Spoiler alert, no one over 40 does either.
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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me_irl
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Hell, I'm 46 and it's really hard to not be cynical these days. I want to believe there's still good people out there but I run into so many assholes.
I'm also 40 something. Oh for the dizzy optimism of the 90s...
Optimism? Do you remember the entire grunge movement? GenX is full of apathy and pessimism. I still remember the day Kurt died, it was a defining moment in our lives.
I will forever seethe that I missed out on the 1990s, especially considering how IT was a money printer back then & the rave scene was top notch. I just about caught the tail end of the old internet as well, even that has gone to complete corporate dogshit.
And owning a house wasnt a Pipedream : (
I got in on the 90's dream and had a house with a handshake and a smile, lost it eventually because of family medical problems. Probably will never own a home again.
'Murca.
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Kind of feels like there's two kinds of people out there right now in the US. Once you think we're fucked, and the ones who think they have enough generational wealth that "their" kids won't be fucked.
There's probably a sizeable third pool out there that are just watching propaganda and going everything is fine everybody's overreacting or I don't care it doesn't affect me. I think even that pool's shrinking a bit.
There's also people who are absolutely going to get fucked but are still living in a comfortable dream-world where they think someone is going to come make everything normal again.
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Everyone over 40: "Yup, social media has really fucked those kids' brains up"
I am well over 40 and I agree with OP. Then again, I didn't give up my empathy at the door to adulthood.
Whereas the reality is that things are so fucked because these idiots get their news from Facebook. The Trump administration admitted to making a mistake deporting Kilmer Garcia - they’ll never find out because they’re too busy sharing OAN articles about that trans women they bullied out of fencing.
Social media was a mistake. User age has nothing to do with it.
I have seen so many 50+ year olds that waste several hours a day doomscrolling Facebook say this unironically.
Judging by the typical Facebookfeed, I’d strongly argue the opposite.
I'm glad to see folks talking on here. Makes me feel better knowing we're here all going through it. Gives me that Band of Brothers vibe "We stand alone, together."
Half a century here, I've never had a time in my life where the next year was better than the last
Same age-ish, and I feel the same.
The hard part is trying to figure out what part of that comes from societal collapse, and how much of that comes from just getting older and seeing more and more of how the world works... or doesn't work.
Despite all we see and hear, objectively the world is better than it's ever been. We are at a shocking low level of international conflict, starvation, disease, crime, famine, even teen pregnancy has fallen to the lowest rates we've ever seen.
But all of these gains have been made by people forming communities of various kinds, of linking up, sharing ideals and compiling resources. This "downturn" we're feeling is a localized result of a lot of people turning their backs on community.
We are incredibly communal animals, we need social identities to survive. This has been studied. When community abandons you, or when it feels like they have, people broadly stop caring about things and themselves and become selfish, bitter, cynical and hateful. We're feeling this all around us, and inside us. And I don't think it's a natural phenomenon, there are active groups working to cause this, they want to undo all that progress and bypass war and pillaging and destruction and just rot out the world's wealthiest countries from the inside out.
I don't know if these objective, global gains will continue for everyone. But I fully believe that the USA at least is in a nose-dive it won't pull out of. Things are breaking as we speak, in ways we can't repair.
Am 39 and feel this
I wouldn’t be gentle. But then again both my parents are dead so I don’t actually have anyone to be bitter at.
I'm just really wondering... To the trump voters in the US, is this what you wanted? Do you really think and feel that things have improved? Do you really think the world is a better, safer, place now than it was 10 years ago?
It's like, we had issues for sure, but they were manageable. We had climate change at a critical level but we could still stave off the worst of it and now we're speed running to something worse than the worst predictions that were made. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if earth is like Venus not 200 years from now due to some runaway effect.
I mean, we had a nice run but fuck you, you really really ruined the world for everyone including yourself. I sincerely hope you're happy because then at least someone will before were all dead.
Fuck you.
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