No Stupid Questions

Preamble: OP asked for optimism. If you reply to this comment trying to kill the vibe, I will burn your house down. Also, I can only really speak about the US; I live there, and don't know enough to say much about anywhere else.

These dark times are not natural. They are sustained in no small part by a cult of personality and a gigantic propaganda machine, both sustained by dark money & evil billionaires.

That sounds rough, but it means some good things! The personality at the heart of that cult is wandering off and shitting himself, publicly letting his brain leak out his ears. It is the destiny of all machines to fail; money is powerful, but it can only buy so much. And those same billionaires are unpopular and insane. I fully believe part of the reason things are so bad right now is because the bad guys know things are going to get much harder for them very soon.

Additionally: much ado has been made about polarization these days. And yes, right wing extremism is incredibly visible and dangerous right now. But, good radicalization is also happening. We had some of the largest protests in the history of this country last year. Things like police brutality and class consciousness are inching ever closer to being mainstream issues among voters. Millennial democrats are getting elected more and more often, and they are getting more and more progressive. The fascists may be behind the wheel right now, but you know what fascists are fundamentally? Losers. Small, simple, evil men and the opportunists & sycophants that throw their lot in with them. They actively select against competence.

Look, things are bad right now. People are gonna be hurt, lives are gonna be ruined, and it's gonna be a big fucking mess to clean up in the future. But we're gonna beat 'em, 100%.

So try to help who you can, look out for your mental health, and stick around. A better future is possible!

this is not the first time the world feels bleak, and it won't be the last. chin up, king! 🤴

life is billions of years old.

life will find a way.

Locally

Civilization is basically just bureaucracy integrated over population. Some people figure out how to game the system via the chasm of abstraction between; that's a function of any sufficiently complex system, look at the speed running community

But ultimately, civilization is just people. All the bureaucracy placed on top of it is just a collection of systems made by people to coordinate themselves. A lot of the dark theatrics are the result of the population becoming so vast that even at the lowest levels, the bureaucracy is distant and abstract. That abstraction alienates people from one another, so they only really know how to interact through the lens of that bureaucracy

The optimism is that you can engage your community. You can meet your neighbors, learn their trades and share yours, start a group chat. You can organize barter networks, childcare rotations, handyman services, mutual aid.

You can join local political groups. Start local political groups. Go to protests and meet people in neighboring areas. Network.

You can promote candidates for local office, and encourage others in your network to do so. You can run for local office, and encourage others in your network to do so. We've seen what the other side is offering so far as administrative competence, you think you're worse?

Go to local events. Talk to your neighbors. Organize with your neighbors. The big system is very top down in its perspective, but it's really ultimately dependent on the composite people. You can organize the people from the bottom up, and get your friends in nearby neighborhoods to do the same.

If all the neighborhoods are organized, bloodless revolution slides quite comfortably into the realm of plausible futures.

I'm optimistic that the N.E.Patriots are headed to another Super Bowl... Go Pats!

There are still many things happening that are objectively improving. You just have to look a bit harder.

One definitive field is software. It continues to get faster and better and more reliable.

It's not the way I wanted it to happen (my country fucked it's industry), but China understood the issue with transition to green energy and built so much production capacity for solar and wind energy, solar energy is properly exploding. Exports to Africa increased by 500% in the past 5 years. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-first-evidence-of-a-take-off-in-solar-in-africa/

Even if I couldn't find a good reason for optimism Nationally (which I would never admit to due to the the credible threat of getting my house burned down), I know that I can make an impact on the people I love (friends family and strangers) that are directly around me.

I might not change anything, but maybe I will have enough effect to make it possible for someone else. Another philosophy I have is that even though it seems like it's a failing war against the aristocracy, I'm not going to make it easy for them and maybe I can take them down with me.