Please consider making a video on why Pre-Colonial African states/kingdoms/empires weren't* as expansionist as their Eurasian counterparts....... (or seemingly weren't as expansionist)
If that happens he’d just get murdered though since Bezos’s only power today comes from Wealth, which isn’t a useful commodity if someone can just kill you and take said wealth.
Envy is probably the only sin without any real pleasure attached to it. Among the 7 capital sins, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride are all pleasing because they offer sex, food, money, ease, power, and self-esteem, even if in the end these are unfulfilling, but the envious is ultimately the most miserable because they derive pain from another’s fortunes instead of joy from their own. Perhaps that’s why the envious are so bitter and malevolent, because they can only be satisfied when the subject of their envy suffers or has less than them.
I would argue that envy's pleasure is schadenfreude, happiness at the misery of others. Perhaps that could also be a pleasure of pride, like "Haha, I did better and you didn't!" but envious schadenfreude may have a more satisfying edge to it. Instead of taking pride in yourself, you enrich your mood by seeing a "higher" person than you fall to/below your perceived level and never recover.
It does happen that “joy at another’s misfortune” is theologically one of the daughters of envy. Though I would still hold that envy is still the most miserable.
Pride and wrath are also pleasurable for their own sake. I've always had an anger issue, not because I'm easily prone to anger but rather when I do reach a rage point it feels better than sex, wealth, or power. It's all consuming if you can't snap yourself out of it. That's the real danger.
I would note that all of the cardinal sins are perversions of something good. Sex, food, material goods, rest, indignation, ambition, and dignity are good things, but they are often perverted away from their right order. For your own situation, wrath can be good when it is ordered toward correcting something wrong out of love, but if it’s source is pride, where something is wrong because you deem it so, and you “leave the room fuming” so to speak, this is not the right order for anger.
"On an individual basis, do not surrender anything to the envious. They will only envy you more." I needed this! Surrendering may be as simple as sharing business data that should remain confidential
My opinion, as a modern teenager, is that the source of envy amongst the middle class youth (or at least one of the possible sources) is insecurity in one’s future. My generation is heavily afflicted by self doubt and the stories on the news are constantly warning us that our living standards will be worse off than our parents. Many feel that they won’t be able to ‘make it big’ and be successful and thus turn to envy as a way to console themselves and their fear of failure. Thats my two-penny’s worth. Great video :)
@Safwaan, being born with a attractive face makes me envy someone with the ideal gym body even more so than if I wasn't born with a attractive face, since having a attractive face made me desperately want a attractive gym body to go with my attractive face.
@Safwaan, I know. But working out hard enough to have the body that I would had wanted is really hard and time consuming for me since I was born with a naturally skinny body. Which is why I often unsuccessful at having the ideal gym body. Whereas it's a whole lot easier and less time consuming for someone who was born with a naturally broad body.
@Safwaan, I have been working out to be more buff lately, but I don't do it to try to appear more attractive to women, I do it just to make myself happy. I know that being naturally skinny does not make it impossible to work out to be buffer, but I am already 40 year's old, and I made mistakes in the past that made me become skinnier again like trying to have too many other hobbies outside of my work life, besides working out which made me fail at maintaining my goals at the gym, since we only have a very limited amount of free time outside our work life. Now I had regained some of my muscle mass by learning from my mistakes and limiting the amount of other hobbies that I try to engage in. Do you know what I mean?
@Safwaan, well, I look more like a 30 year old than a 40 year old especially after I started taking better care of my health, and the lifestyle I had chosen made me incompatible to get married and have kid's, not just because I work out, but because I want to also pursue my creativity by doing creative art. And I like to think of myself as a young person even though I'm already a middle aged person rather than a young person.
I had never considered monogamy being a such major factor in keeping our society stable by keeping the majority of men preoccupied with responsibility, essentially. Makes a lot of sense when you see packs of young single men in other cultures who don’t seem to have high prospects.
Technically, envy is the _second_ worst sin in Christianity, after pride, since it is believed that pride - specifically, the pride of rebelling against the Almighty - is the source of all other sins. Edit: As a side note: it's worth mentioning that the word "lust" doesn't mean what most people think it means. It means "desire" - in this case, desire for anything other than physical possessions (which is instead classified as "avarice").
I would say that this view of sin is not correct in orthodoxy, but at least in catholicism. Orthodox view sin as bad regardless of magnitude; only God would be able to judge the magnitude.
Actually greed is the worst sin of all because from greed it can turn into envy , pride,lust ,...etc but from the other sin it hardly resemblance greed
Pride is the first Deadly Sin because it was the first sin and its the root of all sins. Its rooted in the idea of self-importance. The idea of the individual. All the other Deadly Sins spawn from that. The first sin was committed by Satan who believed himself so important that he was more worthy of God's position than God was. Leading to his rebellion. The spirit of revolution and individualism is inherent in the idea of Pride.
Its how it should be, we talk about this like rational people and come up with a middle ground. If everyone were to agree then there wouldn't be free will.
That’s the thing. I don’t agree with him not because he offered good, logical points. I disagreed with him because this was more of a right wing rant about the communisms and the SJWs and the AWH everyone’s leaving church.
@@gliiitched4429 Here we go. Why does everything have to be about politics with people like you? Just refusing to accept blatant truths, because you know that the truth goes against whatever agenda you hold. Sorry to break it to you, but yes, communism, wokeism and everything in between are excellent examples of envy on a societal level
The societies that suppress the effects of envy the most, thrive the most. When the people begin to choose improving their own lives, rather than tearing down the lives of others, that society progresses. Therefore, we should create a society in which those who work the hardest receive the most. Such a society is both impossible under a government that collectivizes wealth, and a system where the richest individuals can prevent poorer form increasing their social standing. Essentially, hands off capitalism and communism can devolve into the same thing. A society should strive to maximize competition between both individuals and corporations. A free market system that is regulated just enough to where individuals have the ability to increase their standing, and are not bound by the social class they were born into.
exactly, nowadays the word "capitalism" is semi synonymous with "corporatism" to a lot of americans (mostly on the left) because of how big some of them have gotten and issues with corporations influencing government and monopolies starting to show their faces. capitalism in itself is supposed to be based around the fact competition breeds innovation, both societally and in the market. having no regulation at all casues monopolies that shut down new ideas or smaller companies that could compete against them, which the same constricting effect a planned economy might have.
@@sovietunion7643 capitalism is a natural phenomenon when you make merchantry large scale, what I don't understand is why you people in the first world can't distinguish between " wants" and "needs"? everybody needs medicine, who needs a big ass house in the hampton's?, this is where the rubber meats the road with liberalism because it makes its seem like capitalism doesn't have a conscious and can just do whatever it pleases for the benefit of its superiors.
@@sovietunion7643 However, it's important to know that regulation can also cause monopolies, too. Many monopolies even today became monopolies by bribing government officials to make regulations that would bankrupt smaller competing businesses while larger businesses would be able to afford.
I like your idea of "those who work the hardest receive the most". That thinking appeals to our sense of fairness. The problem in modern market economy is that the most of the added value of our labour does not come from merely "working hard", but instead there is a huge spectrum of productivity among us and most of that spectrum is due to luck. So, for instance for me by putting a certain effort to work it's relatively easy to achieve high income as my skills happen to be valued by the labour market, but someone else without those skills and with the same effort would get a much more meager income. In my opinion, in a perfect society, the society would even out these differences due to luck while leaving it still worth the effort to work hard with the skills you have or even improve those skills with conscious decisions. It's not straightforward how to separate the effort from luck, but it's obvious in both extreme ends of the spectrum, which one is it.
The UK has a fairly entrenched class system, but I've been confused by recent events namely how easily "liberal elites" became a slur for usually just any middle-class professional stating their expertise, while the actual landed gentry became "men of the people". Envy makes a lot of sense: the latter being from and in an unreachable level of society, while the former are generally just people who did better in school.
I think it has to do with those in political power being in a position to pander to the envious and hand out "free" stuff. Just like the Roman politicians who specialized in providing bread and circuses to the poor in exchange for their votes/restraint from riots.
@UTubeFekUrself I get you mean. You can outline like Novara Media there seems to be invited into the BBC practically every other week, but still complains about the mainstream media being biased against them. Though usually these beliefs being spouted by monopolistic interests are leftist social beliefs as opposed to leftists economic beliefs in my experience.
Landed gentry? What are you talking about? The "middle-class professionals with experitse who did better in school" are the biggest individual landowners in the US. John Malone, Ted Turner, Stan Kroenke, Peter Buck, Philip Anschutz, Thomas Peterffy and Jeff Bezos all fit your description, most were middle-class college students, though some few were born rich as others were born poor and did not attend college, who went on to become billionaires through many enterprises, and then reinvested their wealth in landowning. Not denying there are many families in the US who have held huge swathes land for generations, but they compete with the so called "people who did better in school" in this very field and have far less wealth or influence than them, and are also much less active in American politics.
@UTubeFekUrself What are you talking about? The aim of the left is not to be contrarian at every turn. So if the government and media start listening to their concerns, it is not time to change their concerns... Democratic governments don't exist in a vacuum. The "system" is one of catering to the lowest common denominator, and being as uncontroversial as possible. The fact that the government and the media are finally changing their tune means the voice of the people is a more left one than in yesteryear. Besides, we live in a world that is completely dominated by capitalism and corporate interests. I don't understand why you can't see this simple fact. I'm also curious what you think the left believes that is so out of touch with the common person. Do common people not want social services and freedom from discrimination?
I think a more useful perspective is to acknowledge the binary between resentment and contempt, where the former is motivated by anger towards someone assumed to be above oneself and the latter contrastingly is fueled by disgust towards someone believed to be below oneself. The left historically has been associated with resentment (envy of the powerful, etc.) and the right with contempt (bigotry, purification), but both flanks are equally capable of embodying either drive.
@UCFNDfENexEE5dXYNAABNTSA Being pro individual freedom doesn’t mean you aren’t bigoted. Just because someone says all people should be “free” doesn’t change their own desire to oppress others economically or socially. And there is no such thing as all people are equally free, some are “freer” than others. The right’s idea of freedom means telling the government to fuck off, it doesn’t mean to make sure everyone is equal. I don’t want to get into a hate filled argument but desire to be free from the government does not equal unbiased equality.
This is a perspective that is used more to justify the actions of the left than to actually describe what the right actually does or believes. It creates the illusion of comparability and gives the impression that the left isn't so bad because the right has its problems. The reality is that the right is typically defined by ignorance. Those people are against change because they can't see a problem. This is best seen by the most likely apocryphal line of Marie Antoinette, "let them eat cake." At best they don't know, or at worst they don't care. They are driven by the desire to just keep things the same regardless of whether it should or not. The idea that the right exhibits contempt is because that is what the left has to believe to justify their hatred to the right. It's hard to see the various economic, social, and political factors that are involved in a decision, so people just believe the action was driven by malice. What salvages your position is that the right includes everything that isn't the left, which means fascism gets to be on the right. Fascism is a revolutionary ideology that looks to progress the world forward and does exhibit the contempt you're talking about.
As a teenager your description of teenagers was spot on. It’s super annoying how people tear down historical figures for no reason and how people put in no effort and throw away their potential by ruining their brains.
In regards to envy in academia I mostly tend to find this comes from people in HASS (humanities, art , social sciences ) fields as opposed to STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine) fields.
Rudyard (Whatifalthist), at some point down the line, would you be willing to include a bibliography of your source material in the description section? I am not a scholar in any way (I have the attention span of a squirrel on crack) but I find your videos to be incredibly eye opening and find myself wanting to investigate how your reached your point of views. Keep up the good work sir, these geopolitical videos are fantastic.
2:24 As a Nigerian-immigrant currently working and schooling in North America, I have come to one conclusion: Social Justice, wokeness and progressivism can ONLY exist in a developed, liberal and first-world nation/region where there are very few existential threats and where the purposeless masses in urban areas have to create some form of ideology to fill the void in their lives. That is why it makes no sense and destroys that society. That is also why rural westerners, non-western countries and immigrants mostly tend to hate social justice and wokeness more than the native citizens.
Absolutely true. I wonder if rest of the world will face similar problems as the West after becoming advanced enough to hav little to no existential threats. Do Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore face similar social issues? Or are they too different from the Western culture to hav that issue?
@@lordkiwi355 The Asian societies are pretty much based upon "not sticking out". Social Justice has no real place in those societies since that is what is expected by default, also they are ethnically much more homogenous. The cruel thing is that either way there are existential threats to all developed societies, Western or Asian. The problem is that the cultural makeup of these societies in one way or another is incapable of admitting that. In Asia that's because you'd be shunned for criticizing how it's always been and also criticizing people in their jobs while you don't do it, it's a "what are you supposed to know" kind of thing, and also very inpolite in principle. In Western Societies it's more of the polar opposite that everyone that rings alarm bells seems like they do so for their own good, not because they're honest about it. That way real problems like demographic decline get swept under the rug, as even if they're talked about they're not "politically correct" or don't garner enough attention or are against immigrants or whatever reason people will come up with. Don't take this too seriously tho, it's just a quick ramble, I haven't thought about this too deeply and so I might be wrong, tell me if that is the case.
I understand this to be an explanatory joke. A Russian farmer gets a wish granted and wishes for a cow. The cow gives milk, which feeds his family with milk, butter, and cheese. The cow can also pull the plough, allowing the farmer to grow more food, so over all the cow is an enormous blessing to the farmer. A year later, the farmer's neighbor, also a farmer, also gets a wish granted. He thinks about how much of a blessing his neighbor's cow has been and how much better off his neighbor is because of the cow. He makes his wish: "I wish my neighbor's cow would die."
*"Most of history is a group project in which people are trying to "chill and have fun with friends" until the Romans crush them."* 🤣 - Another excellent video!
Can you do a video on why our generation brags about smoking, "vibing" and "Chilling" out? on the flip side I think there's a smaller proportion of society especially within academia and corporate America who brag about working to death, pulling all nighters, working 2 jobs, etc.
they don't really many of the popular songs you say talk about partying and chilling all the time were mostly within 2008 to 2012 most people talk about hustling and grinding way more. This video is what people who spend all their time on the internet criticizing people think honestly. Drakes and kanye west album is the most streamed albums of the year one is about religion and the other one is about how much work theyve done and how thier rich now which you can critizise as much as you want but its not about vibing chilling or any other crap
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. Proverbs 6:16-19
"Sun God will leave us if we don't bring good harvest." CaveAltHist: "Maybe the Sun is just a natural process and there's actually no supernatural force that is at work here." "Kill big word man"
Yup, luck is a massive factor nobody who gets rich will ever admit to, most of the time things are far beyond your control and knowledge and you just gotta cross your fingers and hope you hit the right wave.
@@johnpaulcross424 luck is important but successful people have a way to force luck. If you try long enough something is bound to work. The kind of attitude you are displaying for example is defeatist which is not going to help in any way whatsoever.
@@Perrirodan1 never said give up and stop trying lol just said a lot of the time it’s not gonna come to you. I assumed that it was implied that you gotta go out there and do a lot to hope to catch that luck but apparently I needed to say it outright.
It's not just looking forward to Heaven that allows Christianity to control envy, but also the threat of Hell. If people who are in your eyes undeserving will burn in hell, then that relieves you of the responsibility to bring them down to size yourself. God will do it for you.
There's nothing controversial about calling any ideology which touts, "equity," envious. I've been debating family on the left for 20 years saying they're simply preaching envy.
@allykat2831 It addresses directly what they're saying. People touting "equity" are entitled and feel they're owed something. Americans are in the top 1% of the world, even if they're considered "poor" in America.
@@controlclerk doesn't actually solve the problems at all. People can't get out of a problem by saying it's worst else where that's ridiculous. It might be worse in other places but the problems still exist. Homelessness, food insecurity, class mobility. Just because some people on the left might be enviousness of the wealthy doesn't mean there concerns aren't valid or worth considering.
@allykat2831 It addresses the "problem" by telling them they have to solve it for themselves. "Food insecurity" in America is laughable. Most "poor" people are obese. "Class mobility," isn't a right, it's earned through hard work. Homelessness has more to do with people not working or being responsible with their money. There are numerous shelters and programs for people who are homeless and want to do the work to get out of it. But they have to do the work. No one is entitled to having everyone else take care of them.
I think the trigger for modern envy is really being fuled by the inequality among generations and the real harm that is causing. Millennials only own 5% of total wealth, compared to the Boomers 53%. Stagnant wages, cronyism, and a massively inflated cost for essential & non-luxury items leaves a bleak future for the young. The K shaped recovery post pandemic has served to highlited this, and when you get systemic inequality introduced outside the free market, you get envy.
Yes, I think the real problem today is that even with putting in hard work and being diligent the hurdles such as housing (look at housing prices vs annual income currently vs historical) are causing people to question the system itself. For all its benefits, capitalism has a tendency to create inequality without the correct regulation. Often governments struggle to find the balance between corporations, individuals and GDP with regulation. With increasing automation (and don't forget climate change and inequality) in the future which is quite different from the previous industrial revolutions (since there is no clear pathway open for new industries where people can find employment) there is definitely a good argument to make for changing the current system. This is especially relevant looking at the number of monopolies in the world which is undermining the very principle of a market system (competition).
Why would you be jealous of your own generational wealth? It all gets passed down eventually. Comparing two generations wealth is silly, of course older people possess way more wealth, always have
@@thesandman5969 Good comment. There are ways to decrease the labor supply, though. Republicans want to do it by cutting immigration, democrats want to do it by unemployment insurance and whatnot. Culturally, people probably work more hours than they did during the middle ages, if you count winter, church holidays, etc.
@@MrShtgoose1 But think of the excess wealth of the older generations that could power the uncovered innovators of the younger generation. Such things like education is crucial to be taken at a young age and imo must be funded for a generally more intelligent, compassionate and ideal future society, whatever that happens to be. The overwhelming wealth simply utilized to stack more wealth (not saying they shouldn't have the right to) possessed by the older/upper classes of our society is effectively losing us so many competent workers and people who could possibly prosper given a decent amount of welfare support. It's not about how much bank you have and how much you want to flex it, that's why I also am uncomfortable to call the leftist desire for economic redistribution as "envy", you may not believe in me and that's fine, but I wish for a society in which all people have a equal baseline chance to prosper.
Focusing on the Boomer generation makes sense in a purely American worldview, but you have to keep in mind the Boomer Generation in America had a VASTLY different life from those born the same years in Western Europe or say Japan and Korea. "Boomer" is an American stereotype that does not equate with the rest of the world: the rest of the industrialized nations of the world were piles of rubble still when the Boomer Generation of those countries were being born. They spent their whole lives basically building from the ground up again. American Boomers basically just inherited the resounding success of the American Greatest Generation, their parents, and have coasted on that since. It's a vastly more complex and nuanced problem than simply "the old people are screwing over the young". Also lets not forget the often ignored Gen Xers who are getting skipped right past. In 20 years when the vast majority of Boomers dead, it'll be the Millennials holding the reins of power and the Gen Xers will be left with second chair yet again, only now getting older and incurring more medical expenses. As someone born right on the line between Millennial and Gen Z, I'd love to point out that the whole notion of naming generations is totally a bizarre aberration only applicable to the world post WWII (after entire generations were lost) and normally in history there is no easy lines drawn between generations like this. In fact, the lines are blurring. The mass death of the early 20th century was a rock thrown in the pond, we see the ripples only b/c of the immense disruption but it will go back to being a mirror-like surface again and it already is. Try looking up when "Millennial" ends and "Gen Z" begins and let me know how many different dates or metrics you come up with. I agree we have immense structural problems in the US and across the West right now, however focusing on a single group is putting blinders on. Very dangerous blinders.
Envy drove communism sure. But you can't make the argument that European Countries are driven by envy. It is very reductive to say the political philosophy of each country is driven by hatred of the successful. Think from a European perspective. They suffered from the great depression which objectively made peoples life worse. No matter how hard they would have worked they couldn't have improved their life. that's why they were willing to vote for extreme parties who promised to improve their lives (The Nazis did improve the economy). Post war, most European cities were destroyed so the government had to step in to fix all the mess. The post war consensus was that free market capitalism lead to the great depression so it should be regulated and wealth should be redistributed to improve the lives of people so they don't vote for extreme parties (Nazis) again. And European countries didn't keep sticking to this philosophy. Since the 80's they have moved towards neoliberalism. That's why countries like Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavian countries are still very rich. If your argument is there is not as many start ups in Europe as USA because they are successful people are shunned, that's a very lazy analysis. USA is massive country with one language and roughly one regulatory system, so start-ups can expand and succeed, whereas in Europe that's very difficult to with all different countries
@@haltdieklappe7972 Hahaha, the USSR was 90-95% Russia, since WW2 the Soviets actively utilized Russian ultranationalism to get what they want. "USSR isn't Russia" is a completely wrong and ignorant view on the USSR.
@@haltdieklappe7972 The trouble with Russia is the state's power isn't held in check like it is in the Anglosphere and Western Europeon countries. Say what you will about France and Germany, but there you can raise a stink about a problem without fear of imprisonment without a fair trial or dying under mysterious circumstances. European political society is relatively democratic, Russian society is a pyramid of oligarchs.
Great video as always. Would really love to see another civilisation analysis soon, especially on the Orthodox. Would be really interested to hear your take on the idea that what we call 'Orthodox' civilisation is essentially just Classical civilisation migrated onto Russia.
Lol go to Russia if you think that’s classical civilization. If you come back from there thinking it’s anything like classical civilization you’re probably on drugs.
In German it seems to be the other way around: Neid (Envy): Wanting what others have while you don't have it. This can also be without malice and inspire to put yourself to work and get it yourself instead of stealing it from the other. Eifersucht (Jealousy): Comprised of the two words "Eifer" (Zeal) and "Sucht" (Addiction). As the word itself implies, it is blind, focused and obsessed. Eifersucht includes the possible destruction of the one having something that you want - whether you can have it yourself or not. It is also where someone (A) will destroy the friendship between two others (B & C) because he/she wishes full control over one of them, with the potential of even killing the other or at least driving the over to suicide. At the root of this is usually not love, but a narcissistic if not psychopathic obsession. It has elements of Greed and Gluttony in it, and takes Pride in the triumph of the gain (and destruction). It's only positive application would be in a healthy individual spotting how someone else makes advances to his/her relationship, and inquires about it or fends that off - that however depends on whether it was that and not a false positive, etc.
I mean modern society breeds envy. This video itself has a like to dislike ratio, a comment section with a counter that states how many people are interested in the video enough to comment on it, and a like for each comment to show how much everyone loves it. The entirety of social media is just a comparison game of who is the best and most liked, which endlessly cycles until you delete it. Even outside of this, practically everywhere you go you have to compare yourself to the rich successful people in ads, co-workers or fellow students who are "winning" at life, and apartment buildings are literally a dick comparing contest. At least back when humanity was poor, people had the excuse to say, well I'm not the most amazing person in this world because I'm oppressed or there's no way to do it. Also, they could just live on their means or in small village social circles so they don't have much opportunity to be envious of others. Now, you look anywhere and it seems the next jackpot is around the corner and if you just work hard enough anything is possible. This will not breed courage, it will only breed envy once you realise no matter how hard you work you will never be the most successful, and some random dude on the internet is more will be better liked than you or have a happier life. This is what happens when you tell people "anything is possible", "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and "you can be the greatest in the world!" Terrifying lies that just make people envious of each other. No, not everyone can be the greatest in the world, some things are impossible, and sometimes you just have to accept what you have and do the best that you can. This is what people should hear nowadays.
You don't have to do any of the things you mention In your comment. Anything is possible if you work hard and learn from failure. And boy howdy will you fail. The issue then becomes why did you fail. If you start poi ting fingers then you complain about what everyone else has and what you don't.
I would argue that the practice of making those things cultural norms, the sort of bootstrap mentality, is essential in a society that embraces competition as a way to encourage people to participate. The key thing is, such a society, knowingly or otherwise, is launching these folks into an arena where those who are the most capable socially (and sometimes mentally) will succeed and while the game isn't zero sum the best way to identify talent is to throw a broad net and let the best sort themselves out. As a consequence, the individuals whose upbringing, background, education and inherent traits best prepared them for such an environment will thrive and the rest will be forced to concede defeat. Is that a good way to ensure talent is identified and moved into positions of leadership? Sure, why not. But it's terrible at anything else, and the individuals who do not come out of that arena winners will instead come out jaded and discouraged for the most part. Even worse when, as time goes on, the survivor bias of the individuals who had what it took to make it to the top and are now decision makers over those who didn't will as a rule lead to decisionmaking that reinforces cut-throat meritocratic backbiting while ignoring the rest of the population. In selecting for talent in such a manner you as a necessity refute the talentless thus worsening feelings of alienation and envy. As for potential ramifications, well: You don't need to be all that talented or bright to hold a gun :D
I broadly agree with you. I think one concept that's sorely lacking is objective value. Relativistic competition will only ever create dissatisfaction due to the type of comparisons you mentioned. With an objective view of value, other people having more doesn't diminish what you have. I always found attitudes around some of this stuff odd. For example, if two guys run the 100m sprint, one in 10.1 seconds and the other in 10.0s, the slower of the two has still achieved the real objective; that is, he is fit and strong. Yet, the slower of the two is generally characterised as a failure.
The basics concepts of economies of scale when applied to his example of business makes it pretty much perfect. Debt and the use of credit is pretty much a necessity when starting a business anyways and this costs scales with the size of the business. Opportunity costs aren’t as relevant when researching a business model because it can be supplemented by unemployment if needed. Capitalism when utilized correctly allows someone to fail multiple times over and over and finally succeed.
This is a great point to bring up and I think you make a solid case and strong connection regarding Social Justice as we know it today (not of the Civil Rights past or Abolition) and we can clearly see that the Leftists in this country and others are obsessed with seeing people fall, seeing someone who’s successful lose everything because they could never build the success that others have created in their lives, so it’s easier to tear someone down and ridicule them in public, create a space for which this is possible by making up new rules and then moving the goal post so that anyone they choose can be an enemy, and then they can decide their punishment. It’s classic Communism psychology, and what is ironic is that they are calling the people that truly value freedoms and liberty “fascists”, when THEY are the ones that want to control what you can and cannot say, how you run your business, what you should do to support certain groups, and what you should think, what you can and cannot wear, what you buy… it’s nuts, but the modern left is a cancer, and this is what Republic/Capitalist minded people feared the most about Communism and Socialism… this is why McCarthy went on a rampage (and too aggressively) trying to find Communists in this country, because they are a threat to Liberty. Leftists are the absolute enemy of liberty.
Not only was McCarthy later proven right about nearly everyone he accused, he actually _underestimated_ the amount of communists in positions of power/influence in America.
I have an anecdote: I was randomly examining why it is a waste of resources to pour sidewalks on both sides of the street in medium to low density residential neighborhoods. The main point was that one side provides enough bandwidth to make it navigable by foot but that there is such a tiny amount of foot traffic that it's absurd to have it run on both sides. I successfully predicted that the average layman would oppose single-sidewalk streets because one side would have to shovel snow, while the other one didn't. The obvious overlooked fallacy is that under the status quo, both sides are burdened by shoveling snow. When I floated this random thought to the first three of my relatives, they quickly pointed out that it wouldn't be fair that one side would have to shovel snow and the other would not. After the third person independently demonstrated their inability to see that 50% of these residents would benefit, while 50% would be no worse off and everyone would benefit from lower taxes, I gave up on society's ability to think critically. Now, I only share ideas with myself.
I don't get what your point is. If there's only a sidewalk on one side of the street, then the people living on the side of the street with no sidewalk will have to cross the road to use the only sidewalk on the street or have to trudge through snow and mud to reach their neighbors living next to them. In your example, everyone is actually worse off because the people living next to the sidewalk have increased foot traffic , the people living without a sidewalk next to them have to constantly cross the road or trudge through snow and ice, drivers on the road will constantly have to slow down to avoid crossing pedestrians, and the rate of vehicular accidents as a result would be far higher . Regarding taxes and money, I doubt people would be better off monetarily . The houses on the side with no sidewalk would be worth far lower and would probably erase any gains that the residents saw from their tax deduction. Even the lucky residents would likely see much of their gains wiped out due to lower property values from having excess food traffic in front of their house. If sidewalks were such a waste of money, why is it that private gated communities still have them on both sides of the street? After all, the HOA running the community has an incentive to be financially prudent.
@@billzhao1346, that's fine. At least you gave a reason, not just dismissed it on the basis of envy. Anyway, it's just a dumb random thought. The point is that its merits we're never evaluated. It was instantly rejected for one reason only: envy. However, as to the merits, in my observation, almost no one walks anywhere in these neighborhoods. The only walking seems to be for fitness. Therefore one side is enough. If the people on the no sidewalk side want to go for a walk, they will have one additional road crossing (once to get to the sidewalk and then every corner that they would normally cross after that) than they do now. It seems only slightly worse as a pedestrian, not substantially worse as you have claimed. You're making it sound like Manhattan. These are quiet, low traffic, slow traffic subdivisions. By your logic, every corner should have a pedestrian bridge or tunnel and every intersection be converted to an interchange so no one ever has to deal with crossing.
@@StopMakingEveryoneDumb That seems like a pretty depressing place to live in, seems like it'd be better to try and push the community towards being walkable and livable as opposed to removing the currently existing infrastructure that facilitates walkability - Since making communities more walkable benefits everyone, and the difference between a walkable and mixed zoning city/suburbia and a discretised road-based city/suburbia is night and day. Although I understand that in alot of US communities (I'm assuming this is US) they're kind of saddled with shitty design from the ground up because of alot of bad history with urban design - This is less of an argument of immediate practicality and more of one about broader policy goals however.
@@CassCassCassime thanks for mentioning this. I had the exact same thought, but US car-dependancy and general snow management are such alien things for me that I preferred to not say anything lol
I'm like, not even into this kind of terminology, but the way that he ties historical knowledge to cultural analysis is staggering. Anyone with half a brain should have had red flags going off on this video. His conclusions are cogent but don't hold up to scrutiny.
@@RainingDream11 The video is all over the place. About every 20 seconds there's a conclusion that requires a further in-depth analysis but he just states it as fact and moves on. The description only has his patreon and socials. It's really quite terrible and irritating.
@@TheLifeisgood72 i am really starting to hate this channel, he makes so many connections and assumptions with barely any proof or evidence and then just moves on like it is fact within minutes
Seeing someone say this man is dropping red pills makes me feel like I must interject. Taking someones opinion and analysis of history as a red pill is shameful, but you can easily fix yourself- Shut off CZcams, read books, live life, and draw your own conclusions on the world. While they may not always be “red pills”, they will be as good as you can get at the time. Never stop evolving. “…all truths are Truths of Period, and not truths for eternity; whether of religion, morals, government, or of whatever else, and to find place in this world, has been a truth for the time, and as good as men were capable of receiving.” -Morals and Dogma
It's funny how people use Singapore as an example of capitalist success when it actually got rich through a state-lead industrial policy and all housing there is socialized.
Great video. Since you did one on Africa, could you do an alternate history scenario where India is left uncolonised? It would be interesting to see how they fare without being fully conquered (though personally I would still assume a European interest exists in the region; it was quite a lucrative part of the world).
They would get conquered by Europeans or another group of persianized central Asians. Or maybe they would hold their own after the fall of the Mughal empire which technologically enriched their militaries.
Traditionally envy is wanting what someone else has. Jealousy is not wanting to share what you have with others. Envy is always negative while jealousy can actually be positive, such as being jealous of (ie not wanting to share) one's spouse. Jealousy as a synonym for envy is a more modern definition.
too much confusion with correlation and causation. rise of socialism is not caused by decline in christianity, they don't actually coincide that much. the enlightenment lead to the decline in christianity, industrialization and inequality lead to the rise in socialism.
@@revi.talose.8643 many people tend to forget early christianity and the deep anti capitalist ethos of almost all forms of christianity with the exception of calvinism
@@danjunk3029 Yeah, the made-up ideological ties go deep aha, at least Whatifalthist doen't do the Judeo-Christian Values meme, but yeah totally agree, almost every religion to some degree doesn't like big money™
Humanity has been through worse and come out the other side and so shall we as a species we’re good at coming up with answers to crises eventually and adapting otherwise we’d have gone extinct long ago
Biggest mistake of this video is that it assumes that we live in a world of equal opportunity when we don't and says that the inequal opportunities are actually inequal outcomes when they're inequal opportunities.
It assumes the complete opposite in that we absolutely do not live in a world with equal opportunity and this is partially the reason for envy’s existence. Natural resources, geography, place of birth, status and class, all of these play key roles in the relative opportunity that certain people have relative to where you live. There will always be places in the world with better/worse opportunities for different groups of people, and although technology and economic domination by corporate entities muddies the water, If you live in America you can be pretty damn sure that the opportunities presented to people throughout their lives here are very good in comparison to some other shitholes. I imagine my life prospects all the way from the working class bottom of different societies to get an idea of how inequal the opportunities really are in comparison.
This same thread of logic can be applied to Americans opportunities outside the US such as in places like europe with socialist education policies. People find it easier here to become a millionaire if your already reasonably wealthy and have developed skills, which is a huge reason why move out of the United States to seeks skill development in Europe then move back when they are stable.
Your comment is correct Cumulus. He fails to comprehend conditional reasons for the many things he criticizes, it's an idealistic framework known as "individual responsibility". Going to be debunking his video soon.
@@Stellar_Politics Ya, he does that a lot I've noticed in his other videos, Same with the hasty generalization of movements like SJW etc etc, I can't remember a single time this dood didn't sentimentalize a social problem to some degree.
This vid was more biased than your "Twelve Lies about Reality"😂😂. So basically, the opposing political party is entirely built on envy? That's all? And *you admit* the ONLY REASON you can think of why "wealthy/well off" ppl of that party only associate themselves with that political party is bc *they're afraid of being targeted??* Bruh, what is this channel anymore🤣🤣 Idk if I can trust theories of alternate history from a guy who just paints the political party he disagrees w/ as "envious" with a single stroke. W/ that logic, painting the entire Right-wing to be built on the "Fear of Change" should be just as valid. Political parties *are very complex with many valid & different values on both sides despite EACH SIDE'S RADICALS.* The fact YOU ADMIT you *"CAN'T think of any other reason why"* an opposing party exists beside "envy" only *delegitimizes* the accuracy of *all your former what-if/alternate history videos.* If you can't accurately comprehend the complexities of the CURRENT political parties & social climate *NOW* then, *how accurately COULD YOU POSSIBLY comprehend social climates of the PAST and what NEW social climates they would lead to?*
Could you do an alternate history scenario where China splits up during Antiquity and results in different competing nations? It would be great to see you give China the same treatment you gave to the Medieval America map. Essentially if the sixteen states period produced a divided political order like Europe with a common cultural background.
that didn't last and would never have lasted because of the nomads from the steppes. The ancient Chinese realized everybody loses if they actually fractured, so they would rather bicker and struggle for power internally but still maintain a unified state in the event of a external invasion.
It would be pretty difficult to do since the POD is so far back. I made a balkanized China video, but the POD is when the Taiping Rebellion succeeds: czcams.com/video/wJcxZ8-BfVw/video.html
I saw a video that said Chu wanted to return back to the Warring States period after the fall of Qin, but Han defeated Chu and ran the region unified thus continuing the cycle that Qin had established.
Despite the share of European GDP declining in total, most nations haven't lost really any total wealth outside Greece and such due to the fact of just how much the world economy has grown in total. You could say that Europe was in part disproportionally wealthy from its success while the rest of the world lagged behind, and now with China taking back it's place as one of the great economic centers, Europe has merely been sent back to its more logical/sensible postion. A similar way in which Badghdad was extremely powerful and wealthy under specific circuimstances making it oversized really following the decline of the Islamic world, and the Mongols merely dealt the final blow to the city, reverting it to a more sustainable and logical size. Also as for the European tech exodus, you need to understand that the fiscal/investment markets are really scattered with it being over 30 different markets for investment which can't on their own compete with the US or Chinese sized markets. It's the same as if the US fiscal/investment system was divided into 50 different markets, instead of one.
Whatifalthist usually addresses the first point by bringing up the fact that the American market has been stable with the growth of the third world, while the European market has shrunk the American one has managed to keep itʻs place in the world On the second part, you seem to have forgotten that the EU exists, and as such a single European market.
@@mam0lechinookclan607 There is free trade and common foreign trade policy in the EU which is the definition of a "single market" and in the same way as US states can implement their own regulations member states of the EU also do, but no one would say that the US doesnʻt have a single market.
Also, I can't ignore the blatantly ridiculous claim that Europe is experiencing "active economic decline" because its relative share of world GDP is declining. The GDP per capita of Europe is higher than it's ever been and it continues to grow. Any definition of "decline" that includes that is ridiculous. Europe is "declining" because it doesn't produce a vastly disproportionate part of the world's products and other parts of the world are finally able to produce something? That's so absurd.
Yet economic growth is lower than ever, as decades of more spending, socialist measures, regulations, and taxes, have progressively destroyed wealth generation. Europe doesn't produce more stuff because they DON'T WANT TO. They have actively taken measures that ensure production is done elsewhere. They are NOT pro-free market economy, they are against it, and that's why they're declining/will decline in the future, unless they do a 180 and surgically remove socialism from governments.
@@skbanda4573 Any kind of economic intervention/manipulation by the State/Government, equals to socialism to me. The best (or worst, in terms of damage) example is the arbitrary setting of the interest rates. Such aberration was the cause in the past, of both the 1929-1933, and the 2008 crisis, just to name the biggest ones. I identify myself as a Libertarian, btw. In philosophical terms, i'm an Anarcho Capitalist, but as we don't live in a fantasy, in practice i'm a minarquist. Cheers.
I think you need a follow up vid on this because it’s not the whole story. I think the video is correct, but it leaves out the fact hierarchies inevitably become entrenched and create feedback loops that only further their advantages. People shouldn’t be ok with this and wish them well out of not wanting to be envious. Of course envy is involved with very valid feelings of being apart of a system that’s cheating you.
This is an interesting counterpoint. I agree with what's been said in the video, but we should also consider that most of money made by the wealthy today doesn't come from the free market, but rather from central bank's distortions via the cantillon effect.
Actuaply, Envy is a survival mechanism It causes people to revolt against the current system when there is EXTREME WEALTH INEQUALITY or EXTREME SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION Only violence got rid of slavery and segregation in the US. Got justice for George Floyd (he's a criminal but he didn't deserve outright execution)
@@christiandauz3742 Envy obviously has a evolutionary origin but to say it causes us to revolt is a major stretch. As the video argues, it’s a factor in why people revolt.
@@christiandauz3742 also is you’re claiming the current system has extreme social discrimination I’d say you’re wrong, both relative to history and the rest of the globe.
@@januarysson5633 as the newer videos come out you can see cynical historian be molded by modern academia more and more. I’m pursuing the same degree as him and some of his newer points baffle me.
Instead of envy driving humanity, maybe it's "having a feeling of importance". The reason why people are envious towards others is because they see others as more important than them, so they try to bring them down, so they can be more equal or on a similar level of importance. Feeling important is the number one human motivator in my opinion. Even when it comes to aspects like food, sex, dominance, etc., it all leads to feeling important. This is where pride comes in too. Pride is when you make yourself feel "too important". Feeling important drives human innovation and evolution (which is a good thing), but it can become corrupted thru envy and having too much of an ego. The Devil for example was prideful and wanted to be as important as God, so he therefore became envious and tried and still tries to destroy God's creation. I believe the whole purpose of life is to do what Jesus says, "The first will be last, and the last will be first". The ones who are prideful will be brought down, while those who are humble will be made more important. God is ultimately the most important because he is obviously God. He is the "I AM". There is nothing more important than Him (logically speaking). So our purpose is to become important without us becoming prideful. To do good and make God the most important one in our eyes. We must humble ourselves. That is the purpose of life in my opinion. It's an interesting philosophical point I just came up with a couple of weeks ago, but I think it has some potential. I'm going to need to clarify it better and maybe write a book or a well-thought-out thesis about it. Thanks for reading:)
South Africa has an interesting history with communist affiliation but the ANC was never strictly communist and abandoned left wing economic populism and the remaining grant system is just a legacy to keep the poor for revolting, which as seen with looting and strikes and crime, happens anyway. Another interesting thing that happened in the 1920s was that white South African miners who were part of trade unions called for the creation of a color bar to protect their wealth and income whilst disenfranchising African miners.
I have some issues with this video. I think trying to explain so many complex things about society just on the concept of envy alone is a bit simplistic. And there might have been some spots of conflation between true envy, as explained, well-intended desires of better equality, plain greed and power-hunger, competition between influent groups, and opportunistic mad men. Also, Europe losing a % of the global GDP is not particularly conclusive when the competition includes multiple rising economies (India, China, etc.) and the US which is an absolute titan and a single country. (Europe has the EU, sure, but it still has different countries, with different governments, laws and regulations). That doesn't mean Europe is getting 'poorer', it just has a smaller slice of an ever-growing pie.
Interesting. Is European elites intentionally bringing up migrants from africa to Europe so that European massess would be focused on how pore this migrants are instead of being focused on how rich and powerful European elites are?!
@@GreatRetro I'm not sure how that relates to the topic, but I'm sure a substantial part of any "help the poor" policy from any government is for political points. And Europe is certainly not free of the influence of rich people on the goverment.
This. I've seen in many of his videos that he believes that Europe is in some kind of absolutely massive civilizational crisis, just because they are not maintaining the exact amount of wealth and power they did back when they were basically the only important part of the world that mattered. The US has remained stable because it's basically on a perfect position and has a very strong identity to keep together, as well as the fact that many of the world's talent went there in the second half of the twentieth century, I'd actually be worried if Europe still had the same share of the world's wealth they did back then, because that would mean that progress everywhere else didn't happen. Also, I know I'm gonna sound like an emotional young idiot, but I swear this guy seems to think of our generation like it's the fucking plague, mostly because we don't conform to the norms that were in place before, which he quite clearly believes to be correct, especially when he talks about morality being absolute and there being a totally clear truth, which I have to disagree with.
this video was actualy really insightful, i deleted my social medias except for youtube because of the attitudes of people on there. it is genuinely nicer living this way.
@@deisk2707 no offense but that's very unrealistic. Hong Xiuqan was a very anti western person he wanted to unify china under a Communist like theocracy also his plans we're to kick out westerns ban opium and make china become isolationist. Also I believe that the westerners help Destroy the taiping rebellion because they were committing atrocities to a point were colonists didn't recognise Hong Xiuqan as a christan.
So firstly, I want to say that I agree with the vast majority of your point. That being said, while the left- and Millennials- are prone to envy; I worry it might be a bit reductive to present them as the only ones. For instance, your point on expats/immigrants largely enriching a society just to be oppressed. Yet, immigration we see has- at least in America- become a large rightist talking point, and especially this notion that Latin-American immigrant 'took their jobs'. Yet, I forget the name of the town, but my mind recalls an example of a rural southern town that kicked out immigrant laborers...only to be promptly faced with a labor shortage because the Americans that were there wouldn't apply for those jobs. That seems like a pretty clear case of envy to me. I think it's also a bit unfair to act as though leftist envy arose from nothing. I happen to have statistics from 2013 on what fields those that had gone to college...rather most of them, were majoring in. At the top of the list with more than double any followers: Business. Architecture and Engineering was in fourth. Computers/statistics/mathematics was in 7th. Agriculture and Natural Resources in 15th. Law and Public Policy was 13th. Humanties/Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, and Art, do rank 3rd, 6th, and 10th respectively. But the point still stands that it's not as though they were all going into fields with no career paths. Even in the 'underwater-basket-weaving woo' majors I mentioned, there are career paths like mental health work, or- interesting for this channel- history and archaeology would be under Social Sciences. Most of these people however would, for a variety of reasons, wind up underemployed due to the sheer quantity of competition; and those that did land in their majors tended to be underpaid with much fewer options for employment than preceding generations. www.statista.com/statistics/225634/most-popular-college-majors-in-the-united-states/ Sure, the trades would've been better, they still are now. This is also a generation that was encouraged at every opportunity to pursue university education however. Furthermore, much of what would previously have been their wealth was absorbed into upper classes during the Recession. Funnily enough, bailing out the banks and businesses that caused the Recession and should've suffered for it under a properly competitive market isn't actually good for facilitating a competitive market where those ill-affected can recover. Nor is it a long-lasting solution, considering the preceding recession of the 80's, the New Depression we're headed for was a long time coming due to market bloat. Guess which generation got slammed with the brunt of that? That the most consequential thing Millennial have done thus far is reanimate leftism really shouldn't be a shock to anyone. Lower classes will always be inclined toward envy- yes, but leftism does not always thrive. Where we do see it arise is in places like Tsarist Russia, where said lower classes are furthermore stripped of agency. I say all of this because, at least to me, much of this video comes off as ascribing the cause of Millennial envy to a moral fault. All that's going to do is feed said envy, which- given you even made this video- I'm guessing was not the goal. Noah Corria and The Sandman elsewhere in the comments I think put the overall point pretty well if I haven't. It should be noted that Millenials- on average- make roughly 50% of the income of their GenX parents, and 25% that of Boomers, when accounting for inflation. All of this is further exasperated by the advent of the internet. Social media, with its likes and comments sections, is almost cruelly designed to inflict and worsen envy. The democratization of media has left people in purpose-built echo chambers, every day they grow more radical and less willing or able to hear reason. Let alone compromise. This is an influence which has hit Millennials the hardest, being at an age where it could impact their upbiringing, but not so early that they could simply acclimate as Zoomers like myself have. Millennials aren't a particularly religious generation. For all your emphasis on Christianity and Christian philosophy in this video, I find it interesting to ponder that in our skeptical world, even as someone inclined to believe that there is some sort of higher power, I can only imagine that simply being told to have faith things are more fair after death is rather cold comfort in the face of all of this. For my part, I'm not perfect, but I've been ambitious enough and still found myself coming up rather short. And I draw upon my own life not as truth, it's only anecdotal, but I want to use it as an illustrative example. As a child I wanted to start a business, but I knew going to university was an unwise move looking at how well that went for all those business majors 5 years before my graduation from high school. As it turns out, parental divorce tends to divide the wealth of one's family which cut out any help for me there. Further, it doesn't really beget a mindset for the necessary discipline or risk-taking. A me problem, absolutely, but one who's cause was beyond my control and to which the solution still requires my work in addition to life itself. I went to look for a trade, but I found I couldn't afford that either, and I was unwilling to risk a loan from a bank because I know banks profit off of interest. I loathe the idea of being in debt, because I know their goal will be to keep me there as long as possible. So I didn't do that either. That was also a failure on my part as I simply have zero other options if I intend to improve my lot in life. Lastly I turned to aspiring to politics, mostly I was jealous of history, and of the influence those figures have. From where I was then and now, my only real way to practice that was internetdiscourse. Admittedly, I could've been more prepared for most arguments, but history would also suggest that didn't matter. What did matter is that I did not fit either left or right. But what I found was that I was entirely unable to move the mind of anyone. If I intended to move nations, surely some rando online should've been nothing. But I realized in that moment that I lacked two things: for one I'm autistic, in politics where so much is social posturing, I'd never get anywhere, and it's not that I haven't worked on it- I've done so to such a point that I mask those traits without concious effort...at the expense of my mental health; and second was the affects of the internet's fracturing of culture, both sides are in their bubbles as is, so simply trying to steer them from outside with facts was a losing proposition. It's not that I was ever unambitious, but the flaws that prevented me from acting on those were caused without my input, and their affects still require work, in some cases that will only get me so far. I am inclined to think that I'm far from the only person for whom such conditions apply. Do I have personal faults, absolutely I do. But that doesn't mean the entirety of my circumstances is in my control. In this video, you do also somewhat come off as blaming these cases entirely on the personal faults of young envious people, and say that they should try to emulate those traits of the successful merchant class. Yet, you also concede that those merchants- as you coin then- tend to exhibit radically unusual behavior caused by similarly uncommon genetics. Is it really fair to blame the majority for not exhibiting traits that you yourself admit arise from a genetic makeup that- to said majority- leads to absolutely irrational decisions? It might be further worth considering that you don't ever, ever, hear of those merchants who took those risks and for whom it did not pay off. Is it true those traits necessarily beget success, how can we be certain that is not a survivor bias? I think it may also be worth noting that many of those successful merchants didn't necessarily start from zero. It's not uncommon they inherited family businesses for instance, or came from already upper-class backgrounds. Trump's 'small loan of a million dollars' quote I think serves as an egregious and extreme, but also vividly illustrative example. Common folk are often told such and such tech billionaire dropped out of college so we shouldn't be too wrapped up in our standardized test scores, though they'll neglect to mention they dropped out of expensive ivy league universities to which said commoners will very rarely even have access. To reiterate, I don't disagree with the core points of this video, and I think you raise many interesting and valuable points. But I worry that the impression you give of blaming those young envious people for almost all of their struggles is reductive, and more concerning, liable to lead all the points of value to fall on deaf ears.
Very well said. Whatifalt seems not to understand much about the contemporary left or youth culture. Sometimes an outsider perspective is helpful, but not if it's uninformed.
I really enjoyed the video, but your comment was almost more impactful than the whole video. I hope you are writing and creating content that is more visible than the comment section on a CZcams video.
@@alexhuffvn Unfortunately, I rather intend to disengage from politics in general. Like I said, I've found that no matter how much I put into it, I'm generally speaking to walls. I do greatly appreciate your sentiment however, and I'm glad you've found value in my comment.
Your entire comment is incessant drivel that is plagued with personal anecdotes, obsolete theorems & logical fallacies; all of it draped within a shroud of emotional sentiment. No wonder the average joes above liked it so much. Anyways, on to the facts. "Most of these people however would, for a variety of reasons, wind up underemployed due to the sheer quantity of competition; and those that did land in their majors tended to be underpaid with much fewer options for employment than preceding generations." This is simply the reality of Globalism and an ever-evolving, interconnected world; deal with it. The opening of global networks allows for the greater & more efficient production of societal needs & tasks; but also opens up a large pool of talent, from which institutions can draw their pick and fill their ranks. This ever-larger pool of talent results in ever-increasing competition. There will always be people who fall through the cracks, because not everyone has the same amount of skill or talent; this will never change until the day we control the human genome on a sub-molecular level. Also, being underpaid is your problem. It just means you didn't calculate either the opportunity, or your own ability, correctly. "Furthermore, much of what would previously have been their wealth was absorbed into upper classes during the Recession." This is a comment built on obsolete notions. Financial resources are not a limited pie, where if I have a dollar it subtracts from yours. This is a fundamental misunderstanding about financial allocation with regards to those who are economically illiterate. Financial resources are forever-generated, due to being FIAT rather than tied to a material quantity. Also, there is no "what would have been" in Capitalism, there is simply What Is. That is not your wealth, else you would have it. It is there wealth, else they would not have it. You can perform mental gymnastics to justify some alternate universe in which you somehow gained the wealth instead of them, but that is not reality. "I say all of this because, at least to me, much of this video comes off as ascribing the cause of Millennial envy to a moral fault. All that's going to do is feed said envy" Firstly, no one cares about feeding the envious. They will always exist, rather it is The Strong that need to re-unite in the oppression of the envious weak. Also, morality does not exist. If you educate yourself on Nietzsche's "Genealogy of Morality" (which I'm sure this vid is inspired by) in which he provides an extensive socio-psychological analysis of societies throughout history, Nietzsche explains and provides empirical examples of how morality was created as a tool of subversion against The Strong & Powerful. Morality demonizes all that defines the successful man; his ambition is greed, his confidence now pride & arrogance, his strength of will & individual character now deemed wrathful, etc. The envious used morality as a facade to subvert the powerful through a sort of meta-guilt trip, as it was the only means of power available to them (having no access to martial or financial resources), but they do not truly value it. The Fall of Rome & the ascension of Christianity correlating with the start of The Dark Ages is what signaled that their subversion tactic had won out. "All of this is further exasperated by the advent of the internet. Social media, with its likes and comments sections, is almost cruelly designed to inflict and worsen envy." All social media does is expose. If people are set off by that, they were already ticking time bombs in the first place. This is analogous to a criminal saying "well I was just in an environment where they were ASKING to be harmed". Same exact string of logic; you're easily triggered to detrimental behaviors by simple environmental stimuli. Get help. "Millennials aren't a particularly religious generation. For all your emphasis on Christianity and Christian philosophy in this video, I find it interesting to ponder that in our skeptical world, even as someone inclined to believe that there is some sort of higher power, I can only imagine that simply being told to have faith things are more fair after death is rather cold comfort in the face of all of this." Lol Christianity is the first established form of slave morality, so it's what got us here in the first place. With the advancing of our civilization into the secular age, the "facade" of morality evolved from religious evangelism to marxist revolutionism. Both preach the same thing though, that those who have resources are unjust to some degree; and those who have little should be regarded with special generosity. Both preach communal cooperation over individual exaltation, praise the common man, etc. I believe Nietzsche himself even says that Communism is just Christianity without the God. As for the large bulk of your comment, it is personal anecdote; so it has a qualitative value of zero regarding empirical debate. I'll be ignoring it. "Is it true those traits necessarily beget success, how can we be certain that is not a survivor bias?" It is true, because you can verify it yourself through the observation of their traits, and the fact that they all share general commonalities. Survivor bias means nothing, failure bias could be just as much of a problem for the other side; and regardless of survivors bias, if you witness a trait being repeatedly performed by successful people given the right context, it must mean the trait would prove beneficial to you regardless of circumstance. "I think it may also be worth noting that many of those successful merchants didn't necessarily start from zero." Predictable excuses of the weak. Let's nip this in the bud and move on. 88% of all millionaires in America are of first generational, self-made wealth. 70% of all billionaires in the entire world are of first generational, self-made wealth. Can provide statistic sources if necessary. "But I worry that the impression you give of blaming those young envious people for almost all of their struggles is reductive, and more concerning, liable to lead all the points of value to fall on deaf ears." It is reductive, but your comment presumes that reductionism is somehow bad. It is exactly the weaklings proclivity to shift the blame for their own weakness to external causes and faults, that has allowed envy to fester so much. The envious thrive when you claim "it's too reductionist" because now they shift the blame from their own envy and lack of ability, right back to the rest of society. The fact of the matter is that the weak & envious will always be just that, not because of a "corrupted system" but because by the very nature of the weakling he will fall behind. You're telling me we're living in the century with the highest QOL per-person ever in the history of the species, yet also reporting higher levels of depression? The problem is not society, it is the weak and their never-ceasing poisoning of the social pool. Also, yet again; no one is trying to convince the envious to stop being envious, they will always remain as such. They simply need to be oppressed, regardless of their wishes.
This video has officially altered my perception. Both confirming some of my thought processes and revealing to me the issues that plague myself. Thank you, this will assist me in my plans and goals.
Re: Communism -- "The people who normally seize power are ne'er do wells." Thomas Carlyle said it well: "Revolutions are started by idealists, carried through by fanatics, and co-opted by scoundrels."
@@bogdanmeoff2399 The advent of potent real-world AI, especially when robot bodies become hardy enough to deal with the wilderness and bombed-out urban environments, might well become toxic combined with rugged individualism. Of course, the combination of such tech with socialism might well be worse!
I think there are two social justices, one driven by envy, and the other driven by something more like a sense of fairness. The out of touch middle upper classes usually make up the former, and the rest usually make up the latter. A minority who observes people treating them differently for their appearance and calling it bullshit that should stop is very different from some college kid who needs to go on a holiday in Cambodia. Sometimes they don't recognize this difference between each other, but it does happen and in prominent parts of culture. The movie Get Out is a good example, and even involves envy as a main theme.
@@sicarii545 I did qualify the statement with usually. I don't know you as an individual, but I am saying that other people often mistake their envy and resentment towards the privileged as compassion and goodwill. It's that old two negatives don't make a positive problem.
I think this video ignores that wealth inequality has been expanded rapidly in the US and most of the developed world as middle class wages stagnant. This is not an issue of envy but a simple true statement.
I think the main difference is between the US and European countries is that the citizens of America has a credible threat to the government, so they either start a revolution or government backs off while the europeans, welp Im not even sure how you guys can fight except with massive protest and riots but one single military operation could decimate that movement.
@@subifyouhatetiktokandreddit234 While simultaneously growing smaller? I'm sorry, but you can't ignore an economy that currently has a decrease in expendable monies for the middle and lower class and the fact almost half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
I would consider myself to be very lefty but I still enjoy watching your videos (even though I often find myself disagreeing with some of the conclusions reached) It’s always interesting and educational to hear a different opinion that’s well articulated.
i do like him because he does explain WHY he believes in and tries to remains mostly unbiased in how he says it. i don't agree with him on a lot of stuff but his lectures don't instantly turn into a circle jerk. its a much more articulated and fact based view on more right wing points, while in america today a lot of the right wing has lost a good deal of that. not to say all of the left in america is exactly always smart with what they believe in, but especially on the right theres been much more blatant misinformation then in decades prior.
It's not just envy. But actual pain. If a bully stole a kid's lunch at school: That would envoke some kind of normal emotion. Especially if the kid is from a poor family, with little money. "Why am I the only one who isn't allowed to eat?" he says. And if the issue isn't addresed: That will motivate him to either avoid the bully. Or directly tell him to stop. Thereby, securing his own opportunity to eat. Like every other student does.
yeah he usually just walks through how things are, how they go, then why its a problem in the end. But yeah I guess if he doesn't say "which is fine" after each part he'll probably get people going, "well yeah what else should I/they do"
What would you say are his point that he gets wrong? I am a leftist so generally I disagree with his "pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality" and christian idealism. But I agree with most of his analysis and critique of the left's extreme sensitivity.
One of Whatifalthists biggest mistakes is that he keeps assuming the left wants what the right wing news tells him the left wants instead of finding some leftists to talk to. It's starting to get annoying how he seems to research everything else well and gets this so obviously wrong. Makes me start to question how good his other history is which until now I've been trusting him on.
😂 Why do you assume that that a real leftist wouldn't lie about Thier own ideology??? Seems like you're just crying because he said it like it is. liberalism isn't some perfect angelic thing as you make it out to be...
@@subifyouhatetiktokandreddit234 Liberalism is not a left wing belief. There is no universal general united left wing, just as there is none for the right. What a painfully simple, and American view of the world you have.
As an Australian "Liberals" means the right wingers (what Americans would call libertarians is where the name comes from, but really they are like your traditional Republicans (before the Tea Party and Trump came along and took them to a new extreme of crazy). It's so weird that yanks use the word "liberals" to mean left wing (although their perception of what the left wing is is incredibly bizarre anyway, like who the f#*k in their right mind things that goverment funding of healthcare is even close to being socialism).
There is pure senseless envy on one extreme and there is real political threat at another extreme and these two blend into each other towards the middle. When a rich middle class rises to challenge the aristocracy, the aristocracy might be envious but they also face a real threat. Another dimension is disgust - crassly flaunting wealth.
I think you attach too many economic/social ills to envy but I think you have a point about a lot of it. Nowadays people seem to be throwing pity parties instead of figuring out constructive ways of improving the “system”. A lot of solutions discussed on how to deal with stuff like social injustice are less about building up things and more about tearing things down that are already up. I think that is one of the reasons the founding fathers had the idea of amendments cannot simply be deleted. Call it a going on a limb but the thought just popped in my head.
Your exactly right, it's a lot of pity parties, tho many of the leaders of these grand pity parties use the societal guilt as a bludgeon to force thro policies or seize power for themselves. The founder of BLM owns multiple mansions yet loves to quote lines from the Communist Manifesto (see all the videos of her and others opening up BLM meetings and events with a quote from a convicted murder and Black Panther militant from the 70s, that quote is itself a quote from the Manifesto). Bernie Sanders also dropped 'millionaires' from his "Billionaires and Millionaires' speeches after he himself hit a networth of over a million. He currently owns four houses. These people talk a talk but never walk the walk, it's all an act to trick the common people into giving them all the power. Revolutionary France had the same thing "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality" coming from the guys who moved into the dead kings' palaces and then marched all the peasants off to wars of conquest. Same deal with every communist 'revolution'. These people just want power, and they will pay for it in your blood if they have to. They'd destroy society if it meant they got to be king of the rubble.
It's almost as if it was designed to 'tear down' and fail by bad actors who both push it, enable it, and do nothing about it when given power. This has kind of been a trend in the whole of the west for decades. It's simply that the US has had teh most resolute defences for it. Though demographics is the final nail in the coffin for those documents.
@@Lusa_Iceheart basic bitch prager-u tier take, funny thing is you can't prove any of what you said cause you know its bullshit meant to calm conservative feelings rather than fact
@@Lusa_Iceheart Just say that we live in a capitalist society and living on it means socialists are wrong. No need for a wall of text for a god tier bullshit. Wall of text is supposed to be leftwing stuff.
While some of the fundamentals seem relatively decent, I feel like this level of reductionism to envy results in an overly simplistic model that approaches absurdity in certain applications, rather than it being one factor among many - Similarly to how class or race reductionism leads to models that can be descriptively correct in certain contexts but in broader contexts fall apart (The european arguments in particular seem like an absolutely enormous reach, especially when there's mountains of conflicting evidence)
also the rise of envy seems to have clearly spiked with three things 1) the ability to see how the wealthy live 2) income/wealth inequality having a tangible effect on 25% of people's QoL 3) the ability of people to communicate this effect on their QoL Basically, the internet age has resulted in us seeing more how the wealthy live, and being aware of our own declining living standards, while the pre-eminence of tech companies has created a new class of nouveau-riche which don't really know how to behave with their wealth, and are thus scrutinized constantly by those who in turn can afford less
If I was being reductionist, I would reduce any and all societal problems to the individuals themselves, and in particular, our concupiscence, tendency to sin. I think SJWs/leftists get it backward, thinking that the problems are primarily from external influences as though there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with us in our core.
Personally I found it was self evident that Envy, or the lack of Envy wasn’t the only driving force for the progression of Europe. I really doubt he has that opinion, I feel he was instead trying to insinuate how controlling envy CAN lead to something great. However to an extent it is a bit oversimplified. Exclaiming that Europe progressed solely due to the handling of envious thoughts is a bit ludicrous…
True I feel the way society dealt with envy could be one of the factors but it can't be comprehensive reasoning for it all. There must've been other reasons playing role as well like geography, interaction of various cultures via trade etc
That’s very well put. The amount of anecdotal evidence is beyond reasonable, which is a shame as the idea of examining envy in history is not meritless.
The nazis weren't a reaction to jewish success, but to the utter depravity and degeneracy of the Weimar Republic. The people driving social decay were almost entirely Jewish. Economic justifications were used to pull in working class support.
@@noradlark167 Blasphemy isn't one of the seven deadly sins, but it would most likely fall under the scope of pride, given how it is seen as an act of rebellion against God.
@@samg.5165 Well, then what is the point of 7 sins list? Apostasy is the worst sin anyway without being on list People not believing in God has nothing to do with pride though. They aren't convinced, they have other religions etc... This is not rebellion.
@@noradlark167 From a theological perspective, it is. They would argue that the apostate puts himself above God by rejecting his word and spurning his love. The sin of pride is considered the most serious for that reason among others. And don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist (and arguably an apostate) myself. But this is how Christianity sees it.
Rudyard (Whatifalthist) I love your channel but I must respectfully disagree with the idea that the most successful people in any society are that way because they have the intelligence, grit, and ambition to succeed. Have you ever read Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers”? It describes how the most successful people in society are often that way because a number of factors go into their favor. Not simply being born into wealth, but being born on particular years, living in unique locations, etc. I’m not saying grit and ambition are not important, but Jeff Bezos would not survive during the Ice Age. His grit and ambition would be limited by his physical weakness compared to a Neanderthal and thus would be more likely to die from a mammoth attack then survive. Don’t be under the impression that I don’t agree with many of your videos or that I believe grit and ambition are unnecessary. They are required, but they are not guarantees. “It’s the mark of an intelligent person to entertain a thought without accepting it.” -Aristotle
While I'm not personally fond of Bezos and other Bilderberg/Rothschild mega-gazillionares that run the world, he did claw his way up from basically nothing to what he is on his own. I don't like that he runs a mega-corp with more power than a government, completely exempt from any sort of market pressure (mega corps can just call up the Fed and have them print a few billions whenever they make bad investments, or have regulators crush competitors for them, they don't play in a free market at all, Bezos is not a Capitalist) but I can respect the fact he took what was originally a small online bookseller and turned it into a nation-state in it's own right. That does take grit, ambition, perseverance and a health dose of talent.
I would be lying if I said I didn't hate the fact that you bring up Christianity at every corner of a video but I can't help but respect the rest of the knowledge in this video.
"Similarly, look at the culture of chilling, in which people like to say they're into vibing, chilling, smoking weed and watching Netflix... which I guess is fun for some people, but isn't something you should be bragging about in a healthy society" LOL
I started a business and was scammed out of all my investment capital and then some. Ngl, it's pretty depressing and demotivating, but I could try again. The thing is that I didn't "learn anything" from the experience though, because I was already being very careful. In this case, I can take control by realizing that I just had some bad luck and try again, or I can give up on high-risk high-reward ventures. I'm pretty poor now, but I know I'll get back on my feet. Time will tell if I'll try again, but it's tempting to politicize something like this in one direction or another. The fact is that sometimes things suck and there's not much you can do about it except try again - and again, and again, and again, in some cases. Wish I never learned about survivorship bias haha. Maybe I'd Colonel Sanders it then and try a thousand times and succeed. Or die penniless.
All of your content is incredibly interesting. It's truly inspiring to see that how you constantly grind to put videos out, judging by your upload schedule. Props, my man.
I feel people don't realize there is indeed a genetic component to those who become leaders and billionaires. They think it's all a matter of having rich parents, ignoring the fact that many rich people don't achieve anything of note. While many poor people also become self-made.
Most success actually does depend on a large variety of environmental factors. The genetic component plays a very small part in personal success (likely no more than 5%).
Envy is directly empowered by pride since anyone humble can see another as having potentially greater worth due to their potentially greater worthiness. A proud (in the sense of vain) person cannot since he must always see himself as superior.
"Objectively, thin people are healthier than fat people in real terms, which the modern left says is fat-shaming to say." Who says this? In a previous video, you listed the idea obesity is not a health problem but a problem of prejudice against the obese. I've heard people say that fatter people can be as beautiful as thinner people and even that "all bodies are beautiful", but I've never heard anyone deny that certain weights are healthier and being underweight or overweight is a health problem. Everyone knows that's true. (In fact, people criticize how valuing thinness leads to anorexia-caused malnutrition.) The closest thing I can remember is a vague memory of people daying that maybe the suggested range of weights should be wider and people shouldn't be so prescriptive about weight that they suggest single ideal weights for given heights and sexes. That might actually have been because for health reasons, though, based on the idea that people aren't thar uniform and may have slightly different ideal weights than such a simplistic system would indicate.
ive seen a ridiculous number of people claim they are obese and healthy, and they will have a mental breakdown if a doctor even suggests that a condition may be due to their obesity. Not just online, in real life
I guess I should also mention that the word "obese" often specifically refers to an extreme case of being overweight. Not everyone who is overweight is obese, although the very concept of "overweight" implies that there may be some negative effects when compared to having a somewhat lower weight. Obesity is defined to be when it becomes definitely a health problem. It's strange to to say "obesity is the only way to be healthy", because "obesity" is specifically designed to be unhealthy. If your weight is healthy, you're not obese by definition. Thus, they're actually arguing thst what is a healthy weight is different fron what is generally thought. It is true that "healthy" is a relative term, so you can be both obese and "healthy" if you have a somewhat low bar for what is "healthy". It's just that you would be MORE healthy if you were thinner (though it probably depends a bit on how exactly you got thinner). There could also theoretically be some legitimacy to the claim that there are multiple ways to be healthy. Medical experts might just be advocating for the one way thry know that works to prevent disease, lack of "energy", etc. I think medical studies are often based on statistical studies of likelihood of disease, which removes credibility from this idea, but it does depend on what exactly is treated as "disease" or evidence of one. Some "diseases" have obviously negative effects, like increased risk of death or loss of mobility, but the effects of other ones, like OCD, physical deformities, or inability to feel pain, are somewhat debatable. I think many Deaf people even think that physical deafness can have good effects because of bringing about Deaf culture and worldviews.
Very shaky points towards the end there. I feel like you are receiving a lot of bad info from right-wing talking points. Every comfort you have today was because the people before you fought for progress and you are here saying "Things are good actually, look at ancient history, the left only whines" when that line of thinking would mean the US would never go for independence, the separation of church and estate would never happen and no republic would have ever had risen to power. Right now the US spends more on being world police than with it's own infrastructure and well being, rich people are able to fund people into power and your birth address is the biggest factor of your success in a society that prides itself in meritocracy. You are letting a bunch of 20 year olds on Twitter and CZcams dictate too much of what "the left" actually is, or should stand for, without giving any merit to actual policy.
'Right now the US spends more on being world police than with it's own infrastructure and well being,' This is the shakiest point. The world asked the US to take on this role. Previously, each empire (principally Britain, France, Germany and Russia) policed her own trade areas (especially sea trade routes), but that led to the absolute carnage of 1914 and consequently, 1939. The Bretton Woods system had the US become the sole global power of the Western World, and she was allowed to have reserve currency status. But in return, she had to keep the trade routes open and use her military to defy communism and protect Europe and Australasia. After Nixon, this system morphed into the Petrodollar where the $ was essentially backed by oil. This is why Gaddafi and Hussein had to be removed, because they threatened this hegemony. This is also why the Saudis are staunch allies of the US and no American leader has ever had a bad word to say about them. The US was allowed to gain global hegemony - this suited Europe because they had no way of defending themselves from the Soviets - and later, they could use the money they saved to fund extensive welfare states
True, but remember to take everything he says with a grain of salt. He's not a certified historian, he's just a college dropout making videos would sounds like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro turned into one being. And while I like a lot of his videos, I tend to ignore the wilder claims he has.
@@juliantheapostate8295 so why is that a good idea in 2021? You think Europe has not recovered from the World Wars? Right now the US spends 3 times more than it's rival, while having 18 allies out of the 20 countries with the biggest GPDs. Every war (after WW2) the US has waged has been to it's own detriment and to the detriment of the region (except the baltics, you guys did all right on that one). In the end everything was useless because the US got oil security not by waging war but because of technological progress. Hindsight is always 20 20, but if you look at history every economical short coming was solved with tech. Also really? Are we going to measure human lives lost or driven to extremism in exchange for oil prices? I guess Whatifalthist is right, our society is getting more sociopath, but I guess it has always been this way in the end. Democrats made one of the most inefficient health care systems of the entire world. Republicans prefer not having one at all. I'm going to take the UK as an example. I'm going to use 2019 because it's before covid and the UK is one of the most right leaning countries in Europe.They spent 183,5 bi dollars for a population of 66.9 million. Meaning they spent 2.742,89 on each person. The US spent 1.2 trillion on Medicare + 729 billion on Health (I honestly do not understand why they are putting these separate in www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function) meaning 1.9 Tri dollars on a population of 328,23 million, spending 5.788,45 per person. This whole "Somebody has to pay for it" idea is propaganda, you already pay for it, but almost all of it stays in the pockets of middle men. In the end, most of your working force still gets private health insurance (which also exists in the EU) given by employers, but go into debt because they took an ambulance. The data is all there but Republican and Democrats are too proud to notice that. Twenty two studies have been done proving this: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003013 . Even a right wing think tank agrees: www.mercatus.org/system/files/blahous-costs-medicare-mercatus-working-paper-v1_1.pdf This without counting how the pharmaceutical industry sells things to the US with a higher price than in other countries like Canada.
When I was little me and my parents often went to my grandparent's Appartment to visit them, it is small and not in the best of neighborhoods. My grandfather didn't live the best of lifes, as a little kid ( already working at his uncle's knife factory) he saw how the leftist communists wrecked his village's church and turned it into a brothel, afterwards and after the civil war swept through his region the fascist thugs took control and disowned all the important belongings of his family and distributed it amongst their supporters and friends. There was so little food available that he and the other village boys would go to the barracks where the Maghrebi colonial troops were to pick up the food scraps. Then as a teenager he went to the big city to look for work and spend the next few decades working in different jobs, but after time and effort he became an excellent all rounder craftsman and gained the respect of his fellow construction workers being able to raise six kids. At the end though the pay wasn't a lot and he lost his job early, after that it was just the minimal retirement pay. While I was there and especially before leaving he would ALWAYS tell me how important it was to listen to others, how healthy calmness and restraint can be and especially how USELESS ENVY is. It does bad for others and it makes you unhappy. As a kid I always wondered why he would say that every time, but now I really fight with myself to follow it. Considering his background I find myself having more and more respect for him by the day, he maybe wasn't the smartest guy around, but he very well is the wisest man I've ever met. No Rudy, I haven't met you :P And even if, you'd still have to prove it in real life ;) (Sorry about the text wall)
Dude I’m sorry but the level of analysis in this video can be boiled down to a fundamental misunderstanding and confusion. As someone who is clearly not involved in left-wing circles, you’re rushing quickly to ascribe the motivations of left-wing forces to be “envy” and some abstract notion of desire or greed. This especially goes when you say that pulling down a statue of Churchill is fundamentally coming from some jealously that he achieved great things… I think to anyone even remotely involved or having spoken to people on the left, it comes out of an understanding of the hypocrisy and great historical wrongs that have been done and that have been ignored in the dominant historical narratives. Churchill isn’t torn down because people are “jealous.” Churchill is torn down because we are taught of his wise statescraft and his ability to guide his nation through war, but we hardly talk about the colonial holocausts that him and the men like him presided over. I think envy is a really weird and esoteric way to talk about this issue. Harkening back to the “hunter gatherer mindset” and other pseudo-scientific justifications for your claims aren’t really doing a lot to make the case either unless it’s people who already agree with your conclusion that the left is bad and therefore parrot whatever seems to be “research.” The reason for these movements is the founding principles of American society are freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet at the same time it is a society founded on the largest mass murder in history, it kept people in chains and then in legal constraints until about 50/60 years ago and crushed any movement that dared go beyond the minimal legal concessions offered so that the government was not overthrown. Public pressure from below forced change, and many on the left today are inspired to continue that fight and undo the wrongs that remain completely unaddressed. It’s to address the shortcomings of historical movements. Everything you see today is a historical outgrowth of the anti-colonial and first world revolutions of the middle of the last century, for better or for worse. I really don’t see how you can miss that and focus on some like supposed character trait that defines everybody on the left. Quite frankly, even though I’m not an avid watcher of your content, I’m a little disappointed in this “research” and I think it stems from a complete and utter misreading of modern political movements.
I'm not sure I can completely agree or completely disagree with your statements, however, I just want to commend you for writing a well-thought out rebuttal to this video. It's really refreshing to see an argument presented in the comments section *actually* arguing a point instead of devolving into childish name calling and the like. By providing a coherent counter-argument, you have a far greater chance of convincing others to agree with you. The point of debate is not to 'beat' your opponent, but to create discourse and hopefully to learn from one another. Pretty sad how foreign this idea has become.
@@MrAwesomeSaucem Completely agree with you, and I even think I could have been more diplomatic in my statement but I slid in a few unnecessarily critical remarks. I think by nature the internet kind of distances discourse and we dehumanize the people we talk to so most of the time it just becomes a name calling fest or something, but usually I still try and engage with people. A lot of the time it’s a waste, but I’m glad to see someone got something out of it. Cheers!!
5:54 I would say the society today selects mostly for psychopaths and narcisists to reach the top, you kinda have to not care about people and be super individual and goal oriented as well as smart and narcisitic to get ahead in today's world, most people aren't like this and nether were most leaders of the past like this, some kings and queen were for sure but even that number is lower than you think and most people below them did not do too much besides maintaining order, these days we have social media, mass media, politicians and corporate ceo's that basically run the world and enjoy it while other struggle to get ahead, sometimes because of their efforts on the top to stop them from getting ahead.
As an upperclass, cis white Male progressive I think it’s important to note how big a role empathy plays in the left. Saying it’s driven by envy feels deeply uncharitable
Yeh it’s classic if you’re rich and left wing you’re a hypocrite but if you’re poor and left wing you’re jealous. I’m not denying some of the left are driven by envy but I think it’s similar with many on the right who opossose things that would create better equality of opportunity because not on principle but because they feel that they would lose out. Not that there isn’t well intentioned people on both sides
I think empathy very important as a counter to envy. Neither is inherently left or right but envy can be poisonous to any progressive movement by channeling them away from making things better towards just getting revenge. You are right that you need empathy and compassion to keep the progressive view working towards a better tomorrow
It's that empathy which leads to the envy. The Left have this cosmic concept of justice where it's more important to worry about how people are faring in some far off land. The Right say 'charity begins at home'. I've betrayed my bias here but a right-wing person sees an entirely different world out there, than a left-wing person does
@@juliantheapostate8295 yeh I agree that a lot of political differences are cause by viewing the world in different ways and this is why it is often hard for people to understand each other’s perspective
Collectivism in society is like a bucket of crabs Try crawling out and you get pulled back in. Envy truly is a curse, every human was born with unique circumstances and unique ideas It is wrong to believe that just because you don't have something doesn't mean others should not have it.
What exactly do you mean by "it is wrong"? Envy is a natural emotion that was very useful in the environment where our ancestors evolved, which is the reason why we carry it in our genes. You can't just hope it away any more than you can hope away any other negative emotions that we have. What you have to do is to create the society such that the unhappiness generated by envy is minimised. Churchill said that communism is a great theory but for a wrong species and he was right as communist theory pretends that we can just wish away selfishness from people. The exact same applies to economic theories they just wish away envy from people and think that you can create a society where the effects of envy are just ignored.
@@srelma how is it useful at all? Jealousy is useful, envy is not. Just because we carry a gene doesn't mean it was useful. Jealousy is the desire to have something someone else has, envy is the desire to deny something to someone when one doesn't possess it. Basically the difference between "I want what the other guy has" and "if I can't have it, no one will". It also ignores that the best aren't the ones who always get to breed, in fact it's almost always been some of the worst people that often end up involuntarily bringing up more children. I do agree that getting rid of it may very well be impossible hence why measures should be developed to prevent it from causing too much damage. Religions like Christianity can do this quite well while religions like Islam would only worsen things further.
@@necrosteel5013 how is it helpful. First, I don't even need to develop a theory as it is obvious that it has been helpful as it has been carried by the people in most successful societies and those societies that had no people with envy, got wiped out. It's ubiquitous in human societies all around the world. The most likely help from envy was that it forced the most successful hunters to share their catch with the tribe as they knew that otherwise they could face being outcast which in the hunter-gatherer tribes meant pretty certain death. Why was it useful to force the most successful hunters to share their catch? That's probably because being successful is often a matter of luck, which means that if I'm lucky this time you might be lucky next time. If you starve to death now as I don't share my catch with you, I may not have anything to get from you next time. Envy is the force that makes us share what we have even without explicit rules for that. We know that if we're lucky, other people will feel envious to us, which means that we either have to hide our luck or share it (or otherwise face social stigma). Note, that we don't usually feel envy to people who work hard and make sacrifices to get something as then we'll feel that they deserve the fruits of their labour, but we do feel envy on people getting something by just good fortune. We celebrate the rag to riches stories and despise the entitled youth going to to top universities because they happen to have succeeded parents.
@@srelma again, don't mistake jealousy for envy here. Sharing will solve jealousy but not envy. Envy can easily be felt by people who are incapable of work but who desire to do things regardless, just look at communists, they are some of the most envious people.
@@necrosteel5013 I'm not mistaking. This is what Merriam-Webster gives as difference between the two words: Envy means discontented longing for someone else’s advantages. Jealousy means unpleasant suspicion, or apprehension of rivalship. Envy is exactly what I'm talking about above.
Lots of interesting ideas, envy also plays a very prominent role in Rene Girard's philosophy. I think you're on to something important here. The cultural conversation over the past several years has centered around oppression and power. Maybe re-framing claims to oppression or the righteous disruption of hierarchies as being motivated by envy provides a useful defense.
16:56 "europe is the main part of the world that has seen active economic decline", the graph shown there is really not enough to support that claim, especially since China shoots up so fast. Also attributing it to socialism and not to other factors seems iffy to me.
Also europe is not in economic decline, it's just growing slower than africa or china (and considering that europe is a really small continent it should not be surprising that their total economic share would plummet after the rest of the world reached them) most european countries (before covid) registred gdp growth even greece
Yeah that was the one part I found a bit weird in the video too. Europe unlike the US, has no place to expand to anymore, our industry grows alot slower, we simply have no place and no recourses, the main way our economy grows is through innovation and there are currently less innovations made in the world.
@@felicepompa1702 Europe is falling, gdp growth isn’t the only nor the main thing that controls the economy, companies have moved factories away, food production has degreased and laziness is being supported, if we don’t change we can’t go anywhere
I think that, ironically, whatifalthist is displaying envy towards Europe because if Europe is doing better than the US that would make his world view unfounded.
Apologies for the mistake. Pride is the worst sin in Christianity, not envy.
sure
Please consider making a video on why Pre-Colonial African states/kingdoms/empires weren't* as expansionist as their Eurasian counterparts....... (or seemingly weren't as expansionist)
Actually, lust is the worst of the sins according to the Bible
Yeah I thought maybe you had your own version of Christianity there xD
Self proclaimed historian, arbiter of truth lmao. Pls source your claims and maps once in a while.
Jeff Bezos 15,000 years ago: Kills a mammoth and shares it only with prime tribesmen
"Prime" tribesmen!
Or forces all the other men to hunt mammoths without breaks while he stays with the women
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist "and shiting on the way is against the rules!"- prehistoric Jeff Bezos probably
If that happens he’d just get murdered though since Bezos’s only power today comes from Wealth, which isn’t a useful commodity if someone can just kill you and take said wealth.
Well ... it not actually that far off
The people that helped hunt and there familys get food and those who didn't don't
Envy is probably the only sin without any real pleasure attached to it. Among the 7 capital sins, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride are all pleasing because they offer sex, food, money, ease, power, and self-esteem, even if in the end these are unfulfilling, but the envious is ultimately the most miserable because they derive pain from another’s fortunes instead of joy from their own. Perhaps that’s why the envious are so bitter and malevolent, because they can only be satisfied when the subject of their envy suffers or has less than them.
I would argue that envy's pleasure is schadenfreude, happiness at the misery of others.
Perhaps that could also be a pleasure of pride, like "Haha, I did better and you didn't!" but envious schadenfreude may have a more satisfying edge to it. Instead of taking pride in yourself, you enrich your mood by seeing a "higher" person than you fall to/below your perceived level and never recover.
It does happen that “joy at another’s misfortune” is theologically one of the daughters of envy. Though I would still hold that envy is still the most miserable.
I'd say petty
Pride and wrath are also pleasurable for their own sake. I've always had an anger issue, not because I'm easily prone to anger but rather when I do reach a rage point it feels better than sex, wealth, or power. It's all consuming if you can't snap yourself out of it. That's the real danger.
I would note that all of the cardinal sins are perversions of something good. Sex, food, material goods, rest, indignation, ambition, and dignity are good things, but they are often perverted away from their right order. For your own situation, wrath can be good when it is ordered toward correcting something wrong out of love, but if it’s source is pride, where something is wrong because you deem it so, and you “leave the room fuming” so to speak, this is not the right order for anger.
"On an individual basis, do not surrender anything to the envious. They will only envy you more." I needed this! Surrendering may be as simple as sharing business data that should remain confidential
"Envy is the art of counting another's blessings instead of your own" - Mr. Bean
Very wise
Isn't it more Harold Coffin, rather than the famously mute character Mr Bean?
When did mr bean spoke
@@sudarshan3965 yeah same
@@sudarshan3965 bro i love mr bean
In USSR there was a saying - "be quieter than water, lower than grass."
Yeah, they say Khrushchev followed this saying and escaped the purges of Stalin.
I think that saying was prevalent even before the USSR. Orthodox Christianity promoted that mentality in society for a long time.
Which sounds like northern italian "eat what you have and shut up about what you know".
My opinion, as a modern teenager, is that the source of envy amongst the middle class youth (or at least one of the possible sources) is insecurity in one’s future. My generation is heavily afflicted by self doubt and the stories on the news are constantly warning us that our living standards will be worse off than our parents. Many feel that they won’t be able to ‘make it big’ and be successful and thus turn to envy as a way to console themselves and their fear of failure. Thats my two-penny’s worth. Great video :)
Accept your fate or work to do better... but do not take it out on others who are more successful and try to tear down society.... plain and simple
@Safwaan, being born with a attractive face makes me envy someone with the ideal gym body even more so than if I wasn't born with a attractive face, since having a attractive face made me desperately want a attractive gym body to go with my attractive face.
@Safwaan, I know. But working out hard enough to have the body that I would had wanted is really hard and time consuming for me since I was born with a naturally skinny body. Which is why I often unsuccessful at having the ideal gym body. Whereas it's a whole lot easier and less time consuming for someone who was born with a naturally broad body.
@Safwaan, I have been working out to be more buff lately, but I don't do it to try to appear more attractive to women, I do it just to make myself happy. I know that being naturally skinny does not make it impossible to work out to be buffer, but I am already 40 year's old, and I made mistakes in the past that made me become skinnier again like trying to have too many other hobbies outside of my work life, besides working out which made me fail at maintaining my goals at the gym, since we only have a very limited amount of free time outside our work life. Now I had regained some of my muscle mass by learning from my mistakes and limiting the amount of other hobbies that I try to engage in. Do you know what I mean?
@Safwaan, well, I look more like a 30 year old than a 40 year old especially after I started taking better care of my health, and the lifestyle I had chosen made me incompatible to get married and have kid's, not just because I work out, but because I want to also pursue my creativity by doing creative art. And I like to think of myself as a young person even though I'm already a middle aged person rather than a young person.
I had never considered monogamy being a such major factor in keeping our society stable by keeping the majority of men preoccupied with responsibility, essentially. Makes a lot of sense when you see packs of young single men in other cultures who don’t seem to have high prospects.
Polygamy only works when there is a large shortage of males, and many cultures can create that sending their surplus young males off to war.
Revolutions are run on testosterone better used on reproduction.
Western so called world has the exact same packs of single men. Also women, curiously.
Like in China?
People in general are irrational. If you do not keep their delusions and illusions going they will stop functioning. Very dangerous for society.
Technically, envy is the _second_ worst sin in Christianity, after pride, since it is believed that pride - specifically, the pride of rebelling against the Almighty - is the source of all other sins.
Edit: As a side note: it's worth mentioning that the word "lust" doesn't mean what most people think it means. It means "desire" - in this case, desire for anything other than physical possessions (which is instead classified as "avarice").
Great. Now I need a Version of persona 5 where everytime someone says desire, its swapped for list XD
I would say that this view of sin is not correct in orthodoxy, but at least in catholicism. Orthodox view sin as bad regardless of magnitude; only God would be able to judge the magnitude.
Actually greed is the worst sin of all because from greed it can turn into envy , pride,lust ,...etc but from the other sin it hardly resemblance greed
In Christianity, there is no "worst" sin. You're thinking about Catholicism.
Pride is the first Deadly Sin because it was the first sin and its the root of all sins.
Its rooted in the idea of self-importance. The idea of the individual. All the other Deadly Sins spawn from that. The first sin was committed by Satan who believed himself so important that he was more worthy of God's position than God was. Leading to his rebellion. The spirit of revolution and individualism is inherent in the idea of Pride.
I actually like seeing people not agreeing with him. It prevents this comment section from becoming an echo chamber.
It already is tho
Its how it should be, we talk about this like rational people and come up with a middle ground. If everyone were to agree then there wouldn't be free will.
@@neikokannai4054
Exactly. He presents his opinions, then everyone shares their own thoughts on it. It's that simple.
That’s the thing. I don’t agree with him not because he offered good, logical points. I disagreed with him because this was more of a right wing rant about the communisms and the SJWs and the AWH everyone’s leaving church.
@@gliiitched4429 Here we go. Why does everything have to be about politics with people like you? Just refusing to accept blatant truths, because you know that the truth goes against whatever agenda you hold. Sorry to break it to you, but yes, communism, wokeism and everything in between are excellent examples of envy on a societal level
The societies that suppress the effects of envy the most, thrive the most. When the people begin to choose improving their own lives, rather than tearing down the lives of others, that society progresses. Therefore, we should create a society in which those who work the hardest receive the most.
Such a society is both impossible under a government that collectivizes wealth, and a system where the richest individuals can prevent poorer form increasing their social standing. Essentially, hands off capitalism and communism can devolve into the same thing.
A society should strive to maximize competition between both individuals and corporations. A free market system that is regulated just enough to where individuals have the ability to increase their standing, and are not bound by the social class they were born into.
exactly, nowadays the word "capitalism" is semi synonymous with "corporatism" to a lot of americans (mostly on the left) because of how big some of them have gotten and issues with corporations influencing government and monopolies starting to show their faces. capitalism in itself is supposed to be based around the fact competition breeds innovation, both societally and in the market. having no regulation at all casues monopolies that shut down new ideas or smaller companies that could compete against them, which the same constricting effect a planned economy might have.
@@sovietunion7643 capitalism is a natural phenomenon when you make merchantry large scale, what I don't understand is why you people in the first world can't distinguish between " wants" and "needs"?
everybody needs medicine, who needs a big ass house in the hampton's?, this is where the rubber meats the road with liberalism because it makes its seem like capitalism doesn't have a conscious and can just do whatever it pleases for the benefit of its superiors.
Well said
@@sovietunion7643 However, it's important to know that regulation can also cause monopolies, too. Many monopolies even today became monopolies by bribing government officials to make regulations that would bankrupt smaller competing businesses while larger businesses would be able to afford.
I like your idea of "those who work the hardest receive the most". That thinking appeals to our sense of fairness.
The problem in modern market economy is that the most of the added value of our labour does not come from merely "working hard", but instead there is a huge spectrum of productivity among us and most of that spectrum is due to luck.
So, for instance for me by putting a certain effort to work it's relatively easy to achieve high income as my skills happen to be valued by the labour market, but someone else without those skills and with the same effort would get a much more meager income.
In my opinion, in a perfect society, the society would even out these differences due to luck while leaving it still worth the effort to work hard with the skills you have or even improve those skills with conscious decisions.
It's not straightforward how to separate the effort from luck, but it's obvious in both extreme ends of the spectrum, which one is it.
The UK has a fairly entrenched class system, but I've been confused by recent events namely how easily "liberal elites" became a slur for usually just any middle-class professional stating their expertise, while the actual landed gentry became "men of the people". Envy makes a lot of sense: the latter being from and in an unreachable level of society, while the former are generally just people who did better in school.
I think it has to do with those in political power being in a position to pander to the envious and hand out "free" stuff. Just like the Roman politicians who specialized in providing bread and circuses to the poor in exchange for their votes/restraint from riots.
Couldn't of said it better my self.
@UTubeFekUrself I get you mean. You can outline like Novara Media there seems to be invited into the BBC practically every other week, but still complains about the mainstream media being biased against them. Though usually these beliefs being spouted by monopolistic interests are leftist social beliefs as opposed to leftists economic beliefs in my experience.
Landed gentry? What are you talking about? The "middle-class professionals with experitse who did better in school" are the biggest individual landowners in the US. John Malone, Ted Turner, Stan Kroenke, Peter Buck, Philip Anschutz, Thomas Peterffy and Jeff Bezos all fit your description, most were middle-class college students, though some few were born rich as others were born poor and did not attend college, who went on to become billionaires through many enterprises, and then reinvested their wealth in landowning. Not denying there are many families in the US who have held huge swathes land for generations, but they compete with the so called "people who did better in school" in this very field and have far less wealth or influence than them, and are also much less active in American politics.
@UTubeFekUrself What are you talking about? The aim of the left is not to be contrarian at every turn. So if the government and media start listening to their concerns, it is not time to change their concerns... Democratic governments don't exist in a vacuum. The "system" is one of catering to the lowest common denominator, and being as uncontroversial as possible. The fact that the government and the media are finally changing their tune means the voice of the people is a more left one than in yesteryear.
Besides, we live in a world that is completely dominated by capitalism and corporate interests. I don't understand why you can't see this simple fact.
I'm also curious what you think the left believes that is so out of touch with the common person. Do common people not want social services and freedom from discrimination?
I think a more useful perspective is to acknowledge the binary between resentment and contempt, where the former is motivated by anger towards someone assumed to be above oneself and the latter contrastingly is fueled by disgust towards someone believed to be below oneself. The left historically has been associated with resentment (envy of the powerful, etc.) and the right with contempt (bigotry, purification), but both flanks are equally capable of embodying either drive.
Ma man! Your like, an OG!
But the right is pro individual freedom, so how is that bigoted? I'd say that the left has both qualities, contempt and envy
@UCFNDfENexEE5dXYNAABNTSA Being pro individual freedom doesn’t mean you aren’t bigoted. Just because someone says all people should be “free” doesn’t change their own desire to oppress others economically or socially. And there is no such thing as all people are equally free, some are “freer” than others. The right’s idea of freedom means telling the government to fuck off, it doesn’t mean to make sure everyone is equal. I don’t want to get into a hate filled argument but desire to be free from the government does not equal unbiased equality.
@@AverageAlien no it doesn't
that's libertarians
This is a perspective that is used more to justify the actions of the left than to actually describe what the right actually does or believes. It creates the illusion of comparability and gives the impression that the left isn't so bad because the right has its problems. The reality is that the right is typically defined by ignorance. Those people are against change because they can't see a problem. This is best seen by the most likely apocryphal line of Marie Antoinette, "let them eat cake." At best they don't know, or at worst they don't care. They are driven by the desire to just keep things the same regardless of whether it should or not. The idea that the right exhibits contempt is because that is what the left has to believe to justify their hatred to the right. It's hard to see the various economic, social, and political factors that are involved in a decision, so people just believe the action was driven by malice.
What salvages your position is that the right includes everything that isn't the left, which means fascism gets to be on the right. Fascism is a revolutionary ideology that looks to progress the world forward and does exhibit the contempt you're talking about.
Imagine how proud his dad must be
Thought provoking comment
his dad probably doesn’t watch his videos, alongside his family and close friends
@@evilstealth6441 Envy provoking comment :)
A bit envious too
The most based Whatifalthist video ever (not envious though).
As a teenager your description of teenagers was spot on. It’s super annoying how people tear down historical figures for no reason and how people put in no effort and throw away their potential by ruining their brains.
😇
Which historical figures are you talking about
@@bellairefondren7389 like statue and structure you are not agree with even though they were not know that environment and era of their veiw
In regards to envy in academia I mostly tend to find this comes from people in HASS (humanities, art , social sciences ) fields as opposed to STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine) fields.
and that's because political propaganda will be more useless in stem subjects than in humanities.
@@arkcliref Do you mean pepole in STEM are less likley to be duped by Marxist/Commie shit?
@@tomasroberts2016 I mean, can you solve Trigonometry with Marx's theory?
@@arkcliref Jokes on you they are trying to. Claims are coming out about math being racist.
I can see how art in academia can drive envy, since the value of art is highly subjective.
Rudyard (Whatifalthist), at some point down the line, would you be willing to include a bibliography of your source material in the description section? I am not a scholar in any way (I have the attention span of a squirrel on crack) but I find your videos to be incredibly eye opening and find myself wanting to investigate how your reached your point of views. Keep up the good work sir, these geopolitical videos are fantastic.
Seconded
Thirded
Fourthed
Fifthed
Sixthed
2:24 As a Nigerian-immigrant currently working and schooling in North America, I have come to one conclusion: Social Justice, wokeness and progressivism can ONLY exist in a developed, liberal and first-world nation/region where there are very few existential threats and where the purposeless masses in urban areas have to create some form of ideology to fill the void in their lives. That is why it makes no sense and destroys that society. That is also why rural westerners, non-western countries and immigrants mostly tend to hate social justice and wokeness more than the native citizens.
3 of my university lecturers were from Nigeria. I really liked their lectures as they didn't 'piss about'
Absolutely true. I wonder if rest of the world will face similar problems as the West after becoming advanced enough to hav little to no existential threats. Do Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore face similar social issues? Or are they too different from the Western culture to hav that issue?
Except there’s social justice and progressivism in developing countries too...
@@lordkiwi355 The Asian societies are pretty much based upon "not sticking out". Social Justice has no real place in those societies since that is what is expected by default, also they are ethnically much more homogenous.
The cruel thing is that either way there are existential threats to all developed societies, Western or Asian. The problem is that the cultural makeup of these societies in one way or another is incapable of admitting that.
In Asia that's because you'd be shunned for criticizing how it's always been and also criticizing people in their jobs while you don't do it, it's a "what are you supposed to know" kind of thing, and also very inpolite in principle.
In Western Societies it's more of the polar opposite that everyone that rings alarm bells seems like they do so for their own good, not because they're honest about it. That way real problems like demographic decline get swept under the rug, as even if they're talked about they're not "politically correct" or don't garner enough attention or are against immigrants or whatever reason people will come up with.
Don't take this too seriously tho, it's just a quick ramble, I haven't thought about this too deeply and so I might be wrong, tell me if that is the case.
Who are you to even make these claims. Utterly absurd.
I understand this to be an explanatory joke. A Russian farmer gets a wish granted and wishes for a cow. The cow gives milk, which feeds his family with milk, butter, and cheese. The cow can also pull the plough, allowing the farmer to grow more food, so over all the cow is an enormous blessing to the farmer.
A year later, the farmer's neighbor, also a farmer, also gets a wish granted. He thinks about how much of a blessing his neighbor's cow has been and how much better off his neighbor is because of the cow. He makes his wish: "I wish my neighbor's cow would die."
*"Most of history is a group project in which people are trying to "chill and have fun with friends" until the Romans crush them."*
🤣
-
Another excellent video!
Lol this had me cackling too
Or they’re Canadian and they simply simp for the Rome they’re attached to….
"Most of history is a group project in which people are trying to chill and have fun with friends... until the Romans crush them" xD
Don't you hate it when you're playing with the boys and the Romans start hacking?
@@lollllolll. frrrr
Legionnaire go brrr
YOU ARE BEING CIVILIZED, PLEASE DO NOT RESIST
Yeah.. I really loved that quote.
Can you do a video on why our generation brags about smoking, "vibing" and "Chilling" out? on the flip side I think there's a smaller proportion of society especially within academia and corporate America who brag about working to death, pulling all nighters, working 2 jobs, etc.
Because losers like to feel better about themselves by seeing other losers
That's in the works
not just our generation. Every generation has their moments
It’s that people would rather be happy than have to spend 99% of their life being worked to emotional extinction
they don't really many of the popular songs you say talk about partying and chilling all the time were mostly within 2008 to 2012 most people talk about hustling and grinding way more. This video is what people who spend all their time on the internet criticizing people think honestly. Drakes and kanye west album is the most streamed albums of the year one is about religion and the other one is about how much work theyve done and how thier rich now which you can critizise as much as you want but its not about vibing chilling or any other crap
There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Proverbs 6:16-19
"Sun God will leave us if we don't bring good harvest."
CaveAltHist: "Maybe the Sun is just a natural process and there's actually no supernatural force that is at work here."
"Kill big word man"
XD
Being intelligent is not the only factor in making a person successful
Yup, luck is a massive factor nobody who gets rich will ever admit to, most of the time things are far beyond your control and knowledge and you just gotta cross your fingers and hope you hit the right wave.
@@johnpaulcross424 Luck is definitely part of it, but I was thinking along the lines of self-discipline, people skills, etc.
@@johnpaulcross424 luck is important but successful people have a way to force luck. If you try long enough something is bound to work. The kind of attitude you are displaying for example is defeatist which is not going to help in any way whatsoever.
So Trump has discipline or luck? Or is it because he inherited it all?
@@Perrirodan1 never said give up and stop trying lol just said a lot of the time it’s not gonna come to you. I assumed that it was implied that you gotta go out there and do a lot to hope to catch that luck but apparently I needed to say it outright.
It's not just looking forward to Heaven that allows Christianity to control envy, but also the threat of Hell.
If people who are in your eyes undeserving will burn in hell, then that relieves you of the responsibility to bring them down to size yourself. God will do it for you.
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." ― Albert Einstein
@@Stellar_Politics "Don't let anybody tell you that you are not asleep" -InspiroBot
on the topic of posting completely irrelevant quotes
@Tsots loot this doesn't eliminates envy, just repress and ultimately potencializes the envy by putting it on a superior plan.
@@HB-qu8dm Are you sure that's not envy? It is relevant and He's totally correct lol.
call me totalitarian but maybe trying people for treason for being openly envious would help
There's nothing controversial about calling any ideology which touts, "equity," envious. I've been debating family on the left for 20 years saying they're simply preaching envy.
It's an doesn't actually address what they're saying though. You can't just go your just jealous and be done with it.
@allykat2831 It addresses directly what they're saying. People touting "equity" are entitled and feel they're owed something. Americans are in the top 1% of the world, even if they're considered "poor" in America.
@@controlclerk doesn't actually solve the problems at all. People can't get out of a problem by saying it's worst else where that's ridiculous. It might be worse in other places but the problems still exist. Homelessness, food insecurity, class mobility. Just because some people on the left might be enviousness of the wealthy doesn't mean there concerns aren't valid or worth considering.
@allykat2831 It addresses the "problem" by telling them they have to solve it for themselves. "Food insecurity" in America is laughable. Most "poor" people are obese. "Class mobility," isn't a right, it's earned through hard work. Homelessness has more to do with people not working or being responsible with their money. There are numerous shelters and programs for people who are homeless and want to do the work to get out of it. But they have to do the work. No one is entitled to having everyone else take care of them.
you love to see the envious seething and coping in the comment section
I think the trigger for modern envy is really being fuled by the inequality among generations and the real harm that is causing. Millennials only own 5% of total wealth, compared to the Boomers 53%. Stagnant wages, cronyism, and a massively inflated cost for essential & non-luxury items leaves a bleak future for the young. The K shaped recovery post pandemic has served to highlited this, and when you get systemic inequality introduced outside the free market, you get envy.
Yes, I think the real problem today is that even with putting in hard work and being diligent the hurdles such as housing (look at housing prices vs annual income currently vs historical) are causing people to question the system itself. For all its benefits, capitalism has a tendency to create inequality without the correct regulation. Often governments struggle to find the balance between corporations, individuals and GDP with regulation. With increasing automation (and don't forget climate change and inequality) in the future which is quite different from the previous industrial revolutions (since there is no clear pathway open for new industries where people can find employment) there is definitely a good argument to make for changing the current system. This is especially relevant looking at the number of monopolies in the world which is undermining the very principle of a market system (competition).
Why would you be jealous of your own generational wealth? It all gets passed down eventually. Comparing two generations wealth is silly, of course older people possess way more wealth, always have
@@thesandman5969 Good comment. There are ways to decrease the labor supply, though. Republicans want to do it by cutting immigration, democrats want to do it by unemployment insurance and whatnot. Culturally, people probably work more hours than they did during the middle ages, if you count winter, church holidays, etc.
@@MrShtgoose1 But think of the excess wealth of the older generations that could power the uncovered innovators of the younger generation. Such things like education is crucial to be taken at a young age and imo must be funded for a generally more intelligent, compassionate and ideal future society, whatever that happens to be. The overwhelming wealth simply utilized to stack more wealth (not saying they shouldn't have the right to) possessed by the older/upper classes of our society is effectively losing us so many competent workers and people who could possibly prosper given a decent amount of welfare support. It's not about how much bank you have and how much you want to flex it, that's why I also am uncomfortable to call the leftist desire for economic redistribution as "envy", you may not believe in me and that's fine, but I wish for a society in which all people have a equal baseline chance to prosper.
Focusing on the Boomer generation makes sense in a purely American worldview, but you have to keep in mind the Boomer Generation in America had a VASTLY different life from those born the same years in Western Europe or say Japan and Korea. "Boomer" is an American stereotype that does not equate with the rest of the world: the rest of the industrialized nations of the world were piles of rubble still when the Boomer Generation of those countries were being born. They spent their whole lives basically building from the ground up again. American Boomers basically just inherited the resounding success of the American Greatest Generation, their parents, and have coasted on that since. It's a vastly more complex and nuanced problem than simply "the old people are screwing over the young".
Also lets not forget the often ignored Gen Xers who are getting skipped right past. In 20 years when the vast majority of Boomers dead, it'll be the Millennials holding the reins of power and the Gen Xers will be left with second chair yet again, only now getting older and incurring more medical expenses.
As someone born right on the line between Millennial and Gen Z, I'd love to point out that the whole notion of naming generations is totally a bizarre aberration only applicable to the world post WWII (after entire generations were lost) and normally in history there is no easy lines drawn between generations like this. In fact, the lines are blurring. The mass death of the early 20th century was a rock thrown in the pond, we see the ripples only b/c of the immense disruption but it will go back to being a mirror-like surface again and it already is. Try looking up when "Millennial" ends and "Gen Z" begins and let me know how many different dates or metrics you come up with.
I agree we have immense structural problems in the US and across the West right now, however focusing on a single group is putting blinders on. Very dangerous blinders.
Envy drove communism sure. But you can't make the argument that European Countries are driven by envy. It is very reductive to say the political philosophy of each country is driven by hatred of the successful. Think from a European perspective. They suffered from the great depression which objectively made peoples life worse. No matter how hard they would have worked they couldn't have improved their life. that's why they were willing to vote for extreme parties who promised to improve their lives (The Nazis did improve the economy). Post war, most European cities were destroyed so the government had to step in to fix all the mess. The post war consensus was that free market capitalism lead to the great depression so it should be regulated and wealth should be redistributed to improve the lives of people so they don't vote for extreme parties (Nazis) again. And European countries didn't keep sticking to this philosophy. Since the 80's they have moved towards neoliberalism. That's why countries like Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavian countries are still very rich. If your argument is there is not as many start ups in Europe as USA because they are successful people are shunned, that's a very lazy analysis. USA is massive country with one language and roughly one regulatory system, so start-ups can expand and succeed, whereas in Europe that's very difficult to with all different countries
As a european myself, Western Europe needs to be colonised by russia immediately before we become brazil
@@haltdieklappe7972 As a Eastern European who knows what Russian tyranny looks like, trust me, you don't want the Russians anywhere near you.
@@2hotflavored666 USSR isn’t russia bro. Modern russia is Christian and not tyrannical like ussr
@@haltdieklappe7972 Hahaha, the USSR was 90-95% Russia, since WW2 the Soviets actively utilized Russian ultranationalism to get what they want. "USSR isn't Russia" is a completely wrong and ignorant view on the USSR.
@@haltdieklappe7972 The trouble with Russia is the state's power isn't held in check like it is in the Anglosphere and Western Europeon countries. Say what you will about France and Germany, but there you can raise a stink about a problem without fear of imprisonment without a fair trial or dying under mysterious circumstances. European political society is relatively democratic, Russian society is a pyramid of oligarchs.
Great video as always. Would really love to see another civilisation analysis soon, especially on the Orthodox. Would be really interested to hear your take on the idea that what we call 'Orthodox' civilisation is essentially just Classical civilisation migrated onto Russia.
Lol go to Russia if you think that’s classical civilization. If you come back from there thinking it’s anything like classical civilization you’re probably on drugs.
In German it seems to be the other way around:
Neid (Envy): Wanting what others have while you don't have it. This can also be without malice and inspire to put yourself to work and get it yourself instead of stealing it from the other.
Eifersucht (Jealousy): Comprised of the two words "Eifer" (Zeal) and "Sucht" (Addiction). As the word itself implies, it is blind, focused and obsessed. Eifersucht includes the possible destruction of the one having something that you want - whether you can have it yourself or not. It is also where someone (A) will destroy the friendship between two others (B & C) because he/she wishes full control over one of them, with the potential of even killing the other or at least driving the over to suicide. At the root of this is usually not love, but a narcissistic if not psychopathic obsession. It has elements of Greed and Gluttony in it, and takes Pride in the triumph of the gain (and destruction). It's only positive application would be in a healthy individual spotting how someone else makes advances to his/her relationship, and inquires about it or fends that off - that however depends on whether it was that and not a false positive, etc.
I mean modern society breeds envy. This video itself has a like to dislike ratio, a comment section with a counter that states how many people are interested in the video enough to comment on it, and a like for each comment to show how much everyone loves it. The entirety of social media is just a comparison game of who is the best and most liked, which endlessly cycles until you delete it. Even outside of this, practically everywhere you go you have to compare yourself to the rich successful people in ads, co-workers or fellow students who are "winning" at life, and apartment buildings are literally a dick comparing contest. At least back when humanity was poor, people had the excuse to say, well I'm not the most amazing person in this world because I'm oppressed or there's no way to do it. Also, they could just live on their means or in small village social circles so they don't have much opportunity to be envious of others. Now, you look anywhere and it seems the next jackpot is around the corner and if you just work hard enough anything is possible. This will not breed courage, it will only breed envy once you realise no matter how hard you work you will never be the most successful, and some random dude on the internet is more will be better liked than you or have a happier life. This is what happens when you tell people "anything is possible", "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" and "you can be the greatest in the world!" Terrifying lies that just make people envious of each other. No, not everyone can be the greatest in the world, some things are impossible, and sometimes you just have to accept what you have and do the best that you can. This is what people should hear nowadays.
You good man, could not be more accurate.
Thank you Poppop
You don't have to do any of the things you mention In your comment. Anything is possible if you work hard and learn from failure. And boy howdy will you fail. The issue then becomes why did you fail. If you start poi ting fingers then you complain about what everyone else has and what you don't.
I would argue that the practice of making those things cultural norms, the sort of bootstrap mentality, is essential in a society that embraces competition as a way to encourage people to participate.
The key thing is, such a society, knowingly or otherwise, is launching these folks into an arena where those who are the most capable socially (and sometimes mentally) will succeed and while the game isn't zero sum the best way to identify talent is to throw a broad net and let the best sort themselves out. As a consequence, the individuals whose upbringing, background, education and inherent traits best prepared them for such an environment will thrive and the rest will be forced to concede defeat.
Is that a good way to ensure talent is identified and moved into positions of leadership? Sure, why not. But it's terrible at anything else, and the individuals who do not come out of that arena winners will instead come out jaded and discouraged for the most part. Even worse when, as time goes on, the survivor bias of the individuals who had what it took to make it to the top and are now decision makers over those who didn't will as a rule lead to decisionmaking that reinforces cut-throat meritocratic backbiting while ignoring the rest of the population. In selecting for talent in such a manner you as a necessity refute the talentless thus worsening feelings of alienation and envy.
As for potential ramifications, well: You don't need to be all that talented or bright to hold a gun :D
I broadly agree with you. I think one concept that's sorely lacking is objective value.
Relativistic competition will only ever create dissatisfaction due to the type of comparisons you mentioned. With an objective view of value, other people having more doesn't diminish what you have.
I always found attitudes around some of this stuff odd. For example, if two guys run the 100m sprint, one in 10.1 seconds and the other in 10.0s, the slower of the two has still achieved the real objective; that is, he is fit and strong. Yet, the slower of the two is generally characterised as a failure.
'Costs you nothing apart from emotions and effort;
'Starting a business'
Bad example. Debt, opportunity costs, to name but two real costs
The basics concepts of economies of scale when applied to his example of business makes it pretty much perfect. Debt and the use of credit is pretty much a necessity when starting a business anyways and this costs scales with the size of the business. Opportunity costs aren’t as relevant when researching a business model because it can be supplemented by unemployment if needed. Capitalism when utilized correctly allows someone to fail multiple times over and over and finally succeed.
"Lust is how babies are made and it makes the world go round."
😂🤣
I like how he giggled.
This is a great point to bring up and I think you make a solid case and strong connection regarding Social Justice as we know it today (not of the Civil Rights past or Abolition) and we can clearly see that the Leftists in this country and others are obsessed with seeing people fall, seeing someone who’s successful lose everything because they could never build the success that others have created in their lives, so it’s easier to tear someone down and ridicule them in public, create a space for which this is possible by making up new rules and then moving the goal post so that anyone they choose can be an enemy, and then they can decide their punishment. It’s classic Communism psychology, and what is ironic is that they are calling the people that truly value freedoms and liberty “fascists”, when THEY are the ones that want to control what you can and cannot say, how you run your business, what you should do to support certain groups, and what you should think, what you can and cannot wear, what you buy… it’s nuts, but the modern left is a cancer, and this is what Republic/Capitalist minded people feared the most about Communism and Socialism… this is why McCarthy went on a rampage (and too aggressively) trying to find Communists in this country, because they are a threat to Liberty. Leftists are the absolute enemy of liberty.
I guess McCarthy is right after all. Just not well placed.
Not only was McCarthy later proven right about nearly everyone he accused, he actually _underestimated_ the amount of communists in positions of power/influence in America.
I have an anecdote: I was randomly examining why it is a waste of resources to pour sidewalks on both sides of the street in medium to low density residential neighborhoods. The main point was that one side provides enough bandwidth to make it navigable by foot but that there is such a tiny amount of foot traffic that it's absurd to have it run on both sides. I successfully predicted that the average layman would oppose single-sidewalk streets because one side would have to shovel snow, while the other one didn't. The obvious overlooked fallacy is that under the status quo, both sides are burdened by shoveling snow. When I floated this random thought to the first three of my relatives, they quickly pointed out that it wouldn't be fair that one side would have to shovel snow and the other would not. After the third person independently demonstrated their inability to see that 50% of these residents would benefit, while 50% would be no worse off and everyone would benefit from lower taxes, I gave up on society's ability to think critically. Now, I only share ideas with myself.
I don't get what your point is. If there's only a sidewalk on one side of the street, then the people living on the side of the street with no sidewalk will have to cross the road to use the only sidewalk on the street or have to trudge through snow and mud to reach their neighbors living next to them. In your example, everyone is actually worse off because the people living next to the sidewalk have increased foot traffic , the people living without a sidewalk next to them have to constantly cross the road or trudge through snow and ice, drivers on the road will constantly have to slow down to avoid crossing pedestrians, and the rate of vehicular accidents as a result would be far higher . Regarding taxes and money, I doubt people would be better off monetarily . The houses on the side with no sidewalk would be worth far lower and would probably erase any gains that the residents saw from their tax deduction. Even the lucky residents would likely see much of their gains wiped out due to lower property values from having excess food traffic in front of their house. If sidewalks were such a waste of money, why is it that private gated communities still have them on both sides of the street? After all, the HOA running the community has an incentive to be financially prudent.
@@billzhao1346, that's fine. At least you gave a reason, not just dismissed it on the basis of envy. Anyway, it's just a dumb random thought. The point is that its merits we're never evaluated. It was instantly rejected for one reason only: envy.
However, as to the merits, in my observation, almost no one walks anywhere in these neighborhoods. The only walking seems to be for fitness. Therefore one side is enough. If the people on the no sidewalk side want to go for a walk, they will have one additional road crossing (once to get to the sidewalk and then every corner that they would normally cross after that) than they do now. It seems only slightly worse as a pedestrian, not substantially worse as you have claimed. You're making it sound like Manhattan. These are quiet, low traffic, slow traffic subdivisions. By your logic, every corner should have a pedestrian bridge or tunnel and every intersection be converted to an interchange so no one ever has to deal with crossing.
@@StopMakingEveryoneDumb That seems like a pretty depressing place to live in, seems like it'd be better to try and push the community towards being walkable and livable as opposed to removing the currently existing infrastructure that facilitates walkability - Since making communities more walkable benefits everyone, and the difference between a walkable and mixed zoning city/suburbia and a discretised road-based city/suburbia is night and day. Although I understand that in alot of US communities (I'm assuming this is US) they're kind of saddled with shitty design from the ground up because of alot of bad history with urban design - This is less of an argument of immediate practicality and more of one about broader policy goals however.
@@CassCassCassime thanks for mentioning this. I had the exact same thought, but US car-dependancy and general snow management are such alien things for me that I preferred to not say anything lol
Quick question, in this scenario, do you live on the side that has to shovel?
This guy tosses out so many red-pills that I’m in genuine shock.
I'm like, not even into this kind of terminology, but the way that he ties historical knowledge to cultural analysis is staggering. Anyone with half a brain should have had red flags going off on this video. His conclusions are cogent but don't hold up to scrutiny.
@@RainingDream11 examples?
@@RainingDream11 The video is all over the place. About every 20 seconds there's a conclusion that requires a further in-depth analysis but he just states it as fact and moves on. The description only has his patreon and socials. It's really quite terrible and irritating.
@@TheLifeisgood72 i am really starting to hate this channel, he makes so many connections and assumptions with barely any proof or evidence and then just moves on like it is fact within minutes
Seeing someone say this man is dropping red pills makes me feel like I must interject. Taking someones opinion and analysis of history as a red pill is shameful, but you can easily fix yourself-
Shut off CZcams, read books, live life, and draw your own conclusions on the world. While they may not always be “red pills”, they will be as good as you can get at the time. Never stop evolving.
“…all truths are Truths of Period, and not truths for eternity; whether of religion, morals, government, or of whatever else, and to find place in this world, has been a truth for the time, and as good as men were capable of receiving.” -Morals and Dogma
I love how he laughs when he says “Lust is how babies are made *LOL*”.
while kings are rolling in their graves.
It's funny how people use Singapore as an example of capitalist success when it actually got rich through a state-lead industrial policy and all housing there is socialized.
Based
Singapore seems very simmilar to Nazi Germany
It's an authoritarian system that successfully preempted possible Communist sympathies by making almost anyone really well off.
It falls more under state capitalism as there is still a free market just government interference is far more common
@@Scotty1817 how is that different from social democracy?
Great video.
Since you did one on Africa, could you do an alternate history scenario where India is left uncolonised?
It would be interesting to see how they fare without being fully conquered (though personally I would still assume a European interest exists in the region; it was quite a lucrative part of the world).
Made one when I was a kid, lol: czcams.com/video/w7Ua6GWJKV0/video.html
Althisthub allready made a video on it
Although its a very diffrent format.
China
They would get conquered by Europeans or another group of persianized central Asians. Or maybe they would hold their own after the fall of the Mughal empire which technologically enriched their militaries.
Chicken vindaloo for the whole world - done.
Traditionally envy is wanting what someone else has. Jealousy is not wanting to share what you have with others. Envy is always negative while jealousy can actually be positive, such as being jealous of (ie not wanting to share) one's spouse. Jealousy as a synonym for envy is a more modern definition.
too much confusion with correlation and causation. rise of socialism is not caused by decline in christianity, they don't actually coincide that much. the enlightenment lead to the decline in christianity, industrialization and inequality lead to the rise in socialism.
17:47 we have a winner!!!
Sensible individual. I applaud.
good. comment.
Plus the creator dude always seems to forget that the earliest socialist movement WAS LITERALLY Christian Socialism
@@revi.talose.8643 many people tend to forget early christianity and the deep anti capitalist ethos of almost all forms of christianity with the exception of calvinism
@@danjunk3029 Yeah, the made-up ideological ties go deep aha,
at least Whatifalthist doen't do the Judeo-Christian Values meme, but yeah totally agree, almost every religion to some degree doesn't like big money™
30 minute documentary about the oppression of sigma males.
Left:Envy
Right:Either Greed or Pride
Greed drives civilization forward
I think pride moreso than greed.
@@K3end0 Depends if its the cultural or economic right
@@nabster9253 Very debatable, it could also tear apart societies and fuel inhuman wars. But it's too large of a concept to easily define anyways
Right uses fear mostly imo
*I swear each time I watch these types of videos by Whatifhist, it baffles me how this world still continues to functions.*
He is saying some shit that isnt real, Just research about topics that he is Talking about and think for yourself
@@MrDead00 like what m8?
@@danteleonel9047 he doesn’t actually know, he just thinks he’s clever for opposing something that everyone else agrees with
Humanity has been through worse and come out the other side and so shall we as a species we’re good at coming up with answers to crises eventually and adapting otherwise we’d have gone extinct long ago
@@MrDead00 True lmao, man's is ignorant as shit on modern ideology, like dude stick to the past.
Biggest mistake of this video is that it assumes that we live in a world of equal opportunity when we don't and says that the inequal opportunities are actually inequal outcomes when they're inequal opportunities.
It assumes the complete opposite in that we absolutely do not live in a world with equal opportunity and this is partially the reason for envy’s existence. Natural resources, geography, place of birth, status and class, all of these play key roles in the relative opportunity that certain people have relative to where you live. There will always be places in the world with better/worse opportunities for different groups of people, and although technology and economic domination by corporate entities muddies the water, If you live in America you can be pretty damn sure that the opportunities presented to people throughout their lives here are very good in comparison to some other shitholes. I imagine my life prospects all the way from the working class bottom of different societies to get an idea of how inequal the opportunities really are in comparison.
This same thread of logic can be applied to Americans opportunities outside the US such as in places like europe with socialist education policies. People find it easier here to become a millionaire if your already reasonably wealthy and have developed skills, which is a huge reason why move out of the United States to seeks skill development in Europe then move back when they are stable.
Your comment is correct Cumulus. He fails to comprehend conditional reasons for the many things he criticizes, it's an idealistic framework known as "individual responsibility". Going to be debunking his video soon.
@@Stellar_Politics Ya, he does that a lot I've noticed in his other videos, Same with the hasty generalization of movements like SJW etc etc, I can't remember a single time this dood didn't sentimentalize a social problem to some degree.
@ ø mhm that's totally what Cumulus's point was ain't it
This vid was more biased than your "Twelve Lies about Reality"😂😂.
So basically, the opposing political party is entirely built on envy? That's all? And *you admit* the ONLY REASON you can think of why "wealthy/well off" ppl of that party only associate themselves with that political party is bc *they're afraid of being targeted??*
Bruh, what is this channel anymore🤣🤣
Idk if I can trust theories of alternate history from a guy who just paints the political party he disagrees w/ as "envious" with a single stroke. W/ that logic, painting the entire Right-wing to be built on the "Fear of Change" should be just as valid. Political parties *are very complex with many valid & different values on both sides despite EACH SIDE'S RADICALS.* The fact YOU ADMIT you *"CAN'T think of any other reason why"* an opposing party exists beside "envy" only *delegitimizes* the accuracy of *all your former what-if/alternate history videos.* If you can't accurately comprehend the complexities of the CURRENT political parties & social climate *NOW* then, *how accurately COULD YOU POSSIBLY comprehend social climates of the PAST and what NEW social climates they would lead to?*
Could you do an alternate history scenario where China splits up during Antiquity and results in different competing nations? It would be great to see you give China the same treatment you gave to the Medieval America map.
Essentially if the sixteen states period produced a divided political order like Europe with a common cultural background.
Whatifalthis is a DEBUNKED czcams.com/video/0nk-HP-iUF0/video.html
that didn't last and would never have lasted because of the nomads from the steppes. The ancient Chinese realized everybody loses if they actually fractured, so they would rather bicker and struggle for power internally but still maintain a unified state in the event of a external invasion.
It would be pretty difficult to do since the POD is so far back. I made a balkanized China video, but the POD is when the Taiping Rebellion succeeds: czcams.com/video/wJcxZ8-BfVw/video.html
China's literally fragmented more times than a dumpster fire relationship
I saw a video that said Chu wanted to return back to the Warring States period after the fall of Qin, but Han defeated Chu and ran the region unified thus continuing the cycle that Qin had established.
Despite the share of European GDP declining in total, most nations haven't lost really any total wealth outside Greece and such due to the fact of just how much the world economy has grown in total. You could say that Europe was in part disproportionally wealthy from its success while the rest of the world lagged behind, and now with China taking back it's place as one of the great economic centers, Europe has merely been sent back to its more logical/sensible postion. A similar way in which Badghdad was extremely powerful and wealthy under specific circuimstances making it oversized really following the decline of the Islamic world, and the Mongols merely dealt the final blow to the city, reverting it to a more sustainable and logical size.
Also as for the European tech exodus, you need to understand that the fiscal/investment markets are really scattered with it being over 30 different markets for investment which can't on their own compete with the US or Chinese sized markets. It's the same as if the US fiscal/investment system was divided into 50 different markets, instead of one.
Whatifalthist usually addresses the first point by bringing up the fact that the American market has been stable with the growth of the third world, while the European market has shrunk the American one has managed to keep itʻs place in the world
On the second part, you seem to have forgotten that the EU exists, and as such a single European market.
@@achaeanmapping4408 Europe is by far no single market, even with the EU.
Every country manages it's economy on its own.
@@achaeanmapping4408 a common European Market exists, but it is lore for traded goods than investements.
@@mam0lechinookclan607 There is free trade and common foreign trade policy in the EU which is the definition of a "single market" and in the same way as US states can implement their own regulations member states of the EU also do, but no one would say that the US doesnʻt have a single market.
@@alehaim What does that mean?
Also, I can't ignore the blatantly ridiculous claim that Europe is experiencing "active economic decline" because its relative share of world GDP is declining. The GDP per capita of Europe is higher than it's ever been and it continues to grow. Any definition of "decline" that includes that is ridiculous. Europe is "declining" because it doesn't produce a vastly disproportionate part of the world's products and other parts of the world are finally able to produce something? That's so absurd.
I think he means declining in terms of world relevance
Yet economic growth is lower than ever, as decades of more spending, socialist measures, regulations, and taxes, have progressively destroyed wealth generation. Europe doesn't produce more stuff because they DON'T WANT TO. They have actively taken measures that ensure production is done elsewhere. They are NOT pro-free market economy, they are against it, and that's why they're declining/will decline in the future, unless they do a 180 and surgically remove socialism from governments.
@@pinkmann8399 that’s not what “active economic decline” means. At best, it’s sloppy and irresponsible language. At worst, it’s deliberate dishonesty.
@@NahuCommNS can you define socialism?
@@skbanda4573 Any kind of economic intervention/manipulation by the State/Government, equals to socialism to me. The best (or worst, in terms of damage) example is the arbitrary setting of the interest rates. Such aberration was the cause in the past, of both the 1929-1933, and the 2008 crisis, just to name the biggest ones. I identify myself as a Libertarian, btw. In philosophical terms, i'm an Anarcho Capitalist, but as we don't live in a fantasy, in practice i'm a minarquist. Cheers.
After watching this video, the whole politics thing suddenly started to make sense to me. Great job!
I think you need a follow up vid on this because it’s not the whole story. I think the video is correct, but it leaves out the fact hierarchies inevitably become entrenched and create feedback loops that only further their advantages. People shouldn’t be ok with this and wish them well out of not wanting to be envious. Of course envy is involved with very valid feelings of being apart of a system that’s cheating you.
This is an interesting counterpoint. I agree with what's been said in the video, but we should also consider that most of money made by the wealthy today doesn't come from the free market, but rather from central bank's distortions via the cantillon effect.
Envy will inevitably seep into the heart of majority of those that want change no matter what. They will alway outnumber the sensible.
Actuaply, Envy is a survival mechanism
It causes people to revolt against the current system when there is EXTREME WEALTH INEQUALITY or EXTREME SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION
Only violence got rid of slavery and segregation in the US. Got justice for George Floyd (he's a criminal but he didn't deserve outright execution)
@@christiandauz3742 Envy obviously has a evolutionary origin but to say it causes us to revolt is a major stretch. As the video argues, it’s a factor in why people revolt.
@@christiandauz3742 also is you’re claiming the current system has extreme social discrimination I’d say you’re wrong, both relative to history and the rest of the globe.
I’d love to have a conversation with this guy.
As his general secretary, he's pretty based
@@marekwright427 I want to talk to him,u so lucky
Better than the Cynical Historian, that’s for sure.
@@januarysson5633 as the newer videos come out you can see cynical historian be molded by modern academia more and more. I’m pursuing the same degree as him and some of his newer points baffle me.
He seems to be one of the Jake Tran personality types where they openly admit to despising speaking without a script.
I find it interesting, that it appears as envy increases in a culture, birthrate decreases. Thanks for your great work on this one.
Instead of envy driving humanity, maybe it's "having a feeling of importance". The reason why people are envious towards others is because they see others as more important than them, so they try to bring them down, so they can be more equal or on a similar level of importance.
Feeling important is the number one human motivator in my opinion. Even when it comes to aspects like food, sex, dominance, etc., it all leads to feeling important.
This is where pride comes in too. Pride is when you make yourself feel "too important". Feeling important drives human innovation and evolution (which is a good thing), but it can become corrupted thru envy and having too much of an ego. The Devil for example was prideful and wanted to be as important as God, so he therefore became envious and tried and still tries to destroy God's creation.
I believe the whole purpose of life is to do what Jesus says, "The first will be last, and the last will be first". The ones who are prideful will be brought down, while those who are humble will be made more important.
God is ultimately the most important because he is obviously God. He is the "I AM". There is nothing more important than Him (logically speaking). So our purpose is to become important without us becoming prideful. To do good and make God the most important one in our eyes. We must humble ourselves.
That is the purpose of life in my opinion. It's an interesting philosophical point I just came up with a couple of weeks ago, but I think it has some potential. I'm going to need to clarify it better and maybe write a book or a well-thought-out thesis about it.
Thanks for reading:)
South Africa has an interesting history with communist affiliation but the ANC was never strictly communist and abandoned left wing economic populism and the remaining grant system is just a legacy to keep the poor for revolting, which as seen with looting and strikes and crime, happens anyway. Another interesting thing that happened in the 1920s was that white South African miners who were part of trade unions called for the creation of a color bar to protect their wealth and income whilst disenfranchising African miners.
All forms of communism and socialism are evil.
@@ASS_ault
I agree communism is the worst closely followed up by the Nazis
Funniest thing about it was their slogan. "Workers of the World, Unite for a White South Africa!"
@@dangerousfreedom4965 LOL, slave morality
@@dangerousfreedom4965 Consequentialism rots the brain lmao,
Imagine thinking this
Correction, capitalism was not theorized until the 18th century, what came before in Europe was mercantilism. Completely different system.
It was still market forces, mercantilism was just regulations on that market for the self interest of the mother countries
Greetings from the U.K. This is absolutely brilliant.... won’t say more, just is...
I have some issues with this video. I think trying to explain so many complex things about society just on the concept of envy alone is a bit simplistic. And there might have been some spots of conflation between true envy, as explained, well-intended desires of better equality, plain greed and power-hunger, competition between influent groups, and opportunistic mad men.
Also, Europe losing a % of the global GDP is not particularly conclusive when the competition includes multiple rising economies (India, China, etc.) and the US which is an absolute titan and a single country. (Europe has the EU, sure, but it still has different countries, with different governments, laws and regulations). That doesn't mean Europe is getting 'poorer', it just has a smaller slice of an ever-growing pie.
Interesting. Is European elites intentionally bringing up migrants from africa to Europe so that European massess would be focused on how pore this migrants are instead of being focused on how rich and powerful European elites are?!
@@GreatRetro I'm not sure how that relates to the topic, but I'm sure a substantial part of any "help the poor" policy from any government is for political points. And Europe is certainly not free of the influence of rich people on the goverment.
@@gcircle It doesn't relate to your comment! It is just a thought I had while reading your comment. ^_^
@@GreatRetro Source? this sounds super made up
This. I've seen in many of his videos that he believes that Europe is in some kind of absolutely massive civilizational crisis, just because they are not maintaining the exact amount of wealth and power they did back when they were basically the only important part of the world that mattered. The US has remained stable because it's basically on a perfect position and has a very strong identity to keep together, as well as the fact that many of the world's talent went there in the second half of the twentieth century, I'd actually be worried if Europe still had the same share of the world's wealth they did back then, because that would mean that progress everywhere else didn't happen.
Also, I know I'm gonna sound like an emotional young idiot, but I swear this guy seems to think of our generation like it's the fucking plague, mostly because we don't conform to the norms that were in place before, which he quite clearly believes to be correct, especially when he talks about morality being absolute and there being a totally clear truth, which I have to disagree with.
this video was actualy really insightful, i deleted my social medias except for youtube because of the attitudes of people on there. it is genuinely nicer living this way.
Bro this is one of the best videos I’ve ever seen on CZcams. This deserves millions of views. Keep up the good work man.
Facts
Money isn't the root of all evil, envy is. Excellent commentary and analysis.
Well, the love of money is. Greed, as it were.
ik u probably get like thousands of alternate history suggestions but u should do a video on what if the taiping rebellion succeeded
He made that video its called what if japan become Christian.
@@samueltv9428 yeah he briefly touched upon it in that video but i meant a video specifically on the taiping rebellion
Then china would be colonized and tear apart by the great powers around the world. Due to large population, they will just share china.
@@deisk2707 no offense but that's very unrealistic. Hong Xiuqan was a very anti western person he wanted to unify china under a Communist like theocracy also his plans we're to kick out westerns ban opium and make china become isolationist. Also I believe that the westerners help Destroy the taiping rebellion because they were committing atrocities to a point were colonists didn't recognise Hong Xiuqan as a christan.
So firstly, I want to say that I agree with the vast majority of your point. That being said, while the left- and Millennials- are prone to envy; I worry it might be a bit reductive to present them as the only ones. For instance, your point on expats/immigrants largely enriching a society just to be oppressed. Yet, immigration we see has- at least in America- become a large rightist talking point, and especially this notion that Latin-American immigrant 'took their jobs'. Yet, I forget the name of the town, but my mind recalls an example of a rural southern town that kicked out immigrant laborers...only to be promptly faced with a labor shortage because the Americans that were there wouldn't apply for those jobs. That seems like a pretty clear case of envy to me.
I think it's also a bit unfair to act as though leftist envy arose from nothing. I happen to have statistics from 2013 on what fields those that had gone to college...rather most of them, were majoring in. At the top of the list with more than double any followers: Business. Architecture and Engineering was in fourth. Computers/statistics/mathematics was in 7th. Agriculture and Natural Resources in 15th. Law and Public Policy was 13th. Humanties/Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, and Art, do rank 3rd, 6th, and 10th respectively. But the point still stands that it's not as though they were all going into fields with no career paths. Even in the 'underwater-basket-weaving woo' majors I mentioned, there are career paths like mental health work, or- interesting for this channel- history and archaeology would be under Social Sciences. Most of these people however would, for a variety of reasons, wind up underemployed due to the sheer quantity of competition; and those that did land in their majors tended to be underpaid with much fewer options for employment than preceding generations. www.statista.com/statistics/225634/most-popular-college-majors-in-the-united-states/
Sure, the trades would've been better, they still are now. This is also a generation that was encouraged at every opportunity to pursue university education however. Furthermore, much of what would previously have been their wealth was absorbed into upper classes during the Recession. Funnily enough, bailing out the banks and businesses that caused the Recession and should've suffered for it under a properly competitive market isn't actually good for facilitating a competitive market where those ill-affected can recover. Nor is it a long-lasting solution, considering the preceding recession of the 80's, the New Depression we're headed for was a long time coming due to market bloat. Guess which generation got slammed with the brunt of that? That the most consequential thing Millennial have done thus far is reanimate leftism really shouldn't be a shock to anyone. Lower classes will always be inclined toward envy- yes, but leftism does not always thrive. Where we do see it arise is in places like Tsarist Russia, where said lower classes are furthermore stripped of agency.
I say all of this because, at least to me, much of this video comes off as ascribing the cause of Millennial envy to a moral fault. All that's going to do is feed said envy, which- given you even made this video- I'm guessing was not the goal. Noah Corria and The Sandman elsewhere in the comments I think put the overall point pretty well if I haven't. It should be noted that Millenials- on average- make roughly 50% of the income of their GenX parents, and 25% that of Boomers, when accounting for inflation.
All of this is further exasperated by the advent of the internet. Social media, with its likes and comments sections, is almost cruelly designed to inflict and worsen envy. The democratization of media has left people in purpose-built echo chambers, every day they grow more radical and less willing or able to hear reason. Let alone compromise. This is an influence which has hit Millennials the hardest, being at an age where it could impact their upbiringing, but not so early that they could simply acclimate as Zoomers like myself have.
Millennials aren't a particularly religious generation. For all your emphasis on Christianity and Christian philosophy in this video, I find it interesting to ponder that in our skeptical world, even as someone inclined to believe that there is some sort of higher power, I can only imagine that simply being told to have faith things are more fair after death is rather cold comfort in the face of all of this.
For my part, I'm not perfect, but I've been ambitious enough and still found myself coming up rather short. And I draw upon my own life not as truth, it's only anecdotal, but I want to use it as an illustrative example. As a child I wanted to start a business, but I knew going to university was an unwise move looking at how well that went for all those business majors 5 years before my graduation from high school. As it turns out, parental divorce tends to divide the wealth of one's family which cut out any help for me there. Further, it doesn't really beget a mindset for the necessary discipline or risk-taking. A me problem, absolutely, but one who's cause was beyond my control and to which the solution still requires my work in addition to life itself.
I went to look for a trade, but I found I couldn't afford that either, and I was unwilling to risk a loan from a bank because I know banks profit off of interest. I loathe the idea of being in debt, because I know their goal will be to keep me there as long as possible. So I didn't do that either. That was also a failure on my part as I simply have zero other options if I intend to improve my lot in life.
Lastly I turned to aspiring to politics, mostly I was jealous of history, and of the influence those figures have. From where I was then and now, my only real way to practice that was internetdiscourse. Admittedly, I could've been more prepared for most arguments, but history would also suggest that didn't matter. What did matter is that I did not fit either left or right. But what I found was that I was entirely unable to move the mind of anyone. If I intended to move nations, surely some rando online should've been nothing. But I realized in that moment that I lacked two things: for one I'm autistic, in politics where so much is social posturing, I'd never get anywhere, and it's not that I haven't worked on it- I've done so to such a point that I mask those traits without concious effort...at the expense of my mental health; and second was the affects of the internet's fracturing of culture, both sides are in their bubbles as is, so simply trying to steer them from outside with facts was a losing proposition. It's not that I was ever unambitious, but the flaws that prevented me from acting on those were caused without my input, and their affects still require work, in some cases that will only get me so far. I am inclined to think that I'm far from the only person for whom such conditions apply. Do I have personal faults, absolutely I do. But that doesn't mean the entirety of my circumstances is in my control.
In this video, you do also somewhat come off as blaming these cases entirely on the personal faults of young envious people, and say that they should try to emulate those traits of the successful merchant class. Yet, you also concede that those merchants- as you coin then- tend to exhibit radically unusual behavior caused by similarly uncommon genetics. Is it really fair to blame the majority for not exhibiting traits that you yourself admit arise from a genetic makeup that- to said majority- leads to absolutely irrational decisions? It might be further worth considering that you don't ever, ever, hear of those merchants who took those risks and for whom it did not pay off. Is it true those traits necessarily beget success, how can we be certain that is not a survivor bias? I think it may also be worth noting that many of those successful merchants didn't necessarily start from zero. It's not uncommon they inherited family businesses for instance, or came from already upper-class backgrounds. Trump's 'small loan of a million dollars' quote I think serves as an egregious and extreme, but also vividly illustrative example. Common folk are often told such and such tech billionaire dropped out of college so we shouldn't be too wrapped up in our standardized test scores, though they'll neglect to mention they dropped out of expensive ivy league universities to which said commoners will very rarely even have access.
To reiterate, I don't disagree with the core points of this video, and I think you raise many interesting and valuable points. But I worry that the impression you give of blaming those young envious people for almost all of their struggles is reductive, and more concerning, liable to lead all the points of value to fall on deaf ears.
Very well said. Whatifalt seems not to understand much about the contemporary left or youth culture. Sometimes an outsider perspective is helpful, but not if it's uninformed.
Woah take my like for that work.
I really enjoyed the video, but your comment was almost more impactful than the whole video. I hope you are writing and creating content that is more visible than the comment section on a CZcams video.
@@alexhuffvn Unfortunately, I rather intend to disengage from politics in general. Like I said, I've found that no matter how much I put into it, I'm generally speaking to walls. I do greatly appreciate your sentiment however, and I'm glad you've found value in my comment.
Your entire comment is incessant drivel that is plagued with personal anecdotes, obsolete theorems & logical fallacies; all of it draped within a shroud of emotional sentiment. No wonder the average joes above liked it so much. Anyways, on to the facts.
"Most of these people however would, for a variety of reasons, wind up underemployed due to the sheer quantity of competition; and those that did land in their majors tended to be underpaid with much fewer options for employment than preceding generations."
This is simply the reality of Globalism and an ever-evolving, interconnected world; deal with it. The opening of global networks allows for the greater & more efficient production of societal needs & tasks; but also opens up a large pool of talent, from which institutions can draw their pick and fill their ranks. This ever-larger pool of talent results in ever-increasing competition. There will always be people who fall through the cracks, because not everyone has the same amount of skill or talent; this will never change until the day we control the human genome on a sub-molecular level. Also, being underpaid is your problem. It just means you didn't calculate either the opportunity, or your own ability, correctly.
"Furthermore, much of what would previously have been their wealth was absorbed into upper classes during the Recession."
This is a comment built on obsolete notions. Financial resources are not a limited pie, where if I have a dollar it subtracts from yours. This is a fundamental misunderstanding about financial allocation with regards to those who are economically illiterate. Financial resources are forever-generated, due to being FIAT rather than tied to a material quantity.
Also, there is no "what would have been" in Capitalism, there is simply What Is. That is not your wealth, else you would have it. It is there wealth, else they would not have it. You can perform mental gymnastics to justify some alternate universe in which you somehow gained the wealth instead of them, but that is not reality.
"I say all of this because, at least to me, much of this video comes off as ascribing the cause of Millennial envy to a moral fault. All that's going to do is feed said envy"
Firstly, no one cares about feeding the envious. They will always exist, rather it is The Strong that need to re-unite in the oppression of the envious weak. Also, morality does not exist. If you educate yourself on Nietzsche's "Genealogy of Morality" (which I'm sure this vid is inspired by) in which he provides an extensive socio-psychological analysis of societies throughout history, Nietzsche explains and provides empirical examples of how morality was created as a tool of subversion against The Strong & Powerful. Morality demonizes all that defines the successful man; his ambition is greed, his confidence now pride & arrogance, his strength of will & individual character now deemed wrathful, etc.
The envious used morality as a facade to subvert the powerful through a sort of meta-guilt trip, as it was the only means of power available to them (having no access to martial or financial resources), but they do not truly value it. The Fall of Rome & the ascension of Christianity correlating with the start of The Dark Ages is what signaled that their subversion tactic had won out.
"All of this is further exasperated by the advent of the internet. Social media, with its likes and comments sections, is almost cruelly designed to inflict and worsen envy."
All social media does is expose. If people are set off by that, they were already ticking time bombs in the first place. This is analogous to a criminal saying "well I was just in an environment where they were ASKING to be harmed". Same exact string of logic; you're easily triggered to detrimental behaviors by simple environmental stimuli. Get help.
"Millennials aren't a particularly religious generation. For all your emphasis on Christianity and Christian philosophy in this video, I find it interesting to ponder that in our skeptical world, even as someone inclined to believe that there is some sort of higher power, I can only imagine that simply being told to have faith things are more fair after death is rather cold comfort in the face of all of this."
Lol Christianity is the first established form of slave morality, so it's what got us here in the first place. With the advancing of our civilization into the secular age, the "facade" of morality evolved from religious evangelism to marxist revolutionism. Both preach the same thing though, that those who have resources are unjust to some degree; and those who have little should be regarded with special generosity. Both preach communal cooperation over individual exaltation, praise the common man, etc.
I believe Nietzsche himself even says that Communism is just Christianity without the God.
As for the large bulk of your comment, it is personal anecdote; so it has a qualitative value of zero regarding empirical debate. I'll be ignoring it.
"Is it true those traits necessarily beget success, how can we be certain that is not a survivor bias?"
It is true, because you can verify it yourself through the observation of their traits, and the fact that they all share general commonalities. Survivor bias means nothing, failure bias could be just as much of a problem for the other side; and regardless of survivors bias, if you witness a trait being repeatedly performed by successful people given the right context, it must mean the trait would prove beneficial to you regardless of circumstance.
"I think it may also be worth noting that many of those successful merchants didn't necessarily start from zero."
Predictable excuses of the weak. Let's nip this in the bud and move on.
88% of all millionaires in America are of first generational, self-made wealth.
70% of all billionaires in the entire world are of first generational, self-made wealth.
Can provide statistic sources if necessary.
"But I worry that the impression you give of blaming those young envious people for almost all of their struggles is reductive, and more concerning, liable to lead all the points of value to fall on deaf ears."
It is reductive, but your comment presumes that reductionism is somehow bad. It is exactly the weaklings proclivity to shift the blame for their own weakness to external causes and faults, that has allowed envy to fester so much. The envious thrive when you claim "it's too reductionist" because now they shift the blame from their own envy and lack of ability, right back to the rest of society.
The fact of the matter is that the weak & envious will always be just that, not because of a "corrupted system" but because by the very nature of the weakling he will fall behind. You're telling me we're living in the century with the highest QOL per-person ever in the history of the species, yet also reporting higher levels of depression? The problem is not society, it is the weak and their never-ceasing poisoning of the social pool.
Also, yet again; no one is trying to convince the envious to stop being envious, they will always remain as such. They simply need to be oppressed, regardless of their wishes.
You are a genius, Even if I don't always agree with you, you are still a genius, and your arguments are so well made.
This video has officially altered my perception. Both confirming some of my thought processes and revealing to me the issues that plague myself. Thank you, this will assist me in my plans and goals.
Re: Communism -- "The people who normally seize power are ne'er do wells." Thomas Carlyle said it well: "Revolutions are started by idealists, carried through by fanatics, and co-opted by scoundrels."
Socialist policies may make people happier, but it will doom your country in the long run.
@@bogdanmeoff2399 The advent of potent real-world AI, especially when robot bodies become hardy enough to deal with the wilderness and bombed-out urban environments, might well become toxic combined with rugged individualism. Of course, the combination of such tech with socialism might well be worse!
Ideologies start with idealists but revolutions are started by scoundrels. They just don't tell you until it's too late.
@@CvnDqnrU If you look at what they do, and how they live their lives, the scoundrels are kinda obvious, really.
@@stcredzero No, they are not.
I think there are two social justices, one driven by envy, and the other driven by something more like a sense of fairness. The out of touch middle upper classes usually make up the former, and the rest usually make up the latter. A minority who observes people treating them differently for their appearance and calling it bullshit that should stop is very different from some college kid who needs to go on a holiday in Cambodia.
Sometimes they don't recognize this difference between each other, but it does happen and in prominent parts of culture. The movie Get Out is a good example, and even involves envy as a main theme.
Envy says: "Give me the results of your success". Fairness says: "Don't stand in the way of my success."
Seems like the same thing to me hahaha
@@randlebrowne2048 Black people were also victims of envy: read about the Tulsa Massacre.
for the former, I believe a big motivation is compassion, not envy
@@sicarii545 I did qualify the statement with usually. I don't know you as an individual, but I am saying that other people often mistake their envy and resentment towards the privileged as compassion and goodwill. It's that old two negatives don't make a positive problem.
I think this video ignores that wealth inequality has been expanded rapidly in the US and most of the developed world as middle class wages stagnant. This is not an issue of envy but a simple true statement.
I think the main difference is between the US and European countries is that the citizens of America has a credible threat to the government, so they either start a revolution or government backs off while the europeans, welp Im not even sure how you guys can fight except with massive protest and riots but one single military operation could decimate that movement.
Because the middle class is getting Richer...
He has certainly talk about that I'm other videos
@@subifyouhatetiktokandreddit234 While simultaneously growing smaller? I'm sorry, but you can't ignore an economy that currently has a decrease in expendable monies for the middle and lower class and the fact almost half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
I would consider myself to be very lefty but I still enjoy watching your videos (even though I often find myself disagreeing with some of the conclusions reached)
It’s always interesting and educational to hear a different opinion that’s well articulated.
To anyone that isn’t afraid about the opposing view regarding this topic I thoroughly recommend contrapoints video on envy.
I agree
Agreed the video poster is an idiot. Sounds like an arrogant teenager tbh. Dude dont know shit
i do like him because he does explain WHY he believes in and tries to remains mostly unbiased in how he says it. i don't agree with him on a lot of stuff but his lectures don't instantly turn into a circle jerk. its a much more articulated and fact based view on more right wing points, while in america today a lot of the right wing has lost a good deal of that. not to say all of the left in america is exactly always smart with what they believe in, but especially on the right theres been much more blatant misinformation then in decades prior.
@@music4thedeaf What makes him an idiot? Because you don’t agree with something he said?
It's not just envy. But actual pain.
If a bully stole a kid's lunch at school: That would envoke some kind of normal emotion.
Especially if the kid is from a poor family, with little money.
"Why am I the only one who isn't allowed to eat?" he says.
And if the issue isn't addresed: That will motivate him to either avoid the bully. Or directly tell him to stop.
Thereby, securing his own opportunity to eat. Like every other student does.
And if it never stops and will not stop ever, they become SJW’s.
@@popopop984 Pretty much.
A lot of this didn't appear out of thin air.
yeah he usually just walks through how things are, how they go, then why its a problem in the end. But yeah I guess if he doesn't say "which is fine" after each part he'll probably get people going, "well yeah what else should I/they do"
What’s are you trying to say really?
Its weird how you can be so wrong on some things and so spot on the other things
This is what happens with you look at history without a fundemental understanding of philosophy.
It’s pride, his pride
@@altvibr True it’s very disappointing.
What would you say are his point that he gets wrong? I am a leftist so generally I disagree with his "pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality" and christian idealism. But I agree with most of his analysis and critique of the left's extreme sensitivity.
@@altvibr or politics
One of Whatifalthists biggest mistakes is that he keeps assuming the left wants what the right wing news tells him the left wants instead of finding some leftists to talk to. It's starting to get annoying how he seems to research everything else well and gets this so obviously wrong. Makes me start to question how good his other history is which until now I've been trusting him on.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but having a right wing bias definitely also effects how one views and talks about history.
😂 Why do you assume that that a real leftist wouldn't lie about Thier own ideology??? Seems like you're just crying because he said it like it is. liberalism isn't some perfect angelic thing as you make it out to be...
@@subifyouhatetiktokandreddit234 Liberalism is not a left wing belief. There is no universal general united left wing, just as there is none for the right.
What a painfully simple, and American view of the world you have.
As an Australian "Liberals" means the right wingers (what Americans would call libertarians is where the name comes from, but really they are like your traditional Republicans (before the Tea Party and Trump came along and took them to a new extreme of crazy). It's so weird that yanks use the word "liberals" to mean left wing (although their perception of what the left wing is is incredibly bizarre anyway, like who the f#*k in their right mind things that goverment funding of healthcare is even close to being socialism).
Like seriously, can anyone name one other right wing country other than the US that doesn't have free healthcare?
There is pure senseless envy on one extreme and there is real political threat at another extreme and these two blend into each other towards the middle. When a rich middle class rises to challenge the aristocracy, the aristocracy might be envious but they also face a real threat. Another dimension is disgust - crassly flaunting wealth.
I think you attach too many economic/social ills to envy but I think you have a point about a lot of it. Nowadays people seem to be throwing pity parties instead of figuring out constructive ways of improving the “system”. A lot of solutions discussed on how to deal with stuff like social injustice are less about building up things and more about tearing things down that are already up. I think that is one of the reasons the founding fathers had the idea of amendments cannot simply be deleted. Call it a going on a limb but the thought just popped in my head.
Your exactly right, it's a lot of pity parties, tho many of the leaders of these grand pity parties use the societal guilt as a bludgeon to force thro policies or seize power for themselves. The founder of BLM owns multiple mansions yet loves to quote lines from the Communist Manifesto (see all the videos of her and others opening up BLM meetings and events with a quote from a convicted murder and Black Panther militant from the 70s, that quote is itself a quote from the Manifesto). Bernie Sanders also dropped 'millionaires' from his "Billionaires and Millionaires' speeches after he himself hit a networth of over a million. He currently owns four houses. These people talk a talk but never walk the walk, it's all an act to trick the common people into giving them all the power. Revolutionary France had the same thing "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality" coming from the guys who moved into the dead kings' palaces and then marched all the peasants off to wars of conquest. Same deal with every communist 'revolution'. These people just want power, and they will pay for it in your blood if they have to. They'd destroy society if it meant they got to be king of the rubble.
It's almost as if it was designed to 'tear down' and fail by bad actors who both push it, enable it, and do nothing about it when given power. This has kind of been a trend in the whole of the west for decades. It's simply that the US has had teh most resolute defences for it. Though demographics is the final nail in the coffin for those documents.
@@Lusa_Iceheart basic bitch prager-u tier take, funny thing is you can't prove any of what you said cause you know its bullshit meant to calm conservative feelings rather than fact
@@Lusa_Iceheart Just say that we live in a capitalist society and living on it means socialists are wrong.
No need for a wall of text for a god tier bullshit.
Wall of text is supposed to be leftwing stuff.
@@economicserfdom4087 living on it doesn't mean socialists are wrong it means capitalism works when people are homeless
While some of the fundamentals seem relatively decent, I feel like this level of reductionism to envy results in an overly simplistic model that approaches absurdity in certain applications, rather than it being one factor among many - Similarly to how class or race reductionism leads to models that can be descriptively correct in certain contexts but in broader contexts fall apart (The european arguments in particular seem like an absolutely enormous reach, especially when there's mountains of conflicting evidence)
also the rise of envy seems to have clearly spiked with three things
1) the ability to see how the wealthy live
2) income/wealth inequality having a tangible effect on 25% of people's QoL
3) the ability of people to communicate this effect on their QoL
Basically, the internet age has resulted in us seeing more how the wealthy live, and being aware of our own declining living standards, while the pre-eminence of tech companies has created a new class of nouveau-riche which don't really know how to behave with their wealth, and are thus scrutinized constantly by those who in turn can afford less
If I was being reductionist, I would reduce any and all societal problems to the individuals themselves, and in particular, our concupiscence, tendency to sin. I think SJWs/leftists get it backward, thinking that the problems are primarily from external influences as though there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with us in our core.
Personally I found it was self evident that Envy, or the lack of Envy wasn’t the only driving force for the progression of Europe. I really doubt he has that opinion, I feel he was instead trying to insinuate how controlling envy CAN lead to something great. However to an extent it is a bit oversimplified. Exclaiming that Europe progressed solely due to the handling of envious thoughts is a bit ludicrous…
True I feel the way society dealt with envy could be one of the factors but it can't be comprehensive reasoning for it all. There must've been other reasons playing role as well like geography, interaction of various cultures via trade etc
That’s very well put. The amount of anecdotal evidence is beyond reasonable, which is a shame as the idea of examining envy in history is not meritless.
The nazis weren't a reaction to jewish success, but to the utter depravity and degeneracy of the Weimar Republic. The people driving social decay were almost entirely Jewish. Economic justifications were used to pull in working class support.
Intellectual envy. One of the most underrated problems of society.
Pride is generally considered the worst sin in Christianity (due to its association with Lucifer). Envy is the second, and wrath the third.
What about blashemy?
@@noradlark167 Blasphemy isn't one of the seven deadly sins, but it would most likely fall under the scope of pride, given how it is seen as an act of rebellion against God.
@@samg.5165 Well, then what is the point of 7 sins list? Apostasy is the worst sin anyway without being on list
People not believing in God has nothing to do with pride though. They aren't convinced, they have other religions etc... This is not rebellion.
@@noradlark167 From a theological perspective, it is. They would argue that the apostate puts himself above God by rejecting his word and spurning his love. The sin of pride is considered the most serious for that reason among others.
And don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist (and arguably an apostate) myself. But this is how Christianity sees it.
Not in orthodoxy
Rudyard (Whatifalthist) I love your channel but I must respectfully disagree with the idea that the most successful people in any society are that way because they have the intelligence, grit, and ambition to succeed. Have you ever read Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers”? It describes how the most successful people in society are often that way because a number of factors go into their favor. Not simply being born into wealth, but being born on particular years, living in unique locations, etc. I’m not saying grit and ambition are not important, but Jeff Bezos would not survive during the Ice Age. His grit and ambition would be limited by his physical weakness compared to a Neanderthal and thus would be more likely to die from a mammoth attack then survive. Don’t be under the impression that I don’t agree with many of your videos or that I believe grit and ambition are unnecessary. They are required, but they are not guarantees.
“It’s the mark of an intelligent person to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
-Aristotle
Jeff bezos father swam from Cuba to Miami the whole way to escape communism
Those genes are in him whether you wanna agree or not. Adaptation
@@TheMagicJIZZ Swam! Yeah right. He swam on a boat
Was it a cruise ship?
@@BigHenFor Jeff bezos father is not white and Cuban
While I'm not personally fond of Bezos and other Bilderberg/Rothschild mega-gazillionares that run the world, he did claw his way up from basically nothing to what he is on his own. I don't like that he runs a mega-corp with more power than a government, completely exempt from any sort of market pressure (mega corps can just call up the Fed and have them print a few billions whenever they make bad investments, or have regulators crush competitors for them, they don't play in a free market at all, Bezos is not a Capitalist) but I can respect the fact he took what was originally a small online bookseller and turned it into a nation-state in it's own right. That does take grit, ambition, perseverance and a health dose of talent.
So you're saying successful people are also lucky.
It's commonly accepted that you also need luck along with other factors to succeed.
I would be lying if I said I didn't hate the fact that you bring up Christianity at every corner of a video but I can't help but respect the rest of the knowledge in this video.
"Similarly, look at the culture of chilling, in which people like to say they're into vibing, chilling, smoking weed and watching Netflix... which I guess is fun for some people, but isn't something you should be bragging about in a healthy society" LOL
5:05 Starting a business or a new hobbie can definitely cost you time and money you may not have or cannot afford to lose.
There is a reason why the vast majority of weed stores are white own
Kinda hard to start new businesses without money or loans
I agree. Most of the arguments used in this video were pretty bad.
@@azaria5419 I felt like a lot of the arguments come from a place of privilege. A privilege which, to no surprise, provokes envy...
I started a business and was scammed out of all my investment capital and then some. Ngl, it's pretty depressing and demotivating, but I could try again. The thing is that I didn't "learn anything" from the experience though, because I was already being very careful. In this case, I can take control by realizing that I just had some bad luck and try again, or I can give up on high-risk high-reward ventures. I'm pretty poor now, but I know I'll get back on my feet. Time will tell if I'll try again, but it's tempting to politicize something like this in one direction or another. The fact is that sometimes things suck and there's not much you can do about it except try again - and again, and again, and again, in some cases. Wish I never learned about survivorship bias haha. Maybe I'd Colonel Sanders it then and try a thousand times and succeed. Or die penniless.
@@bryanlane7208 Lucky no one broke your limbs, hack into your bank accounts, stole private information, etc
This video is an example of "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail".
haha exactly this. I like this guys history videos. He has no clue what he’s talking about in this video though.
Yep. The historical analysis was great, but his modern social analysis was way off.
Jealousy is when you are possessive of something that belongs to you. Envy is when it's not your possession.
We need a source list cause there are some big claims here
he never posts sources, ever. justs pulls things out his ass
@@prod.natejalo1122 pulls things out of his big brain
All of your content is incredibly interesting. It's truly inspiring to see that how you constantly grind to put videos out, judging by your upload schedule. Props, my man.
I agree and you can see his constant improvement since he began creating content! Whatifalthis rocks!
I feel people don't realize there is indeed a genetic component to those who become leaders and billionaires. They think it's all a matter of having rich parents, ignoring the fact that many rich people don't achieve anything of note. While many poor people also become self-made.
Most success actually does depend on a large variety of environmental factors. The genetic component plays a very small part in personal success (likely no more than 5%).
And that genetic component would be?
Envy is directly empowered by pride since anyone humble can see another as having potentially greater worth due to their potentially greater worthiness. A proud (in the sense of vain) person cannot since he must always see himself as superior.
sorry but when i see a take like this with a roblox pfp it makes me giggle
"Objectively, thin people are healthier than fat people in real terms, which the modern left says is fat-shaming to say."
Who says this? In a previous video, you listed the idea obesity is not a health problem but a problem of prejudice against the obese. I've heard people say that fatter people can be as beautiful as thinner people and even that "all bodies are beautiful", but I've never heard anyone deny that certain weights are healthier and being underweight or overweight is a health problem. Everyone knows that's true. (In fact, people criticize how valuing thinness leads to anorexia-caused malnutrition.)
The closest thing I can remember is a vague memory of people daying that maybe the suggested range of weights should be wider and people shouldn't be so prescriptive about weight that they suggest single ideal weights for given heights and sexes. That might actually have been because for health reasons, though, based on the idea that people aren't thar uniform and may have slightly different ideal weights than such a simplistic system would indicate.
I have seen it before, I have even seen leftists who claimed obesity is the only healthy state of being lol.
ive seen a ridiculous number of people claim they are obese and healthy, and they will have a mental breakdown if a doctor even suggests that a condition may be due to their obesity. Not just online, in real life
I guess I should also mention that the word "obese" often specifically refers to an extreme case of being overweight. Not everyone who is overweight is obese, although the very concept of "overweight" implies that there may be some negative effects when compared to having a somewhat lower weight. Obesity is defined to be when it becomes definitely a health problem.
It's strange to to say "obesity is the only way to be healthy", because "obesity" is specifically designed to be unhealthy. If your weight is healthy, you're not obese by definition. Thus, they're actually arguing thst what is a healthy weight is different fron what is generally thought.
It is true that "healthy" is a relative term, so you can be both obese and "healthy" if you have a somewhat low bar for what is "healthy". It's just that you would be MORE healthy if you were thinner (though it probably depends a bit on how exactly you got thinner).
There could also theoretically be some legitimacy to the claim that there are multiple ways to be healthy. Medical experts might just be advocating for the one way thry know that works to prevent disease, lack of "energy", etc. I think medical studies are often based on statistical studies of likelihood of disease, which removes credibility from this idea, but it does depend on what exactly is treated as "disease" or evidence of one. Some "diseases" have obviously negative effects, like increased risk of death or loss of mobility, but the effects of other ones, like OCD, physical deformities, or inability to feel pain, are somewhat debatable. I think many Deaf people even think that physical deafness can have good effects because of bringing about Deaf culture and worldviews.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 they are obviously wrong you can be on the left and agree that obesity is wrong
Very shaky points towards the end there. I feel like you are receiving a lot of bad info from right-wing talking points.
Every comfort you have today was because the people before you fought for progress and you are here saying "Things are good actually, look at ancient history, the left only whines" when that line of thinking would mean the US would never go for independence, the separation of church and estate would never happen and no republic would have ever had risen to power.
Right now the US spends more on being world police than with it's own infrastructure and well being, rich people are able to fund people into power and your birth address is the biggest factor of your success in a society that prides itself in meritocracy.
You are letting a bunch of 20 year olds on Twitter and CZcams dictate too much of what "the left" actually is, or should stand for, without giving any merit to actual policy.
I see some shaky talking points; but they aren't coming from Whatifalthist
@@ktoth29 Very well, go ahead. Why were my points shaky?
'Right now the US spends more on being world police than with it's own infrastructure and well being,'
This is the shakiest point.
The world asked the US to take on this role. Previously, each empire (principally Britain, France, Germany and Russia) policed her own trade areas (especially sea trade routes), but that led to the absolute carnage of 1914 and consequently, 1939.
The Bretton Woods system had the US become the sole global power of the Western World, and she was allowed to have reserve currency status. But in return, she had to keep the trade routes open and use her military to defy communism and protect Europe and Australasia.
After Nixon, this system morphed into the Petrodollar where the $ was essentially backed by oil. This is why Gaddafi and Hussein had to be removed, because they threatened this hegemony. This is also why the Saudis are staunch allies of the US and no American leader has ever had a bad word to say about them.
The US was allowed to gain global hegemony - this suited Europe because they had no way of defending themselves from the Soviets - and later, they could use the money they saved to fund extensive welfare states
True, but remember to take everything he says with a grain of salt. He's not a certified historian, he's just a college dropout making videos would sounds like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro turned into one being. And while I like a lot of his videos, I tend to ignore the wilder claims he has.
@@juliantheapostate8295 so why is that a good idea in 2021? You think Europe has not recovered from the World Wars?
Right now the US spends 3 times more than it's rival, while having 18 allies out of the 20 countries with the biggest GPDs. Every war (after WW2) the US has waged has been to it's own detriment and to the detriment of the region (except the baltics, you guys did all right on that one). In the end everything was useless because the US got oil security not by waging war but because of technological progress. Hindsight is always 20 20, but if you look at history every economical short coming was solved with tech.
Also really? Are we going to measure human lives lost or driven to extremism in exchange for oil prices? I guess Whatifalthist is right, our society is getting more sociopath, but I guess it has always been this way in the end.
Democrats made one of the most inefficient health care systems of the entire world. Republicans prefer not having one at all.
I'm going to take the UK as an example. I'm going to use 2019 because it's before covid and the UK is one of the most right leaning countries in Europe.They spent 183,5 bi dollars for a population of 66.9 million. Meaning they spent 2.742,89 on each person. The US spent 1.2 trillion on Medicare + 729 billion on Health (I honestly do not understand why they are putting these separate in www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function) meaning 1.9 Tri dollars on a population of 328,23 million, spending 5.788,45 per person. This whole "Somebody has to pay for it" idea is propaganda, you already pay for it, but almost all of it stays in the pockets of middle men.
In the end, most of your working force still gets private health insurance (which also exists in the EU) given by employers, but go into debt because they took an ambulance.
The data is all there but Republican and Democrats are too proud to notice that. Twenty two studies have been done proving this: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003013 . Even a right wing think tank agrees: www.mercatus.org/system/files/blahous-costs-medicare-mercatus-working-paper-v1_1.pdf
This without counting how the pharmaceutical industry sells things to the US with a higher price than in other countries like Canada.
When I was little me and my parents often went to my grandparent's Appartment to visit them, it is small and not in the best of neighborhoods. My grandfather didn't live the best of lifes, as a little kid ( already working at his uncle's knife factory) he saw how the leftist communists wrecked his village's church and turned it into a brothel, afterwards and after the civil war swept through his region the fascist thugs took control and disowned all the important belongings of his family and distributed it amongst their supporters and friends. There was so little food available that he and the other village boys would go to the barracks where the Maghrebi colonial troops were to pick up the food scraps. Then as a teenager he went to the big city to look for work and spend the next few decades working in different jobs, but after time and effort he became an excellent all rounder craftsman and gained the respect of his fellow construction workers being able to raise six kids. At the end though the pay wasn't a lot and he lost his job early, after that it was just the minimal retirement pay.
While I was there and especially before leaving he would ALWAYS tell me how important it was to listen to others, how healthy calmness and restraint can be and especially how USELESS ENVY is. It does bad for others and it makes you unhappy. As a kid I always wondered why he would say that every time, but now I really fight with myself to follow it.
Considering his background I find myself having more and more respect for him by the day, he maybe wasn't the smartest guy around, but he very well is the wisest man I've ever met.
No Rudy, I haven't met you :P
And even if, you'd still have to prove it in real life ;)
(Sorry about the text wall)
what we did better than our ancestors? no global war, no cold war, better social equality. they laid out the board, we fixed it
Dude I’m sorry but the level of analysis in this video can be boiled down to a fundamental misunderstanding and confusion. As someone who is clearly not involved in left-wing circles, you’re rushing quickly to ascribe the motivations of left-wing forces to be “envy” and some abstract notion of desire or greed. This especially goes when you say that pulling down a statue of Churchill is fundamentally coming from some jealously that he achieved great things…
I think to anyone even remotely involved or having spoken to people on the left, it comes out of an understanding of the hypocrisy and great historical wrongs that have been done and that have been ignored in the dominant historical narratives. Churchill isn’t torn down because people are “jealous.” Churchill is torn down because we are taught of his wise statescraft and his ability to guide his nation through war, but we hardly talk about the colonial holocausts that him and the men like him presided over.
I think envy is a really weird and esoteric way to talk about this issue. Harkening back to the “hunter gatherer mindset” and other pseudo-scientific justifications for your claims aren’t really doing a lot to make the case either unless it’s people who already agree with your conclusion that the left is bad and therefore parrot whatever seems to be “research.”
The reason for these movements is the founding principles of American society are freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet at the same time it is a society founded on the largest mass murder in history, it kept people in chains and then in legal constraints until about 50/60 years ago and crushed any movement that dared go beyond the minimal legal concessions offered so that the government was not overthrown. Public pressure from below forced change, and many on the left today are inspired to continue that fight and undo the wrongs that remain completely unaddressed. It’s to address the shortcomings of historical movements. Everything you see today is a historical outgrowth of the anti-colonial and first world revolutions of the middle of the last century, for better or for worse. I really don’t see how you can miss that and focus on some like supposed character trait that defines everybody on the left.
Quite frankly, even though I’m not an avid watcher of your content, I’m a little disappointed in this “research” and I think it stems from a complete and utter misreading of modern political movements.
I hope he sees this
I'm not sure I can completely agree or completely disagree with your statements, however, I just want to commend you for writing a well-thought out rebuttal to this video. It's really refreshing to see an argument presented in the comments section *actually* arguing a point instead of devolving into childish name calling and the like.
By providing a coherent counter-argument, you have a far greater chance of convincing others to agree with you. The point of debate is not to 'beat' your opponent, but to create discourse and hopefully to learn from one another. Pretty sad how foreign this idea has become.
@@MrAwesomeSaucem Completely agree with you, and I even think I could have been more diplomatic in my statement but I slid in a few unnecessarily critical remarks. I think by nature the internet kind of distances discourse and we dehumanize the people we talk to so most of the time it just becomes a name calling fest or something, but usually I still try and engage with people. A lot of the time it’s a waste, but I’m glad to see someone got something out of it. Cheers!!
5:54 I would say the society today selects mostly for psychopaths and narcisists to reach the top, you kinda have to not care about people and be super individual and goal oriented as well as smart and narcisitic to get ahead in today's world, most people aren't like this and nether were most leaders of the past like this, some kings and queen were for sure but even that number is lower than you think and most people below them did not do too much besides maintaining order, these days we have social media, mass media, politicians and corporate ceo's that basically run the world and enjoy it while other struggle to get ahead, sometimes because of their efforts on the top to stop them from getting ahead.
Managerial staff has shown to select for psychopathy indirectly.
But aren’t like 44% of a certain group of people in positions of power in USA? Would that make them all psychopaths lol
@@haltdieklappe7972 Might be a wealth disparity or social advantages in addition.
As an upperclass, cis white Male progressive I think it’s important to note how big a role empathy plays in the left. Saying it’s driven by envy feels deeply uncharitable
Yeh it’s classic if you’re rich and left wing you’re a hypocrite but if you’re poor and left wing you’re jealous. I’m not denying some of the left are driven by envy but I think it’s similar with many on the right who opossose things that would create better equality of opportunity because not on principle but because they feel that they would lose out. Not that there isn’t well intentioned people on both sides
I think empathy very important as a counter to envy. Neither is inherently left or right but envy can be poisonous to any progressive movement by channeling them away from making things better towards just getting revenge.
You are right that you need empathy and compassion to keep the progressive view working towards a better tomorrow
It's that empathy which leads to the envy.
The Left have this cosmic concept of justice where it's more important to worry about how people are faring in some far off land.
The Right say 'charity begins at home'.
I've betrayed my bias here but a right-wing person sees an entirely different world out there, than a left-wing person does
@@Nostripe361 Empathy isn't a counter to envy - do you mean sympathy?
Empathetic means you KNOW how someone is feeling, it doesn't mean you care
@@juliantheapostate8295 yeh I agree that a lot of political differences are cause by viewing the world in different ways and this is why it is often hard for people to understand each other’s perspective
Collectivism in society is like a bucket of crabs
Try crawling out and you get pulled back in.
Envy truly is a curse, every human was born with unique circumstances and unique ideas
It is wrong to believe that just because you don't have something doesn't mean others should not have it.
What exactly do you mean by "it is wrong"? Envy is a natural emotion that was very useful in the environment where our ancestors evolved, which is the reason why we carry it in our genes.
You can't just hope it away any more than you can hope away any other negative emotions that we have. What you have to do is to create the society such that the unhappiness generated by envy is minimised.
Churchill said that communism is a great theory but for a wrong species and he was right as communist theory pretends that we can just wish away selfishness from people. The exact same applies to economic theories they just wish away envy from people and think that you can create a society where the effects of envy are just ignored.
@@srelma how is it useful at all? Jealousy is useful, envy is not. Just because we carry a gene doesn't mean it was useful. Jealousy is the desire to have something someone else has, envy is the desire to deny something to someone when one doesn't possess it. Basically the difference between "I want what the other guy has" and "if I can't have it, no one will". It also ignores that the best aren't the ones who always get to breed, in fact it's almost always been some of the worst people that often end up involuntarily bringing up more children.
I do agree that getting rid of it may very well be impossible hence why measures should be developed to prevent it from causing too much damage. Religions like Christianity can do this quite well while religions like Islam would only worsen things further.
@@necrosteel5013 how is it helpful. First, I don't even need to develop a theory as it is obvious that it has been helpful as it has been carried by the people in most successful societies and those societies that had no people with envy, got wiped out. It's ubiquitous in human societies all around the world.
The most likely help from envy was that it forced the most successful hunters to share their catch with the tribe as they knew that otherwise they could face being outcast which in the hunter-gatherer tribes meant pretty certain death. Why was it useful to force the most successful hunters to share their catch? That's probably because being successful is often a matter of luck, which means that if I'm lucky this time you might be lucky next time. If you starve to death now as I don't share my catch with you, I may not have anything to get from you next time.
Envy is the force that makes us share what we have even without explicit rules for that. We know that if we're lucky, other people will feel envious to us, which means that we either have to hide our luck or share it (or otherwise face social stigma).
Note, that we don't usually feel envy to people who work hard and make sacrifices to get something as then we'll feel that they deserve the fruits of their labour, but we do feel envy on people getting something by just good fortune. We celebrate the rag to riches stories and despise the entitled youth going to to top universities because they happen to have succeeded parents.
@@srelma again, don't mistake jealousy for envy here. Sharing will solve jealousy but not envy. Envy can easily be felt by people who are incapable of work but who desire to do things regardless, just look at communists, they are some of the most envious people.
@@necrosteel5013 I'm not mistaking. This is what Merriam-Webster gives as difference between the two words:
Envy means discontented longing for someone else’s advantages. Jealousy means unpleasant suspicion, or apprehension of rivalship.
Envy is exactly what I'm talking about above.
Lots of interesting ideas, envy also plays a very prominent role in Rene Girard's philosophy. I think you're on to something important here. The cultural conversation over the past several years has centered around oppression and power. Maybe re-framing claims to oppression or the righteous disruption of hierarchies as being motivated by envy provides a useful defense.
Marx, Foucalt are proponents of envy.
16:56 "europe is the main part of the world that has seen active economic decline", the graph shown there is really not enough to support that claim, especially since China shoots up so fast. Also attributing it to socialism and not to other factors seems iffy to me.
RELATIVE
Also europe is not in economic decline, it's just growing slower than africa or china (and considering that europe is a really small continent it should not be surprising that their total economic share would plummet after the rest of the world reached them) most european countries (before covid) registred gdp growth even greece
Yeah that was the one part I found a bit weird in the video too.
Europe unlike the US, has no place to expand to anymore, our industry grows alot slower, we simply have no place and no recourses, the main way our economy grows is through innovation and there are currently less innovations made in the world.
@@felicepompa1702 Europe is falling, gdp growth isn’t the only nor the main thing that controls the economy, companies have moved factories away, food production has degreased and laziness is being supported, if we don’t change we can’t go anywhere
I think that, ironically, whatifalthist is displaying envy towards Europe because if Europe is doing better than the US that would make his world view unfounded.