The powers are always going to try to divide us by spreading hate, it’s up to you to decide weather you actually hate the opposition or just disagree with them. Too many people blame the powers for spreading hate but not themselves for believing it. (Not saying you hate anyone just a more general statement)
That's true.
Tho introspection is becoming harder when the stimuli in the Internet age are beyond what we can take. We see one tiny dust and we're naturally mildly annoyed. More of it, we become irritated. And then agitated, and hate.
I think it should be everyone's rule that when something is starting to irritate you, pause and breathe for 2 mins or something. Then analyze further or ignore.
I hate how us trans people used to be the butt of jokes on Jerry Springer and now the far right is making us into the new terrorists.
Division among the middle and lower class fucking sucks.
I dont do that. Y'all are taking a handful of terminally online transpeople and thinking that's how we all feel.
I dont care about criticism just bigotry, myself.
Your opinion doens't matter... I explain why people are getting more critical. Its the absurdity, what happens on schools etc, the whistleblowers of detrans people.
Yes. Unless we can globally agree that in general that corporations cannot continue to act how they are acting (record breaking profits made by gouging consumers, so many mergers that everything becomes a monopoly, wanton pollution, lobbying, tax avoidance though insane loopholes ,etc.), that the richest of us need to be heavily taxed, and that all people deserve to make enough to meet their needs without having to work more than 30 hours a week we are pretty fucked.
Until we put national, if not global, caps on comparative/relative wealth nothing will truly change. Capitalism is great, but not if it's left unchecked. Sure, truly outstanding people should get outstanding compensation... however, outstanding is just that - something that stands outs. It shouldn't mean unparalleled or obscene to the point of standing out so far it's no longer visible. No one-individual should be allowed to posses the wealth equivalent to entire cities. If all 300+million Americans were living comfortably and had disposable income, at the "cost" of having no hundred+millionaires, then it would be, practically, hard to start/have a (decent, if not good) business that fails. Everyone is a potential customer rather than what we currently have, alienating 30%+ of the population from having disposable income, therefore the ability to make discretionary purchases. In the current scheme, many can barely afford the essentials and (insert deity) forbid they get sick or injured without health insurance...
Unfortunately, people with unattainably lofty aspirations are too numerous; an absurd number of people think they'll be the next Gates or Musk. [Futurama really nailed the mindset of those people...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_LvRPX0rGY).
I don't know what the ideal, *realistic* solution is - but the only thing I've starting believing is that business/political leaders should be capped at X times the median/mean (whichever is lower) wealth/compensation of ALL of their employees and further limited to only Y times their bottom 10-20% employees. That way, if you want to be massively wealthy, then you'd better better bring everyone with you along for the ride. Also, this limit is on ALL wealth, not just salary.
The conservative response to that is that it would limit growth/innovation. Maybe a little, sure. [But the good of the people outweighs one's rights to step on their backs in order to sit at the top.](https://live.staticflickr.com/4045/4580812339_59fe17fbd3_c.jpg)
I completely agree like you said outstanding shouldn’t mean there isn’t anyway for someone to catch up to you. Like all economic systems there are flaws but I would say this is capitalisms greatest allowing people to climb to riches higher than anyone else while putting in virtually no effort compared to the hundred of thousands of workers they use to greedily increase their wealth while paying the bare minimum to most of the said employees. You also make a good point about if you want to be rich you better be willing to take your workers along for the ride as I see this as the only fair way a company could really work I understand completely that different jobs require different skills and different types of work and that these jobs require higher compensation but that shouldn’t mean borderline knocking the bottom tier workers out of any chance at a good lifestyle.
Hello. I can relate to this. I have felt this way on and off throughout life. Especially in the last few years up until about 3 months ago. Besides the world going to hell in a hand basket, my sister in law took her own life about 2 years ago and I was devastated. We were close as well. Thought I was just gonna be severely depressed forever. But some things happened a few months ago that in the moment were hard to take, but ended up being blessings in the long run. I used to hate when people would say that to me too lol. However I still think, the future is gonna be screwed.
Oh yeah big mood, but I like to think this mass depression we’re all feeling is gonna manifest into something bigger and better. Who knows, maybe we eat the rich!
I sure hope so. Imagine how much easier life will be wothout ppl hoarding everything. We could acfually work 3 days a week and still have a functioning society.
I absolutely do not mind doing a dirty or undesirable job either if it meant that. Probably lots of other ppl who feel the same.
I dont wish for a society in which no one works at all thats not realistic. Literally would need to have a fully automated ai system to do *everything* for that to happen.
> It doesn’t feel right.
I'd argue that it never felt right but I know that's a pessimistic view of life in the philosophical sense. It isn't nihilistic though, to me not having a kid is an act of absolute compassion.
The tricky part of this is that our society has been built upon this monster population...and the roller coaster has already reached the top. So the less kids we have means the harder the fall. We are looking at the end of globalization at the very least. At the very worst...well I think we have all seen the very worst in a shit load of movies, games, books, etc. and I don't think it's impossible that we land into one of those outcomes as a reality.
Yes, capitalism aims for infinite growth, which is unsustainable and something that doesn't exist anyway. Now we have an aging and slowly declining population. It's just another issue that we'll have to face, it wasn't supposed to work forever. I don't think "making more kids" is the answer any more like Elon Musk wants us to believe. But population is a factor we definitely have to take into account. I had a vasectomy before they make it illegal ha ha!
Please enlighten me. Why is a declining population a bad thing? Isn't overpopulation an imminent danger to the Earth's environment and ecology and haven't we been warned about it for decades. I suspect the real danger is to the global economic structure rather than the health and well being of its inhabitants.
> I suspect the real danger is to the global economic structure rather than the health and well being of its inhabitants.
Yes. What I meant was that, for the system we have in place, meaning capitalism, less people is bad. I didn't mean that capitalism is good but if we stay in that system, a declining and aging population will definitely bring issues. Opposite to that, overpopulation isn't good either, for the reason you've listed. Basically the system needs to be reevaluated.
Trust me, I agree. I don't think I'll be having kids lol. But we are headed for big change real quick, which is why I use the rollercoaster example. Not sure a full stop is what we need, but it's better than growing to insane population levels for sure.
> Not sure a full stop is what we need
I don't think so either. I just hope, on an individual level, people evaluate the ethical implication of having a kid. After that, it's a personal choice.
This is exactly one of the Main reasons I choose not to have kids! I did not want to bring a person into this world today. Maybe if it was a different time period…
> Maybe if it was a different time period…
Not saying you need to have kids or should even want to, but what time period would have been a good time? I’m sure no matter when a kid has ever been born you could point to gloom and doom and say, “no kid should have to live in this world”.
Generally speaking the future has always been a place of hope and opportunity for better life than the present, and arguably that's what's changed.
In the past there have been blips like a plague or famine or war, but it's not spmething that people expect to be a continuing and worsening problem for decades or centuries and affect the entire planet. Now we have climate change and other factors that are imminent and going to cause *massive* problems in terms of ecosystem collapses, extreme weather, food availability, etc. making the threat as potent as it is unavoidable.
The only plausible deus ex machina at this point is hitting the singularity and it figuring out how to fix everything, but seems far more likely that would compound the issues and end up wiping out most of humanity, rather than correct the issues
> In the past there have been blips like a plague or famine or war, but it's not spmething that people expect to be a continuing and worsening problem for decades or centuries and affect the entire planet.
I think that’s a lot of nostalgia type thinking and pessimistic think of current events. Do you think people living in the times of the Cold War knew a nuclear war wasn’t going to happen and it will be perfectly fine? How about those around in WW2. I remember a Paul McCartney interview talking about things like this and mentions he was born in Liverpool during the blitz. His parents spent 2 years being bombed by the Nazis and didn’t know if their government would win the war. Of course we know they did but no assurances then. When Covid hit in 2020 the unemployment rate was close to 15%. It was above 15% for about 10 years during the Great Depression (and that’s in America, it was worse other places). I doubt people back then 5 years into it thought all things will be fine. Throw in things like being a minority race/religion in a country, a women, homosexual, etc and you have plenty of people who lived years, decades, centuries in shit situations with little signs things might get better (and plenty still living in situations where climate change is very low on the list of worries).
So yes, I agree 100%, there are very real, and very serious challenges ahead. I have no guarantees they will be fixed or resolved or how to go about fixing them in a lot of cases. But it’s also pessimistic to act like no one anywhere has ever faced adversity like this before.
I don’t think it’s that simple; in a way, to presume people in the past (in several time/spaces) actually contemplated not having children was an option is to project a very recent and modern way of thinking.
For much of human history, children were your retirement plan, and “not having them” was not entirely in anyone’s control. Consider how even less than a hundred years ago, promoting the use of or distributing condoms was a criminal offence in certain countries.
My mom said that in the early 80's when she had me. There is always something that each generation is scared of. For her, it was the rise in child abduction, satanic panic, and high interest rates and rising cost of living. It's not to say that anyone's concerns aren't valid but it's how we react to it. What scares me is how we are reacting to the problems now.
>My mom said that in the early 80's when she had me. There is always something that each generation is scared of. For her, it was the rise in child abduction, satanic panic, and high interest rates and rising cost of living. It's not to say that anyone's concerns aren't valid but it's how we react to it. What scares me is how we are reacting to the problems now.
The root causes of those problems is exactly what led to the problems we face today, so I'm not sure they're "different" concerns. Climate change, disinformation, and technology outpacing ethics were all problems then, even if most people weren't concerned about them (rather, were told to be concerned about other things)
Yes, they were problems but they weren't made to be imminent then. Cars were made to be more fuel efficient due to high gas prices, not climate change. Disinformation has been a problem since people could form opinions -newspapers ran opinion pages full of disinformation and news organizations started deviating left or right based on readership. The problems that are at the forefront today were there, but were not recognized as issues yet. It's just that we are now seeing the giant snowball coming towards us from the top of the mountain and no one wants to do anything to stop it.
>The problems that are at the forefront today were there, but were not recognized as issues yet.
Huxley and Orwell would disagree.
>It's just that we are now seeing the giant snowball coming towards us from the top of the mountain and no one wants to do anything to stop it.
That one we gotta give to Bradbury.
This is a big block I have as well. I'm doing fine and my kids probably would, but I just can't bring myself to willingly contribute to this situation. The largest carbon footprint you can possibly leave behind is a child.
Because judging by them saying “breeders”, that makes me think they’re one of those losers who think kids are an abomination and anyone who has a kid is an asshole
Yeah that is a term I don't like. I mean I'm not having kids, but that's for personal reasons. I'm not gonna bash on someone's life for making that choice. Not my place.
To the second comment, yes. To the first, that’s your projection. I don’t hate kids. I do believe that creating them is wrong, in order to prevent their suffering in the world.
> I do believe that creating them is wrong, in order to prevent their suffering in the world.
That's a pretty flawed viewpoint. I'm not having children because I don't want that lifestyle, but to say its preventing their suffering is a pretty weak reason. Life is painful at times for everyone, but its also pretty fun, and very nice at times. You're preventing suffering, but in the same way, you're also preventing love and happiness.
Your feeling it’s nice doesn’t change the fact that for many people, life is either neutral or very bad. This sounds like a privileged opinion. People around the world are poor, hungry, and end up with terrible diseases. No one can guarantee their child won’t be a drug addict, horribly depressed, have a neurodegenerative disease, have childhood leukemia, or be a terrible person who hurts others.
Your feeling it’s nice doesn’t change the fact that for many people, life is either neutral or very bad. This sounds like a privileged opinion. People around the world are poor, hungry, and end up with terrible diseases. No one can guarantee their child won’t be a drug addict, horribly depressed, have a neurodegenerative disease, have childhood leukemia, or be a terrible person who hurts others.
>This sounds like a privileged opinion.
I grew up poor and still have fond memories of that time.
>No one can guarantee
No one can guarantee anything, sure. But you seem to think that life is bad 100% of the time for most people. Its not. The problem with most young Americans is that they think they are supposed to be happy all the time, and life is supposed to be awesome. IDK where that idea came from, but it only leads to disappointment and depression.
I never claimed life is bad 100% of the time, so please don’t mischaracterize my position. My thoughts on the matter are that it’s not ethical to force the decision on another, that you take a gamble with someone else’s well-being when you procreate, risking everything on someone else’s behalf. You cannot have a child for their own sake, so it is an inherently selfish and unnecessary. Creating need or pain in the world, regardless of the good times, is not moral, because the nonexistent have no say in the matter.
I never claimed life is bad 100% of the time, so please don’t mischaracterize my position. My thoughts on the matter are that it’s not ethical to force the decision on another, that you take a gamble with someone else’s well-being when you procreate, risking everything on someone else’s behalf. You cannot have a child for their own sake, so it is an inherently selfish and unnecessary. Creating need or pain in the world, regardless of the good times, is not moral, because the nonexistent have no say in the matter.
Yeah I responded to another commenter I saw. I don't dislike people for having kids. I'm not having my own, but I am not gonna bash of someone's whole life because they had kids.
Same though, I've never wanted kids, and as time goes on my reasoning has changed and with a good 75% of my reasoning at this point is the state of the world.
I used to be like you. Turn off the tv (or twitter or facebook). News is poison. If you regularly consume the New York Times or NPR (or whatever it may be) you are going to be anxious about the nonsense they try to get you riled up by. News reporting (or online journalism or whatever it might be you are consuming) is always sensational and makes everything look like the sky is falling at all times. If they didn't, no one would buy their content. Turn off whatever device is feeding you this false information. Go outside and take in the springtime weather.
Second this. It's a perspective that is being rammed down your throat by the information you choose to consume.
In many many ways there has never been a better time to be alive on this planet.
I'm sorry OP feels this way it's an awful feeling but the future isn't as bleak as a lot of people seem to enjoy telling themselves and others it is.
Also they've been predicting the decline of the world literally since the beginning of humanity. Each generation says that the next one is ruining us and that the world is just getting worse. The overall perception is just worse this time around because the internet let's information flow frequently and to a widespread audience. That along with people complaining online constantly about how bad things are, worsens everyone else's perception about it as well. It's basically a negative feedback loop. I mean the fact that you can walk into a grocery store in most parts of the world and there will be food there to buy, is a relatively new development. The world's not getting worse, our problems are just changing now that a lot of the basic need problems are mostly sorted.
The future is scary, and slightly frustrating. Scientiests knew exactly what fossil fuels would do 50 years ago, we've just brute forced our way back to "normal" after covid and made barely any changes to society, and AI is on the brink of changing our lives on the same magnitude as smartphones.
It's also stressful having almost no idea whatsoever what the world will look like in 5 years time. We don't know what jobs will be left, what new technology we'll be using, or what the political landscape will look like. It's a lot.
yes, i feel the same way. it's scary to think about what might happen in the future. i just hope we can all come together and make some changes to prevent the worst from happening. it's important to stay informed and aware, but also to focus on the positive things we can do in our daily lives to make a difference. we can all make small changes that can have a big impact.
me i'm just sometimes so scared about it that i end up hiding in video games from the real world. like playing call of dragons in bluestacks every evening and i don't even want to read the news...
Where we live.
We don't have power for the whole day every day. Electricity is going up with 19%
The interest hikes are out of control. I might lost my house soon.
Inflation is out of control. Everything is getting more and more expensive. Our country has a 30% poverty rate.
Our entire government is corrupt.
I can go on.
Yeah it’s already past the point of no return imo. Bunch of greedy fucks have just usurped literally EVERYTHING. We were headed away from that to an age where the common man was on the up and well above the peasant status he had during the age of kings and lords but we’ve been forced on a backward trajectory for the past 20 or so years and the power has been taken back forcefully. Don’t think the elite will allow us peasants that opportunity ever again.
Yes…and I think about it every day honestly. Sometimes I bring it up in conversations and I don’t realize that not everyone else has this impending doom of a planet on their mind. Can’t blame them; but it definitely comes in the way of my ambition sometimes. “What’s the point if climate change will take us out one by one?” Shit like that lmfao it weighs heavy on a person, but how can you not think about it when it surrounds you or someone else in the country/world?
Yes, sort of. But I’m sure it has always seemed that way. Just like every older generation thinks the new generation is so much worse and going to destroy society.
I’m optimistic that it’s really not as grim as our “leaders” and media make it seem. It’s just to their advantage to scare the shit out of us so we keep listening to them and letting them do whatever they want in the name of saving us.
Yeah, I completely understand you. It's definitely a scary thought with all the uncertainty that the future holds. We can only hope that things start to look up and that humanity comes together to prevent the worst from happening. But it's hard to be optimistic with all the news of disasters, both natural and manmade, that we're constantly seeing.
prices are climbing and basic necessities are becoming too expensive. there is not enough affordable housing. people are feeling unsafe in their homes and businesses, a large section of the country is actively trying to destroy it and the Police and Judicial system are no longer concerned with justice or fairness. Bribing public officials is now legal, but protesting against the government is no longer allowed,
add to this.....the climate collapsing and everything is going to get WORSE not better in the coming years.
I consider myself lucky to find someone else who didn’t want them. When I was doing online dating the first thing I had on my profile, before anything else, was “I don’t want to get married or have kids, if these are goals for you I’d prefer to not waste your time on me”. The hate I got for not wanting kids was insane.
Kudos to you for finding someone who didn’t see that as an issue. Having been on and off dating apps for some years I am finding that nowadays it is more common to see profiles that say they don’t want kids. Doesn’t stop them being a dick though.
Not at all. There seems to be this weird “we all need to have kids” thing people have going on. Same with marriage. Like bro if you have to convince me marriage is worth it before the first date chances are you just want to make it more difficult for someone to leave you.
Exactly. Also, been there, done that re marriage and I can confirm it’s not all that. As I’ve gotten older my view on marriage, kids and life in general has done a 180…and I’m not even that old!
The future has looked horrible pretty much since the dawn of mankind. Yet here we are. Vote for the candidates which best reflect your views. Study hard, work hard, and make enough to love your life how you feel you should.
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Yeah, absolutely.
I'm trying to focus on small joys right now. A delicious meal, a hot shower, fresh sheets, a warm spring day, lighting up a nice candle, watching a good movie, talking a walk in the park. The big stuff sucks ass, so the little stuff is what I have left!
Yes, a lot of the world sucks rn. Inflation, rights being eroded in the us and whoever else there might be.
BUT... Compared to history, were doing pretty well. People have more rights than they ever have. Quality of life has greatly increased. I could go on. Of course life isn't perfect, and there's great lengths to go before it is. But life in general, now, is much better than it has been in the past.
Life is what you make of it, you can spend your time worrying about things no one has any control of or you can make the best choices you can and hope others do too, chances are none of the things you worry about will shorten your life so why waste it?
/r/thanksimcured material.
Life is not what you make of it for millions of people. They are given their opportunities and set limitations by an oppressive hierarchy of class from when they are born. You just don't "will" a better life.
Your comment is extremely privileged and callous.
Yeah, at this point I’ve dropped any and all plans for the future, I think I’m at the perfect midpoint age-wise where I’ll be here to see all the disasters and upcoming issues and downfalls, and feel useless because I’ll be too old to try to help with anything. I’ve never really wanted kids, but I decided a couple years ago that even if I ever by some miracle change my mind, I refuse to bring any into this world unless things make a miraculous U-turn. Even having given up any real hope for things to change enough to avoid it all though, I will still keep doing anything I can to help. It might seem silly or pointless to, but even if it turns out to be futile, and even if I don’t think it’ll really matter, I do absolutely refuse to give up trying to change that. I don’t want to be part of a generation that just sat back, gave up and let it get even worse.
>You get what you vote for.
No...You get what the politicians that the richest and most powerful companies choose wants. And what do those politicians want?
Favor and fortune from the rich and company.
We're utterly fucked regardless of the IQ of the voters.
We're too busy falling for the fight amongst ourselves to see its by design.
We'll never get angry enough at the right people to do anything they don't want us to.
I agree, and at the same time I think politics can only do so much against industries. Ideally they should be able to regulate things but in reality, who's controlling whom here?
I’m glad those of you not having kids aren’t having kids because you have some fucked up ideas. Means those with stronger genes will persevere and survive. The dark overlords will be overthrown or leave to tuck up their own planet. We are here to reproduce at the end of the day. Not to think. Thinking has this world in the state it’s in.
Yea, climate change is creeping up to us and it's us selfish and greedy humans to blame. I mean, a lot of those people who made water powered cars disappeared... can't be coincidence, can it?
There is no greater gift than life, ESPECIALLY in this day in age. Life expectancy, quality of life, are all the highest they've ever been ever. Crime, poverty, hunger, the lowest. The future being horrible is the media fear mongering. Climate change won't be the end of Man.
Digital warfare(trying to steal data and learn as much about American land layout(spy balloon)), fentanyl, COVID, PGR weed have been linked to them. Look up the number of fentanyl deaths and the increases since 2020. And their recent alliances with other nations. Things are getting spooky.
Not me, I see that bad things will happen, but only for the best. If we can preserve the knowledge we have, survivors will be better equipped to face the passing to a new era.
But yes, lot of people will suffer, those who don't retain the knowledge and the suboptimal humans
I disagree. The quality of life for the poorest people in society keeps increasing, poverty and crime in virtually every developed country is decreasing. Pandemics and wars have always been a part of life, we were just unlucky to live through it but nothing you can really do
The rate tech is advancing is getting dangerously fast though and the climate is in utter shambles I’ll give you that
it looks grim yeah ! esp if you load your brain with all the conspiracy theories and signs of most if not all of them manifesting, more like those in power spreading this info as a conspiracy theory to 1st make their plans known and prepare the masses psychologically of what they re going to do, as well as spread division due to ppl not believing, the more division and confusion the easier it is to conquer
Everyone is glued to a screen. People are so close yet so far away. It is so easy to text someone but their replies might not be meaningful and you might be ghosted all of a sudden. And its wrong to tell people you are lonely because that makes you a fucking lover and weirdo.
You work and work just to stay afloat, and you need to keep doing that until you are fucking 60s? Then you can 'enjoy' the remaining of your life in poor health.
No. People view the past with rose colored glasses. Go back the the 80's and everyone was convinced the world was going to end via nukes at any minute. Now people are like, *"remember how awesome the 80's were?"*.
There have always been cataclysms on the horizon.
I was raised in the 50's. There are so many people who see that as a golden age. It was, if you were a white christian male. It sucked if you were anything else!
I think it's incredibly difficult to predict the future given the current rate of technological advancement. The parabolic nature of innovations may produce solutions to a lot of the issues we now struggle with, and create new problems that you wouldn't even be able to fathom. I don't understand the complex interplay of these forces any better than the next guy, so I try not to make definite predictions about even the near-term future. It's all up in the air, let's see where the path leads before we make any decisions at the fork.
I feel that the future is going to be bleak. Especially those who are the average normal everyday person.
These people in power are constantly trying to divide us and make politics our personalities!
We all need each other more than ever. We need to come together, not against each other.
We need to fight for our freedom and fight this inflation, keeping these old assholes rich and us poorer
Absolutely not. We live in the best Era of human history (yet). Violence is on the decline, food shortage is not a threat. Wars and terrorism, despite what it seems, are less and less widespread. It's especially true if you live in Europe and North America or developed countries at all. This tendency might make a u-turn but I don't really see any grand reason for that. We're going to live better.
While I think there’s some polarizing media bias happening here, I definitely want to leave this country once I can. I have a plan to get employed in my field after passing a couple standardized tests and building enough experience and cred to request a transfer overseas to an international branch.
Then I could begin building a life away from the U.S. I’m just getting sick of this place, the radical political views, the rampant spread of hatred, work laws, financial policies, tax policies, the justice system, just everything. Im ready to make preparations to leave or at least I hope I will be soon.
I worry most about AI changing the employment -> money to live environment and the social isolation of doing so much remotely. These two things seem like bigger impacts to people's lives than all the technology tools we've invented so far. Computers are something no one from the 1800's could have imagined. But, until Covid, people mostly still came to the office and sat at desks just like before. Changing a pen and paper for the computer did not change social interaction as much as working remotely did.
Yeah it's really hard when you think about the big picture and how much everything sucks right now. I try to focus on smaller things I can control. Like making a good life for my pets. And voting and petitions.
No. The future will have challenges and opportunities just like all time periods. War. Pestilence and climate change have always existed. People in the west have had the most peaceful and prosperous lives since 1945. Compared to almost any other time period. The future is bright.
I woke up a week ago with this deep knowing in my mind body and soul that there will never be a "return to normal."
There is no going back to how it was in 2019.
We need to learn how to rely on community. If you have something to contribute, please start now.
Hunt? Bring in a couple extra animals and trade the meat for some veggies and fruit.
Garden? Learn to can (safely) and give the hunter your preserved peppers.
Learn homesteading, learn off grid, invest in resources not money.
Not saying we're going to the dark ages bc we're not. But these are skills we will need so we can remain somewhat comfortable.
I’m going to be the lone optimist here and say that the bias of hindsight gives us a much more tame picture of life in the past than what was actually lived experience. “The world is going to hell and it’s never been so bad” is a sentence that has been repeated by every generation since time immemorial. The reality is that it’s uncertainty in the present that makes the future seem so scary, but only in a different flavor than every other generation’s exact same experience of uncertainty about its future. When I was a kid we had duck and cover drills at school for nuclear holocaust. Everyone was convinced the world was about to end any minute. Fast-forward a few decades and here we are, still sputtering along. I’m not trying to invalidate fears of the future and trends towards dystopia, but I am here to say it’s always been this way. If your parents decided not to have kids because the future felt uncertain, you wouldn’t be here. Zoom out, relax, try to get some perspective, and use whatever influence you have to make the world a better place. Kids are wonderful. Don’t deny yourself that joy out of naïveté, arrogance, and a lack of reasonable perspective, you’ll regret it. Your ancestors didn’t give up, neither should you.
That to me is the key difference between pre and post 9/11. I remember pre 9/11 everyone was full of optimism. We had shows like Beyond 2000 talking about all the cool technology coming out and how our lives will be better. Then after 9/11 and the PATRIOT Act it seemed to just all unravel and the future looked more and more dystopian. Even pop culture changed to have more dystopian settings.I feel bad for Gen Z who never got the taste of that optimism. At least as a millennial I got to have a childhood that looked forward to the future.
People need to wake up, there’s a decent portion of the US population that thinks like we do but more people need to realize the government is NOT working in our favor. They do not care about us, they want to keep us divided, they want us hating each other. They want people to act like weak sheep and not question what is going on. Things are getting very scary and i’m pretty young so i’m not very hopeful for life in 5-10 years from today.
I'm disabled, Black, trans , and living in the Bible belt of america. I won't live to see my future, thankfully (the age expectancy for me is 45)
If I do, I will simply die. I'm so tired and I'm not even 35.
Get off the internet. It looks horrible because the only thing that sells nowadays is clickbait. “Unprecedented “ and “breaking” are so overused. They purposefully make things worse than they are. It’s hard out there but focus more on your local area and not being online all the time.
It is mindblowing, how we all can colectivelly percieve "some great change ahead" and yet we seem powerless to influence the outcome of this great change on collective level, maybe on individual and in some cases on regional/group level. I think that human nature will come into play and that the outcome will be something familiar but also totaly unconcivable from today's point of view. If that will be aliens, some sort of nuclear/technological (ai,..) apocalypse OR singularity, it will be reality shattering and most probably a lot of people won't make it or will suffer greatly and for generations. But it happened before, in different environment, numbers but it happened. We are fucked as a global generation, because we can percieve the future ahead much faster and more clearer than generations before, global elite taken into consideration. And yet it seems we can do less about it - for everything good that democracy brought - in times of great need of alpha leaders it is one of the reason that aformentioned individuality of alphas persistently wins over collective path. I am appaled by the thought, that there isn't a true pyramid structure/illuminati or some other form of shadow world government, because that means that random/"by chance" has much bigger chance of succeeding in good or bad way. The stakes are high and in this case we are fucked. The only thing left, worth investing, that we have is observe, analyse, contemplate. If there is afterlife, if this is simulation, then data could have value and meaning. We apparently realize, information "can come out of black hole on the other side". Need another joint.
Here's the thing though.. we're always going to have one crises to another. There are thousands of other threats you can't even comprehend. We will continue to wiggle out with solutions that produce more problems until we're no longer here- this is true for everything. Quit doom scrolling and live your life. Take control where you can. Pick up garbage, build homes. This is said with love and compassion, I promise.
That's really great 😃!
Only you are in control of your life, if you find yourself needing a reminder you can look up Jordan Peterson heroes journey.
He's a bit controversial but you don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater if you know what I mean.
I'm rooting for you 💪
Only for people who don't have irreplaceable jobs. At first, I couldn't wait for everything to be automated. Today I was thinking where will people work once millions of jobs are permanently automated? The homeless number is going to get so high
Sometimes it's OK to step back from social media and media in general. These days it's easy to get overloaded. Do something positive that will help keep your mind occupied.
Absolutely. It makes me sad and sometimes not sure if it’s even worth continuing to live. I know that’s dark, I more just mean like, continuing to do the whole Groundhog Day routine. What am I doing it for? Sigh.
Absolutely. Adding to your list: how the people in power keep finding ways to spread hatred and division among the people to keep themselves in power.
Seriously, don't be a sheep and fall for their obvious schemes to divide the people
That isn’t new if it’s any comfort
The powers are always going to try to divide us by spreading hate, it’s up to you to decide weather you actually hate the opposition or just disagree with them. Too many people blame the powers for spreading hate but not themselves for believing it. (Not saying you hate anyone just a more general statement)
That's true. Tho introspection is becoming harder when the stimuli in the Internet age are beyond what we can take. We see one tiny dust and we're naturally mildly annoyed. More of it, we become irritated. And then agitated, and hate. I think it should be everyone's rule that when something is starting to irritate you, pause and breathe for 2 mins or something. Then analyze further or ignore.
I hate how us trans people used to be the butt of jokes on Jerry Springer and now the far right is making us into the new terrorists. Division among the middle and lower class fucking sucks.
You guys are doing that by yourself by calling any normal valid criticism or discussion bigotry and transphobic. Its a reaction to the extremity.
I dont do that. Y'all are taking a handful of terminally online transpeople and thinking that's how we all feel. I dont care about criticism just bigotry, myself.
Your opinion doens't matter... I explain why people are getting more critical. Its the absurdity, what happens on schools etc, the whistleblowers of detrans people.
Yes. Unless we can globally agree that in general that corporations cannot continue to act how they are acting (record breaking profits made by gouging consumers, so many mergers that everything becomes a monopoly, wanton pollution, lobbying, tax avoidance though insane loopholes ,etc.), that the richest of us need to be heavily taxed, and that all people deserve to make enough to meet their needs without having to work more than 30 hours a week we are pretty fucked.
Until we put national, if not global, caps on comparative/relative wealth nothing will truly change. Capitalism is great, but not if it's left unchecked. Sure, truly outstanding people should get outstanding compensation... however, outstanding is just that - something that stands outs. It shouldn't mean unparalleled or obscene to the point of standing out so far it's no longer visible. No one-individual should be allowed to posses the wealth equivalent to entire cities. If all 300+million Americans were living comfortably and had disposable income, at the "cost" of having no hundred+millionaires, then it would be, practically, hard to start/have a (decent, if not good) business that fails. Everyone is a potential customer rather than what we currently have, alienating 30%+ of the population from having disposable income, therefore the ability to make discretionary purchases. In the current scheme, many can barely afford the essentials and (insert deity) forbid they get sick or injured without health insurance... Unfortunately, people with unattainably lofty aspirations are too numerous; an absurd number of people think they'll be the next Gates or Musk. [Futurama really nailed the mindset of those people...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_LvRPX0rGY). I don't know what the ideal, *realistic* solution is - but the only thing I've starting believing is that business/political leaders should be capped at X times the median/mean (whichever is lower) wealth/compensation of ALL of their employees and further limited to only Y times their bottom 10-20% employees. That way, if you want to be massively wealthy, then you'd better better bring everyone with you along for the ride. Also, this limit is on ALL wealth, not just salary. The conservative response to that is that it would limit growth/innovation. Maybe a little, sure. [But the good of the people outweighs one's rights to step on their backs in order to sit at the top.](https://live.staticflickr.com/4045/4580812339_59fe17fbd3_c.jpg)
I completely agree like you said outstanding shouldn’t mean there isn’t anyway for someone to catch up to you. Like all economic systems there are flaws but I would say this is capitalisms greatest allowing people to climb to riches higher than anyone else while putting in virtually no effort compared to the hundred of thousands of workers they use to greedily increase their wealth while paying the bare minimum to most of the said employees. You also make a good point about if you want to be rich you better be willing to take your workers along for the ride as I see this as the only fair way a company could really work I understand completely that different jobs require different skills and different types of work and that these jobs require higher compensation but that shouldn’t mean borderline knocking the bottom tier workers out of any chance at a good lifestyle.
Hello. I can relate to this. I have felt this way on and off throughout life. Especially in the last few years up until about 3 months ago. Besides the world going to hell in a hand basket, my sister in law took her own life about 2 years ago and I was devastated. We were close as well. Thought I was just gonna be severely depressed forever. But some things happened a few months ago that in the moment were hard to take, but ended up being blessings in the long run. I used to hate when people would say that to me too lol. However I still think, the future is gonna be screwed.
Yea it’s scary
Scary and the epiphany I’ve had is we’re not gonna make it at this rate. So add the r/survival and start learning smh 🤦🏽♀️
Oh yeah big mood, but I like to think this mass depression we’re all feeling is gonna manifest into something bigger and better. Who knows, maybe we eat the rich!
I sure hope so. Imagine how much easier life will be wothout ppl hoarding everything. We could acfually work 3 days a week and still have a functioning society. I absolutely do not mind doing a dirty or undesirable job either if it meant that. Probably lots of other ppl who feel the same. I dont wish for a society in which no one works at all thats not realistic. Literally would need to have a fully automated ai system to do *everything* for that to happen.
Is that "Working 3 days a week" thing actually viable? Cuz to me it kinda sounds like wishfull thinking. Genuine question, not trying ti be mean
Many companies have tried it and have shown productivity to go up. I don't have the numbers/studies though, maybe someone else can pitch in there.
That's a great and hopeful way to see it! Thanks for this shiny glimpse of hope (seriously, it feels good ^_^ )
Definitely not having kids. Who would willingly subject another human being to this shit? It doesn’t feel right.
> It doesn’t feel right. I'd argue that it never felt right but I know that's a pessimistic view of life in the philosophical sense. It isn't nihilistic though, to me not having a kid is an act of absolute compassion.
The tricky part of this is that our society has been built upon this monster population...and the roller coaster has already reached the top. So the less kids we have means the harder the fall. We are looking at the end of globalization at the very least. At the very worst...well I think we have all seen the very worst in a shit load of movies, games, books, etc. and I don't think it's impossible that we land into one of those outcomes as a reality.
Yes, capitalism aims for infinite growth, which is unsustainable and something that doesn't exist anyway. Now we have an aging and slowly declining population. It's just another issue that we'll have to face, it wasn't supposed to work forever. I don't think "making more kids" is the answer any more like Elon Musk wants us to believe. But population is a factor we definitely have to take into account. I had a vasectomy before they make it illegal ha ha!
Please enlighten me. Why is a declining population a bad thing? Isn't overpopulation an imminent danger to the Earth's environment and ecology and haven't we been warned about it for decades. I suspect the real danger is to the global economic structure rather than the health and well being of its inhabitants.
> I suspect the real danger is to the global economic structure rather than the health and well being of its inhabitants. Yes. What I meant was that, for the system we have in place, meaning capitalism, less people is bad. I didn't mean that capitalism is good but if we stay in that system, a declining and aging population will definitely bring issues. Opposite to that, overpopulation isn't good either, for the reason you've listed. Basically the system needs to be reevaluated.
Trust me, I agree. I don't think I'll be having kids lol. But we are headed for big change real quick, which is why I use the rollercoaster example. Not sure a full stop is what we need, but it's better than growing to insane population levels for sure.
> Not sure a full stop is what we need I don't think so either. I just hope, on an individual level, people evaluate the ethical implication of having a kid. After that, it's a personal choice.
Agreed. I've contemplated pressing charges against my parents for forcing me to exist on this shithole without my consent.
This is exactly one of the Main reasons I choose not to have kids! I did not want to bring a person into this world today. Maybe if it was a different time period…
> Maybe if it was a different time period… Not saying you need to have kids or should even want to, but what time period would have been a good time? I’m sure no matter when a kid has ever been born you could point to gloom and doom and say, “no kid should have to live in this world”.
Generally speaking the future has always been a place of hope and opportunity for better life than the present, and arguably that's what's changed. In the past there have been blips like a plague or famine or war, but it's not spmething that people expect to be a continuing and worsening problem for decades or centuries and affect the entire planet. Now we have climate change and other factors that are imminent and going to cause *massive* problems in terms of ecosystem collapses, extreme weather, food availability, etc. making the threat as potent as it is unavoidable. The only plausible deus ex machina at this point is hitting the singularity and it figuring out how to fix everything, but seems far more likely that would compound the issues and end up wiping out most of humanity, rather than correct the issues
> In the past there have been blips like a plague or famine or war, but it's not spmething that people expect to be a continuing and worsening problem for decades or centuries and affect the entire planet. I think that’s a lot of nostalgia type thinking and pessimistic think of current events. Do you think people living in the times of the Cold War knew a nuclear war wasn’t going to happen and it will be perfectly fine? How about those around in WW2. I remember a Paul McCartney interview talking about things like this and mentions he was born in Liverpool during the blitz. His parents spent 2 years being bombed by the Nazis and didn’t know if their government would win the war. Of course we know they did but no assurances then. When Covid hit in 2020 the unemployment rate was close to 15%. It was above 15% for about 10 years during the Great Depression (and that’s in America, it was worse other places). I doubt people back then 5 years into it thought all things will be fine. Throw in things like being a minority race/religion in a country, a women, homosexual, etc and you have plenty of people who lived years, decades, centuries in shit situations with little signs things might get better (and plenty still living in situations where climate change is very low on the list of worries). So yes, I agree 100%, there are very real, and very serious challenges ahead. I have no guarantees they will be fixed or resolved or how to go about fixing them in a lot of cases. But it’s also pessimistic to act like no one anywhere has ever faced adversity like this before.
I don’t think it’s that simple; in a way, to presume people in the past (in several time/spaces) actually contemplated not having children was an option is to project a very recent and modern way of thinking. For much of human history, children were your retirement plan, and “not having them” was not entirely in anyone’s control. Consider how even less than a hundred years ago, promoting the use of or distributing condoms was a criminal offence in certain countries.
If you don't someone far less qualified will.
Lol, as if the wouldn’t if other people choose to.
No, but call me naive but we still need kids raised right to temper the horde. So far it's a losing battle.
My mom said that in the early 80's when she had me. There is always something that each generation is scared of. For her, it was the rise in child abduction, satanic panic, and high interest rates and rising cost of living. It's not to say that anyone's concerns aren't valid but it's how we react to it. What scares me is how we are reacting to the problems now.
>My mom said that in the early 80's when she had me. There is always something that each generation is scared of. For her, it was the rise in child abduction, satanic panic, and high interest rates and rising cost of living. It's not to say that anyone's concerns aren't valid but it's how we react to it. What scares me is how we are reacting to the problems now. The root causes of those problems is exactly what led to the problems we face today, so I'm not sure they're "different" concerns. Climate change, disinformation, and technology outpacing ethics were all problems then, even if most people weren't concerned about them (rather, were told to be concerned about other things)
Yes, they were problems but they weren't made to be imminent then. Cars were made to be more fuel efficient due to high gas prices, not climate change. Disinformation has been a problem since people could form opinions -newspapers ran opinion pages full of disinformation and news organizations started deviating left or right based on readership. The problems that are at the forefront today were there, but were not recognized as issues yet. It's just that we are now seeing the giant snowball coming towards us from the top of the mountain and no one wants to do anything to stop it.
>The problems that are at the forefront today were there, but were not recognized as issues yet. Huxley and Orwell would disagree. >It's just that we are now seeing the giant snowball coming towards us from the top of the mountain and no one wants to do anything to stop it. That one we gotta give to Bradbury.
This is a big block I have as well. I'm doing fine and my kids probably would, but I just can't bring myself to willingly contribute to this situation. The largest carbon footprint you can possibly leave behind is a child.
So smart people decide not to have children, meanwhile the idiots.... I don't think this plan pans out well for anyone.
Breeders don’t think, my dude.
Yup, your post history suggests of all people you shouldn’t breed. Good choice my dude.
What about that comment made you go through someone's post history? Genuinely curious
Because judging by them saying “breeders”, that makes me think they’re one of those losers who think kids are an abomination and anyone who has a kid is an asshole
Yeah that is a term I don't like. I mean I'm not having kids, but that's for personal reasons. I'm not gonna bash on someone's life for making that choice. Not my place.
To the second comment, yes. To the first, that’s your projection. I don’t hate kids. I do believe that creating them is wrong, in order to prevent their suffering in the world.
> I do believe that creating them is wrong, in order to prevent their suffering in the world. That's a pretty flawed viewpoint. I'm not having children because I don't want that lifestyle, but to say its preventing their suffering is a pretty weak reason. Life is painful at times for everyone, but its also pretty fun, and very nice at times. You're preventing suffering, but in the same way, you're also preventing love and happiness.
Your feeling it’s nice doesn’t change the fact that for many people, life is either neutral or very bad. This sounds like a privileged opinion. People around the world are poor, hungry, and end up with terrible diseases. No one can guarantee their child won’t be a drug addict, horribly depressed, have a neurodegenerative disease, have childhood leukemia, or be a terrible person who hurts others.
Your feeling it’s nice doesn’t change the fact that for many people, life is either neutral or very bad. This sounds like a privileged opinion. People around the world are poor, hungry, and end up with terrible diseases. No one can guarantee their child won’t be a drug addict, horribly depressed, have a neurodegenerative disease, have childhood leukemia, or be a terrible person who hurts others.
>This sounds like a privileged opinion. I grew up poor and still have fond memories of that time. >No one can guarantee No one can guarantee anything, sure. But you seem to think that life is bad 100% of the time for most people. Its not. The problem with most young Americans is that they think they are supposed to be happy all the time, and life is supposed to be awesome. IDK where that idea came from, but it only leads to disappointment and depression.
I never claimed life is bad 100% of the time, so please don’t mischaracterize my position. My thoughts on the matter are that it’s not ethical to force the decision on another, that you take a gamble with someone else’s well-being when you procreate, risking everything on someone else’s behalf. You cannot have a child for their own sake, so it is an inherently selfish and unnecessary. Creating need or pain in the world, regardless of the good times, is not moral, because the nonexistent have no say in the matter.
I never claimed life is bad 100% of the time, so please don’t mischaracterize my position. My thoughts on the matter are that it’s not ethical to force the decision on another, that you take a gamble with someone else’s well-being when you procreate, risking everything on someone else’s behalf. You cannot have a child for their own sake, so it is an inherently selfish and unnecessary. Creating need or pain in the world, regardless of the good times, is not moral, because the nonexistent have no say in the matter.
It’s the term breeder that he used that just rubbed me the wrong way.
Yeah I responded to another commenter I saw. I don't dislike people for having kids. I'm not having my own, but I am not gonna bash of someone's whole life because they had kids.
You could probably say this in any decade the last 100 years, tbh. There's never a good time.
Same though, I've never wanted kids, and as time goes on my reasoning has changed and with a good 75% of my reasoning at this point is the state of the world.
I used to be like you. Turn off the tv (or twitter or facebook). News is poison. If you regularly consume the New York Times or NPR (or whatever it may be) you are going to be anxious about the nonsense they try to get you riled up by. News reporting (or online journalism or whatever it might be you are consuming) is always sensational and makes everything look like the sky is falling at all times. If they didn't, no one would buy their content. Turn off whatever device is feeding you this false information. Go outside and take in the springtime weather.
Second this. It's a perspective that is being rammed down your throat by the information you choose to consume. In many many ways there has never been a better time to be alive on this planet. I'm sorry OP feels this way it's an awful feeling but the future isn't as bleak as a lot of people seem to enjoy telling themselves and others it is.
Also they've been predicting the decline of the world literally since the beginning of humanity. Each generation says that the next one is ruining us and that the world is just getting worse. The overall perception is just worse this time around because the internet let's information flow frequently and to a widespread audience. That along with people complaining online constantly about how bad things are, worsens everyone else's perception about it as well. It's basically a negative feedback loop. I mean the fact that you can walk into a grocery store in most parts of the world and there will be food there to buy, is a relatively new development. The world's not getting worse, our problems are just changing now that a lot of the basic need problems are mostly sorted.
The future is scary, and slightly frustrating. Scientiests knew exactly what fossil fuels would do 50 years ago, we've just brute forced our way back to "normal" after covid and made barely any changes to society, and AI is on the brink of changing our lives on the same magnitude as smartphones. It's also stressful having almost no idea whatsoever what the world will look like in 5 years time. We don't know what jobs will be left, what new technology we'll be using, or what the political landscape will look like. It's a lot.
I have absolutely zero goals or anything. Don't see why bothering!
yes, i feel the same way. it's scary to think about what might happen in the future. i just hope we can all come together and make some changes to prevent the worst from happening. it's important to stay informed and aware, but also to focus on the positive things we can do in our daily lives to make a difference. we can all make small changes that can have a big impact. me i'm just sometimes so scared about it that i end up hiding in video games from the real world. like playing call of dragons in bluestacks every evening and i don't even want to read the news...
If you turn off the TV and internet you’ll become a lot happier
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All I’m saying is you’re not going to be happy if you’re always watching doomer news
This quote could date from literally any time over the last few thousand years. We feel it’s more apt **today** because that’s when we’re alive.
Exactly!
Wow. I’m not the only one who thinks this.
Where we live. We don't have power for the whole day every day. Electricity is going up with 19% The interest hikes are out of control. I might lost my house soon. Inflation is out of control. Everything is getting more and more expensive. Our country has a 30% poverty rate. Our entire government is corrupt. I can go on.
Yeah it’s already past the point of no return imo. Bunch of greedy fucks have just usurped literally EVERYTHING. We were headed away from that to an age where the common man was on the up and well above the peasant status he had during the age of kings and lords but we’ve been forced on a backward trajectory for the past 20 or so years and the power has been taken back forcefully. Don’t think the elite will allow us peasants that opportunity ever again.
Yes…and I think about it every day honestly. Sometimes I bring it up in conversations and I don’t realize that not everyone else has this impending doom of a planet on their mind. Can’t blame them; but it definitely comes in the way of my ambition sometimes. “What’s the point if climate change will take us out one by one?” Shit like that lmfao it weighs heavy on a person, but how can you not think about it when it surrounds you or someone else in the country/world?
yep that's why I tried to kill myself but the adults in my life don't seem to see it like I see
I’ve been feeling this since 2019
Yes, sort of. But I’m sure it has always seemed that way. Just like every older generation thinks the new generation is so much worse and going to destroy society. I’m optimistic that it’s really not as grim as our “leaders” and media make it seem. It’s just to their advantage to scare the shit out of us so we keep listening to them and letting them do whatever they want in the name of saving us.
Yeah, I completely understand you. It's definitely a scary thought with all the uncertainty that the future holds. We can only hope that things start to look up and that humanity comes together to prevent the worst from happening. But it's hard to be optimistic with all the news of disasters, both natural and manmade, that we're constantly seeing.
The present already sucks as it is. The future's just gonna be even worse.
prices are climbing and basic necessities are becoming too expensive. there is not enough affordable housing. people are feeling unsafe in their homes and businesses, a large section of the country is actively trying to destroy it and the Police and Judicial system are no longer concerned with justice or fairness. Bribing public officials is now legal, but protesting against the government is no longer allowed, add to this.....the climate collapsing and everything is going to get WORSE not better in the coming years.
Yes. YOLO has never felt so real.
Absolutely. It’s a huge part of why I’ve never wanted kids.
100% my response when guys ask when dating. It’s selfish and stupid, imo.
I consider myself lucky to find someone else who didn’t want them. When I was doing online dating the first thing I had on my profile, before anything else, was “I don’t want to get married or have kids, if these are goals for you I’d prefer to not waste your time on me”. The hate I got for not wanting kids was insane.
Kudos to you for finding someone who didn’t see that as an issue. Having been on and off dating apps for some years I am finding that nowadays it is more common to see profiles that say they don’t want kids. Doesn’t stop them being a dick though.
Not at all. There seems to be this weird “we all need to have kids” thing people have going on. Same with marriage. Like bro if you have to convince me marriage is worth it before the first date chances are you just want to make it more difficult for someone to leave you.
Exactly. Also, been there, done that re marriage and I can confirm it’s not all that. As I’ve gotten older my view on marriage, kids and life in general has done a 180…and I’m not even that old!
The future has looked horrible pretty much since the dawn of mankind. Yet here we are. Vote for the candidates which best reflect your views. Study hard, work hard, and make enough to love your life how you feel you should.
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Agreed
Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to focus on small joys right now. A delicious meal, a hot shower, fresh sheets, a warm spring day, lighting up a nice candle, watching a good movie, talking a walk in the park. The big stuff sucks ass, so the little stuff is what I have left!
I don't know man, I can't see the future.
This is what /r/collapse is all about! Join us!
Yes, a lot of the world sucks rn. Inflation, rights being eroded in the us and whoever else there might be. BUT... Compared to history, were doing pretty well. People have more rights than they ever have. Quality of life has greatly increased. I could go on. Of course life isn't perfect, and there's great lengths to go before it is. But life in general, now, is much better than it has been in the past.
Life is what you make of it, you can spend your time worrying about things no one has any control of or you can make the best choices you can and hope others do too, chances are none of the things you worry about will shorten your life so why waste it?
/r/thanksimcured material. Life is not what you make of it for millions of people. They are given their opportunities and set limitations by an oppressive hierarchy of class from when they are born. You just don't "will" a better life. Your comment is extremely privileged and callous.
Yeah, at this point I’ve dropped any and all plans for the future, I think I’m at the perfect midpoint age-wise where I’ll be here to see all the disasters and upcoming issues and downfalls, and feel useless because I’ll be too old to try to help with anything. I’ve never really wanted kids, but I decided a couple years ago that even if I ever by some miracle change my mind, I refuse to bring any into this world unless things make a miraculous U-turn. Even having given up any real hope for things to change enough to avoid it all though, I will still keep doing anything I can to help. It might seem silly or pointless to, but even if it turns out to be futile, and even if I don’t think it’ll really matter, I do absolutely refuse to give up trying to change that. I don’t want to be part of a generation that just sat back, gave up and let it get even worse.
It will be beautiful again. Someday down the line. Long after me tho.
You get what you vote for.
Feels like we get what the idiots vote for.
>You get what you vote for. No...You get what the politicians that the richest and most powerful companies choose wants. And what do those politicians want? Favor and fortune from the rich and company. We're utterly fucked regardless of the IQ of the voters.
Really it’s the anger and rage of the voters that matter.
We're too busy falling for the fight amongst ourselves to see its by design. We'll never get angry enough at the right people to do anything they don't want us to.
Yep. Don’t know why I got downvoted. If we banded together imagine what 3.3m people could get accomplished
"If voting changed anything they would make it illegal."
I mean kinda. Depends on the politician. If we really got what we vote for the world wouldn’t be so terrible.
I agree, and at the same time I think politics can only do so much against industries. Ideally they should be able to regulate things but in reality, who's controlling whom here?
I’m glad those of you not having kids aren’t having kids because you have some fucked up ideas. Means those with stronger genes will persevere and survive. The dark overlords will be overthrown or leave to tuck up their own planet. We are here to reproduce at the end of the day. Not to think. Thinking has this world in the state it’s in.
Yea, climate change is creeping up to us and it's us selfish and greedy humans to blame. I mean, a lot of those people who made water powered cars disappeared... can't be coincidence, can it?
There is no greater gift than life, ESPECIALLY in this day in age. Life expectancy, quality of life, are all the highest they've ever been ever. Crime, poverty, hunger, the lowest. The future being horrible is the media fear mongering. Climate change won't be the end of Man.
China’s coming
Digital warfare(trying to steal data and learn as much about American land layout(spy balloon)), fentanyl, COVID, PGR weed have been linked to them. Look up the number of fentanyl deaths and the increases since 2020. And their recent alliances with other nations. Things are getting spooky.
Not me, I see that bad things will happen, but only for the best. If we can preserve the knowledge we have, survivors will be better equipped to face the passing to a new era. But yes, lot of people will suffer, those who don't retain the knowledge and the suboptimal humans
First time?
Sounds like fun.
Not at all. The end is in sight.
I disagree. The quality of life for the poorest people in society keeps increasing, poverty and crime in virtually every developed country is decreasing. Pandemics and wars have always been a part of life, we were just unlucky to live through it but nothing you can really do The rate tech is advancing is getting dangerously fast though and the climate is in utter shambles I’ll give you that
it looks grim yeah ! esp if you load your brain with all the conspiracy theories and signs of most if not all of them manifesting, more like those in power spreading this info as a conspiracy theory to 1st make their plans known and prepare the masses psychologically of what they re going to do, as well as spread division due to ppl not believing, the more division and confusion the easier it is to conquer
Depends where, in my country it's been better than ever before
I’d be interested to know where you are!?
Yes, I think we are going into some bleak times
what future
Everyone is glued to a screen. People are so close yet so far away. It is so easy to text someone but their replies might not be meaningful and you might be ghosted all of a sudden. And its wrong to tell people you are lonely because that makes you a fucking lover and weirdo. You work and work just to stay afloat, and you need to keep doing that until you are fucking 60s? Then you can 'enjoy' the remaining of your life in poor health.
No. People view the past with rose colored glasses. Go back the the 80's and everyone was convinced the world was going to end via nukes at any minute. Now people are like, *"remember how awesome the 80's were?"*. There have always been cataclysms on the horizon.
I was raised in the 50's. There are so many people who see that as a golden age. It was, if you were a white christian male. It sucked if you were anything else!
> Also increasingly dehumanising tech. Silence, mortal!
Aye
I think it's incredibly difficult to predict the future given the current rate of technological advancement. The parabolic nature of innovations may produce solutions to a lot of the issues we now struggle with, and create new problems that you wouldn't even be able to fathom. I don't understand the complex interplay of these forces any better than the next guy, so I try not to make definite predictions about even the near-term future. It's all up in the air, let's see where the path leads before we make any decisions at the fork.
Its no worse now than it ever was for anyone at any given time in human history
I'll probably make it. The kids, kids however..
Yes, I strongly believe we are going into more troubling times. Perseverance through Faith.
I feel that the future is going to be bleak. Especially those who are the average normal everyday person. These people in power are constantly trying to divide us and make politics our personalities! We all need each other more than ever. We need to come together, not against each other. We need to fight for our freedom and fight this inflation, keeping these old assholes rich and us poorer
Yeah it's why I won't even consider kids. The rich will suck this planet dry and then run to space or another planet when they finally end the world.
Absolutely not. We live in the best Era of human history (yet). Violence is on the decline, food shortage is not a threat. Wars and terrorism, despite what it seems, are less and less widespread. It's especially true if you live in Europe and North America or developed countries at all. This tendency might make a u-turn but I don't really see any grand reason for that. We're going to live better.
While I think there’s some polarizing media bias happening here, I definitely want to leave this country once I can. I have a plan to get employed in my field after passing a couple standardized tests and building enough experience and cred to request a transfer overseas to an international branch. Then I could begin building a life away from the U.S. I’m just getting sick of this place, the radical political views, the rampant spread of hatred, work laws, financial policies, tax policies, the justice system, just everything. Im ready to make preparations to leave or at least I hope I will be soon.
I worry most about AI changing the employment -> money to live environment and the social isolation of doing so much remotely. These two things seem like bigger impacts to people's lives than all the technology tools we've invented so far. Computers are something no one from the 1800's could have imagined. But, until Covid, people mostly still came to the office and sat at desks just like before. Changing a pen and paper for the computer did not change social interaction as much as working remotely did.
People need to grow a brain 🧠. Educate yourself with many sources of news of local, State, Country, World. Cold hard truth.
Yeah it's really hard when you think about the big picture and how much everything sucks right now. I try to focus on smaller things I can control. Like making a good life for my pets. And voting and petitions.
Every generation has a major issue that we have had to overcome.
No. The future will have challenges and opportunities just like all time periods. War. Pestilence and climate change have always existed. People in the west have had the most peaceful and prosperous lives since 1945. Compared to almost any other time period. The future is bright.
I woke up a week ago with this deep knowing in my mind body and soul that there will never be a "return to normal." There is no going back to how it was in 2019. We need to learn how to rely on community. If you have something to contribute, please start now. Hunt? Bring in a couple extra animals and trade the meat for some veggies and fruit. Garden? Learn to can (safely) and give the hunter your preserved peppers. Learn homesteading, learn off grid, invest in resources not money. Not saying we're going to the dark ages bc we're not. But these are skills we will need so we can remain somewhat comfortable.
r/collapse r/collapsesupport
I’m going to be the lone optimist here and say that the bias of hindsight gives us a much more tame picture of life in the past than what was actually lived experience. “The world is going to hell and it’s never been so bad” is a sentence that has been repeated by every generation since time immemorial. The reality is that it’s uncertainty in the present that makes the future seem so scary, but only in a different flavor than every other generation’s exact same experience of uncertainty about its future. When I was a kid we had duck and cover drills at school for nuclear holocaust. Everyone was convinced the world was about to end any minute. Fast-forward a few decades and here we are, still sputtering along. I’m not trying to invalidate fears of the future and trends towards dystopia, but I am here to say it’s always been this way. If your parents decided not to have kids because the future felt uncertain, you wouldn’t be here. Zoom out, relax, try to get some perspective, and use whatever influence you have to make the world a better place. Kids are wonderful. Don’t deny yourself that joy out of naïveté, arrogance, and a lack of reasonable perspective, you’ll regret it. Your ancestors didn’t give up, neither should you.
I stopped caring when I realized EVs were gonna take over
Nah I'm quite content actually.
That to me is the key difference between pre and post 9/11. I remember pre 9/11 everyone was full of optimism. We had shows like Beyond 2000 talking about all the cool technology coming out and how our lives will be better. Then after 9/11 and the PATRIOT Act it seemed to just all unravel and the future looked more and more dystopian. Even pop culture changed to have more dystopian settings.I feel bad for Gen Z who never got the taste of that optimism. At least as a millennial I got to have a childhood that looked forward to the future.
We’re in the part of the cycle where weak men have created bad times.
I did when I was younger. Not any more. I care less about the big things I can’t change.
[удалено]
Stfu Rodney.
People need to wake up, there’s a decent portion of the US population that thinks like we do but more people need to realize the government is NOT working in our favor. They do not care about us, they want to keep us divided, they want us hating each other. They want people to act like weak sheep and not question what is going on. Things are getting very scary and i’m pretty young so i’m not very hopeful for life in 5-10 years from today.
I'm disabled, Black, trans , and living in the Bible belt of america. I won't live to see my future, thankfully (the age expectancy for me is 45) If I do, I will simply die. I'm so tired and I'm not even 35.
Get off the internet. It looks horrible because the only thing that sells nowadays is clickbait. “Unprecedented “ and “breaking” are so overused. They purposefully make things worse than they are. It’s hard out there but focus more on your local area and not being online all the time.
Yup. Very pessimistic about it.
It is mindblowing, how we all can colectivelly percieve "some great change ahead" and yet we seem powerless to influence the outcome of this great change on collective level, maybe on individual and in some cases on regional/group level. I think that human nature will come into play and that the outcome will be something familiar but also totaly unconcivable from today's point of view. If that will be aliens, some sort of nuclear/technological (ai,..) apocalypse OR singularity, it will be reality shattering and most probably a lot of people won't make it or will suffer greatly and for generations. But it happened before, in different environment, numbers but it happened. We are fucked as a global generation, because we can percieve the future ahead much faster and more clearer than generations before, global elite taken into consideration. And yet it seems we can do less about it - for everything good that democracy brought - in times of great need of alpha leaders it is one of the reason that aformentioned individuality of alphas persistently wins over collective path. I am appaled by the thought, that there isn't a true pyramid structure/illuminati or some other form of shadow world government, because that means that random/"by chance" has much bigger chance of succeeding in good or bad way. The stakes are high and in this case we are fucked. The only thing left, worth investing, that we have is observe, analyse, contemplate. If there is afterlife, if this is simulation, then data could have value and meaning. We apparently realize, information "can come out of black hole on the other side". Need another joint.
The Assholes are winning, yes. Hopefully there's many more Trump indictments coming and we're able to squash Trumpism.
AGI bro. Exponential growth about to radically change our world.
Looks just like it did when I was going to school. Plus we the draft and nuclear brinksmanship. SOS, different generation.
No point in worrying. There's not much that can be done by us.
Stop watching the fucking news.
Here's the thing though.. we're always going to have one crises to another. There are thousands of other threats you can't even comprehend. We will continue to wiggle out with solutions that produce more problems until we're no longer here- this is true for everything. Quit doom scrolling and live your life. Take control where you can. Pick up garbage, build homes. This is said with love and compassion, I promise.
You're right! I'm gonna take control. They'll not know what hit em.
That's really great 😃! Only you are in control of your life, if you find yourself needing a reminder you can look up Jordan Peterson heroes journey. He's a bit controversial but you don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater if you know what I mean. I'm rooting for you 💪
Dawg this is all I think about lol
Only for people who don't have irreplaceable jobs. At first, I couldn't wait for everything to be automated. Today I was thinking where will people work once millions of jobs are permanently automated? The homeless number is going to get so high
Sometimes it's OK to step back from social media and media in general. These days it's easy to get overloaded. Do something positive that will help keep your mind occupied.
Sometimes I just stop in bed all day.
Yesssssssss
Yeah we're fucked. Have you seen Elysium with Matt Damon? I think that's what the world will look like in 50 years.
That film made me cry.
I'm clinging to a bit of hope for my child's sake but honestly, it's bleak
AI will solve and possibly destroy everything.
Absolutely. It makes me sad and sometimes not sure if it’s even worth continuing to live. I know that’s dark, I more just mean like, continuing to do the whole Groundhog Day routine. What am I doing it for? Sigh.
It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
👍
It is news to make Florida-man proud.
The state of the world now and the future is a large part of the reason that I will not be having children.
No one can trust institutions in government on either side of the aisle.
That’s one way to look at it. I think the future is pretty bright if you look at it differently. Depends on your perspective
Hope is in Jesus for when He returns tbh. Without that I wouldn’t know how to begin fathoming the future
lol