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153 comments

  • The whole world is indeed in a bad mood and the reason is we’re all addicted to social media, which makes people miserable.

    It’s impossible to fully patrol one’s territory in cyberspace. That means our hippocampus never sends the “all clear” signal which would allow us to relax from fight or flight mode.

    As a result, the entire population of humanity is in an unprecedented state of hypervigilance.

    • Buddy, I don't have territory to patrol IRL. That's why I pay to exist (rent) everywhere I go. Everything is temporary.

      Meet the neighbors? Who cares! I'm moving at the end of my lease because rent is going up.

      Sense of community? The one that refuses to solve the housing crisis with council housing?

      Be patriotic for our shared nation state? You mean the country that spies on me legally and illegally? The country that relentlessly attacks me and my people via the war on drugs? It hungers for what few civil liberties we have left.

      Escaping into the net, substance abuse and enjoying art is the only thing that gives me relief from existing in the shitter multiverse. The only thing that stops me from counting the moments I have left until I am abused by my shitty jobs.

      Go outside to touch grass? Sorry, I don't own the grass and it has a "keep off the grass" sign. Trespassers will be shot on sight.

      • @UltraGiGaGigantic
        "Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They're single-serving friends."

        @intenselyhuman

  • liberal hegemony of the last several decades fraying. but the line must go up, of course.

  • Idk, some leftist people (including minorities) are energized and motivated, so it’s important not to get stuck in some weird self-defeating trap. Political up and downs happen every generation. Don’t fall for the doomer BS, it’s important to keep following through with your personal goals and persevere. Find a community and volunteer, take care of each other.

    Ultimately people should seek to close gaps with others, and try to find common ground, while acknowledging that there are some values which cannot be compromised, like sacrificing someone’s humanity and (personal/psychological) safety.

  • I keep having this and similar conversations with my wife and my friends and family .....

    The majority of the world has always been in a bad mood because 90% of planet has always been poor, struggling, doesn't have enough, live in poverty, are hungry and are generally not happy.

    The only difference is that us in the rich west have been recently affected and are facing a near future where our comfort and freedoms are going to be affected. We are starting to feel what the rest of the world has been feeling for a long, long time.

    I say all this from the perspective of an Indigenous Canadian because I grew up poor and in a circumstance where me and my family were always made to feel less than the rest of the Canada.

    • The majority of the world has always been in a bad mood because 90% of planet has always been poor, struggling, doesn’t have enough, live in poverty, are hungry and are generally not happy.

      On one hand, there is absolutely harsh struggle around the world for the vast majority of the world.

      On the other hand, it's not as if most people are never in a good mood. Australia's state broadcaster (ABC) had a show where people in small or disadvantaged groups answer anonymous questions, and when it came to Sudanese Australian refugees, a few were saying that life in Sudan was often happier despite their material struggles. IIRC a main part was that they had a collective culture, in some places outside of the cities even a communal village culture, and where good fortune was cause for celebration. Some contrasted that with our largely individualist, money-centric culture here.

      All that to say, money doesn't buy happiness, poverty doesn't guarantee sadness. Money and other resources really really help, but it's far from the whole picture.

      • True there are different types of poor and different types of people that see life as completely normal in any circumstances. We are all very adaptable creatures in whatever situation you place us in.

        I grew up poor and I didn't know it for about the first 10/15 years of my life. We had enough food but it was just that ... enough ... we never had extras, no snacks, no guilty pleasures. I have good teeth because I didn't have the opportunity to eat a lot of junk food when I was younger which then led me to not really want it when I got older.

        A lot of people around me were the same or similar ... it was just the way things were and we were more or less just happy and content with it all. It was normal so there was nothing too upsetting about it. Unfortunately, not all families were as capable as ours. In a community full of people in the same boat, about half couldn't do it and they fell into extreme poverty, addictions, bad health and just generally miserable lives. Then in my life, I started venturing out into the world and saw how wealthy everyone else was and I wanted to do the same but as a brown skinned Native person, the entire game was rigged against me ... I couldn't get schooling, I couldn't find work, I wasn't wanted, I wasn't needed and I was just different. I had to work really hard to get anything. People also claim that my school could have been paid for but it only works when you work the system and are connected to everyone and everything in that system ... I wasn't and I had to fight my own leadership, my own community and the non-Native government about everything in order to get anything done. I barely scraped by and found work on my own, made a bit of money and barely made it to become an adult. Of all the family and friends I grew up that were like me ... I think only about a quarter of us made it to something, a handful got post secondary and became lawyers and doctors or something important and the majority of the rest just ended up at home in varying levels of poverty from just getting by to literally living on the streets with small children. All in a situation where it is believed that we Native people get free money and have the world handed to us.

        Money may not buy happiness but it sure helps and no matter how you frame it, poverty makes everything harder to do.

  • Not just you. Lots of negative feeling going around. If I could put a word to what I saw today, it would be "grim".

  • Crabs in a bucket has collided with fuck around and find out about climate chamge. It only gets worse from here.

  • I feel that too. Doesn’t seem like anything good is coming anytime soon, and it’s -25 with 150k winds outside where I live.

153 comments