Since we’ve recently learned that the value of a lost life is inversely proportional to the population of the country, we need a way to concisely and conveniently discuss tragedies and their relative values. Using 9/11 as the defining constant, we define one (1) Bush as the death of 3000/285,000,000 ≈ 0.00105% of a nation’s population. Perhaps easier to remember, 1 kB (kiloBush) is approximately equal to the death of 1% of the population.

Some examples for reference:

  • 9/11 is 1 Bush (of course)
  • total annihilation of a countries population is 100 kiloBushes (the largest value possible under relativistic models)
  • 1 man in Vatican City choking to death on a hotdog is approx. 124 Bushes.

These changes will be voted on in the 2024 General Conference on Weights and Measures and are expected to pass unanimously.

  • MF_COOM [he/him]English
    28•2 years ago

    I know this is a bit but honestly I genuinely like this idea. Yes at the moment Israel is using proportional deaths as a cudgel, but generally in is very useful to look and rhetorically powerful to look at this metric and gives the savagery of US invasions of Korea, Vietnam etc a unique potency.

    It’s not the only useful lens for comparing tragedy, but to say that The Korean War inflicted 20 kBu is an extremely damning statistic.

    • BeamBrain [he/him]English
      26•2 years ago

      It’s not the only useful lens for comparing tragedy, but to say that The Korean War inflicted 20 kBu is an extremely damning statistic.

      Whenever I tell a lib about this, I like to put it into perspective by comparing it to the Nazis, who killed 25% of Russia’s population in WW2. The US did 4/5 of a Generalplan Ost to Korea.