I’m very scared, it feels like the world is about to fall apart. I will also remember a passage that I heard, and which does not seem to be a joke: you will own nothing, and will be happy! And it seems that this is gradually becoming a reality.
What scares you?
Yep.
At this point I’m 90% sure that we are in a regression similar to the dark ages after the fall of Rome, or the collapse of the Bronze Age.
During our lifetime quality of life will keep going down, and who knows how low we will fall.
To be honest I don’t even think climate change would have a chance of getting us. I think society will collapse before the average temperature rises one degree. I’m looking forward total dissapear of basic commodities in one or two decades top. For instance, my country has universal healthcare. I think in 10 years it would be completely unusable to the point of being equal to not have universal healthcare at all.
I agree with most things you said except the climate change part. 2024 has already exceeded the 1,5 degree target and it will continue to degrade like the general quality of life.
My area has always been dry and is the most affected by increasing droughts. I can see this on the street, I think last or the year before was the first time the grass didnt turn brown, but actually burned to dust. The current heatwave melted roads and railway tracks, which need replacing and is threatening supply chains. Rivers are running low more and more.
Floods’ victim count will rise each year and eventually ruin us financially, and make people refugees - we will see what its like from the other side.
We have to ration water for gardens now. Never heard this be a common thing in my country.
Prices go up. Two years ago apple juice was very expensive, because of the mild winter, which is just one example.
We have dangerous animals now. Oak processionary moths are conquering the country, render parks almost unusable and make people who live nearby sick.
So it is already getting us. And actual shortages have not even set in.
I visited some permaculture gardens. It made me hopeful and sad at the same time. Hopeful because I saw how easy it actually is to turn a desert into a green oasis with simple manual labour. Sad because it also shows how easy it is to prevent these things, we’re just not doing them. I try to focus on the hopeful side though.
No answer to this question:
How else but with nuclear war can the USA stay ahead of China?
The only thing right now that seems to be happening is a possible lost decade for China. Public debt, including provinces, is at 200% of GDP, the country is in a mild deflationary cycle, infrastructure is built out, retirees are becoming a large percentage of the population, most tech firms replaced their CEO’s with party loyalists, and economic rivals are seeing their currency depreciate.
There will probably still be some economic growth in China, but it will be a lot more limited.
That said, this requires the USA to not be stupid, which it seems to be doing right now.
The only thing problematic is the CEO replacement.
China can deprecate their currency however much they want by buying whatever they want in other countries.
With the infrastructure built out, they can focus with full force on developing any technology that they don’t master yet.
All the western profits will vanish. That means crisis for the west, not for china.
The west has been living of a shrinking technological advantage to China, and at the same time, profited of producing things and selling things to China. At the simplest core, the crisis of, say, European car brands is to a large part driven by the almost comically simple fact that Chinese companies figured out how to build decent cars and Chinese citizens choose (understandably) Chinese cars over Western ones. Coupled with absolutely horrible dogshit economic policies here, as much as I hate “Imperialism, but Red”, the fact that someone like Xi wants to run the show for more than 5 years might be our downfall. We plan to next quarter, they plan to the next quarter century.
For context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You'll_own_nothing_and_be_happy
I share your concerns.
Those worries about that quote mostly circled around in far right antivax communities. Its a warped understanding of the sharing economy, such as Swapfiets. This is a liberal, market driven concept which fits very well with the neoliberal vibes of the WEF, and will thereforee not save the world but is also not reason to lose your shit like a far right idiot.
By way of clarification, my expression of agreement was with OP’s general sentiment (the global poly crisis), not with the WEF quote, which I was just adding context for.
In case of car sharing and public transport, I can get behind the idea.
I’m more worried about not owning your personal data anymore. Today, we have streaming services, gaming platforms and cloud storage. Some people barely even use local storage anymore, every part of their lives is saved only on social media accounts, Google/Apple/Microsoft online drives, exchange servers and government services, no paper records, no local copies.
Their entire digital life is basically out of their own hands and most people don’t even realize it, because that’s just “how it works” until something goes wrong with one of the services or something terrible happens.
Yes,
I don’t see empathy in people any more. It is mostly showoff and greed all around.
Sometimes I feel like joining/creating a village just like the Amish villages but without religion.
Sometimes I feel like joining/creating a village just like the Amish villages but without religion.
I have also been thinking about this lately. But it’s damn hard, although it’s worth it, I think.
So, a commune. They exist but they’re often insufferable hippies. But I’m down for one where people respect and use science and technology, and use soap.
Doesn’t matter what i do i die. Can’t help it
Yes. I can forsee a nuclear conflict soon.
Huh I dreamt about this the other night. That Russia used nukes in Ukraine.
Tbh I don’t think they have that capability anymore. Their newest nuclear-capable missile system is the Oreshnik. One of them blew up on the launcher, another blew up in orbit. Another, although succesful launch and re-entry, hit Russian occupied territory and was assumed to be ~40km off target. A third hit some sort of private workshop in a forest.
Ofc one doesn’t have to be accurate with nuclear weapons, but I know they imagined what would have happened if those missiles had nuclear warheads on them.
They have other systems too though, and I don’t know anything about them.
A lot of people will die and then things will change for the better, eventually. 🤷♂️
Or it won’t. At least not while humans are alive.
I started drinking more! You should try it.
I found something similar, it calms me down like a drug, but it seriously affects my mind. At least my empathy fades temporarily and I feel like some kind of psychopath.
What I am talking about, I will keep in secret.
Mostly I’m just really fucking sad.
There was such a potential for all of us to live brilliant, flourishing, fulfilling lives.
Instead, half the folks in my country decided to shit on everything and everyone. The remaining half of us are now too fucking busy cleaning up after those fuckwits to make forward progress. We can’t even advocate for changes to things we know are bad because we’re trying to defend the broken status quo from something worse.
It’s going to take generations to unfuck the damage. More than my lifetime, at least.
Mostly I’m just really fucking sad.
There was such a potential for all of us to live brilliant, flourishing, fulfilling lives.
Same :(
The thing is, all of it, yes, all of it was and still is avoidable. We have the tools to unfuck the climate change, to get population levels under control, to distribute enough to those who need it.
We choose not to. Fucking hell.
There was never that potential with 8 billion people.
No, there was. And there is. That’s the worst part.
We produce more food than we need. We produce more goods than we need. Starvation and poverty are both choices made by those in power to ensure their own power.
Clearly humanity is never capable of improving anything on the grand scale.
I’m old and this may not happen in my lifetime, but I fear the collapse of the ocean current systems. The resulting global weather chaos would have a drastic effect on my younger family members, some of whom are already struggling to make their way in the world.
The way governments everywhere are backing off green commitments and seems only interested in waging war and/or protecting the greedy makes me despair, but every single day I meet people with warm hearts and open minds, so I do have some hope.
Being afraid puts one in shackles. There’s no sense in being afraid of a situation you cannot change. So: no, I’m not afraid, but I’m pessimistic and I’m trying to adapt, and prepare myself with my kids for a possibly worse future and try to develop workaround strategies.
Sure.
Overrun by enshittification, rent extracting corporations that have decided that this is cheaper and more profitable than R&D into actual new tech, billionaires using the world economy and geopolitical stability as their personal playthings, the rise of aggressively willful ignorance, massive social media disinformation campaigns on the State level, growing nationalism and fascism, and all that under the warming atmosphere that is destroying our food, water supplies, and lives.
And the only thing that could potentially at least hopefully mitigate the life-threatening issues is Fusion Power, but only if it actually works in time to help us discard the majority of fossil fuel use and maybe directly power carbon extraction from the atmosphere. But I doubt we’ll make that goal.
at this point i’m beyond being afraid. i just plain dont care anymore, maybe we even deserve what is coming for letting it happen
I agree we should be throwing these assholes into woodchippers
The world will fall apart, but me and my family will still live in the ruins. Local community will get poorer but not dead. Also I am fairly away from “world” media speak of.
When the oceans die, the ruins will also not have any oxygen.
You kidding? Is anyone not?
Depends how fucked up you can get.
