We're on the very edge of a new age of feudalism which, as we speak, is being ushered in by murderous fascists and their axiomatic drive to start civil wars.
A small cabal of billionaires totally stopped caring, or at least pretending to do so, about the common folks. They really want all the money and all the power in the world, and it's now within their reach.
The "opposition" is either complacent or terrified.
this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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It is off. The US empire is falling, and falling fast. They are lashing out in all directions, and hurting almost everyone. People credit Trump too much for the chaos, that is really frustrating. Yes, he has a lot of power to do idiotic things, but there is an armada of people controlling things and contributing here. Trump is mostly the facade. Never forget that Americans wanted this. They knew what he was, but they still voted for the republican fascists.
The same authoritarian development is happening in a lot of democracies at the moment. It's honestly very worrying. I also feel quite powerless.
Yeah, since 2014 when they turned the algorithms on.
It is a downward spiral. Worry, loss, wory, loss, worry andvmore loss.
Loss of future perspectives, worry over basic needs, losd of health, worry over future of kids, loss of mental health, worry over wars, etc.
Oh yeah. Not sure how much is a us in particular thing. I think the last thing I complained about here is paper towels but I really feel like everything. Absolutely everything is just not working as well as it used to. I blame worker reductions and things just not being maintained as well. I think they are requiring folk to do more such that they can't do it as well and they have lost knowledge on how things work but penny pinching on maintenance. Combined with little to no real oversight and by and large inspection is done internally and that is a good place to pinch pennies. I sorta feel like the country is going like the soviet union. Its like we talked about how inefficiently they ran but they still had cities and people working their jobs and going about life. Similarly we do and people are like see its fine because things are still happening. Its such a slow degredation.
Things fall apart more. Everything is breaking down and nobody gives a shit because there's soo many things breaking at the same time.
In the chase for efficiency offered by computers and internet, everything from physical products to services are now depending on some broken code that only works when conditions are optimal. The systemic dependency between seemingly unrelated events is insane.
It's been off since covid for me. 2020 is where I lost a lot of faith in humanity. Masks off (literally) on selfishness, greed, fascism, and anti-intellectualism. Corruption blatantly on display. Decorum and civility have taken a massive hit. It's been downhill since.
2016 for me. The moment a person like Donald Trump can win a presidential election is the moment that decency was completely dead. The worst people were suddenly empowered to be as terrible as they want to be. They felt justified in their racism, bigotry, disrespect for others, and hatred. It’s only been stoked more and more since then. Then, yes, Covid was the gasoline on the fire.
whats funny is it happened close to brexit. I had a friend were I was making fun like but I will be sober in the morning thing because we would just have the term and be done with it but then I found out it was not so temporary.
I suspect that living through the downfall of the empire du jour has something to do with it. It affects everyone worldwide.
I stopped caring about whatever bullshit Trump is saying and I feel quite good.
If you are feeling like something is off, it's because you have anxiety, caused by news on social media and TV.
Easy fix for that.
When did you turn off your phone for a day?
It's interesting that this comment is getting downvotes. Lately i've been seeing a lot of people trying to pass off bad mental health as valid political discourse, as if being healthy was only possible in a perfectly fair world which has never existed and probably never will.
Say what you will about the state of the world, but anxiety is not normal. Having depressive thoughts all the time is not normal. Living in profound nostalgia of everything from your childhood is not normal. Don't normalize bad mental health, it's not the world's fault, cause it's not a fault but it sure is your responsibility to fix.
Then when you're stable and healthy, that's when the real fighting back starts. Look at the assholes turning the world into shit, they have amazing agency and executive control. How are you going to beat that when you're too anxious to pick up a phone and too depressed to leave your own bed ?
I know. I'm 50 so I grew up before social media. It wasn't like this. Not even close. I was trying to fit in, sure. But this social media thing has made a lot of users actually depressed for real. The comparison with other people is the worst part. People you never even meet.
It would be very good to take a long break from it for most people.
At least in the US, a big factor is wondering just how fucked up things are going to be on November 4. Or if the puppet masters will conspire to cancel the general election entirely. Makes it hard to plan for the future, wondering if an actual revolution is unfolding.
Nah, i dont think they are that worried. They are already in full gerrymander mode right now to get ready for it. The other option could happen, but that one will really have people looking so I am sure they would rather avoid it as much as possible. Its the nuclear option.
I get the feeling that things will simmer until October-ish, and if they get the hint that the vote might not go their way, things will start to happen very fast. A conservative will abandon democracy before their party.
Usually the balance of dark and light carry the day. Lately, it's been more dark and the balance seems out of whack. I feel that too (I was going to say "in my bones").
Everyone seems scared to talk about what they’re scared of even though we all know. Even around the like-minded. It’s like saying it out loud makes it real and worse.
I think it's mass anxiety caused by uncertainty across the board.
Political uncertainty as far right and authoritarian movements pick up speed in various democracies.
Labor market uncertainties due to companies tightening their belts in the face of economic uncertainty, and trying to replace workers with AI.
Economic uncertainty due to wars disrupting energy and supply chains and the looming specter of recession/depression.
Geopolitical uncertainty due to several ongoing wars and several tense situations that could devolve into actual conflicts, not to mention the major paradigm shift happening where the US is actively ceding its position as a global leader to China.
Climate uncertainty as we refuse to address climate change and burn mountains of coal to power plagiarized chat bots.
The weirdest part is everybody is for the most part pretending everything is normal while silently being anxious on their own.
I’m seeing it. A lot of people are shutting down discussing it anything…usually with the line of …I don’t talk politics.
The best you can do is remind them that their voice counts. They count. That we are communities that outnumber the rich and oppressive. That they can take small protections with their privacy.
We are not powerless.
Honestly glad it not just me that realizes everyone is pretending
Honestly a lot of people around me are not pretending when you talk to them. They acknowledge it. They just dont know what to do on an individual level, trapped in their individual situations.
That's been my experience as well. A lot of discussions that used to be an occasional hypothetical now happen more frequently and are a lot more brass tacky:
- what do we do if the federal government collapses / splits? Flee or hunker down? Either way, where?
- How are we going to get food and water over the next few years?
- how do we keep ourselves and our neighbors safe from the snatchers?
- how do we maintain supply lines for medications over the next few years?
We are all long on questions and short on answers. but the questions are bubbling up to the surface more quickly as more people catch on to the fact that the US is out of control. Donald Trump is literally building a bunker compound, or trying to anyway. He's not leaving that office without a fight. The situation on the ground in the US is bad right now, but it's going to get a lot uglier before it gets better.
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another virus is going around, people around me are getting sore throat, mildly painful, because people arnt vaccinating or isolating when they are sick, but not sick like flu, covid, or the cold. i do not want another covid infection, like i did last sept.
Had it more times than I can remember at this point
Same. At least a dozen.
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The largest empire in the history of the world is in the middle stages of Mad King Disease, that sort of thing has ripple effects.
It's not just the king, it's ~50% of the population.
¯\(ツ)/¯
Madness isn't a real disease. The reasons humans act the way they do that give rise to fascist takeovers are manifold and complex, and boiling them all down to "those people are just crazy" is tempting because it reduces an overwhelming and complex problem down to a diagnosis that we can wrap our little brains around, but it does nothing to explain or fix the problem. I think it actually makes the problem worse because it feels like a conclusive answer when it's not. I get the impulse, I really do, but I wish we would stop.
Feels like everyone I know, myself included, has had some kind of mental breakdown in the past few months. Life has become fucking crazy.
The sun is too damn high!
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