This, oh so much this. "If it bleeds, it leads." is the operating premise of the media.

And they're not wrong in a sense. Human pessimism is a finely tuned evolutionary trait going well back before we were ever even H. Sapiens. If you don't appeal to that, no views, no clicks.

The ape who freaked out and ran at every rustle in the bushes, 99 times it was just a bird or whatever, that one time it was a leopard looking for lunch is all that matters. That ape lived and passed on its genes. The ape that relaxed, and thought, "Meh, probably just a bird..." was eaten, and is not your great to the umpteenth power grandparent.

We've only had agriculture for 6% of human existence. The percentage of time where anybody on the planet was relatively able to expect freedom from most diseases and starvation, much less indoor plumbing, electricity, antibiotics, computers... all of it, is a decimal percentage with so many zeroes on it, that it's not worth mentioning.

A simple Google search for "the world is getting better graphs" and reading some of the related web pages or articles is an enlightening exercise.

And this is for 8 billion people. If you're old enough, you'll remember the 1960s or 70s when we were all supposed to have starved when the world reached the impossible population numbers of 5 or 6 billion, and be scrounging for survival in the radioactive wasteland of the inevitable WWIII with the Soviet Union.

(Looks around)

I can't grow a decent Mohawk, I'm too bald. And I seem to have misplaced my body armor of sports pads and cut up car tires. And no idea where my crossbow and machete went. Weird.

I guess this smartphone I'm posting to Reddit with would ruin the look anyway.

This, oh so much this. "If it bleeds, it leads." is the operating premise of the media.

And they're not wrong in a sense. Human pessimism is a finely tuned evolutionary trait going well back before we were ever even H. Sapiens. If you don't appeal to that, no views, no clicks.

The ape who freaked out and ran at every rustle in the bushes, 99 times it was just a bird or whatever, that one time it was a leopard looking for lunch is all that matters. That ape lived and passed on its genes. The ape that relaxed, and thought, "Meh, probably just a bird..." was eaten, and is not your great to the umpteenth power grandparent.

We've only had agriculture for 6% of human existence. The percentage of time where anybody on the planet was relatively able to expect freedom from most diseases and starvation, much less indoor plumbing, electricity, antibiotics, computers... all of it, is a decimal percentage with so many zeroes on it, that it's not worth mentioning.

A simple Google search for "the world is getting better graphs" and reading some of the related web pages or articles is an enlightening exercise.

And this is for 8 billion people. If you're old enough, you'll remember the 1960s or 70s when we were all supposed to have starved when the world reached the impossible population numbers of 5 or 6 billion, and be scrounging for survival in the radioactive wasteland of the inevitable WWIII with the Soviet Union.

(Looks around)

I can't grow a decent Mohawk, I'm too bald. And I seem to have misplaced my body armor of sports pads and cut up car tires. And no idea where my crossbow and machete went. Weird.

I guess this smartphone I'm posting to Reddit with would ruin the look anyway.