I start to think that in an ordinary human lifetime it is more likely than not to experience disaster. If you were born in 1945 and are still alive today, you may have picked the most lucky period to have lived through of all possible. I am not concvinced the next 75 years will be as peaceful as the past 75.

I'm not sure how true that is. I think it's dependent on location really or country for conflicts. Some places have seen a lot of violence. Violent crime rates were pretty high in some areas too.

Yes I realize it is not a very general statement. Many places have experienced conflicts also during this period. But in average, I think it may still be true.

> /or made to wear a mask

Just having to wear a mask for a year is "generational trauma" level horrific? Being a surgeon must be unbearable (that or you had a truly cushy life).

Those are most likely by far not the worst things that would have happened to somebody being born in 1945. And also very little compared to what other generations have endured, or even what other countries experienced in the last 75 years, and for some still right now.

The lack of perspective is astonishing.

> Several cities in the US were firebombed nightly for months in 2020.

What? What is this referring to?

From the general tone of the rest of the comment, it's likely they're referring to actions taken adjacent to the Black Lives Matter protests which were depicted in some news media as being like a war zone. Oddly, none of the cities today look like, I don't know, Ukraine. But some people will make mountains from molehills.

I was under the impression that “firebombing” exclusively referred to aerial firebombing during war, so it sounded super strange.

Now that i looked up the term, i see that it can mean “any act in which an incendiary device is used to initiate a fire”.

Does that technically include lighting a cigarette?

Depends on your definition of incendiary device. Wikipedia says weapons designed to start fires. I feel like a zippo thrown onto something flammable is about as far as that stretches.

But they were mostly peaceful mountains. Right?

You seem to be strangely emotionally invested in this issue. Did you witness these events yourself?

They were live streamed. I watched hundreds of hours of live feeds showing wide-spread violence, looting and burning down buildings.

Have there been worse conditions in the world? Obviously. But this isn't a competition for who had the worst things happen to them in all of history.

Portland, amongst others.

How many people died in the Portland firebombings? How much property was destroyed? Are we talking Dresden or Kobe levels? Because when you say 'firebombing nightly for months', that's what I think of.

BLM caused billions worth of damage over the course of the summer of love.

The Portland Business Alliance, which may not be an entirely unbiased source, put the dollar figure at 10s of millions for Portland, not billions.

Has anyone been able to resettle all the Portlandian refugees? From your comments, it must have been on par with Dresden in March of 1945, right?

Yeah, Portland was basically wiped off the map.

Actual photo of Portland June 2020.

https://i.imgur.com/LoNeyZa.jpg

Yes. Second amendment supporters often make the same point.

> But a democratic state today can become autocratic 50 years from now.

It can happen in years, nevermind decades.

"Equally, today caring about my privacy is just adding a lot of friction to me daily live. 50 years from now, I have no guarantee that myself or someone in my family becomes 'a person of interest' for my government."

Careful there. Now you're sounding like you you don't want to obey the government/laws if you don't agree with what is created in the future. At least this has been the argument around many gun laws that create registries, quasi-registries, or release identity information publically, especially with the Overton window and rhetoric.

Edit: why disagree? Really, still no response? Isn't this the general play that is being mentioned in the prior comment - information gathered now can be used against them by the government in the future when the laws change or are ignored? Is this only an issue when it's applied to some people or topics but not others?