Thanks for the feedback about it being too wordy, that's probably true. Re: mentioning the beliefs of a small percentage of people (I assume you mean VHEMT/antinatalists?), I did that because I knew they might come up as counterexamples to my claims. But you're right, maybe it's enough of a minority that I can just leave it out and still make my point.

I agree that politics is a major force and I don't investigate it as fully as I could.

Here's the thing... while I will side with democrats over republicans on a lot of issues, I have just about zero faith that democrats are going to do anything meaningful to address climate change. Both of these parties are in bed with corporations and both of them share the goal of eternal economic growth and increasing American wealth compared to the rest of the world

According to the IPCC special report in 2018, we (now) have less than 10 years to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to about half of what they were in 2010, if we want to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C. That would require our economy to shrink massively. No major political party is going to get us there. That is why I feel like we have to take matters into our own hands and start a movement of intentional frugality.

I'm open to the possibility that there is actual, meaningful change in the works if only we can support the democrats fully, but I have yet to see it / am skeptical it will happen. If something like that happens I will gladly write in support of it.

None of this is to say the republicans are better than democrats on climate or social issues, by any means. I just feel like politics is a hopeless avenue for change these days. Maybe it's just some irrational/idealistic part of my brain that likes the idea of creating a new idea for a solution rather than piling onto the millions of people who are pushing back and forth in the futile tug-of-war of political party agendas...