6 ms·

Swedish scientist advocates eating humans to combat climate change

tpmx 7y ago
Obviously this has been met with a lot of pushback, even here in Sweden. I think the "the scientist"... uh, a professor of marketing, is either trying to virally market himself, Greta style.. or there's something darker going on about him, at a very personal level... or both.
- nobodyandproud 7y ago
  Read about the start of eugenics a hundred years ago. There were people who really believed in instituting some really dark policies “for the greater good.
  - tpmx 7y ago
    a) Yes, e.g. in Sweden. The same social democratic party that is currently ruling Sweden was deeply into eugenics before WW2. b) I think this guy's motivation comes from a completely different perspective though. He's teaching at the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_School_of_Economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_School_of_Economics - I can't really imagine anyone with social democratic tendencies wanting to work there. Given the current debate climate in Sweden my thinking is that he simply expected to be celebrated for having a radical solution to the climate change issue. Or he just wanted to market himself. Or he is a cannibal. Or a combination of the above things. It will be interesting to see what the Stockholm School of Economics end up saying about him after the dust has settled.
    - nobodyandproud 7y ago
      Ah, you’re right. He’s an expert in marketing and gauging reactions. It’s much harder to see what his motives are then.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
nobodyandproud 7y ago
The single reason to avoid this is a slippery slope: When do we start having human livestock? While I am a liberal, this is the side of liberalism that I detest.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  > While I am a liberal, this is the side of liberalism that I detest. Huh? What's liberal about this? Just the fact that it's a radical proposal? That's a pretty flat (and I'd argue, inaccurate) definition of liberalism.
  - Piskvorrr 7y ago
    It's not even radical. I mean, it's been originally penned as a modest proposal ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal
  - nobodyandproud 7y ago
    It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part. Cannibalism isn’t something that I would expect the religious (generally in the conservative camp) would tolerate, whereas the camp that believes in the natural goodness of humans (classic liberalism) might.
- dagnysdildo 7y ago
  We already have human livestock. We call them "human resources", "consumers", and "taxpayers".
nivertech 7y ago
Ignoring obvious ethical and 'yuck' factors, this may reintroduce many forgotten diseases. For many parasites human body is a dead-end - they can't complete their complex life-cycle because nobody usually eats humans. Well, until now ;) Also see Kuru disease [1]. Maybe this Swedish scientist should join forces with the Norwegian scientist, Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen, who has perfected a procedure that “downsizes” people, shrinking them down to five inches tall, in order to combat climate change. One normal-sized human corpse can feed an entire village of miniaturized people ;) In "The 100" SciFi series, eating humans serves dual purpose: population reduction and source of protein required for survival (they found out that plant-based protein wasn't sufficient). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)
dagnysdildo 7y ago
Start with the rich.

tpmx 7y ago

Obviously this has been met with a lot of pushback, even here in Sweden. I think the "the scientist"... uh, a professor of marketing, is either trying to virally market himself, Greta style.. or there's something darker going on about him, at a very personal level... or both.

nobodyandproud 7y ago
Read about the start of eugenics a hundred years ago. There were people who really believed in instituting some really dark policies “for the greater good.
- tpmx 7y ago
  a) Yes, e.g. in Sweden. The same social democratic party that is currently ruling Sweden was deeply into eugenics before WW2. b) I think this guy's motivation comes from a completely different perspective though. He's teaching at the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_School_of_Economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_School_of_Economics - I can't really imagine anyone with social democratic tendencies wanting to work there. Given the current debate climate in Sweden my thinking is that he simply expected to be celebrated for having a radical solution to the climate change issue. Or he just wanted to market himself. Or he is a cannibal. Or a combination of the above things. It will be interesting to see what the Stockholm School of Economics end up saying about him after the dust has settled.
  - nobodyandproud 7y ago
    Ah, you’re right. He’s an expert in marketing and gauging reactions. It’s much harder to see what his motives are then.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

nobodyandproud 7y ago

The single reason to avoid this is a slippery slope: When do we start having human livestock? While I am a liberal, this is the side of liberalism that I detest.

wutbrodo 7y ago
> While I am a liberal, this is the side of liberalism that I detest. Huh? What's liberal about this? Just the fact that it's a radical proposal? That's a pretty flat (and I'd argue, inaccurate) definition of liberalism.
- Piskvorrr 7y ago
  It's not even radical. I mean, it's been originally penned as a modest proposal ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal
- nobodyandproud 7y ago
  It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part. Cannibalism isn’t something that I would expect the religious (generally in the conservative camp) would tolerate, whereas the camp that believes in the natural goodness of humans (classic liberalism) might.
dagnysdildo 7y ago
We already have human livestock. We call them "human resources", "consumers", and "taxpayers".

nivertech 7y ago

Ignoring obvious ethical and 'yuck' factors, this may reintroduce many forgotten diseases. For many parasites human body is a dead-end - they can't complete their complex life-cycle because nobody usually eats humans. Well, until now ;) Also see Kuru disease [1]. Maybe this Swedish scientist should join forces with the Norwegian scientist, Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen, who has perfected a procedure that “downsizes” people, shrinking them down to five inches tall, in order to combat climate change. One normal-sized human corpse can feed an entire village of miniaturized people ;) In "The 100" SciFi series, eating humans serves dual purpose: population reduction and source of protein required for survival (they found out that plant-based protein wasn't sufficient). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)

dagnysdildo 7y ago

Start with the rich.