Opinion of Thomas Malthus?

[VBM]

His prediction was wrong, but he had good intentions since he genuinely wanted to make sure we didn’t reproduce ourselves into starvation. FF

[Alben Barkley]

Dumbass with idiotic, harmful ideas that were thoroughly refuted even in his own time.

HP.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

hahahahahahahaha

[Ferguson97]

moron

[VBM]

Dumbass with idiotic, harmful ideas that were thoroughly refuted even in his own time.

HP.

I don’t see what was so “harmful” about his ideas. It’s not like he was proposing a Thanos-style solution. His answer was that people should just try to breed less.

[KaiserDave]

Idiot who should try basic math instead of trying to kill the poor

[Ferguson97]

Dumbass with idiotic, harmful ideas that were thoroughly refuted even in his own time.

HP.

I don’t see what was so “harmful” about his ideas. It’s not like he was proposing a Thanos-style solution. His answer was that people should just try to breed less.

Eugenics is bad, m'kay

[VBM]

Dumbass with idiotic, harmful ideas that were thoroughly refuted even in his own time.

HP.

I don’t see what was so “harmful” about his ideas. It’s not like he was proposing a Thanos-style solution. His answer was that people should just try to breed less.

Eugenics is bad, m'kay

This isn’t eugenics though. Limited breeding would apply to the entire population, so no specific group of people is being discriminated against

[John Dule]

Idiot whose theories nevertheless formed the foundation of the  modern left.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

If you unironically describe human reproduction as "breeding" you are a monster, just saying.

[VBM]

If you unironically describe human reproduction as "breeding" you are a monster, just saying.

You have very low standards for what it takes to be classified as a “monster”.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

If you unironically describe human reproduction as "breeding" you are a monster, just saying.

You have very low standards for what it takes to be classified as a “monster”.

Not really!

[Santander]

One of my greatest political influences.

[AGA]

His theory was correct for the vast majority of human history. Only after his work was he proven wrong.

[VBM]

His theory was correct for the vast majority of human history. Only after his work was he proven wrong.

Atlas is having a Captain Hindsight moment right now. Malthus’ theory was reasonable at that point in time, given everything he could have known. It’s similar to how Aristotle had a lot of reasonable ideas by Ancient Greek standards, but a lot of his ideas got proven wrong because he just didn’t have access to the information we have access to

[Samof94]

Sounds like Thanos.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Neo-Malthusianism is basically foundational for economic history btw.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Dumbass with idiotic, harmful ideas that were thoroughly refuted even in his own time.

HP.

I don’t see what was so “harmful” about his ideas. It’s not like he was proposing a Thanos-style solution. His answer was that people should just try to breed less.

His ideas were directly cited, with his approval, as reasons to nix poor relief in England.

Anyway, the idea that famines have historically acted as a great leveller is something that in no way historically matches the history of famines even when Malthus was alive. The most developed Northern societies had already eliminated regular famines through the dismantling of feudalism and modernization of agriculture while increasing in population massively: the fact that he couldn't see further technological development rendering his theories as defunct as phlogiston suggests a general lack of imagination.