Every day.

Eh, it depends on the author. I've seen a lot of modern Post-Apocalypse/Cyberpunk stuff make comedic quasi-self-references by way of media-within-the-media (A piece of modern literature in the Fallout setting describing a "dystopian" world in the self-proclaimed utopian Vaults, for instance).

But the point of the media-within-the-media is often to illustrate how we fixate on the drama of dystopia without acknowledging the banality of social evils.

Right now, in the mostly-free-press parts of the world, I now think that dystopian scifi no longer serves as a warning of what not to do but instead acts as a numbing agent to increased oppression.

This is going to sound very Maoist or whatever but we need more utopian scifi like Star Trek TNG. We need utopian visions imagined for us so we have something to work towards.

It was so refreshing to watch the Chinese TV show for Three-Body where the world was at peace with each other and trying to solve this bizarre global mystery. Sure, the Chinese government was painted as much more competent than American & European governments but Hollywood does the same thing with the US government too.

1984 literally has a manifesto describing what's happening.

In fact, the brainwashing of the kids in 1984 to report on their parents having / reading / discussing "controversial media" is a major element of the dystopia. Those media are not explicitly named, but I don't think they have to be.

I don't think tribalism was the apex of greatness people seem to think it was.

Oh well, at least frogurt is still relatively cheap.

What would you have Bernie do after loosing his primary?

some of it is!

It's a pleasant surprise every time I visit how chill the US is, you see so much news and fear mongering but it's super friendly and nice everywhere I go.

Yeah standard of living overall is factually better than at any other point in the last few hundred years.

Really depends on who you are and where you live. I'm watching my Houston ISD getting torn apart before my eyes. Police were running around UH campus clubbing students and dragging them into squad cars just a few weeks ago. The derecho that blew through downtown knocked out 5-10% of the windows in various buildings and killed the power for a few days. Electricity costs have doubled in the last ten years, while summer heat is up a sold five degrees Fahrenheit on average.

Is my standard of living better than it was for someone living in the city a generation ago? Doesn't look like it. But hey, we've got weird new AI and the stock market is very up. Is it better than someone living in Houston in 1824? Yeah... I guess? But so much of that seems to hinge on having electricity and running water. And the more pipes keep bursting and lines keep getting knocked down, the less reliable these services seem.

Medicine alone has made getting to or living past your mid-30’s far less hard

Average life expectancy has been over 60 years of age since at least the 19th century. A lot of that came entirely out of the advent of vaccinations.

Good think we're not having trouble convincing people to get vaccinated in the modern era, I guess.

People in the ukraine are like: man this is great, imagine living in the 30's

Even if we set out to do so we couldn’t end all life on earth (literally)

Lol, you high?

That whole article you linked is about convincing you to be optimistic.

Yes, the world is awful. But it is so much better than it ever was before, and we have proven that we have the means to make it so much better still.

Even if all we did was get everyone up to the standard of living where they experience first-world problems, that still means making the world so much better than it was. And we can make the world even better than that. Even if you're pessimistic, you should still be optimistic.

I'd argue you're not very familiar with recent history. Also, who is "We"?

Yeah, life without a dishwasher, hot water and toilet was so much better!

Never heard of Europe, eh?

Communism limits free time, too. You still have to work under that system. And pay bills. You have to pay for childcare, dental work, travel, food, housing, and just about everything else. Except medicine. But you have to wait for that, and have no choice in who you see.

No-one is saying that all is fine. Yes, there are loads of big issues right now, but we're still living better and safer than 99% of all the humans that have ever lived. We are not living Ina dystopian world.

Things are NOT bad now.

You really think oppression is more faceless now than before the existence of cameras? What was the odds that a medieval peasant knew what the King looked like? Or that a slave in Egypt knew the face of the Pharaoh?

And soon no human will be able to understand the main strategy of the company.

Sure the AI can break it down for the humans, but it’s not always going to be easily comprehensible in human terms.

Yeah, and Jews in WWII would disagree with you.

It's always easy to find a very specific group of people that are having a horrible time, that doesn't mean that on average, humans live better and safer than in the entire history of humanity. Sure, the last 10 years saw a bit of a down turn, but thing are still way better than, say, 40 years ago.

I guess it's hard to remember how really hard life could be

They eat cleaner food and have more amenities than a King, but they certainly don't live better. The point of the article is that the rising tide is floating a few boats wayyyy higher than the rest, and the overall growth does not justify the fact that people still die of hunger, get evicted while working multiple jobs, fall ill and are saddled by medical dept for life (US only), and shit like that.

Yeah, it was much better before when vets died from gangrene swallowing their bodies. No vets - no problems!

This the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

T.S. Eliot - The Hollow Men

About a year after it came out, I was singing along with it during a depressive episode and realized 'seven' wasn't accurate anymore. It freaked me out, but I realized that part of the nature of the song is the impending doom, and I have to change the lyrics when I get to that part.

..Four more to go.

Just in case, this year is your last chance to see them live. Thought you might want to know that 😊

We just need to have some bell riots and WW3 and then bam star trek

I think that they mean you still have to eat and sleep and try to have joy in your life.

It's easy if you try.

Can you simply imagine things into existence?

Your nightmare is someone else's dream.

Doesn’t help when an over privileged brat with full access to devices and the internet then just posts weak ass generalist complaints like this.

Movements make a difference by targeting problems with specific details. Not just whining about them with general, diluted, unintelligible babble designed around some indescript, unnecessarily abstract problem forever just out of grasp.

This was a dog whistle for indifference and hopelessness. This was bait and it does fuck all to do with fixing any real problems.

As opposed to the past where black people where treated as livestock?

Whatever bad thing is going in your life, it used to be worse.

What they said :

"Soulists can travel to other realities. http://soulism.net"

What I heard:

"Choose delusion or the mental anguish of reality"

Soulists choose to build mental constructs to reside in, which is no different from any other imaginary worlds - essentially a form of escapism.

Okay but what can humans do?

Like I said, gratitude is hard.

It is hard to have gratitude when there is inequality

It is hard to have gratitude when competition is encouraged and enshrined by people who benefit from it

It is hard to have gratitude when the constructs in which we live seem unjust

It is hard to wake up and look around and find something to be grateful for

It is hard to be grateful when all you can see is what you don't have

Being genuinely appreciative of what you do have leads to a quieter mind and a happier life. We have one life.

It comes across as some stupid bullshit, I know. But the resentment and frustration aren't useful. Clarity of mind and purpose is, and is more sustainable than passion and anger.

My 2c.

We do make things better every day. You should work on your perceptual filters.

Then keep complaining. Someone else might do it instead

Then I guess they will live their life worrying about something outside their control and ultimately die.

Why wouldn't I be able to whine?

Hello rage-bait person.

I don't know if the CIA ever mingled with Chinese politics - I doubt it. But Africa, brah, we have a bad history of what the western world in general has done in that continent, whether directly or indirectly or proxies.