Great stuff!! A very thorough taxonomy of Doomers! By Kirk Hall, a leading voice in the Degrowth movement.
And a question, for those of us who identify as a Doomer (or Doomster): Which type(s) are you? I’ll share my answer at the end.
Those of you who know me, see if you can guess my type(s). 😉 I’ll post the answer later.
Thanks always Kirk for your wise words and emotional support to the Degrowth movement.
And now, without further ado, Kirk’s classification of Doomer/Doomsters;
“Many types of people get labelled doomers. What type are you?
“Sadly, many posts and comment adopt a false dichotomy just to get attention. Let’s face it, balanced articles are boring.
“Here is my humble attempt to list the types of Doomers. Many types overlap.
- The Overwhelmed. An understandable reaction. Like a rabbit in the spotlight frozen in fear. Unable to take action.
- The Wallower. Seems to enjoy the doom.
- The Humorous Doomer. Anything for a laugh.
- The Denier. Previously denied or downplayed climate change in order to carry on their comfortable life. Now they say it’s too late to do anything so they carry on their comfortable life.
- The Blamer. Puts all the blame on their chosen villain: governments, big business, fossil fuel companies, etc.
- The Conspiracy Theorist. Similar to the blamer but not only do they have their favourite villain but it’s all a giant plot.
- The Advocate. Advocates for their particular actions. Those actions will potentially make the predicament better or worse. Covers many types listed below.
- The Collapsologist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapsology
- The so-called Green Growther. Tech is the ‘solution’. They often aren’t doomers but, quite the opposite, but sometimes get labelled as such by fossil fuel enthusiasts.
- The Anarcho-primitivist.
- Deep Green Resistance. Advocates tearing down industrial society. Probably the same as Anarcho-primitivist.
- JustCollapse. Just Collapse is an activist platform dedicated to socio-ecological justice in face of inevitable and irreversible global collapse. Recognizes that there will be no social justice in an unplanned collapse.
- The Optimistic Degrowther. Acknowledges collapse while advocating for lots of good policies. Often downplays the problems of Degrowth.
- The Realistic Degrowther. Acknowledges collapse while advocating for lots of good policies. Happy to admit that the chances of widespread uptake are slim. Is happy to raise the many problems. Often gives the optimistic version of Degrowth to newcomers.
- The Localist. Focuses heavily on community preparation for collapse.
- The Prepper. Focuses on weapons and individual actions.
- The Scientist. Labelled doomers just for telling the truth.
- Other types of Doomer? What did I miss?”
Further exploration:
• You can also read the above post by Kirk on the public page “Degrowth — it’s urgent.” And if you like this post, you’ll enjoy the other posts on that public page.
• Responding to Rebecca Solnit’s recent article on Doomers, in The Guardian (Renaae Churches; medium.com): “This is the Doomster Way, the Way of Acceptance. We are in #collapse and if we refuse to accept this we risk making a bad situation much worse. … if we accept the reality of climate breakdown, we have a chance to make amends and save as much of the natural world as possible while we still have a relatively intact society with the social order to get things done. Think orderly descent — powering down the global enterprise.”
• PPS. My answers as promised. Which type am I? I’m lots of 3 (Humor Doomer), mainly 12 (Just Collapse), also 14 (Realistic Degrowther) and 15 (localist).