100 years ago well before the invention of so-called surveillance capitalism, people were making soft drinks out of radium, and inhaling asbestos.
Many things are better since then. Some new things are probably worse, but every reasonable measure of human welfare suggests we are better off than we were previously.
Something some subset of us are worried about right now, whether it’s WiFi or 5G or Covid vaccines, will turn out to have had horrible consequences and you can’t really fault the rest of us that we didn’t listen to the crazies.
Just embrace panglossian optimism because the alternative is to just be angry and exhausted and indignant all the time and then you’re no fun at parties.
When you go across a long enough timeline variations occur. Nothing over time in human history is a constant linear improvement. We may be better off than we were in 1924 in terms of health and safety, but we're definitely not better off than we were in 1994. Legislation hasn't kept up with chemical science and social engineering, and enforcement has been tentative as fights between executive power and judiciary power create years long arguments that get in the way of preventing harm. For example Red 40 is a dye that's well known to cause cancer with a high degree of certainty (not probability, certainty), while the artificial sweetener sucralose is genotoxic. You go drink a can of Faygo Cherry and it's got both. The FDA hasn't been able to regulate either because they haven't been legislated the power to do so, are now even more crippled thanks to the overturning of Chevron, and companies keep funding "alternative studies" that they can present to lobbyists.
It's hard not to be angry and exhausted when you have to be a chemical engineer just to know what's even safe to eat.
100 years ago well before the invention of so-called surveillance capitalism, people were making soft drinks out of radium, and inhaling asbestos.
Many things are better since then. Some new things are probably worse, but every reasonable measure of human welfare suggests we are better off than we were previously.
Something some subset of us are worried about right now, whether it’s WiFi or 5G or Covid vaccines, will turn out to have had horrible consequences and you can’t really fault the rest of us that we didn’t listen to the crazies.
Just embrace panglossian optimism because the alternative is to just be angry and exhausted and indignant all the time and then you’re no fun at parties.