Yeah, reading this thread actually made me cry. I’ve clawed myself out of some dark places and really wish I could offer some help but there’s very little I can do.
Doing the little I can, in ways that are available to me but… yeah. Would be awful nice to have a magic wand that just fixes everything.
Never once did I say to ignore anything. On the contrary, I encouraged taking action, twice. But from a place of love and empowerment, not from a place of hate and futile demand for the world to bend to your will. That will only consume you from within.
But if you wish to bring privilege into this, let’s do so with honesty: the fact that you’re here, on Lemmy, discussing these things freely, already means you’re in a position of relative safety. Most of the world doesn’t have that luxury. MOST of the world is too busy surviving, too busy fighting for clean water, food, or a roof over their heads. If you have the time and space to worry about fascism or collapse online, you’re already doing better than BILLIONS of people who have the exact same capacity to experience suffering as you do. That’s not to dismiss your concerns, it’s just to say that perspective matters and you may want to be careful about how you wield the accusation of privilege.
And this device you’re using? There’s a good chance it was made possible by slave labor. That’s not your fault, but it’s worth sitting with. Because exploitative labor is also a function of capitalism. The system is what it is, and we’re all part of it in ways we don’t always see.
Guess what also addresses these inequalities though? Settling for less, refusing to play the game of endless wanting for more. Like I said.
Sure it will. We aren’t the first creatures or even people to witness what we take to be the end of the world. You can grieve it and do your best to resist it if you so feel called. If you can do so out of love for whatever it is that you value. My gratitude and respect if so.
Just stop believing that it is “bad”. Which is NOT the same as saying it’s “good”. It’s just the natural consequence of everything that has happened so far. Or do you shake your fist at the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs? Have you given a good talking to at the volcanoes in Siberia for wiping out nearly all life in the Great Dying? Or any number of other events that led to mass extinctions. Human nature is also just a natural consequence and we’re a microscopic blip in Earth’s history. Cherish what is here now and do what you’re called to do out of love for what you want to protect but you’ll spare yourself a lot of meta-suffering if you can give up the idea that there’s some right or wrong way for history to go. There’s just what is advantageous for humanity and what isn’t. I’m aligned with the former but I don’t believe that humanity should or shouldn’t exist.
Yet weirdly enough many people still let the psychos decide what “success” means.
If the game is rigged against you, stop playing it. Live by your examined values and get your priorities in order. If you really want tons of money, and power, by all means play the game. But if you actually value something else than money, pursue that. Money is often a shortcut, not an obstacle. People have more options than they think but the capitalistic mindset doesn’t allow people to see them. Are you going to perhaps have to sacrifice luxuries that capitalism has granted us? Yeah. Is it just that easy? No. But how fucking ungovernable would you be if you you could settle for less?
Buddhist monks are doing pretty good. Not that you have to go that extreme but just to make the point: usually people reject modest living purely because they just gotta have more. And the system everyone is bemoaning in this thread is always ready to provide more and more and more - the price is just one’s body and soul.
Most people in this thread could take a good, long look at their wants and needs and figure out which are actually which. And then decide for themselves what they can do that’s actually worth doing as per their own values.
This is one of the best and most ignored rules.