I read it, liked a lot about it. But when Abbott brings up the rise of fascism globally, Ether, and vicariously you, dodge the point. That is not reassuring.
Plus, it's a small comfort to be like "well most of the world is pretty free and happy".
Awesome. I don't live in one of those countries though, and I am not an aggregate statistic - I am an individual confined to a single corporeal form and this period of time.
I guess I was hoping for some sense of solution to the issues raised other than "just will yourself to feel better." Pointing out real problems without showing how they can be solved isn't going to help against nihilism.
I don't understand why we're fighting against nihilism. All that means is that there's no inherent meaning to things. And what THAT means, is that all meaning is decided by you, thereby making it (IMHO) far more beautiful than "it was meant to be" or "god willed it so".
Growing up in the cold war, and getting trauma from preparation of something that *might maybe perhaps possibly someday happen*, is incredibly different from the trauma of the actual, realized, ongoing, day-to-day, perpetual shit that *our own country is actively doing to us*.
Hey I’m Slavic, we make jokes to keep ourselves from running straight at a Russian tank to end it all. The idea of getting a grip and smiling makes me want to do that running!
When I saw this truly terrible take, I didn't realize you'd written some things I enjoyed. Now I have to rethink that too, while I snuggle with my snoring cat (good) and try not to think about the humans trafficked to El Salvador by my government (bad).
Yeah, so I've been noticing that self gas lighting has been more encouraged lately. I haven't been able to disassociate as effectively as those "optimists"
We're going to have 10s of millions of people become homeless in the next 2-5 years, & millions dead because of the policies of the D student grifter president. The next generation coming up to run America are millions of people homeschooled by parents who flunked out of high school.
We're Doomed!
My guy that wasn’t posted after “covid lockdowns” (which had ended months and months earlier). That was posted on Insurrection Day - January 6, 2021. Kind of important context that is totally wrong in the video.
It's kind of hard to hope that anything will ever improve in a democracy, even a failed democracy, when more than half the country voted for what is happening, or didn't care enough to vote against it.
Being a minority Gen X, I can say it HAS gotten worse. I spent the most productive years of my life serving our nation's military, and thankfully came out with the type of medical care that I got to see firsthand living in Germany. Don't gaslight us by saying we don't see it happening. It's worse.
And sitting her telling everyone that "it'll pass, just be patient" is such a white, Christian, cis male reaction that it makes me nauseous. If you're brown, you're overpoliced. If you're trans, you're at risk of violence for simply using the bathroom. If you're non Christian, you're constantly...
Told that you're going to hell, and anything that happens to you is your own fault for not submitting to God.
So forgive me if I not only seem dismissive, but have a healthy reaction of GFY to your gaslighting comment.
And yes, run as fast as you can. We don't want y'all around us. We'll be fine.
The big difference is, those growing up during the Cold War believed the world was unstable, but they ultimately enjoyed a better standard of living than their parents. Those of us 40 and under know we have it objectively worse than our parents and every trend line is in the wrong direction.
You cannot improve a situation by being ignorant of it. I graduated into the great recession and have had benefits for 4 of my 20 years in the workforce. Now another financial disaster is threatening any hope I had at retiring. I try to stay positive, but the correct feeling is pissed.
I think this guy is confusing despair for rage. I graduated about the same, and thanks to a serious illness and long hospital stay, I know I'll never retire or own a house, because our system is rigged.
I'm furious, and I'll laugh to watch it all burn down so we can replace it with something better
Its not though, sure aspects are worse but life in general is cleaner, healthier, more knowledgeable, more humane, safer and more inclusive. Its not just about "me" (the way I was raised). Sure they had houses, in small dying towns and had to rent rooms out and had few comforts. Their life was work.
Certainly there's more nuance than 100% better and 100% worse, but I'd argue we are not seeing the quality of life improvements that should be coming from technological progress. Our health tech is better than ever but life expectancy is trending down, especially for working class.
Oh absolutely, it should be much higher than it is because those assholes who also pretend they support "how much better the us is than anywhere else" are the reason it's a fight to make it that way.
That's why we need to fight back, it's not natural to be getting worse, it's forced by the assholes
I'm glad of that, it's what's right and just. But then what?
When the house is on fire we don't say "man we really need to fix that, someone should fix it" we fix it immediately, even if we rely on others who have the expertise we don't have, we can't do these things ourselves we must organize.
But people could never really afford kids, that's why everything was hand me down, just nobody will do that now. Everyone needs to spend 400$ on a brand new car seat because you're forced to feel fomo rather than any connection with anyone else. How dare you ask for their baby stuff they don't need?
With bad heat, cold windows and doors, asbestos, knob and tube wiring, plumbing you probably won't be able to do anything about.
No car or a rustbucket always needs work, also make enough money to pay for the fact your wife (or you) cannot work, no daycare so she/you can't anyway, no days off etc
Do I get a house so I can have kids? I'll take it. It's the 50s I'm in a union anyway so idk what you are talking about with no days off. Life is much better, I even get to die in my 60s like a man instead of lingering forever as some miserable half life into my 80's like now
We don't say it was harder before to dismiss today's struggles, just to be careful. (No washing machine? No fridge?) It WAS better because it was improvements over the past.
But the reason it's "worse" now is because PEOPLE are MAKING it worse, that's what we need to recognize and fight against.
But it would be small, 3 people to a room, 5ft high basement so basically an apartment you're responsible for all maintenance on.
Because the union made improvements, and working 5 days a week instead of 100% of the time is an improvement people fought and died for. But it had a long way to go.
The rest of us are fucked. Anybody who isn't a white, cishet, able-bodied, Christian, male is gonna be exterminated or stripped of all rights. And anyone of that demographic who isn't rich will get to enjoy being a literal serf until the biosphere collapses.
That's where we're headed right now. It's not conjecture, it's not doomerism, it's a fact. They told us their plans, and they're enacting them as we speak.
So if you feel like admonishing others, I certainly hope you have an alternative plan more substantive than "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
I get what you’re saying, but being a Gen Z (or even millennial but I can’t speak for them) whose grown up under these conditions is very demoralizing. I was 11 when Trump became President, and I am turning 20 and he’s still there. And I’m not even American so I can’t imagine how much worse it feels
People my age have barely had any period of prosperity except for when we were barely young enough to remember it, especially if we grew up poor. And we all have technology addictions on top of it because we were used as Guinea pigs for new technology.
From my perspective, millennials were promised the world and were let down hard. Gen Z saw that and just decided not to hope for anything at all. And world events keep reinforcing this world view, even if it’s not necessarily the healthiest. And these past few months have been the worst of it.
I mean, I can't speak for Gen Z (or even millennials) but I feel like I myself grew up under conditions that were VERY different (but not necessarily "better"). Some people were "demoralized" then too, and some weren't. All of this is literally just how existing feels.
Good things will happen, I will force them to happen. That doesn't mean we're not neck deep in shit right now, and rejecting someone for being upset about it isn't what I'm about
I don't know how to break it to you, but we ARE preparing for the future, but we don't think it's going to matter at all. People who saved for retirement their whole lives just lost tens of thousands of dollars overnight. People who paid in to SS won't get it. Our kids won't afford college.
I think its more trying to pull someone out of a thought process that leads to depression, rather than no helping your depressed friends. You can get addicted to the depression
I understand and I definitely get that feeling of hopelessness. For a large part of my adolescence I didn't believe in a future. Something that pulled me out of it was SLC punk funnily enough. I don't like how he told people to run from them. To just drop them. That's not helpful.
It’s not clinical depression when it’s due to ACTUAL threats and medication won’t work for that. The only thing that works is changing the threatening situation.
The threat of what’s happening in the world. People are facing literal existential threats to their lives, let alone everything else. And medication doesn’t fix that. It’s not internal, it’s external.
Idk. Watching everything get worse every year without fail will make you think. He sounds like one of those "money doesn't buy happiness" kinds of people. It's stupid and useless. It's like telling someone to be content with scraps while watching them eat like Goku.
People will put up with the unimaginable in the name of hope so that's probably not the best advice either. What we're trying to do now is hope in action and how well is that working out?
I think the point is that "I believe nothing good will ever happen again" is a definitive statement. What we need is to at least try and fight for good stuff to happen. If we just lie down and accept a bleak hopeless future, it will happen. A self fulfilling prophecy.
Why? What reason is there to hope? I’m not Gen Z, but my entire adult life has been hoping that the BEST thing is that nothing happens. Just that it doesn’t get WORSE. And that hasn’t happened. Every step forward is twenty steps back. And there’s no reason that there will be any steps forward at all
I think OP did a better job of answering this than I could. So if he didn't move you then I think I'm likely not up to the task. You may find his new book entertaining as it explores this subject. You may not agree with it tho as its along the lines of the post.
All I’m saying is people aren’t clinically depressed, they ar having a normal reaction to events in the world, and there literally is no reason to believe at this point that we will not permanently be in a state of authoritarianism and war. Most millennials and Gen Z have student debt. Their wages
> everything get worse every year without fail
That right there! That's the trick that was played on you. *Objectively* many things improve every year, chief of all medicine. But you're trained to ignore these things and just despair and do nothing.
Maybe on a macroscopic level and/or through the lens of hindsight, but down here on the ground. It's gotten worse. You're just echoing the video. Sure technology and medicine have leapt bounds, but that means fuck all if the poorest don't have the same access as the rich.
When you read the history of those big stats it's always looked at through the lenses of those it went well for. We don't really talk much about who and how badly people got fucked for that incremental improvement.
In Europe maybe. Not here. It's objectively far worse now than it was last year in every meaningful way, and getting worse by the hour. Especially for vulnerable groups being targeted for extermination by the federal government.
That group will eventually include your demographic too.
A few weeks ago I miscarried at home while bleeding excessively with a fever. I was afraid of what cops would do to me in Texas so I didn’t go to the hospital. Who cares about medical advancement when it isn’t for you?
The question was "are there problems", it was "is everything getting worse every year without fail". The answer is obviously not. There are things that are getting better. The real question is, "why are you emotionally invested in saying that literally everything is getting worse all the time"?
Doctors just delivered a baby born from a transplanted womb, scientists have invented a broad spectrum anti-viral chewing gum, breakthroughs in synthetic blood products are on track to liberate us from dependency on catastrophically limited supplies of donor blood, I promise you it's not all shit.
That's also part of the trick! Making you believe that it's either "literally everything gets worse and worse" or "everything is absolutely fine!". Mere seconds of thinking should help you realize that the reality is obviously between the two, but you're conditioned to think in extremes.
Is it a joke though? When I pointed out progress of medicine someone else said "NU UH THERE ARE DECEASES COMING BACK IT DOES'NT COUNT NOTHING IS GETTING BETTER!!" That's what Jason is saying, doomer "humor" is corrosive. It changes your worldview. Encourages you to give up and do nothing.
hey man, do you think those friends you "get the hell away from immediately" will be more or less vulnerable to those scary "extreme ideologies" as a result?
Americans seem to be scared of many things despite being separated from most of us by two oceans, a formidable military, nukes and friendly neighbors, well previously friendly neighbors.
Gay marriage isn't long for this world with Obergefell being challenged.
The Trump administration announced yesterday that all health and safety regulations are being dismantled. The Clean Air Act is being destroyed. EV manufacturing is being ruined. That's just a typical Friday.
It's also not a response to you, so that works out. There's an entire post between yours and mine. Bluesky "reply" notifications are really bad about that.
This video is dangerous. People with negative mindsets like this tend to be suffering an illness. Depression being the prime suspect. Social isolation and rejection makes depression worse. Around 30% of people will suffer depression at some point. About 1.5%of people will attempt suicide.
It is essential to maintain healthy boundaries and realistic goals when being around depressed people but abandoning them out of fear of contamination is cruel and somewhat suspect.
Along with depression it could be another vector. Though neurodivergence isn't an illness in of itself, it can lead to misunderstanding, this sort of prejudice based isolation and illness. Expectation of positivity and the belief that not conforming to a positive outlook is infectious isn't healthy.
We agree on this point. I'm just beyond tired of people referring to negativity and cynicism as a disease in and of itself. No matter what the (NB: soft) science community says, emotions and personal views are valid. Cynicism is as valid as optimism.
Very true. But there is a plentiful supply of very depressed people. All with good reason. People going missing and not coming back alive. Saying, "don't hang around them or you might catch perfectly valid misery" is not great advice.
This is something that I know I need to work on. It’s that I think that “nothing good will ever happen again,” that would be delusional. It’s just that living through the flaming out of American hegemony has made it quite hard to see anything at all on the horizon that isn’t obscured by the smoke.
Uhh, yeah, but they won't happen if you abandon those of us without hope.
Bad things happen if you do abandon others.
This video is honestly horrible and I'd like this man to explain what marginalisation he faces from for instance the state before I hear any other words from him.
I’ve literally not seen anything get better in my lifetime.
Sure. Phones are smaller, computers are faster.
But PEOPLE make less money, work longer hours, have less opportunities, pay more to live, own less, eat worse, learn less and live more isolated lives devoid of community or culture.
The critical piece is that older generations seem to think that "this will pass" naturally, on its own. We MUST get them to understand that life gets better because of people's dedicated effort. But, doom spiraling does not lead to action. We need fire and passion.
And that's exactly what he was complaining about. Because to him, and all the other privileged old folks whose greed has been subsidized by both the whole global South and by their own future generations, that's "radicalism", and therefore inherently bad by nature of threatening that status quo
Look, I don't think it's that most of us don't expect ANYTHING good. I expect to have a good weekend, or a nice birthday, etc. It's on a societal level. Does anyone really see a path out of our current political situation that's not nightmarish? It's been a long slow slide and it's getting faster.
Is there a path out of our political situation without struggle? I doubt it. But that's still not the point here. The point is that if you keep saying (even jokingly) that we're all fucked, you'll lose all will to act, and become more of the problem than solution.
And even though I doubt we'll get out of this without struggle: Theres still a chance. We could wake up tomorrow to find out dipshit mcgee had a heart attack, and without a charismatic leader the enemy has no bite to them at all. And if that happens, you'll be happy you worked toward something
I agree that despair is part of the enemy here, and we need to not let it drive us to inaction. I think the "nothing good will happen" idea is, in my experience, most often used to wake folks up.
A lot of folks, especially older folks, think things just "get better" over time, because that's been their experience, so they don't quite grok why the rest of us don't believe that and that it seems laughably naive to think we can just shrug and hope things return to "normal".
I mean, I get that intent. Goodness knows I've tried the same! But quite often, I find saying shit like that...Doesnt even work. Most of those people won't accept how bad shit can be unless they're just shown direct evidence of how bad it already is. And even then, they often arent worth it
No, we're pretty serious. You people ruined the world and left us to face the consequences. We grew up having to subsidize your greed, and will doubtless pay far steeper tolls as the consequences continue to roll out.
This isn't meant as a joke at all. Legitimately most young people don't believe they will ever be able to retire under any circumstances.
They don't believe in the political system whatsoever.
However, this isn't meant to invoke despair, and instead invokes not saving money and traveling while young
true. even if social security survives it won't be nearly enough, and I don't make enough to save any money month to month. I will never retire in the standard capitalist way. it's literally revolution or I work until I fall over dead at work.
went to college paid my own way as a single mom and just constant price hikes-no pay raises, insurance poor while working 3 jobs most of the time! A fucking shitty life except for my own hard work and positive attitude through all the government bull shit piled on ME!
Boohoo! I have worked my fucking ass off since age nine-constant price hikes for literally everything from 1971 and nothing but blaming workers all the time when I did everything right graduated,...
55 here too. Do these people think WWII was a good thing? There is a difference between understanding that what is on the horizon is not good vs throwing in the towel. Do we have to be annoyingly Pollyanna about getting through some objectively bad eventualities?
They came of age at a particular point in US culture: when the problems became apparent and a counterculture formed. They’re used to being the center of everything while also denying they’re the reason anything bad has happened.
I mean, I no longer will consider flying because I don't want to die in a head on crash with another plane, and I don't want to interact with any aspect of the federal government for fear of being disappeared.
I did not have these fears under George Bush during post-911.
This is seemingly advocating for toxic positivity during an extremely distressing time where people are losing their human rights. People expressing their despair should not be abandoned, but gathered and supported in solidarity. This is a complete L take.
This feed is proof negativity has become a religion: It's most devout followers hate when it's questioned out of a sense they are right, period. Not to mention they spend a ton of time and effort practicing by finding it in as many things as possible and preaching about it to others.
Wtf? Don't get away from them, help them out!!! Abandoning them just feeds into confirmation bias, just keep yourself grounded and try to ground them too
Now more than ever, those people need support. Keeping yourself sane is important too, but for the love of God don't just leave people behind completely.
I don't think that abandoning people will help your own situation in the long run. I think that it's pretty rational to feel hopeless, especially if you're trans or disabled or some other heavily targeted group. It's better to try and give them hope otherwise you just lose solidarity
In a relative sense, like when Trump dies on a toilet or something. We'll all have fun laughing at that. As far as society goes it's all downhill from here. Even if we overcome fascism the real problem facing our society will go totally unaddressed until it's far too late
Like, at some point in our lifetimes ocean acidification is going to destroy the ocean food chain. Even if we avoid a technofeudal totalitarian surveillance state (unlikely), when there are no more plankton and the jet stream collapses say goodbye to complex, global society
Really our only hope is AI gets traction on improving itself and doing science then does a million years of technological progress in a decade. It would have to want to do that, and who the fuck knows what gods want. It would also have to miraculously align with our values.
Good msg mate, we did those drills in UK too in the 70s. Little kids hiding under tiny desks. Even then it felt futile. My parents stored canned food in the cellar. We expected at any time a 5 minute warning on the radio that we we just going to be deleted. Didn't expect to have a future. . .
So I got into sex and drugs as soon as I could. Had a great time in a bunch of countries, learned languages, did different jobs. But still had that inculcated nihilism. Somehow I made it to 50. Lack of planning means I empty dog park shit bins for work & live in a van.
But I've also got great memories and built a solid off grid community. I'm no prepper, but I've got skills and friends & not unhappy. My mum wanted to be be a successful lawyer, ho hum. Maybe some of that negativity made us seek different ways to positivity. You're right - we gotta resist despair
I'm middle aged, and my take is not necessarily that Good things won't happen, but that I will not see things in general getting better in my lifetime.
What's going on now is showing us what needs to change in the future. Good things can still happen but it will be because people - including young people - press and fight to make it happen. A better existence doesn't happen if you sit on the sidelines in defeat.
Yes, I'm gonna get the Hell away from the guy making the gentle, funny, eminently relatable joke on the silly social media site and devote my life to the sweaty-lookin' middle-aged guy who posts a needless video about how I will eventually start believing that corduroy pillows are making headlines.
I have to flee the state and I'm losing everyone I love that I've known for decades because people in the government want someone like me gone. And my rights are leaving me while I might lose SSI. I think your post is extremely narrow and ignorant to the pain people feel and is extremely privileged.
I know you folks have no fucking idea how young people feel.
None, not a fucking clue. That is one more reason they hate us and what we have left behind for them. They have no hope of living as well as their parents and the planet is slowly becoming incapable of supporting our species.
Some of these things aren't true. It's true that it's good to stay around positive people. However your self-depricating friend isent inherently a user. Sometimes they just pick on themselves for humor and are a little sad, but sad people need good friends too, to get out of their funk. Be kind
Like I hear you, I still do things to protect my future but they’re largely much more cynical.
The thing about the nukes is we’ve already set them off. We’re going to hit 3C (6F) warming by 2060 that’s the whole fucking ballgame. That shits baked in, no takesy backsies.
Nuclear Armageddon requires a 5 minute window where people are pressing buttons to happen. For us, the button has been pushed since probably the 90’s. Maybe AI will become super intelligent and fix shit, but maybe it makes stamps. The golden path for us is exceedingly narrow.
And that's what an entire generation did. "Why did my [insert person] kill themself" asks the generation who hoped their problems would go away if they ignored it long enough.
This guy is far too negative, failed to understand that rats ARE the food.
You eat and smile knowing tomorrow‘s rat dinner has a chance of being bigger and juicier.
Stay away from this maladapted cry baby🙄
Perspective: I am a 60’s child. We had 1 car, 1 phone on the wall took 1 week of summer vacation to share a cabin with our cousins in Cape Cod. Or we would drive 26 hours to Florida in a station wagon from NJ for a week. Summer camp was out of reach. I flew internationally for the first time at 26.
My father enlisted in World War II when he was 26 years old, sure that he was going die in the world was coming to an end. I understand that America is screwed up in many ways right now, but no one sending you off to a southeast Asian jungle to die either
I understand what your point was, and I appreciate the attempt to comfort the younger folk, but it ultimately comes off as dismissive to the very real fears people have about what's happening now.
I'm personally don't think this is the end, but I think people's fear is pretty damn valid right now.
i'm not trying to diminish people's real fears and concerns. I'm just trying to say as my father used to say “every generation thinks the world is coming to an end.” He enlisted in the army during World War II to fight the Nazis so he spoke with some authority😍
I get that. My grandfather was the same way and also served in WW2, mostly Pacific theater.
I apologize if I came off like tone police, I've just spoken with too many people who use other atrocities to dismiss the severity of the ones we see now. I realize now that's not what you were doing.
Eh, nihilism isn't "cool", but it is becoming the new reality. White people say shit like this because, historically, we have been OK, we are part of the ruling class by default. But the times coming don't seem like they'll care as much about the color of your skin as the quantity of your wallet.
This is true, but if you look at historical evidence white people have had far more opportunities granted them in the face of the worst issues we have faced. I am simply pointing out that I do not believe that will be the case this time.
I hate this abandon your friends culture we have developed. It’s madness.
If someone does this, talk to them. Find out why they feel the way they do. Try to help them see the world is more than whatever is narrowing their view.
Don’t just fucking run away. Terrible advice and I am tired of people
Sorry, no. You can’t be serving me chicken shit and expecting me to call it chicken salad. Back then there was no data on the true state of things . Nowadays I know I’ll be fighting rats for food because of the data
The big issue Im seeing in this video is the statement that your lack of planning set you way back. This implies if we today plan properly we can be prepared for what will come next. While it’s a good idea to be prepared. It somewhat misses the point. I didn’t make a choice. This is being done to me
While global institutions, then norms we were raised in collapse, while global warming and pollution threaten loom in the near future as potential apocalypses, to focus on avoiding negative friends seems foolish and downright hilarious.
The original post is not about literally being negative, when they say they don’t think good things will happen they mean that we have lost faith in the status quo that even you in the 80s were raised to assume was the natural order of things. We have seen it break down and don’t trust it anymore.
Avoiding negative people is all well and good, who needs the aggravation, but focussing on our individual choices, in the face of total systemic collapse, seems to assume that if we all just hang in there, we’ll get houses and good jobs and get to retire one day which factually isn’t going to happen
I think many have been uncharitable to you, but sincerely this take just kind of assumes there is a societal homeostasis we will return to once these weird aberrations finally calm down. But that’s not going to happen. Things are going to get very bad no matter who I spend my time hanging out with.
For the people affected to the point where they died, THEIR WORLD LITERALLY ENDED. There was literally no future for them. They were objectively correct about themselves, even if the future is better for others.
Not a social group or friend, just looking at how we gleefully repeat the most ridiculous and heinous sins of our collective history is enough to tell me that, no, it will never get any better.
We may draw out the inevitable, but we will grind ourselves into the most pitiful of endings as a species.
Boomer here: Instead of paying our share of taxes we are borrowing TRILLIONS that you are going to have to pay. We are destroying the environment for your future. Media and the government are now controlled by Billionaires.
The Cold War analogy is BS. I grew up then, no one seriously thought the odds of nuclear armageddon were remotely high. This was the age of Apollo and the thought that everything was getting better. People had reliable jobs, healthcare and pensions up until the 1980's when everything changed.
"ostracize the hopeless" isn't really it, pal. there's a difference between optimism and delusion.
no one thinks the rest of their lives will be wholly without joy, but the powers in charge will almost assuredly continue to suck worse and worse and make life harder and harder until we die.
Are you aware that our planet will get rid of us sooner than later if we don't change our course right now? Or how about oligarchs making living for everyone else a nightmare? No amount of "good things" happening can offset that.
Also 41 and going from 9/11 my graduating year to record recession followed by another record recession, followed by a pandemic, followed by another impending record recession and I 100% the fuck agree. Pepper in the rise of Nazis and fascism and, well, I rest my case.
Or, since most socializing is low-key competition, don't give in to that. "Oh yeah? You think everything is shit? Well I KNOW everything is shit" 1-up bs
Just focus on the things you know you're good at and excel at those, "well what good will tympani skills be?" Its so much more than one thing
This is serving the whole crunchy "manifesting" bullshit. The secret is fake science.
Self depreciating humour and attitudes is part of like entire cultures, sincerely someone from the UK where gallows humour and communal bitching is a national pasttime.
I get what you’re saying re: avoiding Doomerism, but the world was quite stable when Cold War propaganda was spewed.
Millennials grew up with the illusion we’d live better than our parents. We watched quality of life worsen our ENTIRE adult lives. The world is now just as unstable as our finances.
On the point others are sharing about you could help your depressed friends instead:
Yeah, you can, if you want to. But also you need to help yourself first. You are not responsible for your friends, your friends are. But good friends will help when they can*.
Right, but you guys had some hope initially and got let down. Gen Z saw you get let down and lost hope at an even younger age. Millennials tend to fight against these things (at least in the past) while Gen Z just accepts that things will be shit.
For sure. I’m one of the youngest millennials so I didn’t really experienced the Great Recession the ways most did but also lost hope a lot earlier. But my neighbors are mostly completely hopeless elder millennials
I'm an older millennial/young gen xer, and I'm working on developing more patience for my fellows who are feeling hopeless right now
It's just another part of the right-wing propaganda that's saturated US culture for the past couple of decades. We just have a LOT of work to do. But we can if we try
& I say this as a trans person who's also a born & raised Texan who's worked in ministry & education & who has a law degree and tutors history (among other things)
Things are definitely bad right now. But we absolutely have the power to change it. & it starts with believing that change is possible.
I also think there is a good chunk of people (like me) who genuinely believe nothing will ever get better but aren’t going to go out laying down. A lot of my circle is still engaged in doing the work. But we talk about how futile it feels
So true. I was thinking abt how I did get to vote in an election pre-Trump. The number of people who will never have really had a concept of Trump-less politics is crazy to me. Although the more I read the more I realize the GOP has always been this way and we’re kidding ourselves thinking it wasnt
Well, yes and no. Has the gop always been driven by racism and naked disgust for anyone not like them, holding values with their mouths while giving their hands to evil? Absolutely.
But there used to be a line. There used to be expectations of respect for differing perspectives, as Americans.
I grew up in a trad cath conservative cult so I didn’t get a balanced history so I’ve been reading a lot the past few years and it really seems like Trump just says the quiet part out loud
And the people running it point and laugh at the suffering endured around them.
If good things come, it's going to be long after I've passed. If nobody wants to be around me because of that? Fine. I'm used to suffering alone and in silence.
Don't worry, one day soon I won't be here to bother p2
People, and you can all enjoy the good times under our fascist leaders.
And with how the trans and LGBT community gets treated, even by our closest "allies," yes, I fully expect to see a firing squad aimed at me MUCH sooner rather than later. But hey, thanks for making me feel like I'm the problem.
It's an exaggeration, that person WILL expect some good things to happen, but it's not out of hand that they struggle to think of great things that are happening in the larger picture-- we've been downhill for along time & looking forward it's not looking great. Should we just LIE to feel better?
Gen X is really the problem. When we say boomer do this boomers do that we’re really talking about GenXs lead poisoned asses. MFers don’t remember polio and it shows.
I was born in 76 so I’m a baby gen X’er. I petitioned to move to the Millennials as I can never consider myself Gen X again. Not after seeing OVER 50% of them vote 🤡.
Boomers OTOH, 51% voted Harris. Yes, the rest voted for 🤡 or didn’t vote. But they still sided with us more than Gen X did.
I am positive things won't get better with Gen Z because half of your gen includes men who think Joe Rogan is a genius and Asmongold is the reincarnation of Christ. It isn't like the Gen Z vote in the election was 90/10 in favor of Kamala.
Gen Z is more conservative than millennials. Look inward.
This is a bad take.
"Ignore the people who are reacting to the major changes in society for the worse. Run away and stick your head in the sand! Don't listen to them!"
it was literally not clear what would happen to our country, COVID vaccine availability for the general public was still months away, people's work/school situations were constantly in flux, mass unemployment...
The orange years will pass. Nothing stays the same. I just wish so many people didn’t have to suffer though. I want more Berlin Wall coming down and Apartheid ending. Less self styled grifter destroying the American government and all the good it does do to get into the global mob players club.
How? When? How many trans people are going to survive to see that? What are you doing to help us get there? Here's a thing you could do to help one of us, me:
I know good things will happen. I know this in my heart. But i was gonna turn 9 like 2 months after 9/11 hapened. And since then its been bad after bad after bad. Im fully aware good will happen. And i know in my lifetime too. But sometimes its so hard to keep the energy up.
Yes, I know you need to care for your own mental health, too, obviously, but if your friends are consistently low and you leave them to this fate, then they can get pulled into those extreme groups talked about.
You weren’t the cause, but you’ll always ask yourself “what if I was a better friend?”
This is spot on and so true. Are things getting worse? Absolutely, yes.
Is the future lost? Not at all. Joy is an act of rebellion. Dream big. Live well. Fight hard.
You're part of the problem. Older generations keep blowing smoke up our ass that if we keep our chins up everything will be fine. Yet, we have lived through not 1 or 2 but 8 historical events and are watching the current downfall of our country as things become impossible to afford.
I’m actually glad for this - I would love to keep privileged nonsensical asshats away from me too. I don’t want to talk to anyone with naive, uneducated hope or unrealistic fantasies that blatantly neglect sociological, economic and environmental issues to elate gratification on their life.
I get it, don't fall into doom. I base out every day, working on my relationships, health and mind. That being said, I'll be god damned if I'm going to just leave someone who is rightly experiencing an existential crisis.
Eh, I'm in a country where everyone talks like this, it's part of the culture, but you need to combine it with the right sense of fatalism and you can make it work.
I thought this was a really insightful pov. He talks about how growing up during the cold war, it felt like there was no future other than a post-apocalyptic hellscape. That really resonates with the current moment, as does his reflection on living like there's no future being counterproductive.
I normally agree but in this day and age, the truth of our futures needs to be discussed and taken VERY seriously. Unless you have large amounts privilege.
Yeah, good things happen in the short term, but folks aren’t thinking about the short term.
It’s the future that people are scared of; whether they’ll have a home in the next month, whether their job is secure, whether they’ll get snatched up by some creeps in a van tomorrow. That’s the fear.
I’m one of the elder Gen Zs and… Every day I wake up with a splintering headache because I am so stressed out. This is not the life we were promised. There’s been no good news since he took office. And I think it’s very normal to feel the way this person does when they are kidnapping people…
White washing history, trying to undermine women’s votes, talking about deporting USA citizens, and driving us into a recession. We are the generation who is not better off than our parents. We got fucked over.
It’s also incredibly stressful to have had a baby during the Covid pandemic, and now have to keep him safe when all of our protections are being stripped away. Fuck this post.
This is a scorchingly bad take, honestly. I get what you were attempting, but it was a fumble. We should not be abandoning people for feeling despair right now. Imagine how you would've reacted if, when you were most afraid of the cold war, your friends and family ditched you for being too negative
We should absolutely try to be optimistic, but that is very hard right now. Most people are barely hanging on financially, they don't need a NYT bestselling author telling them they're being too negative and that their friends should abandon them because they complained about it
A man who had a fking court order to not be deported to El Salvador was deported there and this administration lies and says “can’t get him back” and so far is ignoring scotus
an atty born in mass, rec a letter saying she has 7 days to deport herself….you think we can trust she won’t disappear !?
Reminder that the day after Trump won the first time he put a column up on Cracked about how everyone was overblowing how bad it would be. He constantly does this shit like people won't die from these policies.
You can't seriously use nuclear war drills as an example of "we had it bad too" when we have mass shooter drills today.
Global nuclear annihilation never happened. School shootings happen on a regular basis, and the fucking political system decided to protect the guns instead of the kids.
And we can't forget 9/11 and the GWoT as well. I still get nervous around big, crowded events. I still get nervous watching the ball drop on New Year's
I get what you're saying, but trusting the person who would say that is the opposite of caution.
Bigotry requires an inherent trust of people who are superficially similar to you. I think that's infinitely more naive than perpetually waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Believe it or not until we got through the nuclear rubbish many of us did assume nuclear war WOULD happen. And there wasn’t a corner of the planet that felt safe.
Mass shooter drills are in just one small insignificant country. Hopefully they will stay that way.
Mass nuclear war is inherently worse than anything you could experience besides that, and the belief "it never happened so it's over and won't" is like, comically out of touch with geopolitics.
Nuclear war is a trillion times worse than a shooting, sorry.
Doomerism is a plague. It's also a self fulfilling prophecy. If the future is doomed, no reason to fight for it. If you don't fight for things to get better, they don't.
Thanks for reminding me of that. Not only can it continue getting worse, not only do we have more to lose, but we don't even know how much further we can sink
Good things always still happen, and so do bad things. A certain subset of people under 40 ALWAYS think they have it worse than anyone ever has. Many others don't think that! At a certain point of your life, literally every claim like this starts to look too ridiculous to even be annoying anymore.
This is a horrible take even if you agree with the premise that you need to snap this line of thinking (which I don’t, because the truth underlying the hyperbole of “good things never happening again” has repeatedly been proven correct)
I don't think insulating yourself from all pessimism is actually a healthy way of becoming more positive
You aren't addressing the underlying concern or actually addressing ways the world can get better, you're merely covering your lying eyes to make yourself feel better
Comments
Dude, go the fuck away and take your privlaged bullshit with you.
Awesome. I don't live in one of those countries though, and I am not an aggregate statistic - I am an individual confined to a single corporeal form and this period of time.
Did you read the headline?
It’s never too late to start improving, sure, but can’t solve something which has already happened.
It’s more than a problem - it’s endemic, and it’s done.
idk dude.
I don’t think this dude has ever experienced half of the fear or despair I experienced over that 36 hours but he splurge wants to lecture me on it
Sorry for your loss!
Thank you. I’m doing ok - just wish we had healthcare that didn’t involve them charging your $6,000 to die or get arrested
I don't feel like it's balancing out, man.
https://chng.it/WBR8LRVmr7
#BuildtheResistance
We're Doomed!
So forgive me if I not only seem dismissive, but have a healthy reaction of GFY to your gaslighting comment.
And yes, run as fast as you can. We don't want y'all around us. We'll be fine.
I'm furious, and I'll laugh to watch it all burn down so we can replace it with something better
That's why we need to fight back, it's not natural to be getting worse, it's forced by the assholes
When the house is on fire we don't say "man we really need to fix that, someone should fix it" we fix it immediately, even if we rely on others who have the expertise we don't have, we can't do these things ourselves we must organize.
No car or a rustbucket always needs work, also make enough money to pay for the fact your wife (or you) cannot work, no daycare so she/you can't anyway, no days off etc
But the reason it's "worse" now is because PEOPLE are MAKING it worse, that's what we need to recognize and fight against.
Because the union made improvements, and working 5 days a week instead of 100% of the time is an improvement people fought and died for. But it had a long way to go.
The rest of us are fucked. Anybody who isn't a white, cishet, able-bodied, Christian, male is gonna be exterminated or stripped of all rights. And anyone of that demographic who isn't rich will get to enjoy being a literal serf until the biosphere collapses.
So if you feel like admonishing others, I certainly hope you have an alternative plan more substantive than "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
Learn anything about the bond market.
People need to own that so they can work towards changing things.
WTF do you think you are giving advice like that?
And that’s not going to happen. Ever.
If you do something to help someone out and lift their spirits, you end up lifting yer own spirits and all
That right there! That's the trick that was played on you. *Objectively* many things improve every year, chief of all medicine. But you're trained to ignore these things and just despair and do nothing.
That group will eventually include your demographic too.
A few weeks ago I miscarried at home while bleeding excessively with a fever. I was afraid of what cops would do to me in Texas so I didn’t go to the hospital. Who cares about medical advancement when it isn’t for you?
Nobody’s “playing a trick.”
We have functional eyes and ears, many of us.
The trick is putting on a blindfold, earplugs, & screaming “everything is fine! Shut up! You shut your mouth, funny boy! Everything is fine!”
And thank you for implying
hyperbolic humor as a coping mechanism = “you didn’t take mere seconds to think!”
I suppose that must mean dark jokes write themselves & arrive in our mouths without any 🧠 involvement.
The Trump administration announced yesterday that all health and safety regulations are being dismantled. The Clean Air Act is being destroyed. EV manufacturing is being ruined. That's just a typical Friday.
Bad things happen if you do abandon others.
This video is honestly horrible and I'd like this man to explain what marginalisation he faces from for instance the state before I hear any other words from him.
But god damn, (assuming the context is the US) there are so many marginalised groups right now screaming for help because Bad Things Are Happening.
Keep your eyes open please.
Sure. Phones are smaller, computers are faster.
But PEOPLE make less money, work longer hours, have less opportunities, pay more to live, own less, eat worse, learn less and live more isolated lives devoid of community or culture.
I don’t fucking believe you.
You want to bank on pablum to save us from Fascism and Capitalism, be my very naive guest.
This doesn’t end when Trump leaves, and you know it.
This doesn’t end, until we end it.
We are on our own, and no one and nothing will save us, but US.
They don't believe in the political system whatsoever.
However, this isn't meant to invoke despair, and instead invokes not saving money and traveling while young
For what it's worth, though, I'm willing to be surprised.
Guess which one of us doesn't pay attention to the news and doesn't have any idea the extent of what's going down right now politically?
Good for those people.
Unfortunately, I live in the United States, which is the asterisk to the above sentiment.
And everything is, actually, getting worse, faster every year.
I did not have these fears under George Bush during post-911.
The fact that this administration makes me nostalgic for post-9/11 Dubya is both absolutely fucking insane, and not hyperbolic.
Meanwhile the comments are like “how dare you tell us to have hope! The world is objectivity shit!” 😂
https://globalnews.ca/news/5824446/vancouver-rape-relief-womens-shelter-graffiti/
Call me when transphobes en mass get their civil rights revoked, so I can laugh about them finally getting what they deserve.
2. Bruh i'm Autistic. There are people out there who send me to legal torture camps because a shitty non-profit told them to.
1/???
None, not a fucking clue. That is one more reason they hate us and what we have left behind for them. They have no hope of living as well as their parents and the planet is slowly becoming incapable of supporting our species.
The thing about the nukes is we’ve already set them off. We’re going to hit 3C (6F) warming by 2060 that’s the whole fucking ballgame. That shits baked in, no takesy backsies.
You eat and smile knowing tomorrow‘s rat dinner has a chance of being bigger and juicier.
Stay away from this maladapted cry baby🙄
Trans people are having their existence made a felony (Texas).
The president is threatening war with allies.
Students are being detained for thought crimes.
It's not WW2 or Vietnam, but people have real reasons to be worried now.
I'm personally don't think this is the end, but I think people's fear is pretty damn valid right now.
Most of the younger generation have less than 500 in savings, because the cost of everything has skyrocketed while wages remain stagnant.
I apologize if I came off like tone police, I've just spoken with too many people who use other atrocities to dismiss the severity of the ones we see now. I realize now that's not what you were doing.
If someone does this, talk to them. Find out why they feel the way they do. Try to help them see the world is more than whatever is narrowing their view.
Don’t just fucking run away. Terrible advice and I am tired of people
I am genuinely convinced we are on the precipice of ... something, but there are too many moving pieces & variables to know what it is.
But the old world is dead. The American Dream is dead. The past is dead. And certain people WILL need to be removed.
For the people affected to the point where they died, THEIR WORLD LITERALLY ENDED. There was literally no future for them. They were objectively correct about themselves, even if the future is better for others.
We may draw out the inevitable, but we will grind ourselves into the most pitiful of endings as a species.
As in: you have to consciously choose it
no one thinks the rest of their lives will be wholly without joy, but the powers in charge will almost assuredly continue to suck worse and worse and make life harder and harder until we die.
Just focus on the things you know you're good at and excel at those, "well what good will tympani skills be?" Its so much more than one thing
What?
I don't know about you but I socialise to have a good time with my friends, not to fight them. My way seems more fun tbh.
Self depreciating humour and attitudes is part of like entire cultures, sincerely someone from the UK where gallows humour and communal bitching is a national pasttime.
Millennials grew up with the illusion we’d live better than our parents. We watched quality of life worsen our ENTIRE adult lives. The world is now just as unstable as our finances.
But for millions of American women, trans people, immigrants, and people in other marginalized groups, the sense of doom we all feel isn’t unfounded.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
Maybe the next generation will have it better?
have voted instead of saying it won’t make a difference!!
There is a BIG difference!
Lots of times those are the smartest and most empathic persons.
Yeah, you can, if you want to. But also you need to help yourself first. You are not responsible for your friends, your friends are. But good friends will help when they can*.
* when they've helped themselves too.
Like, you can't tell kids to avoid ppl who say this. They wouldn't have *any* friends or *anyone* to provide an alternative perspective
It's depressing af
It's just another part of the right-wing propaganda that's saturated US culture for the past couple of decades. We just have a LOT of work to do. But we can if we try
Things are definitely bad right now. But we absolutely have the power to change it. & it starts with believing that change is possible.
It's truly bizarre and heart breaking that gen z and gen alpha *literally* have no concept of a world that isn't totally fucked up
But there used to be a line. There used to be expectations of respect for differing perspectives, as Americans.
I don't expect good things.
I've lived since early childhood expecting to *finally* die before I wake up the next morning.
Instead I wake to a world that has no love for me or my friends, and is actively burning p1
If good things come, it's going to be long after I've passed. If nobody wants to be around me because of that? Fine. I'm used to suffering alone and in silence.
Don't worry, one day soon I won't be here to bother p2
And with how the trans and LGBT community gets treated, even by our closest "allies," yes, I fully expect to see a firing squad aimed at me MUCH sooner rather than later. But hey, thanks for making me feel like I'm the problem.
Boomers OTOH, 51% voted Harris. Yes, the rest voted for 🤡 or didn’t vote. But they still sided with us more than Gen X did.
Gen Z is more conservative than millennials. Look inward.
"Ignore the people who are reacting to the major changes in society for the worse. Run away and stick your head in the sand! Don't listen to them!"
it was literally not clear what would happen to our country, COVID vaccine availability for the general public was still months away, people's work/school situations were constantly in flux, mass unemployment...
https://www.paypal.com/biz/profile/l4dyaranea
Don’t leave a friend circle because they see no future. Be the beacon of hope they desperately need.
You weren’t the cause, but you’ll always ask yourself “what if I was a better friend?”
But please if you have friends who are losing hope, don't push toxic positivity on them, this will just make things worse.
As you said be the beacon, be the example that life can be better.
Is the future lost? Not at all. Joy is an act of rebellion. Dream big. Live well. Fight hard.
If you wanna follow someone who isn't a shit bag and likes making art and making people laugh throw a follow my way.
https://bsky.app/profile/watermelonorc.bsky.social/post/3lmj4simmgs22
Good things can & still do happen. Believe in a lil magic ✨
Working on your community and relationships is going to help so much more than just cutting people out of your life.
Bill Bailey summed it up best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7d79Knc8p4
It’s the future that people are scared of; whether they’ll have a home in the next month, whether their job is secure, whether they’ll get snatched up by some creeps in a van tomorrow. That’s the fear.
We need many people with nothing to loose, after all there are tens of thousands of traitors to kill.
At some point, it can encourage pathology and self-destructive behavior rather than mitigate it.
You shouldn't abandon people for feeling despair but constantly exposing yourself to it is a harsh mental tax.
It's as out of touch as those people who tell you to "just smile more" (etc.) as you're going through depression...
an atty born in mass, rec a letter saying she has 7 days to deport herself….you think we can trust she won’t disappear !?
Global nuclear annihilation never happened. School shootings happen on a regular basis, and the fucking political system decided to protect the guns instead of the kids.
No point comparing two things when the worst case is that both happen.
“immigrants and trans people are the ones who are making this country shitty, vote for me”
Bigotry requires an inherent trust of people who are superficially similar to you. I think that's infinitely more naive than perpetually waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Mass shooter drills are in just one small insignificant country. Hopefully they will stay that way.
Nuclear war is a trillion times worse than a shooting, sorry.
And things have only gotten worse :/
Thanks for reminding me of that. Not only can it continue getting worse, not only do we have more to lose, but we don't even know how much further we can sink
We'll never hit rock bottom.
I'm sure I did exactly that about any number of things at some point in my life. I wonder what they thought!
Learn from the comments here and do better
You aren't addressing the underlying concern or actually addressing ways the world can get better, you're merely covering your lying eyes to make yourself feel better
We had nuclear war hanging over us in the 60s. It didn’t stop us having fun.