All of this push for global fascism and tightening of chains across the world is actually an extinction burst that’s happening precisely because the world is waking up. The oligarchs see one last chance to hold onto power before the common people flip the board.

Sometimes it’s just enough to be kind myself and get a genuine smile in reaction.

Being kind to cashiers, giving up my seat to the elderly, holding the door for someone or having a trans person seem relieved and sit next to me on the train because the see the flag on my jacket.

It’s the little things that keep our society together.

I think Gen X and younger are, overall, better at dealing with emotional issues than their parents and grandparents. Granted, there’s definitely still room for improvement.

But it’s no longer considered socially acceptable (much less preferable) to use your kids as a piñata to vent your anger on instead of seeking therapy. It’s also far more common for parents to show physical and verbal affection toward their kids. Something my (boomer) parents virtually never did. Probably because that’s the dynamic they were taught.

I dont have any firm evidence to back this claim up, but conversations with parents that are relatively close to me in age has shown that I’m not the only one who has observed this trend.

I’m more interested in what the people on the street have to say. They are closer to keeping or abandoning hope than keyboardists could ever be. Whether federated or not. That being said, the elections in eastern Europe and South America turning leftwards gives me hope that the North American elections, soon to come, will turn the same way. The whole world needs a bit of a breather and way less noise.

Every day I learn a little more about the world and that generally fills me with optimism, depending on what I learn. If I learn about history, it helps make sense of the current situation. If I learn about psychology it helps me understand myself and others. If I learn about science it helps with my job and all of the above. If I spend a lot of time in news stories and politics it seems to have the opposite effect and I become pessimistic and negative. I’m limiting my exposure to those things. I stopped using mainstream social media 10+ years ago. I go out in nature, do exercise, sleep, eat vegetables and cook food with my daughter. We make fun of each other and share jokes. If I can do all of those things consistently, I can be optimistic. It’s not always possible and that’s also to be expected.

Trump is old and sick. Putin is old and sick. Xi is at least old. Most troublemakers are way beyond. It’s just a question of waiting them out.

In France, high-schoolers are launching a revolution, new generation rocks!!

Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street There are plenty of street cats where I live

Even the broken clock that is Jordan Peterson can be right every once in a blue moon

There’s one thing that’s happened this year that inspired actual hope in me. (I am generally a cynic, having read too many history books.)

I made a video about Flock buying out their employees and, in researching it, learned that Flock (as of a month ago) had lost nearly 400 contracts in 36 states. An independent outfit is tracking it because, obviously, major media outlets don’t want to talk about the unpopularity of fascism.

Thing is, this accelerated last summer, which means a lot of people who are otherwise apolitical are learning about Flock, going to city council meetings and doing boring, pedestrian and effective political organizing for a good cause.

That is objectively a good thing.

Generally speaking, the world just keeps getting better in ways that matter.

Despite all the wars going on, this is probably the most peaceful time in human history; we just see every single conflict thanks to modern telecommunication.

There has always been terrible stuff going on in the world. Very little of the terrible things in the modern day are really new, it’s just a new form. And usually the new form is a bit friendlier than the last one.

Frankly, how bad the past was makes it hard to be anything but optimistic about the future. Overall, the best time to be alive in all of history is right now. There’s no reason to think that trend won’t continue.

We’ll defeat diseases, and get more efficient at producing the things we need, and develop technologies to solve problems. Sure, a lot of that will be expensive for a while if capitalism persists, but going into debt for cancer treatment beats dying of cancer.

And it’s never been easier to coordinate with such a huge number of people. We have the tools at our disposal to actively make the future better. We have to use them, but we do have them. And it really seems like people are starting to get interested in using those tools, and they’re only getting easier to use, which means with a little elbow grease we could progress from “better, year over year” to “actually good”.

The boomers are dying, the techbro bubble is almost ready to pop, the kids are organizing. I feel privileged to get to witness the next 50 years.

Global warming cannot cause humanity to go extinct. Nuclear war cannot cause humanity to go extinct. Population decline cannot cause humanity to go extinct.

If you think any of these are possible, you do not know enough about global warming, nuclear war, or population decline.

In short, things may get very, very, very bad. But hope springs eternal. And there are very, very few scenarios that won’t leave many millions of people alive to pick up the pieces.

two things

1. one day he’ll die
2. one day I’ll die

that’s about it.

Getting some historical perspective is amazing. We live in one of the best times on earth, possibly the best ever. Most people just don’t realise it because we don’t have the lifespan to experience the difference ourselves.

This is a bit trite, but there are a lot of delicious foods to eat, and so many cats to give scritches to. Concerts to hear. Songs to sing.

I was at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix and they had a violin made out of literal trash. It’s a testament to people’s resilience and yearning to create. There are so many wonderfully creative people out there, I’ll never have the time to consume the every good bit, especially when I feel well enough to create stuff of my own. I love seeing the things people, especially people I care about, create.

I am surprisingly hard to destroy.