this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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[–] Naatan@lemdro.id 64 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I really wish my generation was a bit more optimistic. Yeah shit sucks, don't get me wrong. But have you guys seen all of history? This is par for the course. Yeah the challenges are different but every generation had their challenges. And yeah baby boomers definitely had it better than us, but that doesn't mean there's nothing but bad stuff to come. You have to take life with the good and the bad and make the most of it.

[–] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Most generations don't need to deal with an impending threat to the whole planet. Nuclear apocalypse, sure, but at least there was no pretending that it wasn't a problem.

This is ignoring all of the other ways in which we're fucked.

Another thing that is worse is how we havent had anything recently to inspire hope. The Higgs Boson would have been the Millenial/Gen Z equivalent of the moon landing if the public hadn't been so distrusting of physics because of string theory evangelists.

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

For me, the first world (i.e. the part of the world allied with the US) had a common enemy to get behind and that allowed people to live in peace for 1.5 generations or so. When the USSR collapsed, that bogeyman suddenly disappeared and the infighting started nearly instantly.

[–] Rokk@feddit.uk 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the Internet is partially to blame.

The negative stuff happening in the world seems to spread so much faster and get so much more publicity that it's easy to end up in a constant negative spiral

[–] Naatan@lemdro.id 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I think you're dead on. I'm evidently not alone in thinking that the age of information is driving a lot of consciousness of worldwide issues on a scale we've never seen before. People in the Middle Ages only knew the small world they lived in on the scale of a city or region. If that city or region was prospering, their life was likely pretty damn nice.

These days, we're aware of all issues everywhere. And if you don't create that perspective for yourself, that can be incredibly overwhelming. You have to give in to a certain sense of wilful ignorance because you literally cannot be involved with every one of those problems. Not clicking on all the doom and gloom news articles has done wonders for my mental health. I guess you could say this thread was a moment of weakness.. :p

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's interesting when you look at birthrate declines is not that they are declining, it's that they are declining to NORMAL LEVELS. Everyone is freaking out that the next generation won't be big enough to support retiring Boomers without understanding that there should never have been so many Boomers in the first place.

[–] Marin_Rider@aussie.zone 8 points 1 year ago

Boomers without understanding that there should never have been so many Boomers in the first place.

its literally in their name too: 'baby boomers'. too many in too short a time and they have dominated politics for the better part of a century now

[–] drathvedro@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

baby boomers definitely had it better than us

Dunno, man. Boomers in my home country went through such shit time that they think that becoming literal nazis still isn't the worst thing to happen in their lifetime. They did get free housing before that, though, so I'm not sure they actually had it worse overall...

[–] Devi 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As someone that's been around for some of history it's bad now. Just the cost of living stuff is dark. Grown adults are sharing bedrooms because they can't afford to rent a room by themselves on a full time wage. People have raised entire families on a single factory workers wage for hundreds of years before now, now two people with decent jobs can't afford one kid. It's dark.

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"some history" lol all you're doing is describing things as Not As Bad As The Great Depression

[–] Devi 2 points 1 year ago

It's a different situation but I don't think 'not as bad' really works here. The average house during the 30's was only twice the average wage, you could absolutely support a family on a single income. Other things were bad, like the unemployment rate, but it was temporary.

The issue in this post is that what we're dealing with is 'life' being unattainable for the majority of people. For people in their 20's now it's always been that way. They can't move out, they can't get an education, they can't get a career going, it's grim.