I find the people with hope genuinely confusing at this point.
Hope us a useless feeling. So is despair. Neither will do anything.
You only get one life, you happen to be fucking born in a time when everything is about to go to shit. Well too bad, you still get to live and make the best of it. I don’t understand people who are so hung up on things they can’t control. If earth was going to get cooked by a supernova in 40 years, I would still live a normal, healthy life and the only thing that would be different is when I die, everyone else does too. Changes nothing.
I value knowledge and wisdom as its own end, knowing it comes at the expense of contentment/comfort.
We all get to choose what we value most, and usually it comes at something else’s expense. I would rather stare into the void so long as the void is something true then be deluded, blissfully ignorant and happy when that happiness requires willful ignorance, another way of saying choosing not to know what is available to know.
I think a lot of the “don’t think about it” willful ignorance is a big reason us sapient beings inflict such cruelty on one another and sentient creatures that feel real pain so easily. Empathy, knowing everyone else has an inner world and feels as deeply as you do, is something you have to allow yourself to know and feel that most don’t care about so long as they “get theirs.”
What you’re describing is exactly why we will go extinct, legions of people choosing to take what they can without the detriment of really internalizing who will be hurt and how deeply by it. Those best at that skill, sociopaths, run this world and are the primary reason our species’ time is ending so they can “win,” feel accomplished, and ultimately scurry into their little luxury bunker tombs to sip expensive bourbon and reminisce about how high their ego scores got and how awesome it was while luxuriating several feet of concrete under the fruits of their own fine work until their heart gives out or one of their very expensive air/water/waste/hydroponic systems fail.
Humanity should have been humanity’s business, not finding “rational self-interest” bliss. But we made our choice and our bed. 🤷
I value knowledge and wisdom as its own end, knowing it comes at the expense of contentment/comfort.
Wisdom is knowing how to use knowledge to make the world a better place. It seems like you value knowledge and look down on wisdom.
I always want to reply with that chart on every post about some magical new climate technology. Nothing really matters until we stop pulling carbon-based fuels out of the ground and lighting them on fire. That’s it. That’s the only thing that matters. Wind and solar are great but we’re still approving gas/coal/oil projects, at least globally.
It’s like with the water crisis in the American West. They guilt trip individuals into feeling bad about taking showers but it’s like 80% agriculture. And the majority of that is for animal feed. (I’m not saying everyone go vegan. That’s about as unrealistic as asking everyone to stop fucking to keep the population from growing. I’m saying don’t grow alfalfa in the fucking desert and then blame people who bathe.)
where did you get this data? it can’t possibly be right
edit: it’s robbed of context. it’s only illustrating water use in the Colorado River basin, and even at that is being misleading: for instance, corn silage is a byproduct of grain corn. that water doesn’t magically re-enter the water table if we don’t feed it to cattle, but by feeding it to cattle, we are able to reclaim some of that water use.
It’s kinda bizarre how people are brainwashed to think that this isn’t a thing…
https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/devastating-water-footprint-animal-agriculture/163485/
I skimmed this and clicked a few of the references. it does use poore-nemecek 2018, so I’m skeptical of all of the other data that’s included. of course going through a piece the size that you linked to evaluate it for its scientific integrity is a project all onto itself and I’m at work at the moment. I encourage you to look at the methodology for each of the claims made in your link.