3 ms·

> "We don't actually know that." Arguably one of my main areas of personal study is the limited ability of science to under stand the world, so I'm not one of

> "We don't actually know that." Arguably one of my main areas of personal study is the limited ability of science to under stand the world, so I'm not one of the "the science is decided!" people. There's a bizarrely implied bias here in your statement that I've pointed out in past which is "we don't know so things are probably fine". I've been surprisingly close with a famous climate scientist who also holds this controversial opinion. I'm not convinced. The data I've seen right now is that our climate is breaking down quickly, in ways we have not expected, and we tend to underestimate the negative impacts of what we don't know on the future of our species. > "So if one is actually concerned about the future, one focuses on solutions, not on hand wringing." Only the naive optimist paints the pessimist as one who is obsessed with "hand wringing". I'm not remotely interested in panicking, or despair, but rather learning to find methods of survival in a quickly collapsing society. It's visibly happening this moment and in more ways than just climate, you don't need models to or predictions to realize what's going on. Which brings me to an even more important point: > I'm one of the annoyingly upbeat people I don't think you're the people I'm talking about. Politely disagreeing with my view is not the problem. The issue is with a huge subset of this community that will down vote and even flag content that scares them. My concern is that people in denial lead to strange behaviors and become increasingly dangerous as they need to become more aggressive in their denial to maintain mental health. The mental health of people unable to accept our current situations is degrading terrifyingly fast. Myself and all of the other people I know who saw all of this long before the pandemic are dealing with things reasonably well, after all we knew all of this was coming decades ago.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
There's a bizarrely implied bias here in your statement that I've pointed out in past which is "we don't know so things are probably fine". You are reading in a bias I don't have. My position is closer to that Men in Black line about "There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Korilian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable planet." Though I don't agree with the rest of it that "The only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it!" The society that is collapsing is a society with a long track record of oppressing various groups, including women. I happen to have been born with girl bits so I view that as not entirely a bad thing and, in fact, a potential opportunity for my life to maybe suck less in the future than it has for the past 56 years. Edit: and have an upvote. I'm always happy to engage in good discussion.

DoreenMichele 5y ago

There's a bizarrely implied bias here in your statement that I've pointed out in past which is "we don't know so things are probably fine". You are reading in a bias I don't have. My position is closer to that Men in Black line about "There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Korilian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable planet." Though I don't agree with the rest of it that "The only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it!" The society that is collapsing is a society with a long track record of oppressing various groups, including women. I happen to have been born with girl bits so I view that as not entirely a bad thing and, in fact, a potential opportunity for my life to maybe suck less in the future than it has for the past 56 years. Edit: and have an upvote. I'm always happy to engage in good discussion.