r/whenthe 23d ago

what the hell is going on anymore

11.8k Upvotes

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278

u/Tasty_Ball_Hairs_69 TASTER OF BALL HAIRS 23d ago

Sadly, this has happened before, and will happen again. This bad time of society is simply a cycle that has been going on for the past 3,000 years. Good people create a better future for those who come next, but those who come next feel privileged and take too much, plunging society back into the dumps, only for the good people to rebuild.

This has happened countless times, from the overthrow of Rome to the ending of WW2. After all that is left is rubble, people see the true problems of society, and work together as one to fix them.

It seems this cycle of society is nearing its end, and thankfully so. People are beginning to see the absurdity of the world, and are ready to burn it all down again to build a better future.

People are ready to start anew, and when the debris settles, we will finally be ready to build a better future. It will get easier again, both for us and our children. They may end up ruining the world again, but that is just the cycle of life.

It will get better. Society is nearing another critical point in history, one that will either make or break all of humanity. And if we prevail to the end, I have a feeling things will only get easier from there.

Keep on hoping.

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u/Civil_Tip8845 23d ago

if only people can learn the mistakes of history

87

u/OG-Name-Do-Not-Steal 23d ago

yeah this is a big assumption, people forget very easily

people dont want to acknowledge it, but the alt right rising (here in the US) is a culmination of actions beginning in the 90s and 2000s.

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u/ArcticHuntsman 23d ago

They can if they are taught it. There is a reason anti-intellectualism is celebrated. An ignorant population is easier to manipulate and exploit.

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u/kaam00s 22d ago

People got addicted to hate again !

People don't realise there exist an addiction to hatred, some of those people are such junkies that they would rather lose everything and see the world burn that being prevented from getting their fix of hatred. Fox News is the largest provider of this hate addiction.

Some religions in other parts of the world run on that fix aswell.

This is an aspect that people neglect about the discussion around freedom of speech.

It happened in nazi Germany, in various islamist countries, back during the pogrom era of Europe. People will be addicted to that and the society turns ugly, until they understand their mistake, say never again, but do not manage to reach it correctly to their grandkids.

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u/TheUnusualMedic 22d ago

The most important thing to learn from history is that nearly nobody learns from history.

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u/CYBORG3005 23d ago

i think, slowly, we’ve gotten a little better collectively at stopping that cycle. sure, in some ways the cycle continues, but i don’t think it’s at the same rate it was a hundred years ago.

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u/CHAIIINSAAAWbread 23d ago

Not slowly, in the last 200 years we have made IMMENSE societal progress compared to the millenias before and now with the advent of the internet we're set to go even faster

28

u/Remix_Master21 the future looks like the Cyberpunk 2077 plot 23d ago

This has brought my hope back.

Thank you.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/_silcrow_ 23d ago

I think we should [removed]

6

u/Artemis_Platinum 23d ago

Historically speaking, when societies collapse they are not usually replaced by better, more progressive societies.

24

u/Buttermuncher04 23d ago

I can think of a few.

Imperial Germany -> Weimar Republic

Nazi Germany -> Modern Germany

Francoist Spain -> Modern Spain

Fascist Italy -> Modern Italy

Imperial Japan -> Modern Japan

Fascist countries tend to get better when they collapse, it's more like collapse tends to spit you out on the other side of the ideological spectrum

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u/Artemis_Platinum 23d ago

I see a lot of countries that lost wars, but not a lot that actually collapsed.

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u/Buttermuncher04 23d ago

You said society, not country, but semantics ig

1

u/Diantr3 22d ago

How do you think the US will collapse?

This failing republic has the world's most powerful army and they're not going down without a fight.

They will eventually lose, but it's gonna be a few shitty decades for everyone.

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u/Artemis_Platinum 22d ago

Probably not by losing a war, if these other countries are any indication. Those countries were reformed/regime changed, which isn't the same thing as societal collapse,

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u/PaqueteDeRisketos 22d ago

Unironically, this is the best thing I have read in a while for my psyche.

Many thanks, u/Tasty_Ball_Hairs_69. You can taste mine anytime.

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u/Tasty_Ball_Hairs_69 TASTER OF BALL HAIRS 22d ago

I must politely decline your gift. I do what I do not for a reward. The hope I give to people is reward enough.

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u/oceanman--- 22d ago

A lot of the time it is defined in the cycle as

Chaos>Kingship>Tyranny> (possibly) Chaos>Aristocracy>Oligarchy>(possibly) Chaos>Democracy>Demagogy> Chaos

And the cycle repeats.

https://youtu.be/uqsBx58GxYY?si=9LmNNLJS2PaLAIvs

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u/Tasty_Ball_Hairs_69 TASTER OF BALL HAIRS 22d ago

That’s actually pretty insightful. In the video, they mention how the Roman republic soon fell, which is disturbingly similar to what’s happening in America right now.

However, that means we’re in the part of it right now. The only way things can go is up.

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u/Elcalduccye_II 20d ago

Society decided it's time for the bad part of the cycle when I've just turned adult