#the hopeless political climate

[swifteainthesummer]

Anyone else has felt like the world is always about to end in the last years?

[clowningcrows]

i fear i cannot mentally or emotionally handle being conscious much longer so im gonna take a melatonin and hope to god it works enough to make me pass out by 8:30 tbh

[aleck-le-mec]

Honestly it’s really hard to condemn the people my age (18) who have given up. In a way I think they’re right, it’s estimated that by the time we finish college humanity will look nothing like it does right now due to climate change and vast political differences. I can completely understand why you’d give up in the face of those facts especially when it wasn’t our fault nor can we really do anything individually. Hope is really hard to hang on to and I understand those who let go.

[a-tiny-voice-against-war-crimes]

A note on statistics, global horrors, apathy and empathy

With things like war, genocide, climate change, capitalism and epidemics on a scale so, so much greater than anything we can wrap our heads around, it's easy to just shut down and forget the horror of it all. To read statistics like 1,000,000 or 20,000 and feel nothing.

The death toll for Gaza has reached over 26,000, including over 80 journalists and over 130 UNRWA aid workers. The death toll for Ukraine has reached over 500,000. And that's just humans and deaths- what about just how many animals and pets have died and how many cities, beloved homes and natural areas have been utterly destroyed? The amount of people that have been physically and mentally scarred for life, if they'll even survive, those who have broken bones or lost limbs and are struggling with filth and infections, lack of basic resources and accessible medicine?

Distance and a sense of helplessness are some of the roots of apathy, and big numbers are a third. We humans just aren't wired to be able to picture a million or a billion or even a hundred of anything, to wrap our heads around it.

If you saw a person dying in front of you today, violently or even peacefully, you wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it. You hear that an unnaturally extreme flood caused by climate change has killed thousands on the news, and you go about your day without a second thought.

Maybe this is one of the reasons figures in positions of massive power find it so easy to ruin thousands of lives based on their personal whims and beliefs. To see huge groups of people as faceless, identical, and brand them 'mobs', 'aliens' and fundamentally inhuman for their differences- and when the time comes, to let so many individual, living, feeling fellow humans die.

And along with the seemingly inversely proportional relationship between the scale of a problem and how much empathy we afford it, (i.e the bigger the problem the less time we spend thinking and caring about it) we humans also have a wonderful cognitive bias called the Action-Inaction bias.

Basically, if somebody intentionally does something and it results in a death for instance, we see that as worse than if somebody intentionally doesn't do something and it results in a death, though objectively both have caused the exact same level of harm. Whether you are pulling a lever to kill somebody or not pulling a lever to let them die, in the end somebody is dead and you are the cause of that.

There's also of course the Bystander effect- TLDR; the more people there are witnessing a bad thing happening the less personal responsibility each person feels and the more we think somebody else will do something about it, so the likelihood of any individual person acting decreases- which also comes into play when we're facing big numbers.

So whenever somebody tells you you're being oversensitive for crying over the news or some massive societal issue, tells you it's not your responsibility or to just not worry about it, or worse, that there is nothing you can do about it:

Remember.

Caring less is the first step to watching an atrocity being carried out in front of your very eyes and doing nothing to stop it.

And when what is happening now becomes what people call history, it's the first steps to being what is thought of when the people of the future ask; 'Why didn't any of the average people watching this happen do anything to stop it?'

Look at graphs that show data in a more visual way

Look at photographs and videos

Read individual accounts, talk to people and follow influencers experiencing the effects of these things personally

Remember every single 'thing' making up that hundred or thousand or million is or was a person. A life, a countless number of feelings and opinions and dreams that they have had, and an infinite number they could've had if they had not been killed.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

im so so so so tired of bad things happening

[coffeeshopdaydream]

Ok no more nihilism we will keep going we will keep surviving we will see snow again and laugh again and sing along to songs in the car and we will continue for as long as we have

[reject-dystopia]

The keeping the cat away from wildlife aka on a leash or inside mostly applies to places cats aren’t native to, specifically house cats aren’t native to. And very densely populated areas bc there the cat density is then also way above average and already a lot of pressure on the ecosystem as is, but if you live in a city there is a billion other reasons why you should keep your cat inside. However if you live in rural Europe go nuts, let them outside, it really doesn’t matter much. There was more cats outside in rural areas in Europe than there are now including the house cats and ecosystems need their predators to function, so it really depends on the place. However, if you’re not 100% certain that you live in an area sparsely populated enough so you can safely let your cat outside/ you’re not 100% sure if the average wild cat aka the direct relative and in some cases impossible to keep apart relative of the house cat, lives/lived naturally where you live, then please I beg you leave your cat inside. And leash train them, you gotta be really patient and it might take months if not years especially if your cat is a bit older, but it’s worth it! There is great Ressources online, also about how to harness- and leash train older cats. It’s worth it for vet trips alone tbh, let alone the adventures you will be able to go on! We are currently leash training our six year old cats and it’s slow but it’s working and I can’t wait to go hiking together. Just for the love of god don’t force it onto your cat, if they don’t accept it, take a step back and move slower. If you force it, it will never work without force and that’s animal abuse! Also you will need a cat carrier, many hav backpacks, to carry your feline friend in when they get tired, cats, just like most predators exept humans, are the opposite of endurance runners so carry them when it gets too long. Just for the love of god, PLEASE DONT get one of these backpacks that have a completely see through shell for the back. Yes it’s nice if your cat can look out, but cats have the instinct to hide and they’re completely exposed in these backpacks and already stressed enough when they start going outside and having a safe space to return to is imperative. So get one they can hide in if they want to and that won’t heat up as much as a plastic thingy that’s see through inevitably will. Leave the harness, leash and carrier/backpack out in the apartment to desensitise the cat to it, even before you ever try to put the harness on.

If you have any questions feel free to dm me, there is tons of ressources I can direct you to if you tell me what specifically you’re looking for.

And besides that, don’t give up hope for a better future, fight climate change, but also fight the root cause that not just caused it and profited and profits off of causing it, but also profits off of the consequences (like the new Dyson headphones and the air filter they have is a very on the nose example but there is literally thousands more) AND actively prevent any solutions being implemented and keep talking about needing “technologies to fix it” even tho they are actively preventing using the more than enough technologies that already exist that could fix it ten times over let alone developing more, bc it might threaten their profit. Even if the solution would be profitable right now, as long as right now something else is profitable too that they’re already using, they will prevent the climate solution from being implemented.

Fight the root cause. It’s called capitalism!

Fight the system!

The most revolutionary thing you can do is never let them take away your hope with their doom-ist propaganda, that’s just aimed at us giving up trying to change things so they can keep making profits off of our Labor destroying our planet while they don’t pay us even remotely enough and inflate prices artificially and then call it an economic crisis and economic laws when they literally are directly causing it and directly exploit people and planet all to have even more money even though right now they already have more they can spend.

Fight capitalism! Fight capitalists! Fight climate change!

Never give up hope, as long as there is one human left to fight, one bird left to sing, one tree left to grow, we haven’t lost! There is no having lost bc even if it gets really bad, we can always make it at least better!

In the words of my late mentor, who was the wisest person I have ever known:

Let’s be realistic, let’s try to do the impossible!

The more I research about conservation, the more I cannot STAND climate doomerism.

"Ough oof we're all gonna die, everything is going extinct, blaaaahhh"

Meanwhile there are so many efforts and projects that are like "Blease...volunteers...interested homeowners.......random individuals who care.....pleas..........literally begging........."

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #122

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction - practically first drafts - posted daily (haven't missed one yet!) and sometimes written with the express intention of being terrible… but, you know, in an endearing way. Please like and reblog if you enjoy - the notes keep me going!

“Whew,” I wiped the sweat from my brow. “It’s like a sauna in here.”

The thermometer on the kitchen wall read ninety-seven degrees, and it was not a dry heat. I needed to figure out how to cool down. I opened the freezer door and stuck my head in, to some minor relief, and found an Otter Pop wedged behind the shelf. I quickly prayed that it wasn’t load-bearing and yanked it out. Nothing collapsed. Good.

I rinsed some frost off the outside and tore off the top with my teeth. It was an orange one. Not my favorite, but it’d have to do. It was refreshing, at least, and that was all I could ask for. Naturally, though, the burning lacerations on the corners of my lips lasted longer than any relief this plastic tube of frozen corn syrup could provide me.

I sat back down on the couch and glared at the lifeless television in front of me. It’s not like there was anything good on - it was daytime in the middle of July. The oscillating fan caught my attention. I could cool myself off and entertain myself all at once.

I tracked the movements of the fan with my head, all while singing into the blades for a distortion effect prized by generations of children. “Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me, I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed…”

But before I could get to the chorus, the power went out. I sighed and tried to think of something, anything to do that didn’t require electricity. I snapped my fingers as it came to me - or, well, I made the motion and clicked my tongue. I hadn’t gotten the hang of snapping.

I grabbed a towel and some sunscreen from the hallway closet and ran out to the backyard, where my kiddie pool awaited my arrival. Except, someone else was already using it. I stopped in my tracks and stared. Some old lady was sitting in the water, taking up the whole pool, fiddling around with some kind of weird-looking Gameboy.

“What are you doing in my pool?” I asked.

She gasped. “Oh, dear! This isn’t good!” She stood up quickly and the water splashed off of her one-piece swimsuit. “I’m not supposed to talk to you!”

“You’re not supposed to talk to strangers either?” I asked.

“Uh… yeah, that’s it. Why don’t you go back inside?” She motioned for me to go away.

“But the power went out and I want to use my pool.”

She thought for a moment. “Yeah, well… I was here first.” She sat back down and the water sloshed around her.

“You didn’t even put the pool in the shade! Aren’t you hot?”

“Are you kidding?” She pushed down her sunglasses. “It’s only ninety-seven out! I’d be freezing in the shade. Not that I’m complaining or anything. The weather is the whole reason I come here.”

I sat on the grass, in the shade of the peach tree. Even if I couldn’t use my pool to cool off, it was sort of nice to have someone to talk to. “Is it really hot where you’re from?”

“You have no idea. In this part of the year, in my time…” She stopped herself. “I mean, in this time of the year, in my parts… it gets up to a hundred and thirty degrees. Sometimes higher.”

“If you’re on vacation, why did you come to my backyard?”

“Because I didn’t expect to run into anyone here. Since when do you go outside?”

“Since the power went out.”

“Oh… right. It’s probably just the breaker box.” She got up from the pool again and stepped barefoot onto the grass. “Come on, let’s go find it.”

She walked toward the garage and I noticed a birthmark on the back of her forearm. It looked just like the one I had on mine. She snapped and clicked her tongue as she pointed to the breaker that had tripped and flipped it back on.

“There you go, kiddo. Head back inside.”

“Who are you?”

“No one.”

“Nobody can be no one.”

“Then I’m ‘Nobody’. Don’t worry about it.” She walked back to the pool.

“Why is it so hot where you’re from?”

“Because people weren’t willing to do anything to stop it. Can’t blame ‘em, I guess. Easy to treat home like garbage when you’re sure you’ll be moving to Mars ‘any day now’.”

I crossed my arms. “People can’t live on Mars!”

“That’s what we kept telling them, but they wouldn’t listen. They went on a big spaceship and they all died.”

“What happened after that?”

“Nothing much. No one - and nobody - could agree on what to do, so everything stayed mostly the same. And mostly the same was exactly the problem the whole time. It was too easy to keep doing what we always did: drive to work, move numbers around, drive home, watch TV, sleep, repeat. Coming up with something different was too hard.”

“What if I come up with something different? Then could you make your home better?”

She looked wistfully at her reflection in the water of the pool. “You won’t.”

The breeze blew her hair gently for a moment, and it rested back onto her shoulders.

“Go inside. Enjoy what you have while it lasts.”

I followed her suggestion and returned to the couch. My reflection on the TV screen stared back at me.

[perfektblau]

i looked so out of it that my cat got concerned for me lol and tapped me on my arm

[birdemic]

sick of being poor sick of everything getting more expensive sick of the way being alive is completely unaffordable now

[ginsengsullivan]

I love that all headlines are now like "Oh? You do normal thing? NORMAL THING IS SO BAD!!! NEW STUDY SAYS NORMAL THING GIVES YOU FIVE DIFFERENT CANCERS CHANGE YOUR WHOLE ROUTINE OR YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!!"

It's so good and causes me no stress.

[balestrem]

Where can one go to, if right wing extremism is on the rise globally, ready to cause mayhem upon queer people, people of color, women and so many other marginalised groups? Does it just feel dystopic to me to watch the current world unfold before my eyes? I don’t like the future we are moving towards. It is disheartening to see how all I and so many other people do is not leading anywhere.

We see people marching for climate justice, we see people fighting for gay rights, standing up against racism and other such systems, we see people fighting for reproductive rights, fighting ableism, trans rights, but it all seems to go nowhere, when all it does is incite an increase of hatred.

I know progress comes in waves and it feels like we’re on a decrease, but the thing is it feels as though it is about to get worse, slowly but surely. We see policies introduced in the States, we see it in Italy, Poland, Russia or Uganda. It feels unsafe to live in this world right now.

I have been doing educational work in schools for sexuality and gender, been teaching diversity and inclusion at companies, and taught future educators about diversity. I work at a lgbt centre and educate so many people who are filled with hatred or misinformation. I have been doing more and more and it seems as though the more I do, the worse it gets, until we face a situation in which minorities will lose all they have accomplished. It feels as though all we have fought for will have amounted to nothing but a short peak of hope, just before we’re stripped of our dignity again.

Am I the only one who feels so hopeless about the future, who thinks it’s a tragedy to see the future just take its destructive course? How can one cope with this reality?

[langernameohnebedeutung]

there's a lot of valid takes on why Gen Z is becoming radicalised at the rate they are - all that misinformation, tiktok, red pill, the pandemic - all have good points. But I think another factor is that even politically, their sense of normalcy is entirely different to the one of prior generations. The spiral of the last 15 years, the way the Overton window has moved, the change of style and tone in political discourse, the normalisation of anti-democratic ideas, the obsession with people's private lives, the topics that are front and centre during elections these days, the changing concept of the respect and dignity expected in a public office (god I sound like a boomer) - all of that was shocking to us.

the three generations of my family, all born and raised in VERY different time periods from one another, we've all just been equally shocked and horrified again and again these last 15 years - not just by what is happening but how it is happening and by what is possible and how easy it is to make a total mockery of the democracy and the rule of law. For all of us, that was a feeling of realising that something we implicitly trusted in to the point that it didn't need talking about ... just falling away. Or proving to always have been an illusion to begin with. To someone who grows up right now, this safety and security has NEVER existed.

But for these kids - the window of their life where they start becoming politically and culturally aware basically coincides with this downward spiral and I think that makes many of them blind or numb to it. I think for many of them, that's just their understanding of how things naturally progress and politics works. That the way previous generations evaluate the current situation - this framework of intentional manipulation and misinformation and radicalisation - is just fair and acceptable behaviour and that of course politicians manipulate the discourse to get what they want and of course it is normal to tell brazen lies and spread panic if that gets you what you want and if you're loyal to the party, you parrot those lines whether you really believe in them or not. (And let's be honest with ourselves - the seed to that has always been there)

And others, who I imagine intellectually know that things are going downhill, are really stuck in this extremely mind-numbing fatalist mindset (climate change is gonna kill us all anyway, haha) which makes you hopeless and desperate. And being hopeless and desperate also makes you vulnerable to all kinds of manipulation and radicalisation - because the offer you a perspective. Or meaning.

If you think about the trad-wife and redpill stuff or generally christian nationalism but also any movement that instrumentalises history with ideological narratives, you notice that their narratives place periods of stability way back in time in periods that match aspects of their idelogy e.g. their fetishisation of the 1950s. Then they come up with some horrible bad evil enemy that destroyed that paradise and created the 'degenerate' misery we live in now. Authoritarians and ideologues and cults have always done this. It's part of constructing the mutual enemy.

Beause this way, they can create their illusion of this kind of mythical, unreachable utopia (the past) that fascists love and attach all kinds of conditions to reaching that - with no pressure for them to ever actually deliver: women staying at home, racial segregation, christian hegemony, eugenics, absolute exclusion of gay and trans identities etc. This doesn't just have the benefit of pushing their politics on a confused youth (though that's a big benefit) - it also helps them hide from young people that these last 15 years, they literally created the chaos that these kids are living in. They sowed this situation and right now, with the radicalisation of the youth, they are reaping the rewards.

And the thing is, we can blame the Tiktok or whatever but I also think it is important that we let younger people know and feel that what's happening right now - is just not normal and not sustainable.

And yes, we need to let go of the naive illusion that "the kid are going to save the world". We should never have had that. But I also don't think a radical heel-turn vilifying all of Gen Z is going to help anyone or do justice to the situation.

[all-the-fun-of-the-cirkus]

generally i save my politics posting for twitter, but i'm really hopeless and fairly drunk so fuck it; i hate that i can't celebrate the tories being bantered, but labour have adopted all their policies, happily supported genocide in palestine, don't give a fuck about poor people or climate change, are getting fucking j k rowling in to consult on their policies towards trans people, and i'm supposed to celebrate them winning a landslide? nah, fuck the lot of them. scumbags, every one, and they can rot in hell

[aces-and-angels]

IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM SHAHED:

Note : this post is a repost of @appsa update on Shahed's campaign with updated infos on the current amount of raised funds.

I am so grateful to everyone who shared and donated, i really do count it as a miracle that we were able to reach the goal at all, never mind that it happened within the deadline we set. Your support has felt like a blessing in a truly wretched time, especially after all those baseless accusations were made.

Unfortunately, as is the norm with these fundraisers, it seems that shahed has run into some problems with the bank while withdrawing the funds she raised from this campaign. Apart from the unexpected $3.5k cut gfm took from the total amount, it seems the american bank her campaign manager using to send the money will also take a tax of $2k.

This has left her short of $5,500 from getting the full amount she needs to evacuate her whole family.

And it seems because the amount the campaign initially raised is so large, the campaign manager cannot afford to officially increase the target on the gofundme campaign page itself without putting himself at risk of having his bank account and its funds frozen.

As you may know already, there are lots of roadblocks when it comes to transferring funds from western countries to countries of the global south but especially gaza right now. People having their accounts frozen for sending money to gaza and having to go through legal hassles for it is not anything new.

Shahed doesn't want to put the campaign manager, who is their family friend, at risk of legal troubles like that, especially given the hostile political climate towards palestinians in the USA right now.

So i want to make this clear:

Shahed is currently unable to increase the target on the fundraiser on the gofundme itself, but she still needs to raise another 5.5k to cover the tax cuts taken by both gfm and the banks.

The goal on the fundraiser may say $80,000 is the target but the new one we have to aim for is actually $85,500 now

She is currently at $81,525 / $85,500

Believe me when i say that no one is more disheartened by this development than shahed herself. The morning we had reached the goal of $80,000 she told me that she felt she was the happiest girl in the world, and had bought and distributed sweets to the kids at the camp she was at to celebrate despite how expensive it is in Gaza right now.

She had also begun plans to help boost other fundraisers of palestinians, so that no one would have to feel the hopelessness she felt during those months where her fundraiser had been stagnant and had already gotten started on that barely a day or two after she'd completed her campaign.

Shahed was very nervous to tell me about this, especially after this whole racist hate campaign that was led against her so recently. She does not want her and her family to be accused of lying about their torment a second time. Especially when the violence has begun to ramp up once again even after her recent displacement, she can't bear it. Frankly neither can i.

Please know that she would not increase amount again unless times were desperate.

Please do NOT punish her during this difficult time by ignoring this. We have seen time and time again how gfms from gazans have to increase their goals even after they have been reached because of various issues, so this is not unprecedented. I've said it before- the goalposts will always be changing because they are going through a genocide.

So i urge you to please be kind and show her your solidarity and urgency once again, because the deadline is still the same. The raffle still hasnt ended so please check out the link above, and partcipate.

PLEASE HELP HER REACH $85.5K WITHIN THIS WEEK. THIS CAN'T WAIT.

current total: $81,530 USD

[deadpresidents]

On the cliffs of Normandy, in a small holding area, the President of the United States was looking out at the English Channel. It was only six weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and President Biden had just finished his remarks at the American cemetery atop Omaha Beach. Guests had been congratulating him on the speech, but he didn't want to talk about himself. The moment was not about him; it was about the men who had fought and died there. "Today feels so large," he told me. "This may sound strange -- and I don't mean it to -- but when I was out there, I felt the honor of it, the sanctity of it. To speak for the American people, to speak over those graves, it's a profound thing." He turned from the view over the beaches and gestured back toward the war dead. "You want to do right by them, by the country."

Mr. Biden has spent a lifetime trying to do right by the nation, and he did so in the most epic of ways when he chose to end his campaign for re-election. His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington who also stepped away from the presidency. To put something ahead of one's immediate desires -- to give, rather than to try to take -- is perhaps the most difficult thing for any human being to do. And Mr. Biden has done just that.

To be clear: Mr. Biden is my friend, and it has been a privilege to help him when I can. Not because I am a Democrat -- I belong to neither party and have voted for both Democrats and Republicans -- but because I believe him to be a defender of the Constitution and a public servant of honor and of grace at a time when extreme forces threaten the nation. I do not agree with everything he has done or wanted to do in terms of policy. But I know him to be a good man, a patriot and a president who has met challenges all too similar to those Abraham Lincoln faced. Here is the story I believe history will tell of Joe Biden. With American democracy in an hour of maximum danger in Donald Trump's presidency, Mr. Biden stepped in the breach. He staved off an authoritarian threat at home, rallied the world against autocrats abroad, laid the foundations for decades of prosperity, managed the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, successfully legislated on vital issues of climate and infrastructure and has conducted a presidency worthy of the greatest of his predecessors. History and fate brought him to the pinnacle in a late season in his life, and in the end, he respected fate -- and he respected the American people.

It is, of course, an incredibly difficult moment. Highs and lows, victories and defeats, joy and pain: It has been ever thus for Mr. Biden. In the distant autumn of 1972, he experienced the most exhilarating of hours -- election to the United States Senate at the age of 29. He was no scion; he earned it. The darkness fell: His wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident that seriously injured his two sons, Beau and Hunter. But he endured, found purpose in the pain, became deeper, wiser, more empathetic. Through the decades, two presidential campaigns imploded, and in 2015 his son Beau, a lawyer and wonderfully promising young political figure, died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq.

Such tragedy would have broken many lesser men. Mr. Biden, however, never gave up, never gave in, never surrendered the hope that a fallen, frail and fallible world could be made better, stronger and more whole if people could summon just enough goodness and enough courage to build rather than tear down. Character, as the Greeks first taught us, is destiny, and Mr. Biden's character is both a mirror and a maker of his nation's. Like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, he is optimistic, resilient and kind, a steward of American greatness, a love of the great game of politics and, at heart, a hopeless romantic about the country that has given him so much.

Nothing bears out this point as well as his decision to let history happen in the 2024 election. Not matter how much people say that this was inevitable after the debate in Atlanta last month, there was nothing foreordained about an American President ending his political career for the sake of his country and his party. By surrendering the possibility of enduring in the seat of ultimate power, Mr. Biden has taught us a landmark lesson in patriotism, humility and wisdom.

Now the question comes to the rest of us. What will we the people do? We face the most significant of choices. Mr. Roosevelt framed the war whose dead Mr. Biden commemorated at Normandy in June as a battle between democracy and dictatorship. It is not too much to say that we, too, have what Mr. Roosevelt called a "rendezvous with destiny" at home and abroad. Mr. Biden has put country above self, the Constitution above personal ambition, the future of democracy above temporal gain. It is up to us to follow his lead.

-- "Joe Biden, My Friend and an American Hero" by Jon Meacham, New York Times, July 22, 2024.