this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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I'm really worried about the state of the US despite being a white male who was I'll coast right through it. I'll also accept "I don't" and "very poorly" as answers

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What do you mean "the world isn't getting better"? It definitely is. I mean, just look at, well, uhh... well uhhh... nevermind.

[–] rodbiren@midwest.social 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I find great comfort in history personally. Dan Carlin (a favorite podcaster of mine) always says we must grade history on a curve. Sure, to us it looks like everything is falling apart and existence is pointless. But by very real measures things are better than they have ever been. My favorite is violence against children has been normalized as being bad.

Within living memory it has gone from being completely socially acceptable to beat children as being the preferred method of parenting to people getting thrown in jail for that behavior. What does it mean that previous to 100 years ago all of society could have been considered battered children? We are extremely aware of the negative effects of violence against children and for the very first time we are seeing a generation raised in an environment that kind of behavior has carrots and sticks motivating parents to behave properly. Of course all manner of horrid things still happen, but I call it progress that it have become widely condemnable to beat a child with a stick or take them to public hangings. It's a small victory, but it gives me hope for the future. That we may yet still build a better human being capable of taking on the heroic task of fixing this world.

Further, history has shown to me low points that I am glad to have missed. I never knew how ghastly WWI was. I am currently in a warm bed and not in a trench filled with mud, flys, dead body parts, with shells exploding constantly, seconds away from needing to charge out into near certain death. But my great grandfather knew that feeling. He watched as whole generations of young men were gassed to death and blown up uselessly. The numbers who die in war are less now. Still tragic, but less. Again, we must grade on a curve.

Death, despair, and hopelessness may be in 8K live streamed constantly now, but I assure you the analog version was something to behold. Not saying the horror of the past makes living any easier now. It is not to minimize your own pain. I just find hope that others managed to break the back of an unshakable world and hope for a better one while surviving a suffering I have not yet known. I am made of the same stuff. That gives me strength.

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[–] DarkGamer@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Your perspective is distorted, things are incredible and getting better by most metrics.

  • The average person today lives better than kings of old.
  • We have abundant water, food, and sanitation. In America, food is so subsidized that it is ridiculously cheap by historical standards.
  • Your odds of dying to violence or disease have never been lower in all of human history.
  • You have all human knowledge at your fingertips, and technology is expected to keep improving our lives in novel ways.
  • You can visit any place on Earth in a matter of hours and have access to cheap exotic foreign goods.
  • Civil rights are protected a lot more today than they were in many/most civilizations of the past.
  • Entertainment is abundant and cheap, and takes forms that people of the past could only dream about.

While we certainly have our challenges to overcome, like climate change, wealth inequality, and social problems, let's not forget how good we have it.

[–] eightpix@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Some might say that "your perspective is distorted." things are incredible for the top 10% of the socio-economic scale and getting better by most metrics (do not look at the numbers for maternal and infant mortality).

  • The average person in a G7 state today lives better than kings of old.
  • We in G7 countries have abundant water, food, and sanitation. In America, food is so subsidized that it is ridiculously cheap by historical standards.
  • Your odds of dying to violence or disease have never been lower in all of human history unless you are one of the world's 100 million refugees, live in Africa (pop. 1400 m) or Central America (pop. 52.7 m), or in one of the world's 27 [1] current conflict zones (approx pop. 2800 m)... that's over 4 billion people or half of humanity
  • You have all human knowledge at your fingertips, and technology is expected to keep improving our lives in novel ways as long as you can afford it.
  • You can visit any place on Earth in a matter of hours if your passport permits you to do so and as long as there is jet fuel and have access to cheap exotic foreign goods which are unreliable, break easily, produce garbage, and are slowly killing the planet and its peoplr.
  • Civil rights are protected a lot more today than they were in many/most civilizations of the past unless you're trans-, or black, or a woman, or a black trans-woman.
  • Entertainment is abundant and cheap, and takes forms that people of the past could only dream about.

While we certainly have our incredibly massive, systemic challenges to overcome, like climate change (ha!), wealth inequality (ha ha!), and social problems (hahaha!), let's not forget how good we (when you say we, you certainly mean your ingroup) could have it if we tore down this corrupt edifice and built an efficient, sustainable, just world.

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I just stopped caring. I just want a meal a day and do stuff to not be bored.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I fully embrace the fact and wonder what will be ruined next.

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[–] M68040@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not really having the option to not cope. Or not knowing how to actively choose to not cope. One of the two. For what it's worth, Tolkein genuinely was on to something with this one.

[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I chose to leave after Trump got in officeβ€”& it took like two years of planning/saving. It’s had real ups & downs but overall the best major life decision I’ve made.

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[–] kusuriya@infosec.pub 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sadly, I have taken moves to grow as much as I can, tend to chickens for eggs, and start just pulling back from my community because they are really terrible. Really, I should be building the community and mutual aid but the amount of people that care about nobody but themselves around here is just too high.

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[–] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 year ago

I cope with the US falling further by not living in the US, unfortunately I'm just privileged like that, sorry.

I have a few friends over there, and the state of things absolutely breaks my heart.

[–] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mostly just pretend that thing's can get better, if I just communism hard enough. Also sex and drugs.

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[–] Wahots@pawb.social 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The world is getting better. There are some setbacks, yes. But there are lots of normal people making the world a better place, like the guy who figured out how to make artificial glaciers with river water in India, or the guy who recently built a forest on arid land by refining local techniques in Burkina Faso. Things will be okay!

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[–] V0lD@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It is getting better though. We are all just facing the issues of our era's.

Tech keeps going up, we are slowly making progress on climate change, the space race is back on, and superpowers don't directly fight eachother anymore. Hell, we've proven to beat once in a century pandemics in a few years with relatively speaking barely any deaths. Life's good

Yes, we have squabbles in the middle east and Africa, but that's par for the course and not an indicator for human development. The only thing that has really gone backwards is that war has been brought back to europe

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[–] F_Haxhausen@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I take comfort in getting older and getting closer to being dead.

I can barely wait. The comfort of nothingness is a great help.

[–] Chev@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are a lot of good news all the time. For example: I'm pro veganism and always heard that vegans make up about 2% of the population. Recently I heard that specifically in my city about 8% are vegans. That's amazing!

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[–] zout@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I just hope no wars will be started over here (western Europe) in the next ten years, so my sons won't get drafted.

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[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Just trying to be a lamp in the darkness.

[–] EurekaStockade@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Life's pretty good here in Australia. No neighbours on the border causing problems, weather is generally good, lots of wide open empty nature to get out of the city, average salary is $93k and unemployment is low, crime is low. Inequality is a problem although our Gini coefficient has actually lowered recently. There's a lot of life to enjoy, and really the endless stream of negativity is only experienced through the media, not in real life, so I switched off the TV and just focus on what's going on around me, enjoying the people, places and activities that I like, and things feel quite positive.

Turn off the news, it's bad for the psyche.

[–] Rambomst@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The average salary is around $68k source

edit I should say median, not average.

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[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

I just try to enjoy each day as I can without making the world any worse than I can help.

[–] Ho_Chi_Chungus@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

shrug and say that things will have to get worse before they get better

[–] tty5@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

I've put an ocean between myself and the US.

[–] ProfessorGumby@fedia.io 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] trustnoone@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 year ago

Well I eat quite unhealthy, so I'm thinking I'll probably die earlier then most. Sooo I guess I got that going for me.

[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Pretty well. The resistance lives. We are all part of it.

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[–] Catsrules@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Personally I am not really worried. Maybe I am in denial but I think a lot of the negative stuff is way over exposed with 24/7 news cycle and crazy social media.

Bad news and anger drive engagement metrics the best so that is all you will hear about.

So everything I hear I just automatically assume it is way over blown and I should lower the worry factor.

If it is getting overwhelming I would recommend you unplug yourself for a little while and do something you enjoy.

2023 has some amazing games come out maybe pick on of those up and give it a try?

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[–] Doubledee@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

I like to think about the historical perspective. It's not much consolation but systems like these can't maintain themselves forever, cracks are showing and the US really is more vulnerable than people would like to admit.

Once things start changing there will likely be a lot of problems, things will probably get worse in some ways, but I think even if I don't survive to see what people come up with in the aftermath of the US I can get satisfaction from seeing it burn.

When you read history you learn humans are very resilient, humans will not end when the empire does. Maybe the failure of this place will be good for the world.

Substance abuse :)

[–] viking@infosec.pub 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't actually think it's that bad, once you shut out all the noise.

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[–] emptybamboo@midwest.social 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Many good things have been said. I would add that what give me comfort is that in the present moment, it is really, really hard to tell signal from noise. You often don't know the impact of people or events until many years out. We often said in grad school that you can't write history until at least 30 years have passed from the event. So, it seems chaotic and confusing because it is hard to for us to understand what it important and what is not.

The other thing is that every generation often sees the sky as falling in. An ancient Greek philosophy lamented about his parents had it all figured out and his children where going to ruin everything. That same sense of doom is pretty pervasive.

That is not to dismiss any of the real terrible things out there. Climate change is the big problem on the horizon. Nuclear waste is another. But I think on the balance, we are going to muddle through fine. The great blessing of humanity is that we are adaptable. The curse of humanity is that we are adaptable.

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[–] banneryear1868@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Understanding the historical circumstances I find myself in and devoting the majority of my effort in to things I can control.

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