Asklemmy

People have been saying the world is ending through all recorded history. At best, it's more credible now that we have scientific ways, but mostly it's bellyaching not based in reality.

I suspect old people and their rose-tinted memories might be the reason. If you're trying to decide if things are worse, better or the same as they used to be, and you just go by hearsay, it's always going to be skewed towards things getting worse. Then, just extrapolate forward, and the end is neigh.

Empirically things have gotten so much better over living memory in the West it's not even funny, and things have been more of a random walk over the rest of human history.

Some 25 years at least, that I can remember. Been there for 1999 Nostradamus, 2012 Mayan Calendar, Nibiru or some other rogue planet colliding with the Earth in ~~2014~~ ~~2015~~ ~~2016~~ 2017

Half a century and counting

Since I was a child. Religious nutjobs in and around my family. Then I became an adult and it's all I see from people in response to news.

It gets old so I try to tune out, remove toxic people, and focus on enjoying my life.

Every time I start a new game in Zomboid.

Christian apocalyptic belief has been poisoning right wing politics in the US for ages now. Things like relations with Israel have been heavily warped by it.

I grew up in a cult, so my whole life.

*laughs in evangelical upbringing

More often lately...

Even the ancient Greeks used to complain that society was devolving. They talked about earlier generations being gold and now they've devolved to iron.

As genx, we all thought we would die like war games, but i don't remember anyone calling it end times.

I like to pull this list up whenever someone starts talking about how the signs are clear that the end is near: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

Forever.

People have been saying this shit in the 500s and before

May-be a couple of time as a joke when turning to 2012 with the Maya end of the world coming, and when the coffee machine breaks at work it's always an end-times level of traged"

My entire life. I grew up attending Christian schools where we were taught that we're living in the end times.

Pretty much from the very beginning.

Since I got my first taste of the Hittites battle formations. 0/10, would not do again.

I was born in 1984 so 40 years.

Since I learned of the existence of Jehovah's Witnesses, nearly 40 years ago.

I don't recall anyone ever saying that, unless it was to make a joke.

At least since the 90's.

The only time I've had someone tell me we're living through the end times was during the whole 2012 thing, but they said it as a joke.

On the other hand, I've always had a feeling, even before I was a teenager and started becoming aware of the world outside my little bubble, that humanity won't be around by 2100. I very much hope I'm wrong.

People have been saying it as long as we've had language.

Since the beginning.

I just learned today that the magnetic poles are gonna swap in the 2040s, so that's my guess.

I don’t think normal people said it in the mid-to-late 90’s. Like, the Soviet Union was (seemingly) finishing splintering and there was war and strife but there was a sense the world could manage it through diplomacy. The Montréal Protocol was already showing success. Most new technology still seemed promising instead of dystopian.

I’m not saying anyone was right or that we’re actually in the end times. Most of history involves muddling through crises. But it felt like global strife was at a low point and we could actually achieve global consensus on important issues.