Asklemmy

Some very good replies here. I share some of your worries, but with some recent issues I have also gotten a lot of practice seeing the good in things. Consider these 2 angles:

First is the Louis CK routine that includes “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.” I think it comes down to humans getting used to things that work well and taking them for granted. Compared against most people who have ever lived, we are genius magical wizards who live in luxury. Unfortunately some of our magical technologies let us see the bad shit all around the world (and close to us) that our brains haven’t evolved to deal with.

Second is how absurdly unlikely and unique the existence of our consciousness seems. We are a collection of atoms forged in inconceivably massive exploding stars billions of years ago, aware of its own existence. We are literally the universe experiencing itself.

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

Just trying to be a lamp in the darkness.

Nihilism and cannabis

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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

I try my best to understand it better and change the little things I can. I know that won't change the world much so it isn't very fulfilling. Anyways I often think "at least it wasn't my fault and I tried".

In the same position as you, I'm quite privileged living here in Europe, if it all goes to shit I will be fine. I hope I can make the world more fair for everyone anyways.

I'm getting a vasectomy and I drink, cheers m8

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

That in the grand scheme of things none of this really matters. In 100 or 1000 or 10,000 year’s time there will have been just as much horrible stuff happening in the world whether I fret about it or not. Just as much rape, mutilation, disease, and killing either way. Historically things have been trending towards better, so I have to assume that trend will hold (despite what the news or the internet makes it seem like).

The only thing I can control is what I personally do or don’t do, so I can at least reduce it by that small infinitesimal amount by not doing bad things. I can also try to make the world slightly more bearable by trying to make people laugh, or at least help them enjoy themselves some, that’s a little bit more help. I also have three kids I hope I can raise well enough that they too try to not do bad things and also try to help those around them. Or maybe one of us will stumble upon something that just completely changes everything and all our problems go away, or it wipes out humanity, or we’re just waiting for Godot.

And while in the grand scheme of things nothing matters too much, we can at least make life a bit more bearable to those around us in the here and now. Because for us, the here and now is what matters the most, that’s all we can really know, this eternal moment until we die.

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.

I'm not in a position to affect change in a powerful way. So I try to stay educated and informed, I vote at the ballot box, I vote with my wallet, I donate what I reasonably can to places where I think it will help, and I speak out when it's appropriate to do so.

Going fishing.

I moved to Arizona, where I can drive 0.2 miles to the weed store.

How do I cope? Poorly

life is temporary.

im hangin on to the ride until i get thrown off. its my only shot, even if it sucks donkey balls

i guess my answer would be 'dont sweat the small stuff. its all small stuff'