[vhlhvjcov]

The question to me is: what is the thing I should do? Where should I invest my energy?

Time and energy are finite resources and taking political action to drive systemic change has proven results (see previous examples).

I don’t know of any transformative movement against mass threat to human life that hasn’t relied on some form of top-down implementation to achieve its aims. Maybe environmental vegetarianism in the west? But that’s hardly been an unqualified success…

[zmgsabst]

But they didn’t start with top down action:

Sustained political movements that drive results build upwards through the layers outlined, because that’s how you change culture — and politics is downstream of culture.

We live in a democracy, so if you don’t convince your neighbors first, then politicians will correctly respect the majority’s wishes over yours.

COVID is a great counter example:

The reason that it destroyed our society and has led to years of bitter fighting that’s doing massive damage to public health is precisely because it was authoritarian policy lacking public consensus — and now is likely to destroy many of the institutions that supported it in the backlash, as the public investigates gain of function, PSYOPs, ineffective policy interventions, etc.

[prepend]

I’m able to focus on multiple items.

But let’s assume that I must choose one thing to focus my energy. Birds are better off with me working on a habitat in my back yard that maybe homes 10 birds over my lifetime, the next 70 years.

That will have a greater impact than any way I can influence top-down implementations.

But fortunately, I can both build a habitat, donate to environmental charities, advocate for improvement, and vote for political parties.