In my country, the standard argument against climate action is "well China isn't going to stop polluting so why should we?" This stock argument ignores the following facts:

1. Our per capita emissions have always been worse than China's

2. China is already beginning to outpace us in green technologies

3. Even if China were behind us, our positive actions would still save lives because climate collapse affects us by degrees

4. I have no idea why the fuck all these "patriots" are opposed to the idea of us being better than China. I'd love to be better than China, and I think our government is illegitimate. Why the fuck am I a bigger patriot than these losers?

Apparently, the mainstream animal-abusing left gets their whataboutisms from the same place as my racist uncle, because now it's capitalism's fault that people have no obligation to do good things ever.

So, if you think of yourself as a leftist but you eat meat and drive a car, I'd just like to remind you that you chose to pay a killer to kill for you, and you chose to worsen the flooding and draughts in poor countries, and no, a corporation did not put the money in your hand and force you to do this.