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   JA Westenberg (daojoan@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 04:46:17 JST JA Westenberg

   When a lot of people miss the good old days, they miss the time before other folks had rights.

   • Mr. Bill repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*) (david_chisnall@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 04:46:17 JST David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

     in reply to

     @Daojoan

     I miss the time when progressive tax rates meant that wealth accumulation plateaued well before individuals could afford to buy small countries. I don’t miss the fact that a small number of descendants of kings already had that much. I do miss the memory of Cromwell and Robespierre being front and centre of their minds if they tried to abuse that power.

     I miss Labour and Civil Rights movements constantly gaining ground and the expectation that, even if things weren’t great for everyone now, they would be slightly better each year. I don’t miss the various forms of oppression that they fought against.

     I miss corporations being accountable to governments. I don’t miss corporations like the East India Companies being de-facto governments.

     I miss technology being exciting and each new advance making the world better. I don’t miss nuclear first-strike doctrine being acceptable military policy.

     I miss the Geneva Convention being a thing that major powers took seriously and prosecuted war criminals who violated. I don’t miss all of the atrocities that led to people deciding it was necessary.

     I am nostalgic for a small set of slices of the last 200 years of history, which never happened at the same time.