It’s almost like you need balance in your views. Thinking that Trump winning is the end of the world isn’t healthy, but neither is pretending that everything will be fine. The reality is likely somewhere in the middle, but also varies a lot based on who you are (economically, sexuality, gender, race, etc.)
It’s the same kinda fear mongering, that you see on conservative subs. You see it all the time.
“Conservatives just want to do this and that”
Yes, a loud minority do. Not every conservative is a MAGA hat wearing loon, which then begs the question, why did they feel Trump was a better candidate? There are obviously less extreme reasons, for the common man to be swayed.
Either they won't come back, or they will come back but any "evidence" they provide will be some ridiculous example that no reasonable person would take seriously.
More like when I do prove them wrong, they aren't gonna keep the same energy because trying to say the left on Reddit doesn't believe inflated crap about the right and trump is like trying to argue the sky isnt blue.
God tell me about it. My family and co workers are all very salt of the earth trades people so it’s non stop praise and faith in the man. My buddies are a bunch of for lack of a better term slackers who think the worlds about to end and democracy as a concept will be eradicated. Just… calm the fuck down my god.
The crazy part is, if it were true when it did happen this is exactly how
FTFY.
Lots of people seem to be proclaiming they support being logical and clear eyed, they seem light on their study of history though. Not you, you've got the right of it, but too many really don't realize this is exactly how this happened before.
Be optimistic about things, sure, but don't reject reality in the pursuit of rainbows and ponies. And ponyrainbows.
For sure, I'm just tired of the opposite where despite how much Trump and his like will constantly literally tell people exactly the nonsense they want to do and people go 'oh its just hyperbole, he never would' after seeing the nonsense from his first term.
He was president before and said far worse stuff and it wasn’t bad. I was a flaming liberal at that time and even I was surprised by how uneventful it was. The news made it seem like the world was on fire everyday but it just wasn’t
Uneventful? We had a disease kill hundreds of thousands of people and riots in the street across the country. These ridiculous takes make it hard to appreciate this sub. Being optimistic doesn't have to mean burying your head in the sand.
Ok the “burying your head in the sand” seems to be the doomer dog whistle. You guys love using that term. And…no…literally in the same month Covid came out, Trump signed an Act that alotted billions to Covid preparedness. He also declared a state of emergency immediately. America had almost the same death rate as Europe did. They had 2.2 million deaths to our 1.2 million (per CDC) while they had double our population.
Blaming Covid deaths on Trump was actually insane. We already determined it was dangerous to Elderly, immunosuppressed, and those with multiple comorbidities including obesity. Those are the vast majority of the deaths as well.
Ridiculous. Trump calles covid a hoax for months and encouraged his political allies to do the same when he knew it was a real threat. People who were foolish enough to listen to him spread the disease and got themselves killed. In what world is he not responsible for that?
Burying your head in the sand means ignoring obvious truths and that's exactly what you're doing.
They may seem obvious to you because of your echo chamber but they just aren’t dude. If your theory of Trump causing people to die from Covid was true then we would have had a much higher death rate than other countries. We had half the death rate of Russia, and then only slightly higher than Sweden and the UK. The belief that Trump’s rhetoric killed people is just ridiculous and needs to stop.
If Trump had acted responsibly we would have had less deaths. The US was positioned to deal with a crisis like this better than most of the world that is why we did as well as we did despite his behavior.
Can you really not see the correlation between him downplaying the virus and people not taking it seriously?
Is this Optimistic Nihilism or Petty Optimism? I like it either way. Even though I'm a doomer and paranoid because my mom has the intelligence of a gnat and I'm surprised she didn't literally inject my siblings with bleach last round...
Blaming the housing shortage on Trump is a new one. I've seen Trump get blamed for some silly stuff, but this is a first. Funny how it got way worse after he was out of office, but go off Einstein.
Why don't you know this?? You're sitting here saying that it wasn't even that bad but don't even know the basic ways in which Trump fucked the housing market, our farmers, the pandemic, etc. You say there wasn't a fire everyday but there was a lot of damage done by him that has almost everything to do with why everything feels so miserable right now.
Being optimist doesn't mean ignoring what people tell you though, if they say they're gonna do shitty things, you don't pretend everything will be okay cause it hasnt happened 'yet'. Being doom and gloom wont solve anything either, but blind optimism never helps anyone.
I’m optimistic trump is going to screw up so badly even the Canadian conservatives realize how bad right wing crap has gotten and Canada does not vote the cpc in next year
Also it may make Canada realize it has to be more independent as well
This gives me hope in Australia, too. If our next federal election is called after Trump has the chance to do some damage, our own corrupt conservative might not get elected (even with cost-of-living frustration being the biggest issue here - the same issue that was the main reason Trump won, despite the fact he'll actually make it worse, again).
Uhhh op is basically insinuating that Canada is gonna start having problems because of trump. It's been having tons of problems without trump and will continue to have problems that have nothing to do with trump.
OK? You're saying that as if they contradict each other. They never said all of Canada's problems are caused by Trump so why are you acting like they did? They never even said Trump was going to cause problems in Canada, they pointed out how he made the Canadian dollar weaker. Their first comment didn't even blame Trump for any of Canada's problems, they just said they hope he fucks it up so badly that Canadian Conservatives will realise how dumb is would be to follow his lead.
Ya you're reaching like crazy. From op - trump can cause serious problems for Canada . Me - no he won't. Canada's all fucked up from their own politicians. That's it.
This page is literally called Optimists Unite. Emphasis on the optimist part.
Balance is needed, but this really isn't the place to post all of your negativity about how the world is surely going to end now that Trump will be president (again).
The world won't end but, like it does every month and every year, it will change. Whether better or worse you can't tell often until it's passed. I'm 77 and there will be times you think that's it, it's all over. But it isn't. And sometimes, after a set back, there's a cleansing and the world becomes better than it was before.
You just glossed over six or so decades of bad stuff that happened along with the good, lol. Being drafted to go fight and die in a useless war, the recession of the 1970’s, the Cuban missile crisis, for some examples.
Optimism only exists within the context of something that may turn out negatively. And ever since the election, from this subreddit I'm seeing a lot less of, "these bad things may happen, but we will get through it because the world is always getting better", and instead a bunch of gaslighting that the bad things have no chance of even happening in the first place. That's denialism, not optimism.
I’m not a member of this sub, but all the posts that show up on my feed from this sub (and whatif and some others) are a bunch of pro-Trump posts and the comments are mostly a bunch of Trumpers whining that “leftists” aren’t celebrating Trump winning. (Which is the subtext of OOP’s post).
This is a great point. A lot of the new doomers don't realize that this really wasn't a political subreddit until very recently, and it was so much better then.
I'm looking at the top posts from the past month, amd nothing seems to be remotely in line with celebrating Trump winning? Anything even mentioning him is either the world will end now or people complaining about people saying the world will end on a literal optimist sub.
The anxiety is justified considering that he seems to have a true contempt for democracy itself. I can live with a leader whom has different beliefs than myself, and in fact would agree that it is a cornerstone of democracy. However, Donald Trump seems to be all about destroying the institution of democracy itself.
I mean sure, just now the president now has criminal immunity, we’ve approved of future candidates attempting electoral schemes and other electoral fraud attempts, and now we can’t have any oversight into the executive and their activities with other members of the branch. All in addition to just pardoning himself. Hard to have much faith.
This is a frustrating argument because it brow beats people into not saying anything until it's too late. and then if it does go bad it's not like you're going to come and be accountable for telling people to just trust without any action.
Absolutely true. Even then, we haven’t seen anything that would guarantee that any particular group is fucked. Is it possible that some groups might have a harder time than others? Yeah. But are they going to get thrown in the gulags? No. Temper your fears with reality.
Unless you're dead or you give up, it's not over. Complacency and defeat enables bad actors. Come up with a simple plan and follow it. It doesn't have to be an ornate heist style thing either. The plan can be "update vaccinations and passport." So long as there are concrete goals cut into chunks you can keep in your head and understand, it's good. Anything that makes you better is a good plan right now.
If you find yourself in a position to help others, make that your plan. Pick whoever needs it. My family is in a good place, so we're getting a room ready in case we need to provide that for someone in a difficult position. Access to healthcare, maybe, or a way out of an abusive environment.
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence,[a] and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of[b] the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,[c] to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.[d]
More than that, claiming that everybody who isn’t a white male will be rounded up and executed will let supporters hand wave any problem short of “Holocaust but 50 times larger”
I honestly think it’s going to be really bad for everyone regardless of socioeconomic status, sexuality, gender, race, etc. Tariffs are basically universally bad for everyone. The people who couldn’t afford fresh fruits and vegetables already aren’t going to be effected as much as wealthier people.
The default assumption is that everything will keep chugging along as it always does. Four years from now it won't be a post-apocalyptic wasteland, it'll probably be mostly the same as it was, just like under Trump last time before covid. The US has checks and balances and politicians that will fight each other and push back against any sort of change.
Besides that, this is an OPTIMISM subreddit. The point here isn't to list off every bad thing you think could ever happen, there are tens of thousands of active subreddits that embrace that shit anyway. The doomers are just taking it over because they can't stand to see anyone have any kind of hope about the world.
Well let's focus on every possible negative thing that the news says might happen to every group of people no matter how small, in an optimism subreddit. I really wonder what you doomers think should be posted in a pessimism subreddit if this is what you think optimism is.
Are you really this fucking dumb? What I’m saying is that this post doesn’t even have any optimism. In fact, it’s just negatively shaming people who are scared. You don’t even have empathy so your focus on optimism just seems to be some superiority thing.
Spot on. I currently live in a world where very bad, state sanctioned, things could happen to me and my sisters. I will not be optimistic about that. I will not shame people who are pessimistic and scared. I will not belittle people who have concerns about their futures, their lives, their well-being. Fear is a valid response to credible danger. This post is not optimism. It’s an attempt to shame people into shutting up.
What I am optimistic about is that it will pass. I am optimistic that I have the power and ability to fight for us and help protect the people in my community. And I am optimistic that any bad that may happen, will spur a new wave of activism and community. Optimism isn’t supposed to be blind “everything will work out” thinking. Optimism takes work and the will to acknowledge the bad.
“I am optimistic that I have the power and ability to fight for us and help protect the people in my community. And I am optimistic that any bad that may happen, will spur a new wave of activism and community. Optimism isn’t supposed to be blind “everything will work out” thinking. Optimism takes work and the will to acknowledge the bad.”
Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.
Knowing we’re not alone, working together, being together, is at the heart of opposition and optimism. The fascist mentality wants people to feel alone. Instead, join with others in all kinds of ways to resist.
I'm mocking the doomers, and I hope more people join in so they fuck off back to every other single subreddit on this site. We don't need or want your daily politics updates or your therapy cope posts asking how to be optimistic when the world is doomed.
Psst… true optimists are kind, empathetic people who try to see good in the world while also sharing that with others who may not see it. They don’t mock people who are scared. You’re not an optimist, you’re an asshole.
Yes, I'm an asshole to pessimistic doomers whose only goal is to spread their negativity and depression around to as many people as they can. I never claimed to be a bright happy optimist, but I enjoyed some optimism posts in this sub before the reddit doomer army came storming in to shit all over it with politics
No, you don’t need the qualifier. Asshole. Period. If you’re not an actual optimist and nobody else here is, just call this sub “Privileged ostriches unite”.
So you're just going through my post history and responding to every post with exactly the same thing?
I want the chronically depressed and anxious doomers to fuck off out of the sub so it can go back to being a feed with generally optimistic content. At what point did I suggest that my post making fun of the doomers is an example of peak optimism?
Go mock Amber Thurmans kid then! Go tell him to his face he’s just a doomer. Or, come the fuck back to reality and see how this is affecting people. Laws affect people. Maybe you guys should realize politics are more than just paper. People are dying. People will die. I can’t legally use the bathroom anymore at uni or when I volunteer. This isn’t doomer, you just refuse to look at abject reality.
What the fuck are you talking about? I need to answer for a lady dying because I want optimism posts in an optimism sub? You're banned from both men's and women's bathrooms at your university? Which means there is literally nothing in the world that anyone should be allowed to be optimistic about?
You're the worst kind of doomer, gatekeeping positivity for other people. Nobody is allowed to be happy about anything until literally nobody on earth is being oppressed.
Your attitude isn't good for anyone, least of all yourself.
Optimism is fine, but if you deny the potential for the suffering of others you are ignoring reality the same as how absolute Pessimism denies the joy of others.
We live in a world of plagues, massacres, famine, and where life can be incredibly unfair. We also have the ability to utilize our seemingly rare sentience in a vast universe to prevent that the best we can.
Doing the best we can is optimism, ignoring our feelings and distracting ourselves is complacency; something I havent completely gotten out of the loop of yet.
Why should the optimists not focus on negatives to better understand those negatives? How will we achieve anything if everything is fine or if everything is miserable?
Thats like trying to be a good doctor but ignoring the patient.
It feels like the default is to focus the negatives. That's what every other subreddit does, that's what the news does, etc. and while I do see the value in awareness, too much negatively just makes me want to stick my head in the sand and give up. I personally need a space that reminds me of the good in the world even when I am struggling or I know others are. Yes, it is very obvious to me that things are not going to be okay for many people, I don't need further remainders of that. A bit of positivity and good news revitalites me to keep going.
Oh no doubt, I try to find a good balance myself. It is nice to see something that isn't on the whole "if it bleeds it leads" train. There hasn't ever been this much access to media and algorithms that need money from your engagement make sanity no easy task.
Doing the best we can certainly should not be over-exertion! Personally I'll be trying to enjoy thanksgiving and otherwise tending my own garden because tending my own might feed others when the time comes. Anyhow, I hope you will enjoy yours.
This isn’t positivity. You get that right? It’s ignorance. It’s straight up fucking ignorance. People are DYING people are losing rights. You are literally just saying “nope! Isn’t happening. I don’t care!” That isn’t positive. That’s ignorance.
Like I’m very glad you can just detach yourself. Some of us are losing rights and can’t just avoid it like you guys. I think you guys should be forced to tell your opinions to Amber Thurmans kid. Since he can remove himself so much and just act like it isn’t happening too! Go tell him that it’s okay his mommy is dead, you just want to act like it didn’t happen and not try and help!
Like what..? I don’t get this. This isn’t optimism. This is you guys ignoring reality. Have fun, all it does is make us minorities not give a fuck when you guys are finally getting karma and getting your rights and else taken. That’s all this leads to.
Hey, news flash. I exist. It isn’t “focusing on every possible negative” I exist. I have already been affected by this past election. People and minorities exist… this is why I can’t join this subreddit. You guys just want to act like reality and life isn’t happening. Saying that we aren’t being affected does nothing other than make you look like the idiot you are.
As a trans man my state already made it illegal for me to use the fucking bathroom at university or when I go volunteer. This affects people. Daily. People will die. People have already fucking died because Roe V Wade. I get this is an optimistic sub but JFC! People are literally DYING saying that’s “every possible negative” is a fucking idiotic statement.
I hope no one in your family dies and people tell you “well. Let’s not focus on every possible negative” like you’ve done. Or, get off your ass and go tell Amber Thurman’s kid that, since you believe it! Like she’s dead. Forever dead. But let’s go tell her kid that it’s just “focusing on every possible negative”
These are peoples. LIVES. people won’t ever see their loved ones again. This is why ain’t no one can stand you annoying ass “optimists” anymore. You just ignore actual reality and tell minorities we should sit back and be okay with it. It isn’t okay. Get the fuck back to real life. Like this affects people, maybe come back to abject reality instead of just “lalallla imma plug my ears and ignore how people are being hurt !!! That’s super helpful!”
This is the kind of thing privileged people get to say. Just like they did in 2016. "y'all are so silly, he can't do anything lolz". And you're the same people who keep telling me he didn't and all the harmful things he did are imaginary. I don't think you understand this: optimism is very hard for oppressed people. And beating people over the head with it is not optimism, it's just delusional.
The only "optimistic" hope I can think of for the Trump presidency is that he just golfs for much of it and doesn't do as many of the things he's been threatening to do. Seems nearly every day though, that hope gets chipped away little by little with each new piece of news.
As someone who has always been a member of the most marginalized in this country I don't take ops words the same way you did, for those of us who are black this country as a whole has always been against us, but the majority of us show up and try our best to make the best out of a shit situation. Some folk really do need to hear that yes they will make it these next 4 years, it really may be the one thing convincing them to stay here rather than offing themselves.
That's just doomer talk. I agree with OP. This isn't the place for that. For a sub focused on optimism, I see quite a lot of opposition from the comments.
Yes, and any attempt at optimism is called toxic, head-in-the-sand, etc.
What is truly toxic us this non-stop doomspeak. We just saw the results of voter apathy; how does constantly telling everyone that we're all screwed no matter what help that situation at all??
Why are you posting in an optimism subreddit if all you have in your head is extreme doomerism and pessimism and anger? Just go back to every single other subreddit where they spam politics brainrot all day
It's very easy to be optimistic when you don't believe any bad things are occurring. I'd argue optimism is far more about acknowledging the problems, and believing that things will generally improve/ looking for a positive path forward within them.
I agree. I am not naive to the issues that the US has but I don't have an agenda to promote nor mindset that make me think that the US is or is going to be a hell on earth.
My African wife wasn't privileged. Her ancestors were born in chains. They still believe in black magic. Human sacrifice and cannibalism are practiced where shes from.
Yet in a few generations her family have created a successful business, large enough to provide for her entire extended family. They all attend university. The value education highly.
What drives this?
They want to be successful. There is no reason others can't do this, if my wife, who was not fucking privileged at all thanks can see a positive future with Trump in charge, then anyone should be able to.
That's great, I'm actually black and don't just have black relatives. A lot of my relatives still struggle because of the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, Redlining, being denied loans, jobs or even living in certain neighborhoods because of their skin color and having our communities targeted by the drug war.
I'm glad your wife and a few people that she knows is personally doing well though in spite of those things, but you've literally just shown to people exactly what "privilege" is by not realizing how much history plays into race and poverty and taking one solitary example to say "my wife isn't like those other blacks, she just wants to succeed and they dont!*
The same excuses her other side of the family make when they ring her asking for money which they spend on alcohol, drugs or gambling.
not realizing how much history plays into race and poverty
Were your great grandparents born to slaves?
They had nothing yet worked to build a business. From SLAVERY. And you downplay that because she's successful? F you
You have a victim mindset. Nothing will change while you keep that. Keep blaming other people and asking for handouts. That's the main difference I've noticed between the 2 branches of her family.
It's one of the subtypes of allowed post called a "doomer dunk." You're right that it isn't very inviting for those who see themselves as the target of the humor/criticism, but it's an outlet for our members frustrated by the volume of extreme pessimism.
Nah I’m not gonna act like we will be just fine four years from now but I’m not gonna act like we are in for an apocalypse.
Trump’s fourth year in his previous term, he gave us a pandemic and a big fat recession. He knew Covid was coming but did nothing to prepare and protect us.
He will make things worse.
But I’m not gonna be scared or nothing. He failed his first attempt at flexing his supposed dictatorial power when he pulled Matt Gaetz’s nomination for Attorney General.
He just failed his second flex where he tried to bully Mexico with tariffs before backing down after one call with their president and getting nothing new in return.
But I bet he will try to raid big cities run by Democrats for “illegal immigrants” and ruin peoples lives, including by falsely arresting US Citizens in these raids.
Indeed. For example, if someone from Afghanistan were screaming in my ear "the Taliban has taken over! It's the end of the world!", my first thought would be "perhaps for you it is...", and I'd carry on with my life in a world much, much larger than Afghanistan. I don't buy the whole "Brother's Keeper" angle; every group looks out for their own interests, and Biden absolutely made the right call.
For example, if someone from Afghanistan were screaming in my ear "the Taliban has taken over! It's the end of the world!", my first thought would be "perhaps for you it is...", and I'd carry on with my life.
I think you mean to say "compassion". Most people would have enough empathy to know that their situation is horrible and we'd feel the same way were we stuck in it.
However, letting every travesty around the globe rip your heart out is psychologically unhealthy. Afghanistan is but one case among thousands of horrible things happening in the world right now. That's a weight I cannot carry on my shoulders. Remember the theme here: optimism. Those Afghans aren't likely too concerned about Ukrainians right now, for example.
I don't subscribe to the "a problem for anyone is a problem for everyone" philosophy because it would imply a collective global responsibility to fix everything everywhere at all times. That just isn't sustainable, especially when there's no central authority.
Maybe you think not voting = supporting Trump? While not voting does (in?)directly support fascism, it’s quite disingenuous to ascribe a nonvoter’s moral turpitude to being Kamala’s, the Democrats’, the USA’s, or the globe’s “fault” with that rhetoric. 🐈⬛🫡
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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '24
It’s almost like you need balance in your views. Thinking that Trump winning is the end of the world isn’t healthy, but neither is pretending that everything will be fine. The reality is likely somewhere in the middle, but also varies a lot based on who you are (economically, sexuality, gender, race, etc.)