“They knew many things but had no idea why. And strangely this made them more, rather than less, certain that they were right.”
–Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
Day: September 12, 2020, 4:28 PM
Forster
I just stumbled on EM Forsterโs The Machine Stops. Published in 1928. Itโs about a distant future in which humanity lives in physically isolated cells, communicating only by video link, controlled by an omniscient global technology platform. This is the opening scene. pic.twitter.com/v5ZywMth2c
— James Plunkett (@jamestplunkett) September 12, 2020
This was first published in 1909 in actuality. I’ve read it; it’s short, worth reading, and extremely prescient.
It predicts modern liberalism quite well. Read it here for free.
Quarter Wit
i would like to formally apologize to the Jurassic Park franchise for every time iโve gone โwhy would they just?? constantly reopen the parks?? people are DYING????โ 2020 has me seeing clearly now
— หหห lars หห ห (@larsaddams) August 9, 2020
That always bothered me when people watch movies and complain about those in the film doing stupid stuff.
Man, people do mad stupid shit in real life ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Are you an oblivious halfwit or what?
Polate
A lot of folks acting as if 2020 has just been a string of bewildering bad luck, rather than what it truly is: a concentration of widely and reliably predicted and interconnected disasters that advanced nations of the world could have mitigated or prevented but chose not to.
— Kane Wishart (@kanewishart) September 11, 2020
Right. We knew another pandemic was inevitable. Did nothing. We knew once this one flared, what it’s course would likely be. Did nothing. We knew climate change was going to lead to what’s happening now in the West and worse. Did nothing. We knew the financial crisis would throw millions out of their homes into precarity, often for life. Did nothing.
All of this was both predictable and preventable. Don’t fall for the “who could have known?” propaganda that occurs immediately after and for years following such disasters. Though I see that many of you already are.
Control your own mind — don’t let others do it for you.
Deny Err
One of the things that really struck me in thinking about this is that we need to retire the standard framework for thinking about climate change denial. We've trained ourselves to think the dichotomy is between people who embrace science/people who don't, but that's not adequate
— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) September 11, 2020
Have been saying this for years. No one listened. 99%+ of people are climate change denialists. Human stupidity knows no bounds.
Unchange
There's a fantasy that once climate apocalypse begin to directly affect comfortable deniers they'll realize the truth and be ashamed, but the fact that during devastating fires people went out hunting for fictional antifa arsonists shows what will actually happen instead
— Gautham Thomas (@gautham_t) September 10, 2020
This is somethng I was very wrong about: years ago I thought that once climate change really started fucking places up, as it’s doing now, people would grasp its reality and change their minds and their behaviors.
I was utterly delusional. That’s not what people will do. What they will in fact do is to look for someone else on which to pin blame, still downplay the actuality and effects of climate change, and then live in denial until they die. This is the reality. They’d willingly sacrifice themselves and their own children rather than recognize any reality.
I hope evolution does better on the next round than this whole Homo sapiens thing. Total failure there.