joejance

If you haven't had a chance, you might find The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker interesting. He discusses a number of theories around the decrease in violence. He touches on the abortion theory when he discusses modern crime.

Better Angles Angels gave me some great insights. It also gave me the tools to be able to push back against the doom and gloom that comes out of network news on a 24 hour basis. I have shocked several friends and family members by looking up stats for them, on the fly on my phone, to disprove assertions such as "our country is going to hell". I don't think I would know what to look for or that the data exists if it were not for Pinker's book.

Edit: I got a better angle on some spelling.

I am really excited about the growth of comics online. The internet is providing many unique voices a place to publish, and that is resulting in a lot of quality. Who are your favorites? Are you friends or acquaintances with other online comic artists? Are there any clubs or conventions, etc?

The trend is what is important to me when having these conversations with friends and family. They see the world as worse ie my "going to hell" quote. Sure, it can be subjectively shitting compared to some standard line that means "no violence". That is the goal: no violence. We can be informed by the trend towards less violence as a way to to approach that. If people falsely believe that current social trends and government policies are leading to a more violent world when the opposite is probably true, then that needs to be rectified so we can stay on course or even double down on what we are doing right.

That seems like a straw man to my eyes. I grew up in Wyoming, and while my family are not ranchers we are friends with many ranching families. My father sold insurance to many farmers and ranchers, and I spent many days with him during summer break talking to ranchers, measuring ranch buildings, taking pictures, and yes, hunting. Your account certainly does not represent the ranchers I have known, and paints a picture with very little nuance about ranchers and how ranches work. I will absolutely admit that ranchers see wolves as damaging to their livestock, and also that their are some real ass-hats out there (which I think are the exception and not the rule). But I don't even know how many times I have seen a vet while visiting a ranch treating a sick animal, or talked with a rancher as they were getting ready to drive into town with a sick animal to see the vet. I just haven't witnessed one you are expressing.

As a hobby farmer you may not realize that even the loss of one animal can mean hundreds of dollars, which can mean a lot of a small ranching family. Many of these people are not anywhere close to rich. We can talk all we want about percentages, but at the end of the day wolves are just one more way for ranch families with modest means to lose money.

I am pro-wolf in that I think they are important to the ecosystem, but let's not go slandering good people that are simply trying to make ends meet.