the news is so depressing.

News is very rarely about good events and compare to the past we are in a golden age.

No news about the black death killings whole cities or whole cities being fire bomb from the sky killing hundreds of thousands in one night.

good point.

No need to exaggerate either..

well what about a few years back when the machines took over, and put us all in big battery charger things and just made us believe that we're living in the real world, that was pretty bad

funny though most people don't remember it

Exaggerating the stories doesn't help relieve your sense of depression.


New York didn't blow up. Someone failed at their attempt at making a car bomb in Times Square.

Iceland didn't blow up. A volcano on a small portion of land in southern Iceland erupted. The ashes from it are effecting air travel in the northern hemisphere of Europe.

The Gulf of Mexico didn't blew up. An oil pipeline on one of hundreds of oil platforms in a very small portion of the Gulf of Mexico is leaking after the oil rig platform had a malfunction and sank. The leaking oil from it is effecting the coastlines of one of the many countries bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

wow make it worse butrfly.. jeez!

The News is depressing.....again and again the institutions of civilization are proving to not be up to the job of managing the civilization. The rot runs deep and is all pervasive. It also extends to the individuals, who are for the most part spiritually empty and without the will to do the work that is required to build what ever is to follow what is currently dieing.

However, it is always darkest before the dawn. If we don't kill off the human race with nukes the next civilization will be born soon. I am hoping to live long enough to see the beginnings of it.

What the heck are you people talking about? Things are great right now!

People are living longer then ever before. Childhood deaths have plummeted in the past 100 years. There is more access to clean water then ever before. There is historically low crime. Even our wars (horrible as war always is) are more humane then ever as far as deaths and hardships for both soldiers and civilians.

The only reason you are feeling so bad is that you now have the internet putting every little piece of bad news right in your face all the time with no sense of context.

I suggest you spend some time away from the internet. Go take a walk or have a cup of coffee. It will make you feel much better.

You should learn the difference between lagging indicators of collective health and leading indicators.

What lagging indicators are you talking about? (For them to be relevant they will have to present now but not in other times in history-- and they have to counteract the fact that on average, humans have almost completely eliminated the problem of infant mortality in developed countries and are living about twice as long as they did through most of human history).

we live longer, are we living better? just sayin'!

No better time to be a woman, at least in most parts of the world. I think the quality of life has gone up more than down and at least solutions for much of our suffering exist, even if they are not always applied. If we go extinct or backwards in terms of life quality it will be our own stupid fault.

Of course we are living better!

Most of us have 40 hour work weeks (which is historically quite generous) and plenty of leisure time (only the very rich used to have this). We have entertainment from books to movies readily available.

Almost all of us have at least 12 years of education-- we can read and write and have been at least exposed to culture. We have a decent legal system and a stable system of government.

We spend a very small amount of time toiling for basic needs (like getting food, clothing or shelter).

Most of us have the resources and time to travel to most of the world. We have all the ideas of the world at our fingertips.

Tell me a time in history when the general public has had it any better?

for the top tier of women this is certainly true. However, even they are trapped in a declining civilization. For those women who are not the best things are bleak, they are unlikely to do OK financially, and they are unlikely to find a quality guy because the best women get the few good men that exist.

For men, especially white men below the age of 40, things look very poor indeed, for as far as the eye can see.

Please explain?

even with the extreme ramp up of debt almost everyone has lost standard of living over the last two decades, and we are about to hit the wall on our ability to live on our kids credit card, and our kids are about to give us the what for about doing this evil deed to them....You have picked an extremely poor argument to lead with.

what the ****? 40 hour work weeks are horrid. after 6 hours im completely drained. though i doubt anyone here would last at my job more than 1 week, if not 1 day.

but thats my fault for being poor and uneducated. well, im educated, i just dont have any specific skills, or certifications.

well i do have specific skills..

god nevermind lol. i dont have any experience pretty much.

but whatever, thats all my responsibility.

All kinds of programs give minorities added assistance that the whites do not get, men are doing very poor in education and even worse in the job market, men for the most part have no idea of what it should be to be a man both because ball busting women have been assaulting masculinity for a long time and because very few men grow up with strong male role models anymore. How many men ever stand up to women anymore and demand respect? I don't see much of that...we say that the women get what ever women want and we just have to make do with what they let us have...most homes have the woman as head of household, the men are not much more than handymen with their constant honey-do lists and training to not make waves.

Everywhere you look the deck is stacked against white men.

The question is whether white men of today have it worse off then white men of any other time in history. Even with the dubious claims you make, I would argue not.

1. White men (as with all other people) are living longer with better health.
2. White men (as with all other people) are working less then they ever had while enjoying more leisure and a greater standard of living.
3. Their children aren't dying in great numbers.
4. They have resources and time for travel.
5. They have educational opportunities in greater numbers then any time in history-- there is a greater literacy rate (even among white males) then ever in history.

Now, as you point out... white men no longer have exclusive privileges. They no longer dominate, education politics or the economy. They now get in trouble if they beat their wives. They can't even own slaves any more.

But even considering these inconveniences, life today is better, easier and longer with more conveniences and less work then ever before.