I am a degrowther, but people keep telling me it’s hard to create media communications campaigns for degrowth and that advocating for it is “political suicide.” As if endless cancerous growth isn’t political suicide already. I’m told people want growth and we should use a different name for degrowth and that we should make it palatable to the public. But degrowth is quite literally a critique of growth. Without this critique, it’s just liberal wishywashing for a better future. So I’m at an impasse here. How do we talk about meaningfully talk about degrowth without watering down the message?
Degrowth is a shit name.
Everything we do grows us and everyone around us grows, growth is evolution and change.
You may be thinking of it as a critique of unsustainable population demands, but the word growth means so much more beyond that. We grow as people, we watch nature and loved ones grow, we grow fond of new things, just to name a few.
As for a better name, iunno anything that focuses on what you want to see, sustainabile populations or something?