ynthrepic

And what do you think will take its place, and how?

That is the most disingenuous interpretation of my comment I can imagine.

You're finding enemies in your own trenches my friend. The genocide in Gaza is absolutely horrific, and I am not making any excuses for it.

I'm just saying we live in a better world now as a whole than years past, recent years notwithstanding. Think mid-Obama as maybe the most hopeful time in recent memory as far as advancement toward the Global Goals was concerned, and yeah I know Obama was still bombing foreign countries in the name of anti-terror and killing innocents to get at Obama Bin Laden.

Do you find any optimism in the world or are you pure nihilism?

What have I started lol.

Dehulling rice is way harder than processing wheat...

Also eating boiled wheat grains was a thing long before bread was figured out.

You can make bread with rice flour too if that's your thing.

Delicious.

Institutions like NATO and the ICC, global trade agreements, security guarantees, economic interdependencies, multiculturalism, air travel, the infrastructure of the internet. The fact a bridge collapse or building fire might make international headlines. Movies and culture from around the world being mainstream.

What makes you not think so?

Indeed. But the general direction of world order has been moving against that sort of thing, and increasingly, many serving US politicians and citizens. Trump is undermining both US and global progress away from the worst traits of human hegemonic History and putting them back on full display.

Sure, it's better than the alternative. But it still makes this move functionally meaningless aside from the reasons I mentioned.

Aluminium goes in one end and out the other, does it not?

Problem is, Maduro is a figurehead. He's not a mastermind. The regime will carry on without him. Nothing has been achieved by this kidnapping except a threat to Venezuela, and a message to China and Russia that this is how the world works now.

Edit: Also a lot of innocent or mostly innocent people have been murdered. Trump is a literal murderer.