this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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This singular comic panel has honestly ruined my mental health for years.
It made me look at the world and constantly see all the things that SHOULD be better but aren't solely because the people that are supposed to improve life not only blatantly refuse to do so but seem hell bent on deliberately making things worse.
Honestly the crux of the issue seems to be what I've learned from my experiences working and studying as an engineer:
The devil(s) sign the best paychecks, no one else.
As an engineering undergraduate, the best economic incentive (which is what humans tend to follow) once I graduate is not to work in areas that could possibly make the world a better place (like infrastructure, public services, etc...), but to work at places that make the world a worse place (AI R&D, Military-Industrial Complex, Data/Survailence Capitalism firms, so on).
I am fully aware that any place I work for in those fields will guaranteed make the world a worse place, but I don't have many alternatives in my area.
In Silicon Valley (the place where I live, grew up, and am studying), you are granted these 3 choices once you graduate:
For almost everyone around me in my studies, the choice is obvious. When I ask my family members, the choice is also obvious. There is no need to worry about the world around you, because you need to secure your own future, so nobody I've asked cares in the end.
In a way, both sides are right: Theoretically, nobody could work to make the world a worse place, and everyone could make the world a better place, and the opposite can be true.
But right now, with the cards we're dealt in our society, things will always be unbalanced, and it's hard to blame most individuals for their choices.