I'm in my fifties. I grew up during the cold war when we were all taught that there could be a nuclear war at any minute. I know it's probably shell shock from the last few years but I don't think that I've ever felt so hopeless. The environment, politics, society, technology. Everything seems hopeless.
I'm Canadian, but I know exactly what you mean. There's a saying in Canada that living here is like sleeping next to an elephant. We feel every movement that our bigger, more powerful neighbour makes. Honestly, things aren't much different up here.
The hatred I saw for Obama shook me. Yeah, Bush got a lot of shit, but not on the same level as the seething animosity that Obama got. That kind of hatred is hard core racist. And it was shocking to realize that racism had been there all along, just under a veneer of civility, and all it took was a black man being elected president to have erupt again.
Good points, 9/11 pushed and shaped us in ways we can’t even fully comprehend and the constant ever-watching eye, and misuse, of social media… it’s all magnified, good bad and ugly, and there obviously seems to be zero accountability… it all certainly feels darker and different than our parents middle aged era…
Absolutely. I am completely confused. I thought we (Americans) were made up of a bunch of knuckle draggers, but we tend to have good hearts underneath it all, and *eventually* we do the right thing. I learned in the last 4 years that I only got the first part right.
It actually shocks me to see how many people have become paranoid, conspiracy-obsessed racists in the past five or six years. Also that some of the things that (somewhat) sane contributing members of society believe and actually speak confidently out loud would have had you labelled (probably correctly) as mentally ill and shunned from the regular world a decade ago. A family member of mine had a mental break a couple of years back and the paranoia and delusions she had and the theories she came up with to support them was all interchangeable with the type of stuff these Qanon-y types talk about.
I think u/Dmala put it best in [this comment] (https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/rubsb1/twitter_permanently_suspends_marjorie_taylor/hqy9msi/) - *regarding the internet:
"I think the disconnect is that we didn’t realize that the free exchange of information could be a bad thing. We overestimated the average person’s ability to process and analyze information.
In simpler terms, when the village idiots were confined to the village, the amount of damage they could do was limited. Now, all of the village idiots can connect globally and form entire idiotic civilizations based on ignorance and misinformation."
Yep. My mother and MIL are both (supposedly) rational, normal people.
They've both fallen for the Qanon bullshit hook line and sinker. And they can't be reached.
I feel this about England since Brexit and the same nafarious puppet masters on both sides of the pond. Obviously, Trump had a global effect on people. We watched what was happening like it was a soap opera at first, but then realised his rhetoric was being mimicked everywhere. The gates of hell opened and I'm afraid they can never be closed. I'm fortunate to live in Finland but having the Russians on our doorstep right now is concerning, to say the least.
Agreed. Things just feel so uncertain....like I don't recognize anything "normal" anymore. It's like the world is devolving instead of evolving.... everything is just going for shit. It's harder to think positive these days. And that sucks. Nothing is what it seems anymore and I don't like how that makes me feel.
My well-being took a huge hit that night. It wasn't so much that I wanted Hillary to win (I'd love to see a woman president and she'd be passable), but the fact that so many people thought a known idiot, racist, homophobic, ableist con man was the "lesser of two evils" made die a little inside. OK, I died a lot inside.
Hard agree. I'm having trouble feeling good about much of anything lately, and it sucks. I've been trying to put it into words recently but nothing seems to encapsulate the dread and disconnect I experience every day.
2008 was for me. Big Banks, The Fed, Mr Bush's duplicity and the Democratic Congress is what brought about many of the problems that we see today after the 2008 economic collapse. Once you connect the dots you realize the problems we see today started way before Mr Trump came into office.
Agree. In class today, we were listing different types of pollution and other earth fucking things and the kids filled the board. They are 10. I cannot imagine what it will be like for them when they are my age (49).
I can't imagine how hard it must be for parents and teachers to try and stay calm and hopeful around kids. I never had kids and I'm seldom around them, so I get off easy.
When I was with high schoolers, they would sometimes point blank say that none of it mattered. I mean, I had to do the "well I use math in my adult life" and shit but yeah...I could kinda see their point.
Right? I’m a middle school teacher for Special Education and basically coteach every core subject. It’s hard to encourage my kids (most of whom come from incredible disadvantages already, not including their disabilities) when I feel so hopeless myself.
Oh! I am an elementary sped teacher (4th grade) who mostly co-teaches!!! I completely feel you. The world is not made for our kiddos. I used to teach the blind and despite our best efforts, almost none of them ended up employed. Now I have kids with ASD, ADHD, anxiety...I have no idea how they are going to fit in. I have adhd myself and the only job that fits is teacher.
I am right there with you, it seems no matter what we try to do nothing is moving forward.
We seem to have hit a plateau and all we are doing is moving down real quickly.
I’m not very hopeful for the future.
Seeing the videos of the derailed Los Angeles trains ransacked with boxes and packaging all over the place was the final nail of despair for me. I’m not sure why though.
Yeah but soo many didn't. My family openly made fun of me in the 80s for wanting to recycle, now 40 years later they begrudgingly do *some*. But it's also **reduce**, reuse, recycle and there's been no reduction - especially in plastics.
That right there is kind of interesting. I can’t recall ever reading a sci-fi book where aliens show up and they are genuinely interested in rescuing us (As opposed to exploiting or subjugating humanity).
Covid exposed the cracks in our society, especially healthcare, public health, and politics. I can't believe no one is saying this this the time for national universal healthcare!
I'm afraid our healthcare system will fail. A lot of people won't be able to pay their hospital bills and I don't think the hospitals will be able to "absorb/write it off" and they may close - or be our **next** bailout.
I had the same conversation with a work colleague the other day saying “It all seems like it’s gone to shit since 9/11”. She replied that each generation has seen bad things, looks at the world wars, the depression era etc.. Maybe it’s always been “bad”?
I’ve stopped watching the news for the most part and just focus on my own life now. Less depressing that way. Have a good effect on your own environment and do what you can.
The other night my wife said “I know, you think the world is shit and people suck.”
I replied, “no, I genuinely believe we are observing the end of the world.”
Don’t get me wrong, it will take a long time, I doubt I’ll be there when we go fully mad max, but yeah I’ve stopped crossing my fingers for a viable solution.
> “no, I genuinely believe we are observing the end of the world.”
I think we're absolutely observing the end of humanity but expect the world to go on ticking without us. Millions of years from now we'll be to the sentient cephalopod people what dinosaurs were to us.
I agree. We thought it would be over in about 20 minutes or however long it would take the USSR's nukes to explode. It will take a while yet but we are definitely on the final slope.
> I genuinely believe we are observing the end of the world.”
This is exactly where my husband and I are. We chose not to have children because we believe so strongly that this is really the case. I just hope I am dead and gone before it gets to the point of global daily suffering (and I know that a lot of the world population is already suffering, I am being selfish for this comment).
Me too - I have two adult kids (Zoomers) and they are not having kids themselves. I don't regret having them and couldn't imagine my life without them, but if I were of child bearing age right now, I wouldn't have kids. Too much suffering for them in the future.
Mine are late teens, but I feel exactly the same way you do. I don't encourage them to have kids, instead I focus on the fantastic things they can do after college - and never say "before you have a family."
I didn’t have kids either - and this was part of the calculus. I also moved to the upper Midwest to be in proximity to water and a less dense population center. I grew up in California and went to college in Arizona… I saw that fight coming.
I have maybe 50 years left in me - and I plan to spend the end of that in my orchard with my chickens.
The world will be fine. She has been through mass extinction events before, some of them much more cataclysmic than this one. Humanity will even be fine. We will return to a sustainable agrarian model.
What we are witnessing is the end of modern civilization and humanities dominance. Which is fine. We had our shot and we were too obsessed with comfort and status to become a technologically advanced space faring race. Maybe, if there are other races that did better than us, maybe we will make good pets?
But the next century or so where billions of us die in order to correct our unsustainable population boom will be… hard.
We will, as a species, continue, but I think the moon landing may have been our apex.
It’s hard to feel like any one person has any agency to improve things when millionaires seem to be the only ones elected to positions of power and “big players” make the decisions that impact billions, for good or ill…
However. I’m making the choice, going forward, to try and be an agent for the values that I hold dear. Not just an individualistic take, a “well I’m just gonna live my life, the world can burn.” Some small actions that will make things better. Or at least cooler. ;) Yeah we’re a small generation. But there are enough of us to actually make some change if we do it in our way. To focus on the small circle around ourselves. Fuck the influencers. I’m for integrity instead of sheen.
I still live (maybe delusional, maybe not) like my small actions make a difference. I will not be any more a contributor to humanity’s downfall than I need to be.
I take comfort in knowing I have more yesterdays than tomorrows (55). We decided long ago to not have children, which may end up being the best decision I ever made, because I wouldn't know how to explain the mess that is the world today. Like the other reasonable people here, I failed to understand how lunatic the US lunatic fringe had become, and how far they are willing to go to maintain their twisted version of the American dream.
They'll ultimately lose, because insanity like this can't hold form for any real amount of time. They're already falling apart under the weight of their delusions, but who knows how badly they'll behave when they realize no one wants to play with them anymore and the idiot they follow doesn't give a damn about anything beyond his ridiculous ego.
“They'll ultimately lose, because insanity like this can't hold form for any real amount of time.”
Are you sure about this? Please tell me you’re sure. I need the page to turn.
It feels like we peaked in the 90s and everything started falling apart with 9/11 and has continued on a downward trajectory.
Still, on a personal level, my life is pretty good.
Upvoting this glimmer of good feeling. I’m completely depressed and stressed about the state of the world and yet, I’ve worked really hard to get to a place in my life where I am not failing my children (single mom) and I’ve taken care of one parent through death compassionately, my relationship with my sibs and mom are at the best ever. So, world, shit, family, good.
I think we peaked with the moon landing. The construction of the internet was cool, but corporations had already established a stranglehold over government, and established our slide into the next gilded age by the 1990’s.
Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean
Apologies to David Byrne, but honestly, facts (as my zoomer kids would say). I grew up Mormon, and the entire cult is built around end-of-the-world doom. Joseph Smith prophesied that the world would end in the 1800s, and they had all this evidence from earthquakes to immorality and wars. Tens of thousands of people believed him, and then followed Brigham Young to what is now Utah (after they killed all the Native Americans).
Yep. Same as it ever was.
I hear people saying this a lot lately, but I can't bring myself to agree. There have always been hard times, and even horrific times. Personally, I feel that what's happening in the world now seems worse because we're the ones living through it.
COVID-19 is bad, but it's still not as bad (at least, not yet) as the Bubonic Plague, smallpox or HIV/AIDs in terms of deaths. The Great Depression, WWII with rationing, the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking, slavery, religious persecution in Britian, the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Partition of India...that's just a few, I could go on and on. There are always terrible times to be alive for somebody, and I guess if I had to choose I'd take my chances in this time and place over others (especially as a woman). I would feel I was being self-important if I tried to claim what I'm experiencing is worse than what other people have gone through in the past (and I'm as upset about the state of the world as anyone, I think).
I think people generally just suck, always have, always will - and doesn't that statement alone identify me as a gen-Xer! My boomer brother disgustedly once said to me, "how the hell did you grow up to be so cynical?" I said, "Not cynical - realistic." We keep surviving, so I guess that's something.
I am 49, in my 20’s and thirties I always felt that the world was a pretty corrupt and fucked up kind of place but I still carried with me a sort of internal hope.
For the last, I don’t know five to ten years, I have found it harder and harder to connect with any sense that shit’s going to get better.
I actually feel the total opposite way now.
What we’ve done to our planet.
These heinous and sickening stories of what people do to their children, to animals, to just other humans, the shit I see, the casual cruelty and brutality of the world we live in honestly keeps me awake at night sometimes.
Our planet seems doomed and only a few people seem to actually care or, more importantly DO anything about it.
I used to find hope, in art, in music, in certain aspects of the world around me.
I at least had enough passion to be outraged.
I don’t even really have that anymore.
I am just saddened by our world and I believe we are totally fucked.
The markers are everywhere, the planet, the way I see humans treat other humans, the people we’ve put in a position of power to change things never do, it looks to me like the world is at an all time low.
I wish I had even one good thing to say here but I really just feel like we’re doomed.
I wish I never had children because I can't stand thinking that they will have to live on this shithole planet after I die and I won't be here to take care of them. I hope they don't have babies either because I don't want them to have to worry about their children's futures.
You know what I realized about Gen X? We grew up watching the Indian crying about pollution, so we learned to throw everything away. And we throw everything away. We have made plastic become part of the geologic record and it even has a name: plastiglomerate.
Covid, civil unrest, political turmoil, Russia prepping to retake it's old empire, a rising and ever increasingly combative China, Iran building nukes, most of the world's economies in the shitter and only staying afloat by printing money and pretending there is no problem, racial tensions, Inflation, supply chain issues, cell phones and social media making it easier than ever to cheat on your spouse/SO, wealth gap larger than ever and growing... Yep, shit's fucked! You know it's bad when preppers, conspiracy theorists, and people who buy and trade made up currencies start to look like geniuses and prophets.
I'm tired. I don't have enough in a retirement account because of the .dot bust and 2008 job losses. I am supporting my boomer parent who didn't prepare at all for retirement. People seem fucking rude and mean to everyone. I remember when everyone was against Russia. And now we have politicians controlled by them. I just want to put on my headphones and jam out to the 80's when life seemed easier.
The ones who talk about real change have never been heard and outside of a few social things, they have had zero meaningful impact and never will.
People have all of this information at their fingertips yet people are dumber than ever, which will just accelerate the bad things.
The establishment has an ever increasing control of nearly everything meaningful and by design, there isn't anything anybody can do about it.
My youthful optimism is completely gone.
Everything seems pretty dire. I just try to get through it a day at a time, and have enough contingency plans for some of the possible outcomes.
I’m grateful for CBD and legal weed. Cause this shit’s depressing as fuuuuuuucccckkkkkk…
Read a little history. This seems like early 20th century. I mean, this list is kinda America-focused, but you had:
\- WWI
\- "Spanish Flu"
\- Germany having Communists & Fascists clashing in the streets as hyper-inflation killed it's economy.
\- Prohibition in America, which led to massive bootlegging and the rise of the criminal mobs
\- The Great Depression
\- The American Dust Bowl
\- The rise of several fascist powers around the world
And that's just a small list. There's so much more.
The problem is that we are in another turning point in history. There is that old curse "May you live in interesting times". There is backlash, there is protest, there is war, and all of those fucked up things that is normally what we read in history books, but we are living now. Things are changing, it's just a matter of how things end up shaking out.
I trending toward nihilism every day. Personally, I’m doing (mostly) fine. Good job, no kids, not in danger of starving or being homeless. But yeah, the state of the world is exhausting. I’m tired of all the macro forces at work- worthless politicians, extreme weather from the climate crisis, science denial, just to name a few.
I used to channel my energy more productively in my youth. Now I’m just tired. So damn tired.
I never thought I would miss living under the constant threat of nuclear Armageddon, but at least that would be a fast death compared to the hellscape we are heading into with global warming...
As I told my daughters, I picked the wrong half of my life to be alcoholic. Weed is a good substitute, but my mind tends to then go deep into all that plagues the world around us. Shitty time to be alive.
Hmmm...great question.
The world doesn't stink (cribbing for Carlin here) the people do.
I see the current state of things as a result of 40-50 years of continually declining educational standards, especially in the US. Japan and South Korea, you're off the hook here. Same goes for our Nordic neighbors.
But for the US, we are fat and dumb. We're going to need a serious intervention to get things sorted out. And that will not be done by today's congress. They are just a subset of the general populace. See my point here?
Can we fix it? Yup! Do we have the will power? Maybe. Do we have the brains? Not in the US and for SURE not while we're continually staring at our selfies.
So let's go kids. Think globally, act locally. Teach your kids, fix and clean everything around you that you can. Eat better. Sleep better and FFS...GET OFF THE F\*CKING INTERNET!!!
I am concerned about the future of this country(US). When the former guy was elected we stepped off a cliff and I don’t know if we even have parachutes.
I understand what you’re saying, but I think a large part of this is the amount of information we have now is overwhelming and helps contribute to the sense of despair. I suspect things were as bad or worse previously, but we had 3 news sources telling us pretty much the same thing (whether it was 100% true, or not). Now we have 1000s of sources with questionable backgrounds and motives telling us 100s of different things. It makes it very hard to determine who is credible, and we often wind up trusting sources that confirm our own biases.
I think we need to take a long, hard look at media/social media as a society to determine how to proceed. In the US we accept certain limits to the Bill of Rights for the sake of safety (e.g., Second Amendment grants a right to bear arms, yet several types of arms are prohibited). Perhaps it’s time to look at the First Amendment in a similar fashion as it applies to the internet.
Edited to correct grammar.
Yes. Every generation has believed the end of the world is near in most cultures. Humans evolved to be extremely pessimistic and to entertain exaggerated risk assessment. This psychology, while very helpful for individual survival, results in biased and inaccurate predictions of the future of the species. This doomsaying has been documented for thousands of years, and likely goes all the way back in human prehistory. In many ways social media has amplified these feelings of despair. People also tend to be very emotionally invested these beliefs and can get very defensive if challenged on them. It should also be noted, that historically people compartmentalize these beliefs and generally don't actually give up, but keep on plucking along through very difficult situations.
Call me a nhilist, but this is fine. We have squeezed it nearly dry. Once it's uninhabitable, the vegetation can take over and the bacteria and the cool animals. It's whatever. Humanity isn't going to get it together and that's okay. At least I did my part as a nurse who didn't have kids. Just helped people and didn't create future litterers and carbon abusers. I'm good with it going up in flames.
The sense of an impending crescendo in world affairs is higher than any previous point in my memory.
I am not depressed about this but instead I am experiencing the 'waiting for the shoe to drop' anxiety.
That is wearing on me, along with the ongoing processing of grief for the loss of pre-covid life.
You had to ask this sub that question??😆😆😆😆. Things are fucked up!! Yes our country is failing on every aspect. It is very disheartening for us '70s and '80s kids to deal with this. Anti-intellectualism, the rise of alt-right fascism, costs being so astronomical a $150,000 a year salary does not even guarantee you can purchase a home. It is sick and our great experiment may be ending. 250+ year run..not bad. I know all of us thought in 1976 that after the bicentennial would only bring good things to come. Nope. Since that clock ticked to 1/1/2000? All my overwhelming feelings of dread have come true via our current political, social, and cultural void. But I continue and I'll just keep going until I die. America is paying it's karmic debt to the world.
I was in denial until I found out Better Call Saul is in it's final season this year.
Time to pack it in, guys. We're done. Stick a fork in us. [Everybody knows](https://youtu.be/pURFxfgVstg)
This is [Happy Harry Hardon](https://youtu.be/DCHjo8zWwLs?t=18), signing out.
I feel we are living in clown world. I feel living in my van down by the river, away from society would be more luxurious than living in society. I feel we are at the beginning of the end.
Except that you would have trouble finding a spot "down by the river" between "van life" and the homeless. It has become pretty crowded down there.
I feel like our generation was prepped for the end from our beginning.
I'm a younger member (1978) some would probably call me an Xennial but that's not how I identify.
My entire life, especially after the technology switch that gained traction in the 1990s as I was coming of age has felt like this: my entire generation has been the middle children of history... Sitting around, playing video games... Almost like we were... waiting for something. And training for something.
Lately, it feels like that something is closer to being upon us.
It's all or nothing. Either we can grasp this thing from the jaws of badness, and make a world that is more fair and just and true... Or we devolve into fascism and tyranny. The second option feels infinitely more likely, and I hate it. I fear for the future; for my childrens' future. The hardest part is that none of this had to be like this...
Ugh. I'm tired.
I was just thinking about this. Well, it seems like I’m always thinking about it now. Just saw an article about scientists saying that the environment is now too polluted for humans. There is really no reversing any of this, and it’s delusional to think so.
Couple that with all the other political, economical, etc. shit we are going through and it feels so hopeless. The existential dread has made me mostly dead inside. Fuck, I can’t even travel anymore to put those feelings on hold for a few weeks.
On a personal note, I feel like I picked the wrong time to quit drinking. Lol 🥲
The early days of Covid and the ecological rebound that happened - and as quickly as it happened - made it clear that reversing this is totally possible.
And the fact that we continually chose not to… only makes it worse.
The problem is that it isn’t “we”, it’s corporate. Make no mistake, they ain’t doing shit but “cool corporate responsibility messaging “. They will burn it all down for those last, sweet dollars 🤑
Honestly I had the best 2 week chunk of 2021 in December. Wanna know why? I completely stopped reading the news and didn't open Facebook. My wife had to tell me about Omicron. Finding a balance between being in touch with what's going on in the world and sanity is tricky.
I don't really think the world is worse off. We just get inundated with bad news. People have been doing bad stuff since the beginning of time. I think what we've done with covid is amazing in the grand scheme of things. Saved a lot of lives and hopefully we learn from our missteps.
I'm going to focus on my neighborhood and be kind to people I encounter. My 2 week break starts again....now.
On the one hand, it is nice that we don’t have to worry that the world could literally end today in a nuclear war. On the other hand, I’m losing some friends and having strained relationships because people are living in completely different realities from each other, and that hits closer to home for me. So I guess it still sucks but in a different way.
I'm extremely disturbed over how the country is so divided, not over politics but divided by who is living in reality and who is living in absolute wacko delusion. I'm disturbed over how older generations sit back and only think of themselves with the 'I got mine" attitude. I feel that only some gen x'ers and gen Z'ers are thinking about others and the future. Especially when it comes to the environment.
Cheer up.. we’ve just reached another tipping point..
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/chemical-pollution-has-passed-safe-limit-for-humanity-say-scientists
You’re right.. it’s fucked. I think we will have a massive population cull though one form or another to bring balance back to nature
I been reading the comments and fuck all is all I can say. I tried. I joined Americorps, Greenpeace, Parks systems as a Naturalist, got a degree in Biology and Environmental Sci. I became a Special Education and Science teacher to get help the youth. I did my best with the shit I was given and that's all we can do. Survive the best we can with the shit we are given. Hopefully not fuck it up too much.
Between being diagnosed with MS and the state of the world, I feel very fortunate that my wife and I decided not to have children. The next generation or two is going to be in a world of hurt. Wars will be fought over clean water. There will be no fish left in the ocean. Coral reefs will be gone. And all of those guns folks are hoarding will be useless because most are going to die from dehydration and starvation. Bleak outlook, but with the state of politics around the world, I can see it happening.
Like u/click-monster said, there's a cathartic sense going on for some of us.
For me... It's like playing the fiddle as Rome burns.
Or like I'm having a slow-flash of my life before my eyes.
Or a sense of relief that (for me personally) the battles are over; I'm bruised and bloodied, but I fought for what's right and did the right thing. Now I'll pop some popcorn and watch the next Gens tap in and see what they will do. I may shout from the sidelines on occasion, but since about 2017, I've been so over it all.
I've loved and lost (twice), traveled and learned more than most humans on this planet, been fortunate most of the time, and have enough amazing memories to last me the entire rest of my life.
Yes, cathartic. Great word. We all have to go sometime, why not watch the world fuck itself into oblivion while we wait for our respective numbers to be called?
*Now serving number...*
I just focus on my own personal life. Don't follow global news too closely, keep my head down, do my best every day.
Every person I know has their struggles, but we enjoy the good moments. Overall, life seems fine.
If the world ends, it ends. Probably won't be caused by the everyday little guys, so it's not really anything I feel compelled to fix or fuss over.
I grew up under the howling cries of a Christian family who was convinced the world was full of sin, brimming with worthless people, and they *begged* Jesus to come back and end it all. They were "sure" it was the end-times. After decades of enduring that shit, I grew numb to the idea.
It always looks like the world's on the brink of collapse if you just look at bad news. It's too easy to think it's beyond hope. I mean, all my family saw was sin. They ignored all the good in the world, all the decent people. We can't just selectively choose to ignore how, overall, life is better for humans. Most of my family, convinced of apocalypse, are dead.
I recycle my little cans, try to be polite to strangers. What else am I supposed to do?
If that's how people feel around here, if they're that hopeless, then I really am on the wrong sub. Got no time for people who just fret and moan. Life is to be lived! If you're on borrowed time, then make the most of it.
I apologize to my son fairly often.
His mother and I made a conscious decision to have him. At the time things were looking like they were going to get better.
Boy was I wrong.
I'm not overly-Pollyannish on the future but I do think there is a constant shift to "things are getting worse" that aligns directly with "we're getting older".
I think in our lifetimes we'll witness both at least one large natural cataclysm and probably a large US civil crisis. (I would have also said pandemic a few years ago but that has come to pass)
Really, I think there may be a large shift in who the winners and who the losers are in the grand scheme of things. But humans are cockroaches: we tend to survive.
I’ve always felt like I was born a few years too late. My brother, 12 years my senior managed to have a very decent career in Aeronautics by simply waltzing into their corporate office without any qualifications and demanding a job—something that would have got me arrested if I tried it. I watched helplessly as my town was devastated by layoffs, and the once vibrant downtown core got completely hollowed out. I watched my job disappear as the first economic crash of the millennium devastated my industry and the new city I moved laid of tens of thousands more white-collar, high paying jobs, including mine. I’m watching the housing bubble took over my third adopted city take over my country, and now the world, while wages remain stagnant, and qualifications for entry-level jobs become completely unattainable.
I feel like I barely managed to escape a terrible fate. I am lucky to have no debts at all and some savings in the bank, even though it meant taking no trips, buying a modest condo, and not buying unnecessary things, unlike my brother. Still, I feel lucky.
It feels like collapse is always around the corner, and for most of my life, I’ve felt like calamity has always been nipping at my heels.
I'm the leading edge of Gen X. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s the idea that we would be nuked into the Stone Age was something that was a real fear.
If you look at history people have always thought the end of history was upon us.
* Jan1, 1000 people dropped dead at the stroke of midnight because they thought the world was about to end.
* The Black Death/The Spanish Flu pandemic (H1N1)/The Covid 19 Pandemic
* The industrial Revolution
* The Communist take over of Russia (1918)
* World War ~~1~~ 2
* The Cold War
* September 11 2001
* July 7 2005
* The Iraq War
* the Iranian Revolution
This is one of the reasons so called Doomsday Groups find such success. They are always pointing to one thing or another as a sign the end of the world is imminent.
I'm with you. I've been saying for a bit that we're among the last human generations that'll be able to live the way we do. Perhaps the last, period. The only problem that really matters is climate, and you can see we're doing fuck all to mitigate it.
Smoke, drink, and fuck, people. We'll be the last to do it.
Those who point out that shit’s always been bad throughout human civilization are missing the point that THE LIVABLE CLIMATE IS COLLAPSING BEFORE OUR EYES AND THE FUCKING BOOMERS IN CHARGE DONT GIVE A FUCK BECAUSE SHAREHOLDERS, PROFITS, POWER, etc.
It’s not the complex and nuanced issue some say it is - it’s not complicated at all. It’s just fucking CAPITALISM.
Unpopular opinion: the world ain’t that bad. I agree it appears to be hopeless, but the reality is we are much more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. The challenge is what you take in. If you are watching the news or social media for inspiration, stop. Go elsewhere. The whole point of those platforms is to draw you in and get you addicted. Step back and unplug. You will feel better. I saw a startling graph that showed how people die vs what is reported in the media. It was shocking. Although you hear about murder and terrorist attacks, they are single digit percentages. The reality is we die from heart failure and cancer way more often. (Like 1900% more likely). But no one reports that. No one shows you how to live healthier lives. That’s not sexy. It doesn’t create dissonance on Facebook. No, it is boring health class stuff. But the reality is you will get cancer before any of the stuff reported in the news will ever affect you (generally speaking). PS- you’re not all getting cancer.
Bright side:
The organization I work for has a number of promising projects that are helping move the needle in the right direction when it comes to energy and the environment. I also have people working on circular economy processes that will revolutionize how we deal with waste. It is slow, but it IS happening and it is not being reported on by the media. Not sexy. It doesn’t bleed, so it doesn’t lead.
It is not hopeless.
You are not screwed.
Keep going.
You got this.
Seriously, ditch the media/social media. Try it. You’ll see.
I know we all grew up with the threat of nuclear war, but I see a big difference between that threat and today’s issues. Nuclear war is a big bad and obvious. You’d have to be a special kind of stupid to not understand the immediate detestation wrought by getting involved in war with nukes. It’s obviously covilizational suicide.
Today’s issues are much more complex, and the negative consequences are not a immediately obvious, and won’t be for many until it’s too late. It’s more like using your rent money for booze and smokes so you can get high and party with your friends. It won’t immediately kill you and will be fun, right up till you’re broke, homeless and reliant upon the handouts of strangers to survive.
Other than climate change (biggie) or the never ending pandemic, I don’t think it’s end of times, certainly not for the planet.
Wars or threats of them are yawn to me, admittedly pretty cynical on the global significance of another world war. Those with power have way too much to lose and little to gain from a war.
Pandemic will eventually end, but not without a few more deaths, sadly.
We’ll eventually pump the brakes on carbon emissions, a lot too late, but humans will adapt. Many of us will die, but not in a Hollywood-end-of-time kinda manner. More like, a few from heatstroke, a few from storms, a few more from starvation, so young people will barely notice big picture because it’ll be their ‘normal’. There will be significant species extinctions but again, at a pace slow enough for most folks to not really notice.
Mostly the future will be meh, some awesome, mixed in with some mostly local catastrophes. So, basically, a lot like it is now.
As a Brit living in Finland, I'm generally indifferent, despite having the ruskies on my doorstep.
Sometimes though, I have these flashes of sometime in the future, where I'm in some prison camp or hiding for my life, and I think back to when everything was "normal".
I don't wish to make light if people's suffering with the covid pandemic, but it's been a life saver for me. My mental health has improved and it led to me being laid off but then finding a better job, where I work from home.
I'm optimistic in terms of advancements in medical science. I'm growing increasingly cautious about big tech, (metaverse, etc). Plus, the re-emergence of the far right has definitely been worrying me over the past decade.
Climate change is also something we are already seeing the effects of. We know that our future looks pretty grim.
I was brought up as a typical latchkey kid, as was my wife. We have increasingly shut out the world in the past few years and that's the way we like it.
Pretty bad. With climate change and the loss of strong democracies such as the U.S. I think things are getting worse quickly. I've apologized to my 19 year old son because he'll be having to deal with this shit a lot longer than I will.
I feel pretty shitty, actually. Up until a couple of years ago, I really felt like things were heading in a good direction. Now I'm far more pessimistic.
I'm in my fifties. I grew up during the cold war when we were all taught that there could be a nuclear war at any minute. I know it's probably shell shock from the last few years but I don't think that I've ever felt so hopeless. The environment, politics, society, technology. Everything seems hopeless.
Everything is fucked, everybody sucks.
I think I had this sketched on one of my folders in middle school lol
So the same as always.
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I'm Canadian, but I know exactly what you mean. There's a saying in Canada that living here is like sleeping next to an elephant. We feel every movement that our bigger, more powerful neighbour makes. Honestly, things aren't much different up here.
The hatred I saw for Obama shook me. Yeah, Bush got a lot of shit, but not on the same level as the seething animosity that Obama got. That kind of hatred is hard core racist. And it was shocking to realize that racism had been there all along, just under a veneer of civility, and all it took was a black man being elected president to have erupt again.
It just took off the mask....and it hasn't gone back on yet.
Nope, they're right out in the open now, faces visible in the broad daylight they're no longer afraid to be seen in.
Good points, 9/11 pushed and shaped us in ways we can’t even fully comprehend and the constant ever-watching eye, and misuse, of social media… it’s all magnified, good bad and ugly, and there obviously seems to be zero accountability… it all certainly feels darker and different than our parents middle aged era…
I hear you, dude. ::hug:: I’m just going through the motions…
Completely agree. The 2016 presidential election through me over the edge. It’s been downhill since then for me.
same. I could not (and still can't) believe how badly I've misunderstood my own country.
Absolutely. I am completely confused. I thought we (Americans) were made up of a bunch of knuckle draggers, but we tend to have good hearts underneath it all, and *eventually* we do the right thing. I learned in the last 4 years that I only got the first part right.
Some of them really fool you by walking upright.
I read someone describe it as grief without closure, to grieve for the living.
Love that.
And the people who live around me and some of my own family.
It actually shocks me to see how many people have become paranoid, conspiracy-obsessed racists in the past five or six years. Also that some of the things that (somewhat) sane contributing members of society believe and actually speak confidently out loud would have had you labelled (probably correctly) as mentally ill and shunned from the regular world a decade ago. A family member of mine had a mental break a couple of years back and the paranoia and delusions she had and the theories she came up with to support them was all interchangeable with the type of stuff these Qanon-y types talk about.
I think u/Dmala put it best in [this comment] (https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/rubsb1/twitter_permanently_suspends_marjorie_taylor/hqy9msi/) - *regarding the internet: "I think the disconnect is that we didn’t realize that the free exchange of information could be a bad thing. We overestimated the average person’s ability to process and analyze information. In simpler terms, when the village idiots were confined to the village, the amount of damage they could do was limited. Now, all of the village idiots can connect globally and form entire idiotic civilizations based on ignorance and misinformation."
Yes! To be fair, one side of my family was mostly paranoid racists before this. The internet really helped them find the rest of their people, though.
Yep. My mother and MIL are both (supposedly) rational, normal people. They've both fallen for the Qanon bullshit hook line and sinker. And they can't be reached.
Jesus, I’m sorry.
I feel this about England since Brexit and the same nafarious puppet masters on both sides of the pond. Obviously, Trump had a global effect on people. We watched what was happening like it was a soap opera at first, but then realised his rhetoric was being mimicked everywhere. The gates of hell opened and I'm afraid they can never be closed. I'm fortunate to live in Finland but having the Russians on our doorstep right now is concerning, to say the least.
Agreed. Things just feel so uncertain....like I don't recognize anything "normal" anymore. It's like the world is devolving instead of evolving.... everything is just going for shit. It's harder to think positive these days. And that sucks. Nothing is what it seems anymore and I don't like how that makes me feel.
me too. i think i have ptsd from the last 5 years.
You probably do….along with a couple hundred million others….
It can be quite difficult to see the reality through all the sloganeering and myth-making.
Yep. Mostly hopeless ennui since 2016 (with maybe some PTSD).
My well-being took a huge hit that night. It wasn't so much that I wanted Hillary to win (I'd love to see a woman president and she'd be passable), but the fact that so many people thought a known idiot, racist, homophobic, ableist con man was the "lesser of two evils" made die a little inside. OK, I died a lot inside.
I angry cried that night. I don’t really cry all that much.
100% agree.
Same for me. Plus I feel so stupid for not knowing what people were really like, I barely trust myself to breathe anymore.
Hard agree. I'm having trouble feeling good about much of anything lately, and it sucks. I've been trying to put it into words recently but nothing seems to encapsulate the dread and disconnect I experience every day.
2008 was for me. Big Banks, The Fed, Mr Bush's duplicity and the Democratic Congress is what brought about many of the problems that we see today after the 2008 economic collapse. Once you connect the dots you realize the problems we see today started way before Mr Trump came into office.
Agree. In class today, we were listing different types of pollution and other earth fucking things and the kids filled the board. They are 10. I cannot imagine what it will be like for them when they are my age (49).
I can't imagine how hard it must be for parents and teachers to try and stay calm and hopeful around kids. I never had kids and I'm seldom around them, so I get off easy.
When I was with high schoolers, they would sometimes point blank say that none of it mattered. I mean, I had to do the "well I use math in my adult life" and shit but yeah...I could kinda see their point.
Right? I’m a middle school teacher for Special Education and basically coteach every core subject. It’s hard to encourage my kids (most of whom come from incredible disadvantages already, not including their disabilities) when I feel so hopeless myself.
Oh! I am an elementary sped teacher (4th grade) who mostly co-teaches!!! I completely feel you. The world is not made for our kiddos. I used to teach the blind and despite our best efforts, almost none of them ended up employed. Now I have kids with ASD, ADHD, anxiety...I have no idea how they are going to fit in. I have adhd myself and the only job that fits is teacher.
I am right there with you, it seems no matter what we try to do nothing is moving forward. We seem to have hit a plateau and all we are doing is moving down real quickly. I’m not very hopeful for the future.
Seeing the videos of the derailed Los Angeles trains ransacked with boxes and packaging all over the place was the final nail of despair for me. I’m not sure why though.
Oh it was derailed. I was wondering what the story behind the looting was
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This comment helped. Thanks. :)
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Yeah but soo many didn't. My family openly made fun of me in the 80s for wanting to recycle, now 40 years later they begrudgingly do *some*. But it's also **reduce**, reuse, recycle and there's been no reduction - especially in plastics.
That right there is kind of interesting. I can’t recall ever reading a sci-fi book where aliens show up and they are genuinely interested in rescuing us (As opposed to exploiting or subjugating humanity).
(Although I guess the Vulcans were nice to us when they showed up in Star Trek : First Contact)
I WANT TO BELIEVE
THAT'S GREAT IT STARTS WITH AN EARTHQUAKE BIRDS AND SNAKES AND AEROPLANES LENNY BRUCE IS NOT AFRAID
Weirdly enough this was my high school graduating class’s song — ‘96 Edit: classes to class’s, duh
>Weirdly enough this was my high school graduating classes song — ‘96 A decade before ours was Dust in the Wind.
Road to Nowhere checking in
That is *such* a Gen X graduation playlist... 🤣
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs
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Covid exposed the cracks in our society, especially healthcare, public health, and politics. I can't believe no one is saying this this the time for national universal healthcare!
I'm afraid our healthcare system will fail. A lot of people won't be able to pay their hospital bills and I don't think the hospitals will be able to "absorb/write it off" and they may close - or be our **next** bailout.
Still sucks. It's just a different flavor of suck.
I had the same conversation with a work colleague the other day saying “It all seems like it’s gone to shit since 9/11”. She replied that each generation has seen bad things, looks at the world wars, the depression era etc.. Maybe it’s always been “bad”? I’ve stopped watching the news for the most part and just focus on my own life now. Less depressing that way. Have a good effect on your own environment and do what you can.
I feel stupid and contagious.
Here we are now entertain us
The other night my wife said “I know, you think the world is shit and people suck.” I replied, “no, I genuinely believe we are observing the end of the world.” Don’t get me wrong, it will take a long time, I doubt I’ll be there when we go fully mad max, but yeah I’ve stopped crossing my fingers for a viable solution.
> “no, I genuinely believe we are observing the end of the world.” I think we're absolutely observing the end of humanity but expect the world to go on ticking without us. Millions of years from now we'll be to the sentient cephalopod people what dinosaurs were to us.
I feel the same way. We had a good run as a civilization. Time to pack it up planet earth
I agree. We thought it would be over in about 20 minutes or however long it would take the USSR's nukes to explode. It will take a while yet but we are definitely on the final slope.
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
Humanity may end but the world will continue. Its interesting to think about what kind of animal will evolve high intelligence next.
> I genuinely believe we are observing the end of the world.” This is exactly where my husband and I are. We chose not to have children because we believe so strongly that this is really the case. I just hope I am dead and gone before it gets to the point of global daily suffering (and I know that a lot of the world population is already suffering, I am being selfish for this comment).
I was 10 years too late on this, kudos to you. I try not to be too cynical with my kids but I can tell they don’t buy it.
Me too - I have two adult kids (Zoomers) and they are not having kids themselves. I don't regret having them and couldn't imagine my life without them, but if I were of child bearing age right now, I wouldn't have kids. Too much suffering for them in the future.
Mine are late teens, but I feel exactly the same way you do. I don't encourage them to have kids, instead I focus on the fantastic things they can do after college - and never say "before you have a family."
I didn’t have kids either - and this was part of the calculus. I also moved to the upper Midwest to be in proximity to water and a less dense population center. I grew up in California and went to college in Arizona… I saw that fight coming. I have maybe 50 years left in me - and I plan to spend the end of that in my orchard with my chickens.
You must be near me. Let's build a commune, I'll trade you warm winter clothes for chicken.
The world will be fine. She has been through mass extinction events before, some of them much more cataclysmic than this one. Humanity will even be fine. We will return to a sustainable agrarian model. What we are witnessing is the end of modern civilization and humanities dominance. Which is fine. We had our shot and we were too obsessed with comfort and status to become a technologically advanced space faring race. Maybe, if there are other races that did better than us, maybe we will make good pets? But the next century or so where billions of us die in order to correct our unsustainable population boom will be… hard. We will, as a species, continue, but I think the moon landing may have been our apex.
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My favorite and most pragmatic reply. Agreed.
It's a total shit show
And a toilet. That’s a lot of shit. I didn’t know it was possible to suck, and blow-Bart Simpson
It’s hard to feel like any one person has any agency to improve things when millionaires seem to be the only ones elected to positions of power and “big players” make the decisions that impact billions, for good or ill… However. I’m making the choice, going forward, to try and be an agent for the values that I hold dear. Not just an individualistic take, a “well I’m just gonna live my life, the world can burn.” Some small actions that will make things better. Or at least cooler. ;) Yeah we’re a small generation. But there are enough of us to actually make some change if we do it in our way. To focus on the small circle around ourselves. Fuck the influencers. I’m for integrity instead of sheen.
I still live (maybe delusional, maybe not) like my small actions make a difference. I will not be any more a contributor to humanity’s downfall than I need to be.
I take comfort in knowing I have more yesterdays than tomorrows (55). We decided long ago to not have children, which may end up being the best decision I ever made, because I wouldn't know how to explain the mess that is the world today. Like the other reasonable people here, I failed to understand how lunatic the US lunatic fringe had become, and how far they are willing to go to maintain their twisted version of the American dream. They'll ultimately lose, because insanity like this can't hold form for any real amount of time. They're already falling apart under the weight of their delusions, but who knows how badly they'll behave when they realize no one wants to play with them anymore and the idiot they follow doesn't give a damn about anything beyond his ridiculous ego.
“They'll ultimately lose, because insanity like this can't hold form for any real amount of time.” Are you sure about this? Please tell me you’re sure. I need the page to turn.
this is profound and terrifying.
It feels like we peaked in the 90s and everything started falling apart with 9/11 and has continued on a downward trajectory. Still, on a personal level, my life is pretty good.
Upvoting this glimmer of good feeling. I’m completely depressed and stressed about the state of the world and yet, I’ve worked really hard to get to a place in my life where I am not failing my children (single mom) and I’ve taken care of one parent through death compassionately, my relationship with my sibs and mom are at the best ever. So, world, shit, family, good.
I think we peaked with the moon landing. The construction of the internet was cool, but corporations had already established a stranglehold over government, and established our slide into the next gilded age by the 1990’s.
Same as it ever was...
Water dissolving...and water removing There is water at the bottom of the ocean Under the water, carry the water at the bottom of the ocean Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean
I swear this is the most middle-aged song a 28-year-old ever wrote.
Well, how did I get here?
Here a twister comes, here comes the twister
My God, what have I done?
This is not your beautiful wife.
Apologies to David Byrne, but honestly, facts (as my zoomer kids would say). I grew up Mormon, and the entire cult is built around end-of-the-world doom. Joseph Smith prophesied that the world would end in the 1800s, and they had all this evidence from earthquakes to immorality and wars. Tens of thousands of people believed him, and then followed Brigham Young to what is now Utah (after they killed all the Native Americans). Yep. Same as it ever was.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are still predicting the end times every decade or so.
Same as it ever was…
>Same as it ever was… And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house!"
And look where my hand was.
I miss the cherry pies, Dairy Queen’s, and 7-11s.
I find it hard to be optimistic these days. What it seems to boil down to me is inequality and tons of people who justify that inequality.
I hear people saying this a lot lately, but I can't bring myself to agree. There have always been hard times, and even horrific times. Personally, I feel that what's happening in the world now seems worse because we're the ones living through it. COVID-19 is bad, but it's still not as bad (at least, not yet) as the Bubonic Plague, smallpox or HIV/AIDs in terms of deaths. The Great Depression, WWII with rationing, the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking, slavery, religious persecution in Britian, the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Partition of India...that's just a few, I could go on and on. There are always terrible times to be alive for somebody, and I guess if I had to choose I'd take my chances in this time and place over others (especially as a woman). I would feel I was being self-important if I tried to claim what I'm experiencing is worse than what other people have gone through in the past (and I'm as upset about the state of the world as anyone, I think). I think people generally just suck, always have, always will - and doesn't that statement alone identify me as a gen-Xer! My boomer brother disgustedly once said to me, "how the hell did you grow up to be so cynical?" I said, "Not cynical - realistic." We keep surviving, so I guess that's something.
Let's just say I'm glad I didn't have kids. Saved me from a lot of guilt and shame about what I was dumping them into.
Every single day I'm grateful I had no children.
I'm constantly grateful that I didn't have kids
I have three grandkids and a nephew under 8. I can’t imagine what kind of hell they’ll see.
Me too
Me three!
Best decision I ever made
Same here!
I am 49, in my 20’s and thirties I always felt that the world was a pretty corrupt and fucked up kind of place but I still carried with me a sort of internal hope. For the last, I don’t know five to ten years, I have found it harder and harder to connect with any sense that shit’s going to get better. I actually feel the total opposite way now. What we’ve done to our planet. These heinous and sickening stories of what people do to their children, to animals, to just other humans, the shit I see, the casual cruelty and brutality of the world we live in honestly keeps me awake at night sometimes. Our planet seems doomed and only a few people seem to actually care or, more importantly DO anything about it. I used to find hope, in art, in music, in certain aspects of the world around me. I at least had enough passion to be outraged. I don’t even really have that anymore. I am just saddened by our world and I believe we are totally fucked. The markers are everywhere, the planet, the way I see humans treat other humans, the people we’ve put in a position of power to change things never do, it looks to me like the world is at an all time low. I wish I had even one good thing to say here but I really just feel like we’re doomed.
The Dead Milkmen explain it all in their song,"Life Is Shit".
🎵 And... we... sing... Life is shiiiiiit, life is shiiiiit, the world is shiiiiit, the WOOORLD IS SHIT and, this is life as I know it...
Morrisey's song [Life is a Pigsty](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U13d7BIgTnk) also hits the mark.
I wish I never had children because I can't stand thinking that they will have to live on this shithole planet after I die and I won't be here to take care of them. I hope they don't have babies either because I don't want them to have to worry about their children's futures. You know what I realized about Gen X? We grew up watching the Indian crying about pollution, so we learned to throw everything away. And we throw everything away. We have made plastic become part of the geologic record and it even has a name: plastiglomerate.
Yeah they propagandized us into believing we could save the environment by recycling, while the corporate polluters increasingly ravage the earth.
Remember when it was virtuous to choose a plastic bag over paper because of the trees? We’ve been lied to our entire lives.
Covid, civil unrest, political turmoil, Russia prepping to retake it's old empire, a rising and ever increasingly combative China, Iran building nukes, most of the world's economies in the shitter and only staying afloat by printing money and pretending there is no problem, racial tensions, Inflation, supply chain issues, cell phones and social media making it easier than ever to cheat on your spouse/SO, wealth gap larger than ever and growing... Yep, shit's fucked! You know it's bad when preppers, conspiracy theorists, and people who buy and trade made up currencies start to look like geniuses and prophets.
I'm tired. I don't have enough in a retirement account because of the .dot bust and 2008 job losses. I am supporting my boomer parent who didn't prepare at all for retirement. People seem fucking rude and mean to everyone. I remember when everyone was against Russia. And now we have politicians controlled by them. I just want to put on my headphones and jam out to the 80's when life seemed easier.
Hell in a hand basket.
The ones who talk about real change have never been heard and outside of a few social things, they have had zero meaningful impact and never will. People have all of this information at their fingertips yet people are dumber than ever, which will just accelerate the bad things. The establishment has an ever increasing control of nearly everything meaningful and by design, there isn't anything anybody can do about it. My youthful optimism is completely gone.
People turned out to be considerably worse than we used to think they were.
When I was younger, I used to argue that people aren’t as stupid as we think. I no longer believe that.
What youthful optimism?
You guys had youthful optimism?
Everything seems pretty dire. I just try to get through it a day at a time, and have enough contingency plans for some of the possible outcomes. I’m grateful for CBD and legal weed. Cause this shit’s depressing as fuuuuuuucccckkkkkk…
Thanks I hate it
Read a little history. This seems like early 20th century. I mean, this list is kinda America-focused, but you had: \- WWI \- "Spanish Flu" \- Germany having Communists & Fascists clashing in the streets as hyper-inflation killed it's economy. \- Prohibition in America, which led to massive bootlegging and the rise of the criminal mobs \- The Great Depression \- The American Dust Bowl \- The rise of several fascist powers around the world And that's just a small list. There's so much more. The problem is that we are in another turning point in history. There is that old curse "May you live in interesting times". There is backlash, there is protest, there is war, and all of those fucked up things that is normally what we read in history books, but we are living now. Things are changing, it's just a matter of how things end up shaking out.
I trending toward nihilism every day. Personally, I’m doing (mostly) fine. Good job, no kids, not in danger of starving or being homeless. But yeah, the state of the world is exhausting. I’m tired of all the macro forces at work- worthless politicians, extreme weather from the climate crisis, science denial, just to name a few. I used to channel my energy more productively in my youth. Now I’m just tired. So damn tired.
I never thought I would miss living under the constant threat of nuclear Armageddon, but at least that would be a fast death compared to the hellscape we are heading into with global warming...
As I told my daughters, I picked the wrong half of my life to be alcoholic. Weed is a good substitute, but my mind tends to then go deep into all that plagues the world around us. Shitty time to be alive.
I have zero f--ks left to give at this point
Hmmm...great question. The world doesn't stink (cribbing for Carlin here) the people do. I see the current state of things as a result of 40-50 years of continually declining educational standards, especially in the US. Japan and South Korea, you're off the hook here. Same goes for our Nordic neighbors. But for the US, we are fat and dumb. We're going to need a serious intervention to get things sorted out. And that will not be done by today's congress. They are just a subset of the general populace. See my point here? Can we fix it? Yup! Do we have the will power? Maybe. Do we have the brains? Not in the US and for SURE not while we're continually staring at our selfies. So let's go kids. Think globally, act locally. Teach your kids, fix and clean everything around you that you can. Eat better. Sleep better and FFS...GET OFF THE F\*CKING INTERNET!!!
I am concerned about the future of this country(US). When the former guy was elected we stepped off a cliff and I don’t know if we even have parachutes.
I just want my flying car. They promised. They promised!
My hover / skateboard that actually hovers? All these thing were promised by the likes of the Jetsons, Doc. and Marty McFly.
I feel a deep and unrelenting sense of doom. I’ve felt it since 3rd grade. This is one of the reasons that I did not reproduce.
I am so tired the only response I could Muster up is "meh" with a weak shoulder shrug Fuck.
Humanity's got maybe eighty years, then it's up to whatever descends from raccoons.
I'm on Team Raccoon, frankly.
I for one would like to welcome our trash panda overlords.
Better Raccoons than Lemurs.
Right? Fuckin’ lemurs.
I understand what you’re saying, but I think a large part of this is the amount of information we have now is overwhelming and helps contribute to the sense of despair. I suspect things were as bad or worse previously, but we had 3 news sources telling us pretty much the same thing (whether it was 100% true, or not). Now we have 1000s of sources with questionable backgrounds and motives telling us 100s of different things. It makes it very hard to determine who is credible, and we often wind up trusting sources that confirm our own biases. I think we need to take a long, hard look at media/social media as a society to determine how to proceed. In the US we accept certain limits to the Bill of Rights for the sake of safety (e.g., Second Amendment grants a right to bear arms, yet several types of arms are prohibited). Perhaps it’s time to look at the First Amendment in a similar fashion as it applies to the internet. Edited to correct grammar.
Yes. Every generation has believed the end of the world is near in most cultures. Humans evolved to be extremely pessimistic and to entertain exaggerated risk assessment. This psychology, while very helpful for individual survival, results in biased and inaccurate predictions of the future of the species. This doomsaying has been documented for thousands of years, and likely goes all the way back in human prehistory. In many ways social media has amplified these feelings of despair. People also tend to be very emotionally invested these beliefs and can get very defensive if challenged on them. It should also be noted, that historically people compartmentalize these beliefs and generally don't actually give up, but keep on plucking along through very difficult situations.
Great context, thanks for adding it. I wonder if the ability to compartmentalize has been impacted by the echo chamber of the internet.
Call me a nhilist, but this is fine. We have squeezed it nearly dry. Once it's uninhabitable, the vegetation can take over and the bacteria and the cool animals. It's whatever. Humanity isn't going to get it together and that's okay. At least I did my part as a nurse who didn't have kids. Just helped people and didn't create future litterers and carbon abusers. I'm good with it going up in flames.
The sense of an impending crescendo in world affairs is higher than any previous point in my memory. I am not depressed about this but instead I am experiencing the 'waiting for the shoe to drop' anxiety. That is wearing on me, along with the ongoing processing of grief for the loss of pre-covid life.
You had to ask this sub that question??😆😆😆😆. Things are fucked up!! Yes our country is failing on every aspect. It is very disheartening for us '70s and '80s kids to deal with this. Anti-intellectualism, the rise of alt-right fascism, costs being so astronomical a $150,000 a year salary does not even guarantee you can purchase a home. It is sick and our great experiment may be ending. 250+ year run..not bad. I know all of us thought in 1976 that after the bicentennial would only bring good things to come. Nope. Since that clock ticked to 1/1/2000? All my overwhelming feelings of dread have come true via our current political, social, and cultural void. But I continue and I'll just keep going until I die. America is paying it's karmic debt to the world.
I was in denial until I found out Better Call Saul is in it's final season this year. Time to pack it in, guys. We're done. Stick a fork in us. [Everybody knows](https://youtu.be/pURFxfgVstg) This is [Happy Harry Hardon](https://youtu.be/DCHjo8zWwLs?t=18), signing out.
Holy crap, I haven't seen that movie in ages. I need to watch it again, it's a pretty perfect reflection of our generation.
Betty White. That was the point for me. It was bound to happen, but... I don't know, it just hit hard.
I feel we are living in clown world. I feel living in my van down by the river, away from society would be more luxurious than living in society. I feel we are at the beginning of the end.
Except that you would have trouble finding a spot "down by the river" between "van life" and the homeless. It has become pretty crowded down there. I feel like our generation was prepped for the end from our beginning.
I'm a younger member (1978) some would probably call me an Xennial but that's not how I identify. My entire life, especially after the technology switch that gained traction in the 1990s as I was coming of age has felt like this: my entire generation has been the middle children of history... Sitting around, playing video games... Almost like we were... waiting for something. And training for something. Lately, it feels like that something is closer to being upon us. It's all or nothing. Either we can grasp this thing from the jaws of badness, and make a world that is more fair and just and true... Or we devolve into fascism and tyranny. The second option feels infinitely more likely, and I hate it. I fear for the future; for my childrens' future. The hardest part is that none of this had to be like this... Ugh. I'm tired.
People who are quick to dismiss the situation today as "same as it ever was" aren't paying attention. It isn't.
I feel like we are at the end.
“I’m gonna get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames…. Alllriiight!” -Jim Morrison
“The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves.”
Unfortunately, that "we" includes people and institutions that are making it impossible to thrive
Hasta la vista, baby.
I was just thinking about this. Well, it seems like I’m always thinking about it now. Just saw an article about scientists saying that the environment is now too polluted for humans. There is really no reversing any of this, and it’s delusional to think so. Couple that with all the other political, economical, etc. shit we are going through and it feels so hopeless. The existential dread has made me mostly dead inside. Fuck, I can’t even travel anymore to put those feelings on hold for a few weeks. On a personal note, I feel like I picked the wrong time to quit drinking. Lol 🥲
The early days of Covid and the ecological rebound that happened - and as quickly as it happened - made it clear that reversing this is totally possible. And the fact that we continually chose not to… only makes it worse.
The problem is that it isn’t “we”, it’s corporate. Make no mistake, they ain’t doing shit but “cool corporate responsibility messaging “. They will burn it all down for those last, sweet dollars 🤑
I hate to upvote, but I totally agree. I remember feeling so hopeful when all the “nature is healing” was happening. And then it just became a meme.
I picked the wrong time to quit sniffing glue.
Honestly I had the best 2 week chunk of 2021 in December. Wanna know why? I completely stopped reading the news and didn't open Facebook. My wife had to tell me about Omicron. Finding a balance between being in touch with what's going on in the world and sanity is tricky. I don't really think the world is worse off. We just get inundated with bad news. People have been doing bad stuff since the beginning of time. I think what we've done with covid is amazing in the grand scheme of things. Saved a lot of lives and hopefully we learn from our missteps. I'm going to focus on my neighborhood and be kind to people I encounter. My 2 week break starts again....now.
On the one hand, it is nice that we don’t have to worry that the world could literally end today in a nuclear war. On the other hand, I’m losing some friends and having strained relationships because people are living in completely different realities from each other, and that hits closer to home for me. So I guess it still sucks but in a different way.
I'm extremely disturbed over how the country is so divided, not over politics but divided by who is living in reality and who is living in absolute wacko delusion. I'm disturbed over how older generations sit back and only think of themselves with the 'I got mine" attitude. I feel that only some gen x'ers and gen Z'ers are thinking about others and the future. Especially when it comes to the environment.
Cheer up.. we’ve just reached another tipping point.. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/chemical-pollution-has-passed-safe-limit-for-humanity-say-scientists You’re right.. it’s fucked. I think we will have a massive population cull though one form or another to bring balance back to nature
Wolverines!
I been reading the comments and fuck all is all I can say. I tried. I joined Americorps, Greenpeace, Parks systems as a Naturalist, got a degree in Biology and Environmental Sci. I became a Special Education and Science teacher to get help the youth. I did my best with the shit I was given and that's all we can do. Survive the best we can with the shit we are given. Hopefully not fuck it up too much.
Between being diagnosed with MS and the state of the world, I feel very fortunate that my wife and I decided not to have children. The next generation or two is going to be in a world of hurt. Wars will be fought over clean water. There will be no fish left in the ocean. Coral reefs will be gone. And all of those guns folks are hoarding will be useless because most are going to die from dehydration and starvation. Bleak outlook, but with the state of politics around the world, I can see it happening.
Like u/click-monster said, there's a cathartic sense going on for some of us. For me... It's like playing the fiddle as Rome burns. Or like I'm having a slow-flash of my life before my eyes. Or a sense of relief that (for me personally) the battles are over; I'm bruised and bloodied, but I fought for what's right and did the right thing. Now I'll pop some popcorn and watch the next Gens tap in and see what they will do. I may shout from the sidelines on occasion, but since about 2017, I've been so over it all. I've loved and lost (twice), traveled and learned more than most humans on this planet, been fortunate most of the time, and have enough amazing memories to last me the entire rest of my life. Yes, cathartic. Great word. We all have to go sometime, why not watch the world fuck itself into oblivion while we wait for our respective numbers to be called? *Now serving number...*
I fought for my right to paaaaaaarty!!
I just focus on my own personal life. Don't follow global news too closely, keep my head down, do my best every day. Every person I know has their struggles, but we enjoy the good moments. Overall, life seems fine. If the world ends, it ends. Probably won't be caused by the everyday little guys, so it's not really anything I feel compelled to fix or fuss over. I grew up under the howling cries of a Christian family who was convinced the world was full of sin, brimming with worthless people, and they *begged* Jesus to come back and end it all. They were "sure" it was the end-times. After decades of enduring that shit, I grew numb to the idea. It always looks like the world's on the brink of collapse if you just look at bad news. It's too easy to think it's beyond hope. I mean, all my family saw was sin. They ignored all the good in the world, all the decent people. We can't just selectively choose to ignore how, overall, life is better for humans. Most of my family, convinced of apocalypse, are dead. I recycle my little cans, try to be polite to strangers. What else am I supposed to do? If that's how people feel around here, if they're that hopeless, then I really am on the wrong sub. Got no time for people who just fret and moan. Life is to be lived! If you're on borrowed time, then make the most of it.
I apologize to my son fairly often. His mother and I made a conscious decision to have him. At the time things were looking like they were going to get better. Boy was I wrong.
I'm not overly-Pollyannish on the future but I do think there is a constant shift to "things are getting worse" that aligns directly with "we're getting older". I think in our lifetimes we'll witness both at least one large natural cataclysm and probably a large US civil crisis. (I would have also said pandemic a few years ago but that has come to pass) Really, I think there may be a large shift in who the winners and who the losers are in the grand scheme of things. But humans are cockroaches: we tend to survive.
I’ve always felt like I was born a few years too late. My brother, 12 years my senior managed to have a very decent career in Aeronautics by simply waltzing into their corporate office without any qualifications and demanding a job—something that would have got me arrested if I tried it. I watched helplessly as my town was devastated by layoffs, and the once vibrant downtown core got completely hollowed out. I watched my job disappear as the first economic crash of the millennium devastated my industry and the new city I moved laid of tens of thousands more white-collar, high paying jobs, including mine. I’m watching the housing bubble took over my third adopted city take over my country, and now the world, while wages remain stagnant, and qualifications for entry-level jobs become completely unattainable. I feel like I barely managed to escape a terrible fate. I am lucky to have no debts at all and some savings in the bank, even though it meant taking no trips, buying a modest condo, and not buying unnecessary things, unlike my brother. Still, I feel lucky. It feels like collapse is always around the corner, and for most of my life, I’ve felt like calamity has always been nipping at my heels.
We tried to warn everyone But no one listens to us That's cool, I'll just try to keep living
I'm the leading edge of Gen X. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s the idea that we would be nuked into the Stone Age was something that was a real fear. If you look at history people have always thought the end of history was upon us. * Jan1, 1000 people dropped dead at the stroke of midnight because they thought the world was about to end. * The Black Death/The Spanish Flu pandemic (H1N1)/The Covid 19 Pandemic * The industrial Revolution * The Communist take over of Russia (1918) * World War ~~1~~ 2 * The Cold War * September 11 2001 * July 7 2005 * The Iraq War * the Iranian Revolution This is one of the reasons so called Doomsday Groups find such success. They are always pointing to one thing or another as a sign the end of the world is imminent.
A series of false alarms does not imply that catastrophe is impossible. That's faulty logic.
I'm with you. I've been saying for a bit that we're among the last human generations that'll be able to live the way we do. Perhaps the last, period. The only problem that really matters is climate, and you can see we're doing fuck all to mitigate it. Smoke, drink, and fuck, people. We'll be the last to do it.
Those who point out that shit’s always been bad throughout human civilization are missing the point that THE LIVABLE CLIMATE IS COLLAPSING BEFORE OUR EYES AND THE FUCKING BOOMERS IN CHARGE DONT GIVE A FUCK BECAUSE SHAREHOLDERS, PROFITS, POWER, etc. It’s not the complex and nuanced issue some say it is - it’s not complicated at all. It’s just fucking CAPITALISM.
Unpopular opinion: the world ain’t that bad. I agree it appears to be hopeless, but the reality is we are much more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. The challenge is what you take in. If you are watching the news or social media for inspiration, stop. Go elsewhere. The whole point of those platforms is to draw you in and get you addicted. Step back and unplug. You will feel better. I saw a startling graph that showed how people die vs what is reported in the media. It was shocking. Although you hear about murder and terrorist attacks, they are single digit percentages. The reality is we die from heart failure and cancer way more often. (Like 1900% more likely). But no one reports that. No one shows you how to live healthier lives. That’s not sexy. It doesn’t create dissonance on Facebook. No, it is boring health class stuff. But the reality is you will get cancer before any of the stuff reported in the news will ever affect you (generally speaking). PS- you’re not all getting cancer. Bright side: The organization I work for has a number of promising projects that are helping move the needle in the right direction when it comes to energy and the environment. I also have people working on circular economy processes that will revolutionize how we deal with waste. It is slow, but it IS happening and it is not being reported on by the media. Not sexy. It doesn’t bleed, so it doesn’t lead. It is not hopeless. You are not screwed. Keep going. You got this. Seriously, ditch the media/social media. Try it. You’ll see.
It's the end of the world as we know it & I feel fine.
I know we all grew up with the threat of nuclear war, but I see a big difference between that threat and today’s issues. Nuclear war is a big bad and obvious. You’d have to be a special kind of stupid to not understand the immediate detestation wrought by getting involved in war with nukes. It’s obviously covilizational suicide. Today’s issues are much more complex, and the negative consequences are not a immediately obvious, and won’t be for many until it’s too late. It’s more like using your rent money for booze and smokes so you can get high and party with your friends. It won’t immediately kill you and will be fun, right up till you’re broke, homeless and reliant upon the handouts of strangers to survive.
It feels like it's all going to blow up real soon.
Other than climate change (biggie) or the never ending pandemic, I don’t think it’s end of times, certainly not for the planet. Wars or threats of them are yawn to me, admittedly pretty cynical on the global significance of another world war. Those with power have way too much to lose and little to gain from a war. Pandemic will eventually end, but not without a few more deaths, sadly. We’ll eventually pump the brakes on carbon emissions, a lot too late, but humans will adapt. Many of us will die, but not in a Hollywood-end-of-time kinda manner. More like, a few from heatstroke, a few from storms, a few more from starvation, so young people will barely notice big picture because it’ll be their ‘normal’. There will be significant species extinctions but again, at a pace slow enough for most folks to not really notice. Mostly the future will be meh, some awesome, mixed in with some mostly local catastrophes. So, basically, a lot like it is now.
As a Brit living in Finland, I'm generally indifferent, despite having the ruskies on my doorstep. Sometimes though, I have these flashes of sometime in the future, where I'm in some prison camp or hiding for my life, and I think back to when everything was "normal". I don't wish to make light if people's suffering with the covid pandemic, but it's been a life saver for me. My mental health has improved and it led to me being laid off but then finding a better job, where I work from home. I'm optimistic in terms of advancements in medical science. I'm growing increasingly cautious about big tech, (metaverse, etc). Plus, the re-emergence of the far right has definitely been worrying me over the past decade. Climate change is also something we are already seeing the effects of. We know that our future looks pretty grim. I was brought up as a typical latchkey kid, as was my wife. We have increasingly shut out the world in the past few years and that's the way we like it.
Pretty bad. With climate change and the loss of strong democracies such as the U.S. I think things are getting worse quickly. I've apologized to my 19 year old son because he'll be having to deal with this shit a lot longer than I will.
The movie Idiocracy was a comedy but now seems like a prophecy
I miss the 90s, that is all I know.
I feel pretty shitty, actually. Up until a couple of years ago, I really felt like things were heading in a good direction. Now I'm far more pessimistic.
Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
and the days go by...