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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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I have several ways I cope:

Satisfaction that the rich are going to get fucked by climate catastrophe and ecosystem collapse just as much as everyone else. The climate change deniers will starve just like the rest of us.

It's been billions of years before I existed, and potentially trillions of years afterwards. I'm incredibly lucky to be aware and thinking, so why should I complain about stuff happening after my spark of awareness has faded?

Earth will continue without humans just fine, eventually getting swallowed by the Sun. Nothing humanity has done will survive.

Celebrate being alive to experience the universe.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I pray that someone out there will identify the root of the weed and rip it out of the earth before we're allowed to strangle them, and then get devastatingly high afterwards.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Anger, I simply want to out live my enemies and shit talk them when they die. I'm waiting on Bill oriley, Glen beck, bezos, Bill gates, Rupert murdoch and the other koch brother to croak simply to shit talk them to oblivion and pass this information too my children.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Lot of good things in here. A couple thoughts. One: Because Lemmy is nice to be on/use. The community generally 'slaps' as the generations below me call it. Two: Also white male USA and have also been deeply concerned for the past several years. I chose to focus on community directly around me while acknowledging the crappy situation everywhere due to asshats abusing power/status/wealth. I take solace that the people I choose to spend time around are generally reasonable people and try to help eachother out when we can and always when needed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I watch Carol & The End of The World.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I focus on trying to improve my own little corner of the world, realizing that it may not make much of a difference in the grand scheme. But taking some small actions to help others, reduce my footprint, etc. does help allay some of the despair and dread. I know it's not much, but that's all I've got for you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Well, I smoke weed on a daily basis. It's my main way of coping with the world.

I do a number of other things but nothing that is going to really change anything.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Son, I got comfortable with the fact it was only gonna get worse after '74 and Ford pardoned Nixon.

Sucks being right. points Pass those beer nuts?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

By reminding myself that unless some space rock suddenly hits us or the sun decides to explode super early, we're fine. And if you look at our history as a species, we'll continue to be fine. We've endured far worse things than this before and we'll do it again and again. We're good at that. Stupidly good. Whatever rough spots we're facing now is going to pass. It's always passed. Can't be bad all the time, after all. As for global warming causing a potential extinction event? It...more than likely won't happen in our life time, so, worry, but don't, like, believe it'll happen tomorrow or that we're already actually facing The Great Dying 2.0. We're maybe at the crossroads, but not there yet.

Other than that? I do as a few have already mentioned here and try and make the world just a slightly better place. Helping others in my community out, being kind and considerate to the people around me, trying to not get frustrated at drivers out on the road (this is tough NGL), that kinda thing.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (10 children)

Iβ€˜d highly recommend the follwoing book:

The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker https://books.apple.com/ch/book/the-better-angels-of-our-nature/id457552067?l=en-GB

While it might seem that the world is getting worse and worse, it’s actually quite the opposite. We have less war deaths than any centuries before, social justice is on the rise almost everywhere, poverty is at an all time low. For the last 50 or so years, almost every metric of human wellbeing increased, some significantly.

Doesn’t mean there aren’t any problems and we still have a lot of work to layed out for us. But to say that the world is getting worse and worse is just factually incorrect.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I do things about it rather than sitting in the false comfort that I'll be unaffected as a straight, white, male.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

We're in one of the best times to be alive in history and the world is still getting better in many ways, I just try to feel grateful for that when I see something that's bad or getting worse.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I'm an unremitting optimist who was born in the abyss, and climbed out of it.

Will I one day go back there? Yes.

Will you? Also yes.

However, you'll go there depressed, screaming, full of sorrows, regrets, doubts, and pain, wishing you had just a little more time.

I go there, with a smile on my face, because I'll be going home. I've already lived that, I've had that experience. It doesn't get any worse than the rock bottom, of death's door itself - the murky black sea from which none emerge, king nor beggar.

Absolutely everything between now and then is just extra gravy. Being alive is a miracle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I have lost all hope and am behaving as though we will all be dead within 25 years, and although that is not LITERALLY true, the actual reality is that billions will die in the coming decades and it won't be peacefully in their sleep. The famines, wars and plain savagery will be awe inspiring to witness. The die offs of all life in the oceans and the insects will doom us to a swift death.

I exist and nothing more. I have no feelings one way or the other at this point. If I get hit by a car on my way home, it would be just as enjoyable as if I watched a good movie, although if I were to die in the crash, it might be a bit better than the movie.

I only hope that I can exact some form of vengeance on those responsible before we all perish.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Statistically people are happier and healthier than any time in history. Even if you don't like politics, the vast majority of policy passed in places like the USA and EU does improve life there. The dictators like Ji Xinping and Vladimir Putin are past their prime by a long shot. The children of the rich vocally hate their parents. People at the highest level of power are being held to high standards and made responsible for their crimes.

The one statistically noteworthy thing there is to worry about is Climate Change, sadly 2022 was a new high for total emissions in billion tons, but the next generation wants to do away with cars, with fossil fuels, with nonrecyclables entirely so if we can just survive that crisis it should be all good.

Even Gun Violence is just a rounding error probability that it would affect you at all. Something like ~0.00003125% of the total global population died from firearms in 2019, admittedly that percentage goes up in places like the USA, Mexico, and St Kitts, but it's pretty negligible for the everyday life of the average person. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm diminishing the problem here, but I think you can want to fix the problem without worrying how it affects you personally.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are not really comparable. The PRC is a dictatorship by design, constitutionally, and that will not change just because the current guy dies. Russia has a nominally democratic constitution and it's nowhere near as unthinkable that it might one day become an actual working democracy.

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