Comments by "John Roberts" (@view1st) on "The New Culture Forum" channel.

It's neither population size nor density that is the problem because we already have all the resources to feed, clothe, house and give adequate healthcare and a decent standard of living to everyone alive on Earth right now. So it's not population size per se that is the problem (the very phrase overpopulation is misleading — overpopulated relative to what? Certainly not land area as you could fit the entire population of planet Earth into the US state of Texas). No, it must be something else but that something else (who controls the world's resources and how they are distributed) is generally left out of discussions on the subject because it would involve seriously questioning the status quo and the powers that be.
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Without drastic measures being taken such as placing severe restrictions on the use of contraception and abortion and even introducing some form of compulsory pregnancy on a segment of the population I don't see how the long term decline in European fertility can be reversed.
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@nonfictionone Nothing. Let things take their course.
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People move. That's just a fact of life. It's called migration. And Africans have been doing it since the human race began way back in prehistory.
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A banker, stockbroker or head of the CIA.
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Don't worry, the USA is currently hard at work destabilising the region. We'll be seeing wars in the region soon enough and I'm sure those wars will deplete the population somewhat. Though I think it will be beneficial for the elites of the USA as they will find plenty of opportunities to exploit the new immigrants from Africa just as they do with Mexicans and Eastern Europeans and the brain drain will help keep the USA on top while keeping a potential competitor weak, especially now as its being helped by China.
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@mikeoglen6848 Look, are they forcing there way in? The answer is no, they are not. For the most part they're coming in to fill labour shortages caused by declining birth rates and to keep labour costs down. The West is suffering from what economists call a 'mature' economy (read geriatric) and inviting in these 'guest workers' is the way they deal with the problem; bringing in fresh blood, so to speak. We westerners only have ourselves to blame.
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@Thorsted67 Looks like universal basic income will be coming to a job centre near you.
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@nonfictionone Of course. But those laws should be practical and reflect the social and economic needs of a country (i.e. the need for skilled labour and the need to replenish itself).
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@evolassunglasses4673 Anyone who has themselves a below‐replacement level of reproduction has no right to go lecturing the world on the perceived over‐fecundity of others. If a society is too selfish and short‐sighted to not see the disastrous consequences in the longer term of its failure to reproduce itself then it, together with its way of life, probably deserve to go extinct.
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@nonfictionone It doesn't, but all living creatures evolved to survive and reproduce and left to their own devices will do exactly that.
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@nonfictionone All sorts of reasons. For one, there will be more older people in the population and fewer younger people to look after them. For another, as most pension systems are dependent on the contributions of the previous generation, fewer people will mean that eventually the system will become unsustainable and there won't be enough money to go around. Fewer people also means that there will be fewer employees leading to domestic wages rising vis-a-vis competitors and so to keep competitive businesses will either automate or import labour, both of which will have an effect on employment levels and wages. Ultimately, of course, you'll die out and succumb to replacement by another culture or people. Thus you have to have a ratio of live births to deaths that stay at a level where there are at least as many people being born as die.
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Because we bomb them...?
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@70AD-user45 it was and remains those 'liberal' elites that sent them to die in the first place and it's the same contradictions inherent to capitalism that gives those elites their power that will send another generation of men to be slaughtered in the future. Further, those elites of which you speak are anything but liberal; they are in fact very, very conservative. They wish to conserve the status quo and their privileged positions within it no matter what the cost to the rest of society and no matter how unsustainable it is the long term.
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@larkatmic Believing in superstition and irrationalism is the epitome of being illogical. And believing that one gender has a right to enforce inequality and discrimination on the other simply by virtue of their genitalia is also immoral.
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@escobarlisle6007 Actually, what passes for the left is a just a giant psyop concocted by the American security apparatus, now global in reach as befits its sole super power status, to divide and subvert what remains of the genuine left and at the same time force western electorates to move further and further to the right by only giving them a false choice between the extreme right (corporate media defined as centre right 'conservatives') and the only slightly less extreme traditional hard right (corporate media defined as social democratic 'moderates'). The 'liberal', 'progressive', 'woke' Democrat Party of the USA and its equally compromised counterpart the Labour Party in Great Britain are examples of this. These parties are not supposed to represent the legitimate aspirations of the working classes, advance a genuine left wing agenda, and much less agitate for anti‐capitalist revolution or radical socialist reform.
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Not civil war but authoritarian 'democracy' that is little better than an elected dictorship. To wit, a reversion to the historical norm. Think Latin America. That's if the economic decline and political stagnation are not halted.
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So religion, a belief in the supernatural and the irrational, is something to base an entire society's ethical and cultural values on, the lack of which leads to its ultimate downfall? Pointing out that there is no one, overriding 'objective' truth out there is not the knock-down argument you think it is, especially when applied to the realm of metaphysics (which is what theology, philosophy and ideology ultimately are: abstract ideas that have no basis in fact other than 'social facts' that are, indeed, mere social constructs).
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@nonfictionone Yes, if a given population has a good mix of age cohorts (old versus young) and an appropriate rate of replacement (deaths to live births being at least at replacement level). Does the country or continent you have in mind have that?
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@nonfictionone Let us hope you are right.
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But there are profound cultural differences relying on different interpretations of the truth the way that Christian apologists interpret the Bible to arrive at their particular version of the truth and in so doing create schisms and sectarianism. Knowledge IS contingent and that is a fact whether or not you are willing to accept it. Science would not be able to advance if it were not the case. The new replaces the old and that is how it's always been.
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@highlightning6693 Or the 100 million who died under capitalst/fascist western imperialism. Or the same number who died under feudal monarchy.
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It is a work of fiction.
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And what answer did you want them to give?
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 @sirrathersplendid4825 You mean like the Opium Wars. Trade with us or this is what you'll get. Ditto Japan and Korea.
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