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spaginal commented on ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/pseudolus
dcolkitt · 3 years ago
Disagree. People genuinely enjoy those foods, because they're tasty and flavorful. And there's zero reason to believe that they're substantially unhealthy unless consumed to the point of sustained caloric surplus. We know this because we have hunter-gatherer populations who consume 50% of their diets in sugar (e.g. the Hadza) or fats (e.g. Intuit), and they have none of the diseases of abundance found in modern populations because they have near zero obesity.

The problem is not the food. The problem is obesity. The food is only an issue because some people have overly strong appetites relative to the abundance of food. If we can cure obesity, then we can literally have our cake and eat it too.

Humans obviously value tasty and flavorful food, and its existence adds joy to people's lives. That's why they'll pay hundreds of dollars per meal for the best restaurants. In sum total the development of GLP-1 agonists has maybe cost $20 billion in research at most. That's literally less than 0.1% of global GDP, hardly an "enormous waste of resources".

spaginal · 3 years ago
I disagree. Low quality processed foods, typically found in western diets, glysophates, high in industrial seed oils, processed sugars, and salts, are likely one of the biggest reasons for all the negative health effects we are seeing in the western diet, calorie numbers be damned.

Any quantity of this food, long term, is likely the reason for the explosive amount of health issues in the population, including many cancers we now commonly deal with.

One of the biggest changes to my health I ever noticed was a switch not in how I ate, but in WHAT I ate.

When I switched my diet over to high quality foods, organic and garden grown, meat I purchased from a local hunter, it made a substantial impact on my health, helped to fix a lot of my cholesterol and blood sugar numbers, and my overall health shot through the roof. No pills required, just decent ingredients, garden grown food, high quality meat.

spaginal commented on Peter Thiel says California suffers from a “tech curse”. Is he right?   economist.com/finance-and... · Posted by u/helsinkiandrew
arinlen · 3 years ago
> California suffers from a Peter Thiel curse.

This. Mr Thiel's highly hypocritical and incoherent rant on "dysfunctional societies" and "corrupt governments" is nothing more admitting that the likes of him are refusing to contribute at all back to society, let alone proportionally to what they personally benefited from it, and are thus single-handedly actively causing its deterioration.

Mr Thiel, pay your taxes, and in the process put your money where your mouth is and start contributing back to fixing problems. You're supposed to be bootstrappy and a problem-solver, aren't you? Why did any of your industrious spirit vanished once it's your time to pay back to society what you owe it? Is it easy to build a huge mansion in a gated community but too hard to work with local and state governments to chip in a fraction of that cost to invest in urban renewal programs, social programs, or even social housing?

spaginal · 3 years ago
Local, state, and federal government at this stage of our national financial collapse is a bottomless grifting machine.

Telling someone to pay their taxes to fix this problem is kind of like telling someone to drink more poison to cure their stomach ache.

spaginal commented on Crypto, the Left and Technofeudalism   yanisvaroufakis.eu/2022/0... · Posted by u/tosh
hotpotamus · 3 years ago
I've heard a landlord justify rent increases because the tenants were just going to spend the money on tattoos anyway. Seems like the present.
spaginal · 3 years ago
That attitude has always existed in an economy to some degree, but you still retain the option to move to something else and get away from it.

A digital centrally controlled currency means you never get to escape it.

Even if you switch landlords for example, it would be inescapable, you have the masters of the universe doing it to you, not just one person you can move away from.

spaginal commented on Unvaccinated workers who lose jobs ineligible for unemployment benefits (Canada)   edmontonjournal.com/news/... · Posted by u/peteradio
dekhn · 4 years ago
Note that the Supreme Court validated Jacobson vs. Massachusetts, supporting the right of the government to mandate vaccines (remember, George Washington mandated vaccines for his troops) and showing that the power of the state ultimately trumps the freedoms of people.

Honestly, you're making arguments (in multiple comments) that make you look petulant, rather than providing a reasonable argument againt vaccine mandates.

spaginal · 4 years ago
The Supreme Court also validated slavery and other actions that proved to be incredibly damaging to the society.

As for George Washington, if you are attempting to make the argument that the government has a right to inoculate it’s military soldiers during war time against a disease, so be it, there is your precedent to argue upon. Furthermore, Washington has a habit of requiring many things, including the Militia Acts which required every able bodied male to own a military firearm. I don’t currently see an argument to enforce that idea. Pick and choose.

But using his small pox inoculation program from the 1700’s and a tiny military of rag tag farmer soldiers as a basis to go after an entire free and educated society of hundreds of millions in the 2000’s for an experimental vaccine, you are stretching this further than it could go.

The information is out there for people to make decisions now. They’ve made it, make a better argument.

spaginal commented on SF will soon require everyone 5 and older to show vaccination proof   sfchronicle.com/health/ar... · Posted by u/hncurious
CogitoCogito · 4 years ago
I can't speak to the poster you're responding to, but I would consider both

"We are injecting children with undertested substances"

and

"that will almost certainly not benefit them, and may very well harm them."

To fall pretty squarely into the category of nonsense given the amount of testing that's gone into these vaccines as well the fact that the CDC quite clearly considers them beneficial. At the very least such claims should require some sort of support.

spaginal · 4 years ago
Children are already the group least likely to be harmed by covid. Couple this with the data showing vaccines don’t prevent spread, but rather reduce symptoms in groups most affected, what is the point of doing this to children? An 80 year old diabetic, sure, but a perfectly healthy 5 year old? Why?
spaginal commented on Why doesn’t natural immunity count in the US?   bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n... · Posted by u/peteradio
boplicity · 4 years ago
>What use is there to build systems of control that will turn into more surveillance and eventual enslavement?

After the seatbelt laws came in, I didn't wear my seat belt. Before I new it, I was arrested. They sent me to a prison work camp. I had to work 14 hours a day. I nearly died of starvation. (The food was crap, I couldn't keep it down.) Fortunately, a guard took pity on me, and I managed to escape. I'm safe now, with a new ID, good internet access, etc, which is how I'm able to share my story.

If only we hadn't put up with those darn seatbelt laws, maybe things wouldn't have turned out so badly.

spaginal · 4 years ago
Taking a medication as a condition of maintaining basic human rights, or merely existing is a long bridge to cross. This bears no equivalency to a seat belt.

We know the shots don’t prevent spread, nor prevent you from getting it, the only argument is it lessens severity of symptoms, yet many are dying after the shots anyways and being hospitalized.

So you are basically arguing they I need to take a medicine that supposedly reduces symptoms, although in practice it isn’t showing that effect, but carries other potential negative health effects unique to the shot itself.

A more analogous car argument is that I would be required by law to pick up random hitch hikers everyday and drive them to their destination as a condition of owning and driving a vehicle, especially if we are working off the public good argument. If I refuse, I lose the car. Most likely 98% of those hitch hikers won’t chop me up into little pieces in the middle of the desert, but there is always that one...

spaginal commented on Why doesn’t natural immunity count in the US?   bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n... · Posted by u/peteradio
boplicity · 4 years ago
You are assuming that getting vaccinated is a burden, and then comparing it to challenges that many people take years, or longer, to overcome. That makes absolutely no sense.

Getting vaccinated takes just a few minutes, and has no long term consequences for virtually everyone, and does not require ongoing effort of any kind.

In no way is getting vaccinated comparable to struggling with obesity, quitting cigarettes, or alcoholism. Sorry, but your comparisons are, frankly, bizarre.

spaginal · 4 years ago
They haven’t studied these genetic therapies long term to know if what you assert is the case. We already know there are health issues associated now with the mrna shots.

We could see a rash of issues show up in the next couple of years.

spaginal commented on Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate   digitalrightswatch.org.au... · Posted by u/soylentbeige
kylebyproxy · 4 years ago
Sic aside, I don't follow your line of reasoning. Care to elaborate?
spaginal · 4 years ago
Disengaged voters will simply vote for the current leadership or loudest guy, typically the same thing, without a thought towards the issues.

Strongmen love compulsory voting, it creates a false perception of legitimacy, because corruption or no corruption, if only 30% of a population is engaged in the issues and the other 70% could give two shits, that is a slamdunk for incumbents.

spaginal commented on U.S. Senate Vote in Favor of Amendment That Threatens Crypto Industry   decrypt.co/78038/senate-v... · Posted by u/creese
JumpCrisscross · 4 years ago
> underground economies benefit oppressed people when governments turn tyrannical

They also benefit the rich and powerful by enabling tax evasion and graft. Pyongyang, Tehran and Caracas make regular use of illicit trade and money laundering to facilitate upward wealth transfer.

Yours is a legitimate point. It's an argument for curtailing the power of law and government. That's fine. We can debate that. But until America decides it doesn't want to collect taxes anymore, the reporting is sort of required.

spaginal · 4 years ago
Cash and anonymous digital transactions also benefit the lower end as well.

Many poor families, including immigrants, get through life daily with an underground, cash only, economy.

It's not just a tool of the rich and wealthy.

Taxation on assets and income is THEFT.

spaginal commented on Alcohol-free beer is fizzing   economist.com/business/20... · Posted by u/edward
spaginal · 4 years ago
My favorite feature of NA beer is social. I found myself enjoying one too many beers sometimes with my group of friends I play hockey with, which made for terrible mornings after and the poor health effects overall.

What I do now is enjoy a real beer or two, and then finish the rest of the evening with NA. Athletic brewing is my favorite. I wish bars had it on draft. It fits both needs, I get to enjoy the taste and effect of the real at first, but continue socially with the NA after that won’t lead to drunkenness.

Alcoholism runs in my family, I could very easily go down that road if I’m not careful, but I found combining the two short circuits the desire to binge on the real thing. I can easily do most events with just NA beers and enjoy myself all the same.

u/spaginal

KarmaCake day545January 31, 2017View Original