This piece captures it: post-2015 America has basically seen the unqualified triumph of everything I find repulsive. I don't just mean policy or politics, either -- aesthetics, media, habits of thought & speech, hobbies & professions ... I just feel profoundly alienated from all of it. - ThreadSky

volts.wtf • 37 days ago

This piece captures it: post-2015 America has basically seen the unqualified triumph of everything I find repulsive. I don't just mean policy or politics, either -- aesthetics, media, habits of thought & speech, hobbies & professions ... I just feel profoundly alienated from all of it.

Comments

andrehock.bsky.social•37 days ago

House owners VS Renter political divide....

mikedole.bsky.social•37 days ago

the age of assholes

lp7.bsky.social•37 days ago

📌

suburbanist.bsky.social•37 days ago

You are not alone with that if it makes you feel any better!

msoares.bsky.social•37 days ago

Same in Brazil. I sometimes get the feeling that everything I value, everything that makes life worthwhile, has been completely devalued in a decade.

greenlabormike.bsky.social•37 days ago

Very small win is that Board Games (and Tabletop games more generally) are having banners years in terms of popularity. Face to face interaction is the best way to rebuild social connections in this society.

dgcassidy.bsky.social•37 days ago

They get so much coverage (and post endlessly to reassure themselves they’re not alone), it’s easy to think they’re everywhere. But my neighborhood, social feed, and friend group is full of delightful people doing good things. These people are loud but there are more of us than there are of them.

nobodyowens1.bsky.social•37 days ago

I think you're mostly right, but unfortunately, finding those like minds is much, much more difficult in deep red states like here in Alabama.

dgcassidy.bsky.social•37 days ago

I hear ya, and promise you’re NOT alone. Explore this link for groups near you. Seek out topics you love (library groups are great!) and join a conversation. Or start something! A book or movie club, hold a pancake breakfast, pick a soccer team and follow it. 🤗

nobodyowens1.bsky.social•37 days ago

Thanks! Those are all great ideas. I do have a small group of like minded friends, but we're just waaaay out numbered here. In general folks around here tend to be pretty hostile towards Dems, or generally anyone who doesn't fit the status quo.

dgcassidy.bsky.social•37 days ago

I feel ya. We're in a purple-leaning-red area, previously in a very blue one. We make far more difference here than there. So many more opportunities to change minds! And super rewarding to connect with those who share our values. 👊

nobodyowens1.bsky.social•37 days ago

I appreciate your positivity! It's so easy to give into hopelessness and apathy at times like these.

bmkpdx.bsky.social•37 days ago

It's like the worst part of the 80s dumbed down to not reading above a 6th grade level

twainspatriot.bsky.social•37 days ago

Call it “the Emboldening”. There was always a large contingent of Americans who were empathy-poor, who believed in “traditional” ideas of racial and gender dominance, who did not value institutions or knowledge. Cold War leaders dissuaded those folks from participation in governing… Now not so much.

alexsteffen.bsky.social•37 days ago

Word.

superluna.bsky.social•37 days ago

Yes, me too, across the board.

Meet me outside and we can yell at some clouds together.

superluna.bsky.social•37 days ago

Yeah, and Levi’s are stretchy now

Just not acceptable

therealjimsanto.bsky.social•37 days ago

markhoofnagle.medsky.social•37 days ago

This looks like hell. And I cant qwhite figure out why.

crgenovese.bsky.social•37 days ago

I feel like that cover picture should be a Hieronymus Bosch painting...

ishkabibliophile.bsky.social•37 days ago

I know it's not what the article is trying to do, but it does leave out how hostile to reality (i.e. climate change, Trump's incompetence, global instability) these folks are. It's like the third chapter of the apocalyptic novel before everything goes to shit.....

scottmccaskill.bsky.social•37 days ago

This feels much like 2000-2005 (though just from reading the synopsis). Back then it was "cool" to be a right wing douche. I thought the nation outgrew it with Obama and then Biden, but man was I wrong.

haveyouanywool.bsky.social•37 days ago

I guess they all had kids.

seahorse71.bsky.social•37 days ago

They are all TRASH

deefitzfarahat.bsky.social•37 days ago

Too bad it’s behind a paywall!

jtthegirl.bsky.social•37 days ago

iPhone - safari browser - show reader. This bypasses many paywalls.

hellerexposed.bsky.social•37 days ago

Age of the Assholes.

thomasschmall.bsky.social•37 days ago

The period where we considered tech bros as competent focused people that want to create amazing, useful tech & thereby earned their wealth, was a kinda nice delusion.
By now even their products are fraud. Facebook and Google are pointless bot junk yards. I can only think this will fall apart soon.

ipaige.bsky.social•37 days ago

Is it really so surprising that a certain percentage of young people follow the corrupt older generation to the trough? Look at the hippie generation, there were lots of greedy, corrupt people in that generation as the 80s and 90s showed.

aolgrandpa.bsky.social•37 days ago

Same. This is probably what it felt like for aging radicals to watch Reaganism sweep the country in the 80s. Except this time the consequences are greater

volts.wtf•37 days ago

Yes, good comp. Now we just have to wait another decade for the worm to turn again, sigh.

celticdragon1.bsky.social•37 days ago

I don't think the Republic as we know it survives this TBH

billypilgrim65.bsky.social•37 days ago

The Republic *just* might. I don't think Brand America does (except for tv and film).

celticdragon1.bsky.social•37 days ago

We are at barely over a week in and we are already devolving into government chaos. Inertia will keep some things functioning for most Americans *for awhile* but that window is narrow. Ppl, and STATES, are going to notice they are on their own and Washington is non salvageable.

billypilgrim65.bsky.social•37 days ago

Yeah, its going to suck and it will be a very close run thing. But the Republic as known is very much on the chopping block.

priscillamaloney.bsky.social•37 days ago

🎯

priscillamaloney.bsky.social•37 days ago

And this is the worst "we told you so" in the last 40 years. We marched, we organized, we protested and voted, but here we are.

axonsongs.bsky.social•37 days ago

It's the douchebag demographic.

rhetorica.bsky.social•37 days ago

The fucking childish bullies are winning. It won’t last. They are insufferable

margaretkd.bsky.social•37 days ago

Ugh. Why did you make me read that. I feel like I have a three-day hangover.

bajakeweenaw.bsky.social•37 days ago

To me the difference is before, the up-and-coming generation that was displacing and disconcerting their parents and grandparents was, generally, making things better/ progressing. Now this selfishness and condemnation of facts science equality empathy democracy.

volts.wtf•37 days ago

Yes! I was really hoping my Kids These Days phase would be focused on kids getting woker than me.

mikemillennial.bsky.social•37 days ago

Right after the election one of these people posted “I guess we’re the cool kids now!”.

Uh no you were always the rich assholes in the movies. Trump winning doesn’t make you fucking Ferris Bueller.

rjbkain.bsky.social•37 days ago

No, they're Steff McKee--gross, debauched, narcissistic bigots.

basilvoneck.bsky.social•37 days ago

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

kenmuldrew.bsky.social•37 days ago

An entire generation dedicated to self-enshittification.

econundertow.bsky.social•37 days ago

They're right at home here ...

wmconlon.com•37 days ago

That feeling of alienation was what prompted me to include Kafka's "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis") in my #booksky #20daybookchallenge
https://bsky.app/profile/wmconlon.com/post/3letvc2jzdk2m

prisoner37.bsky.social•37 days ago

I was born here and have spent all of my 58 years here and feel like a foreigner in a strange and deranged country.

briansantacruz.bsky.social•37 days ago

you and me both brotha

johnrgregg3.bsky.social•37 days ago

All the character traits that were villain-coded in every goddam movie or TV show or cartoon I ever saw growing up...

jcar8mm.bsky.social•37 days ago

I’ve actually been feeling this way for about the last 40 years, and for the same reason. This crass right-wing idiocy and vulgarity started to become ascendant about then.

adturbett.bsky.social•37 days ago

You’re definitely not alone in these feelings

gizmotronic.bsky.social•37 days ago

Dude,I’m right there with you.

hunnybun100.bsky.social•37 days ago

Yep absolutely agree on this.

erksome.bsky.social•37 days ago

I get American Psycho,
Bret Easton Ellis vibes, and that was 1990, about the mid-80's? Here we go around again.

kianae.bsky.social•37 days ago

Me too. Trying to stay active and resist but really exhausted and repulsed

leftofcenterus.bsky.social•37 days ago

the truth is, there are a lot of them motherfuckers in flyover country. that's the the truth of it.

jrobie.bsky.social•37 days ago

neoaztlan.org•37 days ago

They’re philistines. Acultural. Every single one of them. The good news is dystopic eras like this produce some great artists and art.

briansantacruz.bsky.social•37 days ago

“acultural” is the word I was looking for

stevekauffman.bsky.social•37 days ago

David, I really appreciate your work. For me, it has given me hope that if nothing else, economics will drive a green energy transition.

Please take care of yourself and don’t burn out. Your voice is valuable.

ecotype.bsky.social•37 days ago

Wish it wasn’t paywalled

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