[zaroth]

Watching you edit this, this went from a rant I thought it might be worth responding to, to flame bait.

I hate the defeatist attitude and rewriting history as if there hasn’t actually been incredible progress on so, so many fronts.

There are interesting and important discussions to be had here, but not from this starting point.

[freejulian85]

Perhaps you can start by naming some progress that has been made? I see very little.

[tathougies]

Poverty is at an all-time low worldwide: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/19/world-bank-global-poverty-ra...

Crime is at an all-time low: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-12/pssst-...

There are fewer hungry people today than before: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/06/01/4112650....

In terms of warfare, the world is the most peaceful it's ever been (full-scale, high death count wars used to be fought every decade or so between major powers): https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/06/war-is-killing-fewer-...

While true that, cumulatively speaking, the United States has pumped out the most greenhouse gas of any conutry, it is improving faster than other countries. In the past decade, the United States has cut 11% of it's GHG emissions:

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/4/24/1851280...

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/data-shows-decrease-us-gree...

[smcg]

Just because things are better now does not mean that they are good. Ask the poor, hungry, and war-torn if they think things are fine, there are millions of them.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/06/better-does-not-mean-...

[tathougies]

You are changing the goalposts. Please stop.

The comment did not ask me to cite statistics claiming that the world is perfect. It merely asked for citations to statistics indicating the world is making progress

I responded by offering solid data naming several metrics indicating that many outcomes that people find desirable (less poverty, less hunger, etc) are indeed closer to being achieved today than before.

By definition, if something is getting better, it was not perfect (which is what you are asking for), so nowhere in my claim did I say or imply anything about the world being 'good'.

On a separate note: We shouldn't use ill-defined terms like 'good'. There's no objective definition of what a 'good' world would look like. For example, many philosophers have argued the world is indeed good, despite the existence of all kinds of pestulences, plagues, and natural disasters. The key in understanding them would be understanding in what sense they use the word 'good'.