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#rawmaterials — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #rawmaterials, aggregated by home.social.

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  1. @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

    Craig #Murray in his piece “Beware the Cult of #Cadwalladr” in 2022! (https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/01/beware-the-cult-of-cadwalladr/)

    Excellent post (though Murray was incorrect about Cadwalladr winning the Pulitzer), thanks for sharing. This part remains relevant even today:

    Cadwalladr became a hero to British liberals because she provided a comfortable explanation of Brexit. Cadwalladr told them the people of England and Wales had rejected the EU solely because they had been duped, by internet manipulation of their thoughts and by those pesky Russians.

    This was a much easier explanation to swallow than the truth, which is that the massive disparity between rich and poor in our neo-liberal economic societies had left most people alienated and feeling powerless, and prey to the anti-immigrant propaganda the media had been relentlessly pumping out for decades.

    I am an outsider, and my perspective from afar could be wrong, but to me, the U.K. government seems to be acting like an occupying force "pacifying" the natives. For centuries, Britain did this to their overseas colonies; now that there are no colonies left, they seem to be turning on their own people.

    Why are they doing this? I think because they are unable to accept the end of Western hegemony. With loot and surplus from the global south turning into a trickle, U.K. and other European countries are in a very bad situation. They have hardly any native deposits of fossil fuels or raw materials left to extract (Britain exhausted its rich coal deposits around 1920, and promptly lost its status as the hegemon; Germany exhausted its own coal deposits in the 1950s). They do not grow food in quantities sufficient to feed their own populations. They themselves have sabotaged cheap energy supplies from Russia, and egged on Ukraine to sabotage oil and gas supplies from the central Asian countries. The Iran war has cut off supplies from the Gulf region. Germany, the economic engine of Europe, has lost roughly 40% of its industry relative to 2008 levels (and half of those losses happened after the Nord Stream pipelines were destroyed). They all have ageing populations, with very low fertility rates. What's the solution then? Looks to me that the U.K. and the European leadership have decided to desperately gamble their last bits of energy and resources to invade and conquer Russia, the most resource-rich country on the planet. The hope seems to be to balkanize Russia and divide the spoils among themselves. I don't think they will succeed, there are just too many factors against it, but they have made their choice.

    To this end, they seem to be turning their respective countries into bunker states, with their populations turned into civil guards operating under martial law. Only that could explain the persecution of their own people the governments of U.K., Germany etc. are engaging in.

    She’s recently set up “The Nerve” with a bunch of her ex-Observer mates. They’re currently hammering away very hard at Farage!

    I’m conflicted! I approve of her exposures on Palantir, assorted Tech Bros + Farage … but her alleged role in amplifying security state narratives is worrying to say the least!

    By persistently generating and amplifying stories about sabotage by Russia, journalists like Cadwalladr are priming the British populace to accept the bunker state and the losses of freedom and liberty that go with it. (Note how enthusiastic the liberal media is about age-gating the internet, and about banning media outlets that propagate "wrong-think".) This strategy also primes the populace to accept a war with Russia.

    Cadwalladr's tales about Russia creating and nourishing UKIP appeal to the liberals. They fulfill the role assigned to the liberal wing of the Vichy media. Her counterparts in the Murdoch and Springer media cater to the conservatives by peddling stories of savage immigrants. Together, they herd everyone into the bunker, and cheer the persecution of anyone who dissents.

    That's how it appears, from where I stand.


    #UK #UnitedKingdom #Britain #Germany #Europe #EuropeanUnion #EU #Russia #Iran #Hormuz #FossilFuels #energy #RawMaterials #FoodSovereignty #colonialism #imperialism #CaroleCadwalladr #Cadwalladr #TheGuardian #Guardian #Observer #Murray #Cadwalladr
  2. BEAN TO BRAND, TARIFF TO TRAP by Lawson Akhigbe

    Next in Abuja, four governments will do something that sounds, on paper, like a belated act of economic self-respect. Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon between them the source of roughly two-thirds of the cocoa that becomes the world's chocolate will sign the Abuja Declaration and stand up a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, a coordinated attempt to stop shipping out raw beans and start capturing some of the value that currently accrues, almost entirely, to everyone else. Nigeria will additionally sign its own Cocoa Value Addition Accord, a domestic compact roping in governors, farmer groups, financiers and researchers into the project of turning bean into brand rather than bean into someone else's bar.

    lawakhigbe.com/2026/07/17/bean

  3. BEAN TO BRAND, TARIFF TO TRAP by Lawson Akhigbe

    Next in Abuja, four governments will do something that sounds, on paper, like a belated act of economic self-respect. Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon between them the source of roughly two-thirds of the cocoa that becomes the world's chocolate will sign the Abuja Declaration and stand up a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, a coordinated attempt to stop shipping out raw beans and start capturing some of the value that currently accrues, almost entirely, to everyone else. Nigeria will additionally sign its own Cocoa Value Addition Accord, a domestic compact roping in governors, farmer groups, financiers and researchers into the project of turning bean into brand rather than bean into someone else's bar.

    lawakhigbe.com/2026/07/17/bean

  4. Technology and dominance in the recent
    First Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas, 15 May 2026

    * Chapter 3: TECHNOLOGY AND DOMINANCE
    Some of the topics discussed are:
    Automation, dignity of work
    Protecting freedom against dependencies and commercialization
    Breaking the chains of new forms of slavery
    The normalization of war
    Force without limits
    The military-industrial complex
    Weapons and artificial intelligence
    The crisis of multilateralism
    The need to disarm words
    Justice >>
    vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/

    * Existential risk from artificial intelligence >>
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existent

    * Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology, 1954 >>
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ques
    #humanism #human #performance #enhancement #RemainingHuman #transhumanism #PostHumanism #AI #algorithms #machines #governance #regulation #humanity #fallibility #automation #commercialisation #transformation #dehumanisation #slavery #CommonGood #war #multilateralism #justice #TechnologyAssessment #TA #TechnologicalWorldview #techne #technologies #ScientificConsensus #PublicSphere #FLI #risks #existence #nature #RawMaterials

  5. Technology and dominance in the recent
    First Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas, 15 May 2026

    * Chapter 3: TECHNOLOGY AND DOMINANCE
    Some of the topics discussed are:
    Automation, dignity of work
    Protecting freedom against dependencies and commercialization
    Breaking the chains of new forms of slavery
    The normalization of war
    Force without limits
    The military-industrial complex
    Weapons and artificial intelligence
    The crisis of multilateralism
    The need to disarm words
    Justice >>
    vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/

    * Existential risk from artificial intelligence >>
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existent

    * Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology, 1954 >>
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ques
    #humanism #human #performance #enhancement #RemainingHuman #transhumanism #PostHumanism #AI #algorithms #machines #governance #regulation #humanity #fallibility #automation #commercialisation #transformation #dehumanisation #slavery #CommonGood #war #multilateralism #justice #TechnologyAssessment #TA #TechnologicalWorldview #techne #technologies #ScientificConsensus #PublicSphere #FLI #risks #existence #nature #RawMaterials

  6. theguardian.com/commentisfree/. "Donald Trump’s unjustified war on #Iran & the resulting global #fuel #crisis is a continuing reminder that true #energy #security & #independence will continue to elude us so long as we remain dependent on #fossilfuels." The problem is, #renewable energy = #electricity, & electricity = 21% of final energy #consumption, so even if ALL electricity was generated by #renewables, that still leaves a big gap filled by #oil, #gas & #coal, which supply #rawmaterials as well.

  7. theguardian.com/commentisfree/. "Donald Trump’s unjustified war on #Iran & the resulting global #fuel #crisis is a continuing reminder that true #energy #security & #independence will continue to elude us so long as we remain dependent on #fossilfuels." The problem is, #renewable energy = #electricity, & electricity = 21% of final energy #consumption, so even if ALL electricity was generated by #renewables, that still leaves a big gap filled by #oil, #gas & #coal, which supply #rawmaterials as well.

  8. A yearning for the idyllic forest scene and cellulose factories

    When they want to ‘get away from it all’ and ‘go for a drive’ through nature, the idyllic forest scene, they are in denial that the romantic craving for the bush turns out to be industrial plantations.

    “Nature ... is a planned product of the forestry industry, a purely wisely placed storehouse for cellulose production, which is readily apparent.”
    - The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil, 1930

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_
    #forests #forestryCorporation #forestry #CelluloseFactories #LoggingIndustry #landscapes #TheBush #plantations #monoculture #RawMaterials #extractivism #biodiversity #nature #book #literature

  9. A yearning for the idyllic forest scene and cellulose factories

    When they want to ‘get away from it all’ and ‘go for a drive’ through nature, the idyllic forest scene, they are in denial that the romantic craving for the bush turns out to be industrial plantations.

    “Nature ... is a planned product of the forestry industry, a purely wisely placed storehouse for cellulose production, which is readily apparent.”
    - The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil, 1930

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_
    #forests #forestryCorporation #forestry #CelluloseFactories #LoggingIndustry #landscapes #TheBush #plantations #monoculture #RawMaterials #extractivism #biodiversity #nature #book #literature