Comment by sixothree
1 day ago
Because I don't know enough about the internal divisions in other countries. But I can tell you Americans will fight progress at every turn.
1 day ago
Because I don't know enough about the internal divisions in other countries. But I can tell you Americans will fight progress at every turn.
I'm not American, so this is a guess, but I'd suspect people resisting "progress" are not as irrational as you perhaps suppose.
More likely, they feel they would disproportionately bear the costs, while the benefits either trickle down diffusely from the wider societal good, or worse, accrue to some private company.
For example you may feel AI is progress, they may feel the loss of the countryside near their house to a data centre, which they may believe will primarily benefit the owners of OpenAI et al. In such a case, their opposition would be aligned with their beliefs and values.
> Americans will fight progress at every turn
On one hand, we have opposition to industrialization and the green revolution.
On the other hand, we have Greenwich Village pushing back on being razed for a highway.
Defining "progress" is fundamentally a value judgement. In one era, undeveloped land was opportunity for progress. Today, turning developed land into parks can be seen the same way.