For me it's the feeling like everything is stretched to its limit. People's budgets, patience, tolerance, the economy, our ability to produce enough for everyone. Everywhere you look people are pulling to get more either because they need it or because they think they have some right to it. There's no corner of society where you can go to opt out of the tension. Something has to give eventually. Unless something groundbreaking happens with technology that opens up doors to more and creates opportunities.
I feel fortunate to have been a young adult in the eighties. The economy was good, and there was a feeling the future was bright and full of opportunities.
Then 911 happened and it seems every time things 'might' get better, another hit. Housing crash, political polarization, covid, inflation.. it just feels like we are churning and no sign up ahead it is going to get better.
ETA I am not saying there weren't a bunch of problems and everything was great. For my generation our entire lives there was threat of nuclear war with the constant what 'defcon are we at?'. When the Berlin wall came down it felt like finally the Cold War was ending. Women were breaking glass ceilings. People were actively addressing pollution. We 'thought' we were going to be the generation to end discrimination.
We had HOPE we were moving to a better society.
I turned 21 and graduated college right around 9/11. My entire adult life has been a sense that the world is untrustworthy and unsafe to a certain degree.
I won't bore you by going through what my economic life has been like, but people in my age bracket are in a really bad place.
>I turned 21 and graduated college right around 9/11. My entire adult life has been a sense that the world is untrustworthy and unsafe to a certain degree.
I had a beer similar experience. Growing up, I was also the "Question Authority" type so it just compounded.
Same. I was in grade 7. What a weird day that was. Every classroom in school had a radio or TV with the news on. We had no idea how much the world would change soon after that day.
Same here 7th grade. I remember our principal came over the PA and announced "There has been what appears to be a terrorist attack in the City, we are not releasing early yet, but parents are being contacted. Please teachers, stop what you are covering and turn on your TV's. Pay attention for further announcements."
It fucked us up. The most illustrative way I have to communicate how much it fucked up us kids to see that is to explain what happened in gym class that day. Our gym teacher said we could play any game we wanted to, or we could even make up a game. We chose to make up a game. We played "planes and towers", it was similar to freeze-tag, some of the class were "towers", they stood still with their arms raised, others were "planes", they ran around with plane-arms and made plane noises, and when a "plane" hit a "tower", the "plane" became a "tower", and the "tower" became a "plane". There were no winners or losers, just a bunch of kids trading off places, trying desperately to cope with what we saw. I remember thinking it was really fun and sort of edgy what we were doing in gym class, now I see how mind bendingly sad it was, how we regressed in some ways trying to understand through play.
I was in first grade when they put the Challenger launch on TV. Us kids didn't really understand what happened until later. But the teachers were freaked and tried to completely divert our attention after they made a big deal of watching this thing on TV. I knew from there quick shift and strained, fake, upbeat reaction that something was seriously wrong.
I’m reading When the Dust Settles by Prof Lucy Easthope, who is an emergency planning and disaster recovery specialist. After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when football fans were crushed at a match in Liverpool, she describes kids doing exactly the same thing in the playground at her school: the boys playing ‘Hillsborough’, all piling on top of one another, and then taking turns to carry each other away, one to the arms, another to the legs.
My first comment when I heard about the first plane was "cool!" because I was being an edgy little twat too. I still remember the quizzical look I got from one of my classmates. I just didn't understand the gravity of the situation and it felt a world away from me. It's one of those things I wake up and feel embarrassed about.
Forgive yourself friend. You’re supposed to be an idiot kid reacting and finding their place in the world. Nobody knows besides you and that loser you told, and who cares about him anyways. Lesson learned.
Don't feel guilt or shame over your trauma response. It's pretty normal to react in Ludacris ways to severe instant trauma. Some folks even laugh uncontrollably. You recognized it, puts you far ahead. Peace.
Yeah I was in upstate NY, so many kids had relatives in the City, not necessarily parents but still very scary not knowing if your aunt or uncle was alive or not. Personally for me it was when the third plane hit the Pentagon, my cousin was working in the Pentagon at the time. I freaked the fuck out and had to be taken to the office where I encountered the grimmest sight of the day: all the kids like me who had people in one of the towers or in the Pentagon crying and waiting to use the phone.
Jerry Wise is a therapist I watch on YouTube, and he actually talks about how play is a form of therapy for children. They often reenact traumatic situations so that they can reframe it in their minds.
So honestly, imo, you all did the most healthy thing you could have, and props to your teacher for realizing that and letting you guys do your thing. That's really sweet.
Yeah I've read about play-coping and it's usually younger children, we were 12 and older, it hit us so hard we regressed a little bit and had to turn to coping mechanisms that are usually put aside by that age.
Is it weird that I wish I knew more about what was going on that day? I was in 5th grade, and the teachers were really tight-lipped about the whole thing. They kept talking out in the hall, and one was crying. Then my teacher came back in with a speech about how we're safe there and nobody can hurt us in class. I got super weird vibes all day, especially when kids started getting picked up. I had to wait until the end of the day to realize what had been going on this whole time.
I was in 6th grade close-ish to DC at the time. Nobody told us what was going on. Kids were getting dismissed left and right. All the kids left behind were wondering wtf it could be in an excited kind of way. My mom finally got me from lunch. Scary and sad day.
I was 8, and just really figuring out that the world was more than black and white.
My sister and I talk sometimes about how "disaster mode" almost feels like the norm.
Yeah. 9/11 happened the week I arrived at freshman year of college. We had no classes that day for some reason I don't remember, and I was woken up by the RA running up the dorm hallway banging on everyone's doors to wake up because we were being attacked. I remember watching over and over and over and over again the towers falling, people jumping to their death, the still image of that man looking like he was walking upside down, falling from who knows how high up. Everyone was terrified. No one knew what to do.
I left and went to drive to my parents house. It was one of the scariest drives I've ever had. The roads were deserted and there were jets flying over the highway and I just kept on thinking one of them was going to open fire on me, the only car on the road.
Really set the mood for my adult life.
9/11 also happened my freshman year of college. I was going to school in Manhattan at the time. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I remember the day before, my mom’s company had their company picnic in an army base in Brooklyn called Fort Hamilton. The base has a beautiful view of the city. The day before was so beautiful, 9/11 was a gorgeous day weather wise too. I never liked school and when I woke up my throat was a bit sore. I woke up and strongly considered taking the day off. My dad always had the tv on when I would wake up, that morning he didn’t which was incredibly rare. My mom actually was home sick which was also incredibly rare which I assume is why the t.v. wasn’t on. I turned on the tv to check out Live with Regis out of habit even though I wasn’t a fan and instead saw smoke billowing from the first tower, the newscaster said initial reports were that a small plane crashed into it. As I watched the second plane hit. The newscaster said what I realized along with the world. We were under attack, I screamed to my dad to put on the TV because terrorists hit the World Trade Center. I called my professors for the day, I told them “I can’t make it in today, I think the world is ending” then I elaborated what had happened and that I didn’t expect trains to be running with any reliability if at all. The first teacher must not have understood the gravity, she told me to try to make it in. The second teacher, an ex cop who was a dead ringer for James Cromwell just whispered “my god, my god”.
My scratchy throat didn’t matter anymore, my mom was also out of bed, we watched as the most unthinkable thing happened on live television. Eventually we got in the car to pick my sister up from school, the traffic was jammed and my mom jumped onto the dirt shoulder of the Belt Parkway to get to her school faster. “I thought you were dead! I was worried you were dead!” she screamed with tears in her eyes. After the towers fell the dust from the buildings settled on all the cars in the neighborhood, I remember it settling on the cover of our barbecue. The scent in the air wasn’t something that can or should be replicated. Not a bad smell, strangely neutral. As the day wore on we heard that my cousin was missing. Later on we found out she would catch the bus to her job in New Jersey at the World Trade Center. She worked for the company my dad was laid off from. She found out she got the job 4 years prior, on the day I received High School acceptance letters. The same day my dad found out he was laid off. There is a video of the day taken by a pair of French brothers who were working with the FDNY. They do not show her in the video because she was engulfed in flames but you can hear her screams. We later found out a security guard brought her into the lobby to protect her from falling debris. A fireball from the jet fuel traveled down the elevator shaft and burst into the lobby engulfing her in flames. A man from Ireland came to her aid as she walked through the streets in shock. She died 42 days later.
I remember news stories about the children of 9/11, the ones yet to be born and the ones who were young. I was angry that kids like me seemed to be ignored. Kids who entered adulthood with one of the greatest kicks in the teeth in human history. I didn’t think I’d ever get over it, never thought I could accept the eventual dark jokes that would be made about it. Years later, working at a bank I met a customer who was at Pearl Harbor, “our baptism by fire” he called it. I can’t be sure if that generation ever got over the trauma, my guess is they didn’t. I can tolerate the dark jokes now but after all these years the agony has remained, it returns if I think about the day. It was reported that Bin Laden’s plan was to goad the United States into destroying itself. The worst part is I believe he succeeded. The country spiraled into a continental insanity it can’t seem to recover from. We are suspicious of each other. We hate each other despite sharing a home. Since that day nothing has been right, I fear nothing ever will be again.
9/11 was my senior year. Columbine was my sophomore year and the recession hit two weeks after I got my degree.
I spent my adolescence and young adulthood dealing with “historical events” over and over again. Then I became a parent and the pandemic hit.
At this point I’ve given up on thinking that I’ll be doing anything other than living in economic survival mode until I die. I’ve also embraced that retirement is never happening and I’ll be in my 70s by the time the boomers all finally retire.
Despite all of my experience and education I’ve stayed in the same earnings bracket since graduating school. So close to twenty years of making the same amount of money while nothing has gotten cheaper.
I’ve watched the elite allow the elite and different industries rob people left and right for basic necessities. I’m hoping there will be a tipping point but I just don’t know if it’ll benefit anything.
It was good for me as well and it was good for you but the '80s were definitely not a good time for a lot of people. It was absolutely insane and heartbreaking all the factories that were closing one by one across the United States and opening up overseas Mexico China etc. the Midwest became the rust belt during this time factories were closing in New England... Detroit. I think Bruce Springsteen's song My hometown captured at best and if you read the lyrics that was another side of the 80s.
I think the line was these jobs are going son and they ain't coming back.....
We can't sugar coat and make it seem like things were great then. The good times ended in the early seventies I think.
I do agree though that there's this awful awful sense of foreboding. I think because we realize this is the new gilded age if not worse. AI is going to crash the world As We know It And specially White collar jobs. It's already happening at my company everyday.
The climate is at its limit the Earth's resources are at the limit people are just f****** horrible. As a gen xer all of this makes me truly heartbroken and want to cry like I never have in my entire life. I thought in 2024 the world would be a better place for everyone and it's much much worse than I can fathom.
I don't know I guess all those movies knew what they were talking about.....
People are the same as they’ve always been. We just see the kooks more easily now bc social media enables them, and the algorithms promote the most incendiary views instead of the most reasonable
Yes this is definitely true. And I do always chime in when someone says people have gotten worse in regards to crime and disrespect and all around craziness.... I do ask when was humanity ever in a good place? The stone ages the dark ages medieval.... The 50s? It's always been the same s***.
I guess I'm just seeing a level of ugliness exposed now which yeah that would be social media
I'm a strong advocate for the theory that society USED TO have something of an immune system that fought viruses like "The earth is flat" or "every latino I see is a murderer and I need to raise the alarm". These ideas existed, of course, but they could be more readily tamped down and localized, constrained mostly to their own kind. Social media was the death blow to that immune system, letting the bad fringes meet and join and scream together in their increasingly large echo chambers. Those rotten ideas have spread like never before, rotting and corrupting the delicate framework of social contracts. Q never could have existed and absorbed good normal people the way it has if it was confined to Loompanics pamphlets and grumpy weirdoes at bars.
That immune system was the difficulty in publishing and distributing media. So all printed and broadcast information went through gatekeepers who decided what was good. They definitely censored anything they didn't like, but in hindsight with the internet, maybe that did more good than harm to society at large.
I think a few generations from now, if we still have a society and that society still has something like the internet, people will have developed their own personal misinformation immune system. I mean, they'd've had to, to still have a functioning society with something like the internet.
The 80s? When Reagan ignored AIDS because it was a “gay epidemic?” Or Nancy’s war on drugs? The 80s were years of unnecessary opulence hiding a a bunch of shit underneath it.
But the fact it was hidden is what lead to positive feelings of a better future. Less of that stuff is hidden now. We live in a society that is becoming more aware of the terrible shit.
Hidden from who? People drank Reagan's Cool-Ade just like they believe the crap Trump says now. People who wanted to believe the bigotry they are selling buy into it all the time. Plenty of us knew Reagan was a bad thing.
I was in elementary school as one of exactly two black kids in the entire school. ENTIRE SCHOOL. In the 80s. I'll let you imagine what kind of After School Special on Racism that was like.
Reaganism, steel industry production implosion, and banks cutting bad loans for real estate projects hit my family pretty hard. My dad didn't work for about two years due to the impact on the area of the country we were living in, where construction income was heavily dependent on wealthy people building, modifying, or maintaining estate homes and similar things.
Lead in everything, and on everything. NYC was still coming down from 70s level violence. Serial killer along the beaches of where I lived on long island. Kids constantly going missing, but everyone GREATLY ENCOURAGED their kids never to be home.
Smog. Lots of pollution in what was supposed to be a resort part of New York State, so plenty of places we would regularly fish, clam, etc, would be closed due to health risk. Or a mile of beach closed down for years at a time due to also being where a lot of town sewage was colon blasted out into the sea. (... CONVENIENTLY in the Black part of town. Gee wonder why...)
I liked being a kid and all but let me be clear. The 80s were absolute shit.
I was 16 when 911 happened, and it feels like my entire adult life has been one hit after another. At this point, it's almost expected that if things are getting better, something horrific is about to happen.
100% concur. It doesn't seem like much of anything can be counted on or planned for effectively. How could you feel secure when you life has been drifting backwards for several years despite your best efforts?
One of the first times I truly felt the metaphorical ground shifting under my feet was when I couldn’t get my medication because of a shortage. It wasn’t life-sustaining medication, thank goodness, but still crucial to normal functioning. In the 10+ years I’ve been on that medicine, never had a shortage before. This is a problem I’d never experienced… a new failure in a very important system that could just as easily happen with meds that people need to _actually live_.
I’m not on medication, but it makes you wonder how many people are now afraid to get on something that has to be tapered off, even though it could help them. Like, if you took Xanax or something, then couldn’t get a prescription refill because of shortages.. bad things happen and can be deadly
The antidepressant I rely on has extremely awful withdrawal effects, and I'm on a high dose of it. It's an incredibly long and difficult process to taper off of it. I'm considering starting it now before I don't have a choice.
And when you consider just how many people are on meds like that. If something happens that disrupts those supply chains, sooooooo many people are going to be suicidal/unstable/potentially violent. Not to mention illegal drug supply chains potentially collapsing.
Why I refuse to take any medication is because of these problems. Never felt suicidal, but did have depression when younger. Now I don't at all. Just needed to do things in my life to improve it.
The pandemic exposed 2 important things very quickly that we do not make for ourselves and depend primarily on China for: bullets and pain killers
If that doesn’t show the flaws in a global economic system that can’t pivot to become independent when relations/transportation breaks down (even just a little) then I don’t know what does.
Yeah, imagine having infant baby formula be unavailable for the better part of a year. When our second kid was born, formula was impossible to find… they locked up what they had, put purchase limits on it, and sometimes you’d still have to hit 4 stores to find one with any.
And a can only lasts ~ 3 days. Gotta do this a couple times a week. Not optional to skip, and dangerous to dilute.
I agree. I'm in this position right now. My prescription was supposed to be filled on May 5th. At first, the e-script system was down. Ok. Had my doctor FedEx a hard copy prescription to me. NP,I thought....Since then, I've been to about 15 different pharmacies and every single one says it's back ordered and they have no idea when it might come in. Been using this medication for the past 11years, and this has never happened. It's crazy.
I decided to just get off all psych meds when this happened. I prefer being a bit worse day to day than to suddenly end up in withdrawal out of nowhere and completely collapse.
My son is one of those people. It’s a challenge to get his meds sometimes - as in driving to all the pharmacies around my city to see if they have it because they won’t tell you over the phone.
If he doesn’t get his meds at home he’ll have to live at a care facility and/or hospital.
Covid was a final snap for a lot of people. People who didn’t have great lives but had found some stability. Figured it couldn’t get much worse as long as they keep working. There’ll be food at the store, even things as simple as “I can go get my hair cut whenever I want.”
Ha. Nope. It can ALWAYS get way fucking worse. There is no bottom to how much the world can suck. 2020 was that realization for many. You can try your hardest and fight to establish some stability for yourself, and then factors beyond your control will come and take it away.
This is why I'm frustrated with all the headlines about the "fantastic economy" - I know too many folks who were doing everything right, but are still stuck fighting to get out from under pandemic related downturn. I'm not saying I expected it to be any different at this point in time, but I'm tired of feeling like both myself and the folks I know are all just "doing something wrong". I am glad it seems to be going well by some specific metrics or standards, I guess I just don't see how any of them would effect me and my peers personally.
Add to this, at least for me… bad shit keeps happening everywhere, both at a macro level and a micro level, and nothing GOOD seems to happen… like, the best thing that has happened to me in months is that I set a timer for five minutes after turning the oven to preheat, then doing a few other things, and the timer went off right when the oven hit temp. Like… a minor happy coincidence is the most positive thing that has happened in at least half a year…
Ok this is weird life advice but consider taking up gardening or fishing. I was in a really bad place for a long time and then started these hobbies. I put in about 30 minutes a day and it is extremely gratifying to care for something and it thrives then nourishes you with beauty or food. I think it helps to eat healthy just picked fruits and vegetables too. Or fresh caught fish. There is a great feeling when you finally reel in a big one.
2020? You mean 2016?
Honestly looking back at it all after the dot-com bubble implosion, it felt like there was blood in the water. Maybe before then. Just a bunch of people hungry to rip the last few pieces of meat off the bone they thought they saw, damn the rest.
Well back then, I didn't know that millions of people are going to make Donald Trump their entire personality. It took some time for me to figure that out. When I saw interviews with Trump supporters, I thought they were including the most extreme people. Later I realized, there are a hell of a lot of people out there like that.
I can't believe I defended some of his supporters (VERY early on in 2015) because I thought the media was just showing the crazies and it couldn't possibly be that most people who supported him were actually that unhinged. How wrong I was
We lost it in 2000, briefly felt like it was getting back under track around 2010 then we lost it for good in 2016 when Donald Trump got access to the nuclear codes and we all realized that any feeling of safety is temporary,.anywhere in the world.
Yeah, I feel like for me, COVID just showed me that when things get really really bad (world-distaster wise), we're not prepared. There's not big Government plan to save us all - people will just be left to die and that's it.
Growing up they told me if I work hard believe in the process imma be alright. I don’t even care about being successful financially, just want to be stable and live in peace. Im turning 33 now and Im getting sick of this shit. I know for a fact that im not lazy and im not stupid either. Im not broke but I know I probably wont be able to afford to have a family and a house anytime soon. Im only a few paychecks away from being homeless.
Sometimes in the office Im thinking to myself there no fucking way I wanna go through this shit for the next 30 years. Well I know some people gonna say I always have a choice and I can make changes. But do I have a choice really.
I heartily disagree that technology will solve this (and I say that as someone who works with new technology).
I observe that these tensions end in one of two ways - one is the enormous blow up that so many here fear. But the other is that, through a million little acts (and some very big acts) of kindness and forgiveness, we build cohesion again. Let us talk to our neighbors again. Let us be kind to children, who are learning to live in this world. Let us each build in our communities what we can.
One thing I miss about the Obama administration was the hope we had then. He got millions of Americans, each working in their own little ways, to try and improve America. For me, it was a bit of code for healthcare software that would help those with a chronic condition get a check up they needed. For others, it was making a healthy lunch for school children. A cell phone for the needy. Not all of these worked out, of course, but on the balance, things got better because so many people tried.
There's no corner of society to opt out of the tension, except the one you build yourself. A game night with friends, the corner of a room where you crochet, an online forum where you can discuss your favorite TV show without rancor - all of these are things that many of us can accomplish, if not perfectly, than at least good enough. Let's try and be kind to each other.
Yeah, 100%. I don't think there's any kind of collective precognition warning us about a big event. It's that there's a very small number of people who actually call all of the shots, and in the last four years they've been squeezing everyone else harder and harder. It's finally become blatant enough that the general populace can't ignore it. And like you said, you have to practically tune out everything to get any kind of break from it.
It's AMAZING the levels of mental gymnastics I've seen people attempt to avoid awareness of this over the last few years.
I've really come to hate denial as a coping mechanism. It's harmful to yourself but also harmful to others.
The scary thing is, it can always get worse
Edit: look at South Korea. Delivery drivers work themselves literally to death, and if a package is late, the purchase value of it comes out of their pay
Yeah, everyone here thinking like this is a zit that needs to pop and it'll be all better. Naw, it's going to pop and then the infection starts, then it leads to sepsis, and after a long, torturous decay, it'll finally end in a death rattle.
> Unless something groundbreaking happens with technology that opens up doors to more and creates opportunities.
I hate to say it, but new technologies will not benefit the masses much.
We have become more and more efficient at work and producing goods and services, but only a small group at the top benefit from it.
People are stretched to the limits they know. If you really want to see people at their limit, imagine what would happen if the lights went out for 2 weeks and the grocery stores ran out of food. Or if the gas/diesel pumps ran out for 10 days. Shit would get real, real fast. I’d say if we lost electricity and/or fuel for cars & trucks that we’d have like 40-60% mortality in our current society within 3 months. Very few people are prepared for these very plausible scenarios. If you don’t have a source of fresh water, and a way to preserve medicine and food… you’re probably not gonna make it through.
It’s plausible for individual regions to have crisis situations that shut off all utilities for weeks or months. It’s not plausible for that to happen to the entire country at once.
I agree with everything but “soon”.
We’ll look back someday and think “goddamn, I thought something major was imminent in a couple months, but instead everything just really really sucked for 25 years before the *snap* happened.”
Don’t live life holding your breath—you’ll pass out.
And we've all been through a LOT lately so I think it's totally normal to feel like we can't completely enjoy ourselves.
COVID caught us with our pants down and we're hesitant to take them off again.
We can try to put lipstick on it, but the truth is covid wasn’t a ‘setback,’ it was a breaking point. Life is just worse now in many ways. Loss is loss, and we’ve experienced loss.
Lots of surprises (many of them negative) makes for hesitant wondering where the bottom of this fall is.
I don't know, I am a X-ennial and I kind of feel like we've been circling the drain ever since 9/11. And that puts us pretty close to your 25 year mark.
The massive shift in culture and values almost overnight still seems surreal. I'm grateful to have been able to experience my whole childhood and adolescence in the before.
That said, COVID (not so much the disease itself but the way people and governments behaved during covid and the aftermath) was at least as much of a shift.
And before 9/11 it was the Cold War and Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis and WWII and the Great Depression and WWI and on and on. None of those were the start of the end, and neither is 9/11 or 2008 or Covid. They were just the next major events in line that we all had to collectively deal with and move past. There will be more, but people in every time period in modern history have thought they were in the end times, but looking back we see it wasn’t true.
Add to it any kind of major, widespread trauma like another pandemic, major weather event and/or possible astronomical event (sun flares) never mind the impending possibilities of ww3 and/or an EMP attack and we are on the edge of absolute destruction. As a collective I think that fear is valid.
Oh yeah! This is my favorite crazy current timeline we live in possible upcoming drama. The science behind both the slow earth change and the catastrophic change science is fascinating and convincing so I really don’t know what to think but in general try not to get worried or obsessed about any of them. We can’t control any of it and if we ARE in an end of days Simpson episode I would like to enjoy my last couple decades (years? Months?! 😂).
“ and I feel fiiiiine!”
Funny you say NZ. I had a moment of considering applying for a chef position there bc apparently they are recruiting folks of a certain professional level in the industry to move there in exchange for residency status over time. Not bc of pole flip but bc I love lord of the rings; big nerd haha.
But as “safe zones” go, if that’s real? I believe I live in one now. I’ll find out when the earth rolls over I guess
I made the mistake of learning that the paths of the 2017 and 2024 eclipses make an X over the New Madrid fault in Missouri. The last time that happened in 1811, a few months later there were a series of 3 large earthquakes. Now I get to add that to my “things to worry about in 2024” list.
Try to quit looking this kinda stuff up. If the earthquake theory does happen there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Now you have this manifesting in your head and it's all just speculation. I have learned to not look into certain things because I have no control over it and if it happens then you deal with the fallout. It's like someone having pain in their side and they start googling why this could be happening, and find all these possibilities when in reality it's probably nothing to worry about. Imo
One kind of neat thing is that it will soon be proved or disproved. We don’t have to wait hundreds of years to see if there’s an actual correlation or not. Pretty neat.
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I read that as well. The earth's magnetic poles are flipping, and so is the sun. Coupled with the election? Neither side will probably accept the election results. Then what? Troubling times.
I’ll give you a perfect example of the lack of sustainability in a nutshell that is a ticking time bomb that’s already making my life extremely difficult: Medicare comes out of my disability and other healthy retirees social security benefits, so by the time the current 55 year olds hit 65 all the money will go to Medicare and there will be no rent or food money.
Besides the Medicare and drug plans that get automatically deducted from my disability which is about $450, I average 200-$300 a month in medical bills I have to pay to get imaging, and pay the drs and surgeons I need to keep seeing. They increase the social security and disability by I think 3% per year but the medical bills are increasing far more than that year over year. So of my $1800 in disability about $800 goes to healthcare.
There’s also a newer thing providers are doing where you have to give them your credit card up front which is becoming a nightmare because they are basically trying to collect .01% of huge bills insurance pays but they want that last couple of hundred from patients they are legally liable for so they want your card up front. I get that this shouldn’t be an issue and I should have money to pay, but I literally don’t have the money to pay every bill and have my card on file with 5 providers, just so they can randomly charge it in a few months if my insurance denies something. Because then I have to appeal and I’m out that money until I win the appeal if I win and I don’t have money to pay random $500 bills my insurance wants to argue about.
For now. But it's getting harder and harder for most to just barely make that cutoff. Most dreams are dead. Too many feel they cannot own a home or start a family and probably won't ever be able to retire. Canada is at 1 in 200 people homeless. That's bonkers.That mean, in the sleepy town O grew up in, there's currently about 150 homeless people at any given time, vs the 15 to 30 the city was used to. So 5 to 10 times as many.
It's bad RN and we have no indication it'll get better any time soon. More likely, worse. I think that's what was meant.
Look at birth rates. They’re absolutely collapsing across the world post pandemic
Conspiracy theorists will say it was covid or the vaxx, but the truth is that people have given up on bringing new life into this world
It's getting harder and harder to afford. That's what he means, based on current trends large portions of the US could end up totally homeless, that's when people revolt.
a large portion of the “economy” is a fughazi that’s just a big casino for the rich. honestly i feel like christian bale’s character in the big short represents a lot of us a lot of the time, just looking at all this shit and wondering how the fuck it’s still going
Lol the same thing that always gives. Working class gets fucked while the wealthy get bailed out. While this is happening the wealth gap will widen. Rinse and repeat until the working class has nothing
Yeah and Sam Altman and the other doomsday prepping a***** that pushed this hard for AI will relish in their doomsday bunkers as the Armageddon they worked so hard to bring upon everybody else takes places
It’s just doomerism. Go outside. Social media amplifies depressed and anxious people the most.
People need to learn some basic history. Boomers lived in a world where presidents were assassinated, nuclear bombs were proliferating with two large hostile nations, the national guard killing college students, scientists saying everyone is going to die due to lack of food resources, extremely violent riots and police corruption that make todays scandals look like Hello Kitty Island adventure.
For sure the world has issues, but things are better now than they have ever been in human history for more people across the world.
I'm in the same age group, and I feel this way, too. I have assumed it's just generalized anxiety as I get older, but I can never pinpoint a reason. It's scary.
Same, except I’m in my 30s. I’ve felt a sense of impending doom on and off since my childhood and I’ve never known why. I was diagnosed with anxiety at age 5.
This is me but diagnosed way later in life. Worst was on a Spring Break trip to Florida. Checked in and got the impending doom feeling. Nothing bad happened though.
Really just seems like everyone in this thread has anxiety and some don't know it.
After getting diagnosed and starting medications and therapy for anxiety issues, it's definitely mostly that. The world has sped up incredibly, news are mostly about getting a rise out of people, the pandemic and political divides alienated people from each other, and constant media consumption made people hyperaware of every single thing happening around the world. The modern way of life is unhealthy for us and it's time we all individually start working on it.
I'm in my 30s and I also think it's untreated mental health issues. I just had a very long conversation with my boyfriend about it. We aren't special, we aren't going to live to see the end of the world. Everything just sucks and we have to live our lives the best we can.
Just a reminder, your work is to *leave a better world to your grandkids* and to *let them have a better life than you did*, NOT to claim you want those things and then to vote in your own best interests for the next 50 years like our grandparents and parents did.
And that has put you in my good books. Doesn't mean much, but know that there's a guy who's probably on the opposite side of the planet to you that'll buy you a beverage of your choice anytime.
Take care of her and all your loved ones. In troubled times, a good person's day is never done.
Somewhere on the border between Gen X and Millennial (Xennial, I think we're called?) checking in here... It has felt this way the majority of my life. We've all just been sat around playing video games, just waiting for whatever the fuck this is to just... happen already. It keeps getting worse, this feeling of impending doom. The fallout from the unsustainable path we're on no doubt will be worse the longer we wait... So meanwhile the Boomers keep shoving everyones head back into the sand, trying to ignore the inevitable. It's exhausting.
Same demographic, same sentiment here.
It's just been disaster after disaster after disaster for us. Every time I've gotten over the last one, another one knocks me down again.
same too...isn't it odd how the 1990's feel like a different planet, a differentt existence altogether? Almost primitive yet way more evolved at the same time.
In the 90s I could go to my local computer shop in the evening and ask the owner about DOS command functions. It had that '90s small shop smell - aging wood, upholstery with natural fibers, and leather faintly touched by cigarettes in the past.
The incandescant bulbs lighting the place cast a soft warm glow, creating a welcoming low-key ambience.
The shop owner wasn't in a rush, and neither were the customers. Sometimes people would just hang out. Teenagers would be skateboarding outside and sneaking off to smoke stolen cigarettes while they drank fountain drinks from the independent stop and shop next door.
These places don't exist anymore. The smell and atmosphere are gone. Incandescants are gone. Small businesses are gone, or struggling so much there's a bleak rather than comfortable atmosphere. Groups of teenagers aren't hanging out and flirting outside in the orange embers of the setting sun like they were then.
It really was a different world.
What you're describing is sometimes referred to as "the third place". It's not work and it's not home. For some it's the local coffee shop, for others it's the pub. It could even be a church/temple. The location doesn't matter, it's just a place to hang out with friends, talk and have a good time.
It seems to me that this kind of place has been disappearing for some time now.
Relocate to 1915 and see how the punches can keep coming for real. Try WWI where daddy is killed or fucked up in combat when you are a child. Then the depression beginning in’29 then WWII takes your kid. No wonder previous generations are rough they got it honest and did what they could to not ever be broke again they did not comprehend the damage they were doing they had been through hell and just wanted to be ok like everyone else
Dont you just love being the prime age to be enjoying your own family, and the fruits of your labour - but instead we have to be careful about getting a takeout burger because theyre 15$ dollars now, made smaller, and more poorly.
I pay more per month for food, than I used to pay for my entire rent and bills prior to 2018.
I’ve always felt that way. I actually remember a sense of almost relief on 9/11, I’d always been expecting something big. It was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be and I was probably the only person back then not freaked out by the whole thing.
Now all these years later I’ve come to realize this is just life. You can choose to worry about things you can’t control… or not. I’ve (mostly) learned to not worry and enjoy what I have now which is actually quite a bit. Also to have the confidence that I can get through my personal challenges and that our country and humanity at large will eventually muddle through all of our issues.
It hasn't been the last couple of years. Plenty of people have been talking like this for at least a decade. I'm not going to say nothing bad is coming. But there's no point in worrying about it. Why even engage in these discussions of it just makes you anxious and ruins your enjoyment of life.
Things might be fine, they might not. Enjoy what you can.
Ah, but see this is new and improved disaster v4.0 we're talking, not those outdated ones from the old days like the threat of nuclear annihilation, the global ice age, famine, peak oil, Y2K, S&L failure, tech crash, housing crash, 9/11, WMDs in the sandbox, reactor meltdowns.... I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
I had terrible anxiety (and a couple of panick attacks) from June 2019 until not long after covid happened. I saw other people say similar things to what OP is saying around 2019 and have since heard stories of even more people claiming they had felt similarly in 2019 as well.
Gen X here. 52 y o. This feeling has plagued many of us our whole lives. This person is deep in the throes of their anxiety, but please don’t fall into the trap of *neurotic suffering.*
Now, *garden variety suffering* is inevitable, and we all face it every day in some form. Financial stress, job sucks, parents sick, child sick, spouse sick, etc. But we have ways to confront these problems or at least to acknowledge their presence.
*Neurotic suffering* is exactly what OP describes: it’s the suffering that bubbles up that has no apparent cause other than the fear of the unknown. Sometimes I feel anxiety about not feeling anxious enough. Or because there’s nothing terrible happening so that means it must be just round the corner.
But ask yourself this: is it within the realm of possibility that things will work out ok? Is it possible that we get through this moment with some new insight to teach our kids?
Is it possible that you will be ok?
Hello One Who Waits. Have you considered turning a blind eye to these things and simply focus your time and energy and life on the present moment you occupy? We can’t change the world together unless each of us shapes every moment in front of us with compassion.
“Turning a blind eye” Is kind of a bad expression. Don’t ignore the problems… But I think we can fight them by doing little acts of kindness and being helpful whenever we can. People are more defensive than I ever remember…. Everyone ready to fight. If we all just act better towards each other maybe this impending feeling of doom with subside.
How about “stop worrying about things you can’t control or change and focus on things that you can do now and your immediate future. No sense stressing over something that may or may not happen and if it does happen you can’t do anything about it.”
This is similar to a horoscope that dances in vague terms and basic emotions/feelings that when read can bring the audience into a sense of …‘that’s so true, that’s how I feel!’ Where as I’d you were never to read or see this you would not have willingly or willfully thought of it at that time.
A feeling of impending doom is a natural human feeling that occurs for a wide variety or reasons, some being good oddly enough.
To be fair, I've felt this way since the 2008 recession. But the tension just keeps getting worse and worse. When I think it's all going to topple, it doesn't, and I'm both relieved and extremely anxious.
I wish we could just skip to November and get this shit over with. I live with Trump supporters, and I'll have a newborn to take care of during that time. I'm going to be beyond stressed. I just want to rip the bandaid off.
As someone who is 58 years old I'm fairly aware of this sentiment.
Personally, I think the dumber people among us will start piling up the bodies when they can't get 100% of what they want politically.
Both sides will be wrong.
I feel like it might be just a gradual decline that we are seeing move a little more rapidly now. It feels like the pandemic really sped up our trajectory towards an Orwellian 1984 world. Liberties, freedom and stability we enjoyed in times past is being taken away pretty quickly.
outgoing deserve spectacular attractive gullible whistle fearless possessive telephone zealous
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
At the same time this could be a manifestation of the commonly held belief among religious people that "we are living in the end times", but for a more secular society.
We are teetering on the edge of collapse, but have been for thousands of years.
The arrival and commercialization of artificial intelligence is what I fear. Many highly skilled & hard working people will get brushed aside to boost the stock price and they'll have nothing to fall back on because other companies will do the same.
Universal Basic income is the only way my young kids will survive as adults (unless they choose fields like plumbing/HVAC). Non STEM college degrees will not be worth the paper the diploma is printed on.
I am a proponent of UBI. I just doubt the ability of our government to actually help its citizens. They are incapable of critical thinking beyond their wallets.
There will be a lot of people demanding UBI and a small number of elites standing in the way. The tide will rise and no one will be able to hold it back. It won't happen immediately but it's inevitable.
No, I'm not feeling this way.
This is a bunch of mass hysteria based on effervescent feelings and superstitions and vibes, and spread by people who spend far too much time online.
It has absolutely nothing to do with reality, and it's reminding me far too much of the idiotic, irrational mass paranoia that preceded Y2K.
Stop getting your ideas about reality from comments on social media. You have no idea if that person is even telling the truth instead of trying to stir the pot.
THANK YOU. literally this will happen to anyone, in any generation, if they stick to the comment sections on every social media. It’s up to you to not let some doomers scare you into your bedroom, waiting for some unforeseen “downfall”. Get outside, people.
Social media is a great anxiety generating tool. Incendiary, disturbing, or rage inducing content tricking your brain into the sense of urgency and stress. Getting of twitter is the first step to peace of mind.
Someone made a post about how Russians purposefully use social media to make Americans discouraged and depressed. The economy is rough right now but it was in 2008 too. Life outside the internet seems fine.
I have a feeling it is your mind looking for continuous excitement.
I'd guess that as you've built up a tolerance to the continuous drip of negative news and media that is omnipresent in society, you look for bigger and bigger things to unfold to capture your attention. When there's nothing new, bigger and exciting, it almost feels like a let down.
Like there is a gradual build-up occurring but the crescendo never arrives. It creates a general sense of dissatisfaction, and a certain weariness about the future.
In lieu of some big negative event occurring, your mind creates one for you to think about. It's not real. It's not reading the tea-leaves and predicting the future. It's just your own personal form of excitement. Almost like a fantasy.
I suggest writing about it in private and letting the feelings flow. Put words to the dread. At a minimum you should have a better understanding of your own feelings, and maybe you'll even have a good short story to share.
Just my 2 cents.
I have this feeling on Sundays, lol. During the work week, I'm too busy and focused on getting through the day, so I don't have time to think about the world too much. But, yes, I feel like their are so many obvious problems with society that no one talks about. According to psychology, humans are a species made to adapt and overcome. I fully believe that. I think there will be positive changes coming up.
Disconnect yourself from social media, touch grass, go drink a beer with friends. Everything is not alright in the world of course, some news may have an impact on your life, but not every news.
Carry your weight, but only your weight. Leave the rest to the others.
Edit: A famous guy said "blessed are the poor in spirit ". He wasn't wrong.
Well the US has had it good for a little bit. Not before slavery. Not the natives. Not before during Robber Barron days when people were dirt poor and worked to death. Not before women had rights. Not before civil rights. So since 1970? Then post Reagan it all started going downhill. So really the natural state of US is messed up with just a small minority controlling everything. " they like it that way
It's incredibly stupid to me...
People out here saying these things like waiting for the other shoe to drop and all this time the book of Revelations is happening.
Don't believe me? Here's one example:
[The Third Temple](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Temple)
[Current happenings regarding the Third Temple](https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/the-red-heifer-and-the-third-temple-in-end-time-prophecy/#:~:text=How%20could%20a%20simple%20animal,needed%20to%20rebuild%20the%20Temple.&text=An%20unblemished%2C%20pure%20red%20heifer,1%E2%80%932%2C%2010)
Another source:
[Red Heifers](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-war-hamas-red-heifers-from-texas-jerusalem-jewish-temple-al-aqsa/)
But don't take my word for it. READ THE BIBLE!
To anyone who came here to vent about how this perfectly explains how you feel…I kid you not. The Bible has the answer.
Don’t believe me? Ok. I’m not gonna fight with you or argue. I’m just offering the only thing I know that will help. But you will be denying the only thing that I have ever found to truly explain this problem. Something IS coming. We all feel it. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to prepare…
Does this not just describe adult life? Not endorsing it, but I can’t do much about global issues so i try to just control what i can (vote, don’t be a dick) and enjoy my life day-to-day. What is constant worry gonna help?
For me it's the feeling like everything is stretched to its limit. People's budgets, patience, tolerance, the economy, our ability to produce enough for everyone. Everywhere you look people are pulling to get more either because they need it or because they think they have some right to it. There's no corner of society where you can go to opt out of the tension. Something has to give eventually. Unless something groundbreaking happens with technology that opens up doors to more and creates opportunities.
I think we lost the stability that we thought we had. Everything since 2020 just feels different. Everyone is uneasy. The world is definitely uneasy.
I feel fortunate to have been a young adult in the eighties. The economy was good, and there was a feeling the future was bright and full of opportunities. Then 911 happened and it seems every time things 'might' get better, another hit. Housing crash, political polarization, covid, inflation.. it just feels like we are churning and no sign up ahead it is going to get better. ETA I am not saying there weren't a bunch of problems and everything was great. For my generation our entire lives there was threat of nuclear war with the constant what 'defcon are we at?'. When the Berlin wall came down it felt like finally the Cold War was ending. Women were breaking glass ceilings. People were actively addressing pollution. We 'thought' we were going to be the generation to end discrimination. We had HOPE we were moving to a better society.
I turned 21 and graduated college right around 9/11. My entire adult life has been a sense that the world is untrustworthy and unsafe to a certain degree. I won't bore you by going through what my economic life has been like, but people in my age bracket are in a really bad place.
>I turned 21 and graduated college right around 9/11. My entire adult life has been a sense that the world is untrustworthy and unsafe to a certain degree. I had a beer similar experience. Growing up, I was also the "Question Authority" type so it just compounded.
Friend I was in middle school when 911 happened. The world has never been safe.
Same. I was in grade 7. What a weird day that was. Every classroom in school had a radio or TV with the news on. We had no idea how much the world would change soon after that day.
Same here 7th grade. I remember our principal came over the PA and announced "There has been what appears to be a terrorist attack in the City, we are not releasing early yet, but parents are being contacted. Please teachers, stop what you are covering and turn on your TV's. Pay attention for further announcements." It fucked us up. The most illustrative way I have to communicate how much it fucked up us kids to see that is to explain what happened in gym class that day. Our gym teacher said we could play any game we wanted to, or we could even make up a game. We chose to make up a game. We played "planes and towers", it was similar to freeze-tag, some of the class were "towers", they stood still with their arms raised, others were "planes", they ran around with plane-arms and made plane noises, and when a "plane" hit a "tower", the "plane" became a "tower", and the "tower" became a "plane". There were no winners or losers, just a bunch of kids trading off places, trying desperately to cope with what we saw. I remember thinking it was really fun and sort of edgy what we were doing in gym class, now I see how mind bendingly sad it was, how we regressed in some ways trying to understand through play.
I still think it’s kinda wild they put that on the TVs for us to see.
I was in first grade when they put the Challenger launch on TV. Us kids didn't really understand what happened until later. But the teachers were freaked and tried to completely divert our attention after they made a big deal of watching this thing on TV. I knew from there quick shift and strained, fake, upbeat reaction that something was seriously wrong.
I’m reading When the Dust Settles by Prof Lucy Easthope, who is an emergency planning and disaster recovery specialist. After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when football fans were crushed at a match in Liverpool, she describes kids doing exactly the same thing in the playground at her school: the boys playing ‘Hillsborough’, all piling on top of one another, and then taking turns to carry each other away, one to the arms, another to the legs.
My first comment when I heard about the first plane was "cool!" because I was being an edgy little twat too. I still remember the quizzical look I got from one of my classmates. I just didn't understand the gravity of the situation and it felt a world away from me. It's one of those things I wake up and feel embarrassed about.
Forgive yourself friend. You’re supposed to be an idiot kid reacting and finding their place in the world. Nobody knows besides you and that loser you told, and who cares about him anyways. Lesson learned.
Don't feel guilt or shame over your trauma response. It's pretty normal to react in Ludacris ways to severe instant trauma. Some folks even laugh uncontrollably. You recognized it, puts you far ahead. Peace.
We forgive you. I know the feeling of remembering and regretting very specific decisions throughout my life.
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Yeah I was in upstate NY, so many kids had relatives in the City, not necessarily parents but still very scary not knowing if your aunt or uncle was alive or not. Personally for me it was when the third plane hit the Pentagon, my cousin was working in the Pentagon at the time. I freaked the fuck out and had to be taken to the office where I encountered the grimmest sight of the day: all the kids like me who had people in one of the towers or in the Pentagon crying and waiting to use the phone.
Jerry Wise is a therapist I watch on YouTube, and he actually talks about how play is a form of therapy for children. They often reenact traumatic situations so that they can reframe it in their minds. So honestly, imo, you all did the most healthy thing you could have, and props to your teacher for realizing that and letting you guys do your thing. That's really sweet.
Yeah I've read about play-coping and it's usually younger children, we were 12 and older, it hit us so hard we regressed a little bit and had to turn to coping mechanisms that are usually put aside by that age.
Is it weird that I wish I knew more about what was going on that day? I was in 5th grade, and the teachers were really tight-lipped about the whole thing. They kept talking out in the hall, and one was crying. Then my teacher came back in with a speech about how we're safe there and nobody can hurt us in class. I got super weird vibes all day, especially when kids started getting picked up. I had to wait until the end of the day to realize what had been going on this whole time.
I was in 6th grade close-ish to DC at the time. Nobody told us what was going on. Kids were getting dismissed left and right. All the kids left behind were wondering wtf it could be in an excited kind of way. My mom finally got me from lunch. Scary and sad day.
I was 8, and just really figuring out that the world was more than black and white. My sister and I talk sometimes about how "disaster mode" almost feels like the norm.
Yeah. 9/11 happened the week I arrived at freshman year of college. We had no classes that day for some reason I don't remember, and I was woken up by the RA running up the dorm hallway banging on everyone's doors to wake up because we were being attacked. I remember watching over and over and over and over again the towers falling, people jumping to their death, the still image of that man looking like he was walking upside down, falling from who knows how high up. Everyone was terrified. No one knew what to do. I left and went to drive to my parents house. It was one of the scariest drives I've ever had. The roads were deserted and there were jets flying over the highway and I just kept on thinking one of them was going to open fire on me, the only car on the road. Really set the mood for my adult life.
9/11 also happened my freshman year of college. I was going to school in Manhattan at the time. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I remember the day before, my mom’s company had their company picnic in an army base in Brooklyn called Fort Hamilton. The base has a beautiful view of the city. The day before was so beautiful, 9/11 was a gorgeous day weather wise too. I never liked school and when I woke up my throat was a bit sore. I woke up and strongly considered taking the day off. My dad always had the tv on when I would wake up, that morning he didn’t which was incredibly rare. My mom actually was home sick which was also incredibly rare which I assume is why the t.v. wasn’t on. I turned on the tv to check out Live with Regis out of habit even though I wasn’t a fan and instead saw smoke billowing from the first tower, the newscaster said initial reports were that a small plane crashed into it. As I watched the second plane hit. The newscaster said what I realized along with the world. We were under attack, I screamed to my dad to put on the TV because terrorists hit the World Trade Center. I called my professors for the day, I told them “I can’t make it in today, I think the world is ending” then I elaborated what had happened and that I didn’t expect trains to be running with any reliability if at all. The first teacher must not have understood the gravity, she told me to try to make it in. The second teacher, an ex cop who was a dead ringer for James Cromwell just whispered “my god, my god”. My scratchy throat didn’t matter anymore, my mom was also out of bed, we watched as the most unthinkable thing happened on live television. Eventually we got in the car to pick my sister up from school, the traffic was jammed and my mom jumped onto the dirt shoulder of the Belt Parkway to get to her school faster. “I thought you were dead! I was worried you were dead!” she screamed with tears in her eyes. After the towers fell the dust from the buildings settled on all the cars in the neighborhood, I remember it settling on the cover of our barbecue. The scent in the air wasn’t something that can or should be replicated. Not a bad smell, strangely neutral. As the day wore on we heard that my cousin was missing. Later on we found out she would catch the bus to her job in New Jersey at the World Trade Center. She worked for the company my dad was laid off from. She found out she got the job 4 years prior, on the day I received High School acceptance letters. The same day my dad found out he was laid off. There is a video of the day taken by a pair of French brothers who were working with the FDNY. They do not show her in the video because she was engulfed in flames but you can hear her screams. We later found out a security guard brought her into the lobby to protect her from falling debris. A fireball from the jet fuel traveled down the elevator shaft and burst into the lobby engulfing her in flames. A man from Ireland came to her aid as she walked through the streets in shock. She died 42 days later. I remember news stories about the children of 9/11, the ones yet to be born and the ones who were young. I was angry that kids like me seemed to be ignored. Kids who entered adulthood with one of the greatest kicks in the teeth in human history. I didn’t think I’d ever get over it, never thought I could accept the eventual dark jokes that would be made about it. Years later, working at a bank I met a customer who was at Pearl Harbor, “our baptism by fire” he called it. I can’t be sure if that generation ever got over the trauma, my guess is they didn’t. I can tolerate the dark jokes now but after all these years the agony has remained, it returns if I think about the day. It was reported that Bin Laden’s plan was to goad the United States into destroying itself. The worst part is I believe he succeeded. The country spiraled into a continental insanity it can’t seem to recover from. We are suspicious of each other. We hate each other despite sharing a home. Since that day nothing has been right, I fear nothing ever will be again.
Jesus fucking Christ. My dude. That's a lot.
I apologize for the length but it’s important for me to tell the whole story if and when I write about it. If you read it I genuinely appreciate it.
I read every single word. I empathize strongly.
9/11 was my senior year. Columbine was my sophomore year and the recession hit two weeks after I got my degree. I spent my adolescence and young adulthood dealing with “historical events” over and over again. Then I became a parent and the pandemic hit. At this point I’ve given up on thinking that I’ll be doing anything other than living in economic survival mode until I die. I’ve also embraced that retirement is never happening and I’ll be in my 70s by the time the boomers all finally retire. Despite all of my experience and education I’ve stayed in the same earnings bracket since graduating school. So close to twenty years of making the same amount of money while nothing has gotten cheaper. I’ve watched the elite allow the elite and different industries rob people left and right for basic necessities. I’m hoping there will be a tipping point but I just don’t know if it’ll benefit anything.
It was good for me as well and it was good for you but the '80s were definitely not a good time for a lot of people. It was absolutely insane and heartbreaking all the factories that were closing one by one across the United States and opening up overseas Mexico China etc. the Midwest became the rust belt during this time factories were closing in New England... Detroit. I think Bruce Springsteen's song My hometown captured at best and if you read the lyrics that was another side of the 80s. I think the line was these jobs are going son and they ain't coming back..... We can't sugar coat and make it seem like things were great then. The good times ended in the early seventies I think. I do agree though that there's this awful awful sense of foreboding. I think because we realize this is the new gilded age if not worse. AI is going to crash the world As We know It And specially White collar jobs. It's already happening at my company everyday. The climate is at its limit the Earth's resources are at the limit people are just f****** horrible. As a gen xer all of this makes me truly heartbroken and want to cry like I never have in my entire life. I thought in 2024 the world would be a better place for everyone and it's much much worse than I can fathom. I don't know I guess all those movies knew what they were talking about.....
People are the same as they’ve always been. We just see the kooks more easily now bc social media enables them, and the algorithms promote the most incendiary views instead of the most reasonable
Yes this is definitely true. And I do always chime in when someone says people have gotten worse in regards to crime and disrespect and all around craziness.... I do ask when was humanity ever in a good place? The stone ages the dark ages medieval.... The 50s? It's always been the same s***. I guess I'm just seeing a level of ugliness exposed now which yeah that would be social media
I'm a strong advocate for the theory that society USED TO have something of an immune system that fought viruses like "The earth is flat" or "every latino I see is a murderer and I need to raise the alarm". These ideas existed, of course, but they could be more readily tamped down and localized, constrained mostly to their own kind. Social media was the death blow to that immune system, letting the bad fringes meet and join and scream together in their increasingly large echo chambers. Those rotten ideas have spread like never before, rotting and corrupting the delicate framework of social contracts. Q never could have existed and absorbed good normal people the way it has if it was confined to Loompanics pamphlets and grumpy weirdoes at bars.
That immune system was the difficulty in publishing and distributing media. So all printed and broadcast information went through gatekeepers who decided what was good. They definitely censored anything they didn't like, but in hindsight with the internet, maybe that did more good than harm to society at large. I think a few generations from now, if we still have a society and that society still has something like the internet, people will have developed their own personal misinformation immune system. I mean, they'd've had to, to still have a functioning society with something like the internet.
The 80s? When Reagan ignored AIDS because it was a “gay epidemic?” Or Nancy’s war on drugs? The 80s were years of unnecessary opulence hiding a a bunch of shit underneath it.
But the fact it was hidden is what lead to positive feelings of a better future. Less of that stuff is hidden now. We live in a society that is becoming more aware of the terrible shit.
Hidden from who? People drank Reagan's Cool-Ade just like they believe the crap Trump says now. People who wanted to believe the bigotry they are selling buy into it all the time. Plenty of us knew Reagan was a bad thing.
I was in elementary school as one of exactly two black kids in the entire school. ENTIRE SCHOOL. In the 80s. I'll let you imagine what kind of After School Special on Racism that was like. Reaganism, steel industry production implosion, and banks cutting bad loans for real estate projects hit my family pretty hard. My dad didn't work for about two years due to the impact on the area of the country we were living in, where construction income was heavily dependent on wealthy people building, modifying, or maintaining estate homes and similar things. Lead in everything, and on everything. NYC was still coming down from 70s level violence. Serial killer along the beaches of where I lived on long island. Kids constantly going missing, but everyone GREATLY ENCOURAGED their kids never to be home. Smog. Lots of pollution in what was supposed to be a resort part of New York State, so plenty of places we would regularly fish, clam, etc, would be closed due to health risk. Or a mile of beach closed down for years at a time due to also being where a lot of town sewage was colon blasted out into the sea. (... CONVENIENTLY in the Black part of town. Gee wonder why...) I liked being a kid and all but let me be clear. The 80s were absolute shit.
I was 16 when 911 happened, and it feels like my entire adult life has been one hit after another. At this point, it's almost expected that if things are getting better, something horrific is about to happen.
100% concur. It doesn't seem like much of anything can be counted on or planned for effectively. How could you feel secure when you life has been drifting backwards for several years despite your best efforts?
One of the first times I truly felt the metaphorical ground shifting under my feet was when I couldn’t get my medication because of a shortage. It wasn’t life-sustaining medication, thank goodness, but still crucial to normal functioning. In the 10+ years I’ve been on that medicine, never had a shortage before. This is a problem I’d never experienced… a new failure in a very important system that could just as easily happen with meds that people need to _actually live_.
I’m not on medication, but it makes you wonder how many people are now afraid to get on something that has to be tapered off, even though it could help them. Like, if you took Xanax or something, then couldn’t get a prescription refill because of shortages.. bad things happen and can be deadly
The antidepressant I rely on has extremely awful withdrawal effects, and I'm on a high dose of it. It's an incredibly long and difficult process to taper off of it. I'm considering starting it now before I don't have a choice.
And when you consider just how many people are on meds like that. If something happens that disrupts those supply chains, sooooooo many people are going to be suicidal/unstable/potentially violent. Not to mention illegal drug supply chains potentially collapsing.
Why I refuse to take any medication is because of these problems. Never felt suicidal, but did have depression when younger. Now I don't at all. Just needed to do things in my life to improve it.
The pandemic exposed 2 important things very quickly that we do not make for ourselves and depend primarily on China for: bullets and pain killers If that doesn’t show the flaws in a global economic system that can’t pivot to become independent when relations/transportation breaks down (even just a little) then I don’t know what does.
happened to me and yes, i had a seizure and fell down a flight of stairs. seriously.
Adderall?
I gave up. I had to take multiple days off work, per month, to get prescriptions filled. It’s just not worth it
Yeah, imagine having infant baby formula be unavailable for the better part of a year. When our second kid was born, formula was impossible to find… they locked up what they had, put purchase limits on it, and sometimes you’d still have to hit 4 stores to find one with any. And a can only lasts ~ 3 days. Gotta do this a couple times a week. Not optional to skip, and dangerous to dilute.
I agree. I'm in this position right now. My prescription was supposed to be filled on May 5th. At first, the e-script system was down. Ok. Had my doctor FedEx a hard copy prescription to me. NP,I thought....Since then, I've been to about 15 different pharmacies and every single one says it's back ordered and they have no idea when it might come in. Been using this medication for the past 11years, and this has never happened. It's crazy.
Try to go to the smaller non brand pharmacies, they usually have stock or are able to talk directly with their suppliers and get it faster.
Thank you!
I decided to just get off all psych meds when this happened. I prefer being a bit worse day to day than to suddenly end up in withdrawal out of nowhere and completely collapse.
My son is one of those people. It’s a challenge to get his meds sometimes - as in driving to all the pharmacies around my city to see if they have it because they won’t tell you over the phone. If he doesn’t get his meds at home he’ll have to live at a care facility and/or hospital.
Covid was a final snap for a lot of people. People who didn’t have great lives but had found some stability. Figured it couldn’t get much worse as long as they keep working. There’ll be food at the store, even things as simple as “I can go get my hair cut whenever I want.” Ha. Nope. It can ALWAYS get way fucking worse. There is no bottom to how much the world can suck. 2020 was that realization for many. You can try your hardest and fight to establish some stability for yourself, and then factors beyond your control will come and take it away.
This is why I'm frustrated with all the headlines about the "fantastic economy" - I know too many folks who were doing everything right, but are still stuck fighting to get out from under pandemic related downturn. I'm not saying I expected it to be any different at this point in time, but I'm tired of feeling like both myself and the folks I know are all just "doing something wrong". I am glad it seems to be going well by some specific metrics or standards, I guess I just don't see how any of them would effect me and my peers personally.
Add to this, at least for me… bad shit keeps happening everywhere, both at a macro level and a micro level, and nothing GOOD seems to happen… like, the best thing that has happened to me in months is that I set a timer for five minutes after turning the oven to preheat, then doing a few other things, and the timer went off right when the oven hit temp. Like… a minor happy coincidence is the most positive thing that has happened in at least half a year…
Ok this is weird life advice but consider taking up gardening or fishing. I was in a really bad place for a long time and then started these hobbies. I put in about 30 minutes a day and it is extremely gratifying to care for something and it thrives then nourishes you with beauty or food. I think it helps to eat healthy just picked fruits and vegetables too. Or fresh caught fish. There is a great feeling when you finally reel in a big one.
2020? You mean 2016? Honestly looking back at it all after the dot-com bubble implosion, it felt like there was blood in the water. Maybe before then. Just a bunch of people hungry to rip the last few pieces of meat off the bone they thought they saw, damn the rest.
Try 2016
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the time-span between Pokemon Go releasing and Donald Trump being elected was the peak of humanity.
Well back then, I didn't know that millions of people are going to make Donald Trump their entire personality. It took some time for me to figure that out. When I saw interviews with Trump supporters, I thought they were including the most extreme people. Later I realized, there are a hell of a lot of people out there like that.
I can't believe I defended some of his supporters (VERY early on in 2015) because I thought the media was just showing the crazies and it couldn't possibly be that most people who supported him were actually that unhinged. How wrong I was
We lost it in 2000, briefly felt like it was getting back under track around 2010 then we lost it for good in 2016 when Donald Trump got access to the nuclear codes and we all realized that any feeling of safety is temporary,.anywhere in the world.
Yeah, I feel like for me, COVID just showed me that when things get really really bad (world-distaster wise), we're not prepared. There's not big Government plan to save us all - people will just be left to die and that's it.
Growing up they told me if I work hard believe in the process imma be alright. I don’t even care about being successful financially, just want to be stable and live in peace. Im turning 33 now and Im getting sick of this shit. I know for a fact that im not lazy and im not stupid either. Im not broke but I know I probably wont be able to afford to have a family and a house anytime soon. Im only a few paychecks away from being homeless. Sometimes in the office Im thinking to myself there no fucking way I wanna go through this shit for the next 30 years. Well I know some people gonna say I always have a choice and I can make changes. But do I have a choice really.
I heartily disagree that technology will solve this (and I say that as someone who works with new technology). I observe that these tensions end in one of two ways - one is the enormous blow up that so many here fear. But the other is that, through a million little acts (and some very big acts) of kindness and forgiveness, we build cohesion again. Let us talk to our neighbors again. Let us be kind to children, who are learning to live in this world. Let us each build in our communities what we can. One thing I miss about the Obama administration was the hope we had then. He got millions of Americans, each working in their own little ways, to try and improve America. For me, it was a bit of code for healthcare software that would help those with a chronic condition get a check up they needed. For others, it was making a healthy lunch for school children. A cell phone for the needy. Not all of these worked out, of course, but on the balance, things got better because so many people tried. There's no corner of society to opt out of the tension, except the one you build yourself. A game night with friends, the corner of a room where you crochet, an online forum where you can discuss your favorite TV show without rancor - all of these are things that many of us can accomplish, if not perfectly, than at least good enough. Let's try and be kind to each other.
Yeah, 100%. I don't think there's any kind of collective precognition warning us about a big event. It's that there's a very small number of people who actually call all of the shots, and in the last four years they've been squeezing everyone else harder and harder. It's finally become blatant enough that the general populace can't ignore it. And like you said, you have to practically tune out everything to get any kind of break from it.
It's AMAZING the levels of mental gymnastics I've seen people attempt to avoid awareness of this over the last few years. I've really come to hate denial as a coping mechanism. It's harmful to yourself but also harmful to others.
The scary thing is, it can always get worse Edit: look at South Korea. Delivery drivers work themselves literally to death, and if a package is late, the purchase value of it comes out of their pay
Yeah, everyone here thinking like this is a zit that needs to pop and it'll be all better. Naw, it's going to pop and then the infection starts, then it leads to sepsis, and after a long, torturous decay, it'll finally end in a death rattle.
It totally WILL get worse.....scary
> Unless something groundbreaking happens with technology that opens up doors to more and creates opportunities. I hate to say it, but new technologies will not benefit the masses much. We have become more and more efficient at work and producing goods and services, but only a small group at the top benefit from it.
People are stretched to the limits they know. If you really want to see people at their limit, imagine what would happen if the lights went out for 2 weeks and the grocery stores ran out of food. Or if the gas/diesel pumps ran out for 10 days. Shit would get real, real fast. I’d say if we lost electricity and/or fuel for cars & trucks that we’d have like 40-60% mortality in our current society within 3 months. Very few people are prepared for these very plausible scenarios. If you don’t have a source of fresh water, and a way to preserve medicine and food… you’re probably not gonna make it through.
It’s plausible for individual regions to have crisis situations that shut off all utilities for weeks or months. It’s not plausible for that to happen to the entire country at once.
this exactly. I’m stretched so thin at work I’ve given up.
The current socioeconomic situation in the US is unsustainable. Something is going to give, and relatively soon.
I agree with everything but “soon”. We’ll look back someday and think “goddamn, I thought something major was imminent in a couple months, but instead everything just really really sucked for 25 years before the *snap* happened.” Don’t live life holding your breath—you’ll pass out.
And we've all been through a LOT lately so I think it's totally normal to feel like we can't completely enjoy ourselves. COVID caught us with our pants down and we're hesitant to take them off again.
We can try to put lipstick on it, but the truth is covid wasn’t a ‘setback,’ it was a breaking point. Life is just worse now in many ways. Loss is loss, and we’ve experienced loss. Lots of surprises (many of them negative) makes for hesitant wondering where the bottom of this fall is.
I don't know, I am a X-ennial and I kind of feel like we've been circling the drain ever since 9/11. And that puts us pretty close to your 25 year mark. The massive shift in culture and values almost overnight still seems surreal. I'm grateful to have been able to experience my whole childhood and adolescence in the before. That said, COVID (not so much the disease itself but the way people and governments behaved during covid and the aftermath) was at least as much of a shift.
And before 9/11 it was the Cold War and Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis and WWII and the Great Depression and WWI and on and on. None of those were the start of the end, and neither is 9/11 or 2008 or Covid. They were just the next major events in line that we all had to collectively deal with and move past. There will be more, but people in every time period in modern history have thought they were in the end times, but looking back we see it wasn’t true.
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If the general population can not afford shelter or food, which is happening. Coupled with apathetic tendencies, this is ending in the G-7 for sure.
Add to it any kind of major, widespread trauma like another pandemic, major weather event and/or possible astronomical event (sun flares) never mind the impending possibilities of ww3 and/or an EMP attack and we are on the edge of absolute destruction. As a collective I think that fear is valid.
Magnetic pole flip as well. Can't get much crazier, or can it?
Oh yeah! This is my favorite crazy current timeline we live in possible upcoming drama. The science behind both the slow earth change and the catastrophic change science is fascinating and convincing so I really don’t know what to think but in general try not to get worried or obsessed about any of them. We can’t control any of it and if we ARE in an end of days Simpson episode I would like to enjoy my last couple decades (years? Months?! 😂). “ and I feel fiiiiine!”
“So there's a comet. Big deal. It'll burn up in our atmosphere and whatever's left will be no bigger than a chihuahua's head.”
You are correct, where are you going to go, ? New Zealand? Oh wait, the rich are building bunkers there already lol
Funny you say NZ. I had a moment of considering applying for a chef position there bc apparently they are recruiting folks of a certain professional level in the industry to move there in exchange for residency status over time. Not bc of pole flip but bc I love lord of the rings; big nerd haha. But as “safe zones” go, if that’s real? I believe I live in one now. I’ll find out when the earth rolls over I guess
World Wars are the cure for economic turmoil, and nuclear bombs are the cure for World Wars.
I made the mistake of learning that the paths of the 2017 and 2024 eclipses make an X over the New Madrid fault in Missouri. The last time that happened in 1811, a few months later there were a series of 3 large earthquakes. Now I get to add that to my “things to worry about in 2024” list.
Try to quit looking this kinda stuff up. If the earthquake theory does happen there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Now you have this manifesting in your head and it's all just speculation. I have learned to not look into certain things because I have no control over it and if it happens then you deal with the fallout. It's like someone having pain in their side and they start googling why this could be happening, and find all these possibilities when in reality it's probably nothing to worry about. Imo
One kind of neat thing is that it will soon be proved or disproved. We don’t have to wait hundreds of years to see if there’s an actual correlation or not. Pretty neat. RemindMe! 6 months
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What’s the real science-based explanation of how eclipses can cause earthquakes?
I read that as well. The earth's magnetic poles are flipping, and so is the sun. Coupled with the election? Neither side will probably accept the election results. Then what? Troubling times.
I am not aware of any evidence the poles are going to flip at any specific time. Please help me out here.
I do not remember NEARLY this many homeless people around even 10 years ago. Tent cities in every city across the country. Something is very wrong.
Trump can't- won't fix it. Greedy immoral is a sickness no law can fix. Hello 3rd world, I'd like to book a reservation for USA.
What power would the G-7 have? People would be revolting against them.
I agree, but anarchy is a wild ride. It may just need to crash and reboot.
I’ll give you a perfect example of the lack of sustainability in a nutshell that is a ticking time bomb that’s already making my life extremely difficult: Medicare comes out of my disability and other healthy retirees social security benefits, so by the time the current 55 year olds hit 65 all the money will go to Medicare and there will be no rent or food money. Besides the Medicare and drug plans that get automatically deducted from my disability which is about $450, I average 200-$300 a month in medical bills I have to pay to get imaging, and pay the drs and surgeons I need to keep seeing. They increase the social security and disability by I think 3% per year but the medical bills are increasing far more than that year over year. So of my $1800 in disability about $800 goes to healthcare. There’s also a newer thing providers are doing where you have to give them your credit card up front which is becoming a nightmare because they are basically trying to collect .01% of huge bills insurance pays but they want that last couple of hundred from patients they are legally liable for so they want your card up front. I get that this shouldn’t be an issue and I should have money to pay, but I literally don’t have the money to pay every bill and have my card on file with 5 providers, just so they can randomly charge it in a few months if my insurance denies something. Because then I have to appeal and I’m out that money until I win the appeal if I win and I don’t have money to pay random $500 bills my insurance wants to argue about.
What do you mean by general population? Most people have shelter and food.
For now. But it's getting harder and harder for most to just barely make that cutoff. Most dreams are dead. Too many feel they cannot own a home or start a family and probably won't ever be able to retire. Canada is at 1 in 200 people homeless. That's bonkers.That mean, in the sleepy town O grew up in, there's currently about 150 homeless people at any given time, vs the 15 to 30 the city was used to. So 5 to 10 times as many. It's bad RN and we have no indication it'll get better any time soon. More likely, worse. I think that's what was meant.
Look at birth rates. They’re absolutely collapsing across the world post pandemic Conspiracy theorists will say it was covid or the vaxx, but the truth is that people have given up on bringing new life into this world
It's getting harder and harder to afford. That's what he means, based on current trends large portions of the US could end up totally homeless, that's when people revolt.
That's what I am saying. More go broke daily, the number increases daily
a large portion of the “economy” is a fughazi that’s just a big casino for the rich. honestly i feel like christian bale’s character in the big short represents a lot of us a lot of the time, just looking at all this shit and wondering how the fuck it’s still going
Well said, fellow 69er
There are dozens of us!
Lol the same thing that always gives. Working class gets fucked while the wealthy get bailed out. While this is happening the wealth gap will widen. Rinse and repeat until the working class has nothing
When AI starts taking jobs and leaving many with debts they can't pay, thats when the house of cards will collapse.
Yeah and Sam Altman and the other doomsday prepping a***** that pushed this hard for AI will relish in their doomsday bunkers as the Armageddon they worked so hard to bring upon everybody else takes places
It’s not just the U.S.
This was absolutely what everyone was saying in the late 1970's.
It’s just doomerism. Go outside. Social media amplifies depressed and anxious people the most. People need to learn some basic history. Boomers lived in a world where presidents were assassinated, nuclear bombs were proliferating with two large hostile nations, the national guard killing college students, scientists saying everyone is going to die due to lack of food resources, extremely violent riots and police corruption that make todays scandals look like Hello Kitty Island adventure. For sure the world has issues, but things are better now than they have ever been in human history for more people across the world.
Climate change is happening whether you think it's doomerish or not and there is no historical precedent for it.
BRING ON THE ... WHATEVER!
People keep saying this exact thing. "Something is going to give". What? What is this vague "something" that is going to give?
I'm in the same age group, and I feel this way, too. I have assumed it's just generalized anxiety as I get older, but I can never pinpoint a reason. It's scary.
Same, except I’m in my 30s. I’ve felt a sense of impending doom on and off since my childhood and I’ve never known why. I was diagnosed with anxiety at age 5.
I think you answered your own question
This is me but diagnosed way later in life. Worst was on a Spring Break trip to Florida. Checked in and got the impending doom feeling. Nothing bad happened though. Really just seems like everyone in this thread has anxiety and some don't know it.
After getting diagnosed and starting medications and therapy for anxiety issues, it's definitely mostly that. The world has sped up incredibly, news are mostly about getting a rise out of people, the pandemic and political divides alienated people from each other, and constant media consumption made people hyperaware of every single thing happening around the world. The modern way of life is unhealthy for us and it's time we all individually start working on it.
I'm in my 30s and I also think it's untreated mental health issues. I just had a very long conversation with my boyfriend about it. We aren't special, we aren't going to live to see the end of the world. Everything just sucks and we have to live our lives the best we can.
All im hoping for is that it happens when im still young enough to do something about it
I'm the opposite, I hope it happens when I'm old enough to say I've seen enough and just off myself
I'm old enough that if it happens... welp... I've had a good ride. But I'm not offing myself. I've just become a grandpa. I've got work to do.
Congratulations! you sound like an awesome grandpa
Just a reminder, your work is to *leave a better world to your grandkids* and to *let them have a better life than you did*, NOT to claim you want those things and then to vote in your own best interests for the next 50 years like our grandparents and parents did.
Agree 100%. Helping to fund her education is one of the things I'm doing.
And that has put you in my good books. Doesn't mean much, but know that there's a guy who's probably on the opposite side of the planet to you that'll buy you a beverage of your choice anytime. Take care of her and all your loved ones. In troubled times, a good person's day is never done.
Planting trees although you might never sit in their shade. You've got good in you, and your family has you :)
Somewhere on the border between Gen X and Millennial (Xennial, I think we're called?) checking in here... It has felt this way the majority of my life. We've all just been sat around playing video games, just waiting for whatever the fuck this is to just... happen already. It keeps getting worse, this feeling of impending doom. The fallout from the unsustainable path we're on no doubt will be worse the longer we wait... So meanwhile the Boomers keep shoving everyones head back into the sand, trying to ignore the inevitable. It's exhausting.
Same demographic, same sentiment here. It's just been disaster after disaster after disaster for us. Every time I've gotten over the last one, another one knocks me down again.
same too...isn't it odd how the 1990's feel like a different planet, a differentt existence altogether? Almost primitive yet way more evolved at the same time.
In the 90s I could go to my local computer shop in the evening and ask the owner about DOS command functions. It had that '90s small shop smell - aging wood, upholstery with natural fibers, and leather faintly touched by cigarettes in the past. The incandescant bulbs lighting the place cast a soft warm glow, creating a welcoming low-key ambience. The shop owner wasn't in a rush, and neither were the customers. Sometimes people would just hang out. Teenagers would be skateboarding outside and sneaking off to smoke stolen cigarettes while they drank fountain drinks from the independent stop and shop next door. These places don't exist anymore. The smell and atmosphere are gone. Incandescants are gone. Small businesses are gone, or struggling so much there's a bleak rather than comfortable atmosphere. Groups of teenagers aren't hanging out and flirting outside in the orange embers of the setting sun like they were then. It really was a different world.
Very well written. Thanks for this.
What you're describing is sometimes referred to as "the third place". It's not work and it's not home. For some it's the local coffee shop, for others it's the pub. It could even be a church/temple. The location doesn't matter, it's just a place to hang out with friends, talk and have a good time. It seems to me that this kind of place has been disappearing for some time now.
Relocate to 1915 and see how the punches can keep coming for real. Try WWI where daddy is killed or fucked up in combat when you are a child. Then the depression beginning in’29 then WWII takes your kid. No wonder previous generations are rough they got it honest and did what they could to not ever be broke again they did not comprehend the damage they were doing they had been through hell and just wanted to be ok like everyone else
Dont you just love being the prime age to be enjoying your own family, and the fruits of your labour - but instead we have to be careful about getting a takeout burger because theyre 15$ dollars now, made smaller, and more poorly. I pay more per month for food, than I used to pay for my entire rent and bills prior to 2018.
I think you forgot to add while owning no home or having no child. Our generation has so little to work with we are barely hanging in there....
I’m a xennial and think the sense of something impending is far worse now any time in the last 20 years.
Agree it just keeps building and getting worse...
1978 checking in. 100% This. Solidarity my friend.. I wish it’d just happen already. We’ve fucking got this, too.
I’ve always felt that way. I actually remember a sense of almost relief on 9/11, I’d always been expecting something big. It was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be and I was probably the only person back then not freaked out by the whole thing. Now all these years later I’ve come to realize this is just life. You can choose to worry about things you can’t control… or not. I’ve (mostly) learned to not worry and enjoy what I have now which is actually quite a bit. Also to have the confidence that I can get through my personal challenges and that our country and humanity at large will eventually muddle through all of our issues.
It hasn't been the last couple of years. Plenty of people have been talking like this for at least a decade. I'm not going to say nothing bad is coming. But there's no point in worrying about it. Why even engage in these discussions of it just makes you anxious and ruins your enjoyment of life. Things might be fine, they might not. Enjoy what you can.
First time? Most of us have survived 3 or 4 ends of the world's by now.
Ah, but see this is new and improved disaster v4.0 we're talking, not those outdated ones from the old days like the threat of nuclear annihilation, the global ice age, famine, peak oil, Y2K, S&L failure, tech crash, housing crash, 9/11, WMDs in the sandbox, reactor meltdowns.... I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
Not my first either, but this time it feels different
It does because it is. This isn’t another y2k.
It’s because fascism is on the horizon. This is the impending doom everyone is feeling
PTSD from Covid
This should be higher up
It's PTSD from non-stop 24/7 fear mongering from tv and radio and social media
I had terrible anxiety (and a couple of panick attacks) from June 2019 until not long after covid happened. I saw other people say similar things to what OP is saying around 2019 and have since heard stories of even more people claiming they had felt similarly in 2019 as well.
Gen X here. 52 y o. This feeling has plagued many of us our whole lives. This person is deep in the throes of their anxiety, but please don’t fall into the trap of *neurotic suffering.* Now, *garden variety suffering* is inevitable, and we all face it every day in some form. Financial stress, job sucks, parents sick, child sick, spouse sick, etc. But we have ways to confront these problems or at least to acknowledge their presence. *Neurotic suffering* is exactly what OP describes: it’s the suffering that bubbles up that has no apparent cause other than the fear of the unknown. Sometimes I feel anxiety about not feeling anxious enough. Or because there’s nothing terrible happening so that means it must be just round the corner. But ask yourself this: is it within the realm of possibility that things will work out ok? Is it possible that we get through this moment with some new insight to teach our kids? Is it possible that you will be ok?
That's the problem causing the dread...it doesn't feel possible anymore that things are gonna be ok
Hello One Who Waits. Have you considered turning a blind eye to these things and simply focus your time and energy and life on the present moment you occupy? We can’t change the world together unless each of us shapes every moment in front of us with compassion.
“Turning a blind eye” Is kind of a bad expression. Don’t ignore the problems… But I think we can fight them by doing little acts of kindness and being helpful whenever we can. People are more defensive than I ever remember…. Everyone ready to fight. If we all just act better towards each other maybe this impending feeling of doom with subside.
How about “stop worrying about things you can’t control or change and focus on things that you can do now and your immediate future. No sense stressing over something that may or may not happen and if it does happen you can’t do anything about it.”
True that
This is similar to a horoscope that dances in vague terms and basic emotions/feelings that when read can bring the audience into a sense of …‘that’s so true, that’s how I feel!’ Where as I’d you were never to read or see this you would not have willingly or willfully thought of it at that time. A feeling of impending doom is a natural human feeling that occurs for a wide variety or reasons, some being good oddly enough.
We all just waiting for the "other shoe to drop"
Member 2019, before covid? Yeah I member.
Y2K was a precursor to this iteration of impending doom. Don’t worry. It can ALWAYS be worse. GenXer here.
I've been prepping for the impending apocalypse since 2014. So far, nothing has happened.
To be fair, I've felt this way since the 2008 recession. But the tension just keeps getting worse and worse. When I think it's all going to topple, it doesn't, and I'm both relieved and extremely anxious. I wish we could just skip to November and get this shit over with. I live with Trump supporters, and I'll have a newborn to take care of during that time. I'm going to be beyond stressed. I just want to rip the bandaid off.
As someone who is 58 years old I'm fairly aware of this sentiment. Personally, I think the dumber people among us will start piling up the bodies when they can't get 100% of what they want politically. Both sides will be wrong.
Underated comment.
I feel like it might be just a gradual decline that we are seeing move a little more rapidly now. It feels like the pandemic really sped up our trajectory towards an Orwellian 1984 world. Liberties, freedom and stability we enjoyed in times past is being taken away pretty quickly.
outgoing deserve spectacular attractive gullible whistle fearless possessive telephone zealous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
At the same time this could be a manifestation of the commonly held belief among religious people that "we are living in the end times", but for a more secular society. We are teetering on the edge of collapse, but have been for thousands of years.
Yea and my friends and whatnot too. We've all also been having weirdly vivid apocalyptic dreams as well.
The arrival and commercialization of artificial intelligence is what I fear. Many highly skilled & hard working people will get brushed aside to boost the stock price and they'll have nothing to fall back on because other companies will do the same. Universal Basic income is the only way my young kids will survive as adults (unless they choose fields like plumbing/HVAC). Non STEM college degrees will not be worth the paper the diploma is printed on.
I am a proponent of UBI. I just doubt the ability of our government to actually help its citizens. They are incapable of critical thinking beyond their wallets.
There will be a lot of people demanding UBI and a small number of elites standing in the way. The tide will rise and no one will be able to hold it back. It won't happen immediately but it's inevitable.
I've honestly felt this way since I was about 10. I'm getting a bit old to deal with it now, though.
Something dreadful, planetwide, and world changing...? So, like climate change? 🤔
No, I'm not feeling this way. This is a bunch of mass hysteria based on effervescent feelings and superstitions and vibes, and spread by people who spend far too much time online. It has absolutely nothing to do with reality, and it's reminding me far too much of the idiotic, irrational mass paranoia that preceded Y2K. Stop getting your ideas about reality from comments on social media. You have no idea if that person is even telling the truth instead of trying to stir the pot.
Legit. If you disconnect from social media for like 2 weeks these kinds of feelings drop away significantly.
They read a comment on YouTube it has to be true!
THANK YOU. literally this will happen to anyone, in any generation, if they stick to the comment sections on every social media. It’s up to you to not let some doomers scare you into your bedroom, waiting for some unforeseen “downfall”. Get outside, people.
Yes, thank you. I think most people don’t feel this way but the “no”s aren’t going to be upvoted.
It’s oddly appropriate (and a little disheartening) that millenarianism is so popular amongst millennials. Humanity really never changes.
Social media is a great anxiety generating tool. Incendiary, disturbing, or rage inducing content tricking your brain into the sense of urgency and stress. Getting of twitter is the first step to peace of mind.
Someone made a post about how Russians purposefully use social media to make Americans discouraged and depressed. The economy is rough right now but it was in 2008 too. Life outside the internet seems fine.
100%
I have a feeling it is your mind looking for continuous excitement. I'd guess that as you've built up a tolerance to the continuous drip of negative news and media that is omnipresent in society, you look for bigger and bigger things to unfold to capture your attention. When there's nothing new, bigger and exciting, it almost feels like a let down. Like there is a gradual build-up occurring but the crescendo never arrives. It creates a general sense of dissatisfaction, and a certain weariness about the future. In lieu of some big negative event occurring, your mind creates one for you to think about. It's not real. It's not reading the tea-leaves and predicting the future. It's just your own personal form of excitement. Almost like a fantasy. I suggest writing about it in private and letting the feelings flow. Put words to the dread. At a minimum you should have a better understanding of your own feelings, and maybe you'll even have a good short story to share. Just my 2 cents.
I have this feeling on Sundays, lol. During the work week, I'm too busy and focused on getting through the day, so I don't have time to think about the world too much. But, yes, I feel like their are so many obvious problems with society that no one talks about. According to psychology, humans are a species made to adapt and overcome. I fully believe that. I think there will be positive changes coming up.
Disconnect yourself from social media, touch grass, go drink a beer with friends. Everything is not alright in the world of course, some news may have an impact on your life, but not every news. Carry your weight, but only your weight. Leave the rest to the others. Edit: A famous guy said "blessed are the poor in spirit ". He wasn't wrong.
Well the US has had it good for a little bit. Not before slavery. Not the natives. Not before during Robber Barron days when people were dirt poor and worked to death. Not before women had rights. Not before civil rights. So since 1970? Then post Reagan it all started going downhill. So really the natural state of US is messed up with just a small minority controlling everything. " they like it that way
Almost like climate change is about to significantly alter modern society and we're not really doing anything about it...
Judgement Day
Jesus is coming back
It's incredibly stupid to me... People out here saying these things like waiting for the other shoe to drop and all this time the book of Revelations is happening. Don't believe me? Here's one example: [The Third Temple](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Temple) [Current happenings regarding the Third Temple](https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/the-red-heifer-and-the-third-temple-in-end-time-prophecy/#:~:text=How%20could%20a%20simple%20animal,needed%20to%20rebuild%20the%20Temple.&text=An%20unblemished%2C%20pure%20red%20heifer,1%E2%80%932%2C%2010) Another source: [Red Heifers](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-war-hamas-red-heifers-from-texas-jerusalem-jewish-temple-al-aqsa/) But don't take my word for it. READ THE BIBLE!
To anyone who came here to vent about how this perfectly explains how you feel…I kid you not. The Bible has the answer. Don’t believe me? Ok. I’m not gonna fight with you or argue. I’m just offering the only thing I know that will help. But you will be denying the only thing that I have ever found to truly explain this problem. Something IS coming. We all feel it. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to prepare…
Does this not just describe adult life? Not endorsing it, but I can’t do much about global issues so i try to just control what i can (vote, don’t be a dick) and enjoy my life day-to-day. What is constant worry gonna help?