Where do we go from here?

[Odd Opossum]

Realistically, what is anyone supposed to do in the times we're in to build a decent life?
We've got a lot of big problems on the horizon. Of course times have always been difficult, but a lot of problems we have right now don't seem to have any easy answers. And the people who might have possible answers aren't in a place to initiate the change possible to get them. People can't just keep coping forever.
And even the things that would bring people respite from the drudgery seem to be slipping away from more people. Entertainment is shit, relationships both romantic and platonic seem to be dwindling.
I don't see any way for people to actually achieve fulfillment, romance, community, success or have upwards mobility any time in the near future. There doesn't even seem to be a realistic way to rebel or violently fight back at the system in place. I just keep wondering what is there anyone can do?
Of course things are not complete shit right now. Most people can eat, have recreational time and aren't all living in slums in the states. I'm not saying it's hopeless or it's 'the fall of humanity'. But it's all a little more aggravating, meandering, gay and pointless than the objectively more harsher times of conflict and strife in some ways. The scary thing is things are bad now but are probably going to get far worse. But nobody really knows when that's going to be, how severe the decline will be and how long it will last.
I think things can get better, and probably will within the next generation or so. But what are people supposed to do in the meantime? How do you make yourself more than a cog or find the same enjoyment or fulfilment you would have even 15 years ago?

Posts like these are going to age bad. I can already see the "Does anyone else regret spending their youth dooming about a collapse that never came?" threads that'll be made in 10-15 years time.

 

[Samson Pumpkin Jr.]

Bait russia into firing nukes at Washington and change the passwords for the presidental bunker

Building bunkers for the very people that start the wars is insanity. Putting our "leaders" in harms way and making sure they know they're the first to go is by far the best way of preventing any such conflict.

 

[Clusterfuckk2]

As an old bitch I can only offer this

Surround yourself with as many like minded people IN PERSON as you can. Hang out with those people without agendas as much as you can and just enjoy the unplanned shit.

Some questions can’t be answered. Maybe there is no point to any of it, maybe we will never know. Not being able to find the answer can he one of the hardest things to reconcile with but sometimes it truly just ‘is what it is’.

And finally an even older motherfucker said the gayest shit ever but it stands true when all also fails ‘do or do not; there is no try’

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

I'm almost 23 now, probably don't have enough experience to put my two cents into this.
But I am pretty comfy with not being bothered by societal standards, and I think that might be the only way to really gain happiness currently.
You see these people slaving away on social media, pretending that they have gained this, but that's just the societal standard of happiness.
The standard of pretending everything is fine while it isn't is something we normalized at this point, and I fucking hate it.
Strive to be yourself; even if people try to pull you back into this world of societal norms, don't let them.
Say what you want, Act how you want, and be honest with the people who cannot handle this mindset.
Be the real You.

Words most certainly uttered by someone who is too young to know what we had. I'm not settling for lowering my quality of life when I know that it never had to be this way. I choose to be hateful and bitter about this, because we were once on track and at full speed to a good future, a mere 25 years ago.

All of that "self care, self love" shit is Zoomer cope. Around the time you were born, things were looking up, like really up, until around 9/11. The 90s and early 2000s were more or less the kind of society you'd see as the preamble to a literal utopia. Things were most certainly not perfect, but there was something to look forward to, until the plan that TPTB incubated for so long, was finally hatched and released to the public.

Social media, as you mentioned, is probably the ultimate Zoomer tier cope for the bad future we were artificially thrust into. Hundreds of thousands, to millions of people, who are convinced that they need to put on a show for the world to prove that they didn't slip through the cracks like everyone else. It is truly awful.

Settling for less and finding myself isn't going to change the fact that I know what the future should have looked like. How can you expect me to ignore the fact that the enemies of humanity won, and that looking inward is the answer? No, we should be killing powerful people, not accepting the damage they dealt to us.

I can't blame you for not being alive and lucid for the good times, but I do want you to know that once upon a time, things were objectively and infinitely better than they are right now, and that getting back on track to that is possible, instead of trying to live laugh love the pain away.

 

[(((I am NOT a jew)))]

Posts like these are going to age bad. I can already see the "Does anyone else regret spending their youth dooming about a collapse that never came?" threads that'll be made in 10-15 years time.

Pretty fair. But I did say I do think things can work out in the future. I think the issue isn't wondering if there will be societal collapse. In a weird way I think I could at least "manage" with that insofar as accepting life will be more about survival and I won't have time to bitch about life being gay or pointless. I think people prefer an apocalypse now (and always have) because it might give their life value in a weird way. I think the problem is there's this looming dread in the air a lot of people feel. The feeling that things might just keep getting worse for several generations in a slow decay and people will start dying by suicide as opposed to murder or starvation. I don't think that's a set-point but it is something that people are scared of.
It's like comparing knowing you have a sudden severe form of cancer that will probably kill you in 3 years and having to accept that it's coming compared to an illness that will just make your life hell for a very long time with no forseeable end to it. You might find the former option more practical than that uneasy feeling or your standard of living being at a constant low, with no real foresight on if it can get better or worse at any moment.
Again, you're more on track. But the general lack of wealth among newer generations and rising suicides rates is something that should be a cause for concern.

I can't blame you for not being alive and lucid for the good times, but I do want you to know that once upon a time, things were objectively and infinitely better than they are right now, and that getting back on track to that is possible, instead of trying to live laugh love the pain away.

I think that's the biggest issue. It's not that we were born into a third world shithole with no possibility for outcomes or happiness. The issue is for a time life was pretty damn great. The only people who want to give false equivalences or gaslight anyone into thinking it was "bad just in different ways" are only the people who actively have fought for the current system and are loving every second of it. That's what's at the core of everyone's pain. It's not that we have it so bad. It's knowing our parents/grandparents had it so damn good. And because they had it so damn good they don't have to care that we don't. Things weren't even that bad THAT long ago. 2008 was 15 years ago. That's what I mean by people just can't keep coping. No matter how many youtube videos you watch or mantras you repeat to yourself, it's not going to stop the fact that you and a lot of fucking people got the no-vaseline treatment right at the cusp of what should have been the happiest years of your life.

Overall, I'm not saying "it's all over, throw in the towel". We've been through shit before. If anything, worse comes to worst I still think our generation will be remembered more fondly in the century to come as sort of the antithesis of the boomers for having to deal with a lot of shit that was thrown our way that we had no control over.

 

[ABE LINN COHN]

We're only alive right now because people built their lives, started families, and worked for a better future in the past. We're here because people during the Black Death and the 30 Years War persevered. All we can do is pay it forward.