Is everything the worst?
Is everything the worst?
I'm 43, almost 44, years old and went through a bought of alcoholism during the early part of the pandemic. I went through treatment and have been fine since. However, I can't help but feel that all the news in the last few months is just the worst. Between the AI bullshit, the wars, the effects of capitalism, and the political situation in general it's just the worst. Is it just me or have other folks noticed the same trend?
Edit: I should have also mentioned the enshitification of everything tech related.
Edit 2: Thanks for all the thoughtful replies. For some more context, yes I'm American and live in a state that's about to ban the wearing of masks in public. I haven't had a drink in over year and have been in therapy for 3 years. I don't watch any news sources and rarely read media websites. But yet, that information seeps into my life somehow. I donate blood, I make charitable donations, and try to live a good life. I have 2 amazing kids and a great wife. It's just hard to not end up in a doomer mindset at times. A Bitcoin company bought a power plant up here that has an existing lease to use a lake as cooling water, and it's heated up the lake to the point that it's killing fish.
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Only thing that is worse in my mind is the "media" no longer news and "social media" both are largely negative and both are full of misinformation these days.
Housing costs may also be a negative..
Other than that MOST things seem better, we just can't enjoy anything since the media/social media keeps telling us what we should fear and hate.
Other than that MOST things seem better
This is obviously going to be a discussion that's going to vary greatly from place to place and region to region, but I honestly what to know what you think this.
This is going to be pretty American-centric, and even then pretty specific to my region, but that's certainly not the case here. Cost of living has skyrocketed, wages have hardly budged, and people are really, really struggling.
Now, we've obviously made some amazing progress in recent history. As fucked as it still is and as far as we still have to go, I think gay rights is probably one of the best examples of this. Even with all the bullshit we continue to see, we're miles ahead of 20 years ago.
But the overall trend, even internationally, is incredibly worrying. People's standards of living are decreasing, far right nationalistic populist movements are gaining momentum nearly everywhere you look, and we're actively watching multiple genocides happen in front of our eyes. Famines are already being massively exacerbated by climate change, you just don't hear about them because they're happening in poor countries. Everything points to all our previous warnings about climate change being incredibly conservative. I personally have next to zero hope in the world's government's to do a damn thing about it.
Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely still the possibility for a good ending. These are all problems than can be solved. We even know how to solve a good chunk of them. Just have to actually find the political to force it.
Cost of living has skyrocketed, wages have hardly budged, and people are really, really struggling.
True.. However it does appear to be slowing a bit for both the US and Canada
People’s standards of living are decreasing
Famines are already being massively exacerbated by climate change, you just don’t hear about them because they’re happening in poor countries.
https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions
There is far less poverty in the world today than in the past.
Everything points to all our previous warnings about climate change being incredibly conservative.
Probably true, but we also appear to be on the edge of a massive move away from fossil fuels to renewables with the cost of solar dropping, grid level battery systems replacing old coal / natural gas peaker plants etc and the move is no longer just about the "environment" these technologies are in some ways superior or cheaper as well which will accelerate adoption
True.. However it does appear to be slowing a bit for both the US and Canada
And until the relationship between cost of living and wages reverses, not just slows down, we're simply talking about things getting worse less quickly, not getting better
There is far less poverty in the world today than in the past.
Generally true, and this is largely from developing nations starting to have a growing middle class. Unfortunately, all signs point towards that middle class inevitably being consumed by the owner class, as we have watched and are watching the tail end of in the west.
Not sure what that has to do with the famines being caused by climate change though, especially as they are rapidly getting worse. Look at what's happening currently in Madagascar. This is at a global temperature increase well below where we thought these things would start happening. That's not even considering that all this is happening while Europe's biggest breadbasket is currently the home of the 2nd worst war since WW2.
Probably true, but we also appear to be on the edge of a massive move away from fossil fuels to renewables with the cost of solar dropping, grid level battery systems replacing old coal / natural gas peaker plants etc and the move is no longer just about the "environment" these technologies are in some ways superior or cheaper as well which will accelerate adoption
While true, we are still accelerating our carbon production. Like the CoL/Wage thing, unless we see an outright drastic reversal, we are simply talking about things getting worse less quickly, not getting better. This isn't an issue we can simply continue saying "oh science will just figure it out" on. We've been saying that since at least the 60s. Unless we get sweeping, drastic action from multiple large governments, and we get it very soon, nothing is going to change.
That's also assuming we are actually "on the edge of a massive move away from fossil fuels to renewables". We've been "on the edge" of that for seemingly forever now.
None of this even touches on the overt slide towards far right authoritarianism half the world seems to have taken.
Look, I legitimately try my best to stay optimistic about the future, but it is ridiculously naive to say the future looks brighter today than at the turn of the millennium.