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0 pointsaussieshibe3y ago0 comments

My interpretation was that "the rest of the world" is meant to refer to "the rest of the countries in the world" not "the rest of the people in the world".

To say that the US has a worse peace index than the rest of the countries in the world is still hyperbole, but it's not so far off the truth.

The US has the 129th best peace index of 163 countries, right after Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Azerbaijan.

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kolanos3y ago

> My interpretation was that "the rest of the world" is meant to refer to "the rest of the countries in the world" not "the rest of the people in the world".

Even by that measure it is false. The only continents less violent than the one the United States resides are Europe, Oceania and Antarctica. The United States isn't even the most violent country in its own continent, that would be Mexico.

So really the unnecessary qualifier should be: "Well it might be bad in the U.S., but in Europe, Oceania and Antarctica..."

aussieshibeOP3y ago

I wrote "countries", not "continents". I also have not claimed that the US is the most violent country.

By the metric you've presented as a yard stick for violence (Peace Index), there are only 33 countries which are worse off than the US.

Sure, those 33 countries mean the US has a worse peace index than ~80% of countries, not 100%. I concur that (based on this metric alone) the US is not the #1 most violent country.

Having said that: being worse than 80% of countries on any metric, in my opinion, is easily enough to be able to say "worse than the rest of the world" and have a reasonable expectation for that to be understood as hyperbole.

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