PumpkinDrama

It feels like the deeper you dig into how things really work, the more depressing it gets. Curious what examples people have.

I’ve been thinking about how a lot of science fiction portrays futures that feel far more optimistic than the world we actually seem to be heading toward. In real life we’re dealing with many simultaneous, compounding crises: AI being deployed in ways that cannibalize society under capitalism, an ever increasing cost of living with fixed wages, declining birth rates (people replacing children with pets/mascots), pollution, mass extinction of biodiversity, climate change, etc. It feels less like “one big problem” and more like death by a thousand cuts. By contrast, in most SF stories there are usually one or two central issues to grapple with—an evil AI, an empire, climate collapse—but rarely the overwhelming stack of interlocking failures we see in reality. Even dystopias often feel strangely cleaner and more legible than real life. Is there a known psychological explanation for this? Something like optimism bias, positivity bias, planning fallacy, or cognitive overconfidence, where we systematically underestimate complexity and overestimate humanity’s ability to coordinate and improve? Or is it more about narrative constraints and what the human mind can comfortably model? Curious if there’s research, theory, or even just good takes on why imagined futures so often look “better” than the present.

Now there’s NodeBB. Although it doesn’t yet have an Android app, I’m excited about the potential return of old-school forum software that it represents.

I haven’t voted in years after reading the argument that voting mainly serves to slot you into a cohort, making it easier for governments and corporations to profile you. Recently I heard someone argue the opposite angle: don’t vote because none of the politicians deserve you. A comedian mocked that stance as basically holding your breath when you are angry. Now I’m conflicted because both arguments feel compelling in different ways. What are your strongest arguments for voting, or against voting?

I believe I heard something about Maria Teresa not treating his patients and telling them pain were caresses from the lord or something like that and moving donations to private accounts.

I think even a bad translation is better than no translation at all, but for some reason the majority of books don’t seem to get translated. Why is that?

You know that feeling when something gets said so many times that people just start treating it as fact, no matter how shaky it was in the first place? Like, Santa didn’t make the cut, but God sure did. And remember right after 9/11, before they got the memo, how TV channels kept saying first responders had heard a bomb in the base of the building and later they all started saying it collapsed due to structural damage from the plane impact, and it just got accepted with no one bothering to question it? What are other examples of things that basically became true through repetition alone?

You know that feeling when something gets said so many times that people just start treating it as fact, no matter how shaky it was in the first place? Like, Santa didn’t make the cut, but God sure did. And remember right after 9/11, before they got the memo, how TV channels kept saying first responders had heard a bomb in the base of the building and later they all started saying it had had collapsed to to the structural damage from the plane impact, and it just was accepted and no one bother questioning it? What are other examples of things that basically became true through repetition alone? More along these lines Title: What became “true” just from endless repetition? Body: You know that feeling when something gets said so many times that people just start treating it as fact, no matter how shaky it was in the first place? Like, Santa didn’t make the cut, but God sure did. And remember right after 9/11, before they got the memo, how TV channels kept saying first responders had heard a bomb in the base of the building and later they all started saying it collapsed due to structural damage from the plane impact, and it just got accepted with no one bothering to question it? What are other examples of things that basically became true through repetition alone?

I keep seeing data showing that a huge share of people around 30 can’t afford their own home anymore, not just in the US, but in parts of the EU as well. It seems like homeownership at that age used to be normal, or at least achievable, but now it feels almost out of reach for an entire generation. If people can’t afford a home, how are they supposed to start a family? And without stable conditions for forming households, what does that mean for birth rates, future labor force size, and long-term sustainability of things like pensions, healthcare systems, and public infrastructure? Are countries going to end up relying almost entirely on immigration just to maintain population and tax bases? Curious to know what people think. How do you feel about all these and what are the long-term consequences if this continues? Related What Percentage of Salary Is Spent on Renting a One-Bedroom Apartment in European Cities? Americans can’t afford their cars any more and Wall Street is worried