[bshepard]

Anxiety over commodification is very, very old, and tends to miss the upsides of commercial society. Intellectuals, by our nature, focus on problems -- often to the point of creating problems where (perhaps) there were none before. Happily "dopamine fracking" will probably not metamorphose into another menacing sounding anti-commercial phrase. There are enough already.

If you are sympathetic, or even curious, about the advantages of commercial society Deirdre Mccloskey's bourgeoise trilogy is an excellent place to begin.

[hw1618]

You could argue that anxiety over climate change is somewhat old, and yet I'd argue that there's ever more evidence the problem is real. Just because the direction of travel was identified a long time ago, it doesn't mean that it's desirable or impossible to change.

[bshepard]

The problem is that "the problem" is not clearly stated. There is surely climate change, but what it means and what we should do and feel about it is very unclear and contested. What is clearer is that certain intellectuals have used 'climate change' to get power via fear. Whether this power is warranted or not must be debated. Even if warranted, fear is a dirty, but traditional, way for clerics to assume domination.

[ralfd]

It is noteworthy that this is a German source and German culture is by default pessimism and malaise.

[zigman1]

As per info on the site, author is not German and does not live in Germany (Russian living in Poland). Apparently, his name however is "German".

[mx7zysuj4xew]

That would be more of a Russian worldview

German culture is more or a romanticist "Sturm und Drang" kind

[bshepard]

German culture is more about extreme anal attention to details and correcting others than Young Werther! In other words Prussia won, not Weimar.