- Oct 2020
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www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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the plastic soup in which we swim.
More humor, play on words
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confused, bamboozled and almost powerless – and corporate power has gone to great lengths to persuade us to see ourselves this way.
He makes a very good point that the reason why it seems so confusing that us as consumers should have to deal with this problem is that in actually we shouldn't, but major corporations indeed want us to believe this way and downplay the problem so they can still grow
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Disposable coffee cups made from new materials are not just a non-solution: they are a perpetuation of the problem.
Major point
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mobilising against the system that promotes the great tide of junk
Its a very good point that corporate power does indeed go to great lengths to promote further consumption from us
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The ideology of consumption is so prevalent that it has become invisible
It's hard to imagine a world anymore that doesn't revolve around consumers consuming less.
After all, we are called consumers for a reason...
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One prominent environmentalist posted a picture of the king prawns she had bought, celebrating the fact that she had persuaded the supermarket to put them in her own container rather than a plastic bag, and linking this to the protection of the seas.
tries to talk about just how misdirected some consumers are who aren't really aware of this issue and how ineffective and even counterintuitive some of their beliefs are to actually contributing towards the betterment of the environment
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we look to the wrong places for solutions.
Very very true
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the great majority arise in poorer nations without good disposal systems.
Littering is lesser of an issue than one would expect when it comes to sea trash pollution, and especially in a country like ours. Thus, trying to change the materials we use in coffee cups isn't going to do much of anything AT ALL to solve this problem
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Abandoned fishing materials tend to be far more dangerous to marine life than other forms of waste.
Further reinforcement
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Even marine plastic is in large part a fishing issue. It turns out that 46% of the Great Pacific garbage patch
Using facts and statistics to support his subclaim that the industry is mostly at fault instead of us as consumers.
the fishermen are the ones who are responsible for discarding their nets properly, not us, the person who simply eats seafood on a night out for dinner
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The most obvious is the fishing industry,
Begins to state an example
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focusing on problems for which powerful interests are not responsible
^^^ same idea. focuses on ideas in which the audience is responsible and try to argue why they should change
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he avoided challenging power
Speakers typically try to avoid speaking out against governments and people of power and pretty much anyone that is outside of their target audience because it is hard to convince an audience that "they arent really the problem and there is not much they can do to solve the problem" when you are trying to establish an argument and gain support.
The irony of this is that Monibot is not avoiding speaking out despite these reasons
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Of course we should try to minimise our own impacts
saying there is nothing wrong with doing the right thing, only that one person doing something isnt going to get us anywhere, because the vast majority of people will not change
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are structural
he is stating that the problem is systemic: it revolves around society as a whole, and not around us as individuals
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economic system that seeks endless growth
very key argument here that he later touches up upon
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no explanation of why the problems are happening and what forces are responsible
It's a great problem why this is not explained because without accurately knowing the source (or majority sources in this case) of a problem, it is quite difficult to come up with effective solutions that aren't just a waste of time
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We were not told what
Very important
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The first six episodes had strong, coherent narratives but the seventh, which sought to explain the threats facing the wonderful creatures the series revealed, darted from one issue to another.
Again degrading claims
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But systemic thinking is an endangered species.
Another use of humor to display his concern and dissapointment of the main viewpoint
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some people asked me, “So what should we use instead?”
At this part he pretty much argues we shouldn't really use anything at all
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Plenty of people imagine we can carry on as we are, as long as we substitute one material for another.
Stating how people believe that the level of human consumption in our society is sustainable if we are able to use recycleable materials
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o you believe in miracles? If so, please form an orderly queue.
Humor that carries advanced almost condescending meaning
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- Sep 2020
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www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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Yet the idea that a meaningful life must be or appear remarkable is not only elitist but also misguided.
Can anyone explain this in further detail??
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