Even evil has standards

[sabotabby]

Wow, check it out! Former "center-left" cyclist turned warmongering fascist Charles Johnson has turned again. Colour me skeptical (like someone pointed out on fengi's LJ, it'll take one more terrorist attack to turn him back, but it's almost heartening to read.

I wonder if he'll apologize for his blog being a gathering place for genocidal maniacs for the last eight years.

If he's serious, though: Welcome back to the reality-based community.

Comments

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Small communities being more caring - I dunno. Everyone tells me they hate where I live (London) because people don't know each other and so have no community and are unpleasant, and I tell them that people are just as unpleasant in their little villages with their gossip and backbiting. But it is easier for people to be more caring to their neighbours if they know them, and easier to care for smaller numbers of people - it can get difficult when there are millions of people around you all the time. Self sufficiency is good because it helps prevent rows over resources. Not that trade isn't ok too, just that self sufficiency can provide more security. Oh, I didn't mean small communities meaning less resources so much as lower population - there must be a limited number of people the world can hold, surely? I know people argue and say tis not so, but it already feels pretty uncomfortable where I live.

Lots of things that don't have capacity to reason are subject to ethics. Environmental ethics, for one. I don't think many people have the capacity for empathy outside their pack, or for reason, for that matter. Certainly not many I've met, unfortunately. Some, but not the majority. Animals certainly have the capacity for feeling and enjoyment and happiness and lots more, which are all part of the brilliance of life.

[flintultrasparc.livejournal.com]

I've lived both rurally and in a city. People can be unpleasant regardless of their population density. I find that in the city, it's actually considerably easier to ignore the people I regard as unpleasant while still being involved in the lives of those people I want to be involved with.

No individual human being is self-sufficient. One of the reasons that smaller societies can so easily create and maintain taboos as well as social harmony is that being exiled from a group is the equivalent of death.

If no human being is self-sufficient, then our survival depends on negotiation over resources. Sometimes, people fight when things aren't negotiated in a way they like. However economic stratification and exploitation can occur as easily in a small community as they can a large one.

How many people can the world support? Noone knows the answer. How many people can the world support living in a certain way with certain technologies... well that we can make some good estimates about. We also have good estimates on how many people exist now, and how many people are likely to exist in say the next thirty years. I submit that current population and project population are numbers that we have little control over; however we have a much greater control over the way in which those billions will live--atleast in regards to our individual lives.

I'm sorry you feel uncomfortable with where you live now. What makes you feel uncomfortable? I know there are cities that are considerably less dense in population than London (and more ecologically destructive per capita) as well as cities that are more population dense.

We have an ethical responsibility to the environment and animals because we have the ability to reason. Animals have no ethical responsibility. The Environment has not ethical responsibility. Try arguing about your right to life with a shark or a tornado. Animals can experience pleasure... mammals all have oxytocin. The wolf, however, is not concerned about what pain a squirrel might feel.

I think you are too hard on people's capacity for empathy. I think people on average might be a lot more empathic and nicer than you are currently willing to accept them to be.