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jzkannel 's review for:
I'm struggling with how to evaluate this book. On one hand, it reads like it's downplaying all of the suffering and problems that the world is still facing, and the tone of it kind of makes the author sound like a twat. On the other hand, it was hard to find holes in his arguments or the data he uses. While it's little comfort to tell a victim of domestic abuse, for example, that the rate of domestic abuse is lower than it's ever been, it is still important to look at the data, as uncomfortable as the idea might make us feel, and acknowledge that efforts to reduce the rate have generally worked, despite the fact that the rate is still nonzero. While my personal biases wanted him to address more on the topics that I am more knowledgeable about (mostly climate change), it would've made for an infinitely long book to address every possible critique that could be raised for all of his points.
I found myself frustrated by his critique of left wing causes and rhetoric because it felt to me like he was misinterpreting the guiding message, but then noticed that I did not question any of what he said about right wing rhetoric, which I guess kind of proved his point.
It was interesting that this was written at the beginning of the Trump era, and that he could use the rhetoric of Trump and his supporters as rhetorical tools to address some of the backlash of enlightenment-era ideals while still suggesting that his election wasn't a permanent step back. I'd be curious to see him write an epilogue in 2024 that addressed issues such as covid, the 2020 election kerfuffle, and the genocide of Palestinians to see how they fit into his central thesis. Once again, it's little comfort to people still suffering to point to the data that says suffering has decreased, but rather than using that to pat ourselves on the back he acknowledges that we still have to keep fighting to make the world a better place, and that the point of this book is that we shouldn't abandon what's been known to work (such as the WHO) because the world isn't perfect yet.
I definitely got pushed out of my comfort zone reading this. It doesn't help that he kind of sounds snobby (and also the author photo he used makes him look snobby yet.) I liked that the end just kind of shat on religion as a whole, it definitely pushed me right back into my comfort zone.
I found myself frustrated by his critique of left wing causes and rhetoric because it felt to me like he was misinterpreting the guiding message, but then noticed that I did not question any of what he said about right wing rhetoric, which I guess kind of proved his point.
It was interesting that this was written at the beginning of the Trump era, and that he could use the rhetoric of Trump and his supporters as rhetorical tools to address some of the backlash of enlightenment-era ideals while still suggesting that his election wasn't a permanent step back. I'd be curious to see him write an epilogue in 2024 that addressed issues such as covid, the 2020 election kerfuffle, and the genocide of Palestinians to see how they fit into his central thesis. Once again, it's little comfort to people still suffering to point to the data that says suffering has decreased, but rather than using that to pat ourselves on the back he acknowledges that we still have to keep fighting to make the world a better place, and that the point of this book is that we shouldn't abandon what's been known to work (such as the WHO) because the world isn't perfect yet.
I definitely got pushed out of my comfort zone reading this. It doesn't help that he kind of sounds snobby (and also the author photo he used makes him look snobby yet.) I liked that the end just kind of shat on religion as a whole, it definitely pushed me right back into my comfort zone.