None Like It Hot

Doomsdayism is not constructive.

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From a mysterious fortress in the depths of the Adirondacks comes today’s Ruminant, which may be the most pointless in quite some time. Addled from weeks of often traumatic travel, Jonah can’t quite keep his thoughts in order, and the result is an episode that glides across the surface of a whole range of topics. Among these are English theater, the Trump indictment, and the evolving Hunter Biden saga. But thanks to the sublime landscape around him, he dedicates most of his time to climate change and the latest hysterics from Greta Thunberg. No, Soylent Green still isn’t reality.

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Jonathan.Nebel

    A recommendation for a guest: Kevin Vallier.

    He has a classically liberal political philosopher who has been writing a book on religious versions of anti-liberalism, namely Catholic integralism. It is released on September 1. His previous work also seems appropriately Remnant-y.

    Here is his summary of the new book: https://liberaltortoise.kevinvallier.com/p/all-the-kingdoms-of-the-world-a-tour

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    The Bell Tower

    Also, glad you mentioned this state of mind thing. I was thinking of this when you were talking about it to Sarah.

    How difficult can it be to prove the state of mind of a man who basically spews his thoughts across social media, television, radio and clouds of spittle filled audience harangues every chance he gets? I obviously trust Sarah’s experience and knowledge but it’s hard for me to grasp that such case would be hard to prove.

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      C C Writer

      If I recall correctly, some of the testimony before the January 6 committee went to that point. He said stuff about what he was thinking and what he wanted, and the witnesses heard it.

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    The Bell Tower

    Wow. I saw Mark Rylance in Jerusalem on Broadway years ago and couldn’t for the life of me remember his name or the name of the play until you said it. I clearly remember the show and the experience though.

    That guy live on stage was like seeing Kershaw pitch live or Lebron up close on the court. You have to experience it to really appreciate it. I saw Nathan Lane once in a pretty awful (in my opinion) play and he’s the only actor I can compare to Rylance - in my limited experience of course. To command a stage in that way is truly a gift.

    Anyway, now that I see who he is, I can’t believe I didn’t remember. You were fortunate to see him.

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    Chuck

    Sorry Jonah, but I can't resist.

    Check out the part at 11:12 when the Jewish guy makes weather. 😊

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    C C Writer

    Regarding the reluctance of the medical field to adopt antiseptic measures, a similar thing happened with anesthesia. Dentists were using ether to knock patients out long before surgeons. The latter held out for quite some time. Some have suggested it was because of the personality type of surgeons that could stand to do what had to be done to a conscious patient also tended to get very invested in their position and dug in to the status quo. Anyway, eventually the profession gave way, and to my mind this is one of the biggest developments in civilization in the last several centuries. (By the way, there's a monument to the first demonstration of anesthesia in surgery in the Public Garden in Boston. I've seen it.)

    What is the point of thinking about this? The same word I used the other day: Gratitude . . . that it's now possible for a surgeon to save your life (that includes mine) without having to inflict pain in the process . . . because these advances in humane standards do not happen automatically and they were not in effect for most of human history. They are more of the kind of miracle Jonah discusses in Suicide of the West.

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      Aylene Wright

      From what I understand, there was also historically a lot of resistance to women getting pain management during labor, a lot of it based on the religious argument that God told Eve in the Bible that "in pain you would bring forth children" as a consequence of Original Sin, and that therefore, using anesthesia was basically cheating. Queen Victoria using chloroform during labor was what really started to turn the tide, and IMO also goes to show that even ceremonial leaders of countries are role models, for better or for worse.

      Indeed, even now, there are many women who *still* feel getting pain management during labor is cheating, and some women not only choose "natural birth" for themselves, but actually look down on women who had epidurals, and see c-sections the same way anti-vaxxers see vaccines.

      I also recall that when TMD had a feature on Ozempic and similar drugs, there was a lot of skepticism and a fear that people would just use the drug to lose weight out of laziness, and an assumption that losing weight through diet and exercise was somehow not only healthier, but morally superior to "just popping a pill".

      Lately there are more reports of various side effects of these medications, so obviously they are far from perfect wonder drugs. But I do think that for some people, the benefits may outweigh the risks.

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        Thomas Grimmer

        The first person I met on Ozempic (for weight loss) was less "My 600-Pound Life" and more "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." Just saying.

        Then again, people have always been selectively hyper-moralistic about technology, medical or otherwise. Breast reduction or augmentation for vanity (or back pain)? Eh. For a trans person? How dare you!?!

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  6. Just Dean

    Doomsdayism isn’t helpful. But neither are denial, defeatism or dismissal,
    Denial – Denying that climate change is real and predominantly caused by man.
    Defeatism – The situation is so hopeless there is no point for action and/or we can’t control China or India so why bother.
    Dismissal – It really isn’t that serious.

    The other thing that isn’t helpful is bias in the interpretation and presentation of US voter’s opinion and priority concerning climate change that I have recently observed here at TD.

    John Hart claimed that based on his organization’s polling, “70% of Republicans said human activity is primary or contributing factor.” When I looked at the data, what jumps out at me is that actually only 18% said it is primarily driven by man. This is consistent with the a 2021 Gallup poll that said 32% of Republicans said it was caused by human activity and the number is going down not up, https://news.gallup.com/poll/343025/global-warming-attitudes-frozen-2016.aspx.

    Kevin has pointed a couple times recently to his NYPost article, https://nypost.com/2023/07/22/climate-change-activists-have-failed-to-score-public-support/ and implied that American voters understand climate change and are ready to talk about policy. I drilled down on the NPR survey he cited claiming that climate change is not a priority. Here is my rebuttal to Kevin’s NYPost article,
    1. The survey was a rank-choice survey with a list of 9 issues. Of course, you will end up with many issues polling in the single digits!
    2. Climate change was not “far behind” health care, 8% vs 9% respectively.
    3. Looking at the total results obscures the bipartisanship that exists. For Democrats, climate change tied for third with health care, 13%, behind “preserving democracy” at 25% and “The economy” at 17%. What Democrat in their right mind isn’t going to prioritize stopping Trump in 2024? BTW, stopping him is a twofer. You preserve democracy and you don’t go backwards on climate change.
    4. Different polls with a different approach do a better a job of revealing the underlying climate change bipartisanship, e.g. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/06/21/inflation-health-costs-partisan-cooperation-among-the-nations-top-problems/ . In this survey participants were asked what issues were very big problems facing the country. Can you guess what the single most divisive issue is, i.e., had the biggest separation in percentage who thought it was very important? Climate change. 64% of Democrats/Lean Dem. say it is a very big problem as opposed to 14% of Republicans/Lean Rep. The only things that rank higher for Dems are gun violence and affordability of health care.

    Maybe highlighting the highly partisan nature of climate change isn’t helpful but neither is overlooking it or downplaying it.

    The truth of the matter is that we have already significantly decreased our carbon emissions in the US, in particular, electrical power generation. Based on data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, our carbon intensity has decreased by 38%, from 650 to 402 kg of CO2 / MWh between 2000 and 2021. NM, where I live, has done even better. It is reduced nearly by half from 955 to 489. This is largely due to replacing coal generation with natural gas and renewables. These decreases have happened due to combination of policy and economics. Imagine what is possible if we can start to agree on the seriousness and priority of climate change!Show less

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    Charley Warns

    If memory serves, I believe it was Albert Camus who said: "You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."

    That said ... Jonah makes a great point at the 17:00 mark about all those souls who choose sides in a debate they manufactured just to give their lives meaning. They'll argue for some arbitrary cause as if it's as historically significant as ending slavery. As the saying goes, "If there is no immortality … then all things are permitted." The thing is that in the end ... while in your grave ... or as a nutritious cracker ... if you will, it won't really matter if you led your life as Mother Teresa or as Hunter Biden. Camus argued we should deal with this absurdity, yet how is that possible for anyone thoughtful and reflective?

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  8. Gass

    I enjoyed this one, maybe shorter is good. I also want to throw out a request. I live in Alaska and we are having a summer event today. I walked downtown and saw Lisa Murkowski. She was strolling through the crowd with one family member, no gaggle or staff. Just enjoying a rare sunny day in Ketchikan. It made me think that you should do an Alaska themed Remnant with The Fair Jessica and Senator Murkowski. Alaska is interesting and Alaska politics are interesting. Not that I want people to move here, come visit and leave please. Anyway, hope the dog thing works out. Strange things happen with age, just look at the Senate.

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    Lawrence D'anna

    no you won’t, this is a podcast

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    PEDRO CARMONA

    As with ominous music when W. Wilson is named you must play a thunder clap whenever you mention climate change.

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      Pastorfbt

      Endorse!

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        Jack

        I also endorse!

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