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Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

This happens MUCH less today than at any time in the past. Only 2 generations ago, stuff like this was happening on a daily basis everywhere in the world. This was basically what justice used to be.

The world is not fair. There is little justice. But it's more fair and just than it's ever been before, by far. Maybe we've taken a step back in the last 10 years. It's hard to say. But compared to even 50 years ago, we are so far ahead it's unbelievable. 100 years, and it's basically a different world.

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Well, that seems to be a fact, but it is not a reason to not regard it as suspicious, and not a reason to not investigate.

> This happens MUCH less today than at any time in the past.

Really? You know this how?

> Only 2 generations ago, stuff like this was happening on a daily basis everywhere in the world.

And it magically stopped?

> This was basically what justice used to be.

As opposed to justice now being what money can buy?

> But it's more fair and just than it's ever been before

I disagree. The world is just as fair and just as it's ever been before. This is just recency bias like how the enlightenment crowd painted the period before them as the "dark ages" where no learning or progress was made.

> But compared to even 50 years ago, we are so far ahead it's unbelievable.

Maybe if we cherrypick some parts or aspects.

> 100 years, and it's basically a different world.

Humans are still humans.

Things aren't as terrible as you think they were. Things aren't as terrible today as some think. Things aren't as great as some think they were. Things aren't as great today as some think.

"America" is different than "everywhere in the world"

Where?

Germany today definitely seems better than Nazi Germany -- copy that for almost all of Europe.

Japan today is definitely better than Tojo.

Russia today is probably better than Soviet Russia. Maybe it's worse. It's still bad.

Copy that for China, but I can't imagine it's worse than Mao. South East Asia seems a lot better off without the Khmer Rogue running around.

Isis is fucking up the middle east and MBS is terrible, but at least women have some rights and their courts aren't an absolute complete joke anymore.

I don't know much about India -- but it definitely seems like it's improving vs the recent past.

I don't really know anything about South America or Africa or Australia -- but if you think there was more justice in the Aztec or Inca Empires than there is today, you're mistaken.

Sure, things are way worse in some pockets I guarantee -- see Syria.

The world as a whole is getting better and fairer. And if you think anywhere in the world wasn't killing people on a regular basis for political motives and getting away with it Scott Free, I think you should read about Kingdoms and Empires and Slavery and Feudalism -- you know, the things civilazation ran on until relatively recently. And if you think "Modern Day Slavery" is anywhere near as bad as "Real Slavery" -- again, you're completely mistaken.

Go back 300 years, and you could kill your wife almost anywhere for almost any reason. Nevermind "Royalty" being able to get away with anything.

> Germany today definitely seems better than Nazi Germany

Meanwhile we had to drop a lawsuit against the NPD because the most vocal and hateful all turned out to be law enforcement. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, especially with the AFD reaching a nice 14% support.

> Copy that for China, but I can't imagine it's worse than Mao.

Blindly killing and starving your population for a rebuild from "scratch" vs. systematic eradication and organ harvesting. I am not sure if that counts as improvement, of course we get cheap crap from it so you might count it as a win.

> Isis is fucking up the middle east and MBS is terrible, but at least women have some rights and their courts aren't an absolute complete joke anymore.

Now if only some weird self styled world police stopped starting wars every few decades under the pretense of bringing peace. There are decades old pictures where the smoking ruins still looked a lot more western then they do now.

> Go back 300 years, and you could kill your wife almost anywhere for almost any reason.

And yet at least in Germany there were explicit laws covering "self defense against ones wife"[1]. While parsing that text hurt my brain (old German spelling + old German letters) the law text itself doesn't seem to paint the man involved in a good light from the start. So one attempt to find a law text in a language I can read and one success vs. "almost anywhere for almost any reason" - maybe I should play the lottery.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_Criminalis_Carolin...

Sodomy is still illegal today in most of the world.

There's a difference between what is law and what's enforced.

I.E. it was illegal to mistreat your wife in Germany 300 years ago, but how often did the women win against the man compared to today? How often did they even bring up a case vs today? We don't know. But I'm skeptical it was even close to as fair as today.

There’s plenty of data showing that conditions have improved around the world.

There were way more socialist and right wing dictators in the 1970s. Even in the early 90s than today.

Extrajudicial killings, independent courts, poverty via failed economic ideologies or resistance to adopting modern industry/markets, etc has all significantly declined and conditions have improved.

The world will always need constant maintenance and good things stagnant and need reforming. History has a habit of repeating itself but rarely to the same degree of failure as lessons do get learned and quality of life always increases.

No, it isn't. Money corrupts, and if anything, being the first economic power, USA is rife with corruption, although not brazenly obvious; i.e., you don't bribe politicians, you contribute to their campaigns.

Each place is different in its own way, so replace America for whatever and this will be true. If you think "America" is less corrupt than the rest of the world I'll have to disagree.

A lot of corruption in the rest of the world serves the American government interest of the interest of American corporations. America "is in it" as much as everybody else.

Like, to be blunt, Americans are snorting most of the cocaine from Latin America and having sex with most of the children in Thailand. That doesn't mean those children will wrap themselves in American flags or shoot guns after being fucked, but if you follow the money the trail ends in America and no one is doing anything to stop this. People get killed and raped in the trafficking and cocaine business all the time and I would call that pretty corrupt.

Holding up Epstein’s likely murder as evidence of progress is deeply fucked up. I hope you have values.

They aren't holding it up as evidence of progress...

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