6.26.26 - The World Hasn't Gotten Better
A lot of the progressive narrative truthers (like Steven Pinker and those who are generally bullish on liberal democracy, the legacy of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, etc.) often highlight that our ancestors spent a great deal of time sick, hungry, dying, in pain, and point to most people's baseline comfort as evidence of progress. Most people are richer and can afford nicer temperatures, lodging, etc. Even poor people today are better off than their pre-industrial counterparts.
I buy this for people. But we're not the only ones that count. There are far more mammals on earth capable of feeling pain similar to ours. Billions more. Orders of magnitude more than humans.
And because of factory farms there is definitely far more simultaneous net suffering today than there has ever been on earth. There has probably never been more pain on earth than there is right now.
So things haven't gotten better. Not if you include everyone who counts
knxnts