Post by anaix3l on Oct 26, 2023 12:05:18 GMT -5
One, I find it extremely sad that in today's world when we have access to so many resources that can help one learn and develop critical thinking skills, there are people who choose to get informed from extremely poor quality sources like random dudes on YouTube (whose content has been labelled by many in the prepper community as "doom porn").
I can understand social media algorithms is pushing this sort crap into people's feeds. I know it's made to get attention. What I can't understand is just allowing it to fill your head without questioning it for one moment and then regurgitating it, using the attention and time of the people you interact with as a puke bucket.
I have wondered if I shouldn't bookmark this thread just so I don't forget to be petty about this in 6 months from now when this apocalypse doesn't happen just like the 50 other times we should have already died this year according to that Canadian Prepper dude didn't happen.
Two, as someone said over two centuries and a half ago, "don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter" - there's so much hysteria about nukes and big, dramatic things, but the reality is that there's a lot going on that's not big or dramatic that's impacting our lives every day.
Which leads me to three. As someone who's just across the border from Ukraine, I have this to say: Russia isn't kicking ass in Ukraine. Nobody is kicking ass in Ukraine except for time. This war has caused harm without even going nuclear and it is going to cause harm for a long time after it's over. I don't mean just unexploded bombs like the ones left over from WW2 we still keep finding all over Europe. Without even going nuclear, this war has already contaminated the soil in Ukraine. It has contaminated the waters, which flow into the Black Sea. It has contaminated the air. Life is resilient, we'll live, but that doesn't mean the health effects will be pleasant.
Four, the history of humanity has been little else but constant war. The high income world has been lucky enough not to experience conflict since WW2. Other parts of the planet haven't been as lucky, even if poor devils high on qat (it's a stimulant, think of it as their cocaine) massacring each other for drinking water in places like Yemen, Sudan or Ethiopia can't be marketed as something shocking that will lead to nuclear disaster, so a lot of people never hear about it.
Five, while I think it's important not to look away and ignore tragedies unfolding, we only have one life which we cannot put on hold until the moment of total peace that probably won't come during our lives. All of my grandparents were born before WW2. They lived through it. Other than my dad's mom, none of them lived into my adulthood, so I don't know about everyone's experiences. Dad's mom was 13 years old at the time Romania entered the war. While a lot of her memories of the time were related to the war, like their horses being taken away, like school being moved from place to place because of bombings, then the school year cancelled altogether, a lot were also some very normal things for a teenage girl and, while we didn't discuss this aspect, I think that probably helped her keep her sanity during those times. Which is why I try not to think about what's happening too much, not to the point where it constantly occupies my thoughts and it consumes me. Through the nature of my work, I have known and befriended people who are too close to these conflicts and I worry, but at the same time... I can't fix this and I need to live the one life that I have.
Kind of a weird and complicated way of saying I agree places like this board should be a place to escape shit, but I just have so many thoughts and there are so many things I'm conflicted about.
I can understand social media algorithms is pushing this sort crap into people's feeds. I know it's made to get attention. What I can't understand is just allowing it to fill your head without questioning it for one moment and then regurgitating it, using the attention and time of the people you interact with as a puke bucket.
I have wondered if I shouldn't bookmark this thread just so I don't forget to be petty about this in 6 months from now when this apocalypse doesn't happen just like the 50 other times we should have already died this year according to that Canadian Prepper dude didn't happen.
Two, as someone said over two centuries and a half ago, "don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter" - there's so much hysteria about nukes and big, dramatic things, but the reality is that there's a lot going on that's not big or dramatic that's impacting our lives every day.
Which leads me to three. As someone who's just across the border from Ukraine, I have this to say: Russia isn't kicking ass in Ukraine. Nobody is kicking ass in Ukraine except for time. This war has caused harm without even going nuclear and it is going to cause harm for a long time after it's over. I don't mean just unexploded bombs like the ones left over from WW2 we still keep finding all over Europe. Without even going nuclear, this war has already contaminated the soil in Ukraine. It has contaminated the waters, which flow into the Black Sea. It has contaminated the air. Life is resilient, we'll live, but that doesn't mean the health effects will be pleasant.
Four, the history of humanity has been little else but constant war. The high income world has been lucky enough not to experience conflict since WW2. Other parts of the planet haven't been as lucky, even if poor devils high on qat (it's a stimulant, think of it as their cocaine) massacring each other for drinking water in places like Yemen, Sudan or Ethiopia can't be marketed as something shocking that will lead to nuclear disaster, so a lot of people never hear about it.
Five, while I think it's important not to look away and ignore tragedies unfolding, we only have one life which we cannot put on hold until the moment of total peace that probably won't come during our lives. All of my grandparents were born before WW2. They lived through it. Other than my dad's mom, none of them lived into my adulthood, so I don't know about everyone's experiences. Dad's mom was 13 years old at the time Romania entered the war. While a lot of her memories of the time were related to the war, like their horses being taken away, like school being moved from place to place because of bombings, then the school year cancelled altogether, a lot were also some very normal things for a teenage girl and, while we didn't discuss this aspect, I think that probably helped her keep her sanity during those times. Which is why I try not to think about what's happening too much, not to the point where it constantly occupies my thoughts and it consumes me. Through the nature of my work, I have known and befriended people who are too close to these conflicts and I worry, but at the same time... I can't fix this and I need to live the one life that I have.
Kind of a weird and complicated way of saying I agree places like this board should be a place to escape shit, but I just have so many thoughts and there are so many things I'm conflicted about.