Talk:World Economic Forum

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About eating the bugs

Mind you, the whole "YOU WILL EAT THE BUGS" copypasta is almost entirely far-right nonsense, but I'm not sure if it's advisable to portray not eating the bugs as exclusively an European thing–Islam, for example, forbids most bugs as haram (as they are the "vermin of the Earth").

Also, this is admittedly anecdotal evidence, but a friend of mine in Vietnam told me that a lot of people there are just as disgusted as Westerners to eat the bugs. Moon Sock (talk) 14:28, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Yes, not sure how to phrase the condensation of a world's diet into a few sentences. There's other places besides Asia after all where bugs are sometimes eaten (some Latin American countries) and you are correct that there are many others where bugs aren't eaten. And then there's even actually little bits of Western cuisine like casu martzu where the bugs, indeed, are eaten. (Alive, in this case, though this is an atypical off-the-beaten-path example.)

Interestingly, standard Western cuisine is pretty okay with "bugs of the sea" (not really "bugs", but shrimp and lobster and other crustaceans have been alluded to as "bugs" colloquially), and many are okay with the kind-of-similar land mollusks (eg escargot (snails) in France) and sea mollusks (clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, squid, octopus, etc.). "Your mileage may vary", in other words, even in the West.

The focus of the current article is more on WEF conspiracy theories and unfortunately (due to initial research being all English sources) it currently carries a Western / English bias. Right now I do not know how WEF conspiracy theories present themselves (if they do) in non-English space unfortunately, though it seems at least in European space that some themes like the "Great Reset" conspiracy are pretty similar. BobJohnson (talk) 15:11, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

"(some Latin American countries)" Well, certainly not the one I live in! Literally everyone I know of would be repulsed by the proposition of eating the bugs!

And yes, crustaceans are indeed arthropods and therefore related to insects, and that's actually a thing that grosses out people. Not the relation, but my girlfriend, for example, is so repulsed by crabs and lobsters she can't even look at the wriggle about alive out of the sheer disgust they cause her.

I'm not sure how it presents in non-Western countries (I don't think I've even seen the WEF conspiracies outside of American spaces, but that may be my general seclusion), and I wouldn't even bother mentioning Islam but this site appears to have lost a lot of its anti-religion edge over the years. But that's another topic. Moon Sock (talk) 17:10, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

A food can be both reasonably popular in a culture and still gross some people in this culture out as well. Raw oysters I think counts here in US space; they are popular enough where raw oyster bars are a thing, yet many Americans (and elsewhere, I imagine!) think they are extremely nasty. (I am okay with cooked oysters but not raw, personally).

I have heard of some Latin America insect dishes (eg zompopos de mayo and chapulines) but have no idea where they fall as far as whether they are loved or loathed is concerned, not being from where they are purportedly consumed. It seems like a lot of the "insect foods" that are around in other countries are fried and served as light snacks, and are not really primary cuisine. In some ways not much different then stuff here like pork rinds (eg fried pig skin). As a footnote, chapulines apparently are a recently-ish (2017) introduced "novelty snack" at the Seattle Mariners baseball park, and reportedly the snack sold decently enough. BobJohnson (talk) 17:36, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

One should also take into account regional and class divides regarding these things. When I visited México, in the DF, my upper-class Mexican friend offhandedly mentioned eating the bugs as something the "lower classes" (his words) do. I reckon he wouldn't be caught dead eating the bugs! Moon Sock (talk) 17:45, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Isn't it just a think tank?

Kinda looks like a duck.BumblingBuffoon (talk) 00:44, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Sort of, but I’d argue that where a typical think tank’s importance lies in its publications, the WEF’s primary importance is in its “networking” events in Davos, which, for a certain slice of the global political and economic elites, has become an important place to come and “see and be seen”.

Generally, I consider the WEF a sort of “nicewashing” for global capital interests (and their political sympathisers) in that it tries to put an ethical veneer this type of societal and economic order. This means that the WEF will always claim that any problems are not really systemic or inherent, but always can and should be solved through some form of “responsible, global capitalism”. However, it tends to be long on nice sentiments, feel good prose and PR while being very short on implementation and action.

The major reason for RW having this article on the WEF is, as the contents already reflect, that it features largely in a lot of conspiracy theories. An indication is that Alex Jones has been one of those yelling at the WEF in Davos (or as close as he could get). Hence, I don’t think that it’s a problem that the ideological bend or lobbying of the WEF itself takes a back seat in the article. ScepticWombat (talk) 01:32, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

15 minute cities

As there are occasional postings of the conspiracy - [1], [2], and, on the other place [3] perhaps an article here?

The concept as conventionally mooted makes some sense (apart from 'six houses, one shop, two churches and two pubs (the one you go to and the one you don't), one bus a week' villages in the back of beyond. Anna Livia (talk) 20:21, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

The first link has gone -but [4] and [5] are reliable alternatives.

As I don't do redirect-to-page sections often, could someone do one for '15 minute cities'.

There will be some 'places, services and activities etc' to which the concept will not apply - 'the great outdoors', cultural resources', airports, Crossness etc. Anna Livia (talk) 19:50, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

I didn't notice that several Tories (including Sunak) bizarrely attacked the "15 minute cities" in October. [6] Stuff like this certainly explains their current (lack of) approval rating! [7]

Chillpilled created a redirect (thanks!). BobJohnson (talk) 20:41, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

I can do 'ordinary' redirects.

It would be interesting to know the travel patterns of the 'anti-15-ers' (making due allowances for local circumstances). Anna Livia (talk) 11:45, 8 March 2024 (UTC)