Is it just me, or is there a ton of horribly negative psychic energy oppressing us all rn?

[Bennyonesix1]

Is it just me, or is there a ton of horribly negative psychic energy oppressing us all rn?

It could very well be me. But swear to god this feels as bad as the depths of covid hysteria.

Even the mainstream media seems unable to even attempt to tell ppl everything is fine, let alone great.

So many ppl seem to be in psychic agony and just grinding through.

Talk of physical ailments of their own or others is constant in my experience.

[Bram]

That’s why I started the mental health thread, it seemed like something had changed.

I think that it’s become easy for negativity to enter our lives.

I’ve read two news stories so far this year. That is a conscious choice to decrease negativity that has helped.

There are a lot of opportunities to decrease negativity: the way we talk about ourselves; the way we talk to (or about) others; the information we consume; our food, exercise, and sleep habits; nature; creativity; goals; and so on.

If we are careful, we can create and intake so much joy and positivity and meaning. But we have to be careful.

My two cents.

[Bennyonesix1]

Amen. I do think things have changed. Or people have begun a rapid downward slide all over. Jesus, it is days sometimes without seeing a beautiful woman or even pretty one. And then it is some super young girl. Very depressing.

These damn smart phones. I went flip phone about a year ago.

Idk dude. It is rough out there rn. Ppl are decaying in their early 30's ffs.

[Luke]

2020 is meant to have been the start of a dark astrological time stretching for the next decade. But if that's too woo-woo...who can deny something feels off and has been for the past few years? At work for the past year people have just been scared, sick, depressed, anxiety-ridden.

Covid, vaccines, the war in Ukraine, massive lay-offs, recession, AI now being an existential threat, the balloon shit, the earthquakes, horrific events in Ohio that bizarrely were silenced, The Liver King lying...it's a perpetual cycle of joltingly bad news....but this shit seems way darker and exponentially worse than pre-Covid. Natural events, sure, always there...but something ominous has been lingering around.

Kali Yugaoutta herrreee....

[motherjuggs&speed]

In my lifetime there have been a few sea changes in what I call the prevailing national mood in the U.S.. The first was in 1985. I don't know if it was related to Reagan's re-election or not but suddenly people were much more hostile, much colder, much more likely to call the cops . . .overall it was a feeling in the air that was much different from even a year earlier. Actually now that I think of it, that was actually the third. in 1976 people wanted to be happy. In 1977 they wanted to be somebody, meaning it wasn't enough to be happy, now they all wanted people to see how cool they were and to be seen making the scene. It was very sudden but it was there. In 1982-3 there was a shift into conspicuous careerism. You had to be climbing the ladder, not making the scene so much as making it. Getting promoted. Starting a company. Going public. Boasting about your new status. The next one was the hostility in 1985.

The next big shift I remember was in 1992. The Tom Bradley riots changed everything. The cops got much more aggressive and the people were much meeker about it, in fact embracing the new police state-ism. There was also a short, smaller phase from 1992 until 1996 where people were about rocking the "f you". At concerts, performers would openly show their contempt for the audience and there was a strong current of a different kind of hostility that you could feel when crowds were gathered. That bit seemed to go away around 1996 I think.

Oh, and in 1990 there was a feeling that were were post everything. Movies and music of 1988-90 reflected a feeling that the 80's were over, we've seen and done it all, now we're nearing some kind of end. People forget that now but it was there. The recession didn't help but that mood was there anyway and might have made things worse.

[motherjuggs&speed]

The next big one was after 9/11. It was more than the feds imposing a surveillance state, it was everywhere. Places you could just go became off limits to the likes of us and it wasn't that the people said, sorry, new directive, I know it's dumb, it's that they all embraced their new authority. They all wanted to be the Capo, and they were very quick to call someone -- security, the cops, someone.. it was suddenly everywhere and as you all know it's only gotten worse.
There was another component of 9/11, due to both the event and the authoritarianism that followed. We were all cut off from each other. During the 90s, as more people got online, there was a growing sense of the possibility of community and it was accurate. Some things that had been dying out got revived. Some niche hobbies that weren't even organized enough to have a decent newsletter suddenly thrived now that people could connect with each other. There was simultaneously a strong sense of disaffection and unreality at the same time as this surge of connection, or the striving for it and belief it was possible. We didn't believe in ourselves or in life the same way after 9/11 and we never will.

Although the financial crash hurt a lot of people i don't think it had the effect of changing the feeling in the air in the way I mean.. I was living in a neighborhood that had a lot of evictions, a lot of people were hurt and angry but it seemed to me that people were angry at the event(s), but we were still the same people as before. That was my sense of it anyway.

I think 2020 would have been a lot worse, violence wise, if people weren't so weakened and cowed, as well as being used to seething instead of reacting. It's good that the riots and mobs weren't worse but the level of violence doesn't reflect the actual level of hostility. There's a lot more hostility than shows up on the news.

[motherjuggs&speed]

So I get the psychic energy thing that Benny refers to. I agree that we're in a really bad phase and I don't see a way out of it. There was a similar one in 1994. Not like this, I mean similar in the sense that it felt like an astrological event or something but the people I knew, all of whom felt it, thought that it was probably a temporary thing. Now it feels like it just keeps getting worse.

And now for something completely different. Moore's law.

Jim Keller keeps beating the drum that Moore's law hasn't ended, that we still have room to keep improving compute rapidly. He says the reason compute kept doubling is because people believed it would and a lot of smart people worked really hard to make it happen. He says we have to keep believing in it so people will keep working to make it happen. There have been waves of optimism and enthusiasm despite what people had been through. Some of it was driven by the machine but people bought into it and that's part of how a lot of things improved -- people believed that we were all working to make things better and that made it happen. With many problems and shifts of course, but that feeling was there for a long time. Now it feels different.

[Bennyonesix1]

I took the time to read Peter Thiel's stuff. Nothing really amazing. Not saying he himself is like that. Idk him. He prob is incredibly impressive in person. Hell, I own his stock.

The only thing I felt he was really trying to get across was how fervently the important tech guys believed in the end of all things in the singularity. It really is dumb to believe such a thing. But, Thiel is or was insistent that they feel like they have to race to accomplish whatever they want to do. Hence NZ bunkers etc etc.

[Bram]

Idk dude. It is rough out there rn. Ppl are decaying in their early 30's ffs.

I think a lot of it is mindset.

I have a client in his late 70’s who was complaining about his age. I asked him if complaining was helping him achieve his goals. Of course he said no. So I told him to cut it out then and work harder.

Now he’s trying to pull off his first forearm stand in yoga. Which is a cool goal!

There for sure is an air of defeatism, but it annoys the shit out of me, and I don’t tolerate it in my inner circle.

[Ronald RayGun]

The whole 30 year-ish olds basically calling it quits is for sure a thing. Same with younger folks not wanting to drive and most dudes of most ages just giving up on fucking entirely. Something is absolutely afoot.

[Bram]

Less competition for hot chicks

[Bram]

I’m sure I’ve shared this already in a different thread, but it’s relevant to this one.

I read that a decade ago the average American spent ten hours a week with their friends. Now it’s down to three to four hours. This is a huge part of the problem!

When I saw that, I immediately reached out to two friends. For months now, every Thursday, we get together to watch a movie, a tv show, play video games or board games, or just talk.

In total, I try to get four to five social activities each week — this week it’s also a Wednesday dinner with some trainer friends, Friday karaoke, Saturday a birthday party for a good guy.

Anybody can do this, but it requires some deliberation.