This is a pretty specific thing, but the general "we're all doomed" vibe is definitely not unique to today. Boomers and older had the threat of nuclear annihilation looming over them, and before that... well, disease and famine and death and destruction due to war have historically been the norm.

Imagine how you'd feel living in the Americas in the 16th or 17th centuries and either watching the destruction wrought by European settlers firsthand or, maybe worse, watching your peers die en masse of the diseases introduced by those settlers. Imagine living in Eurasia in the 13th century and watching the Mongol army sweep through.

None of this is to say that today's challenges aren't real and serious. Just that we're not the first to face such challenges.

[–] OrteilGenou 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think the doom is real, but we're all looking at it through 6" x 3" magnifying glasses that condense all the shit into one giant nugget, and then the easy thing is to comment on that nugget because, well it's right there, and last winter was unseasonably warm and there were some pretty catastrophic wildfires, and the ocean is doing weird shit, and it's easy to think that that's all there is, but you can still take a walk in the woods on a sunny day, and say hi to some people, and maybe make a friend.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

For now