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Comment by ghostbrainalpha | Hacker News Reader

You are talking about children dying...

And you are also making the assumption that only Europe can contribute to innovation, and Africans can only be a burden on their neighbors and will never become contributors.

I would agree that if the solving of a crisis like Malaria results in population growth, we need to plan on success and also focus on supporting infrastructure for those people.

But I think you are saying something much more horrific. Maybe work with your therapist on empathy.

We need someone as smart as you to focus on making the world a better place for everyone, not using your intellect to make scientific justifications for genocide.

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I don't know if that was an intentional flattery tactic to get me to read your most more closely, but it worked, thanks, regardless.

I'm surprised if the post read as "more children dying is the obvious optimal path," that wasn't my intent.

I'm meaning to draw attention to the fact that if we are going to have outside interventions into societies that have drastic effects on those societies, then the outside interventions should include plans for all foreseeable(and vigilance in watching for unforeseeable) drastic effects they incur, be they in population structure, political structure, etc.

In this case birth control education seems a prudent corollary plan to disease eradication. But it's more of a thorny problem than just saying here read this book, take this class, take this pill, if these reproduction strategies are expressions of deeply ingrained genetic tendencies.

Certainly birth rate in the western world has declined, but there are lots of differences in the western world and Africa. Not least of which westerners never had outside interventions into their culture and environment of this nature.

You didn't address it and I think there is merit to the point being made about your "bedside manner". I agree with your viewpoint, but it is important to tread carefully when it comes to the lives of others. Your point can be lost not by lack of merit but by lack of semantics.

Thank you for the feedback! Being hyper aware(at least I think so) of this issue you mention I tried mightily to tread carefully.

I think for the most part, the nature of the issue just makes it inherently open to objections of "bedside manner" when discussed in "polite society."

What do you think I could have done better in terms of phrasing or what have you?

I think the easiest way is to explicitly call out possible arguments and get your opinion out in front. E.g "Some might say this gives me a lackadaisical attitude towards the lives of others. Conversely I have nothing but the utmost respect for the lives of others and am concerned with the well being of others"

It's not a perfect example but it's an easy way to show that you are thinking about other people and what they might be thinking. You can combine this with an invitation for people to voice their opinions. People like knowing that their opinion is valuable especially when your assertions put the reader at odds with their own opinions.

Just a few things I've found help internet discussions. People read things with different voices and diffferent inflections so it's important to be explicit when possible, especially on a subject that is truly difficult to discuss in polite company.

Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it.

Just so you know, I did go through your comment history far enough to make my own assessment of your intelligence.

You had thoughtful comments about women in tech, crypto currency, and some others I liked as well.

We share a lot of the same opinions, I just want to make sure we are not proving the ammo for the next Dr.Gobells.

Some think decreasing poverty/disease actually decreases population growth. This is what Peter Diamandis argues in his book "Abundance: the future is better than you think". His reasoning (based on correlations and maybe causational data) is poor families have a lot of kids because they think many of the kids are going to die. But once their situation improves they have less kids.

We've already asked you to please stop using this site for political and ideological battle, and we ban accounts that won't.

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