Total extractivism: welcome to the open cabal of ‘more is more’ & ‘all energy’

Revisiting extractivism definitions, this article affirms the concept of total extractivism. The implicit, and embedded reality, of total extractivism is animated by attending the 2025 Wyoming Energy Authority’s (WEA) Next Frontier Energy Summit. Drawing parallels with the film They Live, the article identifies an explicit and implicit total extractivism discourse permeating the summit. Revealing an institutionalized trajectory towards facilitating total extractivism, the article, in agreement with extractvism/postdevelopment criticisms, concludes that total liberation theory, practices and pathways deserve development and practical affirmations.