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by artificialLimbs 1874 days ago
We also invented air conditioning and cars and airplanes and refridgerators and the internet. Global poverty is at a historic low right now. Violent crime, at least here in the U.S., is at an all time low.

With gratitude as a dominant force in ones's life, one is able to step back and see pictures other than what one wishes to see. One is able to stop buying into hysteria.

It is sad that some politicians use military as their play tool for nefarious purposes. Biden sent troops into Syria almost immediately upon assuming his current position. Reprehensible.
2 comments
a0-prw 1873 days ago
The main reason global poverty is at a historic low is that China has lifted a record number of people out of extreme poverty. On the other hand, the Middle East has become more impoverished, especially in Yemen and Syria, where the US has been instrumental in destabilization: "These numbers confirm a downward trend in poverty rates in East Asia and the Pacific, reducing the poverty headcount ratio at the international poverty line from 2.1% in 2015 to 1.0 % in 2019, driven by decreases in poverty in China and the Philippines. In contrast, spurred by the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, the Middle East and North Africa region has seen a sharp reversal, with the poverty rate increasing from around 2.1% in 2013 to 4.3% in 2015 and 7% in 2018." Source: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2021-global-pover...
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jrochkind1 1873 days ago
> With gratitude as a dominant force in ones's life, one is able to step back and see pictures other than what one wishes to see. One is able to stop buying into hysteria.

But... this doesn't apply to looking at China, only to looking at the US, for some reason?

This is a very confusing conversation, you seem to be switching the parameters of what we're talking about.

We started out talking about the general dangers of a superpower in the world, especially to people not citizens of that superpower. Is that still what we're talking about? Are the purported invention of air conditioning or the internet in the US relevant to that conversation? Is "gratitude as a dominant force in one's life" relevant to it? How does "gratitude as a dominant force in your life" effect your view of China? How should it effect the view of someone in a country getting significant investment or foreign aid (or cough vaccines) from China? Are you asking us to have a different attitude toward evaluating the danger of the US as a superpower to the rest of the planet vs evaluating the danger of China as a superpower to the rest of the planet? With one we should center gratitude and avoid hysteria, but with the other we should.... center hysteria and avoid gratitude?

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