No Stupid Questions

Almost none of the crap going on will directly affect your life. Just live, enjoy, don't read the news. You'll be fine

When national politics goes to hell, think about your local community. If you and many of the people around you can do okay in your lives, that's not so bad.

Another thing is to consider the comparison point. How are you doing compared with the average person living in Mali or Vietnam or Switzerland? Billions of people all over the world survive in situations that are definitely not ideal, and many of them are happy with their lives some of the time.

Tone down social media use and do a little prepping. Learn how to use mylar bags and properly store away rice, beans, lentils, pastas, etc.

Prep as if the internet is going down for a prolonged time, maybe even electricity in general.

You can stress about things after you've gotten your shit together for a prolonged emergency.

Understand that this isn't the end of the world, just the end of the world as we know it. Humans are notoriously lazy and selfish, it will take a worldwide calamity before we get our collective shit together and do what's right.

The people in charge have failed us for their own selfish interests. There's nothing else to do except prep and make a better tomorrow.

Fuck doomerism.

Spite and a need to see people get their just desserts

Not much but snark

Curiosity, so I observe. I believe we have control over nothing and that free will is an illusion. Consciousness is a mystery, as much my own as the one I suppose others have. In the middle of the chaos, I sometimes see glimpses of beauty, in many forms: music, images, people's behaviour, fiction, maths, nature... So I observe , I try to find patterns, to understand how things work, why others do what they do. I have found beauty in the very little things, what used to be chores I now enjoy, they were chores because "I thought I had better more important things to do", I wanted to be "later" but now I know what matters is to live in the moment, and I'll be living the next moment later.

Social media, the news, they are trying to grab your attention and project you to the future, what is the next threat, when are you likely to die or suffer. The truth is: we are all going to be dead eventually, it can be for many reasons, it can be in the next hour, or in thousands of years, we cannot know when, but we all know it will happen, doesn't really help to worry too much about it.

Don't waste your life trying to prevent your inevitable death. Enjoy it while you can. The rest is mostly out of your control anyway.

I have no hope, only fantasies that people will come to their senses someday. Hope? Nah.

Hope? I have none. I continue on through the power of avoidance and denial. If I stop to think about things it turns into suicidal thoughts, so I just do my damnedest not to think.

Spite.

What’s hope got to do with it? You survive. That’s it.

But for real, because my people have endured persecution before. As I look at our incoming persecution I see that we got further this time than in a long time and so we must endure and survive and go further again.

But no matter what you survive

I wouldn't say I'm completely hopeful or doomed, the world is filled with terror and beauty. There are no gods or kings it's just people. Historic and scientific education can help reduce anxiety about the unknown, change your own beliefs and behaviors to improve the situation locally before joining organizations looking to make broader changes. Learn what your fears are and face them, otherwise it will cloud your judgement and influence your decision making process.

Why not?

Gaming with the homies. I ought to be able to get a couple dogs one day. I'm getting better at cooking. I meet new and amazing people every now and then.

I do my best to steer the world in the direction I'd like to see it go, and I try take pride in the effort, not in the results. The destination might look dark now but you can still enjoy the journey. I hope that makes sense.

I don't have any. I'm just taking care of my family until I run out of living relatives to give a shit about, then I'm out. Peace.

My Factorio engineer can't keep the thing going without me.

Honestly? I have no idea.

Most of the stuff you read doesn’t matter. What matters is how you treat people. Eat good food and smile, enjoy the rays of the sun which burn us all equally. Bask in a hot shower. Go outside, where you can’t see any other people for a few hours, and listen to the sounds.

TL;DR focus on the things you can control and do literally anything to try to improve things

The thing that causes trauma isn't the bad event but the helplessness that accompanies it.

The main (and sometimes only) tactic that we are taught for dealing with problems is to find an intermediary who can do things on our behalf; seek the nearest authority who will take up your cause. Viewed that way, the fact that institutions and authorities are failing is disempowering; the problem is impossible because the schools/cops/companies/non-profits/politicians/media/etc aren't helping. The only option that perspective leaves you is to take the blows and hope you're strong enough to last until a better intermediary arrives. That shit will wear you down real fast.

We need to unlearn the dependence on intermediaries. We can't stop the bad events from happening (and boy are they happening) but we can combat the helplessness. The antidote to helplessness is exercising agency and feeling control over our actions and their consequences. Find a way you can make things a little bit better and then show up and do it. Anything is fine, if there's a cause you're passionate about then do that, but if there's not then pick something you're kinda sort of good at. Write, draw, make phone calls, create memes, cook, drive, listen, etc. Any skill, no matter how small, can be leveraged to improve the world around you if you're clever about it.

The fight is the point.

Taking action to control what you can is powerful. Maybe you'll succeed and maybe you won't but taking action is where you'll find resilience. If what you do doesn't work then learn from the experience and deepen your understanding. You're not failing to solve the problem you are building up your capacity to tackle it and that shit takes time. Pursue this as vigorously and as passionately as you are able but also know that it's okay to take breaks and step away sometimes.

Also, humans are social creatures so if what you do involves other people that's even better.

Honestly, the fear of screwing up suicide and destroying any opportunity of improving my life. It's the only reason I'm alive today :/ if only I could just sign some papers, go to sleep, and never wake up.

So now I try so many money making schemes so I could rent an apartment without roommates who insist on doing chores in the dumbest way possible and blaming me for being unable to do anything other than housework after work.

That there's no evidence of the existence of an afterlife. It'll be like that time I had eye surgery but without having to wake up afterwards - merciful oblivion.

I think I may still be riding the hype of things like the JWST, and fusion energy breakthroughs. Our societies may be back sliding at the moment, but our species is still doing some amazing things.

What else are we supposed to do?

Edit: that's a rhetorical question, don't come at me enumerating the alternatives

I deleted all my social media the day after the election, except for my lemmy account. Mostly because I forgot about it. Now I just read a few news headlines and solve a crossword every day. And WHOA - talk about having bountiful free time now. It’s kinda scary.

Am I less stressed? Meh, maybe a bit. But I’ve decided I’m going to find beauty and amusement in the utter self destruction we are about to witness. I’m going to stand over here and watch the fire while I drink my beer in peace.

The alternative is certain death. If I were satisfied with that outcome, I'd already be dead.

I beat the factorio DLC, right now that's all I got and I'm clinging to that bad boy

Look, If I'm going down, I'm going down kicking and screaming.

Find a small corner of the world you can improve and focus on that. Can only effect what you can. Not worth worrying about the other stuff.

As hokey as it sounds 🤷‍♂️