If they're right, our humanity was destroyed long before any of us were born.

So... how would we know?

Yeah I think people might be downplaying the fact that some different choices on automobiles could have led to drastically different outcomes with respect to the health of cities, suburbs, and communities

I mean sure, people still had babies, and the babies (us) adapted to the new environment, viewing it as "inevitable"

But that doesn't mean we can't make better choices around governance and technology going forward, or that we're not making bad choices right now

I would never wish to live like the average human 100 years+ ago. Most people lived in squalor, died easily, toiled their entire lives.

We live in absolute luxury and comfort today compared to pretty much any point in history.

It gets very tiresome hearing people complain about how hard they have it these days, which is just factually untrue. What I actually think the problem is, is apathy. People are looking to blame anything else for how they feel in life, rather than take ownership.

I see so many times people complaining about how fast modern life is, and yet they have a very real choice to go and live mostly off grid. There are communities all around the world where pro-active people have had the same thoughts and feelings, and actually had the guts to do something about it. This is all available to you right now, with the added benefit that it isn't even permanent if you don't like it (unlike 100+ years ago when there was no choice).

(waits for the downvotes)

Humanity had its inherent problems well before any technology was invented.

It started before cars. But cars have devastating effect on how we built our environment, which has negative impact on social life, health and climate change.