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Comment by lnwlebjel | Hacker News Reader

I had to post the text because, it's just so good:

"And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”

Plastic… asshole.”

― George Carlin

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I like George Carlin, but this is a comedy routine and not philosophical advice. It doesn't mean we should go around stepping on daisies because "screw daisies, destruction is WHY WE ARE HERE!"

It's comedy and it's asking a philosophical question. It can do both.

He has another bit about how we're not really concerned about saving the planet, we're concerned about making sure the planet remains a hospitable place for us to live.

Which, one again, is kind of a perspective shift. No, we cannot "destroy" the Earth, all we can do is fuck up our ability to exist on it.

Is this supposed to be some kind of new discovery?

No, it's supposed to be comedy.

Funny, I hate plastic but the thought has crossed my mind a few times also. Is this just part of nature that the world secretly wanted?

If he mentioned that today he would be cancelled. Already I see people anxious that plastic is being somewhat degradable because it hurts their narrative that plastic = evil.

It's funny to me that we need to destroy more trees for a manufactured moral panic

What?

If he mentioned that today he would be cancelled. Already I see people anxious that plastic is being somewhat degradable because it hurts their narrative that plastic = evil.

It's funny to me that we need to destroy more trees for a manufactured moral panic

Carlin had a quote for you: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that".

Before someone says “that’s median, not mean”, remember average is an ambiguous term that can mean either.

Intelligence as measured by IQ has a normal distribution, which means mean and median are the same. So Carlin was right no matter what he meant.

I’d never considered that, makes sense! Thanks!

Oh good, you are becoming self-aware

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