7 ms·

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 fe

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.

lijok 3y ago
> 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.
- Ensorceled 3y ago
  > 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.
  - lijok 3y ago
    US makes up a mere ~4% of the worlds population
    - Ensorceled 3y ago
      > US makes up a mere ~4% of the worlds population So you concede all the other points? "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]. [1] https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2023-global-poverty-update-world-bank-challenge-estimating-poverty-pandemic https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2023-global-pover...
      - lijok 3y ago
        > So you concede all the other points? No, I simply did not consider points made from a US-centric worldview to be valid in this discussion. > World Bank is claiming there are 11 million more people living in extreme poverty in 2023[1]. Compared to when?
        Ensorceled 3y ago
        Read. The. Article.
        lijok 3y ago
        I did. The question is meant to get you to engage and discover the rebuttal to what you posted yourself
      - tmtvl 3y ago
        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. Looking at the article's cited source, <https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-...>, the overview shows a massive drop from roughly 50% in 1980 to a mere 9.3% in 2020 (TBF, up from 8.4% in 2019). 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.
- loxdalen 3y ago
  > 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. [1] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15184.doc.htm https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15184.doc.htm
  - rendall 3y ago
    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.
  - lijok 3y ago
    1. I didn't suggest "outright ignoring reality" 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.
  - flkenosad 3y ago
    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. That press release is some fear-based BS.
- Paianni 3y ago
  Kinda depends on who, what and where one is in the world.
- hobs 3y ago
  Ah yes, America is famously calm, Eastern Europe is doing fine, and there's no incoming global climate issue. Just because we're doing good in absolute terms compared to wars and plagues of the past doesn't mean we're doing great.
  - lijok 3y ago
    Eastern europe and the US make up a mere ~8% of the worlds population
    - hobs 3y ago
      And a decent percentage more of the world's military might and nuclear weapons, hence my comment about absolute terms.
  - pseg134 3y ago
    [flagged]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- maxwell 3y ago
  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: https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates Today, 50 million people live in slavery, according to the Walk Free Foundation: https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/findings/global-findings https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/findings/globa... Are those sources "not based in reality"? 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 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"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enfor... The Bank of England reporting that real wage growth in the 2010s was back to the slowest since the 19th century, that's "getting better day by day"? https://web.archive.org/web/20161206225850/http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2016/speech946.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20161206225850/http://www.bankof...
  - lijok 3y ago
    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.
    - 3y ago
- palata 3y ago
  > 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.
  - lijok 3y ago
    Yes climate change and mass extinction is bad. Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.
    - palata 3y ago
      > 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?
      - lijok 3y ago
        > Either you are insanely optimistic (to a point where it is actually ridiculous), or you lack information. Or, option #3, you've been on a diet consisting almost exclusively of negative news and have adopted a doomer mindset as a result. The world is actively combating and will fix climate change.
        palata 3y ago
        > 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.
danuker 3y ago
> 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.
- Ensorceled 3y ago
  > 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. Yeah, I think (hope?) it will be good for them. Just weird to frame taking up a hobby as "pushing back".
savingsPossible 3y ago
The first step is to decide to push back It is ok to be inefficient. And it is ok to change your mind later. But abandoning helplessness is a big and wonderful first step

lijok 3y ago

> 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.

Ensorceled 3y ago
> 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.
- lijok 3y ago
  US makes up a mere ~4% of the worlds population
  - Ensorceled 3y ago
    > US makes up a mere ~4% of the worlds population So you concede all the other points? "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]. [1] https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2023-global-poverty-update-world-bank-challenge-estimating-poverty-pandemic https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2023-global-pover...
    - lijok 3y ago
      > So you concede all the other points? No, I simply did not consider points made from a US-centric worldview to be valid in this discussion. > World Bank is claiming there are 11 million more people living in extreme poverty in 2023[1]. Compared to when?
      - Ensorceled 3y ago
        Read. The. Article.
        lijok 3y ago
        I did. The question is meant to get you to engage and discover the rebuttal to what you posted yourself
    - tmtvl 3y ago
      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. Looking at the article's cited source, <https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-...>, the overview shows a massive drop from roughly 50% in 1980 to a mere 9.3% in 2020 (TBF, up from 8.4% in 2019). 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.
loxdalen 3y ago
> 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. [1] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15184.doc.htm https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15184.doc.htm
- rendall 3y ago
  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.
- lijok 3y ago
  1. I didn't suggest "outright ignoring reality" 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.
- flkenosad 3y ago
  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. That press release is some fear-based BS.
Paianni 3y ago
Kinda depends on who, what and where one is in the world.
hobs 3y ago
Ah yes, America is famously calm, Eastern Europe is doing fine, and there's no incoming global climate issue. Just because we're doing good in absolute terms compared to wars and plagues of the past doesn't mean we're doing great.
- lijok 3y ago
  Eastern europe and the US make up a mere ~8% of the worlds population
  - hobs 3y ago
    And a decent percentage more of the world's military might and nuclear weapons, hence my comment about absolute terms.
- pseg134 3y ago
  [flagged]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
maxwell 3y ago
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: https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates Today, 50 million people live in slavery, according to the Walk Free Foundation: https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/findings/global-findings https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/findings/globa... Are those sources "not based in reality"? 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 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"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enfor... The Bank of England reporting that real wage growth in the 2010s was back to the slowest since the 19th century, that's "getting better day by day"? https://web.archive.org/web/20161206225850/http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2016/speech946.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20161206225850/http://www.bankof...
- lijok 3y ago
  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.
  - 3y ago
palata 3y ago
> 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.
- lijok 3y ago
  Yes climate change and mass extinction is bad. Yes society will survive. No, climate change does not mean that things are getting worse.
  - palata 3y ago
    > 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?
    - lijok 3y ago
      > Either you are insanely optimistic (to a point where it is actually ridiculous), or you lack information. Or, option #3, you've been on a diet consisting almost exclusively of negative news and have adopted a doomer mindset as a result. The world is actively combating and will fix climate change.
      - palata 3y ago
        > 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.

danuker 3y ago

> 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.

Ensorceled 3y ago
> 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. Yeah, I think (hope?) it will be good for them. Just weird to frame taking up a hobby as "pushing back".

savingsPossible 3y ago

The first step is to decide to push back It is ok to be inefficient. And it is ok to change your mind later. But abandoning helplessness is a big and wonderful first step