I’m talking about stuff like “there’s NOT gonna be an election in 2028” and such, and I also support optimism
Organizing for the things you can change, which isn’t much in this “democracy”, exercise for the things you can’t. Doomerism and anxiety tend to go away if you spend 30 minutes a day running instead of doom scrolling.
THIS, organize for things you can change.
And so some pointless but fun things too, I bike marshal at PSL/lib rallies, not really going to change anything but it is fun to do.
Sex mostly.
Find a supportive and fulfilling community that is trying to make things better locally. I’ve found this at my Unitarian Universalist (UU) church. UU’s don’t believe in a shared religious text, instead they have a core set of shared values. My church has people who identify as atheist, Christian, several types of pagan, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, etc. We celebrate religious holidays from all of them as well as secular holidays like Trans Day of Visibility and Earth day. The focus is on being together and trying to make the world a better place. There’s active volunteer groups for hunger relief, housing support, the environment, and LGBTQ support. I also really like the music program. There’s a handy website to find a congregation near you, many stream services on Zoom so you can test them out before going in person. They can vary a lot based on the members of each congregation.
A piece of American optimism:
America has been awful since the start, in one way or another. It was never going to change because the majority population was either comfortable enough, or scared enough of the minorities that they would accept a certain discomfort as long as their fellow man had it somehow worse.
Right now nobody is having a good time over there. We’re approaching a breaking point. And that’s scary, but it’s also an opportunity to build a better world on the ashes of the old. We are on the verge of huge changes.
Change is no guarantee for improvement. Americans should not only protest the regime, but start preparing to rebuild. Get smart. Read your own history, especially the parts you’re not proud of. If you don’t know or fully understand those parts you will never manage to build wide alliances. Read postwar history, read about the French revolution and it’s messy aftermath. Read Arendt, read Rawls, read Steinbeck and Locke. Prepare yourself to grasp this historic moment. You have an opportunity unlike anything since the 18th century to change America for the better. Don’t waste it doomscrolling. Don’t think you know enough already. Prepare yourself to be the kind of person who is needed once the regime falls.
You’re not powerless—on the contrary, it’s an historic opportunity. And in power there is hope.
European optimism:
After the events of the last few weeks I think a lot more people are fed up with this fascist bullshit, and it seems even Eurosceptics now believe we need to stand together in solidarity across the continent. It’s a new European moment, and the American hegemony has been broken. I’m feeling genuinely optimistic.
The protests in Minnesota also fill me with joy. I sincerely believe things are beginning to crack. Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu are all in extremely fragile positions, and dictators have famously poor life expectancy. Change is gradual, then sudden, and the destinies of these despots are intertwined. The darkest hour is just before the dawn.
With apathy, cynicism, and caritas.
I 100% read that as “carnitas,” and now I’m thinking that whatever the solution is, it should definitely include tacos.
I also saw carnitas and thought “this is the one thing that might actually work”
Thirded, I’d like to change my answer to be more like this answer, please.
Caritas?
It’s often translated “charity” in English but that’s not going the concept justice. It’s a generalized love for all the world, dealing with others without judgement, helping where you can but without the deep emotional connection of other kinds of love.
By knowing that time is long, and these things always happen in cycles.
50 years from now this will be viewed as a dark time in history. Hopefully one that created a new greatest generation.
I bought a gun.
For self-defense?
There are plenty of great news in this world we live in. Modern science, medicine, and technology has never been better!
We have giant telescopes, humongous particle accelerators, all sorts of different satellites, and so much more that is helping to further the collective human knowledge of the world around us! We know so many different unique and beautiful forms of life large and small, so many interstellar objects captured on telescopes with stunning clarity (see JWST, Vera Rubin Observatory, Hubble…), we can predict everything from the weather tomorrow to when will that star will go supernova to when you will be able to see a solar eclipse to when the earth will shake and when the waves will tower over cities (and we promptly evacuate/prepare civilians before that happens, which would have never been possible before without modern science!)
Less people are dying every day, less people are suffering every day. Antibiotics, vaccinations, X-rays, MRI machines, and a far better understanding of how the human body function all contribute to a healthier, happier life. In the middle ages, dense populations had no proper plumbing, no modern medicine, water contamination was rampant, garbage and human shit covered the streets, farmers had animals that shit and pissed everywhere, a complete hygiene nightmare. In the modern age, we’ve got regular health checkups, treating illnesses before they get out of hand, proper good medicine to fight against the microscopic invaders, we have garbage disposal, it has been widely accepted that shitting in the streets isn’t something that is very hygienic, mental health is getting recognised more and more, showers, washing your hands, and brushing your teeth is now common practice in most countries, we are getting closer than ever to defeating the tyrannical monsters that plagued human civilisations for millennia, life expectancy is at at an all-time high (many are living to over 100 due to improved medicine, good diets, and good exercise!), and the dangers of alcohol, drugs, smoking, and all that is now general knowledge.
Moore’s law has been followed since it was first suggested, everyone knows has a supercomputer that can run trillions of operations per second with magical scratch resistance glass, a method of storing charge that can store power for said supercomputer for an entire day or more (especially with silicon carbon, phones are now reaching multi day battery which is insane!), digital media lets people create content, enjoy content, and modify content at rates never before seen. Displays can display images near-retina clarity with fantastic colours and impressive brightness, speakers can get LOUD and surround sound is one of the most amazing forms of media humanity has ever produced, VR lets you experience digital worlds and creations like never before, 3D printing lets people create functional items at home, online retailers make it ridiculously easy to get food, aforementioned supercomputers and other super technologies, healthcare, tools, clothing, and everything else!
The world is great, it is amazing!
Also, could I rant about human rights actually became a thing? It’s mad that everyone set aside their selfish interests and agreed not to do X horrible things to each other. Of course, there are assholes who don’t care about human rights, but generally the world at large condemns these assholes for being horrible people. We have agreed as an international community not to recklessly not to go to war, the nation state as a concept is a thing (rather than a mess of conflict for every inch of the world, most countries have accepted each other as sovereign nations and respect their right to exist), international aid for developing nations for no reason other than to be a nice person (although you could argue some countries do it for other reasons, but in either case, people in need are getting the medical care, food, shelter, and all sorts of other essentials! That’s AMAZING, good job us humans!), we have agreed not to use our most powerful weapons to obliterate each other for most part (see nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons), the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS THE MOST AMAZING HUMAN COOPERATIVE INITIATIVE EVER, IT’S SO AWESOME, PEOPLE AREN’T BLOWING EACH OTHER UP IN SPACE, WE HAVE AGREED TO USE IT FOR THE GOOD OF SCIENCE AND HUMANITY, we have agreed as an international community to create organisations to handle international disputes, international aid, researching medicine and science, preservation of historical sites, discussion, ecological conservation and all sorts (most notably, the U.N., where countries big and small sit as equals where they can discuss issues, disputes, and crisises. The U.N. also has many branching organisations specialising in all sorts of other stuff!), the Red Cross/Crescent and various other NGOs made of international volunteers helping people simply for the sake of HELPING PEOPLE, even in zones of war and conflict, I could go on! Humanity has recognised that other humans should be treated, well, humanely. In the modern age, mass killings of populations, reckless war, intentionally burning down forests, etc. are unthinkably evil when they were common practice in ancient civilisations. There are still some assholes who do horrible, truly horrible things (see Israhell doing all their “pre-emptive self defenseman” that somehow requires the mass starvation of Palestinians + denial of international aid for mentioned starving Palestinians, ICE in the U.S. terrorising communities, Russia kidnapping children in Ukraine, neo-Nazis doing Nazi bullshit in Australia, Europe, and everywhere else, but even so, the world condemns these horrible people and they denounce their actions and horribleness)
If not the national governments condemning them, PEOPLE are angry. They are mad, and they are making a statement. Protests against horrible things are everywhere, even with crackdowns by governments that are sucking the toes of orange Cheeto dust man (with none of the cheesiness. Definitely the dryness and powderyness though) the people still want their opinions heard, and they still take action! That should be proof of the humanity of, well, humanity, how people can fight for the rights, freedoms, etc. of other people!
The higher we soar, the harder we fall.
All the knowledge and resources that have built this wonderous technological world we live in, are finite, and it would only take a few well placed/timed natural/man-made disasters to revert us permanantly back to the iron age (at best) within months.
(Seriously, a large solar flare alongside a highly contageous and deadly disease could not only wipe out all electronics but also the majority of the minds and bodies required to mine, trade, manufacture, build and operate them.)
And that’s without even acknowledging the looming catastrophic climate collapse and resource depletion coming for us this century. Without stable climates, arable land and fresh water, there is no life.
Enjoy the last of the abundance we have, but don’t be so optimistic as to be blind to it’s precariousness.
I thought the point of this was to be positive, and not be super pessimistic?
Yeah, I’m probably not helping much. Blind optimism hurts a lot more when it lets you down though.
I’m trying to enjoy the last of the abundance of good things, and have been educating myself mercilessly on how bad things are likely to get.
When I have the spoons and relevant opportunity, I try to spread some of the knowledge I’ve accumulated too.
Good things wise, I’m mainly leaning into my hobbies and interests of perfume, food and gaming.
- so trying and collecting scents that comfort and interest me, eating and cooking with lots of fruits and vegetables that will be hard to come by once fresh water and arable land stop being so readily available, and recently I’ve also been collecting and playing all the pixel dungeon games.
Education and escaspism are two sides of the same coin imo.
Live in Europe
Have you looked at European politics, recently? As always they’re behind what the US does but they sure are trying, we have fascists (and not a small number) in the parliament here in Germany.
They have 20~25% in Belgium so far. Let’s hope Trump sufficiently shows these voters that fascism isn’t all that great.
The AfD voters aren’t persuaded in the slightest.
BW has elections soon, heaven help us.
Europe isn’t safe from climate collapse and resource depletion. Or facism/authoritarianism. Or the effects of the upcoming ww3.
Bruh it’s hard enough for Chinese emigrants to seek asylum, you have to “prove” that you are actually in danger. An American seeking Asylum anywhere in Canada, Australia, or Europe is gonna get laughed at by the immigration authorities, they still view the US as a democracy and a “safe country”.
That doesn’t sound very reassuring.
I find that finding solutions to the problems that generate the feelings of doom is a good way to fight those feelings. Have a plan or several plans. You don’t have to solve the issue just find ways to get through it easier with less stress.
Example: Where I live, the power grid is garbage. Too much money has been diverted to the stockholders instead of grid maintenance. We’ve lost power three times since Christmas. There is a storm coming on Monday and the odds favor the power is going off. I have a checklist of what to do before and during the outage which makes it easier to get through.
Take a historical perspective. Even with the muppets currently in power in some countries in the world, this is still the best time to be alive in the history of mankind. 100 years from now, 47 will be two paragraphs in a history book.
How many people know about the life and times of James Buchanan? How many people care? What about Herbert Hoover? Or Andrew Jackson?
And at least you get to talk about it. Imagine life under Stalin in the USSR, when a neighbour could report you for sedition and you would disappear into a gulag the next week. Or Pol Pot’s Cambodia, where wearing glasses was a death sentence (yes, really).
I’m in Europe, and from where I’m standing, Trump looks like a giant unflattering mirror. If America doesn’t like what it sees in it, maybe work and fix it. On our side is the same: this mirror shows decades of complacent bureaucracy and infighting. So here’s the other silver lining: now we know what needs fixing.
Find things that you are grateful for. Remember them daily, and find new ones daily.
Praise other people for their qualities and for things that they have done well. Daily.
Touch the corners of your mouth with 2 fingers and push them upwards. Then try it without fingers :-)
I like this a lot. I want to add, that finding a way to contribute helps a lot. Perfectionism can really get in the way. But in the same vein appreciating what we have. Damn water to drink and food on the table, for example, it also makes sense to value small ways in which anyone is helping.
Von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don’t have to be responsible for the world that you’re in. So I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of von Neumann’s advice. It’s made me a very happy man ever since. - Richard Feynman (The creep)
Mostly that. I accept the world is shit. I try make my little corner of it better. I try not to support what’s making it worse. I accept I’m not an acetic, worse I’m a hedonist, so I will be making it worse. I accept these things.
I do try make it better, I vote left, I donate, I abstain through boycott to a tolerable level of discomfort.
I could be doing better, I eat meat, I still get things from Amazon, I drive cars/motorcycles as a hobby.
The “no elections” thing is a psyop designed to make you fearful and hopeless. Fraud is possible, but at the rate it’s going, it will probably be super obvious if they try it, which carries risks.
The assholes are fucking stupid, they’re bad at this, and I think the Kremlin is intentionally giving them shit advice because they want us to collapse more than they want the regime change. We will prevail if we work towards it, and I see a labor revival in our longer future.
There likely already was a lot of fuckery in 2024
