this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 151 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Everyone just keeps acting like its normal

That's a common trope in dystopian settings.

The youngest people in the society don't understand that anything is even wrong. The rich folks have a vested interest in people being more afraid of foreigners and domestic terrorists than any government malfeasance. And the working class is so occupied with simple survival that they see no real opportunity to revolt... until something really falls off the rails, at which point the military moves in to suppress dissent with maximum bloodshed.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 months ago (3 children)

In those dystopia settings however, they never seem to have all the literature describing dystopia. We do here

[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago

Eh, it depends on the author. I've seen a lot of modern Post-Apocalypse/Cyberpunk stuff make comedic quasi-self-references by way of media-within-the-media (A piece of modern literature in the Fallout setting describing a "dystopian" world in the self-proclaimed utopian Vaults, for instance).

But the point of the media-within-the-media is often to illustrate how we fixate on the drama of dystopia without acknowledging the banality of social evils.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Right now, in the mostly-free-press parts of the world, I now think that dystopian scifi no longer serves as a warning of what not to do but instead acts as a numbing agent to increased oppression.

This is going to sound very Maoist or whatever but we need more utopian scifi like Star Trek TNG. We need utopian visions imagined for us so we have something to work towards.

It was so refreshing to watch the Chinese TV show for Three-Body where the world was at peace with each other and trying to solve this bizarre global mystery. Sure, the Chinese government was painted as much more competent than American & European governments but Hollywood does the same thing with the US government too.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm too broke to worry about much more then working enough to feed myself and afford my shitty apartment for another month.

[–] [email protected] 89 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So what your saying is the system is working as intended.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Oh well, at least frogurt is still relatively cheap.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It also comes in plant-based varieties!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The plants contain potassium benzoate!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (15 children)

It's really not. At least no more than it has been in the past

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yeah, there are tons of things to make better and improve on, but things could be a lot freaking worse. (For more people, anyway, for too many people it’s already terrible currently, e.g. Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Haiti … )

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (10 children)

It's always been terrible, this the best we've had, and it's still still terrible.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think this vision usually comes to be when people aren't aware of how much worse other people have it, or how much worse was in the past.

Sure nowdays there are a lot of terrible things happening, but we have the best tools ever to fix them.

The world needs a bit more of optimism, the only way we can start fixing our problems is acting like we can.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (7 children)

Yes, this system absolute madness only equaled by the madness of the mass tolerance of it.

And NOT the fun weekend bender kind of madness I haven't had time for in years due to capitalist exploitation.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Potential convicted felon president with many active indictments looking to give himself blanket immunity for all crime and appointing himself dictator president for life. All while every year is the hottest year on record, there isn't enough housing, actually nazis feel safe to actively demonstrate in public, a million less Americans are alive post COVID and all of the world's wealth is split between 7 people and all the world's companies owned by 4 parent companies...

What the fuck are you talking about dystopian?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago (9 children)

I’ve read history. I know what actual dystopian nightmares look like. We’re not in one.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 5 months ago (4 children)

"Things can always get worse" is a pretty shit justification to say things aren't bad now.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (4 children)

History does not only repeat, and simply looking at the past can make you blind to the novel ways society has transformed. For example, oppression has been a constant throughout history, but it never has been as faceless as it is today. Lords and kings have been replaced by corporations and agencies operating across borders, in ways and with purposes that I don't think anyone who's not actually involved with can claim they fully understand.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (8 children)

Someone in Gaza would disagree right now.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago

No. I'm familiar with history. It is normal.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (11 children)

And so we go, on with our lives
We know the truth but prefer lies
Lies are simple, simple is bliss
Why go against tradition when we can
Admit defeat, live in decline
Be the victim of our own design
The status quo, built on suspect
Why would anyone stick out their neck?

Fellow members
Club "We've got ours"
I'd like to introduce you to our host
He's got his and I've got mine
Meet the decline

NOFX - The Decline

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (5 children)

What’s the other option?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Are you telling me you can't even imagine a better world?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

I think that they mean you still have to eat and sleep and try to have joy in your life.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Not a dystopian nightmare?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

People are not acting, they are desensitized... we all are in some capacity, the difference being the few who can recognise this😅

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

That's because a lot of people are profiting from things being the way they are. And the rest of them are too scared and traumatized to risk saying anything.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Literally gives me anxiety to the point I need meds

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

That's how it always happens, unfortunately. "Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me."

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (7 children)

do we tough?

maybe get off the internet and enjoy your life a bit.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes we do live in a dystopian nightmare. It's just that most people posting here, including myself, live a fucking privileged life, where we don't have to share the same worries that about 80% of the world population have, including a large part of even the US population nowadays.

We (the privileged people) are the baddies from all those dystopian stories.

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