It's not perplexing. The worst of humanity — the criminals, the psychopaths, the sociopaths, the pedophiles, the corrupt — are all attracted to positions of wealth and power.
Ethics and morality are complex/expensive. They can only exist in an environment of abundance. The only thing separating us from cavemen is education; the ability to document and transfer information across generations; the ability to produce excess resources than we need to survive. Self-sacrifice is basically rejecting those baser survival instincts of physical pleasure and worldly possessions for some ephemeral concept of "the greater good". That's what we need right now, but capitalism explicitly rewards the baser instinct of selfishness and greed with wealth and power, so the most greedy and selfish of humanity prevail.
It doesn't matter than civilization was built on cooperation or collective effort, or that selfishness and greed are a regressive, unproductive, dead end that will doom us all. Selfishness and greed only need to prevail long enough to destroy the foundations of civilization, like a stable climate and agriculture. Once those are gone, abundance ends, and we're back to focusing on our survival in hourly/daily increments.
Hey! Some of us sociopaths don't give a fuck about titles, position, and power!
In times of abundance we just happily feign whatever is in the best interest of being able to happily feign, which usually helps out the tribe and that's why we got to keep making enough babies to pass that along.
Ethics and morality are complex/expensive, no doubt about that. Everything you said (except equating all sociopaths with the same angles of sociopathy) is true, no question.
Luckily, our selfish drive to get back to the comfy and unassuming does tend to result in...headaches for the other, less integrating members of the worst of humanity class.
We're outnumbered though and can't tell precisely when it's time to stop trying to feign along and go dispassionately tear apart the obstacles standing between us quietly living in the metaphorically cave near the village and basking in the sounds of a happy society whose periphery is all we need to get by.
Ah, I see the word perplexing seems to hold different meanings here (not native speaker, but I just looked it up and what I meant is one of the meanings).
Just for clarification, it's not a question for me as to why but just like the 'yeah, I know, here we go' kind of situation that is quite hopeless, as in the ending the referenced movie 'don't look up' points to.
It's one of those things where some agencies count it as "average surface temp" over weeks, while others count the average over weeks. So maybe Australia called it the biggest El Nino several weeks ago, but now some other country is able to agree because more weeks have elapsed.
Someone on our team for work lives in the Philippines and it's no joke. Loads of storms and flooding. The data for rainfall / storm energy backs up the assessment that this year is gonna be wild.
temperature anomaly expected to hit 4C (about 1C higher than previous record)
another measure of El Nino "extreme" is length of time above 2C deviation (and 29C absolute), which is already comparable to 2015, and forecast to be more than double for 29C absolute time. Time pumping heat into atmosphere/air from ocean matters just as much as peak pumping amount. Though near 31C ocean temperature peak in deep water is very extreme as well.
and respect the browser settings, not making me go change the mode manually (I know I know, compared to this new it's kinda minor, but after El'nino people there will burn their eyes without dark mode associated to the complete blackout !)
36 Comments
Strider@lemmy.world · 126 pts · 1d
It's perplexing to see that in the meantime first world countries are busy with the AI race and accelerating environmental issues.
'don't look up!'
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world · 56 pts · 1d
It's not perplexing. The worst of humanity — the criminals, the psychopaths, the sociopaths, the pedophiles, the corrupt — are all attracted to positions of wealth and power.
Ethics and morality are complex/expensive. They can only exist in an environment of abundance. The only thing separating us from cavemen is education; the ability to document and transfer information across generations; the ability to produce excess resources than we need to survive. Self-sacrifice is basically rejecting those baser survival instincts of physical pleasure and worldly possessions for some ephemeral concept of "the greater good". That's what we need right now, but capitalism explicitly rewards the baser instinct of selfishness and greed with wealth and power, so the most greedy and selfish of humanity prevail.
It doesn't matter than civilization was built on cooperation or collective effort, or that selfishness and greed are a regressive, unproductive, dead end that will doom us all. Selfishness and greed only need to prevail long enough to destroy the foundations of civilization, like a stable climate and agriculture. Once those are gone, abundance ends, and we're back to focusing on our survival in hourly/daily increments.
Aqivex@fedinsfw.app · 7 pts · 1d
Hey! Some of us sociopaths don't give a fuck about titles, position, and power!
In times of abundance we just happily feign whatever is in the best interest of being able to happily feign, which usually helps out the tribe and that's why we got to keep making enough babies to pass that along.
Ethics and morality are complex/expensive, no doubt about that. Everything you said (except equating all sociopaths with the same angles of sociopathy) is true, no question.
Luckily, our selfish drive to get back to the comfy and unassuming does tend to result in...headaches for the other, less integrating members of the worst of humanity class.
We're outnumbered though and can't tell precisely when it's time to stop trying to feign along and go dispassionately tear apart the obstacles standing between us quietly living in the metaphorically cave near the village and basking in the sounds of a happy society whose periphery is all we need to get by.
Strider@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Ah, I see the word perplexing seems to hold different meanings here (not native speaker, but I just looked it up and what I meant is one of the meanings).
Just for clarification, it's not a question for me as to why but just like the 'yeah, I know, here we go' kind of situation that is quite hopeless, as in the ending the referenced movie 'don't look up' points to.
Tattorack@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 20h
Don't Look Up made so angry when watching it, because all of it was true. Everything the movie shows is true. I couldn't even laugh at the jokes.
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 17h
And that was just round 1. We're currently in round 2 of stupidity
Strider@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 13h
Especially the 'wait, we can mine that asteroid' part and then the running away on failure.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 20h
We're crashing out. It's common knowledge at this point.
Strider@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 13h
If it's common knowledge, asking provocatively, how could you let this happen?
(rhetorical, too, because divide & conquer worked really well)
Technotica@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 1d
I thought we were already in the super el nino, are we getting an el nino of an el nino now?
massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 29 pts · 1d
This isn't even my final form-kind of vibes.
Varesti@lemmy.zip · 36 pts · 1d
El Hombre.
No_Eponym@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 22h
MMM, El Gigante
Kangae_Hishiryo@scribe.disroot.org · 3 pts · 18h
El Macho (10 points to the first one who catch the reference)
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 1d
Super el niño is +1.5°C, this one will be around 3-4
gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 19h
What the fuck
P1nkman@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 22h
That sounds fun!
Seriously, we're fucked...
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 14 pts · 21h
Aye sir
P1nkman@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 14h
I'm gonna stock up on rice and beans.
im_fine_sandy@nord.pub · 16 pts · 1d
It's one of those things where some agencies count it as "average surface temp" over weeks, while others count the average over weeks. So maybe Australia called it the biggest El Nino several weeks ago, but now some other country is able to agree because more weeks have elapsed.
NuanceDemon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 1d
Its a gradual process. Its not due to reach its peak for another few months afaik.
SillyDude@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 1d
The kelvin wave will hit south america in December and the atmospheric effects from that lag by about 3 months.
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 20h
And other continents? When would they be hit most?
puppinstuff@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 1d
La Chancla
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 20h
Millennial here.
What's one more recession, war in the Middle East, or El Nino to me? They're like old friends at this point.
Pure_Psykosis@lemmy.ca · 26 pts · 20h
I'm numb to the "once in a lifetime" crises at this point.
dellish@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 18h
"Once in a lifetime". Yeah, my lifetime.
PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space · 7 pts · 17h
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down...
Uranus_Hz@lemmy.zip · 18 pts · 20h
El Niño grande
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2h
wow, look at that, I know Spanish!
im_fine_sandy@nord.pub · 16 pts · 1d
Someone on our team for work lives in the Philippines and it's no joke. Loads of storms and flooding. The data for rainfall / storm energy backs up the assessment that this year is gonna be wild.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 16 pts · 20h
another measure of El Nino "extreme" is length of time above 2C deviation (and 29C absolute), which is already comparable to 2015, and forecast to be more than double for 29C absolute time. Time pumping heat into atmosphere/air from ocean matters just as much as peak pumping amount. Though near 31C ocean temperature peak in deep water is very extreme as well.
kreskin@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 20h
End of days party at my house. Come on over.
idiomaddict@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 8h
Should I take the private jet, or is that a little on the nose?
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 19h
Off topic but web sites really need to have a dark mode toggle. I get that there are extensions …
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2h
and respect the browser settings, not making me go change the mode manually (I know I know, compared to this new it's kinda minor, but after El'nino people there will burn their eyes without dark mode associated to the complete blackout !)