Everything just seems so out of control. The US seems to be tearing itself apart. The world is on fire. We seem to be going backwards when it comes to freedom and human rights. We’ve turned our backs on each other. How do you cope with all this without just giving up?
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On average the world is better than it’s ever been. Higher life expectancies, less war, better quality of life; it’s all generally on the up. Would you rather go back to the last financial crisis? When the ozone layer was being depleted? The interment threat of nuclear annihilation? Race riots? Women not being able to vote? High infant mortality? etc, etc
There is less war, but that’s not always a great indicator. Depending on how you define “war” you could even define Ukraine/Russian war not as a war.
Life expectancy is going up because of 3rd world countries finally catching up. It’s going down in America.
The “world” is also getting richer. But the average person is getting poorer.
Also ozone layer isn’t doing great, there are race riots still, there is threat of nuclear war with Russia existing in its current state, a lot of rights are threatened and a lot of people want to return to a time before women’s suffrage. I haven’t looked up anything on infant mortality, but I imagine with abortion band happening that will also change for the worse.
The only peace I’ve found is action.
The “world” is also getting richer. But the average person is getting poorer.
I’m sorry I don’t understand this statement. How could this be true in a way that doesn’t violate logic?
Pretend an x,y graph
Put a bell curve in it. This will be money
Put one behind it. This will be population.Now increase money curve and shift it to the right. Push it so far it stops being a bell curve and becomes an exponential curve.
What’s the phrase? 1% owns 99% of the wealth? So there is more money in the system, but fewer people have “middle class” money.
This is such a short-sighted and USA-centric response. Your life expectancy seems fine, and even if there were a blip I’m sure it will continue to increase on average. Wealth is not an objective measure of quality of life. The ozone layer repaired itself. Even in America you’ve got a lot less lynching than you used to have. Speak to anyone who lived through the cold war and tell them you think nuclear war is just as much of a threat now as it was then.
I do have arguments against all of what you said. But the funniest one is definitely the ozone layer.
You sure you want to say the ozone layer is fine? When was the last time you looked at anything talking about it?
As a result of the scientific findings and the possible severe impacts of ozone depletion, governments around the world began passing laws reducing or banning the production of CFCs and other ODSs. This culminated in the Montreal Protocol, agreed in 1987, which has now been signed by every member state of the United Nations. Signatories to the Montreal Protocol have agreed to phase out ODSs and replace them with less-damaging substances.
Since the passing of the Montreal Protocol, the emissions of ODSs have fallen to a fraction of their levels in the early 1980s and the ozone layer has begun to recover. The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica still exists, but it has been slowly shrinking over the past two decades thanks to concerted international action.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/climate/climate-explained/ozone-layer
So not completely back to how it was before we fucked it, but the problem has been fixed
"By taking a holistic look at the yearly progression of the Antarctic ozone hole over the last two decades, we find that:
The addition of recent years to the Antarctic (60°S–90°S) total column ozone time series results in insignificant long-term change since the early 2000’s, even where significant recovery has previously been reported. During this time, we find a delay in both the deep ozone hole onset date as well as the breakup date."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42637-0
Tl:dr if all you’re doing is looking at the peak/minimum times of year it can seem better. The hole “breathes” and they’re getting delayed.
I work on diesel trucks, they create a lot of N0x. This article talks about how N0x being bad. It’s a niche thing but I at least understand why I tend to see these things first.
Ah bugger
On average the world is better than it’s ever been
Of course, certain groups of people have been trying to reverse these trends in the name of…money? Tradition?
The newer generations are no longer becoming smarter (I believe it was the Flynn effect). Education is being defunded at all levels.
The cost of living in many parts of the world has been outpacing wages… especially now, but for decades. Yet we have more wealth hoarded into fewer hands.
Anti-vax and anti-science movements have been reintroducing measles and have been making it hard to fight other diseases.
We are seeing the effects of these things in action, and they will only get worse over time.
They’re trying to reverse those trends because acknowledging those trends means giving up on their theory that our dominant economic system is defunct.
It’s cancer and it’s killing us all.
Exactly. That kind of thinking doesn’t work when you realize the “cancer” is producing situations like:
Higher life expectancies, less war, better quality of life
Do you disagree with those statements? Do you need to see evidence before you’ll believe them?
Or do you acknowledge the statements, but disagree that they justify the “cancer” of our current economic system?
Do you disagree with those statements? Do you need to see evidence before you’ll believe them?\
I disagree with them.
Higher life expectancy - I wouldn’t attribute that to capitalism. Further more life expectancy in the US is declining afaik.
Less war - What do you mean? There’s a war in Ukraine, one in Palestine, and there’s been perpetual war since …forever. The US war machine always bombs some country, assassinates a democratically elected leader, etc.
Better quality of life - For the 1% at the expense of all the others maybe.Capitalism is all about profits, not about better products, better quality of life, etc. In fact it’s easily against those things if they get in the way of profit. You can see enshittification everywhere.
For example it would be against their interest for a pharmaceutical company to sell the permanent cure for a disease instead of life-long medical treatment. The latter would be subscription-based therefore create more profit. The cancer comparison is quite fitting imo.
Some people argue that humanity was never freer, happier and healthier than before the agricultural revolution. Everything has gone to shit since we decided to settle down on a small plot of land.
Less war?
There’s a genocide going on in the middle east right now by settler colonialist fully backed by the western powers to destabilize the region and I’m sure you know that, it’s just irrelevant to you.
There’re too many neoliberals on lemmy, I can’t even deal fam
Log off. It’s that simple. Your stress will reduce linearly with reduced screen time
I gave up on everyone: I’ve packed my shit and moved back to the EU, to a middle of nowhere, population 50. Closest neighbor is a 10 minute walk away. Started a large garden, learned some blacksmithing and basic carpentry. Still working remotely for the same company as before, but now when I go outside I have fresh air, I can see the stars and I can hear nobody.
Honestly I dissociate, focus on myself and people I love, the world is a lost cause - probably won’t have kids
How do I cope?
The media sells the idea the world is on fire. By a lot of measures, humanity is the best it’s ever been:
Things do seem bad, things do need fixing. My advice is to pick one singular part of the world you want to improve and figure out how to fix it. Something like abolishing prison labor or environmentalism. It needs to be something you can make a noticeable dent in, where you can see your own contribution to the effort.
Don’t change tack every time something new like Isreal-Hamas or the scuffle at the US-Mexico border happens. You picked that one thing to fix, remember? And unless you plan on going down to the border with a gun, how do you plan on making a real difference? If you can’t make a difference, why let it bother you?
How do I cope? Poorly
I’m trying to enjoy things while they last and appreciate how precious they are, especially nature. Sometimes I wonder whether I should be preparing for the brutal future that is to come, since there is no avoiding famine, draughts, mass migrations and wars that the climate change will cause. But we don’t have enough information about what exactly will happen, and since humans have an unbelievable ability to adapt, it can be left for the future. so the only thing I can do now is create memories and spend time with loved ones so I’m not full of regrets once we lose everything
By dedicating a certain amount of time for things I enjoy while pretending that the world outside doesn’t exist. That time when I watch an anime, or read a book, or write fanfiction, or cook something delicious… that keeps me sane, it keeps me from falling back on my natural tendency to focus on all the bad things and ignore the good in the world.
You cannot allow yourself to be in that “constant stress” because it wears you down and grinds your sanity and willpower like a big belt sander.
That timeout revitalises me, and gives me the balance to deal with the stresses and worries about everything else.
Obviously there isn’t a silver bullet, and mindfulness is probably the best bet here.
I accept the fact that like every era before us, the news tends to sensationalize shit. it’s how they make money. As long as you’re outraged, (the left) or terrified (the right), you’re tuned in. And if you’re tuned in- they’re banking.
But… unlike previous eras, we have the internet where people like to spread the sensationalized bullshit polarized views to the four corners of the world.
I like to think that life exists within the grey areas between the polarized black-and-white idealist bullshit. And that while things aren’t great- things are not all that bad.
…. And then I feel much better.
I compartmentalize. Focus on things at a smaller scale, and work through them one by one. Try not to distract yourself too much on the things that are out of your control. Prioritize the ones that you can actually control. Then identify the short term and long term ones and further prioritize based on that.
Ingenuity: The helicopter drone that flew on Mars for the last 2.5 years when it was expected to fly just a few times. It is the embodiment of human achievement. Of our minds in this great unknown. I get so wrapped up in politics and war and social issues, then if I think of Ingenuity it scales all these issues down and makes me feel like a fool for that last period of time I’ve been lost. Science and engineering to further the incredible human story of understanding is everything and that is how I am able to reset where we are in this and where we can go.
Copius amounts of alcohol.
Quit reading the news and enjoy hobbies.
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Do what you can. Reduce your carbon footprint by eating less meat, using cars less, flying less. OK, by yourself it’s not going to make a huge difference, but at least you will know that personally, you aren’t making it worse. Join a group that is trying to make a positive difference.
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Concentrate on the little things that make you happy. You can’t stop climate change on your own but you can make something nice for dinner.
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Value your friends and keep in touch with them. They probably feel pretty much the same as you do. Cheer each other up and support each other.
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Get a hobby to keep yourself occupied.
That’s all I can think of.
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It’s perfectly fine to withdraw a bit from the angrier politics, news and doomscrolling, even more so if you’re noticing that it’s actively bringing you down. It’s an easy pattern to fall into. Turns out fear, annoyance, distrust and anger are pretty engaging. They are also extremely easy buttons to push for fun, political power, and, above all, profit.
We weren’t built to deal with every one of a zillion things wrong with the world every hour of every day. Still, that is what happens when a combination of blind machine learning optimization (for profit, of course), sensationalist greed, and some rando’s political opinions decides what you see. In the long history of the human race, borrowing more and fresher worries from all over the world has never been the norm.
I tend to go out of my way to eliminate politics from my life, aside from voting, pretty much. By all means stay informed enough to do what little you can as a random individual, but you can do that without wallowing in every fecal particle of political drama.
