I think you just found the popular belief that I disagree with.
Compared to most of human history, life now is pretty good. This article uses childhood mortality (globally 4.4% versus 50% for most of human history) to make the point. There’s still lots of room to improve - the EU has a tenth the global average - but humanity has made incredible progress on that front over the past two centuries.
No. I live under a rock and haven’t noticed that there’s a global increase in far-right movements, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and a race between Sam Altman and Elon Musk to see who can boil the oceans faster to make better slop factories.
Bad news makes for good headlines, and we absolutely have serious, pressing problems worldwide. Despite that, ask yourself if you’d rather live in 1925 than 2025. 1825? 1725? Think about how the average person lived and died in those times. When was life actually easier and kinder for most people?
Oh my god, this attitude that someone is not allowed to be happy about some things because other things are bad drives me up the fucking wall.
Of course you’re going to be depressed and anxious and feel like the world is ending and there’s nothing that can be done besides wait for full societal collapse if you set these rules that you can’t enjoy the good until things are perfect.
No but the future that was possible for the older people around me in my country is gone and global collapse is accelerating, things are getting worse… what the hell does 1925, 1825 or 1725 got to do with it?
The effect of a downvote is that fewer people see the comment. If you think fewer people should see my comments, I can assist you with that by not posting them.
If you feel I’ve missed your point rather than understanding and disagreeing with it, feel free to articulate it more clearly. Your claim as I understood it was life is harder and crueler (for most people, most places) these days (than at some point in the past).
No, than the previous adjacent moments in past, not some random arbitrary point selected so far back in time that our lives would look radically different and the comparison between the two points becomes dubiously relevant.
I think you should continue to post comments and let everybody decide on them collectively, why would I want you to silence yourself on this particular topic? If you didn’t make this type of comment someone else would have and this branch of the conversation would likely have happened anyways. Now it has and people can upvote/downvote to reflect how they feel. I don’t know about you but I still read downvoted comments? I am a curious person and there are many like me!
I think you just found the popular belief that I disagree with.
Compared to most of human history, life now is pretty good. This article uses childhood mortality (globally 4.4% versus 50% for most of human history) to make the point. There’s still lots of room to improve - the EU has a tenth the global average - but humanity has made incredible progress on that front over the past two centuries.
Looking at a smaller time scale, the human development index is trending upward everywhere since 1990.
I don’t think it’s that life is hard or less hard… I think it’s that it’s lost its meaning and reasoning.
Like farming and hunting gave reason. Being able to buy a home by working gave a reason… Etc.
But now for many people they just basically work for other people and eat shitty food and sleep. Nothing really comes back to them…
facepalm have you tried looking up at the real world around you recently?
No. I live under a rock and haven’t noticed that there’s a global increase in far-right movements, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and a race between Sam Altman and Elon Musk to see who can boil the oceans faster to make better slop factories.
Bad news makes for good headlines, and we absolutely have serious, pressing problems worldwide. Despite that, ask yourself if you’d rather live in 1925 than 2025. 1825? 1725? Think about how the average person lived and died in those times. When was life actually easier and kinder for most people?
Oh my god, this attitude that someone is not allowed to be happy about some things because other things are bad drives me up the fucking wall.
Of course you’re going to be depressed and anxious and feel like the world is ending and there’s nothing that can be done besides wait for full societal collapse if you set these rules that you can’t enjoy the good until things are perfect.
No but the future that was possible for the older people around me in my country is gone and global collapse is accelerating, things are getting worse… what the hell does 1925, 1825 or 1725 got to do with it?
Why would I continue this conversation with you if you’re going to downvote my replies? That’s rude.
Why would I not downvote a comment I consider missed the essential point on something I am passionate about and feel materially impacts us all?
The effect of a downvote is that fewer people see the comment. If you think fewer people should see my comments, I can assist you with that by not posting them.
If you feel I’ve missed your point rather than understanding and disagreeing with it, feel free to articulate it more clearly. Your claim as I understood it was life is harder and crueler (for most people, most places) these days (than at some point in the past).
No, than the previous adjacent moments in past, not some random arbitrary point selected so far back in time that our lives would look radically different and the comparison between the two points becomes dubiously relevant.
I think you should continue to post comments and let everybody decide on them collectively, why would I want you to silence yourself on this particular topic? If you didn’t make this type of comment someone else would have and this branch of the conversation would likely have happened anyways. Now it has and people can upvote/downvote to reflect how they feel. I don’t know about you but I still read downvoted comments? I am a curious person and there are many like me!