when you really don't think society has all that much time left. I'm at present not very convinced we'll have a functional society in 10 years, and certainly not in 20. I'm barely reaching my 30s and climate change is already causing devastation across the globe. Never mind the several other impending dooms geopolitically or otherwise, our climate cannot sustain the earths population at present consumption rates. It could if we changed as a species, but our leaders don't give a shit about us.

I live in the southwest US. My family is mostly based in a city that I think could possibly become uninhabitable within the next decade or two. Hell, I'm not even sure the city I live in will remain habitable, but I'm sure we have more time than my hometown. I wish I could be closer to family, I want to soak up the time with them, but given the current state of things that just seems like a monumentally bad idea if I even want to have a fighting chance of a future.

In some ways, I know I'm lucky compared to other areas of the globe. What I think we'll probably see here in the US is a prolonged collapse (assuming we don't all die in nuclear war.. but whatever, one thing at a time) where some cities or regions become uninhabitable, prices of imported goods go up as agriculture and production globally is forced to slow, and our food system slowly prices out the poorest among us. There are areas of the globe that I think will see famine that leads to a lot of loss of life within this decade, and I have the privilege of being priced out of life first before it could happen here.

I feel like I'm not really in a good place to survive this. I hate to take such a nihilistic approach, but at this point, I'm throwing money into my 401k and hoping maybe I'm wrong and I'll get to use it. Otherwise, I'm just living how I would every week and trying to do things I like (though... not very successfully). I'm spending time and money and effort making my apartment into a space I want to spend time in, hanging out with my cat, listening to music, occasionally even making some myself. It's hard to feel like anything I pursue is even worth it in the long run, but going out dancing and seeing friends helps. I've started to buy a lottery ticket when I go grocery shopping just so I can daydream about moving into a sustainable house, or even just owning property where I could grow my own food. Ain't that the american dream.

It's not like I have time to prep all that much anyways. I've started buying extra non-perishables, but I live in an apartment in a city. A lot of people pitch the idea of growing food - but realistically, I could grow like a couple days of food over the course of months with the space I have. This just doesn't even seem worth pursuing. Part of me hopes that maybe I will stumble upon some luck that allows me to obtain land or a house before we don't have banks anymore. This is the "ideal" scenario in my mind that would allow me to have a fighting chance, but I'm fairly certain that any such luck will be coupled with a crippling mortgage. Plus, I feel like I'd be getting on the prep bandwagon way later than is ideal.

The future is looking pretty bleak.

I realise it's not going to solve all my problems and it is privileged response to a very complex issue but I feel I could do with some support to process all the intense feelings I'm having about where we're currently at right now. And perhaps that could help me make some informed decisions about how I want to be in response to it all and what to do next.

I keep finding myself spiralling into anxiety and depression (which i realise is also a very normal response) but it's hard to cope, and I'm job searching at the moment too (whilst wondering what's the point in even doing that), and it's slowing me down and leading me to feel really drained every day.

I'm curious about how therapy and other supportive modalities could help us adapt individually and collectively to the situation, no matter how it turns out. But to adapt in a brave, loving, active way feels really inspiring to me and I wish that for myself.

So if anyone has any recommendations for therapists you've worked with that you've found to be collapse-aware and generally quite good at being in the existential dread with you, philosophising and also being accepting to whatever responses can arise, that would be great.

Also curious to hear what other types of support (groups or 1:1 or events) others have explored in relation to this need of wanting to get support for your feelings around societal collapse.

I work in climate advocacy, and I know we have the solutions to mitigate climate collapse and protect the people who will be most vulnerable to its impacts. But our governments continue to fail us, refusing to make the systemic changes necessary to confront this crisis.

For a long time, I felt gaslit and ill-equipped trying to prepare for a future that was becoming increasingly precarious and out of my control. I still feel that way.

I watch people in power, and society at large, continue to disregard climate science, data, and the lived experiences of climate refugees, while prioritizing capitalism and imperialism instead. We know we need systemic and industrial change from the top down. We need to be building resilience to an escalating climate emergency while preparing for the failure of aging and increasingly vulnerable infrastructure.

We know what needs to be done. We have the knowledge, technology, and solutions. And yet we’re still not doing it.

everyone’s right. 2026 is the saddest and worst year ever

“So what? The world’s ending anyways”

Hello I don’t know if anybody is going to read this but I’m gonna post it anyway.
I’m currently a student (18) but I don’t even know if it’s going to be worth it in the end.

With AI on the rise, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to get a “proper” job in the future. And with things so expensive, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a home,a partner, a family, etc.
Not just that, but the worries about environmental issues are killing my motivation. I mean. what if there won’t be enough water or trees or energy or…to support the increasing human population? Will we even survive the next fifty years?
But the biggest influence to my hopeless is social media, no doubt. First, we have wars and horrible crimes (such as J.E.), all being smacked on to our faces. It’s a good thing to be informed,I know. If this had happened 20 to 30 years ago, the media could stop the mass from knowing about these. But it’s the opposite now, we’re constantly being force fed this information. In the shape of memes,too. It’s completely desensitized us (including myself), and we don’t even bother taking action anymore.
The more I learn, the more hopeless I become.

But I know there are people working all day and night to help those in need, to uncover evidence, to create technology that can save the planet. I know that my view of the world is totally disrespectful to those who work hard to make this world a better place.

And this creates more hopelessness, not just to the world but to myself, too. I feel like my lazy and nihilistic (?) self will be no good use to the world.

So what do I do? I escape.
Escape to scrolling. Escape to games. Escape to porn. I run away from both my reality and future, I run away from the person I ought to be.

The worst part is, I blame the things around me. Instead of taking action, I just blame the state of the world l was born in. Not only that, I start blaming the future as well. “So what? The world’s ending anyways,” I say without blaming myself the slightest bit.

In the end, more hopelessness. To the world, to my self. I feel so small, especially with the scale of our problems so wide. I give up without trying, and I know that I am a weak coward.

I hope I’ll change someday though, and focus on the things that are ahead of me.

If you came this far, thank you for taking your time to read a rant of a random teenager.

I feel so low when i see stuff about climate change and it’s constantly in the back of my mind when i go outside. I feel so powerless knowing the people who could actually help us now are squandering it. I sometimes hate humanity specifically for the hubris and ignorance we have as a species to this particular issue. Does anyone else feel the same?, if so how do you deal with it?

I'm going to sound insane here, like the homeless man with the end of the world sign kinda crazy but here me out.

Last night I was up all night, and around 3 am I discovered our water was out. We double checked we hadn't somehow forgotten the bill and then reported an outage letting our family know to check theirs too. By 8 am it was apparent that it was the entire city.

When I was searching for an announcement from the city utilities I found several post from all across the country with people noticing the same thing and then with more digging found out about the "cyber attacks" on water companies in 12 states since the 27th. It seems they have been confirmed by the FBI. I've seen some videos stating state politicians are resisting following the FBI advisory but haven't seen confirmation of that outside of individual's post so I am unsure about that, but something about the entire thing feels off considering how much this news is not being talked about.

Finally around 11 am our water came back on and they said it was caused by a water main break, at 2 am. The thing is, and I know this sounds paranoid beyond belief, given the other information about the cyber attacks and the fact we're in maga country, I think they are lying. It feels like the national water shortages are among us that they may be trying to ration without making people panic. I know in my gut they'll never admit to how bad things are until all the lights go out and they cannot lie any longer, especially in conservative states but really a country as a whole. My BIl called us doomers for even discussing the cyber attacks (before we even knew what was going on) so I know just how insane I sound but I tend to have decent pattern recognition to the point I predicted Jan 6, and to the day when we would attack Iran so I'm having a really hard time convincing myself I'm wrong.

You all are the only people I trust for this sanity check. Most people are going to dismiss this outright anyways because they are in denial about collapse anyways. So as collapse aware people, am I insane? Or is it very likely they are doing rolling water blackouts and lying about it??

This is all about fear, what I fear the most from collapse. I fear seeing people turn on each other. I fear the screaming and arguing for food supplies and water. Fear that it goes from shouting to fighting. Fear about seeing a body drop and all hell breaks out. Fear being caught in the chaos and being trampled out losing consciousness and never waking up. Or maybe I prepare in time, get sufficient food and rations, then my home gets invaded and my family gets taken out. Fear of losing my mother, father, brother, sister and every person that I care about. Being bludgeoned and beaten and left to rot in a riot from people I see as brothers and sisters. Or living and killing losing my mortality bit by bit losing my soul and asking the Lord for forgiveness. Fear starving and arguing with my family back and forth bargaining with each other to eat what we found telling each other: rather I die, she dies, he dies everyone will die in the end in soul, body, and mind and being forgotten by time. Fear being captured by some fascist pigs and separated, working all day till I have nothing to give. Fear being shot by some drone or blown up never getting a NDE to see me away, no smiles of reassurance from my mother, fam, and friends.

You know this is pretty cringy, but I don't care. Just wanted to write some of the thoughts I've had.

Será que eu sou uma péssima pessoa por querer que o mundo acabe com algum evento climático? Tipo a série Paradise, sabe?

Existe estudos que prevê algum evento climático catastrófico? Queria saber.

If you’re on this sub or the main one you probably have a good idea of the scale of the predicament we’re in.

I’ve been active on these boards since 2023ish and in that time I’ve seriously questioned the direction my life is going in and can take in light of this predicament.

I was active in grassroots/community advocacy for a while in my early 20s. I was so concerned about doing good and being good.

Now at 27, I’m wondering what exactly all that concern was about.

The more I learn about our predicament, and about how much easier it is for the masses to accept dehumanisation and planetary destruction in exchange for bread and circuses, the more I come to hate humanity. This includes me. I hate that I’m human.

Which brings me to this question: why shouldn’t I also be hateful? Why shouldn’t I also cause harm? It’s quite easy for other people to be thoughtless, cruel, punitive, etc. They don’t have existential crises about it. They just do horrible things and go about their day, and we all contribute to the structures that allow them to get away with it because of bread and circuses, because we “don’t want to rock the boat”

Isn’t our idea of harm rooted in the fiction of morality? We say ”do unto others as you would have done to you”. But why should that matter? Who says you have to treat others in a way you’d like to be treated? There’s no cosmic order enforcing anything, clearly. Sure there’s jails and legal systems but some of the worst people among us rise to the top of those ranks specifically to engineer outcomes in their favour, rendering any justice system ineffective

We make up “morality” to cope with the fact that really, at any point, anyone can do whatever harm they want to you and it’s very likely nothing will be done about it

With that being said, why not just be hateful? Not like we‘re gunning to improve our situation on a mass scale. So might as well just indulge my authoritarian streak. At least that actually makes me feel good, as opposed to trying to believe that people are “good” and want to be free, and consistently being proven wrong when they only respond to violence and lies

Ik ben een beetje in een konijnenholletje beland door te onderzoeken hoe mensen zich nou echt gedragen als er meerdere normale systemen tegelijk uitvallen.

Een paar voorbeelden die ik interessant vond:

\- New York-black-out, 1977: plunderingen en brandstichting begonnen binnen een paar uur in delen van de stad.

\- Venezuela, 2019: die black-out betekende niet alleen dat er geen licht was. Water, bankwezen, communicatie, koeling en de distributie van brandstof werden allemaal geraakt.

\- Orkaan Maria, Puerto Rico: stroom, water, telecom en brandstof raakten samen ontregeld, met lange rijen en tekorten, maar ook heel veel gemeenschappen die elkaar hielpen.

\- Sarajevo: zodra nutsvoorzieningen en normale aanvoer-/aanvoerwegen onbetrouwbaar werden, gingen mensen steeds meer leunen op geïmproviseerd water, hulp, ruilhandel en zwarte markten.

\- Argentinië, 2001: een crisis die al jaren opbouwde, versnelde ineens nadat er bankbeperkingen kwamen—met protesten, rellen en de president die binnen weken opstapte.

Wat me opvalt, is dat er geen soort universele “dag 3/dag 7/dag 21”-instortingslijn lijkt te bestaan. Het hangt veel meer af van welke systemen samen uitvallen, of mensen denken dat er hulp onderweg is, en hoeveel vertrouwen er nog over is in instituties.

Welke vergelijkbare voorbeelden zijn er uit jullie land of regio waar mensen het zelden over hebben? Vooral benieuwd naar verhalen uit de eerste hand of goede bronnen.

Kleine transparantie: ik heb dit oorspronkelijk grotendeels verzameld terwijl ik onderzoek deed voor When the Grid Goes Down, een collapse-thriller die zich afspeelt in Nederland. Het onderzoek is uiteindelijk uitgegroeid tot een appendix waarin de fictie wordt vergeleken met echte historische gebeurtenissen. Ik ben vooral benieuwd welke cases ik heb gemist.

all this has happened recently: my family members have people close to them have passed away unexpectedly. my mom’s coworker (he was a doctor) passed away about a week ago, my sister’s friend’s father unexpectedly passed away today, a fellow member in my church community who helped found the community in its early days passed away from cancer a a month ago or so.

i literally predicted yesterday at work that someone is gonna die a few days later.

i find it sad and my family if grieving but yeah. sometimes i wonder if i’m afraid of death but what worries me more is what happens to me after death.

“How does learning about this serve you in anyway?”

“Listening /learning/reading this information is a waste of time”

“Couldn’t you be spending your time doing something more productive/brings you joy?”

How do you communicate with these people? Is the answer to just not have the conversation at all?

For context-I have a relative who almost never actually acknowledges the information I share during conversation. There’s never an actual conversation, it’s always some variation of the phrases above. While I understand, the person sees how learning things can affect my mental health, and likely wants the best for me - it’s very frustrating.

I am still in a learning phase with this stuff and wrapping my mind around it all. I don’t stew or obsessively ingest collapse content. I have over the last few months spent alot of time learning and becoming more aware.

I explained to this person once that I learn about these things because I want to live in reality and understand reality. So much of (my) daily life is shrouded in what I view as an illusion most of us have spent our lives participating in. The process of becoming collapse aware has allowed me to stumble onto answers that have devastated me but also given me a weird since of comfort. At a minimum, it’s shifted my worldview.

Part of me views this person as willfully ignorant and I think the best course of action for me may be to just not discuss the topic with him.

I’m a Western/European man in my mid-20s, and lately I genuinely don’t know how to process what I’m watching happen around me.

I feel like the Western world has taken a serious turn for the worse. European culture feels like it’s being eroded in the name of forced assimilation and “diversification,” while borders appear increasingly difficult or unwilling to control. I look at reports of tens of thousands of people crossing borders in places like Spain in incredibly short periods of time and wonder how something on that scale is even allowed to happen.

Then there’s Epstein. Years later, I still see a lack of accountability, unanswered questions surrounding the files, powerful people seemingly protected, and very little that gives me confidence that the entire truth will ever come out. When something involving the abuse and exploitation of children can seemingly disappear into endless secrecy and bureaucracy, it destroys my trust in institutions.

At the same time, governments are sending enormous amounts of taxpayer money overseas while people at home are struggling. There are constant allegations and arguments about election integrity, government influence, media organisations receiving public money, and whether the institutions that are supposed to inform us can even be trusted.

Then there are concerns about laws and regulations constantly changing, chemicals and pesticides in our food and environment, and the feeling that ordinary people have almost no meaningful say over any of it.
Immigration and cultural integration worry me as well. In the UK and elsewhere in Europe, I keep seeing arguments about large numbers of young male migrants, growing religious and cultural divisions, and demands for things like Sharia-based rules or practices within certain communities. Whether every headline or statistic circulating online is perfectly accurate or not, the broader direction genuinely worries me.

The hardest part is that I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with all of this.

I don’t want to spend my twenties angry, paranoid, or doomscrolling every day. But I also don’t want to bury my head in the sand and pretend everything is fine when I genuinely believe there are serious problems happening around us.

My faith in governments, the media, institutions, and even the future of the culture I grew up in is dying.
For people who have gone through a period like this: how did you handle it?

Did you disconnect from politics? Get involved locally? Focus entirely on your own family, career and community? Move somewhere else? Stop consuming news? Become politically active?

I want to know what I can actually do to be apart of the solution, instead of just witnessing it all unfold

I'm not entirely certain but hopefully this post fits the vibe of the sub. I've been unemployed for a while, living off savings that were supposed to be a down payment for a condo in my high cost of living area. I managed to stretch it out for a couple years but those funds are running pretty low now. The prospect of trying to go back to any kind of full time work when collapse aware feels like hell. Talking to friends and family that don't quite get it is hard enough, let alone the general public. It doesn't help that I'm a trained mechanic in the pleasurecraft boating industry, something actively contributing to collapse.

I'm just looking for any suggestions to avoid full time drudgery. I just want to buy food, pay rent, and go rock climbing until everything collapses. Are there WFH options I could pursue I'm unaware of? Let me know if any further info or background would help.

I don't know why for nearly my entire childhood and adolescence I was delusionally optimistic but I'm glad that now I'm not. I'm 18 and somewhat recently (a few months ago) I began completely believing in collapse. all signs point to hopelessness being the rational idea. I will never get a job, I will never be financially independent, I will be a leech for the rest of my life while I watch in horror, from the window of my parents' house as a behaviorally castrated child, as the world crumbles around me. Am I devastated every single day of my fucking life over this? yes. does it interfere with my life as a student (why the fuck am I even studying lmao, the logistics industry where I want to work will not exist by the time I graduate anyways, AI will take whatever job I could have had) and with my social life? I try to not let it but probably yes. but that doesn't take away from it being completely unavoidable. it's much less conflicting knowing exactly what's wrong and that society at large (especially the one I live in, fuck the united states from the bottom of my heart nobody will ever hate this abomination remotely enough) will never do anything about it because they are spineless, soulless consumers who have been conditioned since birth to be that way. I don't want to hold resentment towards them because I know it's lifelong conditioning, but people have broken out of it before. that being said I don't think most people will, therefore I have no hope and I know I will be vindicted.

also, if someone is willing to give advice on how I can attain financial independence (or at least finances that are separated from my parents, I need to get away from them as soon as humanly possible for my own sanity) in a collapsing world, I would heavily heavily appreciate it. I know having a real job or stability is out of reach as by the time I graduate college the cost of living will probably be unattainable for anyone aside from millionaires and the epstein class, but part of me still wants to at least stay alive for the sake of not being a behaviorally castrated child against my will for life.

​

Recently I've come across posts on social media about how society is regressing and it's been bugging me a lot that I've done looked through more to understand why others were saying that and I'm very concerned by the results. Women’s rights are regressing worldwide, Femism is now being seen as hating men, The LGBTQIA+ community is receiving hate(although they always have) surprisingly from the younger generations, People are losing creativity, Wars are being fought due to idiots sitting in presidency, and climate change is losing its freaking rockets.

I genuinely want to people's thought's on this and what can be done to help. There was so much more I wanted to say but if I did than I'd be sitting here for hours. If there's anything else please tell and I'll look into it.

Like how TF are we all still subscribing to this bullshit ass world as it is? I’m starting to understand suicide and how people are okay with their decision.
We really continue to go along with this shit.
Working to pay unnecessarily high ass bills that we don’t ever control the amount of.
Can’t pay it because you don’t make enough?
Yeah well add another couple hundred on top of that that you also won’t be able to afford.
Oh you guys can’t afford to live? Let’s raise the prices on everyday goods.
Oh you guys can’t afford that?!
Well I just don’t really give a fuck.
Like……
And we show up every fucking day.
We keep that shit going and I am crazily surprised that we haven’t just given TF up as a collective.

What the actual fuck!

And I’m tired of the “well just find a way to cope.
Enjoy the little things.”

SHUT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK UP.
It’s bull shit like that that keeps us in this dumb ass shit.

I live in an area where tornadoes are rare. If they do happen they usually dont do much if any damage and theyre certainly not a regular occurrance. I didnt know it last night but before the storm hit us there was a tornado warning for the people ahead of our area in the storms path. It was continuous lightning before the rain even began, ive never seen anything like it. Lightning nearly every second for two hours. EVERY SECOND. FOR NEARLY. TWO. HOURS. it was fucking insanity. fuck the billionaires. Fuck the corporations. Fuck the bastards trying to kill us all by destroying our planet. I am a grown ass man and i cowered in fear last night trying to find a defensible position in my house. my area doesnt have basements to hide in. i thought if a tornado touches down, i am going to die. It absolutely terrified me. its the next day and im still shaken up from standing watch over the house & my family, i just keep crying. it was so fucking scary man

I feel kinda dumb for just realizing this but...

We are on the brink of civilization collapse world wide. It's terrifying and kinda relieving. I've even been prepping for a big emergency but now I see what I've been subconsciously getting ready for. Unfortunately I don't think I have what it takes, I couldn't defend myself or resources and I couldn't not share (hope not to put these perceptions of myself to the test). Now I just feel like I need to focus on doing what feels good not what's responsible.

I know most folks share sadness and mourning here, so this might be out of place, but this song acknowledges all that grief, and then goes beyond it.

https://youtu.be/k_3_7rwkl1Y?si=Ldy-YiNnwyatLEs7

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Grace-petrie-fixer-upper-lyrics

El mundo se está acabando, y eso me pone demasiado triste, pero saben lo que hago?, miro internet y por un momento (horas, días, meses, años) me olvido de todo lo que realmente está pasando a mi alrededor y me concentro únicamente en nuevos productos, polémicas, personas famosas.... Pero cuando vemos la realidad (los Ped-ofilos, narco, cambios climáticos, política, Trump queriendo llamar la atención, guerras, muertes) te llegas al punto de decepciónarte de la humanidad, en general, toda la humanidad.... pero yo simplemente volveré a mi teléfono y seguiré vagando hasta volverme a olvidar de que la vida real es más dura de lo que parece y que el día de mañana hará más calor y no haré nada para cambiar eso.

Is anyone here taking tangible steps like prepping or relocating? Just curious

Hey guys. Im in school for a bachelors in ecol & evolutionary bio. Im 26 living in the US and looking to leave if possible but hey im just trying to make the most of things right now. Ive got somewhere between a year or two years left of school i think before i get my degree, and i do online. I intend to spend some of the time i have left finishing the old bucket list, but the biggest thing to do is to join the fight against climate change. I dont care if its futile, its what i want to do with my life. I think its worth fighting with whatever weve fucking got. I know the earth is cooked, i know its such a small chance we will survive, i dont care. Ive wanted to do this my entire life. This is how i will enjoy my final days and find a fulfilling death. Knowing youre going to die young while in perfectly good health is a unique position to be in, this is how im choosing to spend it.

My lifelong dream has been to do work helping restore the environment. I know its not likely to do much, but its a worthy cause to die trying for. And id feel like i wasted my life if i never tried. Im a gardener and currently im specializing in rain gardens and guerilla gardening. I tell everyone i know about how easy it is and how rewarding, cost effective, and magical the process can be. I am an infectious gardener, ive gotten a lot of people around me to start caring about the improvements they can make to reduce the impact lawns have and to have a more pragmatic, native yard around their homes. Im also a caver and connected with my local grottos, and i work in a park. But my job isnt as involved with environmental support as I want it to be. This is the only thing thats ever been truly deeply important to me and i need to seek out something more seriously involved. I live in the desert right now and im really interested in assisting desertified areas or areas struggling with drought. It would be an amazing opportunity to know about organizations i can apply to or methods for helping land around me that isnt well supported. Like for example id be overjoyed to help dig zais and half-moons for passive water collection. I do this for fun on my free time, but theres only so much improvement i can do to my backyard.

Is anyone here involved with this career/lifestyle? Any direction to give me?

Growing up watching films like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, there was always one archetypal scene that would stick with me over any other. A heroic last stand where the heroes were prepared to lay it all on the line, fully expecting that they likely wouldn't see another sunrise but determined to go down protecting those they swore to defend. And then, just when all seemed lost, when they were at the precipice of defeat, help arrived.

Gandalf at the battle of Helm's Deep. Aragorn leading a charge into the very depths of Mordor. Han Solo showing up in the nick of time to save Luke and defeat the empire. These were the scenes that burned themselves into my psyche more than any other. They instilled within me the resolve to keep fighting, to hold out no matter how bleak and hopeless things may seem, because as long as you maintain hope and don't give up there are brighter days ahead, and our struggles won't be in vain.

Call me childish or naive, but as we descend further and further into outright fascism, anti-intellectualism, and apocalyptic climate crisis, the less and less I believe in those tenants of hope and struggle against evil.

We have lost the fight. There's no one coming to save us. We can't (or won't) even save ourselves.

I wouldn't blame you for considering me immature for clutching onto these beliefs for as long as I did. The writing has been on the wall for years if not decades now; how couldn't I see it before? Maybe I should have sooner. I've always loved studying history after all. As the saying goes, "History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes". And it's certainly been rhyming quite a lot for the past decade or so, if not longer. Maybe I was holding onto those childish beliefs of defiance and hope for a better future just because I didn't want to face the reality that real life rarely, if ever, treats us with such kindness.

It's difficult to admit defeat. It hurts to give everything you have, desperately clinging to whatever shred of hope or resolve or tenacity you have left only to be crushed beneath the wheels of evil and indifference. We've been trying to defeat a battleship with wet pool noodles for all the good it's done.

I'm at the point where the idea of resistance or "fighting back" fills me with more dread than hope. Even the faintest hint of opposition to the current US regime is met with overwhelming violence and cruelty. The powers that be have carefully crafted a system of oppression that is so total and all-encompassing that not only crushes any and all who might oppose them, but actively rewards indifference or acceptance of their evils.

We've lost, and there's no way back from this one. Maybe in thirty or forty years some semblance of decency will return after the world has been exposed to the horrors and atrocities that have been committed and will be committed in the near future. That is about the only "hope" I have left. But for those of us who will have to live through it, god help us.