
Today we have another guest post by a member of the un-Denial community, Gaia Gardener, who posted these thoughts on denial as a comment. I thought they were interesting enough to warrant promoting them to a more visible post.
Hello friends, thank you for a very interesting discussion about the realities of denial and how we humans seem to be able to manipulate all perceptions to fit our chosen narrative, whether or not we are consciously aware of our programmed beliefs however they were initialised and ingrained.
I am wondering if we can look at another subject, removed from overshoot, in which denial plays a big role in our actions/inactions so we can step back and dissect out a bit more how denial originates and becomes intrenched without us even realising our immersion in it, just like we in the small minority see happening to the masses and even polymaths in regards to overshoot denial.
The topic I think can fit the bill is the question of the ethics of eating animals, namely farmed animals which we consume in the billions every year. I won’t cover using animals for our labour and experimentation as the ethics of these actions can be construed to be justified in benefitting humankind which the majority of human beings would be in favour of. But the eating of animals in the modern world is not only unnecessary (and we can be spared the example of Inuits or other very minority population cultures who rely solely on animal products for sustenance, we do not have their situation in the least) but in fact there is convincing evidence that it is harmful to both our physical bodies and the planet, but for the sake of this argument, one need not consider either of those reasons to engage in a discussion of why we cannot eat animals nor their products if we believe we have a moral obligation to another sentient being. Let’s face it–we eat meat because we were brought up to do so and it tastes good (to most human taste buds) and it’s readily available without much effort on our part. However, the fact that animals suffer solely for our pleasure, tradition, and convenience is not enough moral ground to do so, for one can easily see how this disconnect can apply to any sentient being, including other humans, which is so obviously not an ethical choice. And yet, we are in complete denial that it is okay to eat chicken, cow, and pig but outrageously wrong to eat dog, cat, or horse. It is fine for us to imprison a member of a food species in the most horrendous conditions but we can be charged with abusing and neglecting other species we call our domestic companions. We can kill a food species animal way before their natural life span in a most horrific manner (everyone knows a slaughterhouse isn’t a happy place) so we can buy our sanitized plastic-wrapped packages of pork, beef, and healthy white meat chicken, but if we organise a dog fight and enjoy it, that is disgusting and shameful. You’re right, it’s not about education (most of us know that a live being had to be killed to get meat on the plate), or even more extreme forms of presenting the facts (how many of us would volunteer to witness what happens in a slaughterhouse, or even more tellingly, choose that as our job?). Yes, we have been lied to about happy free-range chickens or happy cows enjoying being milked on the happy dairy farm, but how many of us actually have spared more thought for what really happens in these industries, we’re only too happy ourselves to buy the more expensive organic or free-range option as if that absolves us from the guilt we still harbour knowing that no matter how happy the picture of the old MacDonald’s farm, we know this is a fantasy. Every animal still comes to an end in a way far from their natural choice and inclination.
I can sense the mounting justifications and counter-arguments–we need meat for our health or else we would get sick and die, if we didn’t raise the food animal they wouldn’t have a chance at life at all, what about if we were stuck on an island with only rabbits to eat, you can see how inane these points are, and generally stated to obfuscate the moral issue at hand. I am talking about modern day humans who now have access to a wide range of very suitable and healthful plant-based protein, and the methods we use to obtain our meatstuffs, even the question of whether or not it is our evolutionary diet (very debatable) isn’t the point here. The point is our denial of other factors which should be considered when making the choice of whether it is ethical to eat farmed animals, or even a beloved family pet lamb (just these words should put it in perspective that it isn’t but somehow we still do it–is that denial? ) What is it that keeps the majority of people still reaching for their burgers and steaks and fried chicken and bacon and eggs despite knowing what everyone should know? Is it denial of the truth because to face the ethical question front on would demand a choice and most humans just cannot overcome the continuation of pleasure, tradition, and ease of living, especially if it means realising it is a morally wrong thing to do so. So it is far easier to adopt cognitive disconnect, join the masses who are in your camp, degrade and exclude those who are not, and just keep doing what you want for one more day after day as long as it can last because at least you got to enjoy it and no one can take that away. Sound familiar? See how easy denial becomes just our way of perceiving our reality, and that is why I chose this example to prove that point. Every thought that is possibly going through your head now is a function of denial, one way or another, and none of it was even conscious before I brought this so called controversial topic up–if one can deem supporting active suffering of sentient beings just because we like it, to have any controversy attached.
I guess what I’m trying to express, which is in full agreement with what has been discussed, is that all of us have the capacity for denial (whether or not MORT is the primal reason) but we can’t see it as denial when we’re in the thick of it because that is just our chosen narrative. The way we dichotomise over overshoot, population control, Covid, Russia, just about any topic you can name, all confirm this. Only others outside that narrative (and usually the minority) can see that there is another perspective (because it’s their reality) and then call out the majority as in denial, which is exactly what the majority thinks of the outliers! It’s like that endless hall of mirrors reflecting back to you ad infinitum, whichever way one looks, there’s another image looking away from you, too, with the prime cause of the illusion being your own presence and perception of your reality. I think denial is a bit like that–it’s what holds us in our place, and helps define our sense of self by creating another version of possible self to bounce off of. I’m not saying there’s any right or wrong in this, it just seems to be how we are wired and until now, it has kept us on the survival ascendancy (that and a whole heck of fossil fuels!)
I think a good question to always be ready to ask ourselves in any situation to draw out denial is “What knowledge or understanding or different perspective that I may not have now but is available to gain or learn, would change or enhance the way I see the situation? ” Try it, it is very hard to allow oneself the possibility of overcoming our deep-rooted beliefs but yet that is precisely the attitude it will take for us to change them. Forcing education upon others doesn’t work as we have seen, it has to come from a self-directed intention to fill the knowledge gaps (isn’t that how we all arrived at our overshoot awareness and acceptance? We didn’t find this site because we were lectured into it, we found it because we sought it out) and then an even more entropy defying self push to change our actions to match our new insights. If the motivation is great enough, this can and will happen, but everyone has a different threshold before the fire is lit under our bums. Maybe that is why we need to head hell-bent towards full-on collapse, perhaps the only way to save ourselves is to first come within a nanometer of destroying ourselves. I still take comfort and security from the once inviolable Newton’s third law and trust that is will prove true for this case, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Let us pray for calamity that we will reach that opposite reaction with the same energy swinging us out of our doom as going into it, and preferably very soon!
Namaste, everyone. Thanks for bearing with another Gaia attack.

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Rob, this just came up on my Substack, have you seen it? https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/new-evidence-for-sars-cov-2-lab-origins?r=3dbo3&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
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Yes, I did see it, thank you. I only lightly skimmed it because the probability of lab origin is now so high that I’d rather invest mental energy elsewhere. Like for example, trying to understand why our “leaders” don’t care where the virus originated when it is perhaps THE most important question associated with covid.
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Benjamin’s probably right.
http://benjaminthedonkey-limericksofdoom.blogspot.com/2022/10/i-told-you-so-when-deniers-get-doomers.html
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When you strip away all the fluff causing social unrest, what remains is the affordability and availability of food and energy, and since food is energy, all that remains is energy.
https://climateandeconomy.com/2022/10/18/18th-october-2022-todays-round-up-of-economic-news/
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Gail Tverberg’s essay today is good with a nice recap of our overshoot predicament.
Reading between the lines, she may be suggesting that the Ukraine war is not insanity but rather a decision to sacrifice Europe in order to keep the wheels on elsewhere a little longer.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2022/10/18/why-financial-approaches-wont-fix-the-worlds-economic-problems-this-time/
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At the same time Europe is outbidding countries like Pakistan for LNG. Reality tends to be messy.
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el gato malo today on how we are doubling down rather than learning from the biggest blunder in history.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/new-us-biodefense-plans-cross-the
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Western civilisation year 2023 will make all the recent years look like a love-in in the park. We have been warned, now what?
Just be grateful for every day we have, and do the best we can to be kind to everyone we can.
If I can just keep this thought in my immediate consciousness, then I can almost think it’s all going to be okay.
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New documentary based on the Kennedy book about Fauci looks promising and can be viewed for free by providing an email address. They don’t verify the email address.
https://www.therealanthonyfaucimovie.com/viewing/
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I watched it. Mostly good. The big takeaway for me was that bad healthcare policies and ethics are not new for covid. They have been commonplace since pharma via Fauci took control of the US healthcare system.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death
I only stop by occasionally, so do not know if you’ve discussed this book.
Another perspective on denial, might or might not align with Varki’s insight.
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Thanks, I have read it.
Varki’s MORT is to Becker’s TMT as General Relativity is to Newtonian physics. Both do a good job of predicting everyday behavior however MORT supersedes and explains much more than TMT.
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Tim Morgan today again explains the centrality of energy to the economy.
I wish he started each essay with a paragraph stating, “here are the ideas I have not previously presented many times”.
Morgan predicts a 27% haircut over the next 20 years. Hagens predicts a 30% haircut over the next couple years. My guess is they’re both too optimistic.
https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2022/10/19/242-the-dynamics-of-global-re-pricing/
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I think you might have missed this
” This implies a near-50% fall in the affordability of discretionary (non-essential) products and services, even though top-line economic output is only projected to fall by 8%.”
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Although i do think that the catabolic collapse model’s ragged stair step decline model is most likely.
And the Europe is in for a major step down down over the next ~3 years and the US major step down is likely by the end of the decade.
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Thank you, I did miss that. I tend to skim Morgan’s essays very quickly looking for things he has not already said in previous essays.
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I seriously want to know, how does Gail’s blog (which is so good) attract the most stupid people in the comment section? What is going on? Is it just that others like Rob, Tim G, Tom M, JMG etc. are better at cleaning up poor comments. JHK’s comments sections are also a complete waste of time.
Rob you do a fantastic job with your blog!
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Thank you for the kind words, Monk.
I find OFW’s comments section to be a bit of tragedy because there are only a tiny number of people that study and write about our overshoot predicament, which is astonishing given it’s by far the most important thing going on in the world today (and btw the silence in my view confirms Varki’s MORT), because anyone new to overshoot visiting Gail’s site would be reasonable to conclude we’re all wack jobs.
The secret to un-Denial is thanks to you and the other regulars that are intelligent, respectful, and open minded.
I know that I irritate some of you for spending so much time ranting about covid but I’d like to briefly defend myself and I seek your understanding.
I don’t frequently rant about the ignorance and bad policies associated with peak oil, climate change, and the end of growth because I understand there is a genetic reason as explained by Varki’s MORT.
Covid is not like overshoot. Bad covid policies are not caused by an unpleasant reality that can be forgiven by MORT. Bad covid policies are a toxic mix of greed, corruption, power seeking, indifference, stupidity, incompetence, and fear.
Furthermore, unlike the sickness which has trended less deadly, the bad covid policies and their implications have not gone away and to my eyes are getting worse. We have governments actively hiding data that demonstrates the dangers of the vaccines while continuing to push new vaccines with even less safety and effectiveness testing into citizens including children. There is still no discussion of prevention and early treatment, dangerous gain of function research continues, and there’s a reasonable probability that our vaccination policy will result in a catastrophe as hypothesized by Bossche.
So I’m going to continue discussing covid but I will try not to be repetitive, and I will try to focus on new evidence. I also encourage all of you to post any evidence that supports what our “leaders” are doing.
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As I tried to say to FE, it’s not his position on things like Covid that is the problem. It’s the manner in which he conducts himself and the spamming level of comments he produces. He clearly annoys a lot of people on OFW and Gail sides with him when he is abusive to other commentators.
I’ve just spent a couple of days trolling him back for LOLz. He seems to be incredibly narcissistic and suffers from delusions of grandeur.
I hate to say it, but I tend to form a very low opinion of people who are easily influenced or manipulated by narcissists. He makes Gail look bad.
The other thing is, people like him do this on purpose to disrupt otherwise good blogs and derail important conversations. See this article for example: https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2017/08/21/the-gentlepersons-guide-to-forum-spies/
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Tis true that OFW comments were more level headed when FE wasn’t commenting for a few years.
But let me point out your own delusion or denial here Monk (with all respect), even if FE and others that seem nutty were gone Gail’s blog would still have no impact anyway. Just like this most excellent blog basically no one reads it except for a handful of people and we are interested in each others comments and news curating.
No matter how concise and logically explained to people, the message is undesirable so therefore ignored. I have been reading these blogs and commenting on them for near 20 years. I have lost friends over these discussions. The only thing that I have learnt is that very very very few people get our predicament (or even understand that that is different to a problem) and that without facing our biggest issue which is population control in a fair and moral way (whatever that is) we are doomed to collapse.
Enjoy the ride, it is short and ………………….(fill in your own blank).
Please keep commenting Monk on both sites. Best to ignore FE.
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That is so true that it’s unlikely the blog would gain a wider audience. But I had more selfish motivations in that I just didn’t like reading all the trash when I wanted to go through her comments section. Anyway Mike gave me a good idea to set up an email feed for comments and filter out FE
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I use Feedly to monitor the OFW comment feed which makes it easy to read the odd new comment and delete the rest.
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I also find the comment section at Peak Oil Barrel to be a disappointment with adults still debating if peak oil is problem and whether wind and solar power will continue to grow abundant modernity.
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funny, I never go on there. The Peak Oil group on Facebook is really good. David Casey is a really good moderator. He doesn’t let people get too off track from peak oil, but he allows adjacent conversations like climate change. He also prevents too much stupid political or conspiracy type discussion, so the posts and discussions are really good quality.
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I have fuzzy recollection that David Casey is a good guy. Having closed my Facebook account, I imagine I’m missing quite a bit, but I don’t care.
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You’re not missing that much 🙂
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I think it’s highly bimodal. The difference between Dennis and Ron for example is day and night. But it was always like that. The Non-Petroleum thread used to be full of EV and “renewables”. At least there the tone changed there quite a lot in the last few months and years.
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Anyone out there up for writing another guest post?
No worries if it’s short.
I promise to help present you and your ideas in the best possible light.
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I’ve been working on a nuclear article for some time. I’ve got a skeleton draft I could send you. If you like it I can finish it
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Excellent, please send it.
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Our leaders are evil, corrupt, and stupid.
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I’ve got a lot of respect for Steve Kirsch. He’s posting this on a billboard outside the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/this-is-the-billboard-that-we-will
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I enjoyed today’s essay by Peak Doc recapping the recent fall of the UK prime minister because she believed what her economics course taught her.
https://toxicplantsblog.blogspot.com/2022/10/trussonomics-101.html
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This is the best explanation of why England is collapsing, and soon other Countries, to.https://eand.co/why-britain-is-collapsing-e5590018e04c
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I didn’t mean to post that anonymously-I’m not ashamed of my inveterate Left Wing allegiance.
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I was not impressed with their argument that the UK is collapsing because it left the EU.
The EU has much less fossil energy than it needs to maintain modernity. The main advantage of the EU was scale which enabled more debt for living beyond its fossil energy means. That advantage is now vaporizing as inflation is constraining debt growth with higher interest rates.
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I believe he is wrong. The UK left the EU because they knew and are most likely in on the collapse of Europe. This will be messy but it will generate huge demand destruction (DD) slowing down the depletion of many finite natural resources and the destruction of the biosphere.
Demand destruction is the name of the game from here on out…coming to a a theatre near you!
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LOL, a month ago I would have said you’re crazy, but now we know anything is possible because someone in the west blew up a pipeline owned by Germany that is essential to its modernity.
If your theory is correct, perhaps the UK blew up the pipeline?
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Hello Jef,
A play with semantics here–do you mean Demand destruction! as in an imperative statement as well as demand as a thing to be destructed? Either way, I think we’re going to see both. DD also reminds me of D-Day, long playing in this catastrophe theatre. Hope you and your family are going well as can be, all things considered.
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Gaia – I like what you did there;-}
WOrking on getting all my cover crops in. Big fan of fava. If you pull a fava when they are only a foot or so high you can see all there white nodules on the roots, serious nitrogen baby! I’m one of those crazy guys who actually likes to eat fava too.
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Hi there Jef,
I’m a fava fan, too! We call them broad beans here in Australia. The mature beans are amazing roasted, just toss the shelled beans with some olive oil and salt single layer in a pan and roast at 200 degrees C until they turn brown at the edges and the outer peel starts to crack, about 10 minutes. Chewy and nutty on the outside and creamy on the inside, so delicious and simple.
Also, broad beans make a great hummus, substitute chick peas with boiled (or roasted) beans, they give a depth of earthiness that can use more vinegar (try balsamic) to balance. Or try stirring in a spoonful of toasted sesame oil into the puree, that goes really well with favas, too.
If for some reason you get sick of the beans, you can eat the growing tips of the plants, use them in a stir fry, they have a nice mild, pea-like flavour.
Great to hear you’re improving the nitrogen capacity in your soil and carbon, too, with the spent bean plants.
What would we do without our gardens to give us sanctuary from the insanity just outside our gate?
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Just to be clear you have to cut down and turn in most cover crops before they fruit. Nitrogen locking plants are saving up that nitrogen storing it in the nodules on the roots so that they can use it later when the big push to flower and fruit comes and they use up most if not all of it.
I only let about 10% of the Fava I grow go all the way to beans which I eat and save for seed.
Cheers! jef
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Al Jazeera, which I used to respect, has also lost their minds. They just did a documentary on how Russia might start a nuclear war and completely missed the point Putin made which was, it you attack or pose an existential threat to Russia, we will use all means to defend ourselves.
The obvious conclusion Al Jazeera missed was, to avoid nuclear war, don’t attack Russia, or put weapons on their border.
Like, duh.
Ditto duh, if you don’t want the US to start a nuclear war.
Morons.
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Don’t let one doco completely change your respect of the channel, Rob. Surely you can’t like everything a news source does? By the way, I haven’t watched that doco yet but you’ve prompted me to do so, thanks.
Regarding Nato expansion (which I assume is what you’re referring to), why did Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joining Nato not trigger a nuclear war and how come Finland gets to join without much action from Russia?
Also, are there any existential threats for Russia, at the moment?
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Russia was not happy when promises were broken that Nato would not expend east. They tried negotiating. It didn’t work. Then they drew a red line in the Ukraine sand. We crossed it.
Russia is destroying what it considers to be existential threats. They will stop when the threats are gone.
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I just listened to the podcast (I assume that’s what you were referring to) and it was focused on whether and how Putin might use nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. So I’m not sure your criticism is valid, Rob. It made no attempt to either justify or criticise the action Putin has taken in Ukraine, it simply starts from the fact that the war is going on, what might trigger a nuclear attack and how such an attack might be performed.
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They provided no context for Putin’s warning. I was annoyed and quit half-way through so maybe you heard something I missed.
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The Post Carbon Institue is running a podcast series with Richard Heinberg on his new book Power.
It’s very good but has few new insights for readers of un-Denial.
I do want to bring to your attention the concluding comments in the most recent episode by the young host Melody Travers which I thought were deep & wise. She quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson and then sings a depression era song.
Skip ahead to 57:15 for her excellent 2-minute monologue and song.
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Poignant thoughts indeed, Rob. But Pandora’s box has been opened too long ago and Homo sapiens has filled every corner of this globe (if globes can have corners), and we can’t put ourselves back into the box–that would make herding cats look like child’s play! If we were to inhabit only those climes neither Canada frigid nor Calcutta steamy, then we would be a smaller footprint for sure.
Interesting to bring up Richard Heinberg who was just last week a guest at a forum called Talking Collapse put on by my husband’s University of Tasmania. Once again, too little, too late and nothing new for us but it did seem that from the Q and A afterwards, some in the audience finally got the picture that things are serious. A brave soul asked about population reduction and that was squarely batted away by saying it was in the too hard basket, what kind of answer is that! That totally took away much credibility for me, but then again, who in the public collapsesphere really has fronted up to this? Even Nate Hagens who teaches youngsters who need to make that crucial decision to withhold child bearing, probably hasn’t come out to clearly advocate that in no uncertain terms.
The child wonders, Can I have a child? The adult wonders, Should I? If only this were true! Can and Should are very different questions, indeed but unfortunately we seem to be only children here when it comes to this issue. Does it strike others here as ironic that most people spend far more thought and effort deciding what breed of dog to get (or make of car or mobile phone) than whether or not to bring another human being into the world. When it comes to making the decision for having kids, it’s like the shoot first, ask questions later mentality. I guess that describes getting pregnant pretty well. Sooooo…maybe it’s a matter of making sure we’re shooting blanks, then?
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It really pisses me off that most overshoot aware people don’t discuss population. It’s the only thing that really matters.
I got into a debate today on the need for population reduction with someone in the comments section of Nate Hagen’s latest video. I was unable to change his views. Never do. Sigh.
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For a split second there I thought the title The Quiet Part Out Loud was going to be Nate finally opening up the population reduction discussion, but no such luck. Sigh.
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Me too. That’s why my first comment said the silent part is more important to discuss than the quiet part.
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Sheldon Yakiwchuk is as one of my favorite covid data analysts and he resides in the Canadian province next to me.
https://sheldonyakiwchuk.substack.com/p/what-will-it-take-for-them-to-admit
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Interesting theory that the flu disappeared because covid outcompeted it.
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-influenza
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Dr. David Bell is a rare public health physician with intelligence and integrity.
The majority of his colleagues have neither.
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