politics, sorry, but this is great (2023 Update)

Again - ignorance is bliss.

Of course they are - because many kids today have a far better grasp of reality and science than you do. Previous generations have totally disregarded the abuse of the planet and overuse of resources - they have been happy to push the problems on to the future generations. You and your like have been happy in the knowledge that you'll be dead before the seas swamp your cities so it is not /your/ problem. Now we have people who starting to realise that /they/ are the ones that have to do something about it, and /they/ are the ones who will be suffering the consequences of their parents' and grandparents' greed. And they are right to be afraid.

That, however, has nothing at all to do with being conservative or socialist, or right-wing or left-wing. It has to do with education, understanding, empathy, science, and paying attention to the world around you.

David Brown snipped-for-privacy@hesbynett.no wrote in news:srv735$jiu$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

• a friggin' million!

Good job, David, of pegging Larkin right on the mark. Quite socially, rewarding reading your take.

Imaginary straw people again.

Tribal name-calling is not rational thought or discussion.

I never claimed to be any winger. I belong to no political parties. I'm just interested in human dynamics, especially as it affects engineering. Which it sure does.

I was stopped at a red light yesterday on Monterey, at the freeway entrance. A huge flock of black birds, a tight cluster of a few hundred, was flailing around the sky apparently randomly. They looked like a giant black water balloon in a tornado. I tried to see if any bird was in the lead and it sure didn't look like it. Just when the light turned green, they all dived together and disappeared into a tree.

Made me think of tribes of people. Similar dynamics, group action with nobody in charge.

Previous generations, many by now, have predicted imminent doom: peak oil, global cooling, mass starvation, using up all the metals. It hasn't happened; things keep getting better. Nobody seems to be pointing out to the kids how well off they are by historical standards. Ungrateful little brats.

You and

You're being tribal again. Beats thinking.

have been happy in the knowledge that you'll be dead before

At 2 mm per year, we'll probably have another ice age before we drown. Being a mile deep in ice *would* be a lot worse than ankle-deep in warm sea water. Make more CO2.

The big sea level problem in coastal cities is manmade subsidence from pumping out groundwater. Bad for real estate values for the beach villas.

Not scared, just rationally prudent about a common hazard. Besides, I don't like wake up with random strangers who might make bad coffee.

I do appreciate that having accidents and diseases and lawsuits are a boring nuisance. If I am afraid of anything, it's boredom.

But group dynamics interests me, and I'm not a group.

Old hens tend to group. They cluck and my-o-my together.

The same ones? Another made-up population to mock.

STDs are rarely lethal any more. But they can be dangerous to a partner. You might have fun and leave her infertile. The more people you sleep with, the bigger germ pool you play in.

Things like herpes can be a nuisance too.

See your later comment, below.

Pot. Kettle. Black. (ref your original article)

Clearly David's points are too subtle and long for you to bother to read them. Instead your response is to reflexively ignore them and therefore dismiss them.

Some people are so hidebound they can't /think/ anymore.

Conservatives are particularly prone to that; libertarians more so.

** Totally delusional thinking.

JL's quote is from mad Greta - who simply has no grasp of anything. But at least she has the excuse of being a child stooge for other's ambitions.

Lefty fuckwits like Brown have no excuse whatever.

..... Phil

Anarchists Unite!

The only common goal of libertarians is to be left alone.

The problem with coercive group action, passing laws to tax and control everything, is that very few people understand how societies and economies really work. Control usually degrades to group power and self-interest and gross inefficiency.

It's better in those situations to allow a zillion random experiments and allow the successful ones to grow. That's the way most things have been invented.

She seems to be an industry. It will be interesting to follow her life.

And some people, namely most people here, switch to personal insults instead of considering objective opinions.

If only John Doe were imaginary. Sadly, he's real enough to post his nonsense here all too often.

But John Larkin doesn't do anything else.

" But it's not. Socialists are literally more social than the average person. Leftists believe in collective action to govern everybody."

That's communists, not socialists.

"They are more dogmatic, more tribal, more unhappy with the traditional norms of human behavior. More afraid. "

That's merely irrational nonsense - tribal name-calling.

snipped-for-privacy@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: ===============================

** Called neurotics.

** Sensible fear.

** Autistic neurotics.

** As if you could ever tell. ** Phobias about seeing blood, one own or others are not unusual. ** A basic, self protection instinct. ** Utter bullshit.

.... Phil

John Larkin does seem to be prize example of the breed.

" Being social, tribal, means that one is hypersensitive to group behavior and peer pressure. And afraid of rejection by peers. That means, in engineering, doing everything by the book and being inhibited against presenting radical ideas. I see this all the time."

He likes to think that this is what he sees - what he is actually seeing is people being rude about his silly ideas, and he's too silly to realise that they are right.

Don't be silly; climate change is susceptible to investigation and contemplation without regard to optimism, or fear, or argyle socks. You do need awareness, wisdom, and some measure of worldwide cooperative action (even if it's only to compare notes).

You sound like everyone's granddad.

I wonder how much time David spent on writing that post. It's the sort of thing I'd expect to find published in the "Opinion" section of a good newspaper.