I think Halstead knows what degrowth advocates claim about degrowth (that it wonât have built-in humanitarian costs). And I think he disagrees with them, which isnât the same as not understanding their arguments.
Imagine people arguing whether to invade Iraq in the year following the 9/â11 attacks. One of them points out that invading the country will involve enormous built-in humanitarian costs. Their interlocutor replies:
âYour characterization of an Iraq invasion as having âenormous humanitarian costsâ âbuilt inâ is flatly untrue in a way that is obvious to anyone who has read any Iraq invasion literature, e.g. Rumsfeld and Powell.â
The second person may genuinely see Rumsfeld and Powell as experts worth listening to. The first person may see their arguments as clearly wrong, and not even worth addressing (if they think itâs common sense that war will incur humanitarian costs).
The first person isnât necessarily right â in 2002, there was lots of disagreement between experts on the outcome of an Iraq invasion! â but I wouldnât conclude that their words are âflatly untrueâ or that they lack âbasic background knowledgeâ.
I think Halstead knows what degrowth advocates claim about degrowth (that it wonât have built-in humanitarian costs). And I think he disagrees with them, which isnât the same as not understanding their arguments.
Imagine people arguing whether to invade Iraq in the year following the 9/â11 attacks. One of them points out that invading the country will involve enormous built-in humanitarian costs. Their interlocutor replies:
âYour characterization of an Iraq invasion as having âenormous humanitarian costsâ âbuilt inâ is flatly untrue in a way that is obvious to anyone who has read any Iraq invasion literature, e.g. Rumsfeld and Powell.â
The second person may genuinely see Rumsfeld and Powell as experts worth listening to. The first person may see their arguments as clearly wrong, and not even worth addressing (if they think itâs common sense that war will incur humanitarian costs).
The first person isnât necessarily right â in 2002, there was lots of disagreement between experts on the outcome of an Iraq invasion! â but I wouldnât conclude that their words are âflatly untrueâ or that they lack âbasic background knowledgeâ.