89
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 13 points 6 days ago

Okay, to be more serious, my main vibe from looking at solarpunk art is that the artists aren't involved in production, especially industrial production. Ultimately, I wonder how production is handled in a solarpunk society. There's essentially two ends of a spectrum: industrial production and artisan production.

Industrial production means factories, and I struggle to find any meaningful difference between a solarpunk factory vs a futuristic factory vs a cyberpunk factory. All futuristic factories converge to a design of being:

  1. Autonomous
  2. In near/complete darkness
  3. Filled with inert gas

And since a society is ultimately organized by how production is handled, then there's really not a whole lot of difference between a solarpunk society and a more generic futuristic society. Less chrome and more trees I guess? From a purely aesthetic perspective, you turn a futuristic factory into a solarpunk factory by photoshopping a bunch of trees right next to the factory and replacing a field of invasive grass with a field of native wildflowers. But the actual interior of the factory would be identical, and a faithful depiction of the interior of a solarpunk factory would be identical to a faithful depiction of the interior of a futuristic factory.

Artisan production is the other end, and that's where the fashy vibes come from, especially when artisan production is artistically extolled by artists living in a settler-colonial society where the ideal form of living is larping as a yeoman homesteading pioneer living on stolen Indigenous land. Even "communal living" doesn't cut it because artisan production can't keep up with industrial production, meaning the outputs of artisan production often goes to the immediate community and the immediate community only. And if you live within a community that lacks the means or ability to produce that particular commodity because your skin color is different or you live in an arid desert? Well, tough shit.

[-] Diva@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I gotta agree on the artisan production as idealized by people inside settler society often having fashy vibes, especially when people start talking about setting up a commune in the woods for their friends.

Just from image searching a lot of the art does seem to just be futuristic building+trees, but where are the animals? gimme a big field of bison just living their lives next to a towering hive-city without sprawling suburbs and some trees please!

[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 13 points 6 days ago

looks at the 180+ comments from a post about how solarpunk sucks and is reactionary

Hexbear is not ready for the post about how cyberpunk sucks and is reactionary.

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Yeah but the music is good

[-] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 6 days ago
[-] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 11 points 6 days ago

clueless I wonder why there's nearly 200 comments in this post

[-] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

This thing had 3 comments when I went to bed. Did Yogthos rile up the libs again?

EDIT: Nope, just another struggle session.

[-] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 6 days ago

It's a nice change of pace from our usual AI struggle session though. :)

[-] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 9 points 6 days ago

This might be the AI struggle session in disguise, because when I googled "solarpunk" to figure out which side I was gonna bat for (I already knew the genre but I wanted to make a point about what most people that are just learning about it might see) it was all AI generated. Ironically, I know you land more on the pro-AI side of things, that immediately galvanized me in the anti-solarpunk side.

[-] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 6 days ago

ok that's pretty funny actually

[-] lorty@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

Solarp8nk could be an actual thing if it was actually punk in any way. Like a critique of the greenwashing many companies and countries like to do.

that fucking yogurt commercial. that's like the Black Book of Liberalism for me right there.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
89 points (91.6% liked)

chapotraphouse

13940 readers
722 users here now

Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.

No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer

Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS