Is it just me or are things actually bad at multiple levels these days?

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Well, in my state there are three plans being cooked up to save us from climate change.

Plan 1 is to ban the sale of new cars that use fossil fuels and replace them with EVs. This wold take place bu 2030.

Plan 2 is to no longer allow new natural gas hookups for things like water heating, space heating and cooking. They would be all electric. Eventually, current users of natural gas would be required to go all-electric.

Plan 3 is to remove several dams that provide a lot of hydroelectric power 24x7 and replace them with solar and wind power.

What could possibly go wrong?

I have to remind myself that we elect these people.
 
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I think that, when in the present moment and thinking about the near future, we have a natural tendency to focus / worry about the issues and problems of the day. But when looking back, we tend to remember the good a bit more than the bad. (Perhaps partly because some of what we thought would be bad, never actually came to fruition and became a problem.)

A lot of folks are saying things seem particularly gloomy right now - but take the last 3 months (Mar-May), and compare it to those same 3 months in 2020. No contest! 2020 sucked.
 
dvalley said:
I don't recall this much doom and gloom ever before but maybe because I never paid much attention to the news before or the news wasn't as easily accessible and tailored by the algorithms. I mean everything from the daily crime, looting and violence reports in the news media, the impending famine and plot to thin the global population theories from the 'preppers', to de-dollarization and 'the new world order' theories to other topics prob forbidden from being discussed here.
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Maybe I missed it, but did you just lump multiple mass shootings into "the daily crime, looting, and violence"?
 
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It's not you. Things are getting worse - especially just in the last few years. I'll leave it there since YMMV and I don't wish to bring on the pig.
 
Gumby said:
Voltaire gave us the answer in 1759, in the last line of his novel Candide - "we must cultivate our garden" ("il faut cultiver notre jardin") - an injunction that I take both literally and metaphorically. There is so much wrong in the world that it could destroy me to think about it every waking moment. The vast majority of it does not affect me directly and, even if it does, is normally not within my control. So I try to focus on the things that are close at hand - my family, my home, and my garden. I cannot solve the problems of the world, but I can grow a pretty tasty tomato.
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"If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like?"
 
Koolau said:
It's not you. Things are getting worse - especially just in the last few years. I'll leave it there since YMMV and I don't wish to bring on the pig.
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That's exactly what I'm talking about. Not just what happened this month or in the past 3 months -in several cases things are turning bad globally. Here in the US in particular I'm sensing a gradual societal decay that I've never witnessed before. Anyone read the book "EMP Los Angeles"? :(
 
Gumby said:
Voltaire gave us the answer in 1759, in the last line of his novel Candide - "we must cultivate our garden" ("il faut cultiver notre jardin") - an injunction that I take both literally and metaphorically. There is so much wrong in the world that it could destroy me to think about it every waking moment. The vast majority of it does not affect me directly and, even if it does, is normally not within my control. So I try to focus on the things that are close at hand - my family, my home, and my garden. I cannot solve the problems of the world, but I can grow a pretty tasty tomato.
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Great philosophy!
 
dvalley said:
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Not just what happened this month or in the past 3 months -in several cases things are turning bad globally. Here in the US in particular I'm sensing a gradual societal decay that I've never witnessed before. Anyone read the book "EMP Los Angeles"? :(
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It seems we're experimenting with society. No intent towards politics, but can't avoid mentioning dramatic increases in homelessness, smash and grabs without consequence, home invasions, turnstile criminal justice etc. - I'll stop before I say something uncivilized.

My city, Honolulu, spent a couple hundred K to fix up a bathroom near one of the homeless encampments. It was literally destroyed within days. There's no way to stay ahead of such wanton destruction. It's all beginning to seem pointless. YMMV
 
2HOTinPHX said:
Yes I think things have gotten a lot more scary out there and not much we can do about it. Sometimes it seems like the crazies have taken over the world but perhaps it just that they get more exposure with the 7000 TV stations and the Internets and all that algorithm crap helping to direct them to us.

When I need a break I will watch fun heartwarming stuff on youtube....like this..makes me smile everytime.....:D
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Hilarious.
 
I do think relative to the recent past, things are quite unstable and our society is proving incapable of finding reasonable paths forward on quite glaring issues. The level of suffering from these things has everyone knowing they need to be fixed but our level of polarization is preventing sane approaches to real issues.

No, the world right now is not as bad as WWI, depression, WWII, the unrest of the 60s, the full-on cold war/cuban missile crisis/Berlin airlift, or stagflation/misery of the late 70s and 80s. Let's hope we don't plumb those lows again. Tragedy on scales that many/most people on this site did not live through as adults. I would take a million arguments about little blue dresses before any of those.

But its undeniable that the global and domestic economies are in very precarious positions, evil regimes and philosophies are active in ways we haven't seen in a long time, social media is serving to entrench and enflame political passion in ways that are deeply unhealthy, and our children are dealing with forces we never had to which is causing real issues with depression and self-harm. For the first time in decades there is an actual risk of a nuclear weapon being used in a conflict.

Yes, things are actually bad at the moment.

But I have faith. We will rally and these things too shall pass.
 
My personal filter with the news is to ask myself: "How does this directly impact me?" From the answer to that, I decide whether it's worth my time and energy. I really can't do much of anything about 90% of what's on the news.
 
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If the "news" seems overwhelming, try this:

Imagine getting a single sheet of paper delivered to your house once a month. On it was everything that you think you "should know". No audio or video, just printed words summarizing what happened.

You'd feel differently, wouldn't you?

It's not generally the events that are bothersome to us, it's the presentation. There is little to no news that's time sensitive for you to know, despite it feeling like it's urgent.
Examples:
-Russia invaded Ukraine
-Inflation was x% last month
-What the president said
-What the one day performance of a basket of stocks was yesterday
-A horrible forest fire in another state
...and more.

We "need" to know much, much less than we're consuming. I don't know a single person who really got into a pickle because they didn't hear some news. Do you?
 
Things were not necessarily better in the past. As a minority I can attest to the "good ol' days" not being so good for everyone :).

In sum: technology has allowed us to monetize information to such an extent that "bad" news far outpaces "good" news, and we are "wired" to focus on "bad" news.

Technology has made the world a lot smaller. In the past what might happen outside of one's country was not focused on much by the media.

Technology has also changed news in that MUCH more money is now associated with news-related issues. In the past, you paid one price for a newspaper or magazine, and got all the news they wanted to share. TV was "free", and you got as much as a station was willing to share in 90 minutes each day.

Now, it is all about the "clicks", the likes, the views, the followers. Technology has allowed that to be all monetized. Related to now 24x7 news cycles, the focus in more on "what can we do to keep people watching/clicking/social media-ing about us all the time?" Not just news organizations, it is the goal of anyone with a blog or social media account. The ones presenting the news have tended to become more "celebrities" with their associated income (and part of the news cycle itself) than letting the news take front and center.

As others have mentioned, bad news attracts more views than good news. So everything is in a "bad news" perspective. And there is a rush to get out "bad" news even before it can be verified. It is analogous to the political view of "never let a good crisis go to waste". IMHO 90% of what is presented as "news" is more "opinion", designed to generate revenue and/or followers.

Even good news is never shared without an element of bad news. For example, At times then the economy was strong, unemployment low, markets at all time highs, etc. there are still plenty of stories in the vein "not everyone is benefiting from this economy".

Overall, I think things are better. Few today would want to live in the true (not "glamorized") world of the past. The bigger problem I see, is the increasing notion of "things are worse for you because of what 'others' has done, and that is 'unfair' " or "things might be better for you, but things are a lot better for those 'others', and that is unfair"... which plays directly into peoples' insecurities and the resultant issues... but it keeps the clicks/likes/followers rolling :).
 
My simple analysis is that the transmission of so much false information in an instant is seriously crippling the societal fabric. We always had bad people and insane ideas. But there was marginalization of extreme behavior. Bad theory was refuted, and then returned to the shadows.
 
target2019 said:
My simple analysis is that the transmission of so much false information in an instant is seriously crippling the societal fabric. We always had bad people and insane ideas. But there was marginalization of extreme behavior. Bad theory was refuted, and then returned to the shadows.
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The paradox of our times is that we have more information than at any time in history yet we have no idea what the truth is. "The Truth" is now whatever you believe it to be and there's "irrefutable proof" of your position regardless of what that position is.

Not only are we entitled to our own opinions, we're now entitled to our own facts. "The other guy is lying or stupid or evil".

We're on our own.
 
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"I'm so tired of being tired
Sure as night will follow day
Most things I worry 'bout
Never happen anyway"

Tom Petty had it right
 
Graybeard said:
...Since I cut myself off from "the news" I am happier, besides I can't do anything about anything so why get upset?
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This! And the fact that most of the news is either BS, Repetitive, or Fluff.

Cheers!
 
savory said:
This might be a surprising pick-me up. I finished it a few weeks ago. A long but I thought interesting read. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined October 4, 2011 by Steven Pinker . It might surprise you.
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Thanks for this. Another book along these lines is "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" by Rosling. He doesn't dismiss today's problems, but one of his points is that more of the world's population than ever is able to live at a standard beyond struggling to survive.
 
savory said:
This might be a surprising pick-me up. I finished it a few weeks ago. A long but I thought interesting read. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined October 4, 2011 by Steven Pinker . It might surprise you.

"Believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species' existence. In his gripping and controversial new work, New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly enlightened world."

I am currently reading his book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. I am hoping it will guide me to better analysis. So far, I think it is helping.
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I don't know about the book, but statistics for the past couple of years do not support the premise that things are getting better - especially in most larger cities in the USA. In my city, Honolulu, murders used to be rare. Not recently. Violence against tourists used to be rare. Not any more. There was an attack recently in Waikiki across from the police station. I know it's anecdotal, but I'm thinking back 2 years vs the previous 12 years I've been in the city. China Town was a favorite shopping destination for many folks I know as it has unique herbs, roots, teas, etc. No one I know will go there even in the day time now. This has all developed in the past two years. YMMV
 
Koolau said:
I don't know about the book, but statistics for the past couple of years do not support the premise that things are getting better - especially in most larger cities in the USA. In my city, Honolulu, murders used to be rare. Not recently. Violence against tourists used to be rare. Not any more. There was an attack recently in Waikiki across from the police station. I know it's anecdotal, but I'm thinking back 2 years vs the previous 12 years I've been in the city. China Town was a favorite shopping destination for many folks I know as it has unique herbs, roots, teas, etc. No one I know will go there even in the day time now. This has all developed in the past two years. YMMV
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Couple all that with the 47 shootings in Chicago over the last weekend and we are in trouble!
 
Koolau said:
China Town was a favorite shopping destination for many folks I know as it has unique herbs, roots, teas, etc. No one I know will go there even in the day time now.
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That is so sad! I remember back in high school (1960's) my girlfriends and I loved to shop in Honolulu's China Town, especially at the lei shops. Of course, we'd string our own plumeria or ginger leis at home, but the lei shops had some more rare and special leis that we'd buy for our mothers, for $1 or $2 IIRC. And then we'd browse through other fascinating stores in China Town. The sights, the scents, everything down there was interesting and fun to explore.

We never felt even slightly unsafe, and our parents were never concerned about two or three of us girls spending an afternoon shopping down there either. Well, as long as we promised to stay away from the sailors! :LOL:

To quote the title of Thomas Wolfe's novel, "You Can't Go Home Again". But in my memories China Town will always remain as it was in the 1960's.
 
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