That’s the hope. But what if there is an event horizon beyond which that hope is lost forever. Are we even in control of ourselves?

I think you’re right - to an extent. You may not deserve this. Americans might not deserve this. Any other arbitrarily defined group of people may not deserve it.

But humanity as a whole? We are a disgusting scourge on this earth, and we probably deserve everything that’s coming to us. The current situation is just a reflection of overaching dynamics of greed, lies and self-righteousness that have always been with us.

I realize this is basically an absurd notion of collective reaponsibility. At the same time, we have no one to blame for our species’ toxic psychopathic behavior but the species as a whole. If we had any decency left we would just delete ourselves as quietly and staightforwardly as possible.

You have a highly idealistic perspective on China. This isn’t to say that things are lerfect in Europe or North America - they most definitely aren’t. But it is to say that two things can be true at the same time, i.e., there are growing issues in the West and China has a highly oppressive regime.

There is a natural temptation to whitewash and exxagerate the good in other times and places, especially ones that are directly juxtaposed to the one you are inhabiting and are critical toward.

However, we must resist these temptations lest we doom ourselves to repeat the same mistake over and over.

They’re obviouslt just spitting vitriol in response what is perceived as a threat to their identity. Which apparently is the notion that someone somewhere might beattempting to live free and joyously while also being reflexive about past mistakes.

The audacity of those darned European! If I’m not happy, then nobody should!

Careful, your complexes are overspilling.

So you’ll be conditioning yourself ahead of time?

Ignorance is not bliss. And neither is being a useless coward.

You seem to have forgotten to multiply by 100 after you divided 209 by 1,548.

209 is 13.5% of 1,548, not 0.13%.

Edit: It is a bit disturbing how many people upvote things without making even the most basic sanity check.

Take your own advice and “think critically”.

They removed the article? Anyone know why?

Thanks Obama…

Removed by mod

It feels like all the people here criticizing her for fantastical or illogical reasons (usually a mixture of both) are just envious of her.

AOC is doing the bare minimum?

Care to enlighten everyone what you’ve been doing these last few years? Must be something really special and meaningful.

Not sure anyone has ever presented solid evidence that Kamala would have won if not for the Gaza issue. Most agree it was a contributing factor, but not a determening one. Which is scary when you think about it - the real reasons she lost appear to be more nuanced and more deeply related to general cynicism, ignorance and apathy.