Honestly, the categorization of the #solarpunk vision as "Utopic" bothers the hell out of me as a Greek person. The use of utopia as a word has been a linguistic tool against optimism for as long as we've agree to hold onto it.
Ουτοπία (utopia) literally translates to "a place that can never exist", and our complacency to accept it as the opposite of dystopia is doing us harm by perpetuating this idea that a society built on "good" cannot happen; is impossible.
Believe it or not, there is a word for something which I believe describes solarpunk and our vision perfectly: Ευτοπία (Eutopia / Pronounced eff-topia), "the best POSSIBLE place" and we might as well adopt it
Utopia (from Ουτοπία) is an impossible Vision of the future, while Evtopia (from Ευτοπία) is the best possible Vision.
i dont think tthat striving for ‘utopia’ and idealism puts people off just because it often results in ignoring practicality for the sake of perfection, but because it turns a conversation that should be about treatments and solutions into proselytism
most people flat out are not interested in learning the theory of whatever ideology youre trying to sell them, and therefore will not be interested in whatever treatments and solutions youre proposing for individual problems as part of that ideology
focus on educating folks about the actual problems and pointing them in the way of the individual solutions to those problems
i dont think tthat striving for ‘utopia’ and idealism puts people off just because it often results in ignoring practicality for the sake of perfection, but because it turns a conversation that should be about treatments and solutions into proselytism
most people flat out are not interested in learning the theory of whatever ideology youre trying to sell them, and therefore will not be interested in whatever treatments and solutions youre proposing for individual problems as part of that ideology
focus on educating folks about the actual problems and pointing them in the way of the individual solutions to those problems