No one is better at keeping hope alive than Rebecca Solnit, the historian and essayist whose *Hope in the Dark* got me through the first Trump administration and whose *A Paradise Built In Hell* inspired my novel *Walkaway*:
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No one is better at keeping hope alive than Rebecca Solnit, the historian and essayist whose *Hope in the Dark* got me through the first Trump administration and whose *A Paradise Built In Hell* inspired my novel *Walkaway*:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301070/a-paradise-built-in-hell-by-rebecca-solnit/
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/04/hope-in-the-dark/#hormuzed-into-the-gretacene
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Wouldn't it be just •delightful• if we woke up someday in the not-too-distant future, & fossil fuel prices had fallen off a cliff bc mostly nobody bothers with them anymore?
(I'm now pondering fertilizer & plastics replacements with renewables. Dunno if the urban algal farming I've read about would would scale, but it def gives me itchy thoughts....)
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"the sun and wind will never be blockaded"
Gods, I wish people wouldn't say shit like this. There is almost certainly some state-level actor who would take this as a challenge....
"They seem to have been unprepared for the reactions to the invasions of both Iran and Minneapolis"
This sounds like a line from a Douglas Adams book, and yet, here we are....
I am sooo embarrassed by & ashamed of my country, right now....
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"They seem to have been unprepared for the reactions to the invasions of both Iran and Minneapolis"
This sounds like a line from a Douglas Adams book, and yet, here we are....
I am sooo embarrassed by & ashamed of my country, right now....
Holy shit, this essay. Go read it, it's great!
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No one is better at keeping hope alive than Rebecca Solnit, the historian and essayist whose *Hope in the Dark* got me through the first Trump administration and whose *A Paradise Built In Hell* inspired my novel *Walkaway*:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301070/a-paradise-built-in-hell-by-rebecca-solnit/
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/04/hope-in-the-dark/#hormuzed-into-the-gretacene
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"Strait of #Epstein," 
, 
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Holy shit, this essay. Go read it, it's great!
"A salt-Ion battery"
PLEASE tell me somebody's already done this one...?
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No one is better at keeping hope alive than Rebecca Solnit, the historian and essayist whose *Hope in the Dark* got me through the first Trump administration and whose *A Paradise Built In Hell* inspired my novel *Walkaway*:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301070/a-paradise-built-in-hell-by-rebecca-solnit/
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/04/hope-in-the-dark/#hormuzed-into-the-gretacene
1/
I hope somebody's keeping an eye out for the enshittification potentials in renewables, so that we can head those off when the Predator Class starts trying to enclose those commons. (I think I've seen some reports of those kinds of things already being tried, though not yet at national scale.)
Relatedly, I'm looking forward to the day when solar becomes bicycle-level back-yard tech that's essentially impossible to enclose.
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I hope somebody's keeping an eye out for the enshittification potentials in renewables, so that we can head those off when the Predator Class starts trying to enclose those commons. (I think I've seen some reports of those kinds of things already being tried, though not yet at national scale.)
Relatedly, I'm looking forward to the day when solar becomes bicycle-level back-yard tech that's essentially impossible to enclose.
@cavyherd it’s already there, if you count the “virtual batteries” offerings that made no investment whosoever in any infrastructure (batteries or otherwise)
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@pluralistic Although, that image is not as powerful and optimistic as the creator probably thinks it is, even of orange lenin is amusing. The high iq lawyer from the best schools
on a side note:
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on a side note:
@amiserabilist prelude to the dictatorship of the proletariat?
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@amiserabilist prelude to the dictatorship of the proletariat?
The dictatorship of the proletariat is a Marxist concept describing a transitional state where the working class (proletariat) holds political power to dismantle capitalism and transition to a classless, communist society. It represents the collective rule of the majority, suppressing bourgeoisie resistance and establishing public ownership of the means of production.
would it be funny if trump turned America communist?
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The dictatorship of the proletariat is a Marxist concept describing a transitional state where the working class (proletariat) holds political power to dismantle capitalism and transition to a classless, communist society. It represents the collective rule of the majority, suppressing bourgeoisie resistance and establishing public ownership of the means of production.
would it be funny if trump turned America communist?
Putin shelters in bunkers amid ‘assassination’ fears
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Putin shelters in bunkers amid ‘assassination’ fears
@amiserabilist oh no! Anyways
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@cavyherd it’s already there, if you count the “virtual batteries” offerings that made no investment whosoever in any infrastructure (batteries or otherwise)
@GuillaumeRossolini @cavyherd @pluralistic I would want a physical battery in my grasp so it's harder to poof away after Papa-Petrocarbons' flying monkeys jack off the law-lemurs senator PorkBarrel and congresscritter KickBack.
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@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic
So roughly washing-machine or stove sized, with associated dedicated breaker box?
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@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic
Excellent, thank you. (Contemplating this for my unit, space is obviously a consideration.) (But I would really really love to be (comparatively) immune from blackouts. They're mostly fine, but I hate losing a freezer full of food.
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@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic
Oh, interesting! & that answers the question I was about to ask, which is, does it handle your fridge. Sounds like it handles somewhat more. (I wonder what a countertop induction burner would "cost" in power?) (I could look it up, but it's all so hypothetical at this point; I'll just wait. Sounds like field is moving briskly.)
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@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic
Oh, interesting! & that answers the question I was about to ask, which is, does it handle your fridge. Sounds like it handles somewhat more. (I wonder what a countertop induction burner would "cost" in power?) (I could look it up, but it's all so hypothetical at this point; I'll just wait. Sounds like field is moving briskly.)
@cavyherd built-in induction cookers with 2-4 hobs range between 3.5kW-11kW in general, but generally they have an option in their menu to be limited down to any wattage ~1kW and up. So using two hobs to cook dinner for an hour, running them mostly full blast throughout will use something like that 2-4kWh.
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@NewtonMark @wall_e @pluralistic 40? That is a big battery 🥳 mine is 15 and that is enough to give me basically 0 energy costs when the sun is out
