8 ms·

Exactly. Look at what these kids are being handed for a future and tell me they don't have the right to be in life-threatening levels of despair.

wufufufu 7y ago
By what metrics?
the-dude 7y ago
Are you talking about Global Nuclear War?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- FussyZeus 7y ago
  I mean it's pretty much a race between nuclear war, nationalist authoritarians gaining power, backwards social policies, concentration of wealth among the 0.1%, climate change, financial crashes... There's so many things getting worse seemingly all the time it's hard to really keep track of it. Edit: The various surveillance states, re-emboldening of nazi's, the looming threat of Civil War in the United States, a handful of corporations attempting to own and monetize every aspect of life...
  - r00fus 7y ago
    Why is the "zombie apocalypse" so popular? because we have a surfeit of ways the world will likely die, and zombies are less likely than the insect/animal extinction, climate catastrophe or tweets launching nukes, so it's almost comforting in an escapist way.
    - FussyZeus 7y ago
      It's incredibly comforting. I can do something about a zombie. I can't do something about the orange doofus tweeting war on North Korea and burning the planet.
  - shrimp_emoji 7y ago
    Through what dark lens is the unrelenting social progress we've made warped to such dystopic proportions? uwu But the war, climate change, and economic inequality stuff, big true. Also, increasingly digital society is moving the average person into the world of physically isolated sexless hydrogen that people like me have been in the whole time, which must be difficult. x3 Look to Japan; the future!
ajay_sibri04 7y ago
I'm currently in high school and yes we are very angry about what is being handed to us. Bad job prospects, vilifying success, socialism, over priced college, loss of privacy, increased racial divide in society etc. I am determined though to persevere and change the world for the better.
- hef19898 7y ago
  Upvoted you for you being rather young, so benefit of doubt all that. Just one thing, expensive college is a purely US thing, except some MBA programs most universities in Europe are practically free. So, that thing about socialism. Free, public healthcare as well as education are what some in the US might consider "socialism". So there you might have an issue with your reasoning.
  - yardie 7y ago
    Part of the reason for the recent protests in Paris was because the government wanted to add fees (though comparatively small) to university tuition. This was viewed as another slap in the face of lawmakers (many of whom went to university for free) wanting to pull the ladder up behind them.
    - hef19898 7y ago
      True, Germany got rid of tuition fees after a short period. Still a far cry from the US, so.
  - ajay_sibri04 7y ago
    I don't think college should be free. It is a business after all. But the price of college in the US is definitely inflated. People used to be able to pay for the tuition by taking a summer job or going one semester on, and one semester working. I just think college should be priced affordably for middle class people and that there should be more merit based aid for lower class people. I have some friends I play video games with online who have went to college and they have all said that it really wasn't that useful as far as education is concerned, but does get you into the 'club' to apply for better jobs.
hcurtiss 7y ago
I just don't understand these kinds of comments. On every measurable metric, there has literally never been a better time to be alive and living in America. It seems to me that people's expectations are outpacing our relatively abundant affluence. That may still be a problem, but it has little to do with "what we're being handed for a future." My suspicion is that hit has more to do with the rise in social media and the fact that we're constantly comparing our lives to other people's highlight reels.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  "On every measurable metric, there has literally never been a better time to be alive and living in America." I mean, we have a measurable metric right now- young people dying in high rates, suicide is up, average life expectancy is down?
  - TurkishPoptart 7y ago
    If this were Reddit, I would like to wave away parent's argument with an "OK, Boomer" meme. I think it's simply propaganda that "things are better now then they ever were before! wee!" The statistics shown here and highlighted by other posters make this clear: we have many problems.
    - FussyZeus 7y ago
      And things are always better in the developed world, that doesn't inherently mean people fortunate enough to live here instead of say, rural Africa, have nothing to fucking complain about. First world problems are still problems afterall. Yeah the people living in isolated hunter-gatherer societies most assuredly have it worse, but just because you're in America with a car you can barely afford and are eating a steady diet of boiled rice in a studio apartment with no furniture in it, and are thusly compared with that hunter gatherer person doing okay, doesn't mean you have no right to complain that your boss, Jeff Bezos has over TWENTY homes all worth more than you'll ever make in a LIFETIME.
- NathanKP 7y ago
subsaharancoder 7y ago
Children are born with optimism for life even in the face of daunting circumstances, I see this in my kids all the time and I'm raising them to understand that life has its challenges but that they have opportunities to be productive and impactful as members of society. We do a disservice and a wrong to our children when all we speak to them is despair and apocalyptic outcomes, we destroy their hope in life and value of fellow humans..
Reedx 7y ago
Or maybe because they are being frightened endlessly by fear mongering news and social media, which favors outrage and gives an unbalanced view of reality. Things to be optimistic about[1] don't get much attention. The future you're fearing may or may not happen. But endless pessimism is a killer regardless. It's a self-fulfilling, terrible strategy if we want things to improve. 1. https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/ https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/
- FussyZeus 7y ago
  Cherry picking positive news is literally no different than what you're accusing the mainstream news of doing. It's just the other direction. I'm glad diseases are being stamped out in Africa. Here in America the anti-vax movement is bringing them back, and I have friends shelling out hundreds of dollars for generic epipens that cost pennies to make. Automating naivety with an algorithm doesn't change what it is.

wufufufu 7y ago

By what metrics?

the-dude 7y ago

Are you talking about Global Nuclear War?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
FussyZeus 7y ago
I mean it's pretty much a race between nuclear war, nationalist authoritarians gaining power, backwards social policies, concentration of wealth among the 0.1%, climate change, financial crashes... There's so many things getting worse seemingly all the time it's hard to really keep track of it. Edit: The various surveillance states, re-emboldening of nazi's, the looming threat of Civil War in the United States, a handful of corporations attempting to own and monetize every aspect of life...
- r00fus 7y ago
  Why is the "zombie apocalypse" so popular? because we have a surfeit of ways the world will likely die, and zombies are less likely than the insect/animal extinction, climate catastrophe or tweets launching nukes, so it's almost comforting in an escapist way.
  - FussyZeus 7y ago
    It's incredibly comforting. I can do something about a zombie. I can't do something about the orange doofus tweeting war on North Korea and burning the planet.
- shrimp_emoji 7y ago
  Through what dark lens is the unrelenting social progress we've made warped to such dystopic proportions? uwu But the war, climate change, and economic inequality stuff, big true. Also, increasingly digital society is moving the average person into the world of physically isolated sexless hydrogen that people like me have been in the whole time, which must be difficult. x3 Look to Japan; the future!

ajay_sibri04 7y ago

I'm currently in high school and yes we are very angry about what is being handed to us. Bad job prospects, vilifying success, socialism, over priced college, loss of privacy, increased racial divide in society etc. I am determined though to persevere and change the world for the better.

hef19898 7y ago
Upvoted you for you being rather young, so benefit of doubt all that. Just one thing, expensive college is a purely US thing, except some MBA programs most universities in Europe are practically free. So, that thing about socialism. Free, public healthcare as well as education are what some in the US might consider "socialism". So there you might have an issue with your reasoning.
- yardie 7y ago
  Part of the reason for the recent protests in Paris was because the government wanted to add fees (though comparatively small) to university tuition. This was viewed as another slap in the face of lawmakers (many of whom went to university for free) wanting to pull the ladder up behind them.
  - hef19898 7y ago
    True, Germany got rid of tuition fees after a short period. Still a far cry from the US, so.
- ajay_sibri04 7y ago
  I don't think college should be free. It is a business after all. But the price of college in the US is definitely inflated. People used to be able to pay for the tuition by taking a summer job or going one semester on, and one semester working. I just think college should be priced affordably for middle class people and that there should be more merit based aid for lower class people. I have some friends I play video games with online who have went to college and they have all said that it really wasn't that useful as far as education is concerned, but does get you into the 'club' to apply for better jobs.

hcurtiss 7y ago

I just don't understand these kinds of comments. On every measurable metric, there has literally never been a better time to be alive and living in America. It seems to me that people's expectations are outpacing our relatively abundant affluence. That may still be a problem, but it has little to do with "what we're being handed for a future." My suspicion is that hit has more to do with the rise in social media and the fact that we're constantly comparing our lives to other people's highlight reels.

SolaceQuantum 7y ago
"On every measurable metric, there has literally never been a better time to be alive and living in America." I mean, we have a measurable metric right now- young people dying in high rates, suicide is up, average life expectancy is down?
- TurkishPoptart 7y ago
  If this were Reddit, I would like to wave away parent's argument with an "OK, Boomer" meme. I think it's simply propaganda that "things are better now then they ever were before! wee!" The statistics shown here and highlighted by other posters make this clear: we have many problems.
  - FussyZeus 7y ago
    And things are always better in the developed world, that doesn't inherently mean people fortunate enough to live here instead of say, rural Africa, have nothing to fucking complain about. First world problems are still problems afterall. Yeah the people living in isolated hunter-gatherer societies most assuredly have it worse, but just because you're in America with a car you can barely afford and are eating a steady diet of boiled rice in a studio apartment with no furniture in it, and are thusly compared with that hunter gatherer person doing okay, doesn't mean you have no right to complain that your boss, Jeff Bezos has over TWENTY homes all worth more than you'll ever make in a LIFETIME.
NathanKP 7y ago

subsaharancoder 7y ago

Children are born with optimism for life even in the face of daunting circumstances, I see this in my kids all the time and I'm raising them to understand that life has its challenges but that they have opportunities to be productive and impactful as members of society. We do a disservice and a wrong to our children when all we speak to them is despair and apocalyptic outcomes, we destroy their hope in life and value of fellow humans..

Reedx 7y ago

Or maybe because they are being frightened endlessly by fear mongering news and social media, which favors outrage and gives an unbalanced view of reality. Things to be optimistic about[1] don't get much attention. The future you're fearing may or may not happen. But endless pessimism is a killer regardless. It's a self-fulfilling, terrible strategy if we want things to improve. 1. https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/ https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/

FussyZeus 7y ago
Cherry picking positive news is literally no different than what you're accusing the mainstream news of doing. It's just the other direction. I'm glad diseases are being stamped out in Africa. Here in America the anti-vax movement is bringing them back, and I have friends shelling out hundreds of dollars for generic epipens that cost pennies to make. Automating naivety with an algorithm doesn't change what it is.