The world is absolutely done.for

[MelodyMayKerr]

America has gone insane. Executing people on the streets for suspecting them of being immigrants. The rapist-in-chief marauding around the world doing what he wants. Israel mass murder children (& adulrs) in Gaza and call anyone who protests an antisemite.Other world leaders stand by and do nothing.
The climate iw shafted. Probably heading for 1.7° or worse, probable mass migration and associated wars. Hundreds of thousands dead in Ukraine. British economy f**ked. Musk heading to Trillionairedom while billions have next to nothing. Everyone glued to their phones, social life dead, mass anxiety and depression among young people.
Im honestly sick of the world now.

YANBU.You can see the media starting to justify Trump’s actions.

We’re being conditioned into accepting this as the new normal.

You’re right. The way I see things atm, the world is coming to an end, and I’ve never had that feeling before. I’m mid 50s and feel my generation are the last ones to have experienced a decent care free life/childhood, and I feel sad for the young children of today, because the future looks very bleak…

100% each act by Trump pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable.

It’s a very depressing time. I think our children are going to grow up in a more dangerous world.

But at the same time OP, we are the lucky few that live in the developed world with healthcare systems ext.. . 1/6 people in the world are suffering from chronic hunger right now.

I actually disagree with our children growing up in a more dangerous world. IF we all make it out alive in the next 10 years and there’s anything left it will be the next generation that are left to sort it all out. I feel the next generation are far more accepting and understanding of what’s right because we’ve all taught them what’s so wrong.

Im not fully behind you op. I’ve still hope. BUT this week is the first time I’ve had to consume the news/ current affairs at night so as to protect my children (very world wise teens who are used to open and frank discussions and exposure to world events) from my reaction to what is happening. I don’t want them to see me so worried and appalled. It does seem that the world order is shifting. America has indeed gone rogue. And the implications of their actions long term terrify me.

The Healthcare system where an old lady who has a fall can be lying in the street for hours waiting for an ambulance? That Healthcare system? I'm sure other countries have it worse but I'm not sure its particularly something to be proud of any more.

I’m feeling much the same and I’m totally sick of hearing about TikTok, influencers, Snapchat and whatever the latest phone is. reels and any fast-moving videos have been banned from my house.

The state of the UK I’m sick of too. We’re heading for social skills collapse. The lack of individuality is depressing and that’s eve before you look at the state of our economy, debt and unemployment.

I could go on & on☹️

YABU. All the time there are good people doing good things there is hope.

We are incredibly lucky to live in this country. Things are far from perfect and the fascists are trying hard to rise to power but the US is just horrifying and very scary right now. I can't believe they have literally switched to become the baddies. America is the main force putting the world at risk.

Zoom out for the birdseye view.
80 years ago we were marching people into death camps because of their ethnicity and dropping weapons of mass destruction on children.
A few decades before that we were shipping people in chains across oceans to work as slaves and throwing them overboard if water was scarce and then claiming their value back on insurance. Clearing people out of their homelands and taking their children away as government policy. Back a bit and we hang children for stealing bread. Wars, endless wars since the dawn of time. Plagues, floods, volcanoes destroying entire civilisations. A mini ice age. I could go on for years.
Human life, the life of any animal really is not meant to be peaceful stable cooperative and full of happiness. It’s always been about surviving and the pursuit of food, resources and sex.
The idea that now is “worse” than Victorian times or the Dark Ages or when the Romans invaded is pure narcissism. It’s only the worst
time of all because you’re living in it so you perceive it that way.
Humans have always laughed and fallen in love and made art and enjoyed sex and sang together and invented things and decorated our homes and we will continue to do so. The idea that Trump or Netanyahu is “worse” than Hitler or Pol Pot or Genghis Khan is ludicrous.

If it helps, every generation from Plato onwards has written that things used to be better and that the particular moment they are living in is the worse of all times and the end of the world. Every generation thinks it. It’s not been true yet. We will be fine.

When she does get picked up, which she will after the 999 staff have confirmed she isn’t in a critical situation, she won’t be billed $10,000.

Only the wealthy would ever wish that healthcare on the masses. Free at the point of access. (Quite aware it is abused sometimes)

Can you imagine not being able to afford the full health plan and your child gets cancer. Sorry, these drugs cost x amount and you don’t have cover. We can get your child the transplant but it will cost 70,000. That would never happen on NHS.

Well we have had it worse. Imagine being you in the 540s living in freezing huts with no heating or healthcare Viking raids harvest failed due to a volcano then one third of your village dies of the plague.

I was coming here to say similar, even though day to day I do also feel like the world is ending and everything is terrible. I’m thankful for my history degree giving me an occasional big picture brain when I revisit that way of thinking (are you a historian by any chance?!).

Humans were down to 1200 people once because of climate change. We will be ok.
I think the existential angst is because we feel our kids will have it worse than us. Which yeah they might. We in the west have had a lovely 75 years or so. Bound to end though and our kids will make their own way in their own lives. The only thing to do is enjoy your own life as much as possible and equip your kids with the resilience and skills to do the same, as best you can.

I’m in lockstep with you, OP. Totally agree. I was watching Lord of the Rings- The Two Towers with my youngest (who’s in secondary and will still snuggle up with mum on the sofa!) and there’s that speech Samwise makes, in the midst of destruction and facing what seems inevitable, violent death. ‘Copy and paste’ but so worth reading again:

“Sam: It’s all wrong By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

It really hit much harder than before, watching that scene this time because we’re here, in that terror, in a time when we must protect humanity and crucially, what it means to be human.

We are being robbed by tech bros and megalomaniacs; the corrupt, so bloated with power they no longer even crave it. We are being led to our unwanted end by those who have nothing to lose, nothing left to gain, nothing to really live for- these are sociopaths who lean into extremism in order to feel something, get some sort of buzz out of their existence. We’re nothing but their collateral damage.

Our future cannot matter to them because the future is something they don’t care about. They shape these idiotic ‘spheres of influence’ and get high off ‘manifest destiny’ bullshit because they’re extremists and supremacists who don’t even care about the outcome of their actions or the impact on humanity. They’re enforcing a post human existence on us at a rate of knots.

This isn’t the world we signed up for but we have to try and believe in it, fight for it, even in the smallest of ways. We have something that isn’t eradicated: Our survival instincts, our feelings, our empathy, our love of beauty, love itself. Those are the things that keep us alive. Humans have been around a while. We’re not going to let a group of assholes end us now.
There really is some- actually a lot of good in this world, OP. And it is worth fighting for. ❤️

Don't be silly.

Yes the world feels a bit febrile at the moment, it is.

Like it has been on other occassions outside and within living memory. It's not nice to live through a period of instability and change but it's human nature's way of reorganising itself and changing every 80-100 years or so.

When you do come away from screens the world is still turning and people are still peopling.

Perhaps avoid the 24 hour news cycle for a few weeks. It's good to be aware of world affairs but humans brains aren't wired to constantly be fed images of death and destruction and be OK with it.

It used to be a few lines in a newspaper and now it's graphic visual images broadcast at you constantly. The rest is just the latest generation of powerful bad men being baddies as they always have been.

Our future cannot matter to them because the future is something they don’t care about.

Great post and I saw a documentary years ago which made a point that many USA people want the world to end / environmental disasters because they want judgement day to come soon.

Whats insane is the vast majority of us don’t want this. We don’t want AI, war or trillionaires. We want a secure economy, decent jobs for us and our kids, nice community and friends, nature, holidays and worthwhile work. Why can’t we all pull together so more of us can achieve this?

YES! I think I love you! You have nailed it.

You're damn right. There was a brilliant lecture recently on the BBC about this exact thing.

What we should remember is that small groups of committed citizens have affected massive, global change for the better. When the anti-slavery movement began in Britain it was a tiny, unfunded, niche and up against the richest and most powerful people (and nations) going - and yet, they did it, and now it seems that it was inevitable. It wasn't. It was wildly unlikely to succeed and the political and market forces of the time were moving in if anything the opposite direction. Same with the temperance movement.

There are absolutely more of us than there are of them and that is important. They don't even have any friends! All of those tech bros, they are losers in the actual world. You know, the world that still exists despite their efforts to make us forget it. Our world.

Thank you. 👏

Great post @DefiniteMeteor

YANBU.

The USA is now ruled by a demented, dying megalomaniac, scumbag and we're all going to suffer.🤦‍♀️