It truly is a record worth beholding — half a century of spectacularly failed predictions. Not one or two misses, but a consistent parade of nonsense, unbroken and unrepentant. Any human with even the faintest flicker of intelligence should have long since kicked these charlatans to the curb without a second glance.
But no. What’s truly astonishing is not their failure — that’s expected — but our appetite for swallowing it whole. The same snake-oil salesmen still strut across stages, pontificate at panels, and are feted in the most exclusive circles as “visionaries.” They dine like prophets while serving the intellectual equivalent of spoiled meat.
What does that say about us as a species? That we’re easily entertained? That we crave illusion more than truth? If aliens ever visited Earth and reviewed this grotesque spectacle, I doubt they’d classify us as intelligent life. Maybe somewhere between a particularly self-satisfied species of slime mold and a magpie obsessed with shiny lies.But then again, perhaps I’m being unfair — slime mold, at least, learns from its mistakes. Humanity doesn’t. The idiot is strong in us. Always has been.
https://www.masterresource.org/malthusianism/paul-ehrlich-end-still-near/