This Week In WTAF!!! 'Bioethicist' Advocates Genetically Modifying People To Eat Less Meat

Posted • October 9, 2024: Every once in a while, we come across a tweet that is so genuinely bat-poop insane that we have to question whether it is real or a parody. That was the case yesterday when Wide Awake Media tweeted a video of bioethicist S. Matthew Liao arguing that we should genetically alter human beings in order to fight climate change. Specifically, Liao argues that we could alter humans to be less tolerant of eating meat to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. -- Bioethicist S. Matthew Liao: In order to fight "climate change", we should genetically modify humans to be intolerant to meat. "If we eat less meat, we could significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions." - "Now, some people would be willing to eat less meat, but they lack the willpower. Human engineering could help." - "We could artificially induce intolerance to meat, and in this way, we can create an aversion to eating eco-unfriendly food."

We had to go and look this up because we could not believe our eyes or ears. It turns out that this IS a real TED Talk that Liao gave back in 2017. Interestingly, TED Archives disabled comments for the video on YouTube and we can see why. It is also of note that the YouTube description describes the TED Talk as Liao using 'humor' to make his point. The audience is indeed laughing, but we see no indication that Liao was kidding, like in a Jonathan Swift-style satire speech. On the contrary, we also looked through some of his academic publications and this is not the first time he advocated for genetically altering humans. He also made the case -- a human rights case, no less -- for genetically altering people and for selecting children based on their genetic attributes. Given this history, we do not believe Liao deserves even a shred of the benefit of the doubt for his TED Talk about climate change.

Ted Talks are funny because they'll be a guy who wants to improve surgery techniques and then a guy who talks about how to be a good leader in the office and then a third guy will stand up there and be like "Yes, I am the next Hitler, and here is how I will make your life worse." You should understand how evil the global planners really are. (…)

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https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2024/10/09/bioethicist-advocates-genetically-modifying-people-to-eat-less-meat-n2401946