Post by @transform@climatejustice.social

2026-05-04 18:33 UTC

@mzaman@todon.nl thanks for the first constructive answer on this question. I agree with all the points you made. However, I think that there are some special challenges with future needs: - how reliable are the predictions? (people might accuse each other of being overly cautious or too reckless) - the discussion is more indirect (it's not "people with their current needs talking to each other" but "people thinking about their future needs and advocating for them". This is kind of representation of a future version of yourself, and representation can have issues. It can lead to polarization and more difficulties in finding common ground. Solutions probably need to involve both research/predictions, structured argumentation, as well as moderated discussions about needs.

Replies (1)

@mzaman@todon.nl 2026-05-07 14:16

@transform@climatejustice.social Are those issues that are specific to future needs? To me, it seems those are more general issues when trying to reach consensus on something that is intangible or has a fair amount of uncertainty. And/or that might affect people who aren't present at the meeting (although here the issue is that you can't just go ask people, because they don't, strictly speaking, exist yet). We regularly make plans that involve uncertainty. How many people will be at our community event? What route will the fascist march take? Will the police use water cannons? I don't have, like, a write-up on how to best deal with that, but I do think that assuming relatively good faith and people making an effort to reach consensus we already manage to do this more often than not. If people accuse each other of having the wrong level of caution that, to me, points more to a need in learning how to communicate more constructively (we shouldn't be accusing each other) and a need to first discuss acceptable levels of risk. Consensus is something people need to practice to get good at. Part of this is self-reflection. For example, I know I tend to be to focused on what can go wrong. As such, I point out what I think are potential risks but I also trust my comrades to mitigate my innate pessimism.

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