I am over 60 and I can plainly see everything it fucked.
I’m glad to see folks talking on here. Makes me feel better knowing we’re here all going through it. Gives me that Band of Brothers vibe “We stand alone, together.”
It’s really sad that many young people are so pessimistic about the future. Despite some setbacks the last years, in many ways the world is still in a better place than it has ever been in human history.
Child mortality is still lower than ever, (extreme) poverty is still on a declining trend, we’re actually on track to stop the worst climate change (thanks to massive Chinese investments), AI could vastly improve our lives in the future…
That said we do live in uncertain times, fascism is on the rise again, a nuclear war could still kill us all, fighting climate change is not done,l and AI could ruine all our lives; but pessimism is not the right mindset.
Extreme poverty may be declining but that doesn’t mean more people in the west are not being pushed into food scarcity due to stagnated wages and corporate greed.
It remains sad that in the world with enough artificial nitrate fertiliser to produce enough food for everyone in abundance and enough food in abundance to feed everyone in the west companies are still putting perfectly edible food into dumpsters and then covering them in motor oil to prevent freegans and dumpster divers while elsewere, famine still happens.
In the West too life is generally better than ever, also for people under 40
I do joke a lol, but things in many areas are so much better than 30-50 years ago and considering Brits in WW II had to turn out all their lights to hinder German bombings - most of us are being peddled fear by the media and it’s not THAT bad.
Where did you get the climate hope bit? last articles I glazed over were ‘we missed 1.5 deg target and instead put the foot on the pedal to make it faster’ and ‘climate migrations coming and mass famine’.
Sounder doomerism to me but I don’t really have a good source to be optimistic at all.
In short, solar prices are declining exponentially and deployment is growing exponentially. There are even companies claiming to be able to make efuels from air using solar cheaper than fossil fuels by the end of the decade.
Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie is a good book if you want to read something optimistic.
I wouldn’t be gentle. But then again both my parents are dead so I don’t actually have anyone to be bitter at.
At this point we have to contend with small wins like Die Linke getting almost 10% of the vote in Germany, Elon Musk getting bullied out of politics, and Carney winning in Canada.
I won’t contend with small wins anymore. I want it all, heaven or hell
Die Linke (Formel SPD) used to be close to a majority in our parents time.
Yes
Hello
hello
I think they’ve got it the wrong way around. The under 40s have a chance of rebuilding after the war. Yes, there are hard times ahead but they are young enough to come out on the other side.
At 49, I’m quite sure I either won’t make it through the coming storm at all or at least won’t be able to enjoy the aftermath for long once things get better again.
The under 40s will be sent to die at the front
The under 40s are going to be the ones fighting the wars, as always. Even if there is an other side for humanity after what’s coming, no one alive today will ever have a peaceful life ever again.
I’ll take prison or a bullet to the head before I decide to fight for a nation that has pulled the rug out from underneath me.
I hope more young people see it this way, maybe we’ll actually get to a point where we can watch all these leaders duke it out in person because no one will fight for them
In my 30s, feel the same way. Why would I offer myself to the meat grinder for a nation that bitches about me all the time?
If the cure to existential dread is turning 40, it can’t come soon enough.
I turned 40 this year. Sadly it hasn’t helped my existential dread at all.
Intense workouts everyday I’m able to has helped me significantly.
It all goes faster downhill.
Happy 40th!
Oh yeah, years pass by like weeks. No joke, time now feels like you’re trying to hold the sand in your hands, in a storm.
Well, interestingly, gen z men are the Trumpiest demographic:
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/11/american-gen-z-podcasts-trump-harris
I guess the meme still holds true, but their concerns about the future are very different. TBH I can totally understand them becoming disillusioned with other old politicians following old voters who will just “do nothing at let it all happen.”
I know a surprisingly large amount of MAGA/Trump adjacent fans because of my type of work.
- They’re all single dudes. Maybe divorced. Maybe never went on a date.
- There’s Joe Rogan involved.
- After a few beers, they all will unprompted share their views on Jews, blacks, trans, lesbians, or some other racist shit then back off and pretend it’s just a joke.
- Tell them anything involving empathy “Sorry your dog died” is met with silence or coldness.
- They all don’t give a shit about anybody else besides themselves. And often see themselves as the victim. “Oh Trans person was brutally beaten? Yeah it’s a violent world like one time some guy threatened me gotta stay strapped.”
- They may not like Trump’s antics. But to them, the Democrats aren’t helping THEM. Remember that lack of empathy?
They may not like Trump’s antics. But to them, the Democrats aren’t helping THEM. Remember that lack of empathy?
Unless they make 6 figures that point is true though. Not that Trump is going to help them either. But at least he pretends to care about them, whereas the Democrats outright said that their life reality of rising prices and stagnating wages is fake because the stock market is making new record bubble numbers.
At this point, it’s gotta be in the high six-figures with the decades of unending price gouging.
Who are the positive role models? Weve got all these young guys watching sniveling cucks like andrew taint
This is the saddiest shit ever. Young men being angry at the « Men » will vote for the men that will sold them to the bone mill in a heart beat.
There’s a Turkish proverb : and the forest vote for the axe because they where made of the same wood
What a great proverb. Thank you for that.
They misattribute monetary policy that bids up home and asset values using cheap debt and facilitates massive bailouts with federal government policy. The CPI doesnt include asset prices so cheap debt can flood into asset prices without slowing down the devaluation of their salary, it also does subjective inflation deductions to goods based on perceived quality changes, and excludes much of the shrinkflation thats happens to goods and service quality.
Something as basic like getting support for a flight is now talking to a chatbot with perpetually larger than expected call volume, you pay extra for seating, you pay extra for baggage; and your seat is so small now you also may as well be standing. Free range chickens used to just be called chicken, and eggs could be eaten uncooked since they werent swimming in ecoli, but according to the CPI you’re significantly better off now; so the nominal value of a boomers house is now worth significantly more due to all this perceived wealth.
It’s easy to paint a picture on a blank canvas.
See ‘normative alexithymia’
I’m over 40 and struggling not to conclude life on this planet peaked 30 years ago
Yep. It peaked right around Ronnie Reagan’s sell-out to the wealthy. If folks want a better quality of life they will have to take it back from the rich.
The 90s were seriously such a bop.
If you were a kid in the 90s, sure. Your parents shielded you from all the chaos.
The 90s also had terrorism (IRA, WTC bombing, German and French hijackings, Israeli settler massacre, sarin gas attack in Japan, Oklahoma City bombing, bombings of US service members in Saudi Arabia, PKK suicide bombers in Turkey, Dagestan bombing in Russia (possibly a Putin-orchestrated false flag)). It had the ongoing AIDS epidemic, which was terrifying. It had the first Gulf war. It had the LA riots of 1992. It had the columbine shooting.
It’s much worse today
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The Matrix was right.
At this point we can only hope the Matrix is real and they reset this simulation soon because what we’re seeing are the side effects from the uprising outside.
9/11 was suppose to be the reset point, but the simulation kept running for some reason.
You might even call it an Mmmbop.
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland.
Put a bird on it.
A while ago, I was talking to my mum and offhandedly said that I’d have to move north at some point in my life, due to climate change. For me, that’s just a given, with record hottest summers coming in regularly and current summers already incapacitating me for weeks at a time.
But my mum’s reaction was basically “What’s this about now?”. She’s lived in her childhood town or close-by for basically her whole life. And she’s old enough that she doesn’t have to worry about the aftermath. But yeah, that was still brutal, how different our realities were in that regard.
The Upper Peninsula is starting to look quite nice this time of year…
I remember agreeing with that back in 2021 when it was posted, and now, well…
I landed a job a job at a company that’s circling the drain, I feel like a parasite feeding off a host until it’s gone and I move to a new one
I’m a public librarian. Just dreading the day we are defunded. They’ve already attacked our national orgs.
Maybe this varies geographically, but our town’s libraries are directly funded by the town. We recently improved a millage for renovations. I hope they would be pretty insulated from… sillyness.
Most libraries also have significant federal funding, and rely on resources maintained with federal funding, even if state and local funding is higher
Absolutely this. Our federal money actually comes through the state org which takes care of a whole bunch of stuff like our inter library loans and access to Kanopy/Libby.
Absolutely know the feeling
When I quit a few years ago are my last employer, I was thinking, I’m the rat leaving the sinking ship
Fucking card house still hasn’t collapsed somehow and old employer is now my main customer.
So…not much changed, besides that I don’t have much security anymoreBut hey! Illusion of freedom, when being self employed! ;-)
Not just those under 40.
Plenty of my gen X friends have come to accept that they will never retire like the boomers. A lot of millennials never thought they would.
That’s something that noone should accept, much less whole generations. I’m not working for someone else for my while life.
