Mass Protest in the Netherlands by Farmers.

Bonobos are closest to man.

They're not really Bobble. They're the same distance away from us as Chimpanzees and they deviate from each other by around 0.3% genetically*. Though they are interesting as a good example of how culture and cultural politics can often inform perceptions, even science. Bonobos are a largely matriarchal great ape, who are less aggressive than chimps and use sexual contact as a way to group bond and diffuse conflict(though it's not nearly so simple). This appealed to the counterculture "hippie" and first wave feminist generation in the 60's and 70's when great ape research was really kicking off, so much was made of these traits. They were also seen as vegatarian too, which they're not.

So the popularity of this closest to us notion springs from that background culture. If on the other hand we had the same culture as say Ancient Rome, they'd be far more interested in pushing the more aggressive, warlike, patriarchal and hierarchical Chimpanzee as "closest to us" and would relegate the Bonobos to a lesser position.

Neandertals were seen as brutish and stupid "cavemen", even their name is the only archaic human name that has made it into common parlance as a negative. This was because they were discovered and described at the cusp of truly modern science, the new Darwinism and a large overlap of old style religion, even European superiority and racism. They upended all of the above and the religious saw them as "fallen" thrown out of Eden humans and European science had to see them as different and "not us". That stuck for a long time. Well, until genetics came along and showed we carried their DNA and they were very much "indo European" in range and pale of skin, often with mousey, even red hair. So they went from this in our reconstructions:

To this in recent times:

Funny that...😁

A much more recent example of how current culture can inform perceptions in science was the discovery a couple of years ago of the burial of a woman(Altai IIRC) who was found with weapons and accessories normally found with male burials and in the literature there was debate if she was "non binary or Trans", because that's a current cultural thing. Such burials have come up before and no such hypotheses were put forward and were explained away quite differently. It's quite fascinating how such biases can be at play.

But I digress... 😁

*by comparison if you stand me, a native European beside a native Papuan, on archaic admixture alone I'll have up to 2%(or 4% by some measures) Neandertal DNA, he'll have less and they'll be different genes from a different population and he'll have up to 6% Denisovan DNA which I won't have at all. Stand a lad from the Congo beside the pair of us and he could quite understandably and reasonably conclude we're a pair of feckin' cavemen, because he'll have neither.

Yup. The vast majority of movements and revolutions in the Western world have been driven by the middle classes. As you note the poor are concerned with the basic realities. The rich are protected and protectionist of the status quo that supports them. It's the middle that kick off when they get squeezed too far.

I'd have the same opinion. Degrowth, which is also a huge win for the environment. It would be a win even if we stayed on our present course of extreme throwaway consumerism. It's basic maths. Halve the number of people and you halve the amount of energy and resources and waste. But like you say the current capitalist model that drives that throwaway consumerism and constant boom and bust cycle is dead set against that, because more people means more consumers and producers(and the boom/bust cycles concentrate the money among fewer people) and a lot of the environmentally minded folks out there support this same more people stuff, or don't see it as a problem, or one we can fix by going more "green".

The same Western consumerist economics also drives what Conorhal noted; outsourcing. Outsourcing to cheaper places with cheaper peoples to make more stuff that the richer peoples will consume while it decimates their ability to make stuff locally. America, the biggest economy on the planet is a good example. Their wealthy started to outsource manufacturing which tore the heart out of their local manufacturing while their middle and low income wages stagnated and their rich/poor wealth divide has grown to a degree not seen since their Gilded Age(put it this way; the US has higher wealth inequality than Russia and we rightfully see Russia as an oligarch state run by criminals). And as Conor also noted we've even started to "outsource" having kids to feed this economic model. Though I would differ in the whys compared to Conor. I as ever follow the money. IMHO one big reason feminism and women's equality got and gets support from Western big business and government is feck all to do with equality, but much more to do with tapping into a previously largely untapped "resource". Literally half the population. It doubled the numbers of consumers and producers. It also monetised what was once off the books labour. The middle class woman working in a corporation is an earner and consumer and what was once "free" is now monetised and taxable in childcare even housework. Ker-ching. But of course the same woman and man in her life usually has to delay having a family until she and he is established in their career and financially stable enough to be able to afford a place to live and start a family, which in most cases will be smaller than previous generations. Where once an average single wage* could afford a house and the raising of a family of three or four or more kids.

* in the "old" setup it wouldn't even have to be a man's wage. A neighbour of mine I knew when I was a kid was widowed in her early 30's and even back then in the bad old days of inequality for women, was able to raise three kids and provide and keep a roof over their heads. I know it was a struggle at times, but she could do it and in a "nice neighbourhood" with it. A relative of mine did similar when her deadbeat husband fecked off and left her. On another thread hereabouts a poster now in her sixties did similar as a single mum. These days that would be extremely difficult to do for a working woman and "easier" for those relying on social welfare supports.

I think at some point anyway, we will have to deal with it. We'll have little choice. Though the worry is that point will come when it's too late. People are very "local" and short term in our thinking. If it isn't hitting us now and in front of us, we tend to at best pay lip service to it happening elsewhere or in some future.