Podcast with Robert Stark about Corona & Animal Rights

Robert Stark talks to me about the coronavirus pandemic, as well as my old article on effective altruism, animal IQ, and animal rights.

Here are the topics we discuss:

Anatoly’s initial predictions
Corona & the Cost of Doing Nothing
The success of China’s quarantine and whether it’s sustainable
Trump’s catch 22 on quarantining the pandemic
How the pandemic could restructure global geopolitics
Bernie Sanders Wouldn’t Close The Border To Prevent The Spread Of Wuhan Virus
The need for mandatory sick leave and an emergency UBI
The advantages (car centric suburbia) and disadvantages (no sick leave) of the US over Western Europe
Corona Clusters
Corona cases at AIPAC, CPAC, and NATO
The disproved ethnic specific theory
Will Russia Succumb to Corona-Chan?
Anatoly’s observations from Moscow
The degree to which new infections are originating from Chinese sources
Robin Hanson’s idea of delayed controlled infection
Cucked By Corona: will the the pandemic have a non trivial impact on global fertility?
The Cognitive Chain of Being: A New Approach to Animal Rights
Quantifying suffering and figuring out cost efficient ways to reduce suffering
The populist limitations to ending factory farming
In vitro meat, other meat substitutes, and whether they’ll becomes cost competitive
The US Presidential election, Bernie’s Woke direction, Biden as the quintessential normie, and why Bloomberg would have given America a cyberpunk vibe

We recorded this on March 10, so it’s not entirely current.

E.g., I am now much more supportive of a hard attempt to “crush”/”nuke” the curve, instead of merely attempting to flatten it.

Comments

  1. Please keep off topic posts to the current Open Thread.

    If you are new to my work, start here.

  2. Corona-chan a cutie. Hope she infects me with her love!

  3. prime noticer says

    the eurasian default anime woman definitely is attractive. too bad mainland China women look nothing like that. they are dogs.

    HBD topic, post Covid-19 frenzy – were the free nation populations better looking on average than the communist nation populations, and does this say anything about politics, the way that bigger, stronger men lean Republican and smaller, weaker men lean Democrat. are less good looking, life’s losers type people more attracted to communism, Islam, wacky religions, as a compensation.

    post communist takeover, is there movement of good looking women out of commie land and into freedom land. and if so, does money simply explain it, or is it something else.

  4. I am now much more supportive of a hard attempt to “crush”/”nuke” the curve

    If only we could engineer an increase in the use of the word “nuke” about 10-100x, by appending it to the solution of every political crisis, then I’m convinced that would automatically lead to a remediation of the word, among atomophobes.

    This in turn would lead to positive political choices, like increased funding for nuclear energy and propulsion systems.

  5. Daniel Chieh says

    Request to upgrade this thread to become an Open Thread.

  6. Will post one this weekend, I promise!

  7. Daniel Chieh says

    Average weight of American female: 170.6 lbs

    The average American woman 20 years old and up weighs 170.6 poundsTrusted Source and stands at 63.7 inches (almost 5 feet, 4 inches) tall.

    And the average waist circumference? It’s 38.6 inches.

    These numbers may or may not be surprising to you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source has reported that some 39.8 percent of adults in the United States are obese, based on data through 2016.

    Average weight of Russian female: 160 lbs(from previously 152 during more Soviet years)

    https://www.worlddata.info/average-bodyheight.php

    muh communism

  8. Does lockdown really work? All countries are having a daily increase in cases.

    Japan and South Korea seem to be the only two countries that actually managed to greatly reduce the number of new cases and “flatten the curve”.

    China might have had more deaths than they are saying.

  9. When people have more food, they eat more. People eat too much (and bad things) in the U.S.

    The increase in world obesity has much to do with a decades long (temporary, now it seems?) period of relative peace and prosperity and with the americanization/macdonaldization of world diets.

    Still, you see much less fat people in Europe than in the US, on average. Even in Canada they are not as fat as in the US (although getting there).

  10. On the subject of animal sentience, I propose the following rule: anyone who runs for parliament should have to kill at least 100 chickens and wear a necklace of their skulls. Meanwhile, anyone who votes should have to kill 10 chickens per election.

    Should reduce the power of the Greens and bugmen.

  11. I would love to listen to this, but I can’t take any graphic discussion of animal cruelty. Can someone advise me on that?

  12. anonymous coward says

    > gets triggered and faints if cruelty to dumb lil animals is mentioned
    > killing human babies is a scientific issue and is acceptable

    Good lord, “the West” deserves everything that’s coming its way, and more.

  13. > killing human babies is a scientific issue and is acceptable

    I said nothing of the sort.

  14. anonymous coward says

    Yes, and?

    All NPC’s have pre-canned responses and thought processes.

    You don’t really think that killing baby seals is more ethical than abortion, do you?

  15. You don’t really think that killing baby seals is more ethical than abortion, do you?

    You don’t really think that aborting a seven-week fetus is “killing a human baby,” do you?

  16. anonymous coward says

    You don’t really think that aborting a seven-week fetus is “killing a human baby,” do you?

    NPC response, like pottery!

    Well, it sure as hell isn’t a baby seal, I know that for sure.

    Are you implying it isn’t human? Or that it isn’t a baby?

    Which of the three words “killing”, “human” and “baby” do you take issue with, exactly?

  17. Which of the three words “killing”, “human” and “baby” do you take issue with, exactly?

    “baby”

  18. Jason Muniz says

    This may be a great opportunity for us R1b-M269, R1a-Z93 and R1a-Z282 carriers to replace the remnant I1, I2 E1b and J2 lineages in Europe that our PIE ancestors couldn’t. After that process, we must replace non PIE male lineages in the Middle East and then East Asia. Here is to the future Italo-Celtic-Slavic-Indo-Iranian alliance(I exclude many Germanics because they are dominated by I1 lineages). Destroy these sedentary and soft men, let the north Eurasian nomad breath again.

  19. anonymous coward says

    Well, it’s not an adult, is it?

    Also, by logical implication I see that you have no problem with “killing” and “human being”, it’s only the “baby” part that’s giving you pause.

    With that in mind, what other kinds of human beings do you not mind killing? Is killing old people okay? What if they’re senile? Is killing cripples okay? What about the mentally retarded?

  20. Well, it’s not an adult, is it?

    False dilemma.

    With that in mind, what other kinds of human beings do you not mind killing

    Condemned murderers, though I would prefer not to have to do it myself.

  21. Just imagine having an ABORTION DEBATE of all things on my blog.

    You two are very weak.

  22. Japan and South Korea seem to be the only two countries that actually managed to greatly reduce the number of new cases and “flatten the curve”.

    Yesterday, in the St. Petersburg metro, I saw a group of Japanese (tourists?). Every single one of them is wearing respirators. Our people stared at them because of this (in the subway car there was one girl in a mask, all the others without masks). A vivid illustration of the difference in mentalities

  23. Daniel Chieh says

    No graphic descriptions of animal cruelty in the podcast, only autistic excellence.

  24. anonymous coward says

    Better than le another coronavirus thread.

    Anyways, it’s not much of a debate – “Rosie” is an NPC and probably not even a real woman. It talks like a cyber-troon.

  25. Anyways, it’s not much of a debate

    Indeed, because there’s nothing much to say. You either believe that an early term fetus is the moral equivalent of a child, or you don’t.

    “Rosie” is an NPC and probably not even a real woman.

    Lol. You’re an insufferable half-wit of the worst kind (i.e. a know-it-all half-wit).