The first part of this blog really resonated with me. Stuff is bad, fascism is on the rise, mega corporations control more and more wealth, those two things feed on each other, book banning in the US, war in Ukraine, my country is burning due to global warming, ... and all of this bad news damages the psyche.
I've been thinking of how I can help, that I should stop reading so much negative news, for my own mental health, and do something to move the needle back towards the positive.
"This time, I DO have some influence because I am a programmer. I can develop software ..."
It was jarring to see the blogger go to "I'm going to write a browser". This isn't helping, this isn't even "a way to push back" ... it's a hobby project, like woodworking. Pushing back would be helping out with one of the open source browser projects already out there or something else productive.
I mean, "you do you", it was just quite the twist.
> Stuff is bad, fascism is on the rise, mega corporations control more and more wealth, those two things feed on each other, book banning in the US, war in Ukraine, my country is burning due to global warming, ... and all of this bad news damages the psyche.
Turn off the news. We are living in unprecedentedly peaceful and prosperous times, and it's only getting better day by day. That is a fact. If you feel otherwise, that means you are consuming something not based in reality that is causing you to feel that way. Most likely mainstream news.
> We are living in unprecedentedly peaceful and prosperous times, and it's only getting better day by day.
There are a lot of people who are a definitely NOT more prosperous or peaceful. Democracy is decreasing world wide. Young people in the US are NOT as prosperous as their parents and grandparents were at their age. Global warming is causing serious issues which we are only beginning to address.
Maybe things are getting better for you and me but that is NOT universal.
Clearly, too much mainstream. About democracy, true. They could also be eroding private property. Besides those two things, everything is better: trchnology, better medicine, access to good education, longer livlfe expectation...
I hope you are not (I saw this a loooot) one of those people that to correct democracy things we should tell people what to do, think or say or not or what to love, hate, like, dislike or how to behave. I say this because I lived in Asia for 12 years and I see the westerner world collapsing on those premises.
"This revision represents 11 million more people living in extreme poverty, largely driven by South Asia (5 million) and the Middle East and North Africa (4 million)."
World Bank is claiming there are 11 million more people living in extreme poverty in 2023[1].
From your very own link, Figure 1 shows a very clear drop in poverty rate across the last 30 years for all regions except North Africa & the Middle East, even the global trend shows a clear decline. Quote:
> It is still the case that global poverty has been falling since the 1990s, and at a slower rate since 2014
There is no distinct trend line for the U.S.A., but it seems like it is part of the "Other High Income" group, which is hovering around the 0.5% mark. Your citation:
> This revision represents 11 million more people living in extreme poverty, largely driven by South Asia (5 million) and the Middle East and North Africa (4 million).
Is comparing 2022/2023 data to 2019, which is clearly less than a single generation difference, let alone two.
Yes, the pandemic did cause a rise in poverty, but the rate is projected to recover. And even despite the pandemic the poverty rate is still far below what it was 25, let alone 50 years ago. It will be worth checking the data next year to see what effect the war in the Ukraine has, but it seems very unlikely that the poverty rate will shoot up to the level it was back at the turn of the millennium.
> We are living in unprecedentedly peaceful and prosperous times, and it's only getting better day by day.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the UN begs to differ [1]. I like a positive attitude, but outright ignoring the reality is not the solution to handle negative developments in the world imo. Sure, statistics can lie but saying things are better than ever and always getting better is also not a fact as you say.
Let us take as granted it that "the number of violent conflicts is the highest since World War Two". Let us assume that this is accurate.
Nevertheless, these statistics are globally better than any previous century: rate of people dying in war, poverty, child mortality, child education, female education, access to clean water, access to food, access to medical care, economy, life expectancy, crime rate, number living under democracy.
It will always be possible to point at one or another thing and truthfully say that thing is worse than it has been for a long time.
However, as bad as things are, as truly grim and miserable and precarious the lives of some people, we do indeed live in times of unprecedented peace and prosperity.
2. Yes, violent conflicts are increasing. That does not mean we are not living in historically the most peaceful times. This is indeed a case of statistics, while not outright lying, being selectively singled out to present a narrative. How many people are dying in these violent conflicts? How many people are being displaced? Child mortality, war crimes being committed, lasting negative economic impact, negative impact on international relations, etc, etc, etc, are all factors in whether or not the world is becoming more peaceful or not, and the overwhelming majority of those factors are improving.
3. "things are better than ever and always getting better is also not a fact as you say." - I challenge you, in your own time, to disprove that statement. That exercise does wonders for a persons outlook on life.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the UN might be one of the most news-brainwashed people on earth. The saviour complex you need to have to even join the UN is insane. We should not be taking advice from these out of touch billionaires.
> and it's only getting better day by day. That is a fact.
Ever heard of climate change and mass extinction? That is super bad, and unprecedented. Society may well not survive it, in a timeline of a few decades. I think there are reasons to be worried.
> Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.
Either you are insanely optimistic (to a point where it is actually ridiculous), or you lack information.
You do realize that climate change is, right now, going to make entire parts of Earth unlivable (the most humid ones, around the equator), right? As in "human beings won't be able to survive outdoors on their own because it is too warm"?
You do realize that this means billions of climate refugees, which in turn means global instability, wars and famines, right?
> The world is actively combating and will fix climate change.
At this point, that's faith :-).
Look at the numbers: CO2 emissions are increasing every year. Climate change is happening faster than the models predicted. Biodiversity is dropping, we are living a mass extinction right now, it is an observed fact and not a prediction. Fossil fuels are not unlimited, we passed the peak of conventional oil production in 2008, the general peak is expected soon, same for LNG. We don't have any sustainable energy that can remotely replace fossil fuels.
The one thing that is pretty clear is that we must consume less. But we are not doing that, instead we are consuming more every year. Hiding behind some sort of "others will fix it, I have faith" Silicon Valley religion, or something.
What's a fact? It sounds like you're evangelizing willful ignorance and hedonic helplessness, while blindly accepting multinational corporate authoritarianism but shirking any responsibility because closing our eyes makes us feel better.
Peace in Europe is shattered. The former President of the United States has been indicted for attempting to overturn an election. R&D on the killer robots + AI from RoboCop and Terminator is nearing completion, almost ready to go into production. Full 1984-style surveillance totalitarianism has been rolled out in occupied China and is at the pilot stage in most western countries.
According to the SlaveVoyages project, almost 13 million people were captured and sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries:
Can you find any chocolate bars that aren't made from cocoa beans harvested by child slaves in west Africa? (Only ones I've found: https://manoachocolate.com)
Are you saying U.S. police officers extrajudicially executing more Americans in 2019 than mass shooters murdered is something pushed by the "mainstream news"?
I strongly recommend you read the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It’s clear you feel strongly about these issues but have been misled by profit seeking media into doomscrolling news meant to keep you engaged at the cost of your mental wellbeing. This book will help you recalibrate your worldview.
Yeah, that's the one Bill Gates raved about... I saw Rosling's TED Talk, the key insight on the need for a society to get healthy before being able to get wealthy stuck with me and motivated advocacy for universal healthcare. I was sorry to hear when he passed, a year before that book was published.
"Doomscrolling"? "Mental wellbeing"? Everything is great, a-okay for me, the problem is I've read enough history and know enough about contemporary technology to see quite clearly where this all is going. Don't you?
I strongly recommend you read something by, say, Vandana Shiva or Arundhati Roy and consider decalibrating from the authoritarian agenda.
> This isn't helping, this isn't even "a way to push back"
Even if you only take the racket this project made here, the inspiration resulting from it is bound to make the world a better place.
Even the author said: "I want others to be inspired by it and make their project. And those projects will inspire others, and so on, until we DO reach a point where we have a browser that can topple the big players.".
A journey of a million miles begins with the first step. This is a step. It might not be in the ideal direction, but it is a good direction. Feel free to push back in a way you feel is more effective, but I think it's worth it even if it only improves the author's mood.
I've been thinking of how I can help, that I should stop reading so much negative news, for my own mental health, and do something to move the needle back towards the positive.
"This time, I DO have some influence because I am a programmer. I can develop software ..."
It was jarring to see the blogger go to "I'm going to write a browser". This isn't helping, this isn't even "a way to push back" ... it's a hobby project, like woodworking. Pushing back would be helping out with one of the open source browser projects already out there or something else productive.
I mean, "you do you", it was just quite the twist.