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Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting the

A forum for discussion of regional topics including oil depletion but also government, society, and the future.

Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting the

Unread postby Ayoob » Sat 18 Apr 2020, 23:39:14

peak?

If I knew it was coming, this would be one way to sort of cushion the blow. Let everybody go home in sort of an orderly migration. 30 million jobs down the toilet, which means 30 million fewer cars on the road every day, get used to people buying less. The undulating sort of peak can then continue for a year or so while everybody gets the news, we're not going back to normal, etc.

Is this the way to destroy our consumption? It's not the end of the world to me, I got mine.

If we're going to decouple from China, maybe it would help if we stop buying their shit and start making our own.

Frankly, if our grocery shelves were full of fresh vegetables instead of dyed breakfast cereals I would be fine with that, it would be a step in the right direction.

Sure are a lot of people working in marketing right now. What would we need if all we were worried about was our needs? Would we need so many lawyers?

It's a little weird to have some time on my hands, looking over the edge of a financial apocalypse, thinking I'm probably going to be alright. Ten years ago would have been a huge disaster, but today I'll probably be fine. My kids will grow up in a world I probably won't understand.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby asg70 » Sun 19 Apr 2020, 10:35:02

Great "how many times do you hit your wife" headline. There's so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin. More long-time lurkers deciding to squat and pinch out their share of tinfoil.

BOLD PREDICTIONS
-Billions are on the verge of starvation as the lockdown continues. (yoshua, 5/20/20)

HALL OF SHAME:
-Short welched on a bet and should be shunned.
-Frequent-flyers should not cry crocodile-tears over climate-change.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Mon 20 Apr 2020, 00:00:59

Ayoob wrote:peak?

If I knew it was coming, this would be one way to sort of cushion the blow. Let everybody go home in sort of an orderly migration. 30 million jobs down the toilet, which means 30 million fewer cars on the road every day, get used to people buying less. The undulating sort of peak can then continue for a year or so while everybody gets the news, we're not going back to normal, etc.

Is this the way to destroy our consumption? It's not the end of the world to me, I got mine.

Sure. That makes sense. :roll:

Because doing that and keeping it completely secret would be SO much easier and more productive, instead of say, TAXING it more, if the goal were to reduce demand. And what government wouldn't like all that revenue and not destroying its economy? (Hint: NONE OF THEM).

And of course, let's ignore the real world evidence that OPEC + thought there was way too MUCH oil and was trying to destroy the US competition economically, even BEFORE COVID-19 became a big deal.

Occam's Razor is very much a thing, BTW. Not that conspiracy theorists of all types want to hear that, of course. :idea:
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby Newfie » Mon 20 Apr 2020, 17:49:35

Ayoob,

I’m not much for conspiracy theories. On the other hand I do think that there is such a thing as the “collective unconscious”. And that might be lending weight to the current situation.

Something doesn’t make sense to me about this whole mess. But I can’t put my finger on it. So I feel like something is going on what haven’t uncovered.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby dissident » Tue 21 Apr 2020, 00:59:21

Newfie wrote:Ayoob,

I’m not much for conspiracy theories. On the other hand I do think that there is such a thing as the “collective unconscious”. And that might be lending weight to the current situation.

Something doesn’t make sense to me about this whole mess. But I can’t put my finger on it. So I feel like something is going on what haven’t uncovered.


A lot of people are using this gut feeling to believe in all sorts of tin foil hat inanity. Humans are not evolved to handle outlier conditions. So the feeling will be there under any state transition.

Also, people always discount mitigation efforts and claim in hindsight that the problem was not as bad as it could have been. This creates a false sense of security. Nobody has a "feel" for disasters. There is only the built in expectation of normalcy. This is why BAU is so hard to overcome.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Tue 21 Apr 2020, 01:21:10

dissident wrote:Nobody has a "feel" for disasters. There is only the built in expectation of normalcy. This is why BAU is so hard to overcome.

I think that's an excellent point.

But we have to compete and survive in our day to day world, and it's very difficult, I think, for most to do that (which implies a certain amount of conformity and cooperation and planning / working with the system), AND properly evaluate black swans. Especially since they're so unpredictable.

I don't know what the answer is, but it's certainly not running around constantly predicting every potential big disaster WILL BE a big disaster (vs. what usually ends up within the broad bounds of "normalcy").

Like with most things, it's about balance, which means that in some cases we're just going to miss the mark. I know I certainly do; part of being human, IMO.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby Newfie » Tue 21 Apr 2020, 06:21:49

Dissident,

My sense is that a significant amount of the population have a sense that our world situation is not sustainable. They don’t talk about it much but it’s coming up more frequently in my conversations. I’m NOT talking about people who are concerned about climate change and especially activist. It’s not something that these folks are overtly discussing, it just drops into conversation: “Too many people”, “Wve got what, 7+ billion, really?”. That kind of stuff.

But I have no good feel for how prevalent these concerns are in the general population. My acquaintances don’t usually fit that profile.

Then again if you look at the WEF Risk Analysis then it’s pretty clear to see that there is widespread unease about our culture and that it is growing year by year. Now that’s a special class of people, but they are close to and advise the filling class.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby theluckycountry » Tue 20 Jul 2021, 18:34:55

Ayoob wrote:
30 million jobs down the toilet, which means 30 million fewer cars on the road every day, get used to people buying less.

Is this the way to destroy our consumption?


As good an analysis as I have heard, thanks for posting. Others on this thread that consider it tinfoilhat obviously believe in the government and that they have our best interests at heart. This is sort of true, the government wants one thing from the peoples above all else, and that is stability.

Telling the truth about peak oil would cause untold damage in society as those with wealth began positioning themselves for life in an uncertain future. People would begin hoarding I believe, As we saw in response to the corona lockdowns, but they would do it on an unprecedented scale knowing that everything made with or by or from oil will be a lot more expensive in the future.

The lockdowns on the other hand are quite palatable for society, the average person is happy to stop driving, happy to stop flying, all in the name of the greater good and fear for their own lives. You would never have got that voluntarily otherwise I believe, just try getting an elderly person to give up driving, it's like pulling teeth! And young people, hell it's their passport to fun and jobs and romance.

Yes I agree with you, these lockdown are being staged every few months now, 2 steps forward, one step back. I can't see us ever returning to mass air travel or going back to the miles driven in the future and we can lay it all at the feet of the economic contractions caused by the lockdowns and a supposedly deadly virus.

I tried to PM you btw but I am unable to for some reason.
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby Ayoob » Sun 15 Aug 2021, 16:58:05

How is it that so many are under quarantine and gas prices have relentlessly marched upwards? How did that happen? Could the supply be drying up? I almost feel bad for the average Chinese when they find out that gasoline has a half life of about eight years, relying on gas for the long term is stupid. Commuting is a bad supply line choice. The suburbs are going to be interesting, but so is the inner city. Life is about to get expensive, what do we do with people who can't add value?

They need work. I know, how about UBI? Well then those people are expensive to keep on the budget and there's this wood chipper right over here, maybe we can trim the budget and some fat at the same time. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt
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Re: Could the Great Virus Hoax really be a cover for hitting

Unread postby theluckycountry » Sun 22 Aug 2021, 04:48:09

Ayoob wrote:How is it that so many are under quarantine and gas prices have relentlessly marched upwards?


Well I guess because it still costs $x to bring it to market, and since less is being consumed, the profit margin is lower. Most service stations here make more profit selling pies and chocolate bars than gasoline so less bums in the door, less profit there too.

The suburbs and the cities are an interesting play. While I was investigating peakoil back in 2005 I also was an active member of other forums, specifically ones portraying the effects of peak and the personal mitigation steps one needs to take. As a consequence I moved rural where the lockdowns are usually skirted by many. Not many police out here and the ones that are seem to be not too concerned with the politics of their city brethren.

Food! It's grown out here, a lot of it, and the city needs it so I think they leave us alone to get on with our business. I'm not in that business myself mind you, but since I live here I am by association. One day it might be necessary to make some arrangement with a farmer to give me sanction to buy fuel, who knows? All I know is that if you live in the city you are screwed now. Screwed to the wall.

Anyone in the southern cities with means is selling up and moving North where the lockdowns are not so severe. Whether that will last who can tell but many are not heading for the city but for rural and beach towns, places with lower populations. It's an interesting dynamic and at odds with the past 70 odd years of people leaving rural towns for the bright lights of the city.
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