Is the world in general getting worse and worse? - Or is media clouding us?

[Whatisgoingon]

I've been thinking a lot lately, about how things seem more bleak and meaningless now more than it ever has been before in my life. And I'm not talking about personal shit, I'm talking about the world in general. Do you think this is true, or could it be the media? Or alternatively, perhaps times before (Cold War, Medieval times, Mesopotamia times) are much more bleak, and more info just seems to make things seem dire? I'm honestly curious about everyone's opinion here, since I know nobody will hold back here.

 

[The Fool]

Has it ever occurred to you that you're depressed and jaded because you spend too much time on the internet?

Spend a year on an isolated farm and take note of how many depressing and dystopic thoughts you have as you're selling peppers and cow shit to local markets.

Alternatively, if you're just talking about society, that's another issue altogether. Try learning a different language, one not bought-out by democrats.

 

[Zaragoza]

Nah, I mean come on dude, if you were born a hundred years earlier and had to live through both world wars, now that would be a good cause to say that the world is getting really worse.

 

[Sir Auroras]

That's cute. I'm sure a bunch of our ancestors said the same thing but here we are in 2018 A.D. and the world still hasn't ended.

Don't think the situation is so bleak. These things tend to level themselves out and despite the majority of stupidity that happens that you hear about, because it's just what's talked about alot, there is plenty of normal and even good stuff that you don't.

 

[The Fool]

I'd also wonder where the logic of the poll comes from. Yeah, we've got daily riots from reatards who read tweets from corporate twitters. Is that better than plagues and world wars? Is it worse? Is it the same? No, it's not even comparable. It's terrible in it's own special way. Everything that happens in real life is terrible in it's own special way. Real life isn't some form of entertainment where you can argue if one person's death is more emotionally impactful than another. Everything is terrible.

You just need to figure out how to cope. How do you do that? Well, get away from the people you don't like, for one. The world isn't made of people you don't like, if it is, then you're the problem, not other people. Otherwise, find some other country, society, civilization or group you can get along with better. Do you know why angry people are so angry? Because they're scared, because they're confused, because they're ignorant, because they don't have enough of a grand world view to properly assess society. Not just their own society, but the societies of the world, past, present and future. Unless you properly dig into these societies, learning their language, culture and people, you don't know that society. Hearing about any given society through news and social media is like looking at the world through a pinhole.

Enrich yourself. Learn about other societies, cultures and points of view. Learn about the past and learn about analytical sciences so you can learn about the future. Someone who laments about the present is depressed because they can't see beyond themselves. Someone who wonders about the present in awe is too busy thinking about the grand scheme of things to worry about petty arguments. Because they've seen it all. They've seen the past and it's mistakes and triumphs. They've seen the present, it's sciences and analytical capabilities, and through those two things, they can see the future.

 

[The Fool]

Also I'm pretty drunk.

 

[Whatisgoingon]

Also I'm pretty drunk.

Yeah, me too. Jeez, you are a much better drunk than I, you typed a fucking essay that made sense.

But, perhaps I should add an option to the poll about society becoming worse but the world not, if that makes sense? I'm gonna do that now.

 

[Zack the ripper]

i see your point , alot of old doods have this , but to meeeeeeeeeee
the world has always been like this , difference is we have selective awareness about it you know ? like the fuck do i care about Zimbabwe rn ? but if i lived near that shithole it'd be all i think about , now with the media you can say that i can at least hear about it you know if i cared enough , back in time it was even worse cuz then you had hope that things are better on the other side , like you would live in agony knowing that others have it better
it's all bad bruh
EDIT: still it's no reason to be deprizzed about it , it's quite liberating knowing it's all shit like every dent of normalcy or happiness you make into this world counts , even you know your SMILE , so despair not for it is possible to live happily my dear nigga

 

[The Fool]

Yeah, me too. Jeez, you are a much better drunk than I, you typed a fucking essay that made sense.

Being manic is funny cuz you think too fast but then alcohol slows you down enough to think like a normal person, so it evens out.

But then because you're drunk you say dumb shit about yourself, like being manic, and then you get a lot of powerlevel ratings.

 

[AF 802]

I mean, it can seem that way a lot of the time, but think about it, we always had problems in each decade and generation, just different ones. I do believe, however, that 9/11 did make world problems seem a lot more intense because of all the security checks and watches on people. It's like a surveillance state, which is sometimes necessary to keep us safe.

The view of the world a person can have can all depend on the environment they put themselves in, which looking for what's depressing you and finding ways to shut those things out of your life can improve your world view. A big one for some people is the news, regarding a lot of times the autistic screeching about Donald Trump and how Hillary was the real winner of the election, doing whatever they can to "get her in". For me, shutting myself out of that world for most of the time really helps me not having to focus on that since it's so frequent since election day.

Just find out what's making you feel like the world's getting worse, remedy it, and you'll feel a lot better. It sure helped with me.

 

[The Shadow]

My life expectancy is at least 70, I'm not likely to die from cholera or other once common maladies, and barbecue is plentiful. It's not perfect, but it's probably better than it's ever been.

 

[Jerry_ smith56]

I'd say you need to do more worth while activities instead of staying on the internet. Its proven that excessive internet can cause depression especially if you have little to no friends IRL. I am not saying delete your kiwi farms account but I am saying go out more often. BTW the world is getting better it always is wars, death and disease are at an all time low and the life expectancy is getting.

 

[Mysterious Capitalist]

I'll repeat here what I tell my grandma when she says that the world is going to shit:

Before there were 100 bad things happening, but only 1 was known at any given time by anyone because information was hard to distribute and generally people gave less of a fuck because their life was hard enough already (and most of them are lost to history anyway at this point)

Now there are 10 bad things happening, and you know all 10 of them and then some more by fake news and speculative pieces because you don't have much more to do to survive, so you absorb all this useless information

So, even if bad things happen 10 times less than before, you're 10 times more aware of them and gives you a bad skew of reality.

From a purely statistical/numerical perspective, the world is objectively better every year. Some population could be more or less oppressed, some events might be more or less amplified by new technologies or laws, but I can assure you that a little more than a century ago most of the world was just non stop savagery. The peace we live in, no matter how vestigial, is uncountable times better than the state of constant misery that our ancestors had to go through, especially with new technology coming to our aid everyday

 

[ES 148]

The world's only getting worse because so many OPs like this get made

 

[Inklings]

Read more history if you really think things are getting worse.

 

[QB 290]

The news will always overhyped problems and people on the internet will always exaggerate and lie about things.
Sure, some things annoy us but the world is the best it's ever been. Donald drumph, immigration, China and Africa and all this other shit that people say will end the world are all very small pieces of a very large puzzle. It's hard to picture the world being a large place without even walking to another town or thinking it has hope when you haven't seen the good the world can do.

 

[Jaimas]

A lot of shit sucks, and things can be miserable and depressing, but you know what? Fucking great shit has happened this year too.

For every death of Karl Stefansson, there's a Brianna Wu campaign failure.

Take heart in the victories we are afforded and soldier forwards. The good stuff's out there if you look hard enough.

 

[KE 521]

People have been screeching about the world getting worse constantly my whole life. Your grandparents did the same shit. The world is fine. If you don’t like the society in which you live, fucking move or do something to make a positive change. Quit whining.

 

[Vorhtbame]

From my perspective, the world is not getting better--but that's because people gonna people.

The outer trappings may get shinier, but the core, the essence, doesn't change as a whole. There will always be the poor, as One wiser than any of us said; there will always be wars, bigotry, oppression, and crime, as long as we're stuck in these decaying bodies, because as a species, humans are arrogant as hell and it's easier to push other people down than to pull ourselves up. We're so arrogant, we even think that we can breed or build ourselves into godhood!

This has been going on for all of recorded history. No matter what we have, we manage to screw up. Humanity as a whole is a lolcow, unable to learn from our past mistakes.

You can't fix the world. Got it? World's gonna be what it is.

But you don't have to be.

Fix the thing you can: you. Get wisdom.* Seek to rise above the reasons we suck. Be charitable (both monetarily and in your assumptions about others). Lead by example. You will find that, as you touch people's lives, they will be forced to decide whether they want to continue to be discontented and mediocre, or get something better just as you are--but that's their choice, after all.

Be aware of the world you live in, sure, but don't let it decide what you're going to do. Be awesome, and you'll find things changing around you.


*I went with Jesus' wisdom, but it only really works if you're ready for it. Mileage varies.

 

[RG 448]

We’re not in a world war where there’s a holocaust, but we are getting closer to using up our finite resources, so eh.