Asklemmy

This may sound pessimistic, but try to compare yourself with people who live worse than you.

It is, though. The US isn't the only place, nor is the Middle East. "African farmer can send kids to high school for first time" isn't a splashy headline but it happens a lot.

The weather lately has been depressing and angering. I keep trying to get people around angry about it too, but just like everyone else it's hard to feel like it's possible to get anything done. That's why we need to band together

To me it's not a question of the world ending, but the apropos question posed by all people around the globe: when will the old world die. Like, seriously? A return to nationalism, continued exploitation of the poor, subjugation of individuality and culture?

Oh the world will end, and it'll end with guillotines. Republicans, democrats, EU neo-liberals, authoritarians like the Russia oligarchy, the Iranian oligarchy, the Saudi oligarchy, the Chinese oligarchy. All of it. Douse with fire, light a match and warm yourself.

The world will end, but a new one will be born in its place. Maybe this time we don't allow a bunch of oligarchs and elites to define the new world, because the last time that happened we got capitalism and the ongoing broken promise of "modernity".

That's the neat part, I don't!

I got a vasectomy as a way of dealing with it.

The world is getting better in many ways. It's just not profitable for media organizations to highlight the good.

For the ways things are getting worse? That's always how it's been. People have always felt that current times are worse than times past.

My primary coping mechanism is woodworking. I'm getting pretty good at building guillotines.

A mix of:

1. We can't really know how things will play out, so I'm going to at least try to nudge things in a better direction. If that helps create a better world, good, if it does nothing, at least I can die in the water wars knowing I tried.
2. But things are very likely fucked, so I'm going to enjoy what I can in life while I can.

There is no guarantee that as a white male you get anything.

That kind of thinking is only present in the racist concept that Europeans have always been at the top.

They haven't. Western Europeans weren't the top of anything until the Renaissance(except maybe at being mostly peaceful, having a measure of women's rights and being outright genocided and colonized by the Romans).

by remembering that Esau is the end of the world

I think what has helped me is watching John Green/ Hank Green's YouTube channels. The fact is bad news happens fast, but good news happens slow.

A maternity ward was built in Sierra Leone thanks to the coordinated effort of thousands of people across the world. Patents for Tuberculosis tests and treatments have been released in the countries that need it the most. This is a disease that takes millions of lives every year, not because we don't have the technology, but because people don't have access to the treatments. Of course this was something that should have been taken care of decades ago, but the fact we can pressure pharmaceutical companies to release their patents for the good of humanity must mean something.

Despair is seductive, it asks nothing but to feel sad, and you can always find reasons to despair. But the correct answer to consciousness is hope.

I work in Chicago with non profits that are dedicated to building safe communities, to saving local and global ecosystems, to public health access, to helping house the homeless.

I fully believe that there isn't anything wrong with the world that can't be solved with what is right with the world. And when I feel despair, which I am oft to do, I look at my friends, my community, those that roll up their sleeves, shake hands, and do what they can with what they have.