I hope you get the song reference. They would approve of this messade.

We're in the midst of collapse and my quality of life has definitely declined from what it was a decade ago. We're collectively going through this together but we each have our own journey through it as well as our own interpretations. What were the good times for you and what made them good? What type of person were you during the peak and how has the collapse changed you?

It’s a glorious day to give it our all. Count your blessings, you will prosper.

A common response I hear people say when someone admits they're depressed is "it will get better." For some time I partially believed this. If I just be patient enough, things will get better. If they haven't gotten better yet, I haven't been patient enough.

But it's been years. I've been trying my best since I graduated high school (barely) 2 or 3 years ago, and I've gotten nowhere, and things haven't gotten better. I live with my parents, but I want to live in my own tiny house (which I don't have) nearby. I am autistic and ADHD, and I have had a lot of difficulty getting a job. I can't go to college to get a better paying job because it's too expensive, I can't get diagnosed as autistic (I'm already diagnosed ADHD) so I can apply for disability because getting diagnosed is too expensive (and time consuming), I can't take ADHD meds to help me focus on working better because I have a heart defect. I take antidepressants and have for months now, but I'm still depressed, and I never have any energy. I'm a night owl and I get criticized for it. It's the only time the world doesn't feel overwhelming and I can be alone and think deeply. I can't get the gender affirming surgery I've needed for years (I'm nonbinary) because it's too expensive and my insurance company won't cover it. Trump got shot at so now he has an even BETTER chance of winning the election, and I live in the US, as a NEURODIVERGENT AFAB POOR TRANS PERSON. And climate change rages on with not nearly enough being done about it. I can't even access mushrooms or something like that to have some kind of revelation to finally be happy and change the pathways in my brain.

I'm so tired. I'm always tired. I tried everything I could to not be tired, and to get somewhere in life, and every single time, I failed. And the situation in my country just keeps getting worse and making it harder for me. I just... what the hell am I supposed to do? I am only 20 and I feel like my life is already over. If Trump gets elected I will probably never be able to get that gender affirming surgery, I might even get arrested or deported or sent to conversion therapy. I don't know, but it won't be good. There are so many bad things, people do so many bad things. What is wrong with us? Why can't we be better? Why do bad people end up in the most powerful positions? I don't even want to be a human anymore. I wish some space ship of sane empathetic aliens would come to get me and tell me I was actually one of them this whole time, and I got lost. I know it won't ever happen, but it's a comforting day dream. I've lost faith in humanity a long time ago. How do I go on like this? What have I not thought of to get my life moving forward? I don't know how much longer I can put up with this insane limbo, getting nowhere and bracing for disaster. It's like what the f**k humanity? We could have done better than this. How am I supposed to be ok with this?

They say to not dwell on what you can't control, but I don't know if it's possible for me to do that. I know I can't fix it, but I still care about all the people in pain. About how wrong this all is. Help, please.

I wanted to share this course I've been doing - I'm currently on week 7 with a very nice group. The course is less about doom and gloom, and more about accepting what's happening and how to build inner and outer resilience when so much is unknown. It has a wide variety of voices, from people like Carolyn Baker, MB Dowd, Nate Hagens, Jem Bendell, indigenous voices, etc. It is developed by a few people from Deep Adaptation.

In such a volatile summer, in the physical and political climate, I've appreciated working through a structured course and talking it over with such a great group. I also appreciate everyone else slows down in the group - there's no need to rush anything and there's room for everyone to speak. My exposure to collapse is almost solely on r/collapse, so it's been a nice reminder that I can take things slow, appreciate the good in the world, etc. I think it might help some people here as well

Take care everyone and I hope we can all find our inner and outer resilience as we discuss and experience such a crazy world

https://acceptingcollapse.com/

Especially amidst all the chaos recently and is it stupid to even ask such a question now of all times? I see comments saying to just focus on what you can control in order to not get bogged down by larger problems in the world. But I still struggle with this. I wish I could step away. I feel like I need a break, but when it feels like time is limited it seems harder.

My behavior tends to be very obsessive over news cycles, for a while I can turn it off and focus on my surroundings, but then that urge to check the news comes back. It's like an addiction. And I'm sure as most of us know with political news in the US it's not a great feeling right now. I've wasted a lot of time scrolling that could have been spent with loved ones or doing other things. I want my life back, but it feels like I don't have much time left for it. And I feel kinda stupid for asking this now, what a time to try and do this huh? But getting angry for time wasted hasn't done much good.

How do I do this with the way things are now? I'm terrified, but I just want myself and life back to the extent I can. How do you stop obsessing over the news? I don't mean playing ostrich either, but I can't take the information overload and exhaustion anymore. Stay safe out there everyone, wishing you all the best <3

Jokes aside are the newer populations dumber, I’ve been observing gen alpha as a tutor and am having conflicting thoughts as to whether we are evolving as a species. The level of destruction that has been created for future generations to handle seems insurmountable I’m genuinely curious how equipped these new beings are

A former president was shot and I couldn’t give any less of a shit. I don’t even like the guy one bit and I just kinda shrugged and went on with my day. The news just feels like a really bad over rated reality show that just drags out season after season and it’s centered around this character I just don’t give a fuck about and all the other characters are just annoying af. All of them are completely useless in solving real problems that scare me all the time so they’re only getting worse. Why should I fucking care about any of them? Basically none of this feels real and I just tune it out. Is this a defense my mind has come up with to cope that this is actually what the world is like?

it feels impossible to just keep going on when everything is crashing and burning around me and no one seems to even notice. like after that stunt trump is more likely than he was already to win so now we're gunning it towards more even more overt fascism and just nothing can be done??? no one in office can stop any of it??? i had to call out of work bc of how sick the anxiety is making me. i some times wish i had the balls to just end it bc i seriously feel like shit all the time.. i want so badly to believe things will get better but it always gets worse. i'm so tired

And I am here for us

So I'm deadass about moving to Canada. Since 2015 I've been to Quebec City, Montreal, Vancouver, and Windsor. I often am also interested in border cities. When visiting QC I was in Portland Maine and now visiting Windsor I am spending a lot of time in Detroit. It's cheaper and safer to be in Windsor. Everything is significantly cheaper in Cansda except public transportation. Lyft, Air BNB, Motels, Food in restaurants and fastfood etc are all cheaper. However did have a sketchy time with the border guards searching a vehicle. It was fun playing chess with people in Detroit but some sketchy stuff happened. All detailed here

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/1e2d7yz/anyone_thinking_of_running_away_to_canada_should/

Now in the next 5 years or so my dad will pass and I'm aorta his second family. I was estranged from 2006-2012 but everyone's over me being the blsck sheep now. There's 4 kids and I'm the only one that's ny mom's kid. My stepmom will get the lion's share and the condo ofc and there's 4 kids in total.

That family is more bougie than my mom and I. My lil sis already has a bunch of money she made doing a steak n shake commercial. Tens if thousands. Another sibling has a great job in Healthcare with a doctorate and the other one busts his ass as a cook. I did thet but also in a food warehouse--spraying preservatives even on the organic food. The chem wash was a diluted corrosive. We wasted so much food.

I also worked in nonprofits doing writing work that funded summer programs so happening upon those black high schoolers playing chess was cool. It reminded me of mh 2017-18 work.

I think if I got 10--50k in cash of goods from my dad's death I'd be a refugee in Canada

There is so much to live for, so much to love for

Bees everywhere. So loud. It smelled amazing, also. And the colors!

I'm sure there's some larger lesson in this, but it would come from something like, "If you want more bugs, create more bug-friendly habitat" (I guess we also are giving flies a lot of great habitat when we muck out our animal pens).

It's not all doom and gloom. The headlines might make it seem like things are awful all over, but things are moving along normally (even slightly cooler than usual, in our case) in a lot of places--we just aren't making headlines.

To be completely honest I’ve definitely felt thoughts of ending my own life due to hopelessness. It felt as if life was meaningless and that my dreams and wants didn’t matter because of the inevitable collapse. I’ve been suicidal so many times in the past but this time it’s mainly just due to this hopelessness of collapse. Would therapy even help in the context of despair at collapse? Medication? I don’t even know anymore

TL;DR - Biden’s dismal showing at the debate and subsequent refusal to bow out has finally shattered any illusions that I harbored that we would avoid the acceleration of collapse promised under Trump.

Collapse-awareness isn’t new for me, but it’s beginning to feel less academic and more real. I’ve found myself fixated on this debate and the denial demonstrated by many Democrats. It’s very difficult to turn away from this train wreck. I don’t think most people have processed just how utterly embarrassing and bizarre that debate was. Biden is clearly unsuited for the job, and many of his base saw that and have simply doubled down on supporting him.

Long rant incoming.

The fallout from the debate has caused me a tremendous amount of anxiety. Biden’s dismal showing and subsequent refusal to bow out has finally shattered any illusions that I harbored that we would avoid the acceleration of collapse promised under Trump. I’ve already had my share of disappointments with the Biden administration prior to this. I do not believe, as many progressives do, that he’s been a good, or even competent president, and yet, I still fear the alternative.

First, his handling of Covid has been atrocious. Democrats love to tout the “Covid recovery” as one of his successes, but the recovery doesn’t exist without first sacrificing public health. His administration has pushed a political end to a pandemic that is still actively killing and disabling people. Any attempt to provide for mitigation, boosting sick leave, or maintaining surveillance was quickly forgotten. Instead, Biden’s administration sided with corporations in their push to return workers to the office. They ended the emergency with barely any resistance, placing the burden of this disease entirely on the American people, and they have actively worked to downplay the risks associated with infection despite troubling research concerning reinfections and long Covid.

Beyond Covid, I find little else to celebrate about his presidency. While it’s true that the Inflation Reduction Act is the largest climate bill passed by any sitting president. The provisions within remain inadequate for addressing the crisis at hand. Further, the law bypassed the courts and provided a fast track to completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline that ghouls like Manchin have been working hard to attain. Alongside its passage, oil production has hit record highs under Biden’s tenure, far outpacing production under the Trump administration. These actions, while preferable to what Trump promises to do in a second term, are not compatible with any sort of desirable future on our planet. Half measures and greenwashing don’t cut it.

Then there’s Biden’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide. The United Nations International Court of Justice found that there are “‘reasonable grounds’ to believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” Their International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes committed in Gaza. Every step, the US has fought against these allegations, choosing to downplay Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people. Biden called the ICC arrest warrant “outrageous,“ opting instead to supply funds and arms to assist Israel’s war machine. According to a recent report published in The Lancet, Israel could be responsible for the murder of nearly 186,000 Palestinians since the siege began. That’s 8 percent of Gaza’s population. The Biden administration continues to provide support for Israel despite international condemnation. They are complicit in this genocide. There’s no denying it.

These aren’t the only failures worth mentioning: the sluggish and inadequate response to the East Palestine derailment, his blocking of the rail workers strike, his dangerous antagonizing of nuclear powers, his recent shift right on immigration, and he and the Democrats failure to treat the Republican threat with any sort of urgency are just a few of the many others that come to mind. I can understand why some might think that Biden has done a good job in office. The claim that he has been the “most progressive president since FDR” may even hold water. However, I believe that’s more of an indictment of just how awful previous doers of this job have been. From the late 20th century to today, it appears that we celebrate presidents not because of the good they’ve done, but instead based on how little their administration has inconvenienced us. Biden’s harmless, grandfatherly image has certainly helped to keep him out of our thoughts. Not that I consider that a good thing given the harm he has done.

Nonetheless, with all of this taken into consideration, I am still quite frightened of a second Trump presidency. Prior to this debate, I had my suspicions that Biden may end up a one-term president, but the debate removed any illusions that we might keep Trump out and avoid the very real harms that come with his reelection. As much as I dislike Biden, he hasn’t promised or attempted to dismantle our regulatory state. Nor will he pack our courts with Christian nationalists bent on reestablishing America as a theocracy. Personally, I prefer the predictable, steady decline offered by the Democrats over the acceleration of our collapse promised by Trump and the Republican Party.

For Biden to respond to the possibility of his loss by saying he’ll feel good as long as “[he] gave it [his] all,” is one of the most offensive, infuriating comments I’ve heard from a sitting president. This man has nothing to risk with a second Trump presidency. He’s wealthy and old. He and his family will be shielded from the immediate harms due to privilege and he’ll be dead long before any lasting damage rears its head.

I personally cannot understand the mental gymnastics many are performing in order to excuse this geriatric jackass’s behavior. The past decade should be a wake-up call to all of us that we cannot continue to accept rule by politicians on the corporate dole. These are not people with our best interests in mind. How many more times will we allow them to fail us?

If there is zero electricity flowing through the power grid or through the power plants then how could a solar flare impact us? We can detect solar flares days in advance so we would have time to do this.

I’m 42f and been single for a number of years. I’m independent and only want to let someone in who is truly compatible.

I became aware of the full extent of the predicament 8 months ago and since then have been in a deep grieving process. Last year it felt like there would be a good 10 years before things would get really bad and just as I’m coming to terms with it all, the timeline has shifted dramatically.

I’m now working on a timeline of 5 years of reasonable quality of life. My one big wish for myself is to meet my person. I’m giving dating apps another go but having been on a few first dates, I’m already realising this may be a near impossible task.

I test the waters with world views and sure, the ones I’ve met appreciate the challenges ahead, but it’s a whole other thing having some understanding of the severity (even if not to the extreme of collapse awareness).

I can already foresee me having to contort myself and live in an alternate reality in order to be able to have a relationship.

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life by revealing this to them when they weren’t seeking it. But I also can’t contain all of this. It would spill out in different ways and no doubt I’d be perceived as a negative person, which I am not. I’m currently trying to carve out my best 5+ years and use the urgency to inspire more joy.

I would love to enjoy these precious years with a wonderful person and also have someone to go through future nightmare situations together with as a team.

Aside of finding the needle in the haystack (ie a collapse aware man) I wonder if it’s even possible to start and maintain a relationship with what I now know and the way I will be designing my life.

Thoughts and tips most welcome…

The heat, and the AC needed to battle it, is shorting out power grids, but tech companies are still spinning up more AI server farms. I'm crazy for saying this is crazy.

At least half the jobs I apply to are ghost jobs, because companies think it's worthwhile to mine my personal data and/or lie to their staff and investors about how the company is growing, or because recruiters want to lie about how much they're doing. But I'm crazy for not being able to find new clients or a job...even when my published, award-winning colleagues are struggling, too.

I'm crazy (and a dinosaur) for refusing to incorporate AI in my work, even though I find it an utter waste of time, exploitation of other artists' work, and contributing to the climate change that is currently killing off the bees and burning holes into the native plants I've spent three years cultivating.

I'm crazy because I suspect that most of the people who follow me on X or who DM me on LinkedIn are bots...even if this is a well-known issue.

Elon Musk gets to be the billionaire CEO of six companies while fathering babies with his female employees. I'm crazy for letting this upset me.

This year, at 41 years old, with another QUARTER OF A CENTURY to go in my career, I was advised to remove my photo and college dates from my resume, because ageism, especially against professional women, is a real hinderance to getting hired. I'm crazy for thinking this is absurd and being angry about it.

I'm crazy for pointing out that all of this is ridiculous and unsustainable, for railing against it, and for expecting others to do the same.

I'm crazy for waking up every day feeling like I'm living in an alternate reality where half of everything is either fake or a scam and nothing makes sense. Just in case you were wondering.

I am on my phone and internet way too much, usually researching something or reading and article or what have you. I have made a decision to get off my phone more and be present in nature. Problem is, Florida is over 103 degrees most days now and I can't really tolerate that heat. I know people say go out in the early morning but due to a chronic illness I sleep a fair amount and mornings are no good. I'm going to take walks when the suns sets but obviously won't be quite the same.

Any other suggestions? I do go to the beach and watch the sunset some nights.