Settlers is weird in some places - and I still haven’t read most of it, just skipped around - like scoffing at college education as essential, but i think there is a lot of interesting stuff in there too

  • MarxMadness
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    1 year ago

    Being 40 years old might be an explanation for some of this, but that still makes it a less useful resource in 2023. I don’t think it’s a very good explanation for a lot, though – public transit wasn’t that much better in the 80s (and more people lived outside of cities altogether), electric washing machines had been around for decades at that point, and eyeglasses were common for even longer. In context of 1983 these still come off as indicators of basic development more than anything a country should be criticized for.

    And while I agree the author is implicitly comparing the U.S. to the developing world, your job as a writer is to actually make that comparison, because why would your audience know how common glasses or washing machines are in other countries?