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JumpCrisscrossyesterday at 5:26 PM4 repliesview on HN

> a world destroyed by generations

This hyperbole isn’t helpful. The world won’t be destroyed. (If you promise annihilation and are visited simply by devastation, it reduces credibility in an unnecessary way.)


Replies

Teeveryesterday at 5:54 PM

I'm curious why this conversation tat is more or less a George Carlin bit from decades ago plays out over and over on social media. I bet that you knew exactly what they meant when they talked about the world being destroyed.

It wasn't a scenario where the Earth is literally annihilated by a black hole, or a super nova, or a meteor or a GMB, it was a scenario where the world is functionally ruined for human life as we know it in a time-scale far shorter than we can muster up the resources to stop or even mitigate it.

So like, what's going on here? Is your response a subconscious coping strategy to change the topic to something more comfortable than one of impending doom for the human species and civilization as we know it?

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bryanrasmussenyesterday at 6:39 PM

right everyone will be hah we were not all killed, only lots of people, but some survived! You lose! Glad we didn't listen to you, most of my family were killed except for me and my niece, but you said me and my niece would be killed too! You know absolutely nothing!!

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jfengelyesterday at 6:13 PM

Is the credibility in question among anyone who would notice the difference in phrasing?

We should always try to speak with precision, but not for the sake of people who will dismiss it no matter what you say.

bee_rideryesterday at 5:53 PM

This seems more like informal and basically reasonable talk, rather than hyperbole.

The purpose of Earth, from the point of view of most humans, is to act as a comfortable host of humans. We are destroying the Earth by making it no longer fit for that purpose. I don’t think anybody reads “destroy Earth” and interprets it as something more like, “get rid of the iron ball as well.”

Unless you are one of those deep-sea vent dwelling creatures, we’re risking changes to the planet that will affect your life eventually.

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