• leds@feddit.dk
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    3 days ago

    Not just self awareness but also awareness about state of world. Existential dread is not anxiety.

    • binux@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Existential dread is not anxiety.

      Uhh… yes it is? I mean, what emotion would you otherwise attribute to it? Because dread as an emotion—also literally in the term “existential dread”—can be directly described as an anticipatory anxiety about future events.

      The two are extremely closely related if not referring to the exact same feeling. They really only differ in context, and even then only semantically.

      • edible_funk@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Rational concerns about the very real impending ecosystem collapse vs irrational concerns like a bear attacking me in my living room. I do not live in an area with bears. To be clear I’m not actually concerned about bears necessarily but my body is in full fight or flight survival mode while I’m just trying to catch up on my shows.

        • leds@feddit.dk
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          2 days ago

          Yeah this, but most of society seems to happy to ignore those very real and rational existential threads.