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11 hours ago, Parliament said:

And the legalization of marijuana.  Spliffs are all unfiltered.


But don't you usually only smoke a very small amount, like one joint will get four people stoned and that's the last they'll smoke for 4-8 hours?  Not like smoking two packs a day.

 

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3 hours ago, DixonHur said:

Curious.  Why does it matter that the population is shrinking.  Is it just because it fucks with consumerism?  

Personally, I think the world would be better off with fewer people.

100%

Our economy and increasingly the interconnected world economy is a house of cards that demands continuous growth. 

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10 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


But you know what will solve it?
That’s right…yall know…say it with me…..


CRYPTO!

I'm reading The Dawn of Everything, and I'm starting to become convinced we need to go back to being hunters and gatherers. 

Probably save our species and our planet.

Yeah, yeah, I know...not gonna happen.

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1 hour ago, BeardIP said:

100%

Our economy and increasingly the interconnected world economy is a house of cards that demands continuous growth. 

Seems like maybe we should work to change that.  Like to a more sustainable system.  Would be a lot of work. Nah, fuck it. Let’s just go down in flames. 

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10 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:


But don't you usually only smoke a very small amount, like one joint will get four people stoned and that's the last they'll smoke for 4-8 hours?  Not like smoking two packs a day.

 

Speak for yourself

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I am aware to what the Axios tweet stated. However, I went to the source that they used, the American Cancer Society report that the Society compiles each year and it is way more nuanced than what Axios tweeted and to imply the COVID vaccine is a potential contributor is using very fuzzy logic at best.

Here is the ACS report. I believe I linked it earlier but repetition is our friend isn't it: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21820

If you read this report in its entirety, you may find that your fears are somewhat assuaged. It does talk about health outcomes due to delays in diagnosis for malignant cancers because of health interruptions caused by restrictions to well-checks etc.

Edited by Mrs Whiggins
grammar
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Of course health officials "pushed" the vaccine. The vaccine kept many many people from having much worse outcomes, exactly as it was designed to do. To make matters worse, I'm quite thrilled about some of the mRNA research as it may well help people who've had cancers like mine, living much longer than expected.

But going back to the wee little chart, I would suggest that instead of using a chart that is being promoted by two anti-vaccine groups, perhaps consider that the ACS is the more reliable source. The US Disabilities Project graph above being touted by Phinance Technologies is not something I am willing to give a lot of credence to at this point in time. I mean sure, the three people on the team have PhDs (Physics, Finance, and an MSc in Math) while the third fellow uses his credentials as a Wall Street analyst to assuage any doubt that he is just asking questions but guess what? We have multiple PhDs in STEM fields in our family too and none of us would care to opine on data in this manner nor attempt to convince people through a website run by a global macro alternative investment firm, even if they state that this is a humanitarian project and oh by the way please donate to our cause.

Seems sketchy but you do you, man of the arena.

Edited by Mrs Whiggins
Edit--ignore my reply to the poster who was blipped in the space-time continuum
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It’s not totally whacked to consider that a novel vaccine with a mechanism of action that is based on leveraging our genetic and protein translation machinery could in theory have cancer initiating or promotion properties. But we aren’t anywhere near to having the run out of exposure. An oncologist that I work with was flagging to me chatter among his colleagues about upticks in incident cancer in early 2022. Seems way too early to be related to mRNA vaccines exposure. But hey, the reality is that we are all part of the post authorization safety study. Just like with any novel therapeutic. 

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1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

Seems way too early to be related to mRNA vaccines exposure. But hey, the reality is that we are all part of the post authorization safety study. Just like with any novel therapeutic. 

This is true.

And I'm still confounded as to why people get so offended that this true. We are literally all (well most of us who were vaxxed) in the same boat.

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It's not being offended about the mRNA vaccine; it's being annoyed at someone coyly dropping into the pop decline thread with a tweet and an agenda about vaccines trying to start a 'just asking questions' discussion. Feel free to go all in in the vaccine thread but it's not relevant here. Cancer upswing, perhaps, but again that might still be better served in another thread.

On 1/19/2024 at 5:13 PM, 956 Worldwide said:

We haven’t faced a problem set like this impending population inverted pyramid. It poses some interesting math problems for the people who will be old and at the top and needing the money and goodwill of the young to pay pensions and medical and keep the infrastructure going. It will impact migrant flows for good and ill, in developing and developed world. 
 

My personal thought is that on the macro-level you are correct and in the long run it will be good for the planet and species to have a more sustainable population. But that will be cold comfort for the people living through the adjustment as both youngs  and olds. 
 

Demographers and historians can point to lots of salutary effects of the Black Death for generations after it hit Europe.  But you wouldn’t have wanted to live through it. This adjustment will be less dramatic but similarly disorienting for the people in the middle. 

The migrant flows you mention is fascinating (to me). Where cultures butt up against each other, there can be a beautiful blending of thoughts and ideas (in a positive direction) but whew boy can it go south when folks get uncomfortable (sort of Maslow-y is my reference here). If one 'feels,' however true it is or not, that one's needs are not going to be met then the angsty angry groups coalesce around some pretty nasty actions.

Our overall world population (as noted for pages and pages prior) is increasing, albeit at a slower rate than previous decades; but it is still on the upswing. Individual countries that go with positive changes for well-being of the young (and caring for them), and welcoming immigrants and assimilating them into a country's overall culture IMO might weather the transition better than the countries that  opt for major human rights violations for the masses, or for oppressed demographics, etc. But we're human and we make a lot of mistakes and do some pretty terrible things to one another. Good luck to us.

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2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

It's not being offended about the mRNA vaccine; it's being annoyed at someone coyly dropping into the pop decline thread with a tweet and an agenda about vaccines trying to start a 'just asking questions' discussion. Feel free to go all in in the vaccine thread but it's not relevant here. Cancer upswing, perhaps, but again that might still be better served in another thread.

The migrant flows you mention is fascinating (to me). Where cultures butt up against each other, there can be a beautiful blending of thoughts and ideas (in a positive direction) but whew boy can it go south when folks get uncomfortable (sort of Maslow-y is my reference here). If one 'feels,' however true it is or not, that one's needs are not going to be met then the angsty angry groups coalesce around some pretty nasty actions.

Our overall world population (as noted for pages and pages prior) is increasing, albeit at a slower rate than previous decades; but it is still on the upswing. Individual countries that go with positive changes for well-being of the young (and caring for them), and welcoming immigrants and assimilating them into a country's overall culture IMO might weather the transition better than the countries that  opt for major human rights violations for the masses, or for oppressed demographics, etc. But we're human and we make a lot of mistakes and do some pretty terrible things to one another. Good luck to us.

I don’t like betting on what humans should do in a kind world, I like focusing on policy ideas that account for what humans will do.  I accept as a given that:

1. Migration will happen, as it always has, as a response to scarcity and demographic shifts

2. Migration will prompt deep ambivalence and nervousness in the destination regions. 
 

I don’t think you can preach, moralize, or wish your way out of those semi-contradictions as long as we are people; migration shifts are one of the great engines of history and civilizational change. Macro, it usually sorts out but it can be tough to be in the micro moment. 
 

We need to be searching for ways to manage this process in a way that’s humane and beneficial, taking into account the very real and unavoidable tensions and feelings on both sides of the push/pull.  I am not confident that America 2000s is going to do that. 

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No kids here and I can’t imagine being happier. If I had kids would I be happy that I have them? Of course, I’m not a monster. But I believe that I’m much happier without these hypothetical kids. I would expect most parents to say the opposite.

and don’t give me any reply about adult kids taking care of their elderly parents. The best care you can get for your later years is paying someone to do so. And many grandparents can count the handful of hours that they spend with the kids/grandkids each year. 

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56 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

and don’t give me any reply about adult kids taking care of their elderly parents. The best care you can get for your later years is paying someone to do so. And many grandparents can count the handful of hours that they spend with the kids/grandkids each year. 


image.gif.95df60e9ce8c4a2ff0e3d57db354f13b.gif

 This thread isn’t about you not having kids.  It’s about the world not having kids.  lol at “just hire someone to do it”. That’s the whole point of this thread. 

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2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

The best care you can get for your later years is paying someone to do so.

Multi generational living is a far better and more sustainable solution, but is just incompatible with American cultural expectations and norms. You can certainly pay for a Cadillac situation, but man you better have a solid bank account balance to run through or you could end up spending end of life in an absolutely shitty situation. Like literally, sitting your own shit for days waiting on someone to come roll you over. 

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6 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Multi generational living is a far better and more sustainable solution, but is just incompatible with American cultural expectations and norms. You can certainly pay for a Cadillac situation, but man you better have a solid bank account balance to run through or you could end up spending end of life in an absolutely shitty situation. Like literally, sitting your own shit for days waiting on someone to come roll you over. 

For many families, it's ideal.  For others, it's a nightmare.  Multi generational living works in places where people don't live as long and/or don't suffer through many, many years of pain due to shitty lifestyles.  But it's not inherently incompatible with American cultural expectations and norms.  Our cultural expectations and norms just changed and created the withdrawal from multi-generational living.  There are certainly larger countries than us, but two things we did faster than any other nation on Earth---we spread the fuck out at light speed when we got the chance.  Making it, not a cultural incompatibility but a geographic impossibility.  And the fucking second we hit the economic jackpot in the middle of the 20th century, the first thing we did was figure out a way to house older people somewhere besides our spare bedroom.  We're from cultures of multi-generational living as a nation of immigrants.  Italian, Hispanic, Irish, Nordic, Asian, and even German to an extent.  It's in our heritage and blood.  But we have two things our motherlands/fatherlands didn't.  A massive, massive swarth of land and the economic/healthcare to look at our aged parents who have 20 years left of expensive living left to do as unhealthy as they are and say, "Fuck it, here's Green Grove...it's not a nursing home Ma!...it's a retirement community!"  neither of the solutions is ideal, we were just playing the hand we were dealt with land and money.  That's all most of population comes down to anyway...land and money. 

Population Decline concern is a dog whistle for other bullshit and well fucking know it so let's quit beating around the bush and move the thread.  I lead a somewhat interesting life and can take or leave most people.  Who in the ever-living-fuck do some of you come into contact with on a regular basis that you walk away thinking, "Oh yes, we absolutely need a million more like he/she"???  Our species is 90% dead weight.  You have some fucking secrete Okra farm needs tending?  We're done.  That's it.  We did the thing that gets us to the thing.  We have the same number of great innovators, great leaders, great artists, great minds at 8 billion as we had at 2 billion.  Not per capita mind you, just as a gross number.  This is it.  Y'all want more white people shopping at Dollar General who hold your belief system sacred, that's on you.  Don't expect the rest of us with a clue to give fuck one about your moronic ideologic paradise.  You want more people for the same reason you want to Evangelize christianity or a political orthodoxy or economic doctrine or conspiracy theory engagement.  Because it validates you and makes you warm.  The world is cold, and it should be.  Let the conductors drive the locomotive again.  With any luck, we'll go off a fucking cliff.

Edited by YGIFS
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54 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

For many families, it's ideal.  For others, it's a nightmare.  Multi generational living works in places where people don't live as long and/or don't suffer through many, many years of pain due to shitty lifestyles.  But it's not inherently incompatible with American cultural expectations and norms.  Our cultural expectations and norms just changed and created the withdrawal from multi-generational living.  There are certainly larger countries than us, but two things we did faster than any other nation on Earth---we spread the fuck out at light speed when we got the chance.  Making it, not a cultural incompatibility but a geographic impossibility.  And the fucking second we hit the economic jackpot in the middle of the 20th century, the first thing we did was figure out a way to house older people somewhere besides our spare bedroom.  We're from cultures of multi-generational living as a nation of immigrants.  Italian, Hispanic, Irish, Nordic, Asian, and even German to an extent.  It's in our heritage and blood.  But we have two things our motherlands/fatherlands didn't.  A massive, massive swarth of land and the economic/healthcare to look at our aged parents who have 20 years left of expensive living left to do as unhealthy as they are and say, "Fuck it, here's Green Grove...it's not a nursing home Ma!...it's a retirement community!"  neither of the solutions is ideal, we were just playing the hand we were dealt with land and money.  That's all most of population comes down to anyway...land and money. 

Population Decline concern is a dog whistle for other bullshit and well fucking know it so let's quit beating around the bush and move the thread.  I lead a somewhat interesting life and can take or leave most people.  Who in the ever-living-fuck do some of you come into contact with on a regular basis that you walk away thinking, "Oh yes, we absolutely need a million more like he/she"???  Our species is 90% dead weight.  You have some fucking secrete Okra farm needs tending?  We're done.  That's it.  We did the thing that gets us to the thing.  We have the same number of great innovators, great leaders, great artists, great minds at 8 billion as we had at 2 billion.  Not per capita mind you, just as a gross number.  This is it.  Y'all want more white people shopping at Dollar General who hold your belief system sacred, that's on you.  Don't expect the rest of us with a clue to give fuck one about your moronic ideologic paradise.  You want more people for the same reason you want to Evangelize christianity or a political orthodoxy or economic doctrine or conspiracy theory engagement.  Because it validates you and makes you warm.  The world is cold, and it should be.  Let the conductors drive the locomotive again.  With any luck, we'll go off a fucking cliff.

image.gif.816714bd916fab2c1d648a7ce6b1ac16.gif

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57 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

For many families, it's ideal.  For others, it's a nightmare.  Multi generational living works in places where people don't live as long and/or don't suffer through many, many years of pain due to shitty lifestyles.  But it's not inherently incompatible with American cultural expectations and norms.  Our cultural expectations and norms just changed and created the withdrawal from multi-generational living.  There are certainly larger countries than us, but two things we did faster than any other nation on Earth---we spread the fuck out at light speed when we got the chance.  Making it, not a cultural incompatibility but a geographic impossibility.  And the fucking second we hit the economic jackpot in the middle of the 20th century, the first thing we did was figure out a way to house older people somewhere besides our spare bedroom.  We're from cultures of multi-generational living as a nation of immigrants.  Italian, Hispanic, Irish, Nordic, Asian, and even German to an extent.  It's in our heritage and blood.  But we have two things our motherlands/fatherlands didn't.  A massive, massive swarth of land and the economic/healthcare to look at our aged parents who have 20 years left of expensive living left to do as unhealthy as they are and say, "Fuck it, here's Green Grove...it's not a nursing home Ma!...it's a retirement community!"  neither of the solutions is ideal, we were just playing the hand we were dealt with land and money.  That's all most of population comes down to anyway...land and money. 

Population Decline concern is a dog whistle for other bullshit and well fucking know it so let's quit beating around the bush and move the thread.  I lead a somewhat interesting life and can take or leave most people.  Who in the ever-living-fuck do some of you come into contact with on a regular basis that you walk away thinking, "Oh yes, we absolutely need a million more like he/she"???  Our species is 90% dead weight.  You have some fucking secrete Okra farm needs tending?  We're done.  That's it.  We did the thing that gets us to the thing.  We have the same number of great innovators, great leaders, great artists, great minds at 8 billion as we had at 2 billion.  Not per capita mind you, just as a gross number.  This is it.  Y'all want more white people shopping at Dollar General who hold your belief system sacred, that's on you.  Don't expect the rest of us with a clue to give fuck one about your moronic ideologic paradise.  You want more people for the same reason you want to Evangelize christianity or a political orthodoxy or economic doctrine or conspiracy theory engagement.  Because it validates you and makes you warm.  The world is cold, and it should be.  Let the conductors drive the locomotive again.  With any luck, we'll go off a fucking cliff.

wat

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1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

For many families, it's ideal.  For others, it's a nightmare.  Multi generational living works in places where people don't live as long and/or don't suffer through many, many years of pain due to shitty lifestyles.  But it's not inherently incompatible with American cultural expectations and norms.  Our cultural expectations and norms just changed and created the withdrawal from multi-generational living.  There are certainly larger countries than us, but two things we did faster than any other nation on Earth---we spread the fuck out at light speed when we got the chance.  Making it, not a cultural incompatibility but a geographic impossibility.  And the fucking second we hit the economic jackpot in the middle of the 20th century, the first thing we did was figure out a way to house older people somewhere besides our spare bedroom.  We're from cultures of multi-generational living as a nation of immigrants.  Italian, Hispanic, Irish, Nordic, Asian, and even German to an extent.  It's in our heritage and blood.  But we have two things our motherlands/fatherlands didn't.  A massive, massive swarth of land and the economic/healthcare to look at our aged parents who have 20 years left of expensive living left to do as unhealthy as they are and say, "Fuck it, here's Green Grove...it's not a nursing home Ma!...it's a retirement community!"  neither of the solutions is ideal, we were just playing the hand we were dealt with land and money.  That's all most of population comes down to anyway...land and money. 

Population Decline concern is a dog whistle for other bullshit and well fucking know it so let's quit beating around the bush and move the thread.  I lead a somewhat interesting life and can take or leave most people.  Who in the ever-living-fuck do some of you come into contact with on a regular basis that you walk away thinking, "Oh yes, we absolutely need a million more like he/she"???  Our species is 90% dead weight.  You have some fucking secrete Okra farm needs tending?  We're done.  That's it.  We did the thing that gets us to the thing.  We have the same number of great innovators, great leaders, great artists, great minds at 8 billion as we had at 2 billion.  Not per capita mind you, just as a gross number.  This is it.  Y'all want more white people shopping at Dollar General who hold your belief system sacred, that's on you.  Don't expect the rest of us with a clue to give fuck one about your moronic ideologic paradise.  You want more people for the same reason you want to Evangelize christianity or a political orthodoxy or economic doctrine or conspiracy theory engagement.  Because it validates you and makes you warm.  The world is cold, and it should be.  Let the conductors drive the locomotive again.  With any luck, we'll go off a fucking cliff.

Bill Murray Groundhog GIF

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No, everybody currently here can stay.  It’s called the ‘grandfather clause’ for a reason.  I just meant these American “efforts” to raise declining birth rates among certain demography is just a Trojan horse and we all fucking know it.  

oh, NOW we’re concerned about not cutting social security and filling menial job roles?  

“you know; as a student of history…let me tell you about some other empires that suddenly declares declining birth rates among their people to be a rationale for other things…” 

Edited by YGIFS
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46 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

The smokers I know are now at 30 plus years of inhaling that shit all day every day and it really shows. They're incapable of doing anything outdoors unless it's standing around smoking. 

There's a few who are kind of active but they aren't winning any races.

My doctor friends tell me that smoking and being extremely overweight are absolute killers.  Worst things you can do/be.  There are some exceptions, but you don’t see very many old obese people or old life time smokers.  

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1 hour ago, MissingInAction said:

The smokers I know are now at 30 plus years of inhaling that shit all day every day and it really shows. They're incapable of doing anything outdoors unless it's standing around smoking. 

There's a few who are kind of active but they aren't winning any races.

OK, he didn't win the race but 3.5hr marathon is pretty good.

https://news.yahoo.com/chinese-man-chain-smoked-way-131100310.html

 

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21 minutes ago, HouTex said:

My doctor friends tell me that smoking and being extremely overweight are absolute killers.  Worst things you can do/be.  There are some exceptions, but you don’t see very many old obese people or old life time smokers.  

There are way more old smokers than old morbidly obese people. 

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Len Dawson quit smoking at some point.   Not sure when.  He made it to his late 80’s.  Quitting even after a decade plus long smoking habit can help tremendously.  My parents smoked heavily for 15+ years.  My father quit in his mid 30’s and lived to 91 and my mother is still alive at 87.  

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12 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Len Dawson quit smoking at some point.   Not sure when.  He made it to his late 80’s.  Quitting even after a decade plus long smoking habit can help tremendously.  My parents smoked heavily for 15+ years.  My father quit in his mid 30’s and lived to 91 and my mother is still alive at 87.  

longevity cheat code:  smoke from 18-35 to avoid getting fat.  quit at 35 live to 90s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

i kid, i kid.

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1 hour ago, HouTex said:

 you don’t see very many old obese people or old life time smokers.  

if you ever visit an old folks' home, you don't see many smokers or large people. 

That doesn't mean that they're not there or at their adult kids' home but they're definitely not many moving around in an old folk's home.

33 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

My mom died of COPD at age 82. 
It was not very pleasant watching her gasping for breath during the last few hours of her life.

 

Yep. My mom smoked for decades and now can't be away from an oxygen machine for more than 10 minutes. She did finally quit after hitting 80.

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5 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

if you ever visit an old folks' home, you don't see many smokers or large people. 

That doesn't mean that they're not there or at their adult kids' home but they're definitely not many moving around in an old folk's home.

Yep. My mom smoked for decades and now can't be away from an oxygen machine for more than 10 minutes. She did finally quit after hitting 80.

Good points.  My father was a rare exception.  Smoked unfiltered Player's Navy Cut and then Lucky Strikes for 45 years and was in good shape with stamina for his whole life until a bacterial infection from drinking water in Colombia did him in.  My mother is Mexican, over 75, obese, smoked 1-1.5 packs a day for almost 60 years.  Respiratory illness, on oxygen treatments a couple times a day, vulnerable to pneumonia every single year.  And because of my easily-fooled cousin's conspiracy rants, who is like a daughter to her, didn't think Covid was real and refused vaccinations for awhile until we convinced her otherwise.  I mean, she is literally the pamphlet photo for "co-morbidities."  And oh yeah, she's had cancer...TWICE.  Finally took two of her siblings dying of Covid to finally change her lifestyle.  God willing, she has a good decade run left in her for the sake of her grandkids and my middle sister who lives with her.  Mom is a child #8 from a family of 9.  She is one of only two living and her older brother goes in for brain surgery next week.  They grew up in Mexico and the RGV harvesting citrus.  You needed that many kids back then to make ends meet.  We're past that phase, even among White People.  Accept it.  We're moving on to a different phase of the species.  

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