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VAMatt on 21 May 2022
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Conina said:
CaptainExplosion said:

Just letting you all know that I've given up on the world. Endangered species are dropping like flies. Sea levels are going to drown most of us. Chinese children make pretty much all our toys. Tyrants control our favorite video games. Rich people survive while the rest of us practically starve. Police brutality is normal. Mass shootings are increasing. Just fuck the world, let's just do whatever we want because nothing matters.

"Sea levels are going to drown most of us."

Most projections show a sea level rise of less than 1 meter in the next 100 years, the worst scenario is a sea level rise of 2.2 meters in the next 100 years: https://sealevel.nasa.gov/ipcc-ar6-sea-level-projection-tool?type=global

Which altitude do you live? Sea levels won't drown most of us within our lifespan. We'll have other problems (f.e. if the gulf stream int the Atlantic breaks down, increase of extreme weather conditions...), but mass drowning won't be one of them.

"Chinese children make pretty much all our toys." - Do they? I'm sure, there are more Chinese adult workers making our toys than Chinese children workers.

"Police brutality is normal." - Not in most Western countries.

"Mass shootings are increasing." - Not a big problem in most countries.

Sea level predictions, like almost all climate change predictions, have been found to overstate the rate of change nearly all the time.  So, I'd bet we see a good bit less than 1 meter over the next 100 years.

There's not very much child labor in China anymore.

Police brutality is a real problem in many western countries.  But, it's still isn't super widespread. There are many other very serious problems with modern policing. But the likelihood that you or a loved one are going to get your ass kicked or killed by police is still extraordinarily low.

Mass shootings are not increasing anywhere that I'm aware of.  The only thing that has changed is that, in the US (and now other countries since much of the world follows the US' lead on media matters), we now call anything with three or more victims a "mass shooting" and they get tons of media attention.  So, it seems like there are a lot.  But, there are objectively fewer incidents of gun violence in the US now than at most points in the past.  

So yeah, police brutality is the only one of these issues that I see as a real, acute problem.  On the other hand, humanity has seen a sustained, long-term decrease in the number of people living in abject property and dying from starvation or dealing with food insecurity. Humans in general are in the midst of an extremely long-term, sustained, widespread increase in standards of living, life expectancies, and many other great things. There truly has never been a better time to be a human on planet Earth.