General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers. You Just Brought Back Measles in NYC. [View all]enki23
(7,795 posts)<sarcasm>The ancestors of most African Americans survived slavery. Look how many of them there now. There's some perspective for you. At the population level, slavery hardly matters at all!</sarcasm>
In environmental toxicology, one of the big challenges is to discover whether even measured, certain, documented toxic effects actually harm a species at the population level. Many species produce sufficient offspring that they can handle a pretty significant degree of mobidity, mortality, and/or reduced fecundity without significant effects on the population numbers. And hey, if you apply that level of perspective to humans, the same applies.
Genocides don't matter. Wars don't matter. Most diseases don't matter. Parasites don't matter. Food safety doesn't matter. Workplace safety doesn't matter. Intense suffering and anguish doesn't matter. Poor people don't fucking matter. The population will grow regardless. It might even grow faster. If that is the perspective that matters to you, then you can relax in the face of quite a lot of death and suffering. You'd be a fucking asshole with truly fucked up values, but it wouldn't be an invalid perspective if that is where you're standing.