I obviously have none, so I’d like to see if I can mooch off of you lol.
Please don’t leave any pessimistic top level comments. Or do, I’m not your mom 🤷♂️.
I don’t think Trump has the ability to organise a coup, I think an election will end Trump’s time and the next person will have an enormous job fixing stuff.
I think we’re safe from a fascist America
The hope for the climate crisis is that economic forces will transform The world to renewable energy and eventually green steel because it’s cheaper.
Electricity is already cheaper to make yourself than to buy, I hope it’ll be in time. Fuel is the biggest cost for shipping so they’re embracing wind power. Most national grids are solar during the day, it’s getting to the point where batteries are cheaper than night time grid power
All of this push for global fascism and tightening of chains across the world is actually an extinction burst that’s happening precisely because the world is waking up. The oligarchs see one last chance to hold onto power before the common people flip the board.
I agree. There’s a dialectical link between the rising of the new and the violence of the old in resisting that.
Exactly, I wonder how hopeless people felt in 1940’s europe
At the end? Very hopeful. Communism was surging in popularity around the world, hence the string of revolutions, thanks to the Red Army’s success in defeating the Nazis. It took drastic measures to overturn this.
True, everything good in both countries I’m a national of is called “post-war” lol. I was thinking of before the war though, trying to make the point we’re at the same place in history.
I know what you were getting at, haha. Just wanted to point out how quickly attitudes changed.
Yeah, we only read about right-wing successes but let’s not forget that the lefts all over the world are getting stronger every day, every election.
So many elections show that the majority of people don’t want to be ruled by fascists.
God I hope this is true
I hope this is true! Tired of spending every election day waiting for the .2% of voters to decide if we’re gonna keep healthcare or perform a blood sacrifice of the poors.
History.
No really looking at all the crazy stuff that happened in the past, you realize these aren’t unprecedented times, at least as far as tragedy goes, but the truly unprecedented part is how much less shitty things are in comparison. Not even with technology but with social progress.
It doesn’t feel like it but when you think that within the lifetime of people alive we had segregated bathrooms and pools and that seems insane now, that’s at least some hope.
Generally speaking, the world just keeps getting better in ways that matter.
Despite all the wars going on, this is probably the most peaceful time in human history; we just see every single conflict thanks to modern telecommunication.
There has always been terrible stuff going on in the world. Very little of the terrible things in the modern day are really new, it’s just a new form. And usually the new form is a bit friendlier than the last one.
Frankly, how bad the past was makes it hard to be anything but optimistic about the future. Overall, the best time to be alive in all of history is right now. There’s no reason to think that trend won’t continue.
We’ll defeat diseases, and get more efficient at producing the things we need, and develop technologies to solve problems. Sure, a lot of that will be expensive for a while if capitalism persists, but going into debt for cancer treatment beats dying of cancer.
And it’s never been easier to coordinate with such a huge number of people. We have the tools at our disposal to actively make the future better. We have to use them, but we do have them. And it really seems like people are starting to get interested in using those tools, and they’re only getting easier to use, which means with a little elbow grease we could progress from “better, year over year” to “actually good”.
The boomers are dying, the techbro bubble is almost ready to pop, the kids are organizing. I feel privileged to get to witness the next 50 years.
Every time I see someone saying something along the lines of “the world/country/city is becoming more dangerous” I want to scream. No it isn’t, you just didn’t see all that was happening back then, and now you do.
Plus AI inflated headlines and other fear mongering.
There’s one thing that’s happened this year that inspired actual hope in me. (I am generally a cynic, having read too many history books.)
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 learning about Flock, going to city council meetings and doing boring, pedestrian and effective political organizing for a good cause.
That is objectively a good thing.
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.
I can vouch for my kids being way better than I was. They’re amazing. I broke that motherfucking cycle of religion and abuse.
Three Thoughts:
- In the long run, things have steadily improved for the majority of the world’s population. That doesn’t mean there can’t be setbacks along the way in the form of dictatorship and mass murder… but viewed over the long term, we’ve all become wealthier, healthier, and lived longer. Of course, this isn’t a sure thing, but it gives us hope that things will eventually be even better than they are now.
- Billionaires aren’t superhumans, even if they think they are. The fact is, capital doesn’t create anything. WE create value through the work of our hands and minds. Without us, these people are nothing, and even with the stochastic parrot currently being hailed as “AI,” they’re just fooling themselves. It follows that even the biggest narcissists don’t stand a chance when we work together… and if there’s one thing humans are good at, it’s that.
- People are much better than their reputation. If someone falls in a pedestrian zone, someone helps them up. If a traffic jam forms on the road, a rescue lane opens up. If you ask a stranger for help, you’re usually not let down. Far too many people believe that humans are “just animals with a thin veneer of civilization,” yet the vast majority are clearly more social and altruistic than is generally assumed. The narrative that “all people are bad” is, in my opinion, merely a self-serving narrative propagated by the ruling egoists to justify their own authority, and it’s passed on based on the assumption that we’re all just as selfish as our leaders.
Are these points open to criticism? Sure. Still, there’s at least a spark of truth in them, and that gives me hope.
Yes! And especially the third point.
Most people are good. We are divided and put against each other, and the important component of this is pitching that humans are terrible and evil. We are not!
Think of all the random acts of kindness you see around. If you can’t recall them, go outside and start noticing. It can be someone giving directions to a stranger, freeing up a seat in public transport to those who need it more, helping someone carry something, giving a lift, offering a discount card at checkout (even if it doesn’t accumulate points), seeding flowers in communal areas, and just so, so much more.
Look at how people care of their close ones, too. This is where people are allowed to care for the other without toxic boundaries stopping them. This is what people are really like.
I’ve read all the comments on this thread so far. There were a lot of good answers, and I think this is the one that made me feel the most optimistic about the future. Congrats!
Was gonna ask if you lived in Europe, then saw your instance hahaha. Here the rescue lane thing works but I have lived in other countries where it doesn’t happen at all. Though at least is not because people “don’t want to make room” but because driving is a nightmare and people usually pack very tightly in traffic jams as if that’s gonna make it any better. The madness of crowds…
One day trump will be dead.
There are so many good things that are happening.
I realise that humanity seems to be on the brink of some truly terrible changes. But you have to cast a wider view than what is broadcast.
Most of the good things are happening all the time in so many places, but simple good works don’t generate clicks and engagement.
A huge part of the good in the world is coming through kids; we are teaching them to care for each other and the planet. It is working, there is pushback in some sections of society, there is serious backsliding in some countries. But overall we are moving forward toward a fairer and cleaner world.
I’m a techno-optimist, I think humanity has the capability to solve any challenge before us. It would be nice if we didn’t need a crisis to spur the change we need; but we solve problems…that is what we do.
The old ways die slowly; the victories are hard won sometimes, but they are won. Even Trump, as much as I hate all the terrible things he is doing; seems to be the last gasp of a failed philosophy. They won’t let go without a fight, but there are far more of us than there are of them.
Sorry this was the most depressing thing to read.
Maybe I missed it but all I could read was. Oh children are nice and for the future there will be technologies.
Nothing in what you mention is optimistic it’s just the problems are solved somehow.
Clean water and more resistant crops are technologies too, that makes life better for millions of people. We just figured out how to make vector-vaccines last for months in room temp (which make them possible to transfer in countries with less cooling equipment) and we were able to reduce price of solar cell compounds from 188usd/gram to 2usd/gram, both these things in the past weeks. As a humanist, these sort of things makes me incredibly happy. There’s tons of examples like this.
I know that there are good people everywhere who will keep trying. It will take some time, but the pendulum will swing back the other way. People will always keep trying.
Costco hot dog is still $1.50
My kids absolutely love life and are majorly excited about everything.
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.
If Twitch plays pokémon managed to beat the game then we can do this too, man
Thanks for the fresh wind OP and commenters, we need that from time to time.
Developments in green technology.
The most obvious is, of course, solar power (it ABSOLUTELY ROCKS) and new, eco-friendly batteries, but there’s so much more:
- Organisms that eat plastic
- Novel recyclable materials
- Reusing industrial waste to produce tons of useful products (personally working on that!)
- Novel eco-friendly fertilizers
- Actually nutritious plant meat and milk substitutes
And so, so much more!
Also, there are a lot of organizational changes that help:
- Recycling is getting more widespread
- FOSS and hacky folks allow electronic devices to live way longer than they otherwise would
- Bans on petroleum-based plastics in many applications propel cleaner alternatives (including clean, renewable plastics like PLA)
- And more again!
We have all it takes to build a sustainable, almost solarpunk world. With enough political will, we can make it happen. It’s not “futurism” anymore - it’s a reality we can forge here and now.
