I (23M) am becoming increasingly aware that my regular exposure to political content seems to be incompatible with my own mental well-being.
I was raised by two narcissistic parents, one of whom was violent. I have very few positive or loving memories. My trauma turned my brain into a 24/7 threat detector. I’m constantly thinking about everything and everyone that could kill me or take everything I have.
The Internet has taught me that the world is less awful than the hellish place I came from. But I’ve hit a wall where I can’t get better because I am constantly being reminded by well-meaning people that everything in the U.S. is going to shit.
My trauma narrative eats this stuff up. It sees fascists on the streets, impending financial and ecological crises, the dangers of cars, widespread hyperindividualism, the decline of third spaces, and constant phone and social media use. Then it says, “Nobody can be trusted because capitalism makes everyone shallow and selfish. Going outside is dangerous because of cars and fascists. Most people don’t want to socialize because they are too busy. There are no good places to meet anyone. Everyone who does socialize is just a fair-weather friend because support is outsourced to paid therapy and the eroding welfare system. I’ll never be good enough for a partner because I can’t build a stable life and dating apps are designed to not work. Any job I get won’t last long because of the collapsing economy. Going to college is too financially risky. There is no stability. Nothing good ever lasts. My progress will be wiped out by systemic forces far beyond my control.”
It seems like U.S. politics is about instability and collapse at this point, and because I have so few positive memories, it feels like life itself is about instability and collapse. Your money, your job, your social circle, your health, everything you’ve worked for – all of it could just go up in smoke tomorrow. I can’t take anything for granted or have any confidence in the future. I can’t fully enjoy anything because I’m too busy thinking about how I’ll cope with its inevitable loss.
Is this really what life is? Just watching every good thing disappear? Being born into a mostly-functioning society just to watch it fall apart? Knowing you’ll have to weather every struggle alone because people only care about themselves? Being promised a stable life and career all throughout school only for the rug to be pulled at the last minute?
There has to be more to life than this.
Is staying on the Internet really worth it?
(Also yes I go to therapy, I’m working on myself but that shit is hard af sometimes)
No, it’s not entirely awful. There are awful things in it for sure, but there are also amazing things, which is how it’s always been.
People growing up today live under the threat of climate change, fascism, rampant inequality etc. These threats are real. But there’s a lot of good stuff happening too - crime rates are falling constantly, and we’re on the verge of some big medical breakthroughs such as being able to treat cancer with CRISPR and Oncolytic viruses to give a couple of examples. We might be about to double the lifespan of cats.
Every generation grows up under some sort of threat - nuclear annihilation in the 80s, WW2 before that, WW1 before that etc. Mad kings, dictators, plagues, wars… you’re dealt the hand you’re dealt. But everything is cyclical - fascism flares up and then gets squashed, the economy booms and busts, politics swings right, then left again. Because of that, sometimes the cycles line up so that a few things suck at once. But nothing is permanent.
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.
- Ursula Le Guin
That’s not to say everything will be fine, or that we’re doomed. Most likely some people who don’t deserve it will suffer and die, some people who don’t deserve it will live charmed and privileged lives and learn nothing, and some people will just be fine. As it has always been.
A lot of what you see online is people making the perfect the enemy of the good, intentionally divisive foreign propaganda, and extremists trying to get you mad about their thing. Houses really are a lot more expensive than they were in the middle of the 20th century but compared to the rest of human history that period was the outlier, now things are just returning to ‘normal’.
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As people have stated, some things are good, some are bad.
The most important factor for anyone answering you is are they even aware of their privilege or lack thereof.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned, is the fact that based on the wealth and progress of the world, basically none of the issues that remain, should.
This is the absolutely unbelievably infuriating part, and it’s made worse because people will come into forums like this, and say “bruh I have a mini computer that does everything and the 60s didn’t even have civil rights”. That’s a complete false equivalence that means NOTHING.
Unfortunately, right now oligarchy is rampant, fascism is categorically and indisputably on the rise, and a few billionaires are actively deploying all the money and losers they can to keep shit shifting wealth, and power in their direction.
If we do not stop them soon, they will quite literally burn the world down for a fucking dollar.
It’s great to take advice here and exist in a bubble, but society is not a bubble.
In other words “I don’t care about politics” or “I can’t look at it because of X reason” are really great thoughts, but politics absolutely gives a shit about you and it will decide your future with or without your input.
All things end. It’s the price of existing. But new good things come. There’s danger, but there’s also plenty good.
Go out, try to make some friends and when you fail try again until you succeed.
There’s good in this world and it’s worth fighting for.
Depends. Is your family rich?
There are lots of things going on at once and all of them are valid. I struggle, too. My life is pretty good, from a global standard, while many, many others’ lives are much worse. Happiness is wildly unevenly distributed.
Get a hobby. Find people in your area that share that hobby. Form social groups around that.
You do realize that, as an adult, you can just start a club, right? Why do you think your high school had all those clubs and activities in it? The hope was that you could keep doing things like that as an adult. Every aspect of schooling is meant to serve as practice for adulthood.
Hell, you could start a “third places” club. Get a number of people together. Every Saturday afternoon, on a rotating basis, someone’s home becomes a “coffee shop” that everyone goes and hangs out at. Don’t even need to plan a lot of programming. You don’t need to worry about any kind of business license, as you’re not running a business. It’s just a friend group that holds rotating social gatherings.
The Universe gave you an imagination for a reason. USE IT. Find something that interests you or some need in your community. Find others with that passion or interest. Find something that brings you joy and meaning, something within the limits of your talents and resources. If it doesn’t exist, will it into being.
Build the world you want to see. The labor will buy your sanity.
Yes and no—depends on your proximity to the catalysts. If you’re ridiculously privileged, like I am, the world has never been safer.
But, imo, it’s important to hold two truths:a. The US is as about as safe as it’s ever been
b. Shit, on the whole, is absolutely fuckedWe are all part of society and we owe it to each other to at least maintain awareness of the goings-on.
Find your personal balance—don’t simply pretend everything is rainbows.There’s a lot of responses here already… But if it ever feels hopeless or overwhelming, I recommend just go to a nearby park, sit on a bench, and watch nature and life going by. Compare what you’re seeing, with what you’re feeling. Do they match up? Or is there a difference there?
This is what I would recommend also. You really need to be in nature, in forests, feel the sun and observe how you are feeling.
You have to learn to watch the circus, as I call our society, from outside instead of believing in what it’s telling you.
Think about your emotional state a lot and figure out what makes you feel good. And do that.
Sit? They took away the benches. Funding cuts.
Install new ones on a moonless night. When they tear those out?
DO IT AGAIN.
If you think there is something wrong with the world then try to change it. Life is worth living when it’s meaningful.
I’d say if you are able to maintain steady income, friends, interests, don’t live in an active war zone or other disaster area, and have a few other lucky circumstances like that, you can (at least for now) have a reasonably happy existence. You don’t have to ignore or deny the terrible stuff going on elsewhere. There have always been wars and poverty happening, but it’s ok to respond more to your sense of your immediate surroundings (where things are going ok) than to your sense of bad stuff happening in remote times and places.
The internet and political news reminds us that bad times may be coming for everyone due to global warming, AI propaganda from encroaching dictatorships, and all that stuff. Don’t ignore that. Oppose it if you can. But, don’t let it overcome your hopefully-reasonably-good existence in the present.
Certainly, if spending all day on the internet makes you neurotic, then try to cut back on it. Some people choose to eliminate it completely from their lives, at least for a while. I haven’t done that so don’t know if it helps.
Don’t forget being straight and white, otherwise you’re persecuted by religion and the government
It all depends on what kinds of privilege you have access to. If you’re a cishet (or at least bi and in a straight-passing relationship) white dude with a decent job, you’re probably doing just fine right now, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Barring some major catastrophe like war, there’s very little that politicians will do to disrupt the day-to-day lives of someone in that kind of demographic. It’s important to remember that “being able to disengage from politics because no policies will target you regardless of who is in power” is a form of privilege, and a rather large one at that.
As an American who has had to flee states due to political persecution, my saying of late has been:
“You can ignore politics. Politics will not ignore you.”
As an American who has had to flee states due to political persecution, my saying of late has been:
“You can ignore politics. Politics will not ignore you.”
Stay away and don’t support right wing states, corps, people and life is pretty great.
Example spend your money in NY instead of Florida etc
Don’t go to places that are anti “some minority” becuase they are filled with angry shitty people
Yes and no.
Yes, in that it does and will affect you, and you do need to take an interest. You need to vote in every election you can, you need to stay involved, you need to make a stand. Without that we will lose everything we care about. Those in power have shown that they are happy to chip away at things, but as soon as any opposition is shown they start backing down.
No, in that your life is your own, and you can’t let politics dictate your life. As someone with a ton of anxiety, I cannot read the news daily, I do not subscribe to the news communities, I have to stay away from it. I choose to live my life and make the most of it, living day to day. My family and friends are the most important to me, and I spend my time enjoying them. I came very close to crumpling into a deep depression due to the news, and then got help. It was a hard lesson in learning I cannot personally change everything, and I cannot hold myself responsible for everything that has happened.
Confused? Good. It’s a personal journey, you have to pick and choose yourself, and draw your own lines and figure out where your responsibility is and when you’ve done your part. I stay educated, I know what’s happening, I know who I’m voting for, I know when to stand up. That does not mean I need to stay glued to my computer and doomscroll. You’ll have to draw your own line.
Just a note about voting in some places, it may not matter anymore. I’m not saying don’t vote, most people still should but how shall I put this…
Billionaires and private equity bought Dominion and all the other voting machine manufacturers. The “changes” to election integrity departments of the government are also… Notable.
Yah. I don’t have a solution but chances of voting our way out drop by the day
Im over 50. I generally been good at school after the early grades. I grew up at a time when someone could still get a job with a high school degree and at least do alright for themselves. Afford a place to live on their own and pay their bills and be able to get around. I thought if I did well in school I would be able to afford the middle class american dream. support a modest home, wife, and kids. Over time a single income became increasingly impossible to support a household on. I did relative well compared to my peers but my wife has medical issues so we have had to live a very lean lifestyle to get by on one income with higher than normal medical costs. I am not in my 50’s and two years out of work living off shrinking savings that are supposed to help us get through retirement. We are kinda lucky we were saving to get some remodeling done to make it easier for my wife. Basically make it more handicap friendly. In addition we wanted to get some more energy efficient appliances especially the hvac system. That is pretty much what we are burning through along with doing some dangerous things like not getting the hvac a checked up and such. We are essentially as belt tightened as possible. So personally. From my experience. Life has gotten worse for people like me (americans). My father was able to own and pay off an admidately ramshackled house but looking at it from modern times it was a freaking mansion. 5 bedroom, 3 bathrooms, a full basement, sep living, dining, kitchen, breakfast nook. He never went to high school. Let me reiterate. Its not that he never graduated high school. He never graduated junior high. He never went to high school at all. We generally had two cars. Used sure but two. He payed for a household of 7 kids and a wife and himself and had plenty saved for retirement. I have a stem bachelors dual majored with a masters degree and worked extensively in the field. I am looking at eventually losing my two bedroom condo before retirement which also does not look good even if I got a job tommorrow unless I can make a ton in the next ten years. So anyway take that what you will but for my life and experience stuff has gotten worse as far as day to day life pretty much my whole life.
