The world a hundred years ago was better than it was a hundred years before that.
In other words, the world might not be improving fast enough for you, but it’s improving every day.
What a gross overgeneralization. What are we talking about exactly? Technological advancements? Yes, that's a lot better now. What technology is being used for? No, that's worse than 100 years ago. Climate? Worse than 100 years ago. And we could go on...This piece is a prime example of being very selective in what you're willing to consider, in order to build a narrative around something the person thinks is bad, and then everything perceived to be part of that lands in the negative. This then allows the writer to put themselves up as a voice of reason. Which is exactly what the author complains about, in a general sense. The idea of others that they are smarter than you, which the author tries to defeat by... throwing himself up as smarter than the people he's complaining about... He doesn't literally say it. Instead, he shits on everything these people do and goes "here's what you can do instead". Let's not split hairs: that's something you do when you believe you're smarter than someone. Anyone can take their time to write something in a fashion that seems calm and eloquent and when people call you out go "I didn't say that". We can still notice you worked your way around it. And no, not all opinions are equal. If someone's opinion is that the color of your skin, or the country you live in, or your sexual orientation, or your gender, etc... means it's okay for you to be attacked, that's not an opinion I have respect for. It firmly stands out that the "all opinions are equal" crowd seem to have always forgotten about opinions that involve discrimination. The problem here is the classic idea of "the democratic process is perfect and cannot be subverted in any way" while it clearly can. It's partly a hero fantasy, where your view of the world makes you oh-so-much smarter than people who don't hold it (ironically, what the author is complaining about). And partly a "perfect world" fantasy, in which people cannot bring themselves to consider that the world holds great injustices. Instead, only small inconveniences exist, and people who complain are exaggerating. Both come from a lack of experience and an unwillingness to believe others. Dr. King already said it in his letter from a Birmingham jail: "wait" almost always means "never". The only person to decide if things are changing fast enough, is the person who is being disadvantaged, when they are not feeling defeatist. |