As we read the words at left, a kind of incredulity comes over us. This couldn’t really happen, could it?
All this turns around the state of world capitalism. As long as our socio-economic system is based on greed, and ignoring the needs of other people, the answer is an emphatic no.
The United States, at 13.4 million barrels/day, is by far the largest supplier of crude in the world. Saudi Arabia is second at 10.8 million barrels/day.
I don’t wish to be mean to these people, but there is something both funny and appropriate about this.
Here’s an idea: If you don’t believe that the United States has border security, you could plan a trip with your daughter to the border and see what the ~64,000 federal employees are actually doing on a day-to-day basis (see below).
One of the benefits of the trip is that you will cease to be ignorant on the subject and stop making a fool out of yourself in front of literally billions of Internet users.
If one takes the meme here out of context, we’re doing pretty well. The problem is that the rate at which species are going extinct is going through the roof, due to the intrusion of humankind into animal habitats, coupled with climate change.
The current rate of extinction is hundreds or thousands of times higher than the natural baseline rate. The natural baseline rate is about one species per million species per year. However, estimates of the current extinction rate vary widely:
To some people, the meme at left implies that they can extend their lives by reading more. Perhaps in a few rare cases, that may be true.
However, it’s far more likely that there is no direct causation, and that, although reading is a good idea and is likely to make you a more well-rounded, intellectually curious person, that the actual reason that readers live longer is some other factor. Perhaps readers:
Tend to take better care of themselves, refraining from smoking and consuming alcohol in excess.
Are generally better educated than the average person and are therefore less likely to have jobs that put them in direct danger.
Are more affluent than average and are therefore able to afford medical treatment when needed.
In any case, it’s important to understand that correlation doesn’t imply causation.
We don’t hate you, but we encourage you to learn more about this subject.
The United States is unlike many countries, in that it has no official language and makes no attempt to force immigrants to abandon the cultures, customs, religions, and languages of their homelands. Thus, in many of our major cities that were the landing points for immigrants for a period of centuries, e.g., San Francisco and New York, it’s common to see Chinatown, Little Italy, and so forth.
Note that this stands in contrast to perfectly honorable countries like Denmark. Want to move there? No problem, but you have six months to learn the language and pass a citizenship test in Danish.
Is this what we want from our incoming president? Threatening to use military force against our allies in Europe?
I guess so. We don’t seem to have much willingness to push back on Trump, regardless of how outrageous his actions.
The majority of Americans are clearly thrilled that Trump seems to have beaten all attempts to criminally prosecute him for trying to overthrow the U.S. government following his loss in the 2020 election.
The United States faces four more years of leadership by a truly deranged human being; it’s a sickening position.
From his Wikipedia page: Jason Edward Hickel is an anthropologist and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Hickel’s research and writing focuses on economic anthropology and development, and is particularly opposed to capitalism, neocolonialism, as well as economic growth as a measure of human development.
What Hickel says at left is undoubtedly true. What makes this interesting is that human civilization is now threatened with extinction, specifically because of his claim, i.e., that our society is willing to ignore science when capital is at stake.
How far is humankind willing to go before it puts science in charge of policymaking when it comes to staving off catastrophe? Nobody knows.
Most of our senior scientists in the modern age agree with Hawking here, but, remarkably, not all.
