutions, feel-good consumer options... They launder all these irrelevant ideas through a multi-billion dollar PR industry. None of that is science. The science is clear. End the whole capitalist project, or end human society.