A topic I do not see explained often enough in Solarpunk groups is:
What actually is Ecofascism? Basically every Solarpunk group I have ever been to has the rules “No Greenwashing” and “No Ecofascism”, but while Greenwashing will be explained quite well, eco fascism often isn’t. So please let me explain it to you.
Naomi Klein called it “environmentalism through genocide”, which is a very apt description.
In general Ecofascism links the land and its nature to the lands people - or rather the perceived people. Because, of course, for the most part it is a white supremacist ideology (though variations of it have sprung up in non-white countries like Japan), so first and foremost they link colonial land to the white settlers, not the indigenous people.
As such Ecofascism very much started out with someone being appalled by indigenous people taking care of their land, as according to this white dude this did not leave the land in its prestine condition. This dude was a bloke called Madison Grant. He wrote a book about the “Great Race”. A book that Hitler later went on to call “his bible”. And obviously he was like all for eugenicism and what not.
Now, I could go on and on about the history of it, but really, it is not important.
First and foremost the central believe of ecofascism goes something like this:
There are too many people living on earth right now which is the reason for environmental destruction and climate change. Hence some people need to die to save the planet.
Only certain people (most of the time they mean white people) are abled to properly take care of the environment, while everyone else is destroying it.
To put it very popculturally: Thanos is basically an ecofascist. Which is why the entire “Thanos was right” narrative is so fucking dangerous and why the Russos did horrible by making him sympathetic.
Now, of course Thanos is in so far still just a bit tamer than your average ecofascist, because he is like “equally out of every group people need to die”. Meanwhile your typical ecofascists will usually very clearly say: “People from any group that is not my group need to die.”
As I said: Most ecofascism is linked to white supremacism. They will usually use arguments about overpopulation and then point to China, India and Africa.
What they of course will ignore in all those arguments is, that a) historically no country has as much emissions as Europe and the US and b) that the richtest 10% of humanity emits more CO2 and other environmental pollutants than the poorest 50% combined. So, as long as the “killing too many people” does not involve those top 10%, it is not gonna make much of a ditch when it comes to the environment.
Additionally to those genocidal ideations, it basically also has the unscientific idea, that the only way to take care of nature is to leave it alone and in a “prestine” condition. Which often leads to more natural desasters and completely forgets that humans are, indeed, a part of nature.
So, yeah… It is basically just is white supremacy paired with capitalism and eugenics.
It is shitty as fuck. So, please, call it out if you see it.
