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Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony
(literature.cafe)
Alt Text: an image of Agent Smith from The Matrix with the following text superimposed, "1999 was described as being the peak of human civilization in 'The Matrix' and I laughed because that obviously wouldn't age well and then the next 25 years happened and I realized that yeah maybe the machines had a point."
The US is not all of civilization.
The rise of authoritarianism and nationalism is happening in multiple countries like Hungary, Russia, China, and the U.S. Parties like AfD have grown in strength in the last 20 years, thanks in part to the ability of social media companies to prioritize "engagement" to enable them to make more money over societal health.
I think China and Russia are pretty far gone
Other countries we can still help save
Life in China is immensely better now than it was in 1999, what are you talking about?
Weren't they welding doors shut on people during COVID?
That was just a sensationalized story - they sealed the extra doors on a building but left one open, so they could do controlled screening. I think it was actually just that one building too. They didn't weld people inside buildings to die ๐
As a result they had one of the best COVID responses in the world and saved countless lives.
Life is only better in China economically (even this is debatable), but people care about many other aspects of life as well. The limited liberties that the Chinese people had in 1999 are disappearing quickly.
They're also living longer - smog has been greatly reduced and they have access to better healthcare than ever before.