Thanks to @JohnR1972 for your idea. Give me a list people! Or just complain.
There are no donut trees. 😐
Ahem, sorry. Obviously per the other thread, various requirements can play into this, but to just snag the main part of the definition: "great suffering or injustice"...
I won't go into details here, but there is terrible injustice in this world, and in our "justice" system, and those who suffer are often not defended or avenged.
~ Sunset Snuggles
🦄 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Fiend 🐘 Animal Lover
@cylee1180 - If I were a betting man I would put $20 on this thread getting locked within the next 3 days for turning political even though I know that is not your intent.
That said, I will limit my comments (for now) to the U.S. and to things that are largely (and unfortunately) bi-partisan such as the massive growth of an Orwellian surveillance state. Actually, I take that back, in many ways we are well beyond Orwell’s nightmarish vision of a surveillance state.
Does anyone think they have the right to share an intimate photo with a romantic partner, a politically incorrect joke with a friend, or a deep personal reflection on a painful experience without that photo, joke or reflection being subject to real time monitoring and possible copying and storage by “Big Brother” (government) or one of hundreds of “Little Brothers” (Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Verizon, etc.).
The growth of the surveillance state is nothing new (the FBI was maintaining records on MLK, labor unions, churches, college professors, and MANY other groups and individuals since the days of paper file cabinets). Sometimes, such as the days following 9/11 it was one party pushing the expansion of the surveillance state and at other times it was the opposite party.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/band-of-activists-who-burglarized-fbi-office-in-1971-come-forward/2014/01/07/898d9e0c-77b4-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html
The incident in story linked above led to the discovery of the FBI’s “Counter Intelligence Program” (aka CoIntelPro) which built and maintained detailed files anyone the administration thought might ever pose a political threat to the status quo.
When in history did a civilization not turn into a dystopia? The common thread throughout time is power, fortune and glory toward individuals who are alike in Nimrodic fashion. So as long as there is a Nimrod type figure with power people will follow like sheep into the inevitable dystopia.
The anti-LGBT laws being passed in a number of states. States where it's illegal to be yourself, using religious hysteria as a way to control people. Florida is at the lead of this. It even has a "do not travel" advisory. Texas is not far behind, especially with its anti-woman laws. And too many other states to list.
@JohnR1972 You are a wealth of knowledge on this stuff!
On a lighter note, @SunsetSnuggles , I love how you put an unicorn by the word enthusiast.
@CuddleHugs01234 Thanks! 😁 I've used that in my profile for forever, 'cause people are always saying how impossible we are to find. 🤭
I finally decided last night to just be the first person here to manually insert a signature, since the site doesn't provide that ability like normal message boards do, and I keep having people tell me that they had no idea I was an enthusiast. 😄 Threw a bit of my personality in there, too. It's actually only three clicks, instead of the six it used to take to put my name. 😎 Yay, efficiency!
@SunsetSnuggles Love it!!!
"Madness, as you know, is like gravity, all it takes is a lil push!"
I would say life itself is just full of suffering, which makes sense since it is based around creatures competing and eating each other, then eventually dying from some horrible disease or accident (otherwise known as "survival of the fittest"). I'm sure everyone has specific political complaints, and there are many valid ones, but to me the details are not that important when the nature of life is predatory to begin with. For my part, I dislike how the world is mostly run by narcissists, and everything seems to be about accumulating as much money and power as possible. Also, a lot of technological advancements have great benefits but are also used in very exploitative ways that do not necessarily lead to more happiness. Sorry if my take sounds a bit depressing, but in my defense, the thread does specifically ask for such content haha.
My not getting to go to @CuddleHugs01234 's event. @achetocuddle I declare.
Traffic. Taxes. Inflation.
@JohnR1972 The surveillance state kinda sucks. Tho I do remind myself that I am of little significance and the state is better off wasting their funding elsewhere. I am more scared of the machine takeover. lol
Maybe because I spend a lot of time on ancient history I really don't feel we are currently in dystopia. We would be talking about widespread pain and suffering. While many people might say that about the current world we are living in far greater abundance and toleration than we have historically. More than anything, our expectations have simple changed I would say.
You know what? I'm gonna post it here, too, 'cause humanity, man... 🤦🏻♀️
@SunsetSnuggles I would say dating is a lot like driving ...it would be so much fun except for the cars on the road. lol
@cylee1180 😅 Love it!
@SunsetSnuggles
The most incapable of The Crowd find comfort and solace in a tyranny's vacuous promises of security.
It has been, and shall be, always.
@jplemmon You took the words out of my mouth. While the world isn’t perfect, by far, it’s in a far better place overall than it was even 100 years ago. And especially those of us in the US live in a world of abundance that we take so much for granted. Most of us here have multiple sets of clothes, we’ve eaten 2-3 meals in the last 24 hours, and most of us have a roof over our heads, not to mention all the luxuries like computers in our pocket more powerful than those that sent men to the moon that we use for cat pictures and arguing with strangers.
We got it real good comparatively speaking.
Even with all the advances in society, technology , and science, there is still inequality in the world , our foods have less nutrition , ignorance/intolerance is widespread, traffic is at an all time high, technology is distracting, and people feel less connected to each other and their communities .
Technology was supposed to save us time and reduce our workload (not the opposite lol). Think about the Jetsons - we don't have robots cooking our food and doing our house work. lol Not to mention global warming and some natural disasters that are occuring as a result.
Lots of the social issues of yester year still exist today, or it's more pronounced bc everything else has advanced except these fundamental issues. Maybe human nature is the same no matter what time period.
Food while abundant , is more processed, less nutritious, and sometimes more poisonous.
While the average lifespan is much higher than in the past due to advances in medicine, nutrition, and lifestyle, pharmaceutical drugs are still bad for you, people are more sedentary , and the speed and stress of society make it difficult for people to slow down and enjoy their time on thus rock.
@jplemmon circumstances have changed. I wouldn't say its an improvement. Before it took effort to hurt people and close range. Now humans are ants and as long as they're not sitting right next to you we don't even look when they're squashed. What people will tolerate quietly has changed. There's still too much suffering.
What people will tolerate quietly has changed. There's still too much suffering.
Well put. I think this brand of toleration is fueled by the fear that people not suffering have that they could easily be next.
Vystopia
I don't know, do cookies count?
@jplemmon Hey, troll. I'm trying to start a fight! JK. SO so so JK. I think its nice we don't fight anymore. You're awesome. I do think you lost your troll club card. They sent me my new membership yesterday. evil laugh
Depending on your point of you, the world is a vampire or the world is your oyster not a dystopia
@stormydaycuddle - Dr. Neal Postman wrote about what you described above in his classic book “Entertaining Ourselves to Death”. His book was written around 1985 and it lamented the shifts from people getting information from books then newspapers and now television. I can only imagine what he would say about the shift from TV to the Internet.
He makes the argument that books are the best source of “knowledge” because they take years to write and the authors have time to study, reflect and fact check. He believed LOCAL newspapers were 2nd best source of knowledge because they informed people about LOCAL events.
Dr. Postman argues the invention of the telegraph was “the beginning of the end” from his perspective. Telegraphs allowed instant communication across long distances but it was in the form of short statements / headlines rather than detailed pages of text. Almost like getting a 120 character text message from many miles away.
The telegraph’s long distance but very short content led to the most sensational / tabloid type of news being printed in local newspapers. What is the Royal family doing? The big fire in another state that kill 37 people. Was that really “news” to your small town in 1900? It may be true but it is irrelevant to your daily life. It also has a numbing effect because now local tragedies (your neighbor’s house burning down) are compared to bigger tragedies from hundreds of miles away.
TV took this phenomenon way, way further and the Internet took it further yet.
Because 2 + 2 is no longer 4...
@JohnR1972 I can’t tell what this is… On one hand I edit books so I’m smiling because I agree and long projects are what I do. On the other hand I’m embarrassed because some of my comments are hasty, written in blind rage, and less than eloquent which is a feat made possible by this technology you speak of. 😂😂😂
@stormydaycuddle - Personally, I don’t see a conflict. You, as an individual, posting whatever is on your mind is not the problem. It is “news” outlets racing to be first to publish the latest rumor / leak / talking points without taking the time to verify anything that is the problem.
About a decade ago a news station in the Bay Area was pranked by a tasteless, fake report about the names of the flight crew of an Asian flight that crashed in the ocean as it was approaching San Francisco. This is an actual screen shot of what a TV station reported and a link to a 30 second recording of the newscast. The station later issued an apology for not realizing the names were clearly a bad joke.
@JohnR1972 I have to disagree with Postman. Most of these arguments are shaped by white older males with class privileges who fear loss of information control. While there have been some cons to new technology many would argue that technological advances in communication has democratized information and allowed it to flow to classes, ethnicities, and the marginalized more so than purely holding knowledge in books. It hasn’t been that long ago that many minorities and women were blocked from higher education and access to the information Postman views as essential.
Postman has always struck me as an academic Dana Carvey old man. The problem with information now is not that technology has tainted information, it’s that our education system has done a poor job of teaching ethics and critical thinking to the masses to properly evaluate the information put before them. As a result, the moon is made of cheese again and the Swiss want to annex it.
It's racism @JohnR1972 . You're on these forums quite a bit, so you should know by now: it's always racism.
Or climate change.
EDIT: /s
Or just complain.