Comments by "Jason Dashney" (@jasondashney) on "Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker" video.

  1. 5:10 this chart is incredible. When I was growing up it was all about Ethiopian famine etc and to see the remarkable progress (South Korea being even more incredible) is so uplifting.
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  2. I'd add Jordan Peterson to that list.
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  3. Saying things like "Total wars" is not cherry picking. It's literally the exact opposite. His stats include all of the things you are talking about.
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  4. "but those who are impoverished are worse then in human history" . Where does this statement come from? I'm curious since he covered basically every single major metric of well being. Also, the gap between the rich and poor is marginally getting worse, but before this system it was kings and peasants. Talk about a 1%. Take the time to learn history.
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  5. Resorting to personal insults instead of logical arguments to counter things that question your position? Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you an Idealogue.
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  6. You mean exactly like he said in the video? sigh
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  7.  @DrEhrfurchtgebietend  I'm Canadian so I've been following Jordan since 2016, so 8 years now. I feel that's a pretty long time If I'm being honest, I'm actually a bit soft on Pinker because he's quite politically partisan while claiming to be objective. It irritates me to no end when people do that. Overall I think he's very much a net force for good though.
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  8.  @domkieran8077  Sam "TDS" Harris? I find Sam to be absolutely insufferable. He's the only member of the intellectual dark web I never liked. I'm not aware of anybody else on planet earth who has the blind spots Sam does.
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  9.  @JonDasBoot  He can explain it to you but he can't understand it for you.
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  10.  @JonDasBoot  Thank you for your thoughtful answer. I appreciate it.
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  11. Cherry picked data? He used almost every conceivable metric that's part of well being. Please explain what data you are talking about, and where it points.
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  12. Lemme guess, you are in grad school right now?
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  13. Steven - even if you are being sarcastic, it still needs to be said that war does not keep the economy up if it's America making weapons for America. That's just a redistribution of wealth. An economy is nothing without outside money coming in and increasing the total amount. For that you need to sell to foreign countries and bring their outside money inside the domestic economy. The American economy is hurt by the country engaging in wars.
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  14. Right Minded - I disagree that "wealth is created through productive work". I don't care how productive people are, if they are chasing money that their own country has created out of thin air, then "getting" more money is just inflation. That's different from increased wealth. Each new dollar makes the existing ones worth less and less. A dozen eggs equals a loaf of bread. It does today, and it did 50 years ago. The food didn't become any more valuable, we just hand over more dollars to buy it now. I just don't see how going into debt increases wealth the same as bringing in foreign assets, debt free, does. Plus, the paying off of debts with increased amounts of dollars (each having decreased values) isn't a sound strategy, it's a borderline ponzi scheme. Maybe we just aren't connecting on what "productive" means. To me it means creating something where nothing was before. A policeman isn't "productive", and they don't contribute to government coffers because their whole paycheque came from those coffers in the first place. I'm not sure whether we disagree, or just aren't on the same page with the semantics. Text is so cumbersome.
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  15. Nebraska rent is high so the world isn't improving by every conceivable metric and his stats are lies? Please explain.
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  16. Kaleb - c'mon, I'm still waiting for you to counter with logical arguments instead of insults. Explain which of his statistics are lies.
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  17. "notice he does not talk emisssions or pollution". Yes, yes he does.
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