How do you cope with living in this depressing era

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Posting here for traffic.

I know the news is always negative and every decade has its bad moments but the 2020s seem particularly shit. I'm in my 30s and I can't remember ever living in such a depressing time like this.

Epstein files, rise of the far right globally, ICE, student debt, rising house prices, billionaire oligarchs controlling media and governments, climate change, the list goes on...

This is the world we have to live in right now. How do you deal with it and not despair? I guess limiting news consumption is an idea but isn't that just burying your head in the sand?

It feels like we're all in some kind of pressure cooker of hatred, divisikn and angst and its not healthy. A friend suffered a racist attack last week. It was caught on video and yhe perpetrator had 0 shame, he was like a man possessed. It's really shook me how emboldened ignorant racists have become thanks to the likes of Trump/ Reform etc

I'm 70. I'm the generation that was taught what to do in the event of a nuclear bomb dropping (buy a house with a bathroom with no external windows seemed to be the answer!). That was cheery. As was watching the TV news of the Vietnam war and photographs of children running naked down a road having been hit by napalm. In the 70's My sister in Yorkshire was afraid to go out because of the Yorkshire ripper - I was OK, I was in london and only had to contend with the IRA bombings and being afraid to go anywhere near large department stores especially at Xmas. I was close enough to hear the Harrods bomb go off - the fear was real and the anxiety on public transport palpable.

This is not any worse than then. Powerful men will sometimes use that power to abuse women and children. Terrible wars will kill people with the latest weapons. Terrorists will literally terrorise for whatever cause they are wedded to. Human beings often do terrible things to each other, but are also capable of great feats of heroism and kindness. Fight against the horrible stuff but don't let it pull you down.

The 80s were utter shite for lots of Working Class people .. the decimation of industry, and mass unemployment.

These days, stay off Twitter .. it’s a cesspit of lies and racism, stay away from The Mail.. it’s a cesspit of lies and racism.

i look around me, and get my feelings from that my family is (mostly) healthy, we kept sensible with finances so had our mortgage paid off by the time I was 50, DD has ASD but it wonderful company and I love living with her, I have great friends, my job is ok (a few arseholes, but hey ho), make sure I take time for myself, I’m not obsessed with “boundaries” I accept people make mistakes and forgive them, I don’t carry grievances, just keep it quite chilled.

Global issues are awful, but I don’t lose sleep over Epstein, Gaza, of Global Warming. I’m aware of them, and will argue my point, but it doesn’t prey on my mind. I focus on what I can control and change.

Agree with @StrictlyAFemaleFemale little bits of joy in your life. I’m currently on the sofa listening to old jamiroquai and singing along.

Two years ago the government created the Prepare website to guide us to create a food stock and get emergency items. Other EU countries have done the same. The heads of military across EU and UK have said, we are no longer at peace time, we are in the time before war. 2030 is predicted to be the year things really happen. We have 4 years to get ready for potential energy crisis, internet cut offs, rationing. I'm lucky that I heard these stories from my granny and know she survived. But, our kids have no idea what's coming, and no-one wants this for their kids.

I get on with my own life and fill it with fun and mayhem

Exercise
wine
surround myself with the people I love
do allll the things (that I can afford)
ignore the news
donuts

Is this like common knowledge? So we’ve all been told we’re expecting war in 4 years? Where the hell have I been?? 😂

https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6d5db69-e0ab-4bec-9dc0-3867b4373019_en?filename=White%20paper%20for%20European%20defence%20%E2%80%93%20Readiness%202030.pdf

I’ll have to read that tomorrow when I’m sober. But appreciate you sending over

Here's the Prepare campaign that went out a couple of years ago: https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/

Meh, we'll cope. CBA to get worked up about it.

Been through worse, like many people my age (60-ish and older.)

You're only in your 30s, there will be worse times ahead in your lifetime. Buckle up!

I grew up in Belfast in the 70s & 80s & that was depressing! Every era has their shit times! It’s just part of being an adult when you fully realise!

Just enjoy your life Op - the world will keep turning long after we’re gone!

You can choose not to look at it though. I've deleted Instagram and Facebook from my phone and never got involved with Twitter.

Here’s an article from I read recently about this topic which I found useful:

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/new-years-resolution-more-thankful-9kxp2q0rg

How do you cope with living in this depressing era

By just getting on with life, as humans generally do, as there is always some kind of bad shit going on.

The Left label everyone who disagrees with them ‘faaaaar-right’. I’ve seen people who want rapists deported described as ‘far-right’. The real fascists are the Left. They’re the ones restricting free speech, demanding books be removed from the shelves, ‘de-colonising’ the libraries, re-writing history, dictating what can be taught in universities, and so on. One thing’s for sure, if George Orwell were alive today, he’d re-write 1984 and make Big Brother a woke globalist.

I’m frightened and upset too. I’m upset that mass immigration has destroyed my sense of identity and belonging. I’m upset that I no longer live in a nation with a shared history and shared culture. I’m upset at the Left attacking the literary canon. I’m upset that my local woods have been hacked down and replaced with two massive housing estates. I’m upset that the fields in the centre of the village are going to have 400 new homes built on them. Yes, modern Britain IS “depressing.”

The Prepare website is more about natural disaster than war and nothing new. Some 30 years ago I worked with a a clinician from New Zealand. At that time they were well used to emergency preparedness for natural disaster and she was surprised we didn't do similar.

Facebook is one of my happy places. I chat to friend on there and am a member of quite a few common interst and book fan groups. I know that a darker side exists but honestly I never see it.

😂😂😂😂😂

Did the Far left start the war in Ukraine?

This post is insane.

I agree that the Seventies was a really grotty decade and in many ways set the scene on how poor, things are today.

Plus, what more can you say about a decade when people thought that Slade and platform shoes were so great?

We don't routinely die in childbirth! Half of our children don't die before they turn 5. We have cures for diseases that were death sentences in the past. We carry a device in our pockets that keeps us in touch with loved ones all over the world. We have plumbing, central heating, religious and political freedom, women can vote, own property, have bank accounts, have careers, gay people can get married and have kids (in this country at least).

There are bad things happening, a worldwide economic downturn and reason for concern, absolutely. But there has literally never been a better time to be alive and it baffles me that people can't see this.

Pretty good, to be honest. I try not to let things that don’t directly affect me or my family take up too much of my mental space. Epstein, ICE, etc. whether I worry about them or not, it doesn’t actually change anything in my day-to-day life. I stay aware of what’s going on and read the news, but I try to focus my energy on things I can control and that genuinely impact me 🤷🏼‍♀️

And realistically, do people who are directly affected by ICE spend much time worrying about the issues the UK is facing?

It hasn't always been like this. Global warming and AI about to become more intelligent than humans, on top of zillions of nuclear weapons in the hands of lunatics. There's no going back from this.

Read the Old testament. Much weirder things which the humans did and God still offered His Son for us

I'm 75 and have lived through such things as the bay of pigs, the Mutual Destruction policy of the Regan era, the war in Vietnam, the fall of Soviet Russia, the subsequent wars in the eastern block. To name just a few of the political upheavals.

I'm more frightened of Trump and the people using him, than I have ever been of any other event in my life time.

In my view, Trump is a puppet (albeit one that seems to have a half life) for the republicans that seem to want to turn America into some sort of Gilead, with added capitalist needs.