Is it just because the collapse is getting particularly bad and everyone is extra miserable? (Me too, hard not to be down when the world is burning and you can’t afford food.)

I have this stupid thing where I feel the need to help, but I don’t know what to do… I’m sorry if I annoy everyone. I feel powerless.

Feel free to delete this if it counts as too meta

EDIT: I don’t really know how to react to everyone saying such heartfelt things, other than saying thank you.

  • Meltyheartlove [love/loves, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    The Palestinian holocaust getting to the stage where it is now with extreme forced starvation and the shameless complicity of the imperialists bending laws to arrest protestors is more than enough of a reason to feel extra miserable. Mass layoffs, disability benefits being cut, cost inflation of food and rent, slop machine capitalists threatening to replace you, governments trying to stomp on trans rights, Nazis feeling free to behave and do as they please, scratched libs, weaponized mass surveillance, the global north finally feeling the effects of climate change, Deportations and and new prisons in Amerikkka (but I heard it was worse during Obama so I am not sure about that) and reasons I am missing. The few bloomer bits I feel come from Sahelian states and sometimes China but my life and disabilities with capitalism amplifying the effects it has on my life have only gotten progressively worse with age.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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      13 days ago

      The Alliance of Sahel States has brought me so much hope in this past year. May we see a truly free Africa in our lifetimes

    • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      As the climate change apocalypse unfolds, I’m finding it increasingly hard to look at any issue without immediately thinking of how climate change is going to affect that issue before I look at any other factors or effects. I’m also finding it harder to care about any issue where, no matter a negative or positive outcome, the local area where the issue is happening will be unlivable in a decade or two.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    14 days ago

    This is a political site and the politics globally aren’t good. I haven’t been as active but irl my life is going great. I just don’t really feel like posting about it and so I’ll doompost about the political landscape lol

  • LangleyDominos [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    We’ve had these little depressions on this site before.

    We’re only 6-7 months into Trump 2 and it’s extremely depraved. We’re quickly moving beyond Trump not being subtle enough when carrying out the mission of empire. It’s his own goals and the goals of a smaller, more dedicated group of ghouls. It’s becoming apparent there is no mission for reactionary politics outside of Trump. It’s gotta be him or they have nothing. Even Thiel’s money isn’t enough for succession. Therefore the only way is an extended 2nd term or an entire third term. If you also notice, the lib outrage against Trump isn’t really there. They’ve been relegated to the kiddie pool on bluesky. AOC isn’t crying in front of camps anymore. Bernie is just showing up for a free refills of coffee. Fascist infighting is inconsequential and collapses into supporting Trump.

    It’s not great. It’s going to get worse. However, I think the silver lining is that these changes are happening probably because the grip of capital is weakening or, at least, the American empire is for sure crumbling. All this is just to keep it afloat. So it’s not so much an increase in strength so much as a scramble to avoid weakening.

  • Ithorian [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    All the mutual aid post lately have really been getting to me. Everytime i see someone in a worse situation then me i feel guilty I’m not helping but I’m also living a life where i have to count every single dollar i spend. I’ve thought about blocking the com for my mental health but something about that feels wrong too.

  • FlakesBongler [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    14 days ago

    Things are bad

    But only some things

    I had my physical and my doctor gave me a clean bill of health

    A publisher wants to talk to me about my book

    One of my favorite artists dropped a new single

    You gotta find the light where you can

  • CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    14 days ago

    Is it just because the collapse is getting particularly bad and everyone is extra miserable?

    I think this is a reasonable supposition. Things are getting worse and I get the impression we are overwhelmingly a bunch of downtrodden and beaten down people trying to provide community and help for each other. But there are very real limits to what online communities can do to help each other with offline problems, and as we are ourselves beaten down more and more we are able to do less. e.g. I see people pleading for help and I feel that deep sense of duty to help, but I’m also in such a bad state that I’m only getting by because I’m relying on other people irl so I’ve got nothing material to give. It’s not a good feeling.

    However:

    I’m sorry if I annoy everyone

    Real talk I haven’t seen reason to think people are annoyed by you, at least from comments I’ve seen on your post. And if they have, let me counter them! You are one of my favorite posters here and not just because I love birds. You’ve got a subtle and different sense of humor that is pleasant to run into. Inasmuch as any online community can help with offline problems, I find your contributions and posts are part of what I like about this site, and it feels like that is actually helpful. (That’s not meant to pressure you to be consistent about posting or anything, but to let you know that even when you don’t see it, you create ripples which do help people in small ways you wouldn’t ever know about or think about).

    There is something to be said for people coming together to create a small community or culture that is safe, welcoming, and free of a lot of the brainworms that corporate social media have. The few times I lapse and check out reddit I’m reminded just how bad other places are.

    On for-profit social media, people are products in that (and they even have a term for it) User Generated Content is what keeps people using the site so that the site can sell ad space on the grounds that it gets engagement. Here that’s not the case. Here when we post something and it makes a stranger smile, we’re just making someone else’s day a tiny bit less terrible and no corporate vampires get to leech off that.

    I’m really tired and not figuring out how to say what I’m trying to say, but I hope this helps.

  • i_drink_bleach [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    Look homey. Shit absolutely sucks ass. Nothing is going well fucking anywhere. But we all still make it through the churn. Everything is fucking hard. We don’t get easy mode. We all get full-ass late-stage capitalism mode. And it fucking sucks. But we have to keep fighting. We’re going to have to do this shit forever. It’s our lot in life. Unfortunate for us, but the world we can create for those who come after is what makes it worthwhile.

    “Old men plant trees who’s shade they know they shall never sit in.”

    I love you homey, and I love shitposting with you. Never give up.

    • FreeRangeKitties [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.netBanned
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      13 days ago

      Old men plant trees who’s shade they know they shall never sit in

      Especially blessed (though it sure doesn’t seem like it) are those who have planted trees that settler now rips from the ground. Fuck Deuteronomy 6:10,12.

  • Comrade_Mushroom [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    I don’t know if this is not a common opinion, but I do think that this community has a tendency to focus upon societal negatives often to a degree that is unhelpful and unwarranted. I find myself having to take breaks for my mental health because I’m constantly being presented with major problems that neither I nor anyone else here can do anything about.

    Some stuff I find more acceptable, like I feel it’s important to be aware of what is going on in Palestine for example… but shit like “omg omg there’s microplastics in your brain and also you’re gonna get turbo bird flu with a 90% kill rate holy shit” just gives me psychic damage with no outlet to do anything about it and little moral imperative for focusing on it. It just feels like doom-saying for the sake of itself.

    Obviously it’s better to be aware of these kinds of issues than not, but fixating on it to the point of seeing posts about it sometimes multiple times a day doesn’t really accomplish anything but to stoke anxiety, which I’m already pretty much maxed out on.

  • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    I know exactly what you mean, it’s just hard to drum up motivation to just “keep my head down” and do my normal job as if nothing was wrong, but I don’t have the means or the resources to help people as much as I like, so it just gets way too easy to spiral. Even my liberal friends can feel it, even the most “apolitcal” ones know that shit is going to hit the fan very soon. When even the most not-listening people I know can’t ignore everything going on in the world and can see the house of cards collapsing, it’s hard not to despair.

    But I try to think about how impermanent this all is, people probably felt similarly bleak just before WW1, and especially before WW2, and people got through both of those, tough times are ahead, but there’s brighter times after that.

    And it’ll probably sound a little sappy, but seeing your posts always makes me smile and does help me deal with the despair a little better.

  • FishLake@lemmygrad.ml
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    14 days ago

    I get it. It could be that summer is ending for me, but I have a feeling of impending doom. I mean, more than usual.

  • FreeRangeKitties [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.netBanned
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    13 days ago

    Since the intensification of the starvation I’ve socially retreated even worse, I have no interest in talking when I can’t say what I’m thinking. I think partly I finally made an account on here because I need some interaction with sane people.

    I feel like I do when Syria fell. I knew people there, I don’t want to elaborate, but like they were just citizens. I have not heard from them since. I regret that I did not learn much about Syria from them, as we were mostly talking about Palestine.

    And yeah my life sucks personally too, but I suppose I mostly roll my eyes at it compared to the other shit going on in the world. People here have lost their fucking minds with transphobia, they think we’re all in some groomer cult or something, bringing up kids when they start yelling at me for no reason in the street, when the reality is I don’t interact with children at all. Nobody I know has any because we’re too gay. And we can’t afford to raise them anyway. And I’ve internalized their bullshit so I’m afraid to be around children. But I think their accusations are confessions. It’s getting really hard not to just hate the general public. I only seem to make friends among the people who are also marginalized.

    There are a lot of people quietly opposing the genocide because of the obvious consequences. I sometimes feel like if we weren’t “quiet” we would realize how many of us are really on the same page and fucking actually do something but any time I get a burst of courage it’s usually extinguished by my supposed comrades who don’t want me to rock the boat in case it makes a group who overwhelmingly support the genocide uncomfortable.

    But yeah. There is a very weird “air”.