Does killing the billionaire solve anything though? The system will just put some other stooge in his position instead. Systemic change is the only way to solve this.
I mean yeah if every CEO or VP or whatever who doesn't agree to immediately addressing climate change gets dead, then you'll probably be left with a leadership that is willing to address climate change. In the comics, too.
If I had a button that when pressed would kill the richest person in the world, I'd press it until I physically couldn't any more. Hopefully the remaining millionaires would have the sense to see what's happening and spread their wealth more evenly amongst people, and every now and again, I'd press the button a few more times just to keep things from reverting.
Killing a billionaire does nothing but presenting the idea that being among the richest people would result in some regular, omnipotent death would do a lot.
Poison ivy would argue we don’t have time for systemic change. She’s doing what is in her power to do. She’d probably say that if your potted fern is droopy, it needs to be in the sun. But if you can’t afford a place with sun, maybe you need to do what you can now, and get a grow light.
...but her actions don't actually achieve anything other than fulfilling some sort of revenge/punishment fantasy.
The billionaire isn't personally responsible for the emissions, and the companies will continue to operate without him. If we're not talking systemic change (i.e. government-mandated, I guess?), then she needs to either target the businesses/facilities/supply chains directly, or convince the billionaire (or someone else with power in the companies) to change things.
The Incredibles movies are even better examples, IMO.
Edit: by the way, this part of that video seems like a nice rebuttal to link in threads where pearl-clutchers bitch and moan about "disruptive" protests.
Well if they can't convince the billionaire, maybe she can convince whoever inherits the billionaire's ownership. If not, there's always the next in line.
He's not directly responsible - removing him from the equation doesn't change anything. It's not like he's a machine and turning him off stops the emission. The companies will still run and nothing will have actually improved.
Yes, and compared to the companies they run, even their emissions are completely negligible. Individual action will not fix our climate crisis, regardless of who does it. Systemic change is the only option that has the possibility of a statistically-useful effect.
She’d probably say that if your potted fern is droopy, it needs to be in the sun. But if you can’t afford a place with sun, maybe you need to do what you can now, and get a grow light.
Reminder that Ivy cares more about plants than people. She would consider tearing down part of your wall so the fern can get natural light even if it means you will die of exposure to be a perfectly sane solution.
This is what we are taught.
But what we want is to change the system. And those specific people of that specific class are what stands in the way of many/all.
In that condition she could probably have convinced him to "legally" deed all his properties to her. (She would need to be able to enthrall everyone in the room when it happens, otherwise witnesses will testify he wasn't of sound mind, but that seems like something she could solve.)
It gets complicated after that, though, lots of shareholder suits if she does anything too drastic. Maybe she converts all those assets into investments in renewable energy, which would keep shareholders off her back.
Then she only has to deal with assassin squads sent by the rest of the oil stakeholders but, again, that seems like a problem she could solve.
Didn't the revolution spiral out of hand, allowing Napoleon to seize power and crown himself emperor, leading to a series of wars that killed millions of people?
Not since the Third Republic. But directly after Napoleon, power went back to the monarchy for like 50 years, so I'm not sure how much credit the guillotine deserves.
A 50 year relapse to eradicate an infection that lasted for 1300 years ain't bad.
The reality is the French Revolution is why most of Europe is democratic now, it demonstrated more than anything else until the Russian Revolution that the "commoners" could not only win a war against the entrenched nobility, but that those nobles should be very, very fuckin scared of the idea and maybe get on board with the idea of a constitutional monarchy if nothing else.
The emphasis in her word bubble is "And doesn't care." The next stooge might have more of a reason to care, since as far as Poison Ivy here is concerned: systemic change isn't coming fast enough, if at all.