3 ms·

On the plus side, we don’t need to worry about spending our lives in an iron lung, smallpox is a non-issue, and in most of the west there isn’t much of a concer

by ljm 2y ago

On the plus side, we don’t need to worry about spending our lives in an iron lung, smallpox is a non-issue, and in most of the west there isn’t much of a concern about a mother dying giving birth. Hot water can be taken for granted, as can indoor toilets. And central heating. With modern electronics and circuitry you can’t even kill yourself with a toaster in the bathtub since it will trip the central breaker. Every generation goes through the same shit in one version or another.

addicted 2y ago
All of this has been true for over half a century. The problem is that the direction of improvement in lives has changed. Compare today to the 90s and there’s very little reason to believe that today is better than the 90s in a developed country. What’s frustrating is that we have MORE tools to be in a much better shape right now. We have things available to us today that people wouldn’t have dreamt of in the 90s, including smartphones. But unfortunately, those tools are being used almost entirely for the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few and for disinforming and misleading people to accelerate the concentration of wealth.
- soared 2y ago
  Less war though, at least for those in most of the developed world.
- wilsonnb3 2y ago
  Safer and more reliable cars, cancer is less deadly, the HPV vaccine, malaria vsccines, lower homicide rate, I could go on but this seems like a good list. Be careful where you get your data - news is biased towards sensationalism and negativity.
  - mitthrowaway2 2y ago
    Cars are getting increasingly dangerous for non-occupants, unfortunately. But certainly AIDS is in a much better situation than it was in the '90s.
- _DeadFred_ 2y ago
  I disagree. Reagan's plans, including legitimizing stock buybacks which were previously taboo stock manipulation, 'starving the beast' where a political party was willing to weaponize making the US government worse in order to achieve their ends, etc. are what is responsible for today's worsening environment. You are conflating current technical change with the results of decades olds political policies.
  - hgomersall 2y ago
    It certainly feels to me that we're simply at the logical end-ish point of 40 years of neoclassical policies that have encouraged the dismantling of society.
xyst 2y ago
Except there’s a trend of slow reversal of the gains you speak of. Polio was diagnosed in an unvaccinated man in upstate NY (2022) [1] The anti vax movement and distrust of science has exploded since social media. > of the west there isn’t much of a concern about a mother dying giving birth. Depends on the state, or country. In the US, legality of abortion is left up to the states due to repeal of Roe v Wade by SCOTUS that’s hell bent on this Christian crusade. Women have resorted to unsafe methods of abortion where traveling to an abortion clinic is not viable. In one case of a TX women, state courts refused to allow abortion to save mother [2]. She was fortunate to be able to travel to another state and get the medically required abortion. [1] https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/new-york-polio/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/new-york-polio/index.h... [2] https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/11/texas-abortion-lawsuit-kate-cox/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/11/texas-abortion-lawsu...
- Spooky23 2y ago
  You have to look at the statistics carefully. The hint in the New York story is “Rockland County”, which for these sorts of stories refers to a controlling, ultra conservative religious sect that is opposed to vaccination, amongst other things. It’s important context because of the insular nature of these types of communities - the splash damage of a polio or measles outbreak has limited impact outside of the community. Outside of these isolated areas, most of the slow burn is within the MAGA cult of personality, which will likely start to break and fade over the coming years, along with the pandemic memory.
- mdp2021 2y ago
  > since social media We must fix that construct: "«distrust [] has exploded since social media»". Which makes some sense, it is expectable in broad terms. In 2021 a large wave of communication appropriated the banner of Science, through voices that had clearly never seen science in a postcard. (It probably varied with regional communication.) So, distrust spread. What you are seeing is a crisis in authority - which also causes the first phenomenon of the rise of ignorant voices.
- ekianjo 2y ago
  > and distrust of science distrust of science comes from the fact that something that had nothing to do with Science was called Science and used against people. Mind you that the scientific method is all about debating hypotheses not censoring dissenting voices, which is exactly what happened during the Covid era. Of course distrust will spread.
add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
We had modern conveniences during recent times before technology and capitalism accelerated into constant predatory bullshit.

by ljm 2y ago

addicted 2y ago

All of this has been true for over half a century. The problem is that the direction of improvement in lives has changed. Compare today to the 90s and there’s very little reason to believe that today is better than the 90s in a developed country. What’s frustrating is that we have MORE tools to be in a much better shape right now. We have things available to us today that people wouldn’t have dreamt of in the 90s, including smartphones. But unfortunately, those tools are being used almost entirely for the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few and for disinforming and misleading people to accelerate the concentration of wealth.

soared 2y ago
Less war though, at least for those in most of the developed world.
wilsonnb3 2y ago
Safer and more reliable cars, cancer is less deadly, the HPV vaccine, malaria vsccines, lower homicide rate, I could go on but this seems like a good list. Be careful where you get your data - news is biased towards sensationalism and negativity.
- mitthrowaway2 2y ago
  Cars are getting increasingly dangerous for non-occupants, unfortunately. But certainly AIDS is in a much better situation than it was in the '90s.
_DeadFred_ 2y ago
I disagree. Reagan's plans, including legitimizing stock buybacks which were previously taboo stock manipulation, 'starving the beast' where a political party was willing to weaponize making the US government worse in order to achieve their ends, etc. are what is responsible for today's worsening environment. You are conflating current technical change with the results of decades olds political policies.
- hgomersall 2y ago
  It certainly feels to me that we're simply at the logical end-ish point of 40 years of neoclassical policies that have encouraged the dismantling of society.

xyst 2y ago

Except there’s a trend of slow reversal of the gains you speak of. Polio was diagnosed in an unvaccinated man in upstate NY (2022) [1] The anti vax movement and distrust of science has exploded since social media. > of the west there isn’t much of a concern about a mother dying giving birth. Depends on the state, or country. In the US, legality of abortion is left up to the states due to repeal of Roe v Wade by SCOTUS that’s hell bent on this Christian crusade. Women have resorted to unsafe methods of abortion where traveling to an abortion clinic is not viable. In one case of a TX women, state courts refused to allow abortion to save mother [2]. She was fortunate to be able to travel to another state and get the medically required abortion. [1] https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/new-york-polio/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/new-york-polio/index.h... [2] https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/11/texas-abortion-lawsuit-kate-cox/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/11/texas-abortion-lawsu...

Spooky23 2y ago
You have to look at the statistics carefully. The hint in the New York story is “Rockland County”, which for these sorts of stories refers to a controlling, ultra conservative religious sect that is opposed to vaccination, amongst other things. It’s important context because of the insular nature of these types of communities - the splash damage of a polio or measles outbreak has limited impact outside of the community. Outside of these isolated areas, most of the slow burn is within the MAGA cult of personality, which will likely start to break and fade over the coming years, along with the pandemic memory.
mdp2021 2y ago
> since social media We must fix that construct: "«distrust [] has exploded since social media»". Which makes some sense, it is expectable in broad terms. In 2021 a large wave of communication appropriated the banner of Science, through voices that had clearly never seen science in a postcard. (It probably varied with regional communication.) So, distrust spread. What you are seeing is a crisis in authority - which also causes the first phenomenon of the rise of ignorant voices.
ekianjo 2y ago
> and distrust of science distrust of science comes from the fact that something that had nothing to do with Science was called Science and used against people. Mind you that the scientific method is all about debating hypotheses not censoring dissenting voices, which is exactly what happened during the Covid era. Of course distrust will spread.

add-sub-mul-div 2y ago

We had modern conveniences during recent times before technology and capitalism accelerated into constant predatory bullshit.