I'm tired of negativity. You should be too. · 12:24pm Feb 16th, 2018
It seems like every day people keep telling us that everything is horrible. The world is super violent. Everyone's poor. All of the teens are eating the tide pods. I'm tired of that lie, and it is a lie. Is the world fantastic? No, of course not. But it's not bad. It's not even fine. It's pretty good. And I'm going to prove it.
If you're one of those people who believe your opinion is more important than the facts of objective reality, please head elsewhere. I no longer care to argue with your type.
1. The violent Violent Crime is plummeting.
Yeah, sure. The News reports on mass shootings all the time these days. But that's quite literally because the news is a business, not a government funded service. It's their business to sell advertisements. It was proven long long ago that humans are more likely to click a link, watch a segment, or read a paper about negative things than they are for positive things. Keep that in mind when I say that while horrible, the problem is also quite minuscule, and is in fact in decline as time goes on. Le proof:
(Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser & Manuel Eisner)
"But that's Europe! The problem is America! ITS THE VIOLENTEST VIOLENCE TO EVER VIOLENCE!"
BAM! Suck facts, News Corporations!
(Source: Gallup, Bureau of Justice Statistics)
"BUT ITS GOING UPPP! YOU ARE BLIND!"
Oh no, a tiny uptick over the last few years! That means everything before that, the HUGE MASSIVE FUCK OFF DROP IN CRIME means nothing!
"Now you get it!"
And you don't get sarcasm, lie salesmen.
2. Poverty is getting kicked in the nuts.
I'm poor as hell. I make 300 a month, all of it thanks to you wonderful readers who care enough to donate to my Patreon. Two years ago, I was making literally nothing and living via dumpster diving and the kindness of a friend. it's not just my life that's improving. It's EVERYONE'S. Globally.
(Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser)
Absolute poverty is defined as living on less than $1.25/day. Over the last 30 years, the share of the global population living in absolute poverty has declined from 53% to under 17%.
While there is still room for improvement (especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia), the quality of life in every region above has been steadily improving and will continue to do so. Over the next 20 years, we have the ability to extinguish absolute poverty on Earth.
"I'm sorry, but that dosn't sell papers. SO we're gonna make a new definitions of poverty so it includes more people."
Again? Sigh...
3. Child Labor and Sweat Shops are going the way of the dodo. BECAUSE SCIENCE!
(Source: International Labor Organization)
As you can see, in the last 16 years, the number of children in these conditions has been reduced by more than 50%. As we head to a world of low-cost robotics, where such machines can operate far faster, far cheaper and around the clock, the basic rationale for child labor will completely disappear, and it will drop to zero. Probably arround 2030. Yeah! Just 12 years from now. Cool huh?
"THAT'S RIGHT! THE ROBOTS WILL TAKE ALL OF OUR JOBS!"
First, news corps, no one likes to work. Second, you do realize that politicians, industry, and economics will be fundamentally changed by this massive shift? You know, because it's similar in importance to the human condition to discovering fire and agriculture. And that as a result a job will simply have to not be necessary for a human to live a happy life?
"*crickits chirp* Uhhhh, DYSTOPIAN FUTURE! ONLY THE RICH WILL OWN THINGS!"
Yeah, that's not how economics work. Money is useless if it dosnt circulate. The wealthy can't hoard literally all of the wealth, if they do they have no wealth because they deprive their money of all worth. They can hoard literally almost all of it, but they need to leave enough for the peasants to be happy. If not, well, News, you're aware of the French Revolution, aren't you? No one wants to be literally ripped to pieces by starving peasant mobs with literally nothing to loose.
"No comment."
That's what I thought. Speaking of food...
4. Food is getting cheaper all the time!
(Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, Food Expenditure Series)
"BUT ITS FULL OF TOXINS!"
Are you a toxologist?
"Uh, no."
Do you employ one?
"No."
Are hundreds of millions of people dropping dead from food poisoning or malnutrition all across the globe? Because that's how many people eat GMO products.
*awkward foot shuffling* "N-no.."
Then shut up. SPeaking of dying...
5. Less babies die now than ever before.
(Source: Devpolicy, UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Est. 2013)
6. The global Economy is IN-FREAKING-SANE!
Like, holy shit. Seriously. Does it matter if the 1% hoard 99% of the wealth when there's this much wealth? Not realy! Look at all this money!
(Souse: Our World in Data, based on the World Bank and Madison)
And just think, with the pending robotics revolution, we're probably gonna make that spike look like a tiny little bump...
"ROBOTS WILL TAKE ALL OUR JEEEEEERRRBS!!!!!"
*sighs* We went over this...
7. Everyone is living longer.
8. Pollution is plummeting.
Sure, it's on the rise in developing nations, but you can't blame them for only being able to afford coal power. Not to worry! Plenty of people are helping being solar, nuclear, and wind power generation to those regions.
(Souse: The last decade of global anthropogenic sulfur dioxide: 2000–2011 emissions. Environmental Research Letters, Volume 8, Number 1.)
"BUT THE SUN GOWS DOWN AND THE WINDS STOP! WELL NEED NUCLEAR POWER! AND NUCLEAR ENERGY IS BAAAAAAAAAAD!"
*angry changebug sounds*
"What?"
Fusion power.
"ITS A PIPE DREAM! THEY WILL NEVER BUILD ON-"
Estimated time to completion, 2 years. First viable fusion plant.
"SHIT! THEY DID IT! Charley, find a way to spin this negatively! WE NEED TO SELL MORE ADS! OUR OUTDATED MEDIA IS DYING!"
Ladies and gentlemen, ignore the News. They tell you lies to attract your eyes in order to line their pockets. They do NOT keep you informed. They do the exact opposite of that. You want to keep informed? Randomly checking trending twitter and reddit posts will genuinely do better than watching any given news program.
This was simultaneously very nice to hear, informative, and kind of funny but cringey.
It's not just the news though, they couldn't sell shit to a fly if there wasn't an audience that wanted what the media keeps offering up.
As someone who never watched the news, I love your pseudo newsman.
Yeah, if people can make a living lying on TV, it proves that people don’t like to work at all.
Whattaya mean the violence is goin' down?! I gotta seriously do somethin' about this...
AS for teenager eating tide pods.. Not sure who to blame the teen, the parents or what.. Otherwise call me a horrible person if the teen knows better and still does it,,,, Maybe they will learn their lesson the hard way
Also things of note, AIDS is no longer the leading cause of death in poor African countries, a vaccine against cancer is in the experimentation stages, and we've successfully brought the snow leopard off of the endangered species list.
I have to admit, I am worried about jobs disappearing faster than they're created, but that's why I think we should rework the current patchwork welfare system into a guaranteed basic income-it shouldn't cost much more than our current system, and a couple of analysis even suggested it would cost less (something about massively simplified beuracracy for it). As automation happens we should be more and more able to afford it.
4798101 Such is the way of the internet
4798106 The thing about the news is it creates it's own audience by playing off basic human nature. You hear about a terrible thing, then somone talks about a terrible thing, and then another, and another, and then you see a paper reporting on it, and you slowly begin to trust the paper. Eventualy, you'll no longer think at all and just believe what the paper says.
4798118 People have made millions by screaming at non-scarry horror games on YouTube :P The concept of earning a living through actual work is already dead.
4798122 Hey my Main Man, it just means you'r overdue for a visit, that's all. Why not swing by D.C. and start a little party?
4798135 There's only 85 cases of people who actualy ate a tide pod. The others were faked for the net challenge. Or at least they didn't call poison control. The truth is the media made that entire story up, using a few idiots and an internet joke to create a media craze around a unique and disturbing story.
4798147
Exactly! What should really worry you is the politics around implementing that system. Not the robots or lack of jobs.
Your right meep the whole nuclear industry is buzzing over that fusion reactor. It is going to change everything.
4798130
Personally, when breakin' character here for a moment, I'm not the biggest fan of the NRA. Their loose laws and Repub pocket-liners are allowin' more weapons to get in the hands of maniacs with a worse grip on reality than me. And ever since that Trump-frack got into office, the whole situation's gotten worse, what, with wig-boy's roleback on gun-owning regulations and whatnot. The only reason Barrack couldn't do more when he was in charge was because of said Repub-frags. The Main Man wants ta' see a real change.
It's sad that the news is the main source of most people's take on the world. Like you said, it's a business. If they need to lie to make as much money as they can, they do it. And they do it a lot. There's very few that just report things as they are. Mostly. What's even more sad is that almost no-one actually bothers to look things up, ask questions, find out for themselves, even though we have this little tiny useful thing called the Internet!
On a side note, thanks, I didn't know some of that. Always nice to have some more data.
Finally... Someone else who gets it.
I stopped following mainstream media years ago for exactly these reasons. It was making me (more) depressed to the point where the Fallout Universe looked like a comfortable vacation venue.
Twitter, unfortunately, has been exposed as having its own partisan agenda, so relying on them for information is its own can or worms...
4798135
It's actually the media's fault... again...
4798147
Have you perchance seen that video too...?
4798138
One problem with a guaranteed income doled out by the govenrment is that that implies socialism. Now, while Socialism is a pretty pipe dream Human Nature means there are always going to be those who try to climb its structure to try and corrupt it to their advantage at the determent to everyone else as has been observably seen in every socialist state in modern history. Not insurmountable with a robust system of checks and balances, but very dangerous nonetheless. Oh, wait, We have a constitution FULL of checks and balances that's supposed to protect us from our government by telling it what it isn't allowed to do you say? I'm sure there are those out there who would just Love to get rid of it and print a new one that says what they Are allowed to do that they can "amend" at will to give them even more power whenever they want...
(sorry for getting political here Meep
)
Other than that little problem the second obstacle is that it is only economically viable once an economy has reached post-scarcity or near post-scarcity capacity as far as the most basic of basic food, clothing and housing are concerned, which again, is easier to attain under a capitalist system (As well as if the government doesn't artificially inflate its currency like ours tries to do) than under a socialist economy.
4798168
Before the media blew it up sure. After? Well, I've known for years that while Humanity is wonderful and full of potential to do great things, People in general are incredibly stupid and waste that potential by not considering that the lump of grey matter between their ears can be used for something other than controlling their subconscious bodily functions and posting obscenities on the internet at people they disagree with.
4798177
Fun fact, the NRA contributes to the DNC too. Sure, they generally donate more to the RNC, and the number going to the DNC has gone down in the last few years, but I'd pull my support too if someone I was donating to started constantly attacking me using baseless allegations and misinformation. Not a single mass shooter in American history has been a member of the NRA, who's major policies for gun owners focus on Responsible ownership and handling of firearms, and providing training for people to do so more easily. Same with the USCCA. Further, Most shootings occur in so-called "Gun Free Zones" specifically because criminals and potential "Crazed Gunmen" Know that there aren't going to be any people with guns there who can stop them.
Meep here actually did an earlier blog on the futility of trying to take away our firearms. The simple fact is that the next "Mass Shooter" already owns the firearm they're going to use, and any legislation aimed at stopping the sale of firearms would be about as effective as prohibition was at stopping the sale of alcohol. That is, Not at All, and would only drive the industry underground where they can't monitor it as easily...
You want to stop "Gun Violence"? Arm Everyone and give them the training to use them safely and responsibly.
Also, overall what the NRA donate to politicians is a pittance compared to other sources of political income so calling them "Pocket Liners" is a bit of a stretch.
People blaming NRA for more mass shootings.. What use is more gun control laws when the current ones aren't enforced.. When law enforcement and school officials aren't taking measures to protect the schools..
In at least 3 recent occasions the law was circumvented or not followed.
4798496
When Law Enforcement and School Officials aren't Allowed to take measures to protect schools...
4798486
Yep, I'm a fan of MatPat (most of the time).
As far as basic income and post scarcity...it might sound surprising but the first move I'e seen toward that is from the big corporations. AT&T, of all places! I was home yesterday and heard a commercial for a new service they're rolling out. Anyone who gets SNAP or EBT assistance can get internet service from them for just $10 a month. There is a data cap, but if my ears were not mistaken, they implied that it is 50GB, and then another 10 for each 50GB after.
The program may only apply to the Las Vegas or southern Nevada area, though. The ad was running in Vegas, so they didn't specify if it went further.
4798501
Like I said, Post Scarcity and Guaranteed Income is more economically feasible under a capitalist economy because by its very nature it rewards innovation and the overall goal for companies is to drive their costs down, which in turn drives our costs down, and it's only artificial inflation by the governments printing and laundering empty money into the economy that keeps driving inflation back up instead of allowing currency to deflate.
4798168
I'm firmly convinced that the media also creates its material with the lavish coverage they give to stuff like mass shootings. Not saying these wouldn't happen without it, but I can't help but feel that these people most assuredly are playing against the previous tragedy's body count sometimes.
4798528
Without a doubt, and on top of that the way they inflame and aggravate their viewers by skewing their coverage towards the negative only ratchets up tension and in some cases incites people who would otherwise have simply been unhappy but willing to live and let live to take extreme action because they feel hopeless about changing the situation otherwise. Sure, these injustices they report on exist, but they inflate the problems to seem bigger than they actually are, and government has proven time and time again to be ineffective or unable at best because existing legislation prevents them from acting, and unwilling at worst to take action to correct the situation because fixing things in an effective manner that doesn't step all over out Constitutional Rights would mean they'd be out of a job.
If we want to fix our society we have to stop looking to the government to do it for us and start looking at reforming Education and teaching future generations to weed out rhetoric, propaganda and political narratives to find the actual facts, instead of blindly following the inane bleating of people who's goals are purely to their benefit at our expense.
4798174 For once it's not a pipe dream there's a very very good chance we'll actually pull it off. Hell, they already solved the two problems that ended the US Navy's attempt at fusion! It's just the last hurtle.
4798177 When it comes to gun controll, I favor a rather radical option. Mandatory registration of each firearm, a licence that's proof of gun safty training which is no more difficult than a drivers license to get. Along with a compulsory 2 years millitray service and training. After that, enjoy all the guns you want. Just register each one and keep your license up to date. It would be similar to Canada, only it would allow for carry because it's immoral to deprive people of the right to defend their lives. ANd apparently other people leave their homes, so banning carry kinda bans effective self defense
4798486
Still better than mainstream media though. THere's no prefect solution, so you want the minimum bias.
It's fine :3 Especially since you acknowledge that socialism emerges from capitolisum as a function of time. One day, very soon, very very many people wont be able to find a living for themselves because robots. Things will have to change, and they already know that. The groundwork started years ago.
Will it be prefect? Of course not. Nothing is nor can it ever be. It will simply be different, yet the same.
Oh, and no basic income system prohibits people from working to earn more. It's literally in the name. BASIC income, as opposed to Advanced income.
As a former NRA member (who would still be a member if I could afford it), and a registered Sharpshooter First Class, most people in the NRA join the NRA simply to prevent people who mean well but dont know better form punishing the many for the actions of a few.
4798496 Dude. The NRA didn't shoot up that school. The Senate didn't shoot up that school. Some sick fuck shot up that school. It's their fault and no one elses. Stop letting people use tragedy to manipulate your vote. Those bastards are heartless daemons.
Sounds to me like you want MORE government. See right now we have none. We have screaming toddlers trying to make others look bad by throwing their poop. Problem is, with jobs involving power, those who want the jobs are the least qualified to do them.
4798528 Did you know that newspapers have been banned from printing stories about teenage suicides, including obituaries? WHy? Because psychologists
4798544
proved that seeing those stories made more teens commit suicide. After the ban, the national teen suicide rate dropped by 12%.
SO I agree. News talking about mass shootings so much is deffently planting the idea within already sick minds.
I agree with you.
Wait, somethings off. 
>This lack of nuance and level of naivety.
Meep...
BBC, RT, Al Jazeera and many others are literally funded by the tax payer. Some even have former members of intelligence services and politicians among their staff, like CNN.
Still, you're mostly correct and got the data to back you up. Not that I really disagreed. Just feeling more retarded than usual and wanted to leave a comment.
4798638 Ah, but here's the thing. Aside from the BBC (a FOREIGN News service for me) those news companies are not ENTIRELY government funded and do have to make some of their revenue for themselves, and/or are mainly government mouthpieces. Furthermore, they dont have anywhere near the audience that Fox News, CNN, and the other more mainstream news companies have.
Also, in terms of the BBC... They dont really cover the US in much detail. And why should they? They are a British news service. They cover the US in about the same level of detail as they do other nations that are not part of the UK, IE only reporting on the largest stories or those of international significance. And even then what they have is usually quite short. Though that is better than nothing, but good luck finding out about things that actuary will effect you via the BBC. They wont be reporting on anything like say, the proposal to start a sales Tax in Fairbanks, AK. A thing that could actually effect me.
I wrote this under the assumption that people knew I was talking about the big main news outlets first and foremost. Perhaps I should have clarified, but them's the breaks.
4798632
Not More government, Smarter government. I agree that our current government is full of screaming toddlers more concerned with securing their congressional pension than actually fixing the issues they were elected to fix. Besides that, if the bureaucracy of our government was even a little more efficient than it currently is (as well as being more concerned with doing their jobs rather than catering to the whims of one party or the other depending on who's in control) you could probably halve its size without a noticeable difference in their productivity.
(Sorry for the double-post, but it's been a couple hours since my last comment so I figure this way is better than tagging on an #Edit)
4798632
Been thinking on this a bit more, and while I agree with having to provide proof of some form of firearm safety training to a degree, there are several issues with both that and firearm registration that woudln't stop those measures from being effective deterrents to criminals, mostly in that many criminals (insofar as the ones who have already committed crimes and already have court orders saying they aren't permitted firearms are concerned) get most of their firearms either through black market channels or they have friends or family who don't have felonies against hem purchase them for them, and the laws prohibiting such transfers are either ineffective or go unenforced. There are a couple other problems with a system like that, most of which have already been seen in states and nations where such measures are already in place, but I want to move on to my next point.
Mandatory Military Service:
Now, while I wouldn't be against the idea of this totally, making it a requirement to obtain firearms has some rather glaring issues, mostly in that not everyone is able to qualify to join the military for reasons completely unrelated to their mental stability; I was rejected for having Bunions of all the stupid things...
. I still want to be able to defend myself should the worst happen, but if such a measure were in place I would be unable to exercise my Second Amendment Rights because genetics endowed me with a foot condition that honestly doesn't affect my day to day life, and I spend a lot of time on my feet and walking thanks to my job.
Better to make Firearm Training and qualification a class for Students like Drivers-Ed where qualified instructors can monitor the students and teach them both the dangers and how to responsibly handle firearms in a controlled environment. Parents would still be able to teach their children before that class becomes available, and perhaps if they pass a test (both written and practical) could obtain a provisional permit to carry but not purchase (like how Farmers children in some states can obtain a drivers license at an earlier age for transportation between their home and place of work).
4798931
While I agree with you completely, I still say that it's more government, because right now we have 0.1% of a proper government. What we need is a government that governs, IE more government. If we had a smarter government, they would just be finding more cunning ways of backstabbing each other. Anywho!
Of course not. No methods will. Ever. Because they can't. You can't legislate away a problem like guns directly. If you use soft legislation (restrictions, classifications, licenses) you will only create an industry for weapons which fall between the categories and thus are not bound by laws. Yes, realy. This is true even now. see the businesses making weapons that fall into the "Any Other Weapon" legal category so they can sell people illegally powerful weapons via the legal loophole of "Actually this is a pistol. See how it has no stock?"
If you try a hard ban on ANYTHING not just guns, that's even worse. Know why? Because you cause this to happen again:
Hell you dont even have to totaly ban them, you just need to focus on eliminating people who produce the thing in the US and, well...
TLDR; hard bans and domestic crackdowns only mean people will buy those things from illegal sources, and if they can't make what they want here they will buy it from smugglers.
Why do I want universal registration? So when a weapon is used in a crime, cops can find its owner instantly. If that weapon was reported stolen, or found to be stolen via the investigation, so be it. But this would reduce the amount of unsolvable crimes by a LOT.
As for mandatory military service, you have a point. Howeaver I would make it MANDATORY mandatory. EVERYONE serves in some capacity. Including that guy born with no legs. What's he do? Sweeps floors in a outpost while being a poster boy for "you can do it too!" posters you see in Handycapped group meeting rooms or something. EVERYONE gets basic. EVERYONE gets training. Why? Because modern parents create adults who are total assholes. I want some respect, discipline, and honor beaten into people's thick heads.
Also, if everyone in our nation has basic military training, it makes mass shootings MUCH more risky. Because suddenly every adult is trained in taking down an armed assailant and has been trained to FIGHT not run when there's danger.
And if we do that, we might as well say "No guns till you pass basic, son!"
But if we dont, yeah. Your idea works better.
I must say, this is an interesting contrast to anything involving guns on Reddit. There, it's damn near a guarantee that someone--on either side--will post something and get viciously attacked for daring to express a contrary opinion (or just express an opinion at all). And they just love deciding that what you actually put down in words couldn't possibly be what you meant, so they helpfully adjust that for you--according to their own bias, naturally--and then respond to that adjustment.
Not that those sort can't be found here, mind you, but it's so refreshing not to have them jumping out the woodwork instantly.
4799478 That's probably because people remember my previous blogs dealing with guns specifically. For example, the one I wrote talking about how whether not you're in favor of a total weapon ban, that will just give the Mafia a new business and is therefore a terrible idea, see how the prohibition of alcohol resulted in a massive increase in people drinking.
This might sound insane coming from a NRA rated Sharpshooter, gun enthusiast, and pro-violence when necessary person, but both sides in this debate are idiots. Bans wont work, nor will restrictive laws, and while the constitution prohibits restricting the right to bear arms it's NOT too much to ask for all firearms to be registered to your name via your ID.
I've made that viewpoint very clear many times. So I think that's why people don't jump out to spout their equily unthoughtout opinions here.