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Comment by paulcole | Hacker News Reader

> It's very easy to take a nihilist view that nothing matters, as it completely absolves oneself of any potential responsibility whatsoever

No! I actually do take personal responsibility by:

• Living in a small apartment in a dense city

• Never having driven a car - I never even learned to drive

• Never flying in an airplane – last flight was 10+ years ago and have no plans to fly again

• Eating a plant-based diet

• Not ever having kids

But I will concede that none of those things matter.

> This is of course untrue, given that we know that there are people who have changed their behaviour after learning about realities through articles such as this one.

That is neat! People in general will not change their behavior.

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Commendable lifestyle! We live in almost the same way :)

> That is neat! People in general will not change their behavior.

Unless you rolled out of the womb with the plans to live in the manner you've described, there must at some point have been things that changed your behavior. Out of everyone living like you and me globally, the ones who have been raised by their parents to do so are a really tiny minority. I've lived on two opposite sides of the globe, and in both places they count for <1%. The rest of us has implemented lifestyle changes after being faced with realities.

> Unless you rolled out of the womb with the plans to live in the manner you've described, there must at some point have been things that changed your behavior.

Honestly probably just the result of having weird parents who didn’t discourage weird decisions by me as a kid. We lived in a small house (without air conditioning) in Florida and spent summers on an even smaller (and even hotter) wooden sailboat.

So I was never afraid of doing things most people wouldn’t consider just to see what would happen.

And even more honestly I just like living this way.

If the Earth was cooling down and we had to warm the planet up by driving more or whatever I’d live the same way I do now because I like it. I wouldn’t care about doing the right thing for the planet.

So I can’t fault the people who just like living a different way that happens to bad for the planet. They like their lives so let ‘em go nuts.

>No! I actually do take personal responsibility by:

None of these are taking responsibility. This is just a normal nihilistic life style being spun as meaningful behavior. You not having kids isn't making a sacrifice because there is no world in which you have kids.

> You not having kids isn't making a sacrifice because there is no world in which you have kids.

Can you point out where I said these things were a sacrifice?

I actually don’t think any of those things are sacrifices — they all add to my quality of life. Obviously I have to guess on the kids thing and I can’t be 100% sure about the driving thing, but I’ve flown before and it sucks. I live in a smaller apartment now than I did when I was younger. I ate meat for decades. So I know the alternatives.

> You not having kids isn't making a sacrifice because there is no world in which you have kids.

Of course there is! I have just chosen to not make that world a reality.

> This is just a normal nihilistic life style being spun as meaningful behavior

Then the same can be said of somebody who says that eating meat and having kids is good?

What lifestyle isn’t nihilistic by your definition?

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