So. I get it. Heck I don’t even see it as fuck you, I got mine so much anymore. More ha your fucked more than I. Personally im just trying to go out having been the least possible responsible for this shit and doing what I can to improve as much as I can. Yeah its limited given my limited power but again its just kinda doing the best I can with what I got. So it starts with the environment which I do feel is the ultimate driver with these things. The simple reduce, reuse, recycle. Whats great about it is it sorta natrually helps you drop out of all the corpo shit. walking and biking whenever possible is good for you and gets away from cars as much as possible and actually engage with your environment. Not buying is not supporting the corps. When it comes to work I try to look at how it effects people and prioritize helping them. Engage with nice folks if you can and avoid the negative. Protesting is one of the things I look forward to the most at this point. Yeah maybe we are screaming into the void but we are doing it together and not jus staying silent on it all. I pick up my deliveries for my neighbors in my complex whos units I pass as I return to my unit and put it at their door and give a little knock. If its not to heavy. I accept and offer food to them. Do I see this stopping all the shit no but again its not going to be because I was a major cause. Im getting through and going out best I can. Whats kinda funny is im playing no mans sky and they have an event going that is a wierd microcosm of the world. The event randomly split people into one of three factions sages, weavers, or royals. Yeah that is right. Academics, workers, and rulers. Whelp some wierd social media (so I have heard) to get the royals to win with underhanded tactics took traction. So like I went and apparently other people were getting killed right off the bat but I turned off pvp. Still there was these wierd gravimetric tornado things on the planet and I thought it was part of it but it turns out some items can cause the effect to mess people up who have pvp turned off. I also could not find like the most basic thing of the first objective and found out they were being screwed up by bases being made and set to not allow others to change which effectively made copper disapear around the starting area. So this is all possible because of some red planning it and getting it done fast after the event dropped then putting up all the blockades and taking advantage of all kinds of way the game works to screw anyone behind them along with spending their time attacking them in various ways in the starting zone (and passed the starting zone but the starting zone effects are the largest and eventually people learn they need to turn off pvp and then even further turn off anyone being their at all. unfortunately you can’t turn off the constructs they make). Now unlike our real world blue actually has gotten ahead. I kinda think its because red may be fucking up red that did not start right after it dropped or such and blue works more cooperatively. Its like the freekin stanford prison experiment.

Hmm. Do you want to be argued with on the details that aren’t actually that bad, do you want to receive some lifestyle advice, or is it enough to know that someone read this, you have been heard, and while we’re alone, we’re alone together?

Social, political, and economic collapse — slow and silent though it may be — is a grinding affair. More supports propping up business as usual and more masks for the orphan-crushing machine that is “progress” make the process more palatable, acceptable, and forgettable.

Those orphaned parts of society, those being crushed, were once institutions. They are replaced with commodities. As Trevor Noah recently said, we are being forced to “buy back the village.” Homes, carers, community events and spaces are all commodities now. Or, they are online where the data can be mined.

So, what to do? Fantasize about a future without an orphan-crushing machine. Complain online to an audience who already agrees. Recede from the world and watch it burn. I dont want a world that looks like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. It doesnt end well for Sam Lowry.

I have done/am doing all of these things. They’re the options available. I’m also teaching a high school class that fights against this dismay in the next generation. I’m pushing them to be made of sterner stuff. It’s not going well. There are a few who are building with me. There are a few more who seem like they were born giving in to the inevitable dreck. So, teaching keeps me going. Maybe, one day, I’ll do something else.

I have a misguided belief that I will survive this churn and be the chronicle of the misanthropic present. No benefits in that post-apocalyptic role.

I content myself to think that there is light and hope and strength in the places where people suffer the most. In Gaza, in Guatemala, in Ukraine, in Bangladesh, and in Congo; there are people who are good to each other, who support each other, and who treat each other with kindness.

If my problems are rising food and living costs where they have no food and no place to live, I can bear this for a while longer. If my problems are environmental, political, and social malaise and corruption, I have a power to act they can’t exercise — so I must.

The job of humanity is not pleasure — it is pain favouring own purposes. We find small jewels of pleasure along the way. If we’re lucky, we find others who share their strengths with us and we can enjoy our jewels together. Maybe that’s why I’m here, writing this, now.

welcome to depression

I feel this. But also, you aren’t the only one in your community feeling like this. And you aren’t wrong, there is a lot of horror out there. But there are also a -lot- of people who give a shit, and we need to talk to each other more, face to face. We need to be building movements locally and having more of a shared understanding.

I want you to organize a barbecue with your neighbors, start a club, join a band, listen to the middle aged poet at open mic, whatever it is, and start listening to people around you. You have more in common with them than you think, and as a group, you can level each other out, enjoy life, and maybe even help steer the boat away from the iceberg, just a lil bit 🤏

Live locally and try your best to ignore the constant flood of information/disinformation from that internet beast that has put a chokehold on the truth and exists to get hate-clicks for money. I find that helping others gives me a good feeling of belonging to something human and not just be bandied about by “tech bros” and their overlords, who have no values that compare to the rest of society.

This was so me the past 5 years; doom spirally, no hope, escapism. It took the government black-bagging my neighbors during their commutes to kick me out of it. No one from up-top is going to help, but if you look to your real-world neighbors, I’d be surprised if you didn’t find a bounty empathy and solidarity beneath the layers of fear and desperation. Over here, things are extreme, but Canada and the UK are disturbingly close to joining Nazi Bell End Land too.

Ironically, this year has been the most hope I’ve felt in decades. Thousands over here have realized you don’t need to wait for someone to give you orders to start acting; you can… just do it. Grass-root networks are tracking our vulnerable, getting them legal counsel, and raising mutual aid funds for their families; neighbors are going out of their way to form new bonds, potlucks are becoming common; I live in an area with a lot of local farms and backyard gardens–we’re starting to collaborate and may be able to become a food independent neighborhood; potential pathway to become energy independent with solar and microgrids as well; there’s an ongoing campaign to curtail landlord abuses with a long-term goal of tenant owned properties; people showing up in mass to town halls and actually succeeding in getting our mayors to act; mass adoption of encrypted communication; and FOSS is gradually normalizing.

There’s a lot of hope out there, just don’t expect to see it broadcast. Shout out to all the mothers out there; you all have the least amount of time, but are still the backbone and brains to our communities.

It’s not as bad as certain media would have you believe.

Don’t get me wrong, I am far, far from entertained by the shit-show south of us and by the very serious issues that exist worldwide. As a whole though, I think there is room for optimism. Not blind faith and not “damn, we are doing so great!” but optimism. People are still capable of amazing things and while things do seem dark and the narrative paints every challenge as unwinnable, remember that this the intention of groups that want things broken. Them saying so doesn’t make it so however.

I’m an old cynic but shit’s still not as bad as it seems.

I guess it was much worse in the past. It’s just that nowadays you get a lot of information.

We keep electing wolves in sheep’s clothing who win our votes on fake promises to help us then turn against us and double down on policies that make life more difficult and increase our level of misery.

You’re expecting a perfect candidate. This is not how politics works. You need to reject the worst party at every turn until they’re dead, and the window shifts a little more toward “dispensing collected resources as per the wishes of the people” kind of management. It’s not gonna happen overnight.

But if you’re suggesting it’s all fucked regardless of whom we elect, then I suspect you’re in one of those areas who get gaslit a LOT and are used to politicians immediately going back on everything after the election. Lougheed wasn’t the first and he definitely wasn’t the last. I bet you don’t have a coastline.

Right now, voting is more “harm reduction” than “great strides”, even if the latter’s required. We’re just not getting that kind of leader, so our choice is between “harm reduction” and “faux-ristocracy”.

At least we can protest the one we got over the idiot idea of the week.

I feel the same way all the time. I don’t have a real solution but something that helps me cope is having friends who support me and vice-versa. We hang out pretty much every weekend and try do fun things. If someone needs help there’s almost always one or more of us who’re happy to head out and assist however we can. It doesn’t help with the broader societal problems but it does give me something nice to think about looking forward to whatever we have coming up and knowing there are people who care about me and have my back. Together we can just try and make the best of it.

Now hear you here, you hear? You are being very negative I think, and feeling bad about how bad shit is. And I wanted to let you know that yeah I came to basically the more or less same conclusion over decades and you are right we’re not going to make it everything is fucked and we are past the point of no return, and we are all going to die either violently or in pain and despair and the best we have to hope for is for it to be as quick as possible, besides that no notes.

I relate man, the environmental doom stuff just makes everything feel so hopeless.

I hope you don’t say this with the flesh of vulnerable individuals still stuck between your teeth.

is it possible your world view isn’t correct?

this would of course count as gas-lighting to you right?

you might be in a cult