Climate change and the breakup of the US are my two large-scale fears.
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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Humans are adaptable. We’re living shit lives now from the perspectives of some past generations. Younger generations will not know any differently. Don’t worry, we’ll be dead or have dementia in no time.
Yes, mass famine caused by the global warming and climate crisis
We've learned nothing. We make the same mistakes over and over. We saw what happens when fascism takes over. Yet it's happening again. Millions died from COVID, and people are abandoning vaccines. The planet is overheating, and our roads are full of giant, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. None of this had to happen, we had the knowledge to prevent it. We just didn't.
Climate change. Shit is going to get super real in the next 20 years. Like half the planet starving real.
Climate Change is only one aspect of the real problem. Ecological overshoot is probably a better term, but terms like polycrisis and metacrisis have been tossed around.
The Stockholm Resilience Centre's Planetary Boundaries is probably one of the best synthesis of it.
It's bad, it's getting worse. And it's a motivator behind a lot of the bullshit going on in the world. Russia wants Ukraine for its breadbasket. US wants to end democracy because they don't believe it will survive what's coming.
Everyone that matters (Governments and Militaries) knows what's going on, and the level of public debate is definitely downplaying things to not scare the masses. Meanwhile, we speedrun right into it.
Maybe. It doesn't make much sense that the same US government Republicans are preparing for the worst that could have just prevented it. Staying under 2C wasn't that difficult. The hardest part was getting China to go along, and that's gone reasonably.
you will own nothing, and will be happy!
Believe it or not. This was written OPTIMISTICALLY in an essay by head of an extremely wealthy PROGRESSIVE organization, the WEF.
Klaus Schwab, I want to say.
All you need to feel optimism is to understand and go in life with the understanding that we are ALL humans, held within systems (often systems of our own creation).
The essay Klaus wrote was about how the international lifestyle of the wealthy, travelling, forming communities, talking, seeking opportunity, a lifestyle that makes HIM as a member of the European gentry very happy, might be extended to other Europeans.
That "and you will be happy" was a genuine attempt at optimism, and being happy making money.
He, being of the class he is, is not necessary conscious of lower class conditions, and was rightfully picked out as being out of touch.
This is what the left has forgotten, to be like Jesus in trying to appeal to everyone. We have to understand systems, systems of thought, of social pressure, of education, intelligence, awareness, apply to everyone. The billionaire and the working class racist alike.
We're all just humans in systems. That's the only understanding that's humanist. So we must be able to appeal to all humanity.
America is run by the Neo-Nazi party, and following their idols more or less to the T.
Israel is running a widely known genocide, and the world doesnt care.
Global Warming is going to start killing crops en masse soon enough, while removing the amount of livable land.
The American Neo-Nazi party is speed rushing the great depression, and WWIII at the same time.
China is the next largest power in the world, and they arent much better than America.
The world cares. The “world” is being blackmailed into complicity.
At least China has EVs and solar panels and exporting them as well.
It's been a common sentiment for centuries, and I know this time it seems especially dire, but in the grand scheme of everything it's all just a blip anyways. Just enjoy whatever you can and make differences where you can is about all you can do. We need to build something worth fixing if we want to do anything
I feel guilty having kids.
We need them to fight the Nazis.
The future is now. We are in it.
No point whatsoever in feeling scared or fearful. Let tht awful feeling be a springboard to action, preparation and community building.
Do something today, plan what you’re going to do tomorrow. Collaborate, train and keep learning. Focus on your health and the health of those around you.
I am not afraid. I’m ready.
How do you exactly plan for both today and later on then if you don't mind me asking? I thought I asked as someone that wishes that they can be overall more optimistic.
Taking care of my needs, working in the gardens, keeping my body and mind healthy. Creating/nurturing community with similar goals in mind. I train martial arts, walk my dog, work on professional well being, train in firearms and trauma/emergency medicine.
I read a lot of books, the majority of which are sci-fi which opens my mind to potential and keeps me future oriented. I also enjoy post-apocalyptic books and stories to better mentally prepare by considering my skillsets, what I'm lacking and how to either learn or compensate my skills through community and neighbors.
I don't dwell on the bad, I consider how I can make it better through the small steps and impacts I can control.
Will you be ready when there is no healthcare and you're diagnosed young with cancer unexpectedly, which is happening to a growing number of young people. Will you be afraid when you can't take care of yourself and you're dying painfully because the treatment is unaffordable to you?
All these things are well and good, but your life can get royally fucked in moments where you're suddenly fully reliant on a broken system just to stay alive. Your neighbors, friends, and community can't magically get you your $20k a month cancer meds, they're all struggling, too.
Source: Got cancer unexpectedly young, have to rely on Medicaid to stay the fuck alive.
I feel like part of being ready to face a grim future is acceptance that we might not, ourselves, make it. Shit is going to fall apart. In my case it's racing against time to kill me before old age. My concern and my efforts will go towards helping my kids navigate it. It does feel like Trump is hammering on the minute hand of the doomsday clock, though.
Personally yes I am ready. I’ve been preparing since the 90s.
Ofc I’m not prepared for everything and there’s quite a lot on precipice that I have no control over.
I’ve had moments of fear in my life BUT I do not dwell on them. I understand that most emotional responses can be chosen and know how to channel those emotions in a healthy way.
I use those moments and emotions as opportunities for change and action.
The "sky is falling" has been the fear-monger's go-to for all of written history.
Don't let them get to you.
Is shit fucked up? Well, yea, always has been, always will be.
It's the nature of humanity and society.
History really is the best teacher for gaining perspective - start with relatively recent history and modern English with Shakespeare's era, see how way more fucked up it was then, both socially and in nature. And that's fairly recently.
Then go study the Nordic peoples approaching the year 1000, just before they invaded England in 1066 (as the Normans) - their paradigm of the world (and reality) was unimagineably harder than it is for us today. Just listen to their mythos, and how it reflects the harshness of their existence.
Perspective really drives things home.
"Things used to be worse" is, in no way, helpful to me. I'm not selling fear. I'm living in it. Am I starving, am I being raped by a feudal lord, or am I being tortured by a king? No, and I'm aware I'm not.
This changes very little about everything happening right now... and frankly, it's ignorant of you to assume that runaway technofascism or a decade or two of runaway climate change, the effects of which we are only theorizing about, won't leave us in a world just as hostile as humans have faced in the past.
No answer to this question:
How else but with nuclear war can the USA stay ahead of China?
The only thing right now that seems to be happening is a possible lost decade for China. Public debt, including provinces, is at 200% of GDP, the country is in a mild deflationary cycle, infrastructure is built out, retirees are becoming a large percentage of the population, most tech firms replaced their CEO's with party loyalists, and economic rivals are seeing their currency depreciate.
There will probably still be some economic growth in China, but it will be a lot more limited.
That said, this requires the USA to not be stupid, which it seems to be doing right now.
The only thing problematic is the CEO replacement.
China can deprecate their currency however much they want by buying whatever they want in other countries.
With the infrastructure built out, they can focus with full force on developing any technology that they don't master yet.
All the western profits will vanish. That means crisis for the west, not for china.
I work at staying in the moment. The past nor the future exist.
Nothings scares me. There are a lot of things not going well (climate collapse, extinctions, rise of the extreme right, wars), but as long as I can contribute a little money and time to help other people (and organisms), vote, be politically active, as long as I can do that I have a feeling of being in control and that works wonders against fear.
When I hit my toe in the dark on a piece of furniture, and it hurts so suddenly and soo bad.