Recuperation

The Situaionists used the word recuperation to describe the ability of Capital to incorporate radical dissent into the matrix, thereby neutralizing and castrating any revolutionary potential. We in the so-called "climate movement" are seeing this cooptation on a new, extremely sophisticated level. Despite all the well articulated warnings about Green Capitalism, it was pretty much inevitable that it would become the dominant "solution" to the ecological crisis. It helped that the Left misunderstood electoral success as actual power, but basically there is just too much invested in the current order, both financially and pschologically, to allow radical change. So it is Markets and the miraculous "invisible hand" that will unleash the animal spirits to bring us through the manifold crises. Private investment will spur innovation and new technologies, while at the same time creating huge profit margins to lift all boats. In other words, the exact same theory that brought the crises into being will solve them. This is classic recuperation, the shift from denying the problem to suddenly owning the solution in such a way that everyone falls in line. The Left will tinker around the edges with "justice for lithium miners" or better EV charging stations. All that rhetoric about system change will be transferred into better enforcement by the IRS. Yeah, lookout rich folk, we're going to tax you. Scared yet?