this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] stabby_cicada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 97 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)
[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Also I depicted Cool hats

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 48 points 3 days ago (2 children)

*Fewer humans, and that would actually solve most of our problems, it's just that we need to be more specific about which humans we get rid of. Specifically billionaires/unchecked capitalists.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

There were fewer humans a century ago. and there were no human caused ecological crisis back then.

it isn't the number of people really, but the exploitative economic system they use.

/s!!! /s!!!!

btw, humans managed the extinction of megafauna when where were around a million humans 10 thousand years ago.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

Ha ha you got me in the first half there

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No human caused ecological crises during the height of industrialization? Sure bud.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

sorry. I'll take all the responsibility of forgetting the "/s".

thought it was clearly sarcasm, because duh.

carry on.

was trying to make it a clearly obvious point against that argument.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Sarcasm is dead and .ml killed it.

[–] mrbutterscotch@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

I honestly believe that the more extreme .ml users will be chasing off new users coming to the fediverse, since they have the largest communities.

Which is a shame.

[–] MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Deadpan sarcasm doesn't translate well from a verbal medium to a written medium.

Unless you're in an echo chamber....

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

wouldn't say echochambers are immune, maybe communities where users know each other. like if anyone who knew me read it, they would immediately realize it's sarcasm. but without any context, sarcasm is indistinguishable from a stupid idea.

wonder how many times I've agreed with a nazi, because he was being sarcastic and I didn't realize.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Your username should have given me a clue

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml -5 points 3 days ago
[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There were also infinitely fewer people concerned about humans' ecological impact and no effective way to change that. Now we have millions and millions of people all over the world worried about it and we are all interconnected via the internet. We caused a mass extinction with a million of us in disparate tribes, just imagine what we could accomplish if all 8 billion of us actually worked together toward changing the world for the better! Unfortunately we're still stuck in stupid tribes, and the most powerful tribe that controls every aspect of life in every other tribe is obsessed with destroying the Earth at a never-ending, ever-increasing pace. Here in America, our ruling class is literally trying to bring about the apocalypse. But naw, getting rid of them couldn't possibly lead to any kind of benefit, we better let them burn it all down in the name of line-go-up 🙄🙄🙄

[–] lmmarsano@group.lt -5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Specifically billionaires/unchecked capitalists

The easy scapegoat oversimplifies the problem, which goes beyond & predates capitalism. Though exterminating all of humanity is one way to achieve sustainability, it doesn't necessarily require it. So far, however, humanity has reached living standards beyond subsistence only by consuming resources at unsustainable levels faster than the planet can replenish, and that has been true regardless of economic system. Even when living at subsistence levels, humanity has likely caused mass extinction events.

From a comment to a similar post

People here tend to fixate on their pet theories that scapegoat capitalism for everything including that humanity's drain on ecological resources exceeds Earth's rate of regeneration without acknowledging that their alternatives don't address the problem, either.

Although governments are far more able than individuals and firms acting singly to take action to protect the environment, they often fail to do so. The centrally planned economies of Eastern Europe, where governments controlled production, had a particularly poor record on pollution control. Per capita mortality from air pollution in Eastern Europe (outside the EU) and China remains high relative to the EU and North America.

In particular, the Soviet economy—with constitutional guarantees to continuously improve living standards & steadily grow productive forces—caused disproportionately worse ecological damage than the US's. All economic systems have the same capacity to degrade the environment & deplete stocks of natural resources. Without adequate policies to protect the environment, improving & maintaining living standards with the continuous economic growth necessary to do that threatens the environment.

Moreover, human activity before capitalism has led to extinctions of megafauna, plants, & animals dependent on those plants. The quaternary megafauna extinction was likely driven by overhunting by humans. Those extinctions & increased fires coinciding with the arrival of humanity to Australia transformed the ecosystem from mixed rainforest to drier landscapes. Aboriginal landscape burning

may have caused the extinction of some fire-sensitive species of plants and animals dependent upon infrequently burnt habitats

More recently, they killed off the elephant bird likely due to major environmental alterations & overconsumption of their eggs.

Until humanity starts living sustainably, they are the problem.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

'Someone tried once and did it wrong, so it must be impossible. 🤷‍♂️"

[–] lmmarsano@group.lt -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Cool vibes, lack of data, & copium.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Nice Oxford comma! Unnice lack of contribution

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 6 points 2 days ago

A socialist society can be ecologically devastating. But, unlike capitalist one, it doesn't have to be.

Capitalism pursues infinite growth in a finite world. As long as unsustainable practices deliver you more (which is extremely often the case) - they will be pursued, and if you block them all, it will cripple the economy as it will lower the expectation of profit. Capitalism breeds practices like planned obsolescence, aggressive marketing and tracking to fuel overconsumption, it promotes a lavish lifestyle - all to ensure the monetary flow necessary to keep such economy afloat.

Socialist society is more adaptive in this regard. You can ramp up production and overconsumption, Earth be damned, or you can slow down and invest in long-term, sustainable solutions, even at the expense of short-term returns. The latter, however, means getting less competitive internationally, which is exactly the sacrifice the socialist countries of the past, including USSR, were not willing to make.

[–] zedcell@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 days ago

Marx was talking about capitalists raping the soil to the point of destruction in 1860 lil pup

[–] Juice@midwest.social 4 points 2 days ago
[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Meme is accurate. I am weird and misanthropic.

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I was going to say that there is nothing inherently illogical about the misanthropic person, despite what the meme implies.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I just wonder if non-misanthropes have actually met people or if they’ve got this idealized view of them.

[–] NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most people are really interesting if you get to know them.

I definitely don't understand most people, but that doesn't mean I dislike them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lots of things are really interesting if you get to know them.

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Most people are not that observant and really self-centered.

From there just a little variance in the spectrum ranging from "I think as highly about others as I think about me" to "they are all inferior to me" can make a massive difference on how someone sees and interacts with the world. And barely anything of it is based on the actual reality of other people.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It’s not that I feel I’m better. It’s that I know how awful I am and how little variance there really is to humanity.

If people are like me then they’re pretty awful.

[–] brianary@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago
[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 14 points 3 days ago

Real talk? Missing the third group that groups the other two under the same heading for political expediency. The bottom group is essentially never sincerely grouped with the top.

[–] zenzanzoo@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago

I hate all extremists, left and right.

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Just uhh, don't look at all the things we're doing for infinite growth. The beef industry is totally a normal thing to inflict on an environment

-Malthus, apparently

[–] Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If we're a part of nature, everything we do is also a part of nature, it's just that we have the capacity to understand the consequences of humanity's actions on the rest of nature

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 8 points 3 days ago

I mean if you want to generalize, mass extinction events are also an occurrence in nature even when we're not involved. I think the hope of environmental endeavors is to try and preserve as much as we can, which our current population growth and desired goals of wealth just will not do.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Well we needed something to replace all the native ruminants we brutally slaughtered.

[–] asdasd201@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 days ago

Ecosocialism vs. Ecofascism

I believe if we get rid of some people, the world will become more sustainable.

[–] Hylactor@sopuli.xyz 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Connection between the human development index (HDI) and total fertility rate (TFR)

The human development index has three components -GDP per capita is one of them, life expectancy is the second and the education level - the third. As all these factors are negatively correlated with fertility

[–] pageflight@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Generally seems like the right message, but there are plenty of third factors that might be a more direct cause — amount of drugs, microplastics, pesticides, etc in the environment / food.

[–] MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Personally, I prescribe to Carlin's philosophy. The problem will take care of itself.

https://youtu.be/UTPlKwkryEk?t=461

[–] JizzmasterD@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

There aren’t actually many cool hats

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world -4 points 3 days ago

If everyone on the planet lived like an American... Yikes.

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net -1 points 3 days ago

Urban ecology is the proof of dialectics.