Remember (per our current scientific understanding), entropy goes in one direction from orderly to chaotic. No matter what you do, the total entropy goes up, and doing nothing does increase the total entropy less.

However, instead of letting that fact let you down, it is possible to do things that locally reduce entropy and make things more ordered in your local environment. All this to say, don’t focus solely on the inevitable, focus on that which you can control, what you can hope for, and what you can make better for yourself and your world.

That’s the neat part, you don’t!

I don’t do anything, as I feel anyone that’s optimistic today isn’t paying enough attention to be well informed.

That being said, I simply try to minimize personal impact from external sources. This isn’t something that you succeed at but as you get better at.

I wish everyone the best of luck on their journey but I don’t want to be a part of it in any way.

I don’t stay optimistic, at least not all the time. I just can’t. I don’t think any sane, realistic person can.

I try to be kind and empathetic towards others. I try to be a decent person. The world needs so much more than I’m capable of giving. Sometimes that’s overwhelming. I try to remember that my own personal responsibility has reasonable limits. Sometimes that’s enough.

I take some “me time” whenever I feel I need to. I know that self care helps me be better to others. That’s what matters most, in my opinion.

An appeal to futility isn’t helpful though. We can still have an impact, especially when movements grow.

You cannot single handedly solve climate change. Stop expecting that from yourself, do what you can, and accept that you are doing your part. Journey before destination my friend.

The worse the world becomes, the more I go out of my way to be kind to people. Especially those people being hit the hardest. People doing retail jobs? I treat them with respect, acknowledge them as people, and honestly thank them when they helping me that day. People doing restaurant jobs? I seek out the manager and let them know how good the worker I interacted with did. There’s a fast food restaurant I frequent, and I’m on first name basis with the manager. One day the representatives from corporate were in the store and I interrupted their conversation (after verifying they were from corporate) and let them know I get great service from that location. They thanked me for sharing the feedback.

Another day when I was out for lunch, I found a wallet in the middle of a parking lot and saw it had a specific bank’s debit card in it. There was a branch of that bank a block away. I took the wallet to the bank, letting them know where I found it, and asked if they could use their known contact information for the debit card owner to make sure the wallet got back to its owner.

I do more than this too, but I would prefer not to go into those details of other ways I help.

In short, be a positive force in the universe with your actions. Leave a wake of kindness behind you as you move through life. Do what you can, even in the small ways, of making the lives of others better. Oh, and I am not a fan of soggy straws, so I use glass straws instead (they clean easy in the dishwasher).

This is why they say ignorance is bliss.

I put energy into hobbies and spend time doing things with people IRL whenever possible.

I don’t plan on having kids but I’ve worked with them my whole life. I would recommend spending time with children and vicariously seeing the world through their eyes.

My last line of cope is thinking about how many problems we’re facing have either always been a problem that we’re still trying to solve, or a problem that inherently doesn’t get solved until reality forces us. By framing fascism, climate change, bigotry, etc this way the problems seem less immediately existential. Like, it almost seems obvious that human beings would consume the planet unless the consequences of such forced us to change our ways.

faaaaark im sick off this meme.

me flushing the public toilet like a chump when there is still a fucking genocide in west papua.

a !== b

You really don’t need to be optimistic. I’m not. That doesn’t mean that you need to have any problems.

The real issue in your comment is your guilt, and of not feeling like you’re doing enough. My first question would be: are you actually not doing enough? If every person on Earth would behave/live like you, would the problem exist? If the answer is no, then you’re doing enough. Then the question becomes how to get rid of that feeling, but this answer comes first. Because if the answer is yes, then you should be feeling like you do!

Just be the good example for others to follow. If you “give up” you consequently make it impossible. Lower the optimism in favor of realism. Also the world we live in runs in cycles, there is no change at all from a universal viewpoint. Everything has been before and will be in the future. It is just your relation that may change. By the way, the earth will get rid of us anyways. Very philosophical topic, there is no final answer.

I don’t stay optimistic, it’s perpetual disappointment. I just do what’s in my capacity to do to make the world a less shitty place knowing my actions don’t change the world but they at least change the moment for someone else for the better. Moving a worm you find dying on a sidewalk back to the soil doesn’t change the world, but it changes the world for the worm. It’s never going to thank you, nobody else knows what you did, and it still might die, but you had the ability to do something selfless and without reward and did it because it was the right thing to do. It’s basically that every day, every situation. And sometimes, a lot of the times, you don’t even stop harm, you just reduce it. The world doesn’t “get” better, we just make it less worse through our contributions as meaningless to the grand scheme as they seem.

I follow the scientific/tech progress on climate change and pretty much only get my news from TLDR which don’t do the doom and gloom.

Yeah, it’s bad and all but there are loads of people in the background putting in the work to avert the climate crisis. “It’s hopeless, don’t even try” is fossil fuel propaganda. We’re pretty close to electric prices catering everywhere which will make going electric with stoves, heaters, cars and the only viable option.

For personal contribution: Buy less, less plastic, recycle your metals and electronics and bike if it’s safe enough to do so and your commute is less than 10k and buy chicken instead of beef. This alone will reduce your climate footprint by a massive amount.

Good shit’s happening but it’s not ragebait enough to get clicks.

P.S. I’m not delusional, it’s all happening way too slowly but it is happening way faster that most think.

I don’t think the world has gone to shit, I think I have just matured enough to understand all the corruption and despicable acts humans are capable of. Looking back in history it’s easy to notice, the world has always been shit, people with power have always stomped on everyone else, nothing really has changed on that front. My feeling is that there have always been about 30% of good people, 30% assholes and 30% that just let the current take them wherever.

But I can still find things to be optimistic about. The space race seems to be back on, the new crispr research is really exciting, my friend has a potential vaccine to look forward to to cure her cancer once and for all, solar power is cheaper than ever and my country has been majority renewable for some years already, etc. On a smaller scale finding those 30% that are decent humans to spend time with is a good idea.

Personally I don’t go hungry, I have a warm bed and a roof over my head and I can get endless entertainment either mindless or through hobbies. Again looking at history, most of our race’s existence, chances are that none of this would have been the case if I lived even 100 years ago in most places.

Very easy. Control what you can, accept what you can’t.

The world may be burning around us, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. When the house is on fire be the one toasting marshmallows.