Very little as I disagree with the things continuing on.
We made it through the Cold War, but as any student of history will note, barely.
This has, I think, given us a false sense of confidence and it’s like the drunk driver who claims that because they survived last night they will do so again tonight.
I don’t 100% know things will go wrong but I do know that many different countries are A) pursuing nuclear weapons B) entering very politically unstable times and C) are just about to start hitting serious consequences as a result of climate change.
America went from the richest country in the world to the richest country in the world, freaked out and elected trump. How crazy will other, nuclear armed, countries get when food and water become serious issues?
There’s of course a good chance we pull through, drunk drivers tend to survive or the issue would’ve self corrected long ago. But I dislike being forced to participate in a global game of Russian roulette.
We are living in unprecedented times thou. I don’t know that it’s hysterical to point out facts.
And this is by the definition of “unprecedented”
What do you mean?
Things will continue on as normal, gradually worsening, until life is no longer worth living. Sure, what people are hysterical about won’t change your daily routine tomorrow, or the next day, or the next month, but many negative things are glaciers, slowly and inexorably moving forward and you are utterly powerless to stop it. Climate change, worsening inequality and wealth gap, and the rise of fascism are things we should be hysterical about. But instead, we’ll just sit around, complaining about people freaking out, until it’s too late.
Hearing from my parents about the shitty, uncertain times they’ve already been through. Like the threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold war, the division of Germany, various economic crises… everything was eventually followed by better times. Will everything work out in the long run? Who knows. But I don’t think we’re on some kind of linear path where everything will just get worse, forever.
It’s not like everybody woke up one day and “ah shit, everything’s fucked! How the hell did that happen. This is unprecedented!” The scale and tools might be new, but that’s about it.
The problem is that “continue on as normal” basically means to continually get progressively worse. Greed and oppression will increase. Division and bigotry will keep growing. Science and logic will be ignored or manipulated by those seeking power. This will ultimately culminate in some sort of horrifically deadly breaking point. Then we reset a little bit and start the cycle all over again and again until the humans go extinct.
I know that this is an incredibly pessimistic take, but that’s my view of current events.
It’s pessimistic but it does help calibrate you on what to be grateful for. Say, somehow, we are on the brink of a utopia and we just don’t know it. Except the people today won’t be alive to experience it. For us, this would be as good as it gets.
I actually think thats ideal. None of us could function in a proper utopia. We could not live in Star Trek. We have been far too corrupted by society, capitalism, and bigotry to ever properly function in such a society. Some could adapt better than others, but at the end of the day we’d be antithetical to such an advanced society. As such, we should prepare the world to transition towards such a society with the knowledge that it will be our grandchildren who truly bear the fruits of our work. A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit under.
I’m trying man but all I see is hate and fear win. Like just now I was thinking we know trumps going to make another authoritarian grab for power. No matter the results. I know they put some protections in if he loses and they seem pretty decent.
What about if he wins, though?
He’s signaled his intent should we not warn our citizens about what to do when certain things happen?
When Trump exercises the new powers that the supreme court granted him, what should the people do?
When Trump expels anyone not loyal to him from the government? What do we do?
When he opens concentration camps to round up immigrants, what should we be doing?
It’s all but too late but how stupid it would be if the DNC left it all up to chance.
If he wins you resist. If he doesn’t win you resist. Either way America is headed down the road Trump wants to take us down. The only real difference is whether it’s sooner or later, which is a big difference but it’s an even bigger difference to the next generation. We live under an oppressive and tyrannical system aimed only at extracting as much of life’s beauty and enjoyment from people as possible in the form of capital. The only ethical thing to do is fight and resist. To stand against the tyranny. To build our communities and to build up each other so we can resist. To teach and learn so we all know that we must resist.
The Palestinian Genocide is obviously a controversial topic right now, but the Palestinian people are telling us and showing us what we need to see, hear, and know: fascism is here and it will take us all. We must resist and fight until either our bones are ground to dust under their feet, or until we are liberated. The term “intifada” has been politicized but all it means is struggle. Because while their land is occupied, while their lives are lost, while the joy of life is stolen from them, they must struggle. Struggle is just.
So while they take our rights, while they steal our joy of life, while they continue to trample us expecting nothing, we must struggle. Because while our struggle is not the same as the Palestinian struggle, when we resist together we can hope to lift each other up. That is the point of the global intifada. Together we stand taller and stronger. Together we can protect and help each other unlike the system at hand. Resistance is just.
So resist, struggle, and fight. Learn new skills,acquire resources, and build the means to survive so that when they come to take what they want, you can stand resilient. Build mutual aid networks and strong communities so that when they come to take what they want, you can stand together. Arm yourself and train your body and mind so when they come to take what they want, you can stand strong. And fight so that when they come to take what they want, they know that they cannot come again. Resist, struggle, and fight.
We will never see freedom and equality as we dream of, but our children might. The people of Palestine, of Sudan, of the Congo, of Haiti may not see the brighter future they are fighting and struggling for, but they will continue to do so so that their children can. We must continue to do so so that all our children can. Our plights are not equal, but in resisting this tyranny we can hope to bring about change for all of us. That is the global intifada.
Sorry if this was a bit unhinged I’m having a little bit of trouble putting what i want to say into a coherent message. I also hope nobody is seeing this and thinking that I’m equating the struggles in the US to all these other places. Just that when people resist, anywhere and everywhere, we can hope to break our chains and the chains of our fellow humans.
You need a break. Go outside and look around. Breathe in the air, listen to the sounds. Trump can’t just magically take all that away from you.
Vote against him. Help get out the vote. Donate.
But live your life. Don’t let that asshole have so much space in your head. At least take a week off from politics or something to reset because as concerned as I am, you sound way too worried about stuff you can’t directly control.
Edit: I want to be clear that I think breaking people down mentally like this is part of Trump’s strategy. It’s terrifying and paralyzing. It’s not productive. I am not telling people we can ignore this, just to make sure we are not falling into the very traps they want. VOTE.
For all of the doom and gloom of that view of the big picture, I do see a lot of beauty and good in the little things. That’s where I like to focus most of my energy.
Diseases that were once a death sentence are now curable like HIV and Hep C.
That one article claiming to have cured a person with type I diabetes. I don’t really put stock into it but at one point HIV was thought to be incurable and they made breakthroughs like this, one at a time.
I think you’re asking two different things here. You’re asking if there’s a lot of Hysteria about catastrophic times. Which of course there is, that’s pretty common, throughout human history basically every couple Generations think they’re in the end times.
However the other thing you’re asking is if things will continue as normal. Which of course they won’t. They never do. Things will just continue, in a new way.
Only true answer
Nothing.
I understand climate change, how fast state transitions happen, that I’m in my 40’s and have already seen the climate change in every place I’ve lived.
I also know that the atmospheric carbon is higher then it has ever been during every other mass extinction event.
And I’m aware that we haven’t even been able to slow the rate of increase of how much yearly carbon we put out.
I know times like these seem scary, friend, but it is about to get a lot worse.
I’ll go. One thing that always gives me pause is crime rates are way down in the US.
The podcast “build for tomorrow”
That’s basically the entire premise of the podcast, which they relate via hilarious stories from the past.
I recommend the episode on Teddy bears, or bicycles. (Both of which by the way threaten to unravel the very fabric of American society)
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Hysteria? Most of what I’m seeing is denial about climate change, about the worsening political climate, and about the growing inequality
Nothing. Nothing makes me think that. Why would you think that I think that?
I think “end of history” is a bigger deal than hysteria or overreactions. People should be more concerned with things like climate change, fascism, capitalism, or systemic inequality. A lot of people have this thing in the back of their mind where they “know” nothing will ever change, and it poisons the way they think of the world over time.
Every generation experiences their own “unprecedented times” and we always seem to make it out to the other side.
Aside from climate, which IS FUBAR (fucked up beyond all reason), things will continue as they do. Life has survived previous extinction events, but it certainly changed between them (after millions of years of recovery and evolution)
