Interesting Links for 05-03-2012

[andrewducker]

• People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish
  (tags: politics society intelligence democracy )
• Sex and the modern girl: living in a world where women aren't ashamed of their desires
  (tags: uk sexuality sex women )
• Archie gay marriage comic sells out in face of boycott call
  (tags: lgbt comics )
• Bechdel Testing Comics
  (tags: bechdel women

Comments

[steer]

Is (1) that bad?

Heh... I find it weird when people ask this question... unless we allow "magic" (humans suddenly find a way to responsibly reduce the population by an extreme amount through family planning in a way that doesn't leave an aging population to starve) there seems no way to get to that population without an extreme amount of human misery and premature death. If the deaths and suffering of billions is not bad then what is?

It's a funny little mental quirk... One person or animal starving or dying prematurely and unnecessary is obviously bad. Weirdly, billions, less so. I've encountered it with global warming deniers. If you back them into a corner of "yes, there is an increase in temperature, OK that's clear" and "OK, it is manmade... OK that's clear" and "OK, the consequences would be massive loss of human and animal life" then occasionally (in at least two people where I've got to stage 3 with) you get "well is it really so bad if there are fewer people and animals".

I appreciate you were more asking "is the smaller population" necessarily so bad -- in which case I agree with the below comment.

[andrewducker]

I wasn't suggesting a move from _here_ to a hunter-gatherer society. That would be genocidal insanity.