StinkyDinky9000

Hey Alex, what are your thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement?

This is really unfair and you definitely are not well versed in his work. I think everyone with a strong opinion has a moral obligation, before voicing their opinion, to read the best arguments the other side can offer. Alex provides those arguments and to write him off without taking the time to understand them is irresponsible.

What is the cogent argument you presented him with? All that's in your post is a claim- a claim that is false. Fossil fuels have been an unequivocal net positive economically and environmentally. Trillions of dollars of profit have been made for producers and shareholders. On the consumption side, the only reason to purchase fossil fuels is because they are worth more to you than the money you're giving up. What exactly is the value of the gallon of gas you use to drive your child to the hospital after an emergency? It's a hell of a lot more than the $3 you paid.

Another way to look at the issue is to examine the FULL CONTEXT instead of having an anti human focus on the negatives. The big picture is that human beings have never lived in a better environment than they do today. This environmental and economic prosperity requires energy to do our work for us. The only energy source that is cheap, plentiful, and reliable enough to achieve what we've achieved is fossil fuels.

One more way to look at the issue is that people can already choose any energy source they want. Yet they fill up at the gas station. If everyone would somehow be better off spending more money on a less reliable energy source, they are free to go out and purchase it. And environmentalists are free to convince everyone that they somehow know better. But instead of convincing others through rational discourse, environmentalists want to FORCE their beliefs on everyone else.

I signed up to ask a question because I saw it on his Twitter.

Hey! Stop focusing on only the negative!!!!!!! Wahhhhh! I'm a broken record. Do a quick mental calculation of negative externalities, and then do a quick mental calculation of POSITIVE externalities from fossil fuels. The positive externalities that arise from everyone in a society having access to cheap plentiful reliable energy are simply so massive as to dwarf the often inflated negatives. And again, this idea that the dollar amount paid measures the precise value received from the transaction is pseudo economics (see child example above). Ya gotta look at the big picture and stop focusing on only the negatives. Per Alex's example, every one of these arguments can be made for vaccines. You could focus on only the downsides, only the negative externalities, etc. and then you'd miss the big picture regarding the overall benefits of vaccines.