Comment by Parzivus [any]@hexbear.net on The Death of Hope (1991)

Don’t get too pessimistic with this one, everyone. The sixties certainly weren’t lacking in issues, and even if we haven’t totally solved humanity’s problems, we’re far better off than we were then. Things will get better, if it takes ten years or a hundred. Don’t lose that hope.

If you were born in 1900 and lived to be 70 years old you would be around to see:

-Film

-Human terrestrial flight

-Communism become a world dominating force

-The average life expectancy double

-Radio

-Human space flight

-Nuclear power

-Cars

-The end of monarchy

-Man landing on the Moon

-The green revolution

-and much, much more

Now let’s compare that to being born in 1970 and living till now:

-The internet (a thing that is only a net negative)

-Death of communism

That’s about it. We are stagnant

Okay then just drown in doomerism I guess? Not gonna bother giving a real response to whatever the fuck your comment is supposed to be so go off king

What the fuck are you talking about plenty of amazing advancements have happened the last 50 years.

Here’s just some for each decade

80’s: artificial hearts, the space shuttle, the start of GPS (not available to the public much until 2000s tho)

90’s: DVDs, the internet (which despite what you think has been an amazing tool in connecting people all around the globe and allowing us to explore history and culture far better than ever before), Human Genome Project, in vitro fertilization becomes readily accessible.

2000’s: Great advancements in our understanding of the age of the universe, the Mars Exploration Rover first lands, the bio-artificial liver.

2010’s: 3D printing, a surge of open source technology, New Horizons the first spacecraft to reach Pluto, the discovery of the (admittedly already known but not yet found) Higgs boson particle.

…did you not get an mRNA vaccine?

I did and still got covid. We shouldn’t even have diseases anymore

Who said we shouldn’t? Contagions are constantly evolving. Technology is not magic. These vaccines were made possible by advances in genomics, bioinformatics, and distributed computing. Do those not count as technological advances as well?

Yes you can still get covid, the point of these vaccines is to increase your odds of surviving and reduce the odds of transmission.

Also MRI and medical imaging in general were developed in the past 50 years…

None of these paltry trickets that I guess reduces your death expectancy by like 10% is going to compare to like, Cybernetics or space colonies. People in the 60’s legitimately thought we’d be full The Stars My Destination by now meanwhile we entered this gross neverchanging now in like 1998 and can’t seem to get past it

Some of that attitude wasn’t just killed by capitalism but realizing actual physical limitations

None of these paltry trickets that I guess reduces your death expectancy by like 10%

:shrug-outta-hecks:

Ok buddy, like I said technology isn’t magic… They’re also intended to reduce the need for hospitalization, which also helps reduce community spread, keeps healthcare workers safe, reduces the overall strain on the medical system, and keeps everyone overall healthier than we would be otherwise. So far they seem to be effective at these things.

I’m outta here.

Edit: Also 10% is a lot when it’s out of a few billion people, what the fuck? Lmao

What!? More stuff happened in 70 years than in 50 years!?

Summing the entire computing revolution - from making central planning finally possible, to being able to solve previously intractable planning problems, to the early internet, to global access to a huge variety of information - as “internet (a thing that is only a net negative” - makes the last 50 years sound like nothing happened in technology?

Focusing on the doomed Soviet Union and ignoring the still thriving communist China makes it look like communism is dead?

No shit.

Go outside and have a picnic you absurd doomer.

It’s just kind of hard to feel good about china’s progress when all the western countries are still in the grip of neoliberalism and trending towards conservative nationalism/fascism.

but dude no its all good this other country that you will never go to maybe is on the right track pls ignore the fabric of society rapidly fraying away

:internet-delenda-est: imagine feeling empathetic for the exploited workers in the global south couldn’t be me lol

The USA and the colonizer bloc is eternally beaned, we been knowing it. Revolutionary defeatism is the only viable strategy aside from organizing workplaces and protests under capitalism. Doesn’t mean that the communist bloc growing in size, that would ACCELERATE the downfall of global capitalism and the American hegemony, should be ignored.

Revolution will never happen in the hegemon, we’re inundated with treats. You can look and surrender to doomerism and do nothing, or you can accept and contribute to the global communist frontier

In praxis there isn’t really a huge difference.

Bawwww its impossible to make shit better here so don’t try

That’s even more doomer than me lol

ignoring the still thriving communist China

I don’t live there and they aint coming here so why should I?

You don’t live in 1900 and it aint coming here so why do you care what happened back then?

Because the point of comparison is that things are stagnant or trending downwards compared to the past. I don’t live in China and never will so idgaf how peachy shit supposedly is over there

the point of comparison is that things are stagnant or trending downwards compared to the past.

But the comparison is a load of steaming shit that you made up and cherrypicked because you feel like the world is going to shit and want a reason to wallow in it. You can’t blame everything wrong on a far away, nebulous state of decay while rejecting anything that’s going well because it’s far away and nebulous.

You should go address whatever is actually upsetting you, rather than seeking out reasons why it’s okay to mope. Or if something bad has happened to you recently, go actually be sad! Indulge it, listen to emo music, write bad poetry - living out your sadness is good for you. Inventing a world to live in that’s constructed out of that sadness is not.

And if you don’t know what to do - go have a picnic, then go join an organization that actually does something.

But dude there is a Tesla orbiting the sun now.

Checkmate.

There was a Tesla orbiting the sun then as well. And you could talk to him.

Welcome to c/history! History is written by the posters.

c/history is a comm for discussion about history so feel free to talk and post about articles, books, videos, events or historical figures you find interesting

Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember…we’re all comrades here.

Do not post reactionary or imperialist takes (criticism is fine, but don’t pull nonsense from whatever chud author is out there).

When sharing historical facts, remember to provide credible souces or citations.

Historical Disinformation will be removed

The Death of Hope (1991)(hexbear.net)

History

!history@hexbear.net

Community stats

Community moderators