The annual World Happiness Report has again ranked Finland and other Scandinavian countries the most cheerful nations on Earth. Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 in place of the United States and Germany.
Finland has remained the happiest country in the world for the seventh year a row with nordic neighbors Sweden, Denmark and Iceland also retaining their places in the top 10, according to the annual World Happiness Report published on Wednesday.
But rising unhapiness especially among young people has seen other Western countries drop down the UN-sponsored index, with the United States and Germany dropping out of the top 20 for the first time since the report’s first edition more than a decade ago.
Taking their place were Costa Rica and Kuwait at 12 and 13 respectively, while Eastern European countries Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the biggest increases in happiness.
Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, remained in last place.
How much of the suffering was actually caused by someone physically giving you trouble, throwing you in jail or stopping you from doing something, and how much by emotions of fear that you have inside you?
i know plenty of people who ended up in jail, but never me.
are we really measuring trauma here? shouldn’t we be fighting oppression together?
I just think in the grand scale of things, a state doing limited surveillance is fairly low on the injustice ladder. I’m generally against it, but I think more of it is done by google and facebook than the FBI.
I’m also not a believer that all oppression can/should be eliminated, as some will always be necessary for self-defense purposes. It’s not like countries invading other countries doesn’t happen, and we do need ways to fight back, which would necessitate some limited intelligence-gathering capabilities.
That said, we do need to repeal the current surveillance laws, they went too far. It’s not limited strongly enough.
>I’m also not a believer that all oppression can/should be eliminated
… i’m an anarchist. so that’s like my raison d’être
I think anarchists are important too. It’s our plurality of positions that makes us free. And stronger/more innovative in the idea space.
I think the whole surveillance state thing is less about throwing individuals in jail, and more about controlling mass discourse.
For example how social divisors like gender, age, sexuality and whatever else are amplified while criticism and action against the people cooking us alive is buried. You don’t need black chaikas and fear if you have soft power and constant outrage. TBH I think that’s why Trump got elected, a bunch of people went “fuck this shit” and either went and voted for Trump to “stick it to the man”, or just didn’t go to vote at all.
How else is a state owned healthcare system deemed radical and hospitals being owned by private equity normal if it’s not those few profiting off the death and suffering setting what’s normal?
Yeah, but we’re going to have to regulate our massive companies to address that. Outrage is very profitable. Fear sells, just like sex.