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submitted 1 month ago by aka@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

The reality is setting in that people simply do not care about making the world a better place. It is breaking my heart, and I do not know how to reconcile my thoughts. I'm sorry to be such a downer here but I don't know where else to share.

Perhaps the climate catastrophe, human suffering, and inequality is so large and so much out of people's hands that even people who care have come to a state of learned helplessness. However, there are things within people's control that doesn't change. At work, I listen to a coworker frustrated about a simple problem. It would be a simple change to make this person's job much less painful, but he "just works here". It's just such a dumb problem to waste hours of someone's life on. To a certain extent, I can't blame him, because a lot of people just work to survive.

I want to make the world a better place. A world where people have all there basic needs met, live in balance with nature, and have a right to self determination. A world where humanity strives to be the best version of itself. I can't help but get sad or frustrated when I see something wrong. I can't help but feel like I'm a downer to my friends when I point these things out. They don't disagree with me, but it just seems like a depressing topic. People seem generally content to live their normal lives. In the same way, I can't blame them. It won't build a better future, but they deserve to be happy.

Maybe my coworkers are right, and that I'm too naïve. Maybe my friends are right, and that I'm too empathetic for my own good. I am envious that they can turn off the thing in their head that worries, or wants to make things better, and that they can just enjoy life. A more utopian future is generations away, or maybe never. If I can't effect change, maybe I should find an outlet, or stop caring, or something. idk, sorry for yapping. if you're reading this i hope you have a good day

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[-] Julian_1_2_3_4_5@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago

I really like andors manifesto as a take on how to have radical hope in a world that individualizes us, is gettjng more and more authoritarian and is soo much against our dreams and hopes.

[-] MudMan@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

This is a remarkable amount of main character syndrome, frankly. It doesn't read like excess empathy to me, it reads like privilege.

You're not saving the world. You'll never be saving the world. Your contribution either way is irrelevant. The big problems that you are frustrated about are about mass incentives, big numbers and geopolitics, not about people coming together for the common good because they care so much. It's not naïveté, it's arrogance. You get to vote on the big overall direction and, if you have the time, resources and disposition, to collaborate in activism with millions of others, assuming enough of them agree with you.

The small stuff? The "I could do this marginally better for mine or someone else's sake"? That's worth it. That you can do yourself. It still works on the same set of incentives and dynamics, but if it's something you personally can do to make something marginally better for someone, then... you know... go ahead? It's just much more valuable to do it in your own life than to get frustrated by someone else who you think should do it. Because, again, you aren't that important. Nobody is waiting for your command or judgement unless you're supposed to be giving it for some reason.

And let me be clear, I'm not mad about this. I'm not outraged at your worldview or anything. It's just that, honestly, in good faith, I think this sense of despair at everybody else refusing to fix things by acting as a hive mind with your same set of values and priorities is not a problem of ethics as much as a problem of narcissism and an inflated sense of one's own impact, and both that individual and their surroundings are better served by understanding the actual scale of their agency. Because... you know, that way you don't get discouraged when it comes to doing the small things you can do on the large scale, like voting or protesting, and you don't get angry about doing the big things you can do in the small scale, like not being an asshole or being too deflated to actually act in the spaces you control.

So no hard feelings but this is a get over yourself moment. In a constructive, positive, agency-filled, collaborative, collective action-driven way.

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[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works -3 points 1 month ago

Your definition of better is not the only definition of better. Lots of people have different beliefs about what would make the world better, getting angry or depressed because people don't agree with your specific view is childish. Dismissing everyone else as wrong is also childish.

You really need to reevaluate the impact you can actually have and make peace with it's limits. You aren't going to change great societal problems by yourself.

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this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
297 points (97.1% liked)

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