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Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

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Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#51

Post by linguae »

mindcrime wrote: post #48
techteach00 wrote: post #16

Deeply pessimistic. I'm of the view that the powerful are extracting less and less capital from the average person. It doesn't seem worth it to them. So housing and now cars are marketed to the rich and wealthy, we're losing things we took for granted. Anonymity is basically dead on the internet. Worse being they don't just want my ID to participate but scans of my face, God knows who they are selling this data too.…

Speaking as Libertarian, I generally agree that the two major parties have been more alike than different over most of my 50+ years on Earth. But right this minute, I think the Dark Enlightenment dorks and their neo-fascist bullshit have completely captured the Republican Party to the extent that the Democrats are clearly much more favorable. For my part, I'm at a place I never thought I'd be: actively donating money…

I feel the exact same way. I was a Ron Paul Republican from 2007 (when I became old enough to vote) until 2016, when I changed my registration to “no party preference” in the aftermath of the GOP primary results. It hasn’t gotten to the point that I started donating to Democrats, but I’ve found myself voting for Democrats in recent elections. My stance these days is that as nice as it would be to have libertarian governance, rule of law and maintaining our liberal institutions is much more important, and if it means voting for Democrats, then I’d rather deal with a bigger government than I’d like than the chaos we’re seeing now.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#53

Post by [deleted] »

conception wrote: post #41
techteach00 wrote: post #16

Deeply pessimistic. I'm of the view that the powerful are extracting less and less capital from the average person. It doesn't seem worth it to them. So housing and now cars are marketed to the rich and wealthy, we're losing things we took for granted. Anonymity is basically dead on the internet. Worse being they don't just want my ID to participate but scans of my face, God knows who they are selling this data too.…

Generally agree but I can’t take both parties as being the same seriously. You honestly believe the world stage would be the same with a different administration today?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#54

Post by senordevnyc »

I’m extremely optimistic for the future of humanity, despite the huge challenges we face.

To illustrate how far humanity as a species has come, I’ve posed this question a number of times to people:

If you had to be reborn as a random human somewhere on earth, and the only thing you get to pick is the year you’re born, what year would you choose? You don’t get to pick your country, race, gender, sexuality, intelligence, socioeconomic status, etc, only the year.

What would you choose?

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#55

Post by senordevnyc »

thelastgallon wrote: post #5

No, it feels like its game over for most people. No more lives left to play. Most people whose parents went from farming --> jobs now feel their parents made a fatal mistake. There is nothing for them to fall back on. It is hard to go back to farming. Which is made worse because there is no land, the lands for sold for a pittance, which now costs a substantial amount of money.

I’ve never met a single person who wishes they were a farmer, but I’ve met a lot of farmer’s kids who left for other careers and have no desire to return.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#57

Post by JohnDSDev »

senordevnyc wrote: post #54

I’m extremely optimistic for the future of humanity, despite the huge challenges we face. To illustrate how far humanity as a species has come, I’ve posed this question a number of times to people: If you had to be reborn as a random human somewhere on earth, and the only thing you get to pick is the year you’re born, what year would you choose? You don’t get to pick your country, race, gender, sexuality, intelligenc…

I quite like this question. I'm not exactly sure, but either a but in the past to get to watch the internet start, or far in the future like 4000 or something.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#58

Post by senordevnyc »

groan wrote: post #49
mindcrime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The surge of authoritarianism is a response from people who, much like you, have tried to unplug but who realized closing their eyes does not stop the changing world around them. I'm not really following your logic there. If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the…

> If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the proximate cause of the surge of enthusiasm for authoritarianism. No, I am saying they tried the thing you tried, and realized they are no better off for it, and eventually landed upon the hypothetical that authoritarianism…

This doesn’t describe a single Trump voter or MAGA person I know, personally.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#59

Post by AndrewKemendo »

conception wrote: post #41
techteach00 wrote: post #16

Deeply pessimistic. I'm of the view that the powerful are extracting less and less capital from the average person. It doesn't seem worth it to them. So housing and now cars are marketed to the rich and wealthy, we're losing things we took for granted. Anonymity is basically dead on the internet. Worse being they don't just want my ID to participate but scans of my face, God knows who they are selling this data too.…

Generally agree but I can’t take both parties as being the same seriously. You honestly believe the world stage would be the same with a different administration today?

If you view them side to side with no other context then yeah there’s massive differences but if you zoom out and look at the entire total possible configurations of politics they’re both extremely right wing compared to what is possible. The US has no competitive left wing.

For example I voted for Claudia de la Cruz in the 2024 election because she was on the ballot in Virginia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_De_la_Cruz_2024_presid...

There’s no party, neither the Democratic and especially not the Republican Party would come anywhere near these policy positions and I’m in support of 100% of the positions they seem obvious to me as correct.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#60

Post by dudul »

conception wrote: post #41
techteach00 wrote: post #16

Deeply pessimistic. I'm of the view that the powerful are extracting less and less capital from the average person. It doesn't seem worth it to them. So housing and now cars are marketed to the rich and wealthy, we're losing things we took for granted. Anonymity is basically dead on the internet. Worse being they don't just want my ID to participate but scans of my face, God knows who they are selling this data too.…

Generally agree but I can’t take both parties as being the same seriously. You honestly believe the world stage would be the same with a different administration today?

You're being fooled by the public platforms and the communication stunts. Yes the world stage would be pretty much the same with a different administration.

The parties are basically lighting rods at this point. They claim that they're for this or against that, they would do this, we should do that, and if only we... blablabla. But in the end, nothing concrete ever changes. Sure there are adjustments here or there that quickly get canceled by the next administration, but nothing systemic is ever really changing.

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