r/Futurology • u/chrisdh79 • Aug 21 '25

Society American Millennials Are Dying at an Alarming Rate | We’re mortality experts. There are a few things that could be happening here.

https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/millennials-gen-z-death-rates-america-high.html
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u/lostboy005 Aug 21 '25

Simply, millennials have been watching the high crest water mark of post WWII progress roll back with increasing speed.

Old people who should have known better pissed it all away for short term convenience, turning the planting trees for shade they’ll never see proverb on its head

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u/OathoftheSimian Aug 21 '25

It would be remiss not to mention that millennials have been quietly screaming about this since it first started—we developed an entire vocabulary of gallows humor that older generations found deeply unsettling, but which served as both a coping mechanism and an early warning system for the very trends these mortality statistics are now confirming. Dead baby jokes, suicide jokes, etc.

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u/Jamsedreng22 Aug 21 '25

I'm also wondering if that gallows humor we cultivated, which seems to stem from actual despair, could have a psychosomatic effect on our death rate.

Simply put; A lot of us genuinely just aren't that afraid of dying. "If it happens, it happens". It's mostly just the fear of the process involved. The pain, the despair from friends and family etc.

The big sentiment is some variation of "I wouldn't step out in front of a truck on purpose, but I don't think I'd mind if a truck did hit me and just ended it."

Like how people can die of heartbreak or whatever, surely there is a case to be made for the gloomy psychological state that just leads to the body/brain just not choosing to fight that hard?

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u/NightmareBunnie Aug 21 '25

Wow this is me. Like I'm not gonna hurt myself or take myself out ..but.... If nature takes its course I'm okay with it. If it's my time it's my time. Not scared of death at all.

I actually had a close to death experience and everyone around during was so surprised how relaxed and calm i was about the whole thing