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Americans feel more and more glum, data shows. Economists are over it (www.usatoday.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
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[–] 47 points 2 weeks ago (21 children)

It used to be that if you spent $100 going out, you'd be talking about a nice restaurant dinner, a movie, and a couple of drinks at a club afterwards.

Now $100 is just the dinner.

It's a month's rent if you want to go to a big concert.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

    I used to do a lot more... economic activity. Then I got laid off and haven't been able to find a job that pays even half what I was getting. So fuck them.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

    I got laid off, didn't look for a job, and moved to the woods. I no longer participate in the economy.

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  • [+] -15 points 1 week ago (9 children)

    So you've ruined the woods and now it's turning into the city you were living in.

    There's no such thing as "living in the woods" because humans transform any biome they move to.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (8 children)

    Tell that to beavers.

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  • [+] -14 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    Humans are not a part of nature, beavers are. If a human goes to live somewhere other than a city, they destroy that ecosystem and it becomes something else.

    Either you're lying about "living in the woods" (which is the best case scenario) or you're fucking up one of the only natural ecosystems left.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    ...yeah, you're just cooked. Stay inside, dont touch grass. You'll ruin it.

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  • [+] -8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

    I hike constantly. I spend more time in nature than you do, which is why I care about it so much, unlike you. I just don't live there. Because I'm an environmentalist.

    Have you learned anything yet? Nature is for visitation only, living there destroys it.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    You know, nature will ultimately be fine. As a geologist, you have to look at the big picture. Mass extinctions come and go, some species survive and take their share, and so on. I don't count on humans surviving, but that's our problem, not nature's.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    This is true, and I find it oddly comforting. In a million years there will be no trace left of our awful species and the climate will have rebounded by then. It's estimated that our sun has 2 billion years left, so there's plenty of time for new life to evolve.

    But this comforting thought doesn't extend to these destructive selfish people who are destroying the only nature we'll ever have access to. The fact that the earth will ultimately be fine doesn't justify the destruction of nature.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Just curious, I'm guessing you see the downvotes - what's your interpretation of them? Is it causing you to reflect on what you're saying?

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  • [–] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    Not at all. The opposite, actually. Lemmy is toxic as hell, worse than reddit ever was. I get piled on for being right all the time. If you don't confirm to popular opinions here, people will bully you as a group and say some seriously ableist shit. Lemmy is the most anti-autistic online space I've ever seen. "Touch grass" is a placeholder for much worse shit.

    I think the guy I'm responding to is a troll. He "lives in the woods" and yet is able to respond to my comments within minutes of me posting them?

    They got caught in a lie and doubled down, simple as.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (8 children)

    And slowly, but surely, they're speed-running making cooking at home as infeasible as possible, either by cost or by lessening the quality until the people in food deserts have no choice but to look elsewhere.

    This country is a goddamn lie, and I wish I knew how to get people to vote third-party.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    I bought a new oven range a few years ago, and had to go out of my way to find something that didn't have some stupid touchscreen and a bunch of extra features I didn't want. I figured a dumber device would last longer.

    One of the fans stopped spinning fast enough and bricked the whole fucking thing within 3 years. Not even a broken fan, just not fast enough. Plus the error code the oven gave me wasn't on the sheet that came with the fucking thing so it took ages to diagnose. My last range had some shitty cooktops but god I miss having an oven that was literally just a big heating element, that thing lasted like 30 years and never once decided to just stop on me

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    Awful, man. I'm sorry.

    I'm fortunate to live in a city big enough to where second-hand appliances are still available if one ever needs one, but the stuff in my home was here when I bought and the old owners renovated in 2016. I would love it if I don't have to replace any of these things until 2046. :)

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  • [–] -2 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    so you got trump into office. thanks a lot.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago* (3 children)

    No, you got Trump into office, by running an openly brain-dead octogenarian and then letting said brain-dead octogenarian pick your candidate.

    Biden on national TV: "We beat Medicare!"

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  • [–] -1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    biden was the best president of my lifetime. its amazing what he got done in one term given the adversaries he had to work with. idiots who think they can not fight facists because they think reality and ideality can somehow be the same thing brought us here.

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