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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   4088 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 5, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I realize this is low effort, but I’m a bit freaked out and could use some perspective. I just watched this video:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=s0K0sI5XiP4?si=01DQ1uWFpMr_UmtM

My own experiences, knowledge, and my gut tell me this is largely correct, if not 100% accurate. What do you all think?

Dude is pure crackpipe. Could be smart, could just talk real gud; but is unable to support anything he says when pressed.

Certainly found his content niche.

This kid is very committed to Peter Turchin’s Secular Cycles idea which predicts some kind of large-scale societal dysfunction every 120 years (including now), but I’ve never seen him acknowledge just how paradigm-shifting the last century has been. Genuine Malthusian constraints are increasingly less relevant. Human-imposed Malthusian constraints like the horrible land policy most of the world has are a limiting factor to continued development, but even then lots of trends could be offset (in either direction) by AGI, or a planet-killing pandemic, or nuclear war.

I will say his Understanding _______ Civilization series is solid though.

I do not like Whatifalthist. I listened to a few of his early videos and became convinced he knows less about the world than I do.

I took a few breaths, checked out a he more videos, and now I agree with you. He is smart, for sure, but he also seems to be sort of full of himself.

Is there a tldr?

He’s basically saying that there is a huge mental health crisis (I agree) and it will lead to deaths at a scale comparable to the Black Death. This also ties in with his other theories that the West is basically in for a reckoning in the next few decades in line with the fall of Rome and that life is going to be hard. Honestly, after I watched, I took a few breaths and started to realize that he’s probably a bit over dramatic. He’s very smart, and he knows it, and he likes it, too. I like some of his stuff but I think he’s a bit overdoing it.

I don't think there's any reason to think that 60% of the population of the West is going to kill themselves. It's so absurd I don't even know where to begin arguing against it.

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