How best to reduce world population

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Krauter

Aww I missed it I was just getting my torch and pitchfork ready .

Just wait a few days or so. Another one will show up. Or make another appearance.

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by Castout

Sorry if my comment offends you but I'm Chinese too(There's supposed to be Dutch in it too but it's too far up the lineage). Didn't mean to be racist.

LOL at the picture.



Haven't you realized too many people here at subsim are exceedingly friendly that they will courteously and eagerly reply to just about any thread. Take a look at spam threads for example . Seriously the people here are just nice and welcoming.

No offense taken
I'm Sino-canadian
found the picture on my friend's wall, loled the first time i saw it

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by The Third Man

Germans? Any other bright ideas? If you don't understand how your history makes you inviolet...you are not very smart.

Skybird, did you know that you Germans have a history of being non-purple?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Growler

How does this help the situation at all?

Dude, you're in the weaker position here. Provoking a confrontation is a waste of time; yours, his, ours, and other mods'. Name-calling? You've made many points in the past of holding to higher ground and backing arguments with your facts. Why this banality now? You're only weakening your own position. You've claimed moral and intellectual superiority in many cases, and yet you resort to this is the face of this fight, which you could have walked away from at any time. Why can't you let it go this time?

There is no "this time" and he's always been like this. His "higher ground" is a cover for the truth, which is that in spite of his claims he has never done anything but troll.

In case you've forgotten, refresh yourself with this little gem:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=173903

[August]

Originally Posted by Respenus

It's the Malthusian dilemma. Do you allow them to die due to hunger, disease, war, etc. or do you take the Huxley way and in one way or another control the birthing process. Any more "humane" ideas out there?

To just about every living thing on the planet, the first choice is the worst choice. 6 billion people are not going to go quietly. I would not go quietly.

Never mind birthing, controlling conception is the key and I think it's achievable.

[Castout]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

And that can be a problem, especially when it comes to newer members who don't know the history involved - someone starts a thread that seems (given the lack of context that knowing "the history" would provide) to be just another topic being raised for discussion... and they may respond in the manner to which they've become accustomed through interaction with most of the rest of the membership and get blindsided by what happens. Or run into a troll in their first tentative delurking here and NOT have the benefit of seeing more established members respond in a way that makes it clear that trolling is not welcome and likely to result in a loss of credibility and goodwill.

I saw that happen in a large and (at the time) incredibly busy Yahoo Group I belong to... completely unrelated subject matter, but it had much the same community spirit and general civility that typically reigns here. The owner/moderator had a very light hand, and for years that was all that was needed. Then one day, unbeknownst to us, Yahoo decided to promote us as a "featured group" on their home page.

Suddenly we were inundated with new members who all began posting, most of them sincere and well-meaning, but among them a few trolls who were obviously so to the longstanding regulars but not to the other new members who had no idea how long anyone else had been there. We went from 25-30 posts a day to a couple thousand during one (looooong) weekend, during which we had people joining at the rate of about 1 per minute. At the time there was ONE moderator.

Within a few hours there were flame wars erupting all over the place, because the people who didn't yet know any better were feeding trolls they didn't know were trolls based on the assumption that what they were reading in those trolls' posts and the other new members' sometimes equally abusive (if provoked) replies reflected the status quo of the group when it absolutely did not.

Personally I'd rather see people deflect a troll thread's purpose by harmless mockery or humorous deflection, even if it counts as "feeding" said troll, than have some new member stumble on it right off and get caught up in a flame war and then log out thinking that's how things are done here.

Anyway tTM is easy enough to ignore - the forum does provide one with that option, after all - but when the interaction of others in response becomes entertaining, it's very hard to resist.

Yeah all it takes to destroy a forum good spirit is a few regular trolls. But as long as the mods are in control things will fall to order.

I was once a member of a Singapore forum which lacks moderation and in the end civility. Abusive posting would go unpunished even down to personal insults and even explicit death threats. Because I couldn't take it anymore I went on the defensive myself and the trolls reported me and bam I was banned temporarily while they were not at all. Obviously there was no civility nor fairness in it.
And no it wasn't because I was posting abusive postings and there were many people there who were critical of Singapore regime but I was singled out to be abused to kick me out of there by government employed trolls no less. I figured my well being is much more precious so I started blogging instead. it's hard when you're fighting a spoiled 7 year old brat who thinks himself creator of the universe and mankind. In the end you get confused whether to hate that kind of person or pity them. They are pitiful in every standard but their own mind.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Skybird, did you know that you Germans have a history of being non-purple?

Nööö...

Me, I'm a zebra and thus a bit schizophrenic - light like innocence and dark like death!

[Growler]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

There is no "this time" and he's always been like this. His "higher ground" is a cover for the truth, which is that in spite of his claims he has never done anything but troll.

Yeah, I know. I was trying to encourage him to engage, rather than blather. Which was my mistake. I'm finding that the more I deal with estate lawyers and financial stuff and my stepfather's intransigence, the more I'm losing the ability to communicate at all well.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

In case you've forgotten, refresh yourself with this little gem:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=173903

Coal is a gem?

I didn't see this thread; I think I may have been away at its posting.

[August]

If you keep talking about him then the troll is still dominating your conversation even after he's been banned.

So how about we get back to the topic!

War, disease, starvation method of population control = Could spiral out of control and screw up the planet worse than overpopulation.

Conception or birth control method of population = Less disruptive to society

????????? = A better method than birth control?

[mookiemookie]

Education.

Birth rate and education level of a population are inversely correlated.

[Growler]

What about state-sanctioned birth control, a la China?

Population reduction is a tough topic: people think "population controls" and pretty soon, mental images of pink triangles and yellow stars of David enter their brains, and rational thought breaks apart of the rocks and shoals of horrid memories of the Holocaust.

That said, forget doing it legally: the minute a law goes into effect, the Underground Railroad starts - how do you create a law to control population in a nation whose population is so diverse that no law so created won't be enforced discriminatorily - SOME group is going to feel persecuted. As an example, look at the recent Arizona immigration debate - that wasn't even population control, per se, but it smacked of some level of exclusionary lawmaking, and that drives enough people batty to make it a problem enforcing it.

So population control has to happen above board, and above lawmaking ability to regulate and enforce, which makes any form of population control voluntary - which means, first and foremost, drop anti-abortion efforts. That's one way - allow women to choose.

Second, allow people to self-elect, physician-assisted end-of-life options, suicide - whatever you want to call it. Remove the Judeo-Christian "saactity of life" nonsense and allow people to die as they choose, not as a machine chooses.

Forget socialized health care, at least beyond basic human needs - implement a triage. Got terminal cancer? Here's some painkillers. Say goodbye to your family; you've had a good run. Sliced a finger with a hobby knife? Stitch it up and go home. Long term drains on the healthcare system will allow fewer people to be treated, not more. Use that existing care for those who do not require superhuman efforts to save. Will there still be an "underground" health care system? Yep. And people will die there, too.

Draconian? Perhaps. Nazi-ish? Nah.

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

Remove the Judeo-Christian "saactity of life" nonsense and...

Start calling the beliefs of billions of people "nonsense" and you've already lost. Besides, if you trash the sanctity of life concept then you're back to the first option of just killing off spare population. You first.

[Growler]

What I was referring to, badly, was the concept in Western Medicine of "do everything to save the patient, regardless of what the patient actually wants." I worded the influence of Western religion on legal policy poorly.

[TheSatyr]

Everything goes extinct eventually. Except maybe insects sharks and trolls.

Just wait it out. I doubt the human race is in THAT big a hurry to die off.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by TheSatyr

I doubt the human race is in THAT big a hurry to die off.

As a species, probably not. As a culture, civilisation: possibly yes.