First of all, I’m already paranoid about these deepfakes, it’s damn hard for me to keep a picture of what’s happening in the world in my head. No, of course, I understand the basis and the coming new world order, but it is simply absurd, what kind of delusional world with robots is this, which quite quickly can, and most likely will provoke a machine uprising?
I know I didn’t explain well like some freak, but I’m tired, I often have panic attacks and wild fears, sometimes I wake up like I’ve had a heart attack but I’m alive.
The machine uprising is bullshit. Sorry.A few gigabytes of linear algebra are not remotely sentient. It is a remarkable Chinese room, but it is a Chinese room after all.
Behind the bullshit are the usual faces. Rich fuckers, imperialists, egoists, people who want to be praised as living gods while their serfs suffer. History of mankind in a nutshell.
If you want to be scared, be scared about WW3, climate change, ecosystem collapse, that kind of thing. Or even the trivial-ization of propaganda with AI. But the AI is not the issue, we had propaganda telling you your fellow human is an animal before, worked just fine.
What helps? Go out, do things. It feels futile, it probably is, but it helps. Go volunteer, help a political movement, that kind of thing.
I find not being on social media, limiting my exposure to the news and staying outdoors (planting, working with nature and people, immersing myself with live art like live music or a play) makes the difference.
Things start looking bleak when most of my activity and time is the screen.
There is also something to be said about overwhelming the visual stimulus and and the subsequent degredation of mental health.
That would be the first thing I would do.
However, the killer ingredient is to learn how to sit alone -no book, no activity. To just sit and learn how to be. You will see the benefits over prolonged disciplined practice.
I find it much easier to do the 2nd thing once the 1st thing is in order.
I’ll tell you the same thing I tell myself and others like us,
Evil wouldn’t be trying so hard if they didn’t feel they were in danger. We’ve made incredible strides in justice for the past two hundred years and they’re not going to stop us. The road has always been rocky. I’m an atheist, but love your neighbor and do God’s work, God does no work on their own but only through your hands. Make your hand loving hands. Be well my friend.
Touch grass.
No, seriously. I know most people use this as an insult but in this case I think there is a lot of benefit to re-balancing your time and getting offline. As a general rule, the further away the turmoil, the less impact you can actually have on its outcome. So why build up anxiety over something that is limited to your ability to control? Take that anxiety and put it in your immediate world. Your home, your physical health (diet, meditation, sleep, exercise). Get new hobbies like learning a musical instrument, go out on hikes. Find locla community.
I get one may not wish to bury their head in the sand but you need to strike a balance. If you still want to get active, then go to protests and join local political communities that align with your beliefs. It helps a lot. Focus on what you have more agency over and you’ll feel better. Things like diet and exercise and getting out into nature all directly reduce anxiety and improve mood; that’s a fact.
Very much this. Just going for walks is great. Meditation is great.
And people need to stop consuming political content in social media. Read/watch the news, sure. Especially LOCAL news - find opportunities to actually DO something. Do it intentionally, not passively
Letting oneself be constantly exposed to outrage and doomerism is just going to be more incapacitating than activating.
This, and also it’s okay to go a little crazy, as a treat. Get like, an unhealthy obsession with sea turtles or really into witchcraft or something. We went a little crazy about making sourdough during the pandemic and it was kinda nice.
Lemmy told me that I’d get kidnapped by ICE the moment a non-white person stepped outside…
I went to a post office in a predominently white neighborhood to apply for a passport (earliest available appointment cuz cities are always filled), the guy working at the post office was a brown guy with an “Indian Accent” (which I did not expect to be working in a white neighbood btw).
I’m ethnically Chinese and did not get harassed by anyone… Lemmy would have you believe there are lynch mobs and white-hooded KKK people trying to shoot you on sight, did not happen…
Also none of my family had been harassed by ICE yet… I heard some relatives and friends of my parent’s social circle cross the border just fine… my aunts be going on vacations and cruises… (my parents so jealous of their wealth and keep telling me “why can’t you be like them” 😭)
That being said, maybe me being Chinese and not Hispanic/Latino made the risks lower, not trying to invalidate the fears that other more vulnerable communities might face.
every minority gets its own kind of racism. asians were the target during covid, muslims took their turn after 9/11, hispanics are now the focus. and black people are always in between.
I agree 100%.
No crisis was ever averted through worry, anxiety or panic.
And just to add, I don’t mean to say that worry and anxiety aren’t useful states of mind – they can help you prepare for uncertainty in the future, but it HAS to be kept in check or it will control you instead of being a signal to action as I think was intended.
Read lots of history. Humans have not changed in thousands of years. Though the details of our current problems may be new, the underlying motivations and mechanisms are the same as the have always been. And despite all of our problems, the trend line of humanity is moving in the right direction. Try to remember that progress is not linear. Rather, it is a constant pattern of three steps forward, two steps back.
Try to remember that progress is not linear. Rather, it is a constant pattern of three steps forward, two steps back.
That’s funny, because I have studied history and the idea of “progress” being inevitable is an article of faith by people who happened to live in times where technology changes quickly. As you point out, society is much more sticky.
Human history features century-long periods of stagnation and decline. That’s the norm. And there is no reason to think that can’t happen again.
I also want to point out that successful social movements are often aligned with the interests of capital. For example feminism expands the labor force. I think the role of capital’s acquiescence or encouragement is an often overlooked engine of social “progress” in the West.
I guess what I’m saying is History can be comforting, so long as you ignore philosophy.
it’s interesting you point out successful social movements are often aligned with capital, as the major totalitarian thing today, action against illegal immigrants, is action against expanding the labor force. it gets society invested in giving capital power though
Reading history gives me so much comfort, I can’t recommend it enough.
you aren’t that important.
the sooner you realize this, the happier your entire life will be.
I don’t know how good of advice this is, but I’ll share what I’m doing.
I believe in “don’t be scared; be prepared” and “I’m not paranoid; I’m ahead of the curve.”
TL; DR: make a hobby out of your fear.
Basically, there’s some comfort in learning about how to secure your well-being, whether it’s by having safe places to turn to, learning how to protect your home and family, securing your tech from spying, having a “kill switch” for your phone, etc. (like GrapheneOS’s duress pin).
Join like-minded communities. Do things that give you back peace of mind.
Edit: I don’t mean to make it an obsession, though; I’m saying that you can turn what frightens you into your motivation to seek positive outcomes.
Your feelings of dread are legitimate, but they should pick you up, not push you down.
Compartmentalize. Focus on things you can directly control first. Yourself, the people you care about, and your surroundings. Then put everything else into different compartment tiers. Put a priority number on each compartment based on how you are able to actually influence/change the things there. Don’t waste your time/effort/emotions on the last priority compartments. Only give it them the time if you have any left after the highest priority ones.
I also have many significant concerns that bother me constantly
Ask yourself this on a regular basis: Does what I see happening in my never ending doomfeed reflect the reality of what I see in my everyday surroundings?
Media tends to be negative. News outlets use fear and anger to keep you engaged and manipulate your opinion. It’s a proven and demonstrable psychological tactic. Places like this tend to be populated by people who have been manipulated and are regurgitating and amplifying the negative talking points. Once you stop being one of those people, the self-perpetuating feedback loop of doom becomes very evident, and you begin to understand that it’s a microcosm of very skewed perceptions that don’t reflect the real world.
Is there bad shit happening in the world? Of course. Is there good shit? Absolutely but you’re not going to read nearly as much about it because positive stories don’t generate clicks and revenue. Are there bad people in positions of power and influence? Absolutely. Are there good people pushing back against them? Yes, and again…clicks and revenue.
You are hooked into a device that feeds you mostly negative information, convinces you that there is little to no positivity to be found, and encourages you to spread that message to others. This is the source of your anxiety.
History has shown that people continue to survive and prosper through turbulent times. Governments rise and fall. Borders are drawn and redrawn. Wars break out and then end. New technologies develop, disrupt, and eventually integrate. We take notice, mourn tragedy when appropriate, and get on with our day to day lives.
Society isn’t going to collapse. Put this thing down and go spend the rest of the day on a hiking trail.
Action.
Get organised. Find a group to join, action to take, a specific cause you feel passionate about.
I won’t pretend it’s easy - social anxiety is real and really difficult - but we’re social mammals and we do better as part of a group. Helping others is always the best way to help yourself.
just have to understand the world has always been a place where things are always rapidly changing that stress us out. the difference between now and 100 years ago is the pace of communication today, so I understand the frustration.
I guess there is no real easy answer for your question, but developing relationships with people offline and just accepting the things you cannot change will do wonders for your mental health.
You can just take a day, week, month, year, whole life, and literally just ignore ALL of that shit. Just turn off your shit and go outside.
Get perspective. We are living in one of the best times in the history of the human race. Tell me a time before 1950 going back 300 000 years that you’d rather live in.
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