well that article was exactly as awful as the headline sounds.

Umm what does that even mean? How can anyone feel neutral to another human being?

I just meant indifferent really.

All I am picturing is you know someone exists but any amount of pain or pleasure they feel doesn’t impact you.

There are a lot of people that currently exist and are in pain but it has little to no impact on me even though providing help would require nothing more than some more time and manpower.

Like if you could push a magic button to make them happy you wouldn’t bother since that would require effort and you are neutral.

This, I think provides for an interesting thought-experiment. Do we know how long it takes to press a button? Is the button-press speed limited by the latency of the circuitry it’s connected to? Exactly how many people are currently in pain? It’s obviously lots but can we come up with a relatively specific number? With what frequency does the number of suffering people change?

Then there are also some questions with more relative ethical implications that might also be: How many hours a week should a person spend pressing this button? How many people should press this button? If all previously suffering people are getting their buttons pressed then how will we know when someone is happy and flourishing? Isn’t suffering an implied opposite of flourishing? What other implications of the anti-suffering button are there?

I don’t know the answer to these questions, but you have certainly given me lot’s to ponder.

[edit][post] On further research I guess this sounds kind of like Negative Ultilitarianism which appears to be a subset of Utilitarianism.

On the Dollop podcast if you’ve ever heard of it, one of the hosts is named Gareth. Gareth points out in an episode that in American culture we only ever call “heroes” the people we deem ‘expendable’. I have been unable to find a counterexample to that claim ever since I heard it.

That very much comes off sounding ableist

How do you feel about people who feel neutral about your kids?

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If it were a production directed by Armando Iannucci, I’d watch it.

It works. Until somebody clarified it as cornflour i was hoping these folks got crucified.

AARGH!

Yeah, the stats regarding population size is one general aspect of a very large and complex issue. For example at least one of the countries reporting no homelessness is still reported to practice indentured-servitude as a form of modern-day slavery -which would take the place of most vulnerable

You can learn a lot about a country by looking at how they treat their most vulnerable.

I don’t like talking about fight club but no I’ve never had issues with fight club

Most of us do but unfortunately only about half of us are under the impression that other systems are better and more sustainable. Entrenched financial interests run our government and a large portion of those entrenched interests made their fortunes from this medical system

I can tell you how. To put it simply there was a drive for short term profits that overrode the need for due dilligence in quality-control which pushed them to purchase untested materials from questionable sources. I Don’t have any sources or documentation to back up this specific case but it’s historically how these industrial failures and oversites always occur. —If this post sounds like a case of Libel or defamation to you then I encourage you to think of it merely as a postulated suspicion instead.

It’s just calculus where admittedly my own education stopped but it’s still very helpful in finding values in real-world things like change of value in time. I still hope to one day develop a working knowledge of it, myself. u/…mir below me did a good job of summarizing the two main introductory concepts in much the same way i’ve read others simplify and describe the subject in classic 100+ yr old books like “Calculus Made Easy by Sylvanus Thompson.” I suspect it’s not as intimidating as it seems once a person gets past some basic fundamental concepts.

Don’t feel too bad. This meme appears be aimed at people who specialized in advanced mathematics in college which are a small minority.

I’m definitely a news junkie and I used to spend many hours per day on that other Platform because it made for such an effective news-media aggregator. It sounds like your seeking out a replacement for that dopamine hit you used to get from checking the news all of the time. There are plenty of bad alternatives out there as others have already mentioned. Regardless of what you choose to do, I hope you periodically take stock of your own mental health. Personally speaking, this habit has sent me into major depression more than once in my life.

I’m not a masochist.

I’ve never understood how so many voters could earnestly think that increasing the overall amount of condescension would ever actually net them more allies & supporters.

“In fact, Robert Altman had a thing or two to say about those “industry types”, in his triumphant early-90s comeback film “The Player”. Also, do yourself a favor and watch Altman’s “Short Cuts”, to see parallel storytelling at its’ best.”

Thanks, I’ll be sure to check those out. I was a little worried I came off too hot with my take. I won’t say it can’t be done well, it’s just that I’ve never seen it done well since I first learned about the storytelling style in my intro to film studies course in college.