I’m worried for the world. All I’ve been thinking about is WW3 and this shit makes me want to vomit. I can’t even smoke weed anymore without having a near panic attack. I feel unmotivated. I wake up and immediately just want to go back to bed. I’m not trying to spread fear but the Doomsday clock is 90 seconds till midnight, during the Cuban missile crisis, it was 7 minutes before midnight. Can we just have one day of fucking peace? Can everyone just stop for one day and enjoy one day of peace?
Yes, and no. It will likely continue to get worse before it gets better, but as things ramp up, eventually the band will snap and change will happen.
It’s up to us to work towards that change being positive, rather than negative.
I’m more worried about global warming, personally.
Honestly, I don’t give a fuck about climate change. Humans are a failed evolution, we are all greedy and evil. Let’s just get over with the sixth mass extinction. Maybe a superior creature will replace us in a few million years, or maybe a flying space monkey from Mars will learn continue our research.
Humans are amazing, I know it’s cool to be edgy but we’re doing great and looking good doing it.
Don’t worry about WW3. The more inevitable thing that will destroy us is climate change.
But seriously, why worry about stuff you can’t change? If they launch the nukes, then you’ll be dead and so it won’t matter if you worried about it or not. So you might as well just not worry.
Because it will hurt the entire time you are dying lol
Worrying about it in advance doesn’t change how much it will hurt.
Activism would help very little, but at least it isn’t fatalism.
I don’t think parent poster meant to espouse nihilism. Rather just acceptance. You can still find meaning in living day to day if worrying about the future becomes debilitating.
This. Seeing one person who you helped smile makes you happy, even if it may not solve all the worlds problems. Volunteering has always brought me much more joy and helped me deal with existential dread better than ignoring the news or any other change I can make
Public service announcement that the OG nihilists like Nietzsche were actually pretty hyped about the meaninglessness of the universe. The idea was that it gave you more freedom to live life and find your own meaning, like you said.
I personally don’t thing we’re all fucked. I just take in life day by day and appreciate what I have. Let’s make today a day of peace. I’m probably gonna go for a walk and try to do something nice for someone.
Do yourself a favor and disconnect from news feeds, notifications and social media for 2 weeks and see how you feel.
Edit: also take a break from Lemmy. I swear I think the doomsaying here is worse than Reddit.
Ignoring problems rarely works…
Ignoring problems you have literally no control over works indeed
On a micro level, sure.
But if 75% all choose to give a shit for a year straight, we could all ignore it safely after that.
You couldn’t get 75% of people to agree that water’s wet, so have fun with that
We were at 64% just a few years ago for climate change…
We’re real fucking close, which is why now is the absolute worst time to be telling people an ostrich is valid role model.
Lol I don’t think that link makes anyone more optimistic.
Policies had wide-ranging support, with the most popular being conserving forests and land (54% public support), more solar, wind and renewable power (53%), adopting climate-friendly farming techniques (52%) and investing more in green businesses and jobs (50%).
When you start breaking it down by actual ways to stop climate change and the highest yes vote they can get is 54%? And that’s a 54% for something I thought wouldn’t even be controversial.
I’m just saying it’s ok for someone to take a step back from the news if it’s gonna cause them to stress out. There’s not a whole lot people can actually do in their day to day and I don’t think fighting on a forum with ten people is helping anyone
That’s the neat things about global catastrophic events…
We don’t all need to address it the same way. As long as most of us are addressing it in a substantial way.
Damn. I thought it was me, but scrolling through Everything & Top Day is just filled with rage bait and doom news. I rarely find something uplifting. And I usually find myself more anxious after reading through them.
I really want Lemmy to thrive, that’s why I am here, but I used to be able to filter all that shit in reddit and still have a bunch of funny dumb simple happy posts. If I do that here I get no posts back…
Beehaw
If you ever find a good solution for filtering out those posts, please update us.
I tend to only view my subscribed community feed, but it would be nice to look at “All” to find new communities.
It’s definitely not a complete nor perfect solution, but I’ve noticed that a number of accounts disproportionately post very negative news links. I’ve started blocking some of those users. It helps break it up a bit. I’m sure I’m missing some news now, but there’s only so many times I can see posts about the world burning up or genocide before browsing lemmy becomes stressful and nihilistic.
So if I see the same negative news story on multiple communities, I’ll click on the user and if they’re blasting negative stories everywhere I just block them. For example, I just blocked silence7@slrpnk.net, not because of any harassment or anything, it’s just that they almost exclusively post political and climate doomsday stuff.
Block all politics communities.
I block communities as I come across them but I feel like I might be missing out on a few.
I block all news and politics communities. Also if Elon started rumbling again about annoying things I block the words Elon, musk and Elon musk.
Really? I’ve found the opposite, the toxic positivity is just as bad as in reddit if not worse.
Amen. OP, I promise the news still finds a way in, even if you swear it off. You won’t be able to escape it completely, but shutting it out by choice makes a huge and positive impact. You don’t need to be constantly pummeled with every bad thing that happens every day in order to still be plugged-in to what’s going on in the world.
Yep. To expand on this if people still want to use social media, here’s what helped me. The constant doom scrolling is unhealthy and unhelpful.
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Block or mute news/doomsday communities/people on social media. Link aggregators and algorithm-driven social media just sucks for news across the board. Use Lemmy (or Reddit, etc) for memes, interesting discussions, cool pictures, whatever, but not news.
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Collect a list of news sources you trust and add them to an RSS reader. Ideally in a separate folder from other feeds so you can easily filter them out when you aren’t interested in world news. You only get one “post” per article, rather than seeing the same “everything sucks now” article reposted to 20 different communities, and it’s buried in good ol’ boring news. Everything is less exciting in this format, it’s great.
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The best cure for this is to read more news about people. A healthy dislike for people in general makes you worry less about the future of humanity ;-)
Doomsday clock is mostly bullshit.the news only shows the worst of the world with the most sour spin.
The world will go on and for your own mental health you should take a break from the noise of world news and focus on finding enjoyment in your day to day life.
Nope.
I think people who worry about things outside their control might be missing out on things that really matter most in their lives.
I grew up during the Cold War era. It was pretty tense and, at least from my personal perspective, it seemed much worse then than it does today. The days after 9/11 were even worse. It really all depends on your geographic location though (I’m between NY and DC). If you’re in Gaza right now, yeah, you should be worried. If you’re in Oklahoma, go play in the mud and enjoy your life.
Things will get worse. They always have. Humanity deals with it. It’s not a good formula but it’s what we’ve got. I’d be much more worried about the population of the planet exceeding its natural resources and the continued loss of jobs to automation and slave labor (the unrelenting promotion of consumerism) than I would WWIII.
Not to dismiss the legitimate atrocities that are taking place across the world but I think your issue might be too much media consumption. The media is getting worse faster than the world is. Everything is rage bait to garner viewership and ad revenue and attention and profits for stock holders. Limit your media consumption to your passions and hobbies and to neutral journalism like AP and PBS. I mean, I can’t tell you how many articles I read from formerly-legit news outlets that have little to do with a click bait headline now. It’s so frustrating that even the news has a bias now - even when it’s biased towards my preference.
With all the energy you’re putting towards worrying about the entire planet, I’m sure your immediate community would benefit from a fraction of that concern.
There are problems in the world, but it’s important to remember that both news and social media get way more engagement when showing you doom and outrage, so the most extreme takes rise to the top.
It’s good to be informed, but don’t let the doomsaying scare you out of living your life.
I think it’s largely just news that is sensationalized to get additional advertising revenue. It’s there to get you worried so you constantly check for updates. IIRC this concept was started by CNN back in the 80s or 90s, when 24/7 news became a thing. Now that the Internet is around fear mongering is everywhere. It’s what makes money. And if you don’t pay for the news, you are the commodity. Frequently a conduit for advertising.
Yes
The reality of life is that we will all die. Some will die quietly, peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. Some will die messily, painfully, alone and afraid. This is the reality we must all live in and accept.
It’s very possible that our species will die out. That is not an inherently bad or evil thing. Countless species have come and gone from Earth. Whether we destroy ourselves through war and ignorance, or we continue to thrive, doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is you.
You describe symptoms of depression and anxiety. You are sad and scared, and this is in part due to feeling powerless to fix the world. However, the only thing you have power over is yourself. Focus on helping yourself before you try to help the world. Try to find peace within yourself before seeking it in the world. The world is not, and has never been, a place of peace.
If you’d like practical advice, then I’d say stay away from weed and THC if it’s making you anxious. Keep away from alcohol as it will just exacerbate your depressed feelings. If you haven’t already, please discuss your feelings with a therapist and see a psychiatrist for mental health diagnoses and treatment. If either of these hasn’t worked for you before, I’d urge you to seek second opinions.
All I know is Stardew Valley has a big update today, and there’s few better places to hang out when you’re feeling stressed.
First:
You are dying. Let that in; dwell on it.
Being alive can be pretty amazing; the world, people, life… But the price of entry is that your time is limited, and will end. oh, and you have no idea when. :)
So “being alive” is, by definition, to be actively dying.
Second:
Anxiety (worry, dread, etc) is always and only ever based on an imagined future. This is where you are right now, imagining outcomes you have no way of knowing. Sadness (regret, self doubt, etc) is entirely focused on a remembered past. We all experience both.
Right now is all you really ever have. Learning to put (and keep) your attention there takes work, but it’s worth it!
I think the bigger threat to our lives is the creeping/ crawling/ walking/ running fascism and authoritarianism people have become complacent about and have come to accept.
World war, nukes, climate change, etc… Those are big bads. But they aren’t every day bads.
Its the every day bads that grind you down, and the world seems to have forgotten that that a good society to live in requires the commitment and work of its people to maintain it. I blame consumerism for training people to believe they can just shop for the things they want in life and don’t have to build them. You can’t shop for a better society; you can only build it. This lack of civic duty to me is the real problem beleaguering us, and these other ills extend from it. Individuals need to recognize themselves as responsible for the state of things and to take responsibility for making it better. The government is not some third party to you; its an extension of your-self and if it isn’t functioning well, its on you to get involved and fix it.
I blame consumerism and the lack of personal responsibility it seeks to create in its patrons. People seem to have gotten caught in a mist that they are subject to the forces of this world, rather than recognizing themselves as the force that moves the world. Its a convenient thing for authoritarian leaders to take advantage of. Modern political leadership doesn’t want voters involved except in the occasional, minimal interaction that implies consent to be governed.
We really need to figure out a way to get out of this frog-march into authoritarianism and fascism, because we can’t address any of the other issues if that’s the direction the whole ship is going.
This is really well put. Consumerism necessitates passivity
