"the world is better than it's ever been, technology is better than it's ever been, and it's all continuing to get better."

Those guys in Sudan or blue whales beg to differ.

You can always point at bad things happening, no matter what time period you're in. You need to look at the graph over decades/centuries. Poverty, child mortality, literacy, standard of living, access to healthcare, etc. etc. are all better than they have ever been, even in the poorest places in the world.

I can't help thinking how those graphs conveniently ignore the damage such improvements have on the environment, on which they themselves depend. Damaged environments -> scarcity -> war. But I agree it's nice to have that happening away from home.

Ostensibly involved in made up cocaine shipping.

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/06/department-of-justice-quiet...

Going by that letter, the guy is a textbook example of the fruits of capitalism.

Bob Lefsetz [0] is certainly a man who understands the industry, but seems to also care about the art.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Lefsetz

> In the Western World the secret services kill to silence people, not to broadcast messages to the public. Quite the opposite PR strategy.

Yep. I totally didn't get the "don't mess with big corps" message at all.

From the article:

"But it’s facing challenges with navigating post-Brexit regulations that make British-made EVs significantly more expensive to sell in the EU."

Much what on earth. Such wow.

How is "more expensive to sell in the EU" to be blamed in case of a company that hasnt tried to sell anywhere at any price?

>In most Western countries, people aren't dying of hunger.

At the cost of those who die in far away countries who work to keep our progress moving on.

> Fundamentally, neither spotify nor piracy matter.

Well, I'd say yes because that's what the conversation is about.

I'd say it was more like a joint effort. I agree with your points, but I was related to the industry for some time, and sometimes money was spent on things like renting a Concorde flight for some exec in France because he was making it late to a meeting in NY.

Well, put that way, life is an industry.

Russia did not exist at the time of WWII.