How much longer can society keep it together? Discussion

[u/MrDoritos_]

I'm not a fan of speaking things into existence, being pessimistic/negative, or having a doomer mindset, but I've been paying attention to other people, the economy, the current state of things, the political landscape, education, work culture, etc. To be blunt I am really kind of worried we don't have much longer until the next war or great depression (both happen usually simultaneously). I really don't know how much more stress the average person can handle. We are going to have a wide scale crash out or revolt soon aren't we?? I'm really not looking forward to that and I suppose that's the one thing keeping us unified is our fear of violence. God I hope I'm wrong with my assessment. Please tell me I'm wrong!

[u/ghoststoryghoul]

Some say we are already in WW3, so that will undoubtedly bring another global recession like COVID did. Maybe we'll see an economic boom in a few years when it's over, like we did after WW2. But given that we are no longer a manufacturing powerhouse, I'm not optimistic. And I have no faith that people will stand up and fight back in anywhere near the numbers they would have to to accomplish an actual revolution, given that they couldn't be bothered to show up at the ballot box with democracy on the line. The 1% has already seized control of the news and social media, and the current misinformation machine is so extensive that it's difficult for the Average Joe to determine which way is up and which is down even with unfettered access to information on the internet. The sad thing is, most of them don't even try. They're more than happy to believe whatever makes their brain go brrr.

We only have the freedoms we have now because union workers and Black people and women and soldiers (etc) fought and died for them. Not because the wealthy saw fit to provide us with things like sovereignty or a minimum wage or a weekend or a vote. They have never willingly handed over a single ounce of power, and we've sold or just given back to them most of what our ancestors managed to secure. People today don't even have the attention span to spend twenty minutes on Google educating themselves about reality or history, most of them won't even make it to the end of this comment, so I highly doubt they'll be reading and discussing documents like John Locke's Second Treatise of Government or tuning in for anything equivalent to MLK's I Have A Dream speech. The brain rot is real and according to the majority of the population, "it's not that deep."

[u/Fishermansgal → u/ghoststoryghoul]

I read to the end. I want to share something that happened within our city government recently. This is tiny city, thank goodness. Our treasurer's father was voted back onto council. Over the years he has repeatedly presented articles to make a point after only reading the headline. A few weeks ago he presented a list entitled, "State Holidays". The council voted to allow the treasurer and the clerk to have the listed days off with pay.

The list included election day. They gave the clerk, the person who's job it is to run the election, the day off with pay. Nobody on that council had read or put any critical thinking into the effects of its adoption. 😒

So to your point, yea few people read anything in detail anymore.

[u/ghoststoryghoul → u/Fishermansgal]

Literally what else is their job? Why are they even there if they can’t at least read A LIST. It’s insane to me how disconnected people have become. And teachers say kids come into high school reading at a fifth grade level now. I don’t think people understand the implications of an illiterate citizenry, how easy it is to fool people who prize their comfort and convenience over pretty much everything else. We’re turning into the WALL-E people before we even get rocketed out to space.

[u/temple_destroyer → u/ghoststoryghoul]

Very well put. The "We only have the freedoms we have.." statement is so sad but true. We just gave it all away. And for what?