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Am put in mind of this quote: "All of us have sufficient fortitude to bear the misfortunes of others". Francois de La Rochefoucauld I see you're On Fire furth

Am put in mind of this quote: "All of us have sufficient fortitude to bear the misfortunes of others". Francois de La Rochefoucauld I see you're On Fire further down in the thread, helpfully whatabouting malaria or something to explain away our current crisis. I don't think most people wake up and immediately start praising their lucky stars that they aren't living during the Black Death or in some war-torn country in Africa. Life still isn't that easy or safe for a lot of people all around the world, and perhaps those of us who aren't psychopathic jackasses can find that depressing even if personally they're doing pretty well.

danieltillett 6y ago
It is amazing you manage to read this all into my post. Of course life is hard for many people in the world, but things are getting better every year for the average person. This seems to not include the average HN poster who seems to be caught in a depressed funk.
- glangdale 6y ago
  It's almost as if people's emotional states come from things other than making entirely rational big picture judgements about the state of the "average person" on the whole planet. I'm curious if you have, at some point in your life, met another human being? All evidence would point to "yes", and yet here you are, all over this thread, debunking other peoples' subjective mental states with your superior facts and logic. As people do. It is tempting to picture you striding confidently through a mental health ward, heels clicking authoritatively. As you approach each patient, you lean down and gently impart a optimistic fact from Nature or The Economist ("did you know that rates of cholera have declined by 60% in 2018 alone"). In your wake, sparks of life return to the previously dead seeming eyes of troubled teenagers and despairing middle-aged men.
  - danieltillett 6y ago
    It is almost as though you can’t tell the difference between statements about population aggregates and statements about individuals.
    - glangdale 6y ago
      You offer up statements about population aggregates as a supposed explanation for the self-reported mental states of a collection of individuals, so you don't really get to reasonably complain about this.
      - danieltillett 6y ago
        Where have I offered any explanation for anything?

danieltillett 6y ago

It is amazing you manage to read this all into my post. Of course life is hard for many people in the world, but things are getting better every year for the average person. This seems to not include the average HN poster who seems to be caught in a depressed funk.

glangdale 6y ago
It's almost as if people's emotional states come from things other than making entirely rational big picture judgements about the state of the "average person" on the whole planet. I'm curious if you have, at some point in your life, met another human being? All evidence would point to "yes", and yet here you are, all over this thread, debunking other peoples' subjective mental states with your superior facts and logic. As people do. It is tempting to picture you striding confidently through a mental health ward, heels clicking authoritatively. As you approach each patient, you lean down and gently impart a optimistic fact from Nature or The Economist ("did you know that rates of cholera have declined by 60% in 2018 alone"). In your wake, sparks of life return to the previously dead seeming eyes of troubled teenagers and despairing middle-aged men.
- danieltillett 6y ago
  It is almost as though you can’t tell the difference between statements about population aggregates and statements about individuals.
  - glangdale 6y ago
    You offer up statements about population aggregates as a supposed explanation for the self-reported mental states of a collection of individuals, so you don't really get to reasonably complain about this.
    - danieltillett 6y ago
      Where have I offered any explanation for anything?