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Deeply Unhappy Gen Z and Millennials Cause U.S. to Drop in Global Happiness Ranking (gizmodo.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Who is actually surprised by this? I would be more surprised if young Americans felt it was a great place to live.

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[–] [email protected] 146 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Millennials killing yet one more thing I guess. Really though, you can't blame them, given the state of affairs, we should really be placing blame where it's due, on the people who are driving up house prices, rents, and general prices overall. A friend's rent just went up $150 this year (~10% increase), and it's the exact same shithole it's been for the past year. Meanwhile, annual raises are typically only 2-4% if you're lucky...

"Rich Elites Cause U.S. to Drop in Global Happiness Ranking" is a more apt title.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Yeah.

I struggled with panic attacks in the military and during an aid mission we brought a bunch of medical staff from other countries with us.

So I talked with a German psychiatrist.

His advice was basically:

Yeah, you're in an incredibly stressful situation, obviously you're going to be stressed, it's completely normal

Which helped a lot more than it sounds like would have.

He didn't try to pill me up or anything or say it was my fault for how I'm handling it.

Just very simple matter of fact told me my response was 100% rational.

What the fuck does the average American have to be happy about right now? Millennials being unhappy is because life sucks for lots of us.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If you are curious, that is part of logotherapy, which was started by a German.

“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.” ― Victor Frankl, Man's Search For Ultimate Meaning

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

I’ve been learning to employ self-compassion for these scenarios. Just pretend my life belongs to a friend who’s sharing it with me. How would I respond?

I’m so much more generous and compassionate to others, so learning to give that same compassion and dignity to myself has been healing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This just reminded me of how great of a book that was. Time to reread it a decade after I first read it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Amazing book. It’s a disturbing book but it’s good.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I’m just a normal civvie software engineer, but this is actually a thought process that I have struggled with mightily, and continue to do so: as a conscientious human who has a strong interest in history, is it reasonable and ethical for me to medicate myself into quiescence, when my anxiety and distress is directly caused by the fact that I care about the world and happen to know a good deal about current events?

Or, if you’re more neurotypical / are better at compartmentalization: is it ethically ok to just straight up ignore all the systematic, horrifyingly bad shit going on in the world?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We're all stuck here right now, and no individual can really change anything that matters on their own.

But if everyone does a little and helps each other out, all of us added together can make ridiculous amounts of change with very little effort.

Like that whole "think globally, act locally" thing that I only remember from that Pauly Shore movie Biodome.

These aren't impossible problems to fix, we just need to get enough people to acknowledge we need to fix shit. Once we do that, the rest is easy.

So it feels like impossible tasks, but easier than it looks

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I really don't think it will be easy. We need to come up with a new economic system not based democratic control rather than exploitation and extraction/theft of surplus value at every step. Then we need to dismantle the old system and implement the new one. All three of these are horribly complicated tasks by themselves.

And they will need to be done while under legal resistance, propaganda resistance, and when push comes to shove, lethal resistance from the powers that be. The exxons and nestles and boeings of the world have done nothing to imply they would go quietly into the night. They will use their agents in government to disrupt any attempts at organized resistance

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

It's not ethically okay to ignore it, but you're also not morally obligated to solve it, only to do your part!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I actually don't know if compartmentalization is a neurotypicals trait. If anything, given my experience being neurodivergent (ADHD), and growing up with other neurodivergent people (brother with autism, sister with ADHD), I would believe that in fact compartmentalization is a neurodivergent trait. But I will say that in this case I'm not sure anyone who's compartmentalizing the world being on fire is normal. It takes a lot of mental fortitude or apathy to see the entire landscape ablaze and just be like "meh, I gotta go to work, I don't have time for that..".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

if you feel theres something you can/should be doong about it, or at least trying.. you can do that, and then tune out in peace woth yourself.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I’m pretty privileged to be in a good spot and even I can see the writing on the wall - everyone around me is sad, overwhelmed, stressed, and angry and they can’t find anything that opens the release valve. I don’t understand how all these selfish bastards can look around and think that the US is doing great.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Absolutely. It's not their fault, it's just that they happen to grow up in late stage extreme capitalism.

The US is an extreme country where all that matters is company profits. Happiness is not needed. If people are sad, you replace them. It actually seems to be like that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

That’s why the captivity is so desirable and why it’s only going to get worse. Desperate people don’t have the luxury of caring if the job they take is going to be fulfilling or happy. They need the money more than any empathy or principles they have. If people are sad, you replace them because there’s crowds of desperate people that also quit their last job because it made them unhappy and now all their bills are 10-15% higher than they were before.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

My rent is going up $200 a month "because insurance rates went up". Sounds like a cost of doing business fam, and not my problem.

I live in the attic of an old house with poor insulation and it is already getting into the upper 80's after noon, somehow it is hotter than ambient. Summers are brutal. All my windows have holes and a squirrel got in.

I am lucky, I am just going to move when my lease is up.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

somehow it is hotter than ambient.

Hot air rises, and you're in the attic

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Insulation might honestly make it worse. If you can, try to open a window low and a window high and move air out the higher window as much as you can. A cheap box fan wedged in the window pointing out to help draw cool air up and through is very helpful I find.

Also it might be wise to just buy screen mesh for cheap and staple it to the window frames.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'm a millenial who finds himself defending gen Z's attitudes all the time.

Oh they're not trying hard in school? No shit, the world is burning and getting worse.

Oh they aren't providing stellar customer service at their minimum wage job? No shit, they see how Gen X and millennials were lied to about working hard and moving up

Oh they're gambling like crazy? No shit, how else are they going to afford a home without betting big?

The Greatest Generation sold Boomers on the American Dream

Boomers used and abused it and sold Gen X a lie

Millennials were on board until they saw how Gen X was struggling

And Gen Z was born into the internet with access to information. NO SHIT they aren't buying it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Oh they aren’t providing stellar customer service at their minimum wage job? No shit, they see how Gen X and millennials were lied to about working hard and moving up

Gen Xer here and I absolutely empathize with young people who don't give a shit about providing decent customer service at their job paying less than half a living wage.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

No shit, they see how Gen X and millennials were lied to about working hard and moving up

The world is a vampire sent to drain

Secret destroyers hold you up to the flames

And what do I get? For my pain?

Betrayed desires - and a piece of the game.

Even though I know, I suppose I'll show

All my cool and cold, like old Job...

Despire all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage

Despire all my rage I am STILL just a rat in a cage

(AKA To gen z and millenials - yeah man we fucking get it.)

[–] [email protected] 45 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Gen X is miserable too, but as usual there’s not enough of us to influence anything.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

Fellow Gen X, same here. No way can I retire anymore.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

Damn someone please just ask me! Let's not "blame" the millenials and zoomers like we always do. As I've said before they just seem to have caught on to the bullshit faster than most of us did.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 7 months ago

What the fuck do they have to be happy about. The world is either burning, boiling or drowning or all of the above. Everyone want to kill everyone else, because…i dunno some ego tripping idiots. Money is basically worthless for “normal” people. Buying a house is none existent for them and food is either shit and full of chemicals or so expensive you have to get a loan. I mean i feel for the generations after me. Im gen x and i was lucky with buying my house, at least i have that, just. They have fuck all.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

The true surprise is that we were ever that high up. Did they only survey the richest people? Were previous generations too stupid to understand their situation? Is the rest of the world literally hell?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

Israel is also high up, currently ranking number 6. You can guess who weren't interviewed there.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

National narcissism is a real trip, for any nation. But, once objective reality hits like a freight train...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Is the rest of the world literally hell?

Comparatively, yes. Life outside of 1st world nations is brutal.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm between both those generations and between blowing my brains out and screaming at everyone on any given day.

My life has been a complicated hell since day one with stuff that would make people vomit, older generations seem to be sociopaths with no sense of empathy, others are full off self righteous narcissists to escape reality. There is no escape in others, or even a good world to just hide in. You can't talk about issues cause it upsets the pleasant views of the world people have and get suggested to just take as much as you can to make sure you "win".

So, now I have empathy for everyone suffering but, hate people more than any other thing in existence. But at least I get to look forward to..... Them dying and more suffering? Nope still don't feel better. At least when nature is causing misery it's just how things are but I'm tired of people doing it for petty reasons.

I only stick around because I have a couple people and things that can't care for themselves in a meaningful way to want to leave them on their own.

Fuck life. And fuck people.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

"We stole their future. It's all their fault." - Jello Biafra

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

"How dare they be unhappy, it's gonna decrease my house value" - boomers probably

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

I'm doing my part 🫡

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Gotta find someone to blame for past fuckups. Lets blame young people

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Rich ones probably do still feel like it's a great place to live.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't think it's limited to these two groups

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I mean shit I got home from work, cried a bit, and got back to it...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Who answers polls?