I like straight lines.
Especially if they cut through various time periods, crises, monetary regimes, different generations and different ideas. If something just keeps growing or keeps moving in a certain direction—regardless of what the dominant ideas surrounding those things are—that's a pretty good indication for an underlying force, one that nobody can really fuck with.
No matter what, nothing stops that train, basically.No matter what, nothing stops that train, basically.
A piece I wrote for The Daily Economy in 2023 ("Transition This, Transition That") was about this graph:
Given all the green mania of the last generation or two, you'd think there was actually some green "transition" happening? Nope, try again. Energy is additive, you don't replace an old one as much as you add more (for "green" ones, only around the edges). My observation was this:
In the mid-1990s when greening the world became a hot political topic (the Kyoto protocol, the predecessor to the Paris Agreement, was signed in 1997), the energy mix of the world was 86 percent oil, gas, and coal. After three decades of climate change chatter, energy “transitions,” countless government subsidy programs, invasively ugly wind farms popping up everywhere, and an unhealthy obsession — at least in the West — with all things sustainable and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), we’ve hit the unbelievably successful rate of… 82 percent.
The takeaway here isn't "oh, we gotta work harder and make more progress and get that number down!" —the takeaway is that no matter what you believe, you cannot bring that number down. Fine, you went from 86 to 82 in three decades... maybe you can keep the green agenda going and push it to ~78 in another few generations. Whatever; does nothing. The world just keeps churning, ignoring the words you speak into the void.
Today I stumbled upon another such graph: world production of meat
(Fair, there's some nuance there with beef stagnant for 50 years, and chicken and pork exploding upward)
No matter the world's intelligentsia, their (fake) health guidelines and food pyramids, the altogether civilizational-destructive idea of vegetarianism, the green lobby pushing "meatless for the planet!" crap... nothing moves. Take all you know of that, all you've seen or heard on that topic... and it all amounts to a big fat zero. This graph just keeps moving, relentlessly.
Reality decides; what (some) humans say about reality doesn't.
(sorry, ~charts_and_numbers... I'm @Undisciplined's bitch so gotta post in ~econ)
I think vegetarianism is a weird boogeyman for a lot of you. Almost no one is actually pushing for it and it's lobby is completely dwarfed by the meat and dairy lobby. Maybe that's different in Europe, but I think it's bizarre how obsessed so many people are with vegans, who are completely irrelevant.
well, mje. Given how irrelevant they are objectively speaking (what, 5% of the populatioN?), they punch well above their weight. It's a respectable, even widely admired, stance; and the myriad of Meatless Mondays-type events (or vegetarian "options" on every menu) imma say we're treating this boogeyman roughly with the respect/decency it requires
How do vegetarian options warrant any pushback at all? Why do you care if there’s a menu item that doesn’t interest you?
Also, not even remotely 5% of menu items are vegetarian, at least not here, and the vegetarian sections of grocery stores are tiny and usually shoved out of the way.
I think the big strong lions can survive such impositions.
surviving/stomach(!) is different from celebrating.
Also, live and let live isn't the same as never object/complain at what you think others do wrong or what's broken in the world.
Plus: not quite the bit I was looking for but something similar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQW4NWdkNY
You know I'm not above complaining about stuff or criticizing other people's choices. This just really sticks out to me as a bizarre fixation that many people have that's wildly out of proportion to it's actual influence.
Even in the leftiest cities in America, basically nobody's vegan and nobody likes vegans.
man do I want to hang out in your leftist American cities!
Really not what I'm seeing in and around me... perhaps we're just trailing America by some 10-15 years, and y'alls are already in the future?
The concern over here has always been that we're trailing Europe.
in what?!
Yeah I agree, Germany is ahead of the US in the push for vegetarian/veganism.
I was in Germany last year and I remember going to a fancy ice cream place. Almost half the options were marked as vegan ice creams.
"Vegetable taste like sad anyways. Don't eat vegetable!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGVKpWGFvtE&ab_channel=UncleRogerShorts
I too know the sadness of produce in the Arctic.
In normal habitable zones, though, bad tasting vegetables are the fault of the chef.
I think it's coz they feel morally judged? Maybe, I dunno 🤷🏻♂️
That's my sense, too. It's similar to how secular people dislike Christians, even when they aren't trying to enforce their beliefs in any way.
I do believe that vegetarianism is being strongly pushed for.
For instance:
They've been pushing grain forever, I don't see that as related to a vegetarian agenda (other than opportunistically). The issue there is that grain is really easy to grow and farmers have a lot of political influence, so they try to find other things to do with it than just feed it to non-human animals.
Bringing up two companies funding programming is super one-sided analysis. The meat and dairy industries spend so much more money on marketing and messaging. However, private companies paying for messaging is just normal business. What isn't normal market functioning is all the lobbying that goes on, which is enormously skewed towards animal products. A level playing field would have far less privileging of current animal production practices.
I know lots of people who work for the USDA. There's no vegan agenda to speak of. In fact, there's way more concern about pissing off the various animal product lobbies. It's just as captured by Big Ag as the FDA is by Big Pharma.
Where do you get this?
From what I gather, the opposite is the case. Check out this article about conflicts of interest (with processed food and pharma companies) on the advisory board that recommend changes to the US nutritional guidelines. https://www.nutritioncoalition.us/conflicts-of-interest
To summarize - "95% of Expert Committee for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Had Tie with a Food or Pharmaceutical Company".
Here's another interesting article from Nina Teicholtz, details of how the USDA is pushing beans-peas-lentils over animal products. https://unsettledscience.substack.com/p/get-ready-to-eat-beans-peas-lentils
I remember seeing in Mexico, where I visited recently, a pro-dairy billboard. I really noticed it, because I can't remember the last time I've seen anything like that in the US.
I'm basing my claim on the approximately 100% of food based ads I see not being for plant-based foods, and typically emphasizing how "meaty" or "cheesey" their product is, and the similar proportion of product placement in tv shows.
I've never seen a food related billboard that was for a plant-based product. The only ones I can think of are for steak, burgers, breakfast foods like sausage/bacon/eggs/pancakes/etc., or cheese curds for some reason.
I can see your point on the food pyramid changes, but the food pyramid is also still recommending meat and dairy consumption for everyone. That's definitionally not a vegan diet recommendation.
I'm not sure what your point is about the conflicts of interest. A bunch of those are exactly what I said: pork, egg, dairy, etc. Also, when you recognize that almost all grains and soybeans go into animal feed, you have to include those as part of the animal production industry too, because they're just an intermediate input producer.
Happy to see the meat production being back on track!
Kittens on the track, this is how we do it.
Dude, it’s funny how vegetarianism seems like some kind of boogeyman to so many people. Like, no one’s raiding steakhouses and confiscating ribeyes, but the moment someone says they don’t eat meat, a heated debate breaks out as if it’s a threat to Western civilization.
What’s even weirder is that the meat and dairy lobby is massive—it controls everything from advertising to government subsidies. Meanwhile, the so-called “vegan lobby”? Pretty much nonexistent. And yet, people act like there’s some global conspiracy to force-feed everyone tofu for breakfast.
The truth is, this whole uproar might actually be a sign that the idea hits a nerve. When something is truly irrelevant, no one cares. But when it starts gaining traction—whether for environmental, ethical, or health reasons—that’s when the over-the-top reactions kick in. And honestly, you don’t even have to be vegan to notice how oddly obsessed some people are with hating on plant-based diets.
And to be fair, it makes sense that people get defensive. Eating meat is deeply ingrained in culture, and nobody likes having their habits questioned. But come on, can’t we all just chill? At the end of the day, everyone should eat whatever they want—no need to turn it into a holy war.