Nothing humans have ever done is unprecedented or even the worst example in nature. Chaining the atmosphere and causing climate change and mass extinction? Cyanobacteria laugh at humans.

Think plastic is bad? Early trees evolved millions of years before any bacteria or fungi could digest them. Early trees didn't rot, and they covered the land' clogged the rivers and oceans; and led to continent-wide wildfires. (they also sequestered so much carbon it caused an ice age).

Even what we do to each other isn't close to the worst examples in nature. Male bedbugs have a reproductive strategy called "traumatic insemination" wherein their stinger-like penis can just stab the female any where on her body. The females have a 25% higher mortality due to being stab-raped.

Anthony Scaramoochi (or however he spells his name... yes, that guy) said it best. To paraphrase:

"Young people. The boomer generation (my generation), and all the losers associated with it spent all their political power in ruinous ways, and only emboldened the next generations in their political convictions and you already see a lot of them pointing correctly at where the faults lie, and how the geritocracy serves nobody"

Of all people to give an interesting interview lately, I really did not expect it to be him. You can find it pretty easily on youtube. It was called "38 minutes with..." or something like that. Maybe it was 28 minutes.

In other words, below a certain age, there is overwhelming support in working together for a better future for everyone. The current political class will die out with no heritage beyond everyone knowing how badly they fucked up.

What gives you hope about the future.

Not being on Lemmy.

Seriously. This place is pretty… well, I have it blocked on my phone along with some other time sucking/doomscrolling sites, and it’s definitely better for my mental health.

What works well thrives, loves, lives and prosper. What doesn't and hates, eventually is superseded, or destroys itself, or shrinks and dies.
This applies to ideas, political movements, civilizations and even species.
Life is a self-organizing mechanism, operating throughout the universe, that, although for a time produces suffering, does eventually find solutions against illnesses. By doing so, it rearranges itself into better configurations.

i do want to believe in a better future and because of that i don't even believe that the Big Bang Theory, with its conclusion of the heat death of the universe, is entirely true.

I do believe that most things will get better in the end. Maybe not everything, and maybe not as quickly as you like. Maybe some things get worse before they get better. But for every one thing that gets worse, two things do get better.

Consider where humanity was 100, 200, 300, 400 years ago. Every generation ends up being better off than the last.

Gurren Lagann.

But also how we collectively fixed the ozone layer. Makes me hopeful we can find a solution to climate change.

History gives me hope. It's funny/not-funny seeing people on Western social media freak out like this is the end of all things. Human history is cyclic, and America in particular is on a monster downswing. Consider Europe in 1940 vs. 1960 vs. 1990 vs. 2020. Pretty radical changes for the better! China's up to bat to run the 21st century. Let's see how that plays.

Global warming is the only new thing in the room. But humans are the AR-15s of the animal world. Not the best at anything, but multi-purpose and wildly adaptable for whatever use case is required. Humans now live in places where even insects can't hang! We'll be fine. Eventually.

Kids are nicer now.

I am more listened to at work (as a woman) than in the past.

We did clean up Tampa Bay, and at least the clean energy tech is growing so fast.

So, so so much less violent here than when I was a kid

Im just born like this tbh

I was in the ICU for six months once, even on what every probability said was going to be my deathbed I was hopeful a new set of lungs would come and I would get my transplant, and they did. I had one moment in those six months where I really did think “this could be it” but even that, it was a maybe, I always had hope. I think I would have died hopeful.

For me it’s just an inborne trait or at least a trait I developed so early I don’t remember not being like this

There's one thing that's happened this year that inspired actual hope in me.

I made a video about Flock buying out their employees and, in researching it, learned that Flock (as of a month ago) had lost nearly 400 contracts in 36 states. An independent outfit is tracking it because, obviously, major media outlets don't want to talk about the unpopularity of fascism.

Thing is, this accelerated last summer, which means a lot of people who are otherwise apolitical are going to city council meetings and doing boring, pedestrian and effective political organizing for a good cause.

That is objectively a good thing.

two things

1. one day he'll die
2. one day I'll die

that's about it.

Global warming cannot cause humanity to go extinct. Nuclear war cannot cause humanity to go extinct. Population decline cannot cause humanity to go extinct.

If you think any of these are possible, you do not know enough about global warming, nuclear war, or population decline.

In short, things may get very, very, very bad. But hope springs eternal. And there are very, very few scenarios that won't leave many millions of people alive to pick up the pieces.

There's a quote from HBO's Chernobyl series:

To be a scientist is to be naive. We are so focused on our search for the truth we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it. But it is always there whether we see it or not, whether we choose to or not. The truth doesn't care about our needs or wants, it doesn't care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions. It will lie in wait for all time. And this, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl. Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask: What is the cost of lies?

All these fucking guys who've made monsters of themselves to pretend they're our masters - they'll all fail. Their lies are a patchwork of tapestries meant to hide from reality. The bigger it gets, the more it wants to fall. Pull a thread, watch it unravel.

This is a bit trite, but there are a lot of delicious foods to eat, and so many cats to give scritches to. Concerts to hear. Songs to sing.

I was at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix and they had a violin made out of literal trash. It's a testament to people's resilience and yearning to create. There are so many wonderfully creative people out there, I'll never have the time to consume the every good bit, especially when I feel well enough to create stuff of my own. I love seeing the things people, especially people I care about, create.

Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
There are plenty of street cats where I live

Even the broken clock that is Jordan Peterson can be right every once in a blue moon

I think Gen X and younger are, overall, better at dealing with emotional issues than their parents and grandparents. Granted, there's definitely still room for improvement.

But it's no longer considered socially acceptable (much less preferable) to use your kids as a piñata to vent your anger on instead of seeking therapy. It's also far more common for parents to show physical and verbal affection toward their kids. Something my (boomer) parents virtually never did. Probably because that's the dynamic they were taught.

I dont have any firm evidence to back this claim up, but conversations with parents that are relatively close to me in age has shown that I'm not the only one who has observed this trend.

Sometimes it's just enough to be kind myself and get a genuine smile in reaction.

Being kind to cashiers, giving up my seat to the elderly, holding the door for someone or having a trans person seem relieved and sit next to me on the train because the see the flag on my jacket.

It's the little things that keep our society together.