Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Goliath's Curse

 “We can’t put a date on Doomsday, but by looking at the 5,000 years of [civilisation], we can understand the trajectories we face today – and self-termination is most likely,” says Dr Luke Kemp at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/02/self-termination-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse


This article was an interesting read and I think the book will be interesting as well. The author argues that previous societal collapses were good for the population because they basically freed people from the oppression of the state. Societies (d)evolve toward increasing inequality, led by sociopathic oligarchs, then eventually collapse, freeing people to go back to their daily lives without having to enrich the overlords. For a while.



This time won’t be so pretty, because we are so interconnected and specialized, and because the climate change is more severe. It’s not inevitable according to the author, but the most likely outcome.


Thoughts?


[post by Dan T]


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