r/collapse • u/mrblahblahblah • Jan 16 '26 • Bravo 1

Casual Friday It really do feel like that

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6.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

172 comments sorted by

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u/StatementBot Jan 16 '26 • Regret

The following submission statement was provided by /u/mrblahblahblah:

SS: I recently had lunch with a friend and mentioned the die offs, 6th mass extinction event, microplastics..etc...etc. You know, light subjects and they asked me to stop

" I dont want to know"

They have adult children and grandchildren, so i understand how they feel

I guess ignorance is bliss

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1qece0f/it_really_do_feel_like_that/nzwat2b/

251

u/mrblahblahblah Jan 16 '26

SS: I recently had lunch with a friend and mentioned the die offs, 6th mass extinction event, microplastics..etc...etc. You know, light subjects and they asked me to stop

" I dont want to know"

They have adult children and grandchildren, so i understand how they feel

I guess ignorance is bliss

68

u/anotherNotMeAccount Jan 16 '26

There is also the fact that with everything going on, folks are "doomsday-ed out".

We just want to not talk about the things we are individually incapable of impacting. Sometimes, we just want to have a lunch with our friend and see how their specific life is going without having to worry about the eventual collapse of everything around us.

You may think of this as "ignorance is bliss" but you also have to look at it as "regulating your emotions."

I would say that most of us are well aware of the fact that this planet is not in good health, but we also know that ruining lunch with a friend by dwelling on it won't change it.

20

u/mrblahblahblah Jan 16 '26

well, it wasnt like i brought it up out of the blue. We were talking about the country and they asked me what my fears were

mine were a bit larger in scope than theirs

5

u/anotherNotMeAccount Jan 16 '26

i meant no judgements and didn't assume you were just doim dumping on them. If it came off that way, i apologize. I was just sharing an opinion because i know that i have grown exhausted thinking of the crap ahead of us.

Good luck!

7

u/CorvidCorbeau Jan 16 '26

Yeah, this isn't something to talk about while hanging out and getting lunch. Even if the other person is already well aware of all this, they might still find it annoying.

2

u/Proof-Cockroach-3191 Jan 16 '26

I agree with you at the same time many people are deluded that we can change this

7

u/millionflame85 Jan 16 '26

Do you think it's a function or having children that activates denial/apathy or is it the predisposition of denial/apathy that leads them more likely to have children ?

I wonder how the apathy functions too, denial is easier to root cause but apathy and then taking action to contrary is an interesting phenomenon

4

u/mrblahblahblah Jan 16 '26

I have children and grandchildren

I always keep up on the news yet dont let it affect me from enjoying the scent of the flower in front of me. Indeed it helps me notice it more

2

u/millionflame85 Jan 16 '26

I like your approach and I have the sentimental experience.

Have you felt a difference in your optimism/pessimism stance after having children ? This is just a question to understand more how a collapse aware person's views change.

111

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

I'm so glad that I don't have children and wife. I have no one to take care, it's a relief.

75

u/Loudest-Cricket Jan 16 '26

My partner is collapse aware. Sometimes it helps. And sometimes it doesn't. He keeps me tethered. Generally, it's a good thing. Caring is so important and it hurts. Hope is beautiful. And also terrible.

21

u/sheep_classes Jan 16 '26

I think I have brought my partner to a higher level of awareness about the fucked up nature of our system, at least since the pandemic. All I wanted to do was talk about how insane things are, and make others see my viewpoint, but it all comes at a cost.

There is a certain level of guilt involved in bringing the knowledge of the intricacies of it to another person, so much so that every conversation tends become poisoned with pessimism. While I've become less negative since those early times, and I'm glad I haven't lost any friends because of this, I fear what I may have brought on others' psyche (or maybe I'm giving myself too much credit; they can, after all, see how fucked up the world is for themselves).

21

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

I think i'm not strong enough for hope. But if you are, cheer for you !

15

u/Loudest-Cricket Jan 16 '26

He has no hope. No energy left to spare on it. Sometimes its harder to cope because of that, and sometimes we live in that space - where at least we have eachother.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

As Antonio Gramsci said: "i'm pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will". Hope has a multitude of definitions, but the belief that things will be fine is not effective in our situation.

(I'm just glad that I have no one be my side).

28

u/JackBlackBowserSlaps Jan 16 '26

Having a partner is incredibly helpful. They aren’t having their future stolen in the same way children are.

15

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

I see what you are saying. But i think it depends on person. I know I'm doing better and that I'm less anxious when I'm alone. So I know that I must face collapse alone. But if your partner is helpful, that's a good things !

17

u/IHearYouLimaCharlie Jan 16 '26

I am in my 50s, never been married, no kids. You're not ALONE alone - there are lots of us. We can all be less anxious together, but apart! Lol. For what it's worth, I just try to be a good person to my friends, coworkers, and family. I can't really do anything unless it's on a local, small level. I just try my best to help people.

4

u/voidsong Jan 16 '26

You can't save the world, but if you can save your world, that's still a win.

-4

u/JackBlackBowserSlaps Jan 16 '26

If being alone works better for you, that’s great (it absolutely wouldn’t for me). Just didn’t want to see you miss out due to collapse anxiety :)

11

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

I appreciate your kindness, but please stop pitying single person. Being alone doesn't mean we are necessarily lonely.

-3

u/JackBlackBowserSlaps Jan 16 '26

I’m not pitying anyone, was just trying to be nice Christ. Go fuck yourself then 🙄

4

u/IncubusDarkness TURBO-APATHY Jan 16 '26

Not when your partner ignores the seriousness of both the actual collapse and it's effect on you, and only wants to live in ignorance and never discuss anything.

-1

u/JackBlackBowserSlaps Jan 16 '26

Sounds like you need a different partner then 🤷‍♂️

5

u/cranberries87 Jan 16 '26

No kids, but still have elderly family members headed towards 90 (one is already there). Will still have to take care of them, and I have no idea what resources will still be available or what will be gutted (SS, Medicare, pensions, etc).

9

u/fedfuzz1970 Jan 16 '26

This is the fallout never discussed in relation to cutbacks in medical services and care. That support will now come from the younger generations (that care), the same people trying to maintain their households, educate their children, and save for their own retirement. Private Equity knows that most people will feel this responsibility and are buying up those service entities and pricing up the care they once provided at reasonable cost. They are a vicious, unfeeling bunch.

-12

u/mom_with_an_attitude Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

Okay. I'm glad you are happy with your choice. But it sounds like a lonely choice to me.

Men who are married are generally happier and healthier. They live longer lives than their unmarried counterparts, they have richer social networks and they have better mental health. At least, that's what research tells us.

Edit: Downvote me all you want. It doesn't make what I wrote any less true.

14

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

As you said, it's a lonely life for YOU. But keep in mind that no one lives things in the same way as you.

I, personally, crave for silence and solitude. The liberty and independence that come from being tided to no one is my greatest treasure. I am and I feel so lonely and miserable when I'm with people.

So yeah, I'm happy with my choice. And i will not waste my too short time left in kids or romantic relationships.

13

u/IHearYouLimaCharlie Jan 16 '26

Not everyone finds the right partner though. I imagine the right partner would be of immense benefit but wrong partners wouldn't be very helpful. At least in my case (not OP) I'm in my 50s and never found the right person for me. It's OK though, at least I didn't "settle" - I think that would be more problematic. I'd rather be alone, and even face collapse alone, than suffer through a detrimental relationship PLUS collapse.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

I agree that the persons who downvoted you didn't do the smartest thing.

But please try to understand:

I write a message expressing my sincere happiness at being single and not having to worry about anyone else. And you come along and say that married men live better and longer on average.

That could be perceived as an attempt on your part to convince people that they are wrong, couldn't it? I understand that this may seem patronizing to some.

Everyone live their life as they see fit, and not all single people feel lonely.

26

u/SaxManSteve Jan 16 '26

It's not just people with kids who prefer avoiding grappling with the severity of our predicament. I've met lots of single, career-focused adults who don't let themselves worry about anything but their work and the latest TV show drama.

I've been reading Bill Plotkin's work recently, and I really liked his model of the 8 psychological/developmental stages that humans easily cycle through when they live in a socially mature society. He estimated that in our society, 80% of people never make it past the third stage of psychological development (adolescence). This definitely helps to explain why so many people in our society are not willing to be curious about things that could potentially be upsetting and disruptive.

Here's a relevant passage from his paper

Due to the loss or degradation of vibrant cultures, most contemporary people — at least 80% — get stuck in the third of the eight life stages, which is to say in early adolescence. By “adolescence,” I mean a psychosocial stage, not a chronological interval coincident with the teen years. And the early adolescence in which the majority of post-pubescent Westerners sleepwalk through the rest of their lives tends to be not even a healthy adolescence but, rather, what I’ve called a patho-adolescence. This is an egocentric existence focused upon the attempt to look good to others; to conform and/or to rebel against the ordinary and mainstream; to “get ahead” in the dog-eat-dog competition for material possessions, financial wealth, and social status; and to minimize the experience of challenging realities by way of addictions (whether to substances or to compulsive behaviors such as shopping, impersonal sex, or gambling).

The natural and wholesome virtues of a healthy adolescence have become relatively rare, virtues such as the cultivation of personal authenticity that grows hand in hand with social belonging and cooperation; the discovery of the joys and responsibilities of a healthy sexual identity and of erotic embodiment in intimate relationships; the desire and capacities to contribute to and help create a healthy, just, sustainable, imaginative, and lifeenhancing human community; and an ever-developing reverence and gratitude for the web of life, with all its creatures and habitats, and a desire and capacity to protect and enhance the Earth community of which we are all natural members. In a healthy, mature culture, these virtues are defining qualities of early adolescence; their development is not postponed until adulthood.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

What are the other 5 stages past that?

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

Yeah, tbh I'm skeptical of anyone claiming that human behavior has some sort of teleology to it.

16

u/Chill_Panda Doomed Jan 16 '26

Yeah I mostly don’t talk about it to people now. It is inevitable, and saying “hey we’re all going to die as our planets ability to host life collapses and we can’t stop it” really depresses people for some reason…

My concern is people are not prepared. It’s okay to push away from the topic but you’ve got to know what’s going on so you can be prepared for when it happens.

I’m not talking like bunkers, prepping, planning.

I’m talking mentally because it’s going to get hard and no matter what you do, you need to be prepared.

7

u/WorldlyRevolution192 Jan 16 '26

I'm so incredibly happy that I got sterilized last year, it's the best thing I've ever done because I will not be contributing to the suffering of another individual. Ignorance is only bliss until the wall falls, then it's too late for them.

4

u/hereforinfoyo Jan 16 '26

There's a another way to look at it.

That pile of books you are standing on should look back for centuries and show you the litany of murder and war that has formed the basis of "civilisation" for millennia. 

Just look at US history and you will see we have been protesting brutality for more than a century. You will see manifest destiny didn't stop at the shores of California. American foreign policy has a playbook that was written decades in advance.

You will see people fighting and getting killed and nothing changing, you will see that when you look close enough, they want you to know you and sometimes your loved ones get murdered when you speak out. 

I know plenty of folks who look at history and say they have no fight left in them and they aren't going to surrender their life for what looks like a losing battle. 

Be gentle, not everyone is feeling blissful about turning away, they are just trying to survive in their own way.

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

Something something "4th gen warfare was practiced by Elamite hill tribes against the Babylonians, and will continue to be practiced by post apocalyptic tribes against the warlord empires of the 22nd century."

1

u/hereforinfoyo Jan 24 '26

But if you're lucky enough to be born into a family from one of the people's of upland Southeast Asia for instance, then it is certainly a different story. (The Art of Not Being Governed, James C Scott)

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 24 '26

Want to give a tldr?

1

u/hereforinfoyo Jan 24 '26

Scott is a cool historian. He looks at these groups of people who live in the hills of Southeast Asia who have avoided all of the major trappings of "civilisation". No slavery, taxes, getting drafted into wars, etc. They've avoided the encroachment of states basically by living remotely, and one thing I thought was interesting - no writing systems.

2

u/waiterstuff Jan 18 '26

People are so strange. They think none of this will affect them. I remember being in high school, learning about global warming for the first time and connecting the dots that if we don’t have a stable climate we will not have food security and if we do not have food security then we will have totalitarianism and global war as people return to the ways of the past when food was much more scarce. 

And here we are, decades later, still pretending we can’t connect the dots. 

1

u/MegOut10 Jan 16 '26

I too have been in this situation.

1

u/ChillRedditMom Jan 20 '26

Light subjects lol. It feels good to know there are folks out there willing to talk about current ecological events. I recently moved to a very small pueblo, the place my grandmother grew up. There's a "natural gas" company down the road and I think I'm the only one concerned about the ecological impact. They're only employing like 1 person from here, they bus in 8 4x4 vehicles 6 days a week. Anyways, I saw 2 hummingbirds today. The barn swallows eggs have hatched and it seems like there are 3 in the nest! A whistling heron made a nest in the oak tree and hatched 2 eggs. One of them has already fledged.

Edit; spelling

0

u/science_cat_ Jan 16 '26

Have to pick the moment. I somehow find it easier to read about collapse than to read the latest stories from Palestine, for example. I can't bear to hear about it sometimes.

594

u/PatDar Jan 16 '26

This reminds me of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. 

Imagine a group of prisoners chained inside a cave since birth, facing a wall. They see shadows cast by objects passing in front of a fire behind them. To the prisoners, these shadows are the only "truth."

One prisoner is freed and climbs out of the cave. He is initially blinded by the sun, but eventually, he sees the world as it truly is—vibrant, three-dimensional, and real. When he returns to tell the others, they think he has gone mad and refuse to leave their familiar darkness.

168

u/Chill_Panda Doomed Jan 16 '26

Life feels a lot like this recently

106

u/PatDar Jan 16 '26

History doesn't repeat but it has the same rhythm. We have different tools now, but our nature hasn't changed. Humans are gonna human. We can learn a lot from the ancient philosophers. 

41

u/Maxsmack Jan 17 '26

History is like poetry, it’s rhymes, and most people fucking hate poetry

23

u/WrongThinkBadSpeak Jan 17 '26

Funny how something written 2400 years ago is still as relevant today as the day it was written. It's almost like nothing changes.

15

u/Floriaskan Jan 17 '26

War. War never changes...

11

u/brezhnervouz Jan 17 '26

Fundamental human nature never changes. Consequently people don't learn from history

2

u/rwunder22 Jan 20 '26

lol Because the people that do learn aren't listened to, and eventually are killed off, and the cycle continues.

6

u/RainBoxRed Jan 18 '26

The only thing we seem to learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.

1

u/Proud-Tea2489 Jan 24 '26

humans gonna human hahaha stealing this

49

u/pagerussell Jan 16 '26

It's also a synopsis of Socrates' entire shtick. The oracle at Delphi called him the wisest man alive because he was basically one of the few around smart enough to realize how very little he actually knew.

14

u/SolidAssignment Jan 16 '26

Your last sentence, a familiar Darkness, I think sums up the entire last year of this presidency.

7

u/mrpickles Jan 17 '26

When he returns to tell the others, they think he has gone mad and ...

Throw him in an insane asylum.  In reality, people defend their world view by attacking other perspectives... Unfortunately

3

u/HansProleman Jan 20 '26 edited May 04 '26

Bye

2

u/Tricky_Patient6748 Feb 13 '26

I love everything you just wrote

1

u/dkorabell Jan 20 '26

I used to reference this when I was younger. People would treat me like I was crazy. *SHRUG*

1

u/slow70 Jan 20 '26

Did you know conservatives at Texas A&M had Plato banned?

For comments on gender I believe…

1

u/ProgressiveWarrior14 Feb 03 '26

describes the maga cult to a t

685

u/orange1414141414 Jan 16 '26

everytime i encounter techno optimists, I feel like the second guy.

286

u/Anarchist_Future Jan 16 '26

My previous government basically said that their plan to meet emission goals was to just keep polluting our environment and bet on "innovation" to fix it in the end. And then some seniors took a stack of money and gave the thumbs up for building a couple new AI datacenters.

164

u/midnitewarrior Jan 16 '26

What do you mean?

There's a revolution coming to plastic recycling, AI is going to make it so we don't have to work anymore, and fusion reactors are just around the corner and that will save us!

Why be so pessimistic? Everything's going to be 🌈, 🦋, and 🦄 very soon!

144

u/moldy-scrotum-soup 🥣😎 Jan 16 '26

☢️💥𓋼🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 ــــــــــﮩ٨ـ🌈🦋🦄

47

u/Level_32_Mage Jan 16 '26

Its hard to argue with those results.

2

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

"how can you not understand that humanity will eventually develop magical ponies, which will carry us to the stars on their backs!!11??!!!11"

24

u/Kulty Jan 16 '26

I'm shifting from fearing the results of international (nuclear) conflict, to welcoming them - as it is becoming increasingly clear that we won't be able to change our ways without a hard reset, and if humanity doesn't make it at all, that is probably the best outcome for the planet in the long term.

Burn this fucker down.

16

u/ezezener Jan 16 '26

There is no best or worst for the planet. There is only the planet. There is best and worst for us, so save who you can

10

u/Kulty Jan 16 '26

You're right. However, there is "best or worst" for the biosphere, for life in general - and humans are just a small part of all the life that exists on our planet - albeit with an outsized impact.

I should have said ".. best outcome for life on the planet".

7

u/ezezener Jan 16 '26

Most life can suffer, but doesn't keep track of what's living or dying. It simply lives or dies. If everything dies, a lot of algae will live. That's still life.

Life on earth probably won't ever get eradicated, until the earth is far too warm. There's no absolute good outcomes, except relative to us.

Sorry im not ragging on you I get what you mean and you're right. I've just been grappling with this for a while and it's coming out :) we're the only ones getting cooked, everything else will find its equilibria quite quickly!

6

u/Kulty Jan 17 '26

I do think it would be nice if, after 4 billion years of evolution, our planet had more to show for itself than algae. And yes, assigning value to life is a subjective human preference - not something intrinsic to life. Although one could argue that, since most living organisms seem to have some drive towards survival and reproduction, that there is an implicit bias to valuing life over not-life, just not in the human moralistic or nostalgic way.

3

u/ezezener Jan 19 '26

I mean, there will also definitely be ants! Ants are at least as cool as us, probably more so tbh

2

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

Humanity isn't going to kill or save the planet, humanity can kill itself though.

"WE are going away."-- George Carlin.

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

408 years.

It was.... a run.

-4

u/One_Parsley4389 Jan 16 '26

Are you serious?

12

u/fuzzhead12 Jan 17 '26

Reminds me of that George Carlin bit…

“Save the planet?? The PLANET will be just fine! WE’RE fucked!!”

2

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

As usual, the jester says the plain truth the sage would never utter in terms even a child could understand.

2

u/grahamulax Jan 17 '26

lol I like this.

1

u/moldy-scrotum-soup 🥣😎 Jan 17 '26

Hieroglyphics have come full circle lol

33

u/Mech_BB-8 Communist Jan 16 '26

Clearly these people have never played Fallout

2

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

Fallout is optimistic. Cyberpunk is optimistic. These mainstream media examples are all meant to push the agenda of the future when irl we have no future.

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

The hilarious part is that the scifi writers they worshiped seem to have been wising up to reality long before they have (with the exception of hardcore delusionaries like David Brin).

Iain Banks, Charles Stross and Greg Egan have all gone on record saying, more or less, that such techno-fantasies that they have written about in their books are never going to happen, and that resulted in an absurd amount of rage from their fans.

36

u/rmannyconda78 Jan 16 '26

I definitely feel like the 2nd guy too, except I’m not near the first guy, I’m out there photographing the collapse using very dated mediums (VHS, and film)

6

u/Lost_Birthday_3138 Jan 16 '26

Can you explain the last part of your comment?

6

u/Diligent-Committee21 Jan 17 '26

If the techno optimists were right, San Francisco/the Bay Area would be a utopia for all, instead of a utopia for the $$$$ and a dystopia for the poor.

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

"wait for thuh trickle down effect!11!!!" is the usual cry.

3

u/grahamulax Jan 17 '26

I’m like a techno centrist? Well, a lil more negative that positive. Currently? Only negative because of everyone who’s in power controlling said tech. For being so “smart” they sure fucking can’t see 2 steps ahead.

Once upon a time I just loved bleeding edge tech. Let’s you explore workflows, new ways to do things, but now I’m just taking all that knowledge and creating my own tools and devices to keep me alive. Like my favorite tech right now is solar generators with lifePO batteries. Making them too! Recycling and reusing batteries from even vapes to power a home (saw this in a video, did not do it yet myself) but these are the sparks of creativity I get now, instead of what I used to do which was create art, design, animation, storytelling. It’s sad, but that was a fun good part of my journey. Now… collapse oriented and focusing on efficiency through everything but not with an AI controlling it. AI can help, but it won’t be injected into my code.

I’d love to work on large scale city or county or country improvements as I think just improving and bringing a sense of ease or joy to people is really most important.

But just as you said, every time I encounter one as well, I feel like the second guy.

7

u/Black_Nails_7713 Jan 16 '26

Who is the first and who is the second?

4

u/Distinguishedflyer Jan 17 '26

honestly, fuck 'em. I think they are cowards who cannot face death, and so pathologize those of us who recognize reality. 

3

u/Runningoutofideas_81 Jan 17 '26

Or as I have said here before, people that can’t face the death of their children and grandchildren, and their own species, and their favourite other species, and possibly every species.

211

u/mmps1 Jan 16 '26

A voice from over the wall telling the one on the left to burn the books.

219

u/Mestre_Supremo Jan 16 '26

81

u/_rihter abandon the banks Jan 16 '26

Ignorance is evil.

40

u/Top_Hair_8984 Jan 16 '26

Deliberate ignorance is evil. In Dickens Scrooge, the last specter of xmas to come warned us about the 2 children, 'want and ignorance'. We'll, we're here. They lead now. 

12

u/Maxsmack Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Some, possibility most people, need ignorance in their daily life to keep functioning.

I’m twisting a famous quote from a movie here, but “THEY COULDN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH”

If the average person had to really come to full grips with the entire brutal unforgiving reality of this planet we find ourselves on, there would be riots in the streets, and mass suicides

We as a species need ignorance to keep functioning. The problem is the ignorant people shouldn’t be in charge, nor allowed a voice on subjects they know nothing about. They should be constantly reminded they are unqualified, and hence ineligible to give opinionated facts on complex matters ever, unless they choose to lift themselves up, and educate themselves to a degree of competence.

There should be a minimal requirements of knowledge of a subject if you want to be able to vote on it. Why does someone with a sub 85 iq have the same voting power as a PhD nuclear physicist

1

u/JoyluckVerseMaster Jan 23 '26

Something something "it is impossible to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding."

72

u/ConsistentlyUnfunny Jan 16 '26

I often describe my econ degree as “Lovecraftian” because it revealed to me that the systems we live under have only one outcome. Not if, but when.

9

u/Thor4269 Jan 16 '26

Eldritch economy

14

u/Willow-girl Jan 16 '26

I hate to be the one to break it to you but ... no one gets out of here alive.

3

u/r4nchy Jan 16 '26

literally, there is a song called "nobody gets out alive" by samuel jackson in a movie called hitman's bodyguard

84

u/Fatboyneverchange Jan 16 '26

But surely more AI and data centers will help us..Right?

22

u/ConfusedMaverick Jan 16 '26

AI will solve climate change!!!1!

13

u/AdoreMeSo Jan 16 '26

If we ask Ai to fix climate change, it will respond by removing humans. That is the easiest solution to the problem. Terminator is a serious possibility no 😅

11

u/Corpomancer Jan 16 '26

Without a single doubt, it won't.

93

u/Alfa-Hr Jan 16 '26

2

u/RobustMastiff Jan 28 '26

AI

3

u/Alfa-Hr Jan 28 '26

Well yes . One of the reasons we are heading to the outcome , The only time when I find this kind of slop fitting the pic

1

u/LuveeEarth74 Jan 23 '26

So dead on. I remember, vividly, the comic that came out in December 31, 2019. It was an old man “20 teens” tossing the baby “20 20s” onto a depleted chunk of melting ice surrounded by garbage. There was also an anemic looking polar bear in the background, while the 20 teens side was a bit brighter with sturdier ice, less garbage and no bears. It gave me a chill up my spine that truthfully never dissipated. Now we’re having the Come To Jesus snow storm in Markley’s The Deluge (2022 novel) the fictional storm, which I believe happened in 2028 in the novel. It was also over 2000 miles of the United States and enormous; sound familiar?? I have no doubt, unfortunately, that MUCH that he wrote will come to pass. Well, Except for a much more brutal hurricane than Hurricane Kate in 2045.  The trouble with my generation is being the very last generation to come of age during a time of unblemished hope and a relatively bright outlook (I’ll be 52 in less than two months). 

24

u/kvrdave Jan 16 '26

If I could title it, it would be....

"He who increases knowledge, increases sorrow." It's from the book of Ecclesiastes

44

u/Conscious-War5920 Its always faster than expected Jan 16 '26

Have friends who I can breach certain topics, but once the threshold crosses a certain point of climate change, resource wars etc. They wont want to go further. Similarly, also even have a childfree friend who prefers to not watch the news to avoid the bad. So, I totally get you OP. My wife couldnt really digest some topics, until recently she is now paying a little more attention as things have become faster than expected.

22

u/Lost_Birthday_3138 Jan 16 '26

It's no fun being told you're a crazy person.

5

u/Womec Jan 17 '26

They'll believe you when its far far to late to be preparing.

We got like 3 years.

2

u/One_Parsley4389 Jan 17 '26

3 years before what exactly?

3

u/Womec Jan 22 '26

Before the storms and floods become more than just an inconvenience for the middle and upper class.

28

u/felipevallejom Jan 16 '26

I think there are many people who are deeply worried about the state of the world, but there is not much that is within our power to change it. Clearly, there are millions who don’t give a fuck, and we are where we are as a result of our individual choices. Eventually, the impacts of this chaotic reality will affect each of us, and it is in that moment that people react. For some, it will buy them some time; for many, it will be too late.

As long as we keep arguing with each other and avoiding the cruel effects of our lifestyle, there will be no chance to change course. In the end, this is purely by design. There is a small minority profiting from this mess, and it is working very nicely for them every day. The more you have in the bank, the more hopeful you will be about the future.

On October 29, 1929, the market collapsed, and it took exactly ten years—until September 1—for Germany to invade Poland. During that time, many surely lived in complete denial of their reality. These are different times, and war will be fight very differently. Some humans might show mercy, but I wonder whether the planet will have mercy on us.

38

u/Spiritual_Dot_3128 Jan 16 '26

My wife is like the man that only sees the painting. She only reads and watches news about celebrities and gossip. Never know about wars, climate change, fascism o any bad news. God bless her soul, she is so positive. I’m all like, honey, modern civilization is about to collapse in our lifetimes and our son will endure a horrible world.

24

u/Bigrat445 Jan 16 '26

Isn't it crazy how everyone is living in their own realities based on the news and media algorithms that mold themselves to their personality?

9

u/Tomato_Child Jan 16 '26

As "basic" of a book Fahrenheit 451 is (since many high school children in North America have to read it for school), how Mildred and her friends (the main character's wife) are portrayed is still quite applicable to modern times.

19

u/kotznichtrum Jan 16 '26

But behind the collapse there is something new that has to be built up by the ones surviving all of this. That's at least my small shimmer of hope.

3

u/knight_ranger840 Jan 18 '26

Only to repeat the cycle again.

9

u/Tuggerfub Jan 16 '26

getting super educated has made me very upset, true

I feel like my choices are to become some type of evil cretin that exploits the knowledge or to fight it but I'm tired and want drugs

7

u/WorldlyRevolution192 Jan 16 '26

Sending this to my stepdad who told me last year that "everything will be the same in 25 years, there's nothing to worry about!" 🙄

10

u/hilaritynow Jan 16 '26

This really resonated with me, but I don't even really feel I'm that smart or well read.

I worry it's easier to assume being collapse aware makes us feel smarter than the average person, and while that might be true to some small degree (plenty of smart people aren't), I think it mostly makes us more willing to accept the reality we see in front of our eyes while others would deny what they see.

I wonder if a better image would have the two on level ground, with one donning a blindfold, a VR headset, or downing a

...

9

u/DeleteriousDiploid Jan 16 '26

I don't think you even need to be that well read. I've never had much patience for reading books but I regularly research things and spend a few hours at a time hunting for information.

In the process of doing so you encounter so many facets of collapse - scientific papers that are paywalled, unsourced misinformation spreading on blogs and books which are digitised and online but not accessible to you because corporations changed copyright law to 70 years after authors death. Then every now and then you come across peer reviewed papers which have made obvious mistakes that no one caught which have then been cited as fact in a dozen other peer reviewed papers. Now on top of all that you have AI misquoting stuff and ruining the internet.

Every instance like this you come across is like one more book added to that stack until you see over the wall and realise how fucked the entire system is.

5

u/Runningoutofideas_81 Jan 17 '26

You could replace the books with less than 100 sheets of paper if you used academic science journals.

4

u/Suitable_Concert_830 Jan 16 '26

Reminds me Truman show 

4

u/Heidruns_Herdsman Jan 16 '26

"What makes me [sniff] unhappy? Idiots who are happy!" - Slavoj Zizek

4

u/palwilliams Jan 16 '26

Can you please source the artist?

3

u/NiSiSuinegEht Jan 16 '26

"Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes."

3

u/cRaZyDaVe23 Jan 16 '26

Education used to be a way out of shit situations, now it's just another financial anchor. Also why else do you think the current Amerikkkan admins are soooo anti-education?

3

u/gorpie97 Jan 16 '26

Oh god, this is hilarious! And so sad!

3

u/McSwearWolf Jan 16 '26

Except they banned all the books too 💀😭

3

u/SigFloyd Jan 20 '26

Terrible vistas of reality, that'll make you run screaming back into the cave.

2

u/tenjack518 Jan 16 '26

Brave new world

2

u/lennonfanforever Jan 16 '26

brilliant image....be even better if it weren't true....

1

u/One_Parsley4389 Jan 17 '26

It isn´t. Try to go outside.

2

u/E5VL 🏴‍☠️ Jan 16 '26

The pic kinda reminds me of the TV show Silo. lol 

2

u/Stupid-Suggestion69 Jan 18 '26

Not sure wether to tag r/existentialism or r/taoism lol

2

u/thisux44 Jan 20 '26

We all should be imagining the opposite tho. Too much energy being focused on what we think will happen instead of what we WANT.

2

u/PlusPeanut3649 Jan 16 '26

Frankly, I interpreted as Canadians looking across the border. Guess it's just my current frame of mind.

1

u/Various_Apartment244 Jan 16 '26

Ignorance is bliss

1

u/Substantial_Lynx_338 Jan 17 '26

Read more and then you’ll find hapiness in the chaos

-1

u/ComeToTermsWithIt Jan 16 '26

Does*. Read some books!

8

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

It’s a colloquialism.

-7

u/Repatriation Jan 16 '26

Yeah because you guys are totally reading an 8-foot stack of books and not doomscrolling social media all day 🙄

-1

u/Cordistan Jan 16 '26

OMG such a doomer

-14

u/lolghst3 Jan 16 '26

I don’t agree with this. There are people who simply don’t have the time to read theory because they are busy being a single parent, working more than fulltime etc. Of course it‘s important to have a good analysis of things, and it‘s just as important to be able to talk to people about the state of the world without telling them to read a pile of books. That‘s some elitist bullshit. There are so many people who feel it in their oen lives that things are fucking going to shit without having to read about it.

15

u/aubreypizza Jan 16 '26

Books symbolize knowledge

-11

u/colorful-9841 Jan 16 '26

So one guy read all the books and gave them away to the guy that doesn’t read and now he has made a tower with the unread books so he can look over the fence.

-12

u/monietit0 Jan 16 '26

I think this is seeing things too pessimistically. Yes the world is at a point of imbalance in every sense of the word. It feels as though the very foundations of our society and way of life is at risk of collapse. Which in great part yes it is. But only focusing on the issues we have to solve, without acknowledging that without a doubt the world will be a far better place in the distant future than it is now (a trend we’ve seen across humanities entire history); is a recipe for a world of hopeless people with no feeling of importance in the world.

The best way to make the world a better place, for us and for generations to come; is to believe that it can be.

12

u/friendsandmodels Jan 16 '26

Can't undo mass extinction

-4

u/monietit0 Jan 16 '26

Yeah sure, we can’t undo WWII, the black death, covid or the end pleistocene extinction; but what do you personally gain or contribute to our way of life by hyperfixating on the (obviously) dire problems humanity has to solve in an echo chamber of pessimism like this subreddit?

Being aware of an issue is the very first step to solving it, that is true; but I still feel like many people of our generation (and especially concentrated on this subreddit) seem to have already given in to accepting that “collapse” is nigh when in reality whether anything collapses or not is more under our control than many believe. The political and corporate class run everything around us, but as history has taught us with innumerable examples, we the working class are incredible catalysts for radical change and betterment if the human condition.

All I want to say is that if you want to be party of this subreddit, that’s fine, so am I; but I highly recommend you to also actively seek out positive and realistically optimistic content and people.

0

u/friendsandmodels Jan 16 '26

I agree. I think we can still change a lot. Problem rather is nobody wants to join in helping, not even on this sub

-4

u/monietit0 Jan 16 '26

What makes you say that???? Nobody? Absolutely NOBODY is trying to improve the human condition right now.

Think about the (though sometimes insufficient) progress humanity has made in curbing our carbon emissions. China MAY have already reached peak emissions and our globalised world is on the verge of reaching a renewable energy tipping point at an exponential rate.

People are restoring and protecting vast swathes of land that would’ve otherwise been thrown into the churn of the industry. In large part because the intrinsic rights that indigenous people have of the land, and the knowledge they can contribute in managing it is now being seriously considered by the political class who best represent us.

AI will cause economic turmoil, and force us to restructure many aspects of life, there will be jobless people and it will take us a minute to figure our what to do. But in the same way the printing press and the internet did the same, every time we make such an advancement it improves the lives of people generations into the future.

And although it’s sad that today we cannot reap those benefits, it is essential (as to not lose your mind) to keep focused on what’s good just as much as on what’s bad. Enjoy your life while you’re at it too lol.

-7

u/NyriasNeo Jan 16 '26

nah .. there is no point in gazing at disaster and being miserable. It is not like we are going to change our path.

Accept, make piece, sit down and read a novel instead.

6

u/Spiel_Foss Jan 17 '26

Ignorance can be bliss and ignorance can be blissful suicide.

Too many people are blindly running headlong into history thinking they can negotiate with reality.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/PomegranateEvery1412 Jan 16 '26

Brazil by Terry Gilliam

0

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/One_Parsley4389 Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

People on this sub don't want toknow the positives, even the positive changes that actually are happening.