Determining who the asshole is, and visualizing impersonal statistics

[pmb]

In any given situation, the person who is claiming that something is the end of the world is almost certainly an asshole. This is a handy rule of thumb, and applies pretty well across the board, with the possible exception of people talking about global thermonuclear war or other extinction-level threats (large asteroids, etc).

Also, the recent news that nobody seems to be talking about is that according to every peer-reviewed independent study, we have now killed more than 1,000,000 people in Iraq, either directly or indirectly, since 2003 as a result of this war. That is a lot of people - one six-thousandth of the world population, and 4% of the population of Iraq. Visualizing this from an Iraqi point of view resulted in this map. But honestly, this sort of number is way past "visualization" territory. Our government has, in the past 6 years, spent more than $500,000,000,000 on a stupid war, and this war has caused more than 1,000,000 people to die.

One million people. Dead. For what?

Comments

[cabanasloth.livejournal.com]

Addressing your non-Iraq point: how often do people claim something other than an extinction-level threat to be the end of the world? I mean, if you say something is the end of the world, it's pretty much by definition an extinction level threat, right?

(Or do lots of people say this metaphorically and I've just happily missed it?)

[pmb.livejournal.com]

Lots of political "debates" portray the other side as causing the end of the world or the end of civilization as we know it. Apocaphilia seems to be on the rise, and every time I hear an argument involving it I need to leave the room. Environmentalists bandy end-of-the-world arguments pretty frequently, and so do a lot of people on the right in various "clash of civilization" guises. Even when I agree with a person's point, invoking the apocalypse makes me want to support the other side.

[esmesquall.livejournal.com]

Amen, brother.

[cabanasloth.livejournal.com]

Really? The only "end of the world" thing I've heard lately is the whole global warming thing... I agree with you that I get a little suspicious when hearing that runaway CO2 emissions (or whatever) could end civilization as we know it, but, hell, it might well be true, I'm hardly qualified to judge. I honestly can't think of any other apocalyptic arguments I've heard recently... all that energy that went into Y2K millenarianism now seems to be focused on global warming, as far as I can tell...

[esmesquall.livejournal.com]

Two words: peak oil.

[cabanasloth.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah, people really do say that peak oil is the end of the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

What a bunch of assholes.