when I wake up early enough and my stool is soft enough that I can actually take a shit.
My kids. Even if we can’t fix the mess the world is currently in, they can
A nice full pint of lager.
Protesting, volunteering, and finding other people who still have energy and hope that we can make something better.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think everything will suddenly get better but the more you do, the more you’ll find little wins here and there, and those small wins make it feel worth it.
Honestly? Nothing. Been here nearly 60 years, experienced lots of changes in that time and it all boils down to the same thing every time - money. The people that have it will do everything they can to keep it, including making sure people that don’t suffer. As Flux Of Pink Indians said, all we can do is strive to survive, causing the least suffering possible.
Yesss crass records!
Kids these days. They are nicer than when I was in school, and mine and their peers got much better education than I did (though that has declined again, there are like 20 consecutive years of kids who were better served by the school system that are just now young adults).
The rise of renewable energy marching on.
The drop in the birth rate. Not because I’m anti-natal, but because it seems like nature is working, that’s a much gentler means of reducing population than most.
The fact that insect life cycles are so short. The insect apocalypse is to me the most dire and frightening thing happening, but if we can address it at least the rebound wouldn’t take as long as with other creatures.
My family used to have a bird when I was growing up. A parrot that would bite everyone. Only if you let it bite you enough would it start to let you hold it, but even then it would randomly bite you. Made me never want a bird again.
But after my parents passed I moved into an apartment complex with our dogs. And when I woild walk the dogs I would pass by this bird that was always outside on someones second story patio. Not only always outside, but in a small cage, barely any toys, never covered, and kept underneath LED light straps that never got turned off. Plus, the patio was facing the only open field in the place so it had no nearby friends or cover from the wind.
I woukd walk by and whistle; eventually it leaned my whistles and would call them back. Figured it would give him some stimulation at least. And I knew it deserved a better life, but there was no way I would take it as ive had the previous bird and it didn’t go well. But eventually winter came, and still the bird was outside, uncovered, and underneath the lights.
So I ended up writing a note and leaving it on their door asking to have the bird since it was one of the only things besides my dogs that brought me joy. And eventually they texted me saying I could come grab him.
Well, this bird is amazing. I was hoping he would maybe just chill on my shoulder from time to time, but he loves to hang out there. Plus I can rub his neck and he’ll close his eyes in comfort. And I give him showers. And he loves chewing paper. He eats seeds I crack from my mouth. I bought him a backpack so he can come on walks with us or go to fairs and stuff like that
Not only is he a stable part of my family, but a few people i know have bought birds of thier own because they love him so much
All this to say, you really dont know what the future will bring. Even if you say you really dont want something, life may bring it to you in a way that makes you question why you were so scared to begin with.
But yeah. Here’s Wilson in all his glory
This is the most heartwarming thing I have read in like a week at least.
Burb
Beautiful little bird. How long does this type of bird live?
Thanks! Ill tell him you said that then kiss him on the head for ya.
Only like 12 years or so from what I’ve heard though. Worst part is I dont even know how old he is. Technically I dont even know if its a him but I haven’t found any eggs yet haha.
The people I saved him from opened their door and handed me the cage and a bit of food. Couldn’t even get his former name so I renamed him unless by slim chance they also called him Wilson haha
Lovely. They are without a doubt a Wilson.
That this too, shall pass.
Knowing that people are not evil. We’re just animals who conform. It’s too late for some to get better and be more empathetic but not everyone.
My uncle had to move states for work and he went from a MAGA tattoo trumper to a protester in the span of two years because he was isolated from his “friends” and met some fellas at work who took his ignorant ass in. Played pool in one of their garages every Wednesday and Friday with the rest of their friends. Found community. Doted on his coworkers trans daughter to the point where he pitched in a third for her first car. People are all the same but are easily tricked and will do anything to fit in. It gives me hope that love can spread too. Not just hate.
This is fantastic.
Thanks for writing it.
Yeah but why are some people doing the maga thing to fit in whereas others see no need to? If it’s all conformation pressure then surely it will go the other way and we’ll all be trumpers soon enough.
This is what troubles me. More abstractly - Why am I x and others y. I think things would be more good if more people did x, but I cannot discern any particular surefire reason(s) or principle that makes someone x instead of y. To me I can never imagine being y, it is incomprehensible. Some people randomly stop being y and start being x and vice versa, but there’s never a principle(s) that emerges that could be used as a basis of a theory, it seems chaotic, and it defies understanding. Are y misinformed? Doesn’t seem like it. Are y just evil? Are x just fundamentally better, smarter, more moral than y?
Well then that’s no good because that would mean people really aren’t all the same, and anyway such thoughts are unbefitting a systemic humanist view of being able to alter the world unto better outcomes that people will go along with if it’s made to be in their interest, like reducing poverty to reduce crime, and anyway that seems to hold true in data so it can’t be. Can we all be nietzchean "over"men?
And so I continue to think.
I listened to a podcast with someone who left the white power scene, and did some research. What I found in several sources is that extremists leverage your pain points. Feeling lonely? Unseen? Or did you grow up in a broken home? You can use that anger and redirect it towards the out-group of choice.
The wish to fit in is an important part, but I think it’s first and foremost seeking for community. And when you feel lonely and are in pain, you are very vulnerable to people recruiting you into a cult or extremist group.
It could happen to anyone, but I think emotional maturity and coping skills play a big part in being able to identify and resisting extreme ideologies.
One day the news will come that I have outlived Trump.
I think I’ll gather the crew and celebrate his death day.
Matter fact, might celebrate a few years early. Sing songs about how happy we are that he’s dead.
Joy to the world, that Trump is dead.
We barbecued his heaad.
And the rest of the body, we flushed down the potty.
We found him in the sewer, all covered in manure.
And that was the end of that fat orange bellend.Everybody now! 🙌👏🎶📣🔊
There are people who are actively protesting against hatred, against xenophobia, against racism, against LGBT-phobia, I live in a city that overwhelmingly voted against trump.
I don’t exactly talk to neighbors, honestly I have fear about strangers (dealing with depression and possible PTSD after a shitty police encounter), but at least I don’t have to worry about nazis that much. (There are still racists around here, but at least there is no lynch mobs)
I really felt moved by the anti-police-brutality protests after George Floyd was brutally murdered by some piece of shit cop. I was a victim of unjustified, and, in my view, an illegal arrest (but courts would see it as legal), and it was practically psychological torture. The fact that the entire nation protested against police brutality really brings me hope. I know that the fight is far from over, but I know that we the people have the spirit, we just need that spirit reignited. Perhaps, one day, the tyrants of the world would be defeated. Its gonna be an uphill battle, but I have hope, I have to. Otherwise I would lose my will to live. And I’m not ready to die yet. Its a rare roll of dice for me to even exist, I can’t give up just yet. I yearn for the day that I see the downfall of tyrants.
Others ITT have already mentioned people as a source of hope. For me, this is something of a paradox, as I’m fairly misanthropic. I believe most people are—on balance—good or at least prosocial. They want to get along with others and not cause harm. However, I also think we’re inherently tribal and self-centered. Our capacity for empathy within our closest social circles is quite high, but outside of them it barely exists. We tend to make good choices when it comes to those we know, but beyond that we tend to be fairly apathetic and callous.
So, I am hopeful based on people’s desire to be good and make the world a better place for all. But our historical record demonstrates a failure pattern at scale that is anything but inspiring. Overall, I think we tend to hit at the middle of the road or slightly below it. I see the history of human civilization like a corkscrew: progress is made, but only very slowly and through many repetitions of past mistakes.
Ultimately, I don’t have much hope. Humans perform best in small groups; in large ones (10,000+ people) we splinter and start treating each other very poorly. We evolved to function in small groups of just a few families. When we settled down and started developing our civilization (only 15,000 years ago—no time for evolution to change us), we struck out into territory we were not prepared for. Human civilization is effectively an experiment, and I would argue it’s returned mixed results at best.
EDIT: I also think one of the chief problems with us as a species is that we are innately myopic. That is to say, we don’t truly recognize problems until they start to affect us directly. We had all the information we needed to predict the impacts of human-driven climate change in the 1950s, if not earlier. But people trying to draw attention to them were dismissed as alarmists. Only when we began truly witnessing the impacts around the turn of the century did we acknowledge the problem and start acting on it. I think the same will be true for AI, but much worse. We intellectually understand the threats that AI poses to our species, but won’t start acting on them until they actually start to take effect, and by that point, it will be too late.
Mixed result = the best living conditions, longer life expectancy, and modern medicine.
Like it or not, if you were born in any other point in known history life would be exceptionally less pleasant.
Yes, there are certainly good things to come of it, I never denied that. But we’re also the cause of the latest mass extinction event on the planet, so there’s that too. I’d call that “mixed results at best.”
The goodness of people. I run into it every day. People holding the door, saying kind words, going out of their way to help. I know there’s also a lot of cruelty, but that’s predominantly in the media, not in my life.
I feel like I’ve already used up all of my good luck in life, and I’m deeply grateful for it. Little old me, born and raised in Vietnam, would never have dreamt of living a leisurely life abroad in the UK with an amazing husband, travelling often, being able to retire my parents early, and supporting them. I’ve already been lucky enough to experience so many wonderful things that anything else that comes my way feels like a bonus, and any hardships can’t take that away from me. That sense of satisfaction is what gives me hope.
