FESTER - "OLO can be as enjoyable as you want to make it."
No - it really can't if this is all the Deniers like AC can come up with. It's actually really boring to have such poor arguments shoved in my face. They fact they are served with a side-serve of smugness just shows how ignorant and self-contradictory those proposing such crap really are.

I take your point that freedom of speech is a good thing. My point is that if AC is going to disagree with me, try to do so with rational and reasonable arguments, and don't resort to pathetic name calling. I answered an important question of his and tried to reference every claim I made. He answered with smug derision, name-calling, and basically dropped the bar to a primary-school screaming match. I've had vastly more interesting debates with Denial-Driven-Dogmatists in other forums. I was just testing the waters here - and the quality of 'debate' seems even worse than the last time I was back here a few years ago. Talk about boring!

Aidan,
Love your work! (Winks)

>I don't support liberal interventions
So why do you support despotic interventions?

Aidan,

"The original peak oil prediction was for the USA."

That is just factually incorrect. Herbert's theory applied to any region and/or the entire planet. The theory was that resource production followed a bell curve - increasing, reaching a peak and then declining to (eventually) little to nothing. He didn't say it applied to just so-called conventional oil. This was just a later fabrication invented to try to salvage the failed claims. Look at US oil production graphs and there's no bell curve to be seen. Ditto the world.

The doomsayers weren't limited to a few cranks. Governments, including our own, changed policy, including tax policy, based on an acceptance of the theory.

Those who opposed the theory opined that as the production of oil fell and the price rose, it would incentivise entrepreneurs to find new sources. That's exactly what happened. There was no peak oil. There never will be any peak oil. History, not just of oil but of almost any resource you care to mention, shows that as volumes fall and prices rise, new sources for the resource are found and/or usage of the resource is made more efficient. But it seems each new generation has to learn that for themselves although you expect that those who've been around for a while would have already learned it. But alas....

Maybe the quality of the debate seems poor to you Max because you're not surrounded by people who think exactly the same as you do.

Fester doesn't support Russia, and we've had our discussions over the issue and can still find a way respect each others opinions and be amicable.

Aidens alright, but he thought we could borrow and print money endlessly without consequence, and clearly there were consequences, inflation from the money printing of covid long before Russia's war.

I think what really bugs me the most, is your lack of respect towards culinary dignity, that you actually think people are going to embrace the food you advocate.

I just went up the shop and got myself some KFC, I drove out of my driveway on our 15 acre block, I looked over at the 30 prime looking cattle in the front yard, thought about the three chicken sheds up the back yard that used to produce 50,000 chickens every 6 weeks, and thought about the hundreds of thousands of meals it put on peoples tables, and then thought about the madness of what you're suggesting.

Yours is an Orwellian future with no dignity.
How do you expect to force people to eat this stuff?
Josephus is right, your thinking is cult-like.
If you are talking of a future where people eat mealworms, crickets and lab-grown frankenslop
Then why can't you just instead come up with a more practical and dignified plan and future for the earths inhabitants

Record $43.1b trade surplus as coal exports boom
http://www.afr.com/policy/economy/record-43-1b-trade-surplus-as-coal-exports-boom-20220906-p5bfrp

Coal creates jobs and puts food on peoples tables and keeps the lights on in our homes.
It's also used to make steel which is essential to a modern society.
We haven't built the new stuff to replace fossil fuels yet.
Do you not realise the lost exports to China could've paid for all the stuff on your climate wish-list?
What export do we get from renewables?

As for Russia.
'So why do I support despotic interventions'

Firstly I respect the right of self determination of the people of Donbass.
After years of bombing the people in Donbass since 2014 it was clear to me that realistically Ukraine had lost the right to ever rule over Russians.
When the war initially started I thought Russian forces should only occupy the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, but in reality it was impractical, as only taking these area meant they were still open to attack, and would need to take further land for a buffer zone so that the citizens who have been bombed since 2014 were out of artillery range.
As the West sent ever more weapons that would cover the distance, it became necessary for Russia to keep taking more land.

I don't like the way the west rules the world with coercion bullying and threats, to match its sanctions and overthrows.
I don't think it's the right path forward for the world.
I'd rather a multipolar world, one build on international law and mutual respect between nations not one nation who's main export is war ruling over all of us.
The US has the Monroe doctrine, but they won't give the same respect to other nuclear powers.

Here's a rather long (45mins) but interesting video.
The woman being interviewed is Russian, but speaks english and was able to access western news and propaganda.
She was absolutely opposed and ashamed of Russia for the war in Ukraine, until she went to the Donbass herself.

I she who was absolutely opposed to the war and ashamed of her country, but after going to Donbass herself was able to see things differently, then maybe there's something in it for all of you, that think I'm wrong for taking the side I do.

You should ask yourselves; why did she change her opinion.
Well done Maria.

I took a LIBERAL, ANTI WAR Protester to see the truth in Donbass, and THIS Happened!
http://youtu.be/0OysQ7yQl_o

This is the real stuff, not the narratives you get from biased half-truth-at-best reporting.

Hi AC,

I think we are both opposed to authoritarianism but perceive the world a little differently. I do enjoy reading your reasoning, but in forming my opinion I tend to be biased toward economic and technological development as well as social protections and freedoms.

In this respect I note the failure of many feel good and save the planet renewable energy companies in contrast to the success of many fossil fuel companies. What I am observing with renewable energy seems to contradict the positive spiel being put on it. I am more interested in looking at the balance sheet than the marketing brochures.