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> No optimism for you! This is a weird observation to make. Optimism is by far the dominant ideology in our society and has been for well over 300 or so years.

> No optimism for you! This is a weird observation to make. Optimism is by far the dominant ideology in our society and has been for well over 300 or so years. Even currently when you browse mainstream media news postings the vast majority of the articles focus on how mild omicron is and how people should get to back to work. I'll agree that the media makes plenty of money pedaling anxiety but real pessimism is nearly forbidden in everything from mainstream media to academic philosophy (seriously, Schopenhauer is basically it and he's much more of a buddhist than a true pessimist, the majority of German pessimist thinker remain untranslated in English). Reacting to any observation of concerning data as "against optimism!" speaks more to a prevalence of hard denial than the rise of true pessimism.

systemvoltage 5y ago
I live in Berkeley and this is basically 90% of the people I meet, see and interact with. Btw they’re also almost all vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. I felt awkward having a sausage pizza yesterday with a friend. So my observations are at the very lease factual in my area, pretty sure factual across the Democratic Party. Progressivism isn’t what it used to be (Obama era).
- time_to_smile 5y ago
  > vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. How does this contradict optimism? They're doing these things because they believe this will lead to a brighter, better future. Just because they disagree with your path to get there doesn't mean they are pessimists.
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    I wasn't speaking about optimism, but just the general culture here. I am fine with vegetarianism or whatever, but making me feel awkward and imposing that on others is bothersome. "I feel like eating meat is immoral"... while I am eating a sausage pizza. I should clarify, he wasn't a proper friend, just a co-worker. They don't want a brighter future. That's the message I am getting. In some ways that's pessimism, no? One more anecdote - I had a someone from work come over to help me for moving furniture. He goes "Why do you want to have kids? Do you really want to bring them into this world?". It's this pervasive sense of pessimissm that emanates from this culture. I am pretty convinced.

systemvoltage 5y ago

I live in Berkeley and this is basically 90% of the people I meet, see and interact with. Btw they’re also almost all vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. I felt awkward having a sausage pizza yesterday with a friend. So my observations are at the very lease factual in my area, pretty sure factual across the Democratic Party. Progressivism isn’t what it used to be (Obama era).

time_to_smile 5y ago
> vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. How does this contradict optimism? They're doing these things because they believe this will lead to a brighter, better future. Just because they disagree with your path to get there doesn't mean they are pessimists.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  I wasn't speaking about optimism, but just the general culture here. I am fine with vegetarianism or whatever, but making me feel awkward and imposing that on others is bothersome. "I feel like eating meat is immoral"... while I am eating a sausage pizza. I should clarify, he wasn't a proper friend, just a co-worker. They don't want a brighter future. That's the message I am getting. In some ways that's pessimism, no? One more anecdote - I had a someone from work come over to help me for moving furniture. He goes "Why do you want to have kids? Do you really want to bring them into this world?". It's this pervasive sense of pessimissm that emanates from this culture. I am pretty convinced.