Chris Till

Tag: Politics

  • Micro Four Thirds, and YouTube “experts”

    Photo: Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

    I’m conflicted between my distaste for excessive consumption and still rooting for OM System and the Micro Four Thirds image sensor system to do well; and sell as many cameras and lenses as possible. This is because I believe in it so much for all levels and genres of photography. And because all of the bullshit YouTube “experts” have polluted the entire photography community with nonsense about Full Frame sensors being the only ones worthy of use in 2024.

    These are people who don’t know what they’re talking about, and wouldn’t be published in a photography magazine or serious online journalistic outlet in the past or present. Obviously, YouTube and other social media services are incredibly useful and invaluable for people who had almost no platform in traditional media. Left wing political outlets in particular have benefitted no end, which is great. Because in that instance, they are the experts. But there is of course a downside to allowing anyone to end up with huge platform. You can end up with non-experts reaching and influencing a far wider audience than the real experts in the field. And that is the case in photography. No matter what good people like Chris Niccols, Jordan Drake, Robin Wong, and many others say, there is seemingly an army of idiots out there to spread misinformation that seriously threatens a format like Micro Four Thirds. All the people I see who support MFT are thoughtful, intelligent, reasonable people. That’s a problem, because we live in a very dumb, unreasonable, reactionary society. It doesn’t really fit. It’s like left wing politics right now. People who have taken the time to really educate themselves politically can see through the nonsense liberals and conservatives spew incessantly; and can understand and appreciate the counterintuitive benefits of left wing policy ideas. The same goes for MFT cameras. The problem is that very few people actually do take the time to properly educate themselves on anything these days.

    I’ve heard people in big companies say things like “the people are demanding this, so we’re just going to give it to them”. Even when they themselves know that it’s the wrong thing to do; they do it anyway because they know it’s harder to educate those people that what they really need is something counterintuitive. Take megapixels. We even saw with the Panasonic G9II (another MFT camera), where PetaPixel compared it to the OM System OM-1, and the G9 had worse image quality in their test despite having a 25mp sensor as opposed to 20mp. OM System worked hard to improve the sensor technology in other ways. To improve the overall image quality, rather than just resolution. But more people would just focus on the higher number and assume it’s better. And that’s within the Micro Four Thirds ecosystem.

    This is why OM System is particularly at risk from this current online climate of idiocy (along with any other businesses that try to do things the right way in other fields). Panasonic are obviously a huge corporation, and they’ve also hedged their bets and have pushed full frame offerings a lot in recent years. OM is small, and only makes MFT cameras (apart from their tough series compact). And on top of that, they don’t subscribe to this idea of giving people what they want even if it means sacrifices to the end product. We’ve just seen this whole thing again recently with the updated OM-1. It came out a bit too soon for my liking (that’s another blog); but it did have a lot of significant improvements. Many of which couldn’t be done purely with a firmware update. Some of them could, and they are now working on an update to the original OM-1, the camera I have (and plan to keep using for the foreseeable future).

    Obviously, there’s some controversy about whether or not they had abandoned that camera until pressure mounted on them. That’s another potential future blog topic. But the point is that the updated model does feature significant improvements that many professional photographers especially will really notice and appreciate. And that will make arguably as big of an impact or bigger on their photography than if the company had announced the OM-1 Mark II had doubled the sensor megapixels to 40, or some insane change that would be visible on the spec sheet. Imagine if they had done something like that. It would have been the talk of the town (at least until the full frame supremacists had made another unwelcome intervention). As it was, the conversation became almost exclusively negative, accusing OM of cashing in on their loyal customers and failing to innovate. Only true experts like Thomas Eisel (professional fashion photographer and YouTuber) actually went deep into all of the small but very significant improvements that were almost universally ignored elsewhere.

    Thank god a big outlet like PetaPixel does give MFT fair coverage, and does their best to promote its advantages (lens size and weight, image stabilisation, computational modes, comparatively low cost, long telephoto range ideal for wildlife and particularly birds, and so on). Not to mention the fact that most people in the world can’t tell the fucking difference between full frame and MFT photos anyway. I just hope we don’t end up in a situation where MFT goes away.

    Photography is like politics. You have the uneducated people who believe everything a grifter on YouTube tells them. And you have those who take the initiative and make the small effort required to get informed of the facts, and what they mean. For the left to win, and for us to eventually reduce consumption and stop releasing so many damn new camera models, (and other even more throwaway tech products); people have to be informed. And they have to buy Micro Four Thirds cameras. Strange way to end a blog maybe, but I think it works. I haven’t written for ages so you’ll just have to put up with it.

  • When will people stop thinking I’m nuts?

    I’m pretty convinced that the best way to do something about the climate crisis is to talk about it. Bring it up. Plant a seed. Make people question everything. So I try to bring it up in YouTube comments, or Facebook groups, or Twitter. Even in person back when I used to talk to actual people who aren’t my family. But there are a couple of big drawbacks to this tactic.

    The main one being that everyone thinks you’re nuts. I’m pretty sure Chris Packham thinks I’m nuts for posting about how dire the climate situation is on his Facebook page. I’m even more sure that Geoff Marshall is convinced I’m a lunatic since all my comments on his YouTube channel are about our existential crisis. I can’t just enjoy the videos about old trains without making it about human survival on this planet.

    I’m always there to crash the party with a comment sure to depress (and sometimes actively piss off) people who just want to have a laugh at a silly video. They’re not interested in the end of the world. Why can’t I leave them alone and keep my doom and gloom to myself?

    The other problem is it brings you down to Earth with a thud whenever you talk to regular people about these things. It makes you realise how far away we are from action. In our little climate semi-doomer echo chamber (which is a tiny niche within a niche), we’re talking about big ideas to save life on Earth, and we’re making changes to our lives that make us feel like we’re making a difference, even though we’re not really. And then you realise that everyone else is about 10 steps behind. It’s especially bad face to face. They talk to me about how they do their recycling, so they’re doing their part. They’re driving a hybrid car or something to that effect (just kidding – never had anyone driving a hybrid). Something so outdated that it makes me feel like giving up then and there.

    But perhaps the worst thing is online when people completely ignore your comment. I’d honestly prefer someone reply to me and tell me ten reasons why I’m supposedly wrong, how nuclear power is the future, that biofuels can enable us to keep consuming as we are indefinitely, than have them completely ignore me. Sometimes I’ll go back the next day to a comment I wrote that I felt was well written, easy to comprehend and fact-filled; and I’ll find it the only one that hasn’t had a single like or reply. It’s so demoralising. I’m telling the truth, but because everyone has accepted the bullshit idea that we have 30 years to cut emissions to zero, they just give me the digital equivalent of a blank stare. And like with all the other things about society that depress me, it doesn’t seem like this will change any time soon either.

    It really is pretty amazing how 40 or so years of neoliberalism has created a scenario where people who speak the truth are treated as if they’re nutcases. When you look back to before Reagan and Thatcher, everything was so truthful. Especially if you go back before World War 2. Science and facts were respected. People cared about what was true and morally right.

    I know that in the end I’ll be proven right, but I don’t know if that will be able to make up for years of being treated like a weirdo when I’m just trying to inform people about what’s happening to our world. The scientists are generally pretty awful at getting the message out there, and people like Guy McPherson have effectively been de-platformed. So it makes sense for as many of us as possible to step in and spread the word on their behalf. I don’t even know if I’ve convinced anyone though. If I did plant a seed in someone’s mind and that one person later realised I was right and is now spreading the message further, then it would all be worth it. But I honestly don’t know if I have. I wish there was a way I could find out.

    It feels like it’s not just me being ignored and treated as a crazy person though. It feels like anyone under 40 doesn’t matter. Who cares what we say? We’re nuts according to the establishment in this country. You want to have a fully funded healthcare system? Nuts. You want to get rid of the royal family? Preposterous. You want to change the economic system so humans can have a future on this planet? Ok that’s it. Out! Get out! Crazy kids.

    When is it all going to flip on it’s head? When are they going to become the crazy ones? I can’t wait. I’m counting down the days.

  • Everything we’re doing now will have to be undone

    Look at pretty much any part of society right now, and you’ll notice that it’s still going in the opposite direction of how we need to be going to have any kind of sustainable future. Housing, energy, roads, airports, (lack of) bike infrastructure, railways, politics. You name it, we’re going backwards in it.

    These are all massive aspects in a society, and mistakes (to be polite) that can’t be quickly remedied. This is problematic when we’re in a rapidly accelerating climate emergency; and it’s why we need to get over the sunk cost fallacy and pull the plug on these projects before it’s too late.

    It takes a long time to build nuclear power plants, or high speed rail, or millions of homes that are too big, unsustainably built and car-dependant. And then when you’re finished destroying our precious remaining “wild areas” building them, we’re left with an undesirable outcome that will take even more time and effort to fix, if it’s even possible. In some cases it won’t be.

    I’ve laid out my plan of emergency measures to immediately implement, but before we can do that, we have to cut off all of these projects that are going in the opposite direction. We CAN just stop these things halfway through. You don’t have to complete these insane projects just because you’ve spent a lot of money already. Watch the mainstream media and you’ll be told that rapid change is just not possible. It’s not possible politically, socially, in terms of our infrastructure, our energy mix. But it’s not remotely true. We have to admit that everything we’re doing is wrong. The system which economists and mainstream media tell us is fantastic, is anything but. It’s pure lunacy.

    It’s like an alcoholic going to an AA meeting and admitting their problem. You can’t tackle alcoholism unless you admit it first. The same applies to the global economic system. We’re addicted to this economic system, even though it makes the vast majority of us stressed and unhappy. This system of endless growth taught us that we can all have everything we could ever want; all the mega-projects you could imagine, and there would never be any environmental or social consequences for any of it. The rich could get ever richer and the poor could get ever poorer, and that’s ok. Not only that, but the thought of taking some of the rich people’s money and giving it to the poor, or to make society better for everyone is considered unthinkable in this society. It amazes me that we’ve got to this point, and it feels like just a relative handful of us even notice.

    Imagine if in the NBA Draft, the championship winning team got the first pick every year. That’s what this global economic system is.

    And when it comes to what we are supposedly doing about the climate crisis within this system, the main thing is lying to ourselves. Recently I got to the point where I was starting to find it funny to see the stupidity of people talking about green growth, EVs, renewable energy, as well as the ridiculous people still talking about new fossil fuels in the North Sea for example. But on Earth Day I felt really pissed off again, specifically by Joe Biden making his token environmental speech seemingly once a year to say how seriously he’s taking it, and how he’s going to count old trees and then somehow protect them.

    We have to wake up now. And the first stage of that is to end the bullshit multi-decade mega-projects which are so symbolic of this ridiculous system we’re forced to live under. Only then can we think about what we need to do here and now. Once we’ve stopped speeding in the wrong direction, and we’re living in the present, we can think about what comes next. Because right now, change feels impossible when all you hear is politicians and the BBC talking about what capitalism already has set in stone for 20 years from now. It doesn’t matter what’s happening to the climate, until the penny finally drops, whenever that’s going to be. They do it on purpose. To entrench neoliberal capitalism as far into the future as they can. Make it so that the general public can’t see any alternative. It’s worked for them. It’s why covid is still going on. People feel like no matter what, they must go to work to earn enough money to just about stay in the black, if they’re lucky. They have no time to stop and think about why they’re doing it. Even having months at home during the original lockdown was not enough to shift people’s mindsets in most cases. They still feel like they need to keep up with the Joneses and buy that new SUV, and that bigger house. And they justify it to themselves because the media tell them about those car factory and construction jobs that are so crucial to GDP.

    We have to leave behind long term mega-projects for short term profits, and embrace short term action for long term survivability of our species and the rest of life on Earth. Otherwise we’ve had it. Every day is crucial at this point, and we’re wasting one after another talking about Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Prince Harry and the Queen. Will Smith and Chris Rock. Do we really want to lose everything while being distracted by stuff that doesn’t matter in the slightest?

  • What I would do tomorrow if I was in charge

    After the last post where I talked about how much it feels like what we’re doing now is leading us straight to extinction; I thought I would indulge myself and come up with a list of things I would do immediately if I was in charge of the country (and assuming every other country was led by someone with exactly the same ideals). In the process show any doubters that I am in fact positive about the future. Just one where we make massive changes; rather than one where we waste precious time tinkering around the edges of our disastrous current system.

    Rather than write a lot about each policy idea, I just want to simply lay out the basics of my plan, and perhaps go into more detail in future. Especially on topics I haven’t previously covered.

    • End capitalism
    • Nationalise all essential industries, and shut down all businesses that don’t bring a clear benefit to society.
    • Bring in a universal income so work is optional and only for the benefit of society as a whole; not for individual gain.
    • Ban all new and begin rapid phaseout of existing fossil fuel infrastructure
    • Implement the MEER Reflection Framework, Marine Cloud Brightening, Ocean Pasture Restoration, and other Geoengineering / solar radiation management techniques.
    • Tax the rich 99% (everyone lives the same way)
    • Ban all unsustainable building materials
    • Ban private cars for everyone except for those who couldn’t live without one today (disabled etc). Begin rapid phaseout of diesel taxis and the small number of private cars that will remain in favour of EVs.
    • End deforestation and give back vast areas of grazing land to nature.
    • Ban all cryptocurrencies, mining, NFTs etc.
    • Ban pesticides
    • Ban meat production
    • Ban all new road, airport, port, and other developments intended to increase trade and GDP.
    • Ban all new single family homes, luxury apartments and mansions, and begin the process of converting existing large homes into many tiny apartments or buildings for other societal purposes.
    • Ban landlords
    • Begin rapid phaseout of fossil fuelled vans, trucks etc. Aim to replace most vans with cargo bikes. Demand for vans and trucks will drop due to massively reduced consumption levels.
    • Ban private jets, super-yachts and all other privately owned luxury transport.
    • Ban second homes
    • Severely restrict flying. Mandate that people may only take one return flight per year, regardless of wealth. Only holidays, visiting family, moving overseas permitted. Business travel by air banned.
    • Mandate that ground transport must be used for all trips where the destination can be reached within about 24-36 hours. Air travel only when absolutely essential.
    • Immediately invest massively in public transport, bicycle parking, and begin the phaseout of diesel buses, coaches, trains.
    • Immediately begin phasing out plastic and mandating the use of reusable containers and schemes to return them to shops for reuse.

    I could probably go on endlessly listing more and more things, but I think this covers a lot of bases. Imagine a real politician coming in day one and doing all of this. It would be incredible compared to everything we’re used to. But we shouldn’t forget that what I’m talking about here isn’t some crazy nonsense. What politicians do right now is pure insanity. What I’m proposing is entirely logical and urgently necessary. The people talking about net zero 2050 are the crazy ones.

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