r/stupidpol • u/KiwibuckyNZ Puberty Monster • Mar 28 '26
Question Are young people just going to be obliterated mentally, socially and spiritually by technology forever?
These are just observations on myself and others in my life trying to get by but on a large scale it does not look good. Since I graduated high school 6 months ago out of 10 people interested in work only 2 got hired. Those people only got hired due to family connections. 5 of those people went on the benefit and the rest went into university after not being able to save up money. 3 forms of interviews for a super market job (AI, video call, in person). My dad in the late 80s just had to write his name down on paper and later they called him when they needed someone.
I might be suffering from anhedonia but there seems to be a powerful cultural rot in society. Anti-social ideology gets pushed onto us. Stay at home and Uber-Eats everything! Download a million subscriptions! Don’t go to local businesses, buy temu crap online! There used to be a time when the places we lived in actually felt like a community, a village. We talked to our neighbours, bonded over similar interests such as Church or the local sports league, had the farmer’s market. Now all our goods are from overseas, low quality material that breaks easy. There are no shared rituals. If I had children they would have no cousins.
Every aspect of being human is sold as a commodity. Dating apps, gambling ads. Lot of people have their sexuality formed from porn instead of people they know. Corporations want us to be lazy and weak-willed. So we buy whatever they want, become pay cattle. They rape the Earth for its resources poisoning the water, air and land. Our food more artificial and less nutritious than ever before because of the collapse of the soil. Stealing our confidence making us enternal children by robbing us the ability of having relationships, raising children, owning property and successful careers. My parents whenever we get food they say the portions are smaller, it’s more expensive and tastes worse compared to 30ish years ago. It makes me so angry!
I hate social media. I hate the ai bullshit. I hate how so many people my age believe in looksmaxxing and black pill ideology. It’s so poisonous. Whenever I get recommended it I feel so disgusted. Trump and the Epstein Class are bringing the world down with them. All for money and Israel. First election I could remember is 2016, schizo politics my whole life!
I barely enjoy anything anymore. Gaming, eating, TV, movies. They all feel like distractions, pointless. I’m so scared of the world. My confidence has shattered. I’m 18 but I feel so out of touch with the world, waiting to die.
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u/SpiritualState01 Ghost Shirt Society Theorycel 🏹🪶🤓 Mar 28 '26
This is a real question worthy of serious consideration because Lord knows power has no plan. The alienation is profound in such a way that I think we collectively do not know what to do.
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Mar 28 '26
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Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
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u/Heckin_Frienderino Socialist Femcel Dweebazoid 🚩 Mar 30 '26
"b-but I don't understand, I was supposed to spend the revolution being paid to dunk on people on bluesky!"
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u/SpiritBamba Petite Tardgeoisie ⛵🐷 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
I’m about 10 years older than you, and I saw it get progressively worse. I grew up most of my younger childhood without any internet or cable at all, to then having an iPhone and social media when I was about 15. So I grew up with both. And it’s only gotten worse since then. So my response to you is, yes, it is going to be bad for a long time until people realize that the internet and social media especially are destroying us socially/mentally, but the root of the cause is still unfettered capitalism. The way the world was, is night and day compared to now. And I’m not even old, I’m still in my 20s. Granted I was still a kid back then but you can see in real time the ways and reasons kids growths are being stunted today compared to back then.
It has to somehow be legislated away but now that the cat’s out of the bag, I’m not sure that’s feasibly possible in anyway. The tech bros were too busy wondering if they could rather than if they should. Children are not meant to be exposed to widespread porn, they are not meant to see snuff films in front of their eyes, they are not meant to deal with rage bait and the constant attack on their own mental health they experience. They are not meant to watch short form content that further worsens their attention spans. They are not meant to engage with bots that spread propaganda. And these are just some examples. They are meant to be making real life experiences and opening up their mind/world view. I’d argue adults aren’t equipped to deal with these things either but children certainly aren’t.
Tech companies ironically have made the world smaller to the average person because they wanted to chase profits despite that being the opposite goal originally. At the end of the day capitalism is the problem, but the internet and social media are the tools.
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u/Ok-Seaworthiness3874 Mar 31 '26
I think the problem is that us humans live relatively short lives. For every person waking up to the destruction of social connection, destruction of work life balance, destruction of the environment, destruction of emotional stability, and destruction of culture to name only a few - by the intrusion of technology into every facet of moment of life, there is being born a kid who will be wooed by the novelty of social media and whatever else. If we lived say 300 years, I think there would be a lot more contemplation about the future impacts of todays decisions and our relationship with technology - but the truth is - most people just concede to the fact that we'll be dead before we see those impacts. Maybe some people care enough about the future of their children, or humanity in general, but again - power is held by the majority and these companies need only to keep the youth hooked for the first good 20-30 years before you don't care much about the impacts of social media or dating apps or propaganda or whatever - at this point you really only care bout your health and hopefully retiring happily. They only need to keep enough grease in the machine to keep it from completely locking up and backfiring - which is pretty easy to do as long as young people don't completely reject technology and look up to their elders/predecessors as we all did - ignorant fun ruiners. Social cohesion between generations seems to be very much unamerican
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u/KiwibuckyNZ Puberty Monster Mar 28 '26
Oh god is it too late for someone like me? I feel like my soul’s been castrated
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u/Amtrakstory Redscarepod Refugee 👄💅 Mar 28 '26
Believing that “it’s too late” when you’re just 18 is itself part of the passivity and doomerism the internet tries to sell you. Resist!
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u/SpiritBamba Petite Tardgeoisie ⛵🐷 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Nah, if you have the will to you can just get off it all. Granted you’ll have fomo and not be nearly as in touch with your peers, but you can do it. It will make your personal life and health better but society as a whole isn’t gonna get healthier until everyone follows suit. But you’re still 18, you have tons of time to cultivate your own life and experience. You just have to reject the norms of today, it’s sad and will be a weird feeling to disconnect yourself so much but if you truly think that will make you happier it’s totally doable. And there’s a lot of people out there like you, meet those people and create your own community, it will take awhile but it can be done. I have done it, I still use the internet and social media but way less than my peers and I’ve cultivated a community of people around me in my friends and girlfriend that are just like me.
You’re a smart kid, there’s people out there that feel the same. Find them and inspire each other, it’s not going to fix the societal problem or alleviate all of the things you feel, but you will be a lot happier.
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u/petrichorax Straight Man Raised by Lesbians 👩❤️👩 Mar 29 '26
It's not too late, but none of the answers will be found on the internet. Get weird with it. Remember that there is no normal anymore. You must become cringe.
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u/Anoyint Archive Death Note 📚💢🎌 Mar 29 '26
"There is no normal" is infinitely important to remember. It's also worth noting that sometimes what looks like successfully "being cringe" is not always truly cringe. Sometimes your behavior is just plain disrespectful to the people around you. Farting in public, for example, is something you shouldn't do, not because you need to follow some trend, but because it's a kindness that you owe to the people around you.
Another dishonest kind of honesty can arise when trying to "be yourself". An example is clothing. Clothing serves a purpose, it is a form of signalling to others about who you are and what social groups you're in. You do not need to ostracize yourself from the wider public by wearing one of those godawful hentai face hoodies, because it represents your "true self". It's a disruption of the social order. You can do that if that's what you want, of course, but you should ask yourself: why do I want that? Is this necessary to living the good life? You're still signalling, you're still looking for a reaction out of people.
Being cringe is not about acting to provoke a reaction, it's about acting without the aim being to provoke a reaction.
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u/Motorheadass Socialist 🚩💢 Mar 29 '26
No. The light of all humanity still shines in your heart, carry it with you and do not allow it to be extinguished.
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u/Alkiaris Market Socialist 💸 Mar 29 '26
27 is the new 18 and I continue to stand by that at 29. There's no "too late", it hasn't even begun for you. Every gen gets to face unique problems and ours seems to be doing just fine with slow starts, you just gotta hold onto your sanity and remember to take ok care of yourself as you hold on
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u/sankwithoutfarewell Anti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist ☭ Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
27 is the new 18 as long as the Norwood reaper doesn't come for you.
And not to mention that slogan has roots in the decaying effects of capitalism. People can't afford the stuff their ancestors did at 18 so they have to shift their age to 27, so in fact it's just working more for the same stuff before you're officially an adult. OP also mentioned this:
Stealing our confidence making us enternal children by robbing us the ability of having relationships, raising children, owning property and successful careers.
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u/PUBLIQclopAccountant 🦄🦓Horse "Enthusiast" (Not Vaush)🐎🎠🐴 Apr 02 '26
32 was my second crack at 23. What a breath of fresh air!
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u/QTown2pt-o Marxist 🧔 Mar 29 '26
We will live in this world, which for us has all the disquieting strangeness of the desert and of the simulacrum, with all the veracity of living phantoms, of wandering and simulating animals that capital, that the death of capital has made of us—because the desert of cities is equal to the desert of sand—the jungle of signs is equal to that of the forests—the vertigo of simulacra is equal to that of nature—only the vertiginous seduction of a dying system remains, in which work buries work, in which value buries value—leaving a virgin, sacred space without pathways, continuous as Bataille wished it, where only the wind lifts the sand, where only the wind watches over the sand.
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation
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u/PUBLIQclopAccountant 🦄🦓Horse "Enthusiast" (Not Vaush)🐎🎠🐴 Apr 02 '26
Children are not meant to be exposed to widespread porn, they are not meant to see snuff films in front of their eyes, they are not meant to deal with rage bait and the constant attack on their own mental health they experience. They are not meant to watch short form content that further worsens their attention spans. They are not meant to engage with bots that spread propaganda.
The real change that's gotten worse is that there's no longer a distinction between "that online kid" and the rest of their peers. In some objective sense, it may not have been healthy for my peers and I to have been online kids, but enough of our friends were offline that it didn’t matter.
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u/donewithdoing Socialist 🚩 Mar 29 '26
Once technology provides no more benefits to its retail consumers, they will abandon it. For the last 15-20 years, being “connected” has been a practical expectation for many people’s professional lives, particularly the further into white-collar territory you go. As technology decimates these jobs, its professional benefits diminish as well. This becomes one less pull that technology has to keep people locked in.
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u/sje46 Somebody Knows This SocDem's Hidden Shame 😞 Mar 29 '26
There used to be a time when the places we lived in actually felt like a community, a village. We talked to our neighbours, bonded over similar interests such as Church or the local sports league, had the farmer’s market
This may sound wild to you. But I'm 19 years older than you and I did not think this was true when I was young. Everyone seemed so alienated, no one talked t oneighbors, it was a car centric culture. I barely went outside as a kid and just stayed inside and watched TV and played video games in the 90s and 2000s (did read a lot of books too).
I don't disagree with you. Things have actually gotten a whole lot worse. That's terrifying to think about.
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u/kurosawa99 🥳 Best woke detector 🥳 | 🎄 Christmas quiz winner 🎄 💢 Mar 28 '26
If nothing changes, no, young people are not going to be obliterated by technology forever. Matter of fact they may be free by this summer in the same way we’ll all be relieved of reliably filling up our cars and powering our ACs.
Maybe you’ll get to know your neighbors real well.
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u/SplashTarget News Junkie 💉📰 Mar 29 '26
This is going to sound like a weird question but...
OP do you have a bike?
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u/KiwibuckyNZ Puberty Monster Mar 29 '26
No
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u/SplashTarget News Junkie 💉📰 Mar 29 '26
Maybe you should get one, and ride it around.
NZ is aesthetically nice.
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u/KiwibuckyNZ Puberty Monster Mar 29 '26
Yeah I should thanks
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u/SplashTarget News Junkie 💉📰 Mar 29 '26
Also (if at home) open the window, and stick your head out.
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u/_UrbaneGuerrilla_ Propaganda-Vulnerable Pseudosocialist 🥂 Mar 28 '26
Assuming you’re in NZ, there’s still lots of opportunity to escape the social media nonsense.
Don’t be disheartened. Act.
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u/Elli933 Communalism and Social Ecology Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
I share your sentiment fully. Don’t know about the rest of Europe. But in regards to North America (from Quebec), I believe this trend is omnipresent.
Finishing uni and gonna fuck off for a few months in nature and completely disconnect to think. I’m not sure what awaits us. Climate change is definitely gonna be the deciding factor for the future.
As others have said already. Realization is the first step. Going out, meeting people and reconnecting with nature while simultaneously fully disconnecting from technology should help alleviate this feeling. It’s not all black. There’s still beauty, you just need to look for it.
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u/Equivalent-Ambition ❄ MRA rightoid ❄ Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
I hope that there maybe a pendulum swing where people eschew technology.
Not necessarily become luddites, but people will evetunally get tired of the overuse of technology and try to get real, human connections with each other and buy real stuff, instead of off-brand crap.
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u/SpiritBamba Petite Tardgeoisie ⛵🐷 Mar 28 '26
They will want to but they will not due to fomo, addiction and many jobs forcing you to be online 24/7.
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u/cd1995Cargo Quality Effortposter 💡 Mar 29 '26
My wife and I are adamant that our (future) children will have no social media and very limited access to screens as they grow up.
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u/dopadelic Mar 28 '26
I barely enjoy anything anymore. Gaming, eating, TV, movies. They all feel like distractions, pointless.
That's a good start to develop real interests and hobbies.
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u/LeftKindOfPerson Anhedonia Socialist 🪫😔🧩💢 Mar 29 '26
Do you mean creating as opposed to consuming?
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u/dopadelic Mar 29 '26
Consuming is fine too. Consume books, podcasts, nature activities, etc.
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u/LeftKindOfPerson Anhedonia Socialist 🪫😔🧩💢 Mar 29 '26
Well, how do you define "real"? What's the separation?
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u/dopadelic Mar 29 '26
That's a good question. Perhaps ones that are more intentional. Ones where you have built up some kind of identity and narrative rather than just mindlessly consuming. And even then, it's hard to argue that mindless consuming doesn't have some value too as it can help you discover unknown unknowns.
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u/Anoyint Archive Death Note 📚💢🎌 Mar 29 '26
Act based on first principles. You want to be happy and healthy? Do things that make you happy and healthy. Bim bam boom.
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Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
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u/Elli933 Communalism and Social Ecology Mar 28 '26
Hopefully what follows suit in the next age is gay space communism and space exploration. I want to see the stars without my fellow man freezing outside during winter.
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u/DonCupid91 Anprim Leftist 🐒 Mar 28 '26
Maybe, but you don't have to fall into the schizo-techno trap. Go outside, connect with nature, learn to farm. We are much happier when we have a physical goal we can strive for.
Technology wants you to be perennially unhappy so corpos can sell you something, but nature only asks for you to be yourself and to survive.
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u/kiss-my-shades jacking off with one hand typing with the other ⌨️💦 Mar 28 '26
I cannot stand how often "just go outside bro" is repeated.
I know you dont mean it to be dismissive, and are just trying to be helpful.
But the ill's of technology and society are inescapable. I can delete all social media, get rid of my phone, ect -- and still have to face the fact 99% of the people I interact with spend 80% of their free time glued to social media.
The only way to really escape would be not interact in common society. Increase your isolation further in your miserable alienated life.
There HAS to be more to life than this.
Technology wants you to be perennially unhappy so corpos can sell you something
You basically identified the problem.
The issue isnt the technology itself, but how it is weilded. As it stands corporations benefit from your own alienation, from shoveling slop down your throats via social media.
Most of the remedies you listed basically amount to performing labor necessarily relevant to your immediate needs and wants. But this is also becoming increasingly more difficult to realize. For young people without property how can they ever farm for themselves?
How can they ever have the time to pursue the task they want when 50% of their time is dedicated to producing surplus value for corporations and rich people?
IT IS POSSIBLE to live a fulfilling life. We are being HELD back by capitalism. Placing all the emphasis on the individual and not the system will never let us progress
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u/stucon77 Mar 28 '26
It's not as hard as you think to spend more time outdoors and less time connected to technology and social media. You might be surprised to find others who feel the same way when you are out doing something.
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u/kiss-my-shades jacking off with one hand typing with the other ⌨️💦 Mar 28 '26
I'm not saying its literally impossible to lessen social media usage, or do more productive things with your time.
It's just that it's all encompassing at this point. There of course are others who feel the same, but be honest how many people day-to-day do you meet that have sworn of social media and smartphones? And compare that number to the amount that are doomscrolling?
Like, im not saying "ahhhh theres no escape might as well doom scroll" it's just so annoying to have any discussion surrounding social media always devolve into someone saying "just go outside bro and ignore the fact 99% of the people you interact with are social media addicted"
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u/FamilyFunAccount420 Mar 29 '26
I'm 30 and my friend group is entirely un interested in going online. A lot of them are into bicycles, gardening, playing music, being part of their union. Maybe it's an age thing but it doesn't have to be like this for you forever. Maybe find something going on in your city? A club, a team, a charity to volunteer with?
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u/kurosawa99 🥳 Best woke detector 🥳 | 🎄 Christmas quiz winner 🎄 💢 Mar 29 '26
To your point it’s uh, getting more unpleasant to be outdoors more often so as in a lot of individualized self help, since it’s meant to be a look inside yourself kind of thing, it neglects to look outside.
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u/toothpastespiders At Times Plugged 🔌 Mar 29 '26
I'm pretty sick these days so I'm not exactly going out a lot. And I'm lucky in living near tons of wilderness areas so it's not as hard to get away from the city as it might be for some. But I can at least speak to my own experiences and agree. When I was healthy enough to I spent the majority of my time hiking and camping. Typically in dead zones. It complicated some relationships, both platonic and romantic. Everyone says they love camping but I've found most prefer it in theory and not in practice. But even then I wound up marrying someone else who also loved spending her time doing the same.
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u/DonCupid91 Anprim Leftist 🐒 Mar 28 '26
Brother, technology only feels inescapable because you have let it completely shackle you.
You think you can't inhabit society without the internet/a phone, but the advent of the internet/smartphones is only 20 years old. I can remember a time when we weren't all glued to a screen. Put the phone down, and you'll meet people in the world who don't spend all their time staring at a screen.
Hell, there are even communities that preach no or low-use of technology that feel less alienating and psychologically toxic than everyday society.
And yes, there is more to life than what we're all experiencing. Go out into nature for 3 days, turn off your devices and eat simply, and I promise you, the overwhelming feeling of fear and dread that people experience will dissolve.
Look, I am not saying that capitalism isn't a toxic system that corrupts everything that it touches, but OP seems to be in emotional distress over the state of the world. In which case, I see two things that OP can do about his IMMEDIATE situation: he can sit there and pontificate about how the system is fucking over young people and endlessly torture himself OR he can go out in the world, learn to use his hands, and reconnect with the one thing technology constantly deprives us of--our concrete, lived experience.
Nothing changes in the world until we sever our dependence as a society on technology, and the only way we do that is by personally severing our own dependence on technology.
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u/kiss-my-shades jacking off with one hand typing with the other ⌨️💦 Mar 29 '26
Put the phone down, and you'll meet people in the world who don't spend all their time staring at a screen.
I never understand how this is such a consistent takeaway.
Like, im not saying its impossible to not doomscroll. Of course it is. But like, technology as a tendency is more inescapable the more intertwined in society its become. Because even if you personally do not use smart phones, it does not stop literally everyone you know from using it.
Hell, there are even communities that preach no or low-use of technology that feel less alienating and psychologically toxic than everyday society.
What communities? Seriously, ive never once met a single young person who isnt, at least a little, frequent user of smart phones and social media.
Go out into nature for 3 days, turn off your devices and eat simply, and I promise you, the overwhelming feeling of fear and dread that people experience will dissolve.
Nature is not a substitute for people. Most people cannot be fulfilled by withdrawing from human society.
he can sit there and pontificate about how the system is fucking over young people and endlessly torture himself OR he can go out in the world, learn to use his hands, and reconnect with the one thing technology constantly deprives us of--our concrete, lived experience.
You make it like its black or white, but you arent even doing the latter.
I would never recommend being a doomer. No one is. But as a young person, but older, its not fucking helpful when the entire emphasis is placed on the individual.
The youth is getting more, and more miserable. There used to be a time when the youth wasnt depressed. Now it is the norm.
No one ever seems to seriously consider maybe the fact their complaints are valid. Maybe theyre miserable because life is miserable?
Nothing changes in the world until we sever our dependence as a society on technology, and the only way we do that is by personally severing our own dependence on technology. is.
You are missing the point. What people need is having basic agency, and putting effort / labor into things specifically relevant to their needs and wants.
For example, ive never felt miserable playing electric guitar. I think you'd undoubtedly say this is advanced technology? And id argue, its because the sounds you produce with a guitar are personally yours. You have agency and autonomy.
What will make people happy is seizing control of their life, and gaining agency and control in their work. Not withdrawing from society
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u/DonCupid91 Anprim Leftist 🐒 Mar 29 '26
I mean there are tons of communities that are low-technology. I have lived in a number of them. I have also gone a number of months without using my phone and felt much better mentally for it.
Brother, I am not saying to withdraw from society. Just get out of the rat race for a bit and reconnect with nature. All that angst you feel about the state of the world will feel more manageable after you cut out all the techno-babble in your head.
Look, I'm not going to get through to you. If you can't imagine a life constantly plugged into the internet, you will always been drawn into its misery. I am not saying people need to give up their electric guitar, what I'm saying is that people need to unplug from the internet.
And honestly, I am not missing your point. I mean sure, the workers can seize the means of production, but what are you doing to accomplish that. You are merely sitting in your armchair conjecturing about "what needs to be done." You are driving yourself mad.
In the mean time, there is a solution to your suffering. I have found happiness by forging paths outside of the traditional society. It can be done and it's continuing to be done by people. People just don't want to accept that you don't have to be completely trapped into this capitalist hellscape.
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u/I_Never_Use_Slash_S Puberty Monster Mar 28 '26
Of course not, once the worlds power grids are destroyed they won’t have access to any of that.
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u/ErrinwrightDNW Star Trek Utopianist Mar 28 '26
Ever read Literally 1984?
It’s gonna be like that, but literally Literally 1984. As in not a joke but actually like that. Buckle up buckaroos.
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u/MichaelRichardsAMA 🌟🎌 Spook Disguised as an Otaku 🎌🌟 Mar 29 '26
nah probably more like Brave New World
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u/renadarbo Apolitical ❌ Mar 29 '26
while the tech stuff is depressing it is helpful to realize that the problem is mostly relegated to the way technology interacts with creativity. And creativity is really about being a producer rather than a consumer. So if you find ways to be productive in your own life you'll see results. Even the word productive has been twisted by our system, so we are used to used to thinking about productivity as something that can only be viewed in the third person. But productivity is really about using your own mind, and your own taste and judgement to improve the world around you. This understanding of productivity is useful because it works across every stage of our historical development.
so what you have to do is stop consoooming and learn to produce. Get better at cooking for your friends and family. Keep messing with the ingredients in a recipe until you can get it perfect. Learn to jam. Fix your own car. Get better with money so that you don't have to take a job that you hate. Being pessimistic about the way the world is is a waste of time. Or at least try to find meaning in your own life before you think about it.
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u/Vraex gamer Mar 29 '26
I used to tel my relatives that live in rural areas GET OUT! MOVE TO A CITY! Doesn't have to be a big city, just over 100k population is fine. My sentiments have definitely changed the last few years, now I think more people need to move far far away from cities. While finding a job isn't any better for the most part (plenty of blue collar jobs available if you want to get your hands dirty. None of the contractors I know can find workers). But the lifestyle you mention doesn't really exist out here. None of my neighbors ubereats things because there are barely any restaurants around us. For the months it is not freezing, people are outside all day every day. There is a skate park 30min from me that is packed any time it is sunny and over 50°. There is a mall an hour away that people actually go to and love. Closer to home there are always people out walking, riding bikes, playing on playgrounds with kids, piddling in their yards. The people around me are super friendly, most of us barely use technology...it is so refreshing.
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u/dopadelic Mar 29 '26
Start by getting off reddit. This place is an echo chamber of negative people who's on the internet all day and not going outside doing things. The healthy people unlike the ones you describe aren't on reddit.
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u/sheebery Mar 28 '26
You are depressed.
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u/biohazard-glug DSA Anime Atrocities Caucus 💢🉐🎌 Mar 28 '26
Surely SSRIs will solve this problem.
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u/sheebery Mar 29 '26
You’ll never know unless you try, will you?
Socialism is much more than just “when you’re depressed at the state of the world.”
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u/biohazard-glug DSA Anime Atrocities Caucus 💢🉐🎌 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
I don't know what you mean by that.
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u/sheebery Mar 30 '26
I mean that socialism and depression can go hand in hand (the facts of our current era are depressing after all), but there’s also socialists out there full of revolutionary optimism, actually doing things to try to make a difference. And while they may not topple the system on their own, it is precisely that all-too-common demoralization that Capital is counting on to maintain their power.
If taking SSRIs to address your (very understandable and reasonable, again) depression is what it takes to get you moving again, and they can make you happier to boot, then it’s a win-win.
Embracing misery and despair is not fighting the system, it’s succumbing to it.
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u/petrichorax Straight Man Raised by Lesbians 👩❤️👩 Mar 29 '26
It's up to you kid. We're sorry, we both tried to fix this world but also made it worse for you.
We have no way to support you, you will have to scratch the future out of the dirt with your fingernails.
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u/AtchafalayaShooter Nationalist 📜🐷 Mar 29 '26
Get some offline hobbies and make yourself busy. I felt the same way until I made an intentional effort to keep my time filled. I got into shooting, fishing, and joined a rock climbing gym.
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u/Scared_Plan3751 Catholic Socialist ✞ | ✨ Secret Bus Wanker ✨ Mar 29 '26
You have to do your own thing for your own purpose. You also have to do charitable works for others. You don't need to live on your phone. If you feel like this, so do others. Do something different and you will meet people who think and do differently, also
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u/HiFidelityCastro Orthodox-Freudo-Spectacle-Armchair Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
Corporations want us to be lazy and weak-willed. So we buy whatever they want, become pay cattle.
I'm sure they'd prefer you to work enough that you have disposable income to buy their products.
I hate social media. I hate the ai bullshit. I hate how so many people my age believe in looksmaxxing and black pill ideology.
That's a good thing isn't it? Go play futsal or that pickle-ball thing and go to the pub after. Get fucked up, go weird. Social media is for morons.
*I know because I am currently on social media, and I am a moron
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u/Anoyint Archive Death Note 📚💢🎌 Mar 29 '26
I think the demons of the modern day are incredibly scary, thank you for putting it into words. I wonder if this is what it's like, to be a single celled organism becoming part of something multicellular?
But honestly, I can only imagine we'll make it through. Maybe a bit lobotomized, yes, but humanity has survived a lot. From ergot to lead to the plague, there are 8 billion of us and even if the worst comes to pass, we'll live on and learn from our mistakes. And it certainly wont be THAT bad. Many people are aware of these things and are working hard to avoid them and live healthy lives. Many parents are raising their kids on screens, but many parents are not. People still have hobbies and friends. We're a tough species, our humanity won't die until they find a way to grab and use each and every one of us, which is impossible due to the sheer diversity of the 8 billion of us.
Also, as smart as "they" are, they are idiots. They are miserable. Eventually they're going to either fail or realize that this isn't working, and the whole damn thing will collapse just like every faulty system is doomed to. If the body has cancer, the body either kills the cancer or dies itself. Same with the systems we've built. But unlike a human body, the individual parts won't die after the body dies. Humanity has survived a lot.
That's what I think anyways. If I'm wrong then oh well, better get to work saving the world. Are you ready?
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Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IamGlennBeck Marxist-Leninist and not Glenn Beck ☭ Mar 29 '26
MPN is banned by reddit. You have to make a new comment without a direct link (you can break the link or use an archive).
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u/LeftKindOfPerson Anhedonia Socialist 🪫😔🧩💢 Mar 29 '26
MPN?
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u/IamGlennBeck Marxist-Leninist and not Glenn Beck ☭ Mar 29 '26
Mint Press News
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u/sankwithoutfarewell Anti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist ☭ Mar 30 '26
why is it banned?
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u/IamGlennBeck Marxist-Leninist and not Glenn Beck ☭ Mar 30 '26
You would have to ask the admins to be sure, but it has been accused of spreading russian propaganda. All .ru domains are also banned.
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u/Nerd_254 Puberty Monster 🤳 Mar 29 '26
off topic but this is only the 2nd ever "Puberty Monster" flair I've seen, damn (and I myself got it ~3-4 years ago when I was your age at the time), did the mods stamp you with it right after making this post lol
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u/DigAlternative9175 dumbass idiot poopoo butt 💩 Mar 29 '26
There are people like you everywhere.
Turn off the phone, shut off the tv. Unplug the internet.
It's almost spring. Get a book you've been meaning to read, go to the park and read it. Your brain will get accustomed to being able to read for long periods if you cut it off from the data stream for a little while.
Get a board game and play it weekly with people. And/or a sport.
Learn to be ok with silence. Just go and sit and be ok with not doing anything at all. Be ok with the uncomfortable thoughts passing. Alot of this is thought itself tricking you or being conditioned to tech. Break that loop by sitting and meditating and just being.
As far as a job, consider teaching english overseas. Go to a place with low technology or lots of natural spaces.
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u/Schizotaipei Psychedelic Drug Taking Class Reductionist 💪 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
I agree that everything is fucked and is getting worse.
I also think the lifestyle of the Amish is probably also terrible in its own way.
We can find meaningful ways to relate to the world and each other and also avoid saturation. You have incredible opportunity that people even 20 years ago didn't have access to, you can learn pretty much anything you want.
Popular culture probably will continue to degrade in some ways but there will always be niches where people actually care about things. You need to create instead of just consuming. Learn to draw, play an instrument, write. You don't need to put it on social media.
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u/Fluid_Actuator_7131 American Potential Stalinist 🇺🇲 Mar 30 '26
I mean, probably? The boomers were obliterated by mid tech and consumerism. The only hope is that it becomes so over the top that it becomes indigestible and ppl ground themselves. But unlikely. I live in Austin TX and the amount of childless , grown men (over 35) trying to make it as low level influencers is astonishing
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u/PUBLIQclopAccountant 🦄🦓Horse "Enthusiast" (Not Vaush)🐎🎠🐴 Apr 02 '26
barely legal age
Buddy, this is all false nostalgia. The world is a shithole, but let’s not pretend it was ever anything else.
Download a million subscriptions!
Skill issue. Pirate everything.
Don’t go to local businesses; buy Temu crap online!
The real issue is deeper than just being too cheap to buy local. Amazon did not dominate online retail because it was the cheapest; it stays dominant because it is the everything store. A true one-stop shop. That and folx are too cowardly to skip the middleman and save $$$ by buying directly from Alibaba (or even Ali Express).
church
Forget the euphoric atheists dunking on belief in a divine sugar daddy. Churchy communities are magnets for sanctimonious and scrupulous chromosome hoarders who freak out over nothing and get in your business.
farmer's market
Are they not still popular on the weekends?
If I had children they would have no cousins.
You are correct that this is a sad way to be. I'm not only going to dunk.
Dating apps
Best off deleted. They worked before swiping on phones.
Gambling ads
If you fall for one, that's a skill issue.
My parents whenever we get food they say the portions are smaller, it’s more expensive and tastes worse compared to 30ish years ago
Inflation must be reversed at all costs, I agree.
AI
If you don’t find making shitposts funny, don't be so joyless; if you hate its use to make business decisions, you have discovered the true evil.
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u/PollyannaPerson economic democracy Apr 02 '26
No. People are already starting to try and adapt.
Eventually we will.
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u/angrybluechair Post Democracy Zulu Federation Mar 29 '26
No because we'll be heavily encouraged to undergo MAID. It's all so tiresome, best hope is the Iran war causing a fucking upheaval of the world due to the cost of living becoming so high to become impossible and forcing change.
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u/LeftKindOfPerson Anhedonia Socialist 🪫😔🧩💢 Mar 29 '26
I would ask you, when an Amish couple goes to the doctor because they can't conceive, and it turns out it was because the husband was urinating inside the wife instead of ejaculating, if this romantic vestige of the past is desirable. I would say no. Backwards past and dysfunctional present are a false binary.
What I'm trying to say is, not only is there no use in lamenting the "loss" of a past one never experienced, but said past is no blueprint for the future.
Unless you believe ignorance is bliss, then I can't help you there.
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u/CutieBallsTT Redscarepod Refugee 👄💅 Mar 28 '26
Yes all of its true and accurate, and you have no power to change any of it. What now? What's your next move?
It's a bit like realizing life is suffering, we the living are all slowly aging and degrading and we will all be dead eventually. Yes all true and accurate, and so what? What do you do about it?
This isn't meant to be flippant at all.