These 50 Pics Show How Dystopic Our Society Already Is, And Maybe They’ll Inspire You To Change Something
What comes to mind when you think of a dystopian universe? is it Dali-esque surrealist landscapes or is it a more realistic world like 'The Handmaidens Tale' or '1984.' Well, according to the late Brtish academic and cultural theorist Mark Fisher, we are already living in a present-day dystopian society and folks - it is very boring.
The term 'boring dystopia' was coined by Fisher in 2015 and refers to the subliminal coercion that abounds in a capitalist society. So subtle that unless you're looking, you might not realize these problems with society are actually already happening. Charlie Booker's Black Mirror is the closest fantasy depiction of this theory, with his episodes questioning how far is too far when it comes to our evolving technology and how close we are to the dystopian future.
However, for real-life examples of this theory, and social issues coming together with, it look no further than the sub-Reddit titled 'A Boring Dystopia,' which is dedicated to sharing images that are disturbingly unassuming. From the poster that reads "Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer," or a bus passing by with bold black letters stating, "You don't need therapy you just need a new car," the following photos may make you question every society problem in a different light.
Scroll down below to see the Orwellian thread of signs on problems with the world!
This post may include affiliate links.
Peak Bureaucracy (Happened In Toronto)
Boring Dystopia
I Guess We Just Have To Get Used To This
Well, this is sad. But it's a description of "Better safe than sorry"
Drink Soda To Help Fight Diabetes
You Must Be Noteworthy To Take A Selfie At This Spot
Look At All That Freedom
Reminds me Henry Ford "A customer can have a car painted any color he wants as long as it’s black”
The Only Way To Live
Healthcare Described In One Picture
Based on the ATM symbol ("bankomat" on yellow background with Raiffeisen logo) and the uniform of the paramedics it is from Croatia. The photo dates back to September 2016, and the Photographer's name is Sandra Krunic. The original title of this photo said something about American healthcare, which doesn't fit.
You Get 3 Minutes
Boring Dystopia
"How Can We Decorate Our Lobby To Look Refined While Still Being Utterly Devoid Of Character?"
And people who decided this didn't think that this would make a perfect joke?
"Anti-Homeless" Bench
Quick Reminder That We've Been At War For 17 Years. Sure, People Are Sent To Fight And Die Every Day, But It's Just Old News, Right?
Kurt Cobain Was Not Diagnosed With A Mental Illness And Leave A Suicide Note For It To Be Turned Into A Fashion Trend
American Airlines Announces Pay Raises For Pilots And Flight Attendants, And Investors Balk
Investors want to get all the money, while putting in none of the work. It's the workers' labor that creates value, which brings in the money. It makes sense they should be paid appropriately.
Mass Shootings Are Now So Frequent That President Trump Just Copies-And-Pastes His Condolences
Education For Your Kids? Not Important. Buy Our Expensive Car Instead
Trump's Official Survey Doesn't Include Any Negative Response Options
Teaching Kids To Read Via Logos
Boring Dystopia
Totally Normal And Fine
S**t Like This Just Happens Constantly Now
Liquidation Sale
not as bad as 'things to do before you die' why not 'things to do while you're still alive' much more positive.
Plastic, As God Made It
Didn't George Carlin say that the only reason Earth hasn't killed us is that it can't make plastic and needs us to do it?
Gun Show This Weekend
It's been documented that after a mass/school shooting, gun sales actually go up. How sick is that?
Teachers Gifted Supplies For Their Classrooms ...on A Talk Show
Late Stage Capitalism
Shouldn't the simple fact that you're out of blood, solve ALL your problems ? Including housing ? Just a tought
Be Happy
Yeah, if you don't smile, an exec will immediately bolt from his office and grin at the door for you :D
Life Is Beautiful
Jaywalkers Under Surveillance In Shenzhen Soon To Be Punished Via Text Messages
how is this surprising? did you really think they were developing this kind of technology just for your social photo tagging to be easier? come on.
But it's so much easier to open my GPS tracker/data mining tool/Listening device I have with me at all times. Oh look, a deal on giving my DNA away to get a story about my family history!
Load More Replies...From the Chinese government not really surprising. Those people are control freaks.
Amazon is already selling its "Rekognition*" system to law enforcement despite numerous tests showing it frequently mis-identifies people of color. https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/25/facial-recognition-software-is-not-ready-for-use-by-law-enforcement/ *the name sounds like it was made up for a spy thriller's bad guy
Have you been tagged in a photo on social media? Congratulations, your face is now scanned into a government database.
I still fail to see how this is a crime (especially in America, when "oh yeah I shot him but it's on my land so it's ok" isn't ) Sidenote -Jaywalking - not a crime in the UK. Not even slightly.
China is an incredible country, filled with natural wonder and beauty and a warm friendly people. Not to mention the cuisine! Its a tough sog as a backpacker, but don't knock it till you've tried it. If the world turns their back on them how will they ever grow past their oppressive regimes?
Load More Replies...If facial recognition is working well in *China* of all places then you know they've really really nailed the technology, as facial differences between people there can be very subtle due to historically low diversity, and the population is so immense which would lead to more identification errors. Impressive, yes, but also horrifying!
actually.. no. that's ur brain tricking you. neuroscientists have found that your brain has a hard time distinguishing people from other races if you don't have familiarity with that race and the variations of faces. chinese ppl think all whites look alike too. https://news.brown.edu/articles/2009/01/race
Load More Replies...And Dallas will mail you a toll when literally just pass over the toll road; not just actually driving on it.
What are you trying to communicate here? Two wrongs don't make a right. Those are awful too. My husband received one of those tickets in the mail this spring in our state for our truck which was literally broken down at the time. These systems are invasive and deeply flawed.
Load More Replies...If I were a smart man, I would develop an app that allows one to only receive texts from people in their contact list and sell it to Shenzhenites with acute jaywalking proclivities and a dedicated technology budget. Seems like there might be a lot of overlap there. "Sorry, your honor. Never got that text."
Yes, and? Face recognition used to limit the number of traffic troubles and accidents? If we're speaking about dystopia, you should show some nefarious use of the technology. Furthermore, remember that tracking people is far less useful than one might think. You would need high-quality camera _everywhere_ (especially in densely populated cities, where you can easily break line of sight) and an army of agents dedicated to tracking people (anything less than 1 handler per 20-30 subjects makes that difficult and that would mean 400.000 of 'observes' alone).
Dude, it's JAYWALKING. This IS nefarious, especially if you read on the possible other plans they would like to implement using this technology. And the whole point of this tech is it doesn't need any sort of handler or human on the other end- it's all technology. That's what makes it so dystopian. It's faceless, automated, you can't appeal it. This is about as nefarious as it gets.
Load More Replies...Google Helps Its Sponsors Before Its Users
They Love It!
I Withdrew Some Cash And The Receipt Has The Most Dystopian Bloody Thing On It
I'm Sure The Sermen Drew Some Comparison With Following "False Prophets"
I don't think this challenge honor the Christ... Poor Him, it must be tiredsome to be loved by idiots.
Watch Live
Boring Dystopia
It’s Really Hard Watching Other People Live Out Your Dreams
You Don't Need Therapy
The Fortune In These Fortune Cookies
Bleeding You Dry
Giving your blood is a good thing, having no choice but selling your blood sucks
Aligned With The Holiday Spirit
And? This can be a police parking lot, military base, impound lot, a mint etc.
You've Heard Of Elf On The Shelf, Now Get Ready For
How America Ends
The Important News
It's an update. Bus probably fell from the cliff, crashed on a cemetery, and they are keeping the viewers up to date on how many victims they keep finding under the wreck. Chips look tasty though :D
Golden Fistbump
This Escorting Website Features A Live-Updated Student Debt Clock
Happiness Within Reach
Back To School Shopping
Facebook Served Me An Ad Inside Of A Private Chat
Their Main Concern Isn't Population Changes, It's Diaper Sales
Note: this post originally had 73 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Load More Replies...Ok, I've seen a lot of comments on this post about how "America is the worst country". You think we LIKE having mass shootings every two minutes? You think we like having a president who puts immigrant kids in concentration camps? You think we like leading the charts in obesity? No. We don't especially like any of that. So please stop acting like the entirety of America is shooting each other in the head. Because we aren't. Only a few are.
If you don't like the state of things in the USA, get off your a*s and make sure that you are registered to vote. If not, go register! Do your homework on candidates, and cast an informed ballot in November. If you don't vote, you don't count.
Load More Replies...What I've learned in life, is that, the Earth is doomed. Whether humanity nukes itself or global warming kills us by 2100 with excess carbon dioxide, I've learned to just accept the time I have. Yes, I recycle and don't use plastic bags, I'm not a savage. But I've learned to appreciate and love life, before the world dies. And fight it anyway... you never know. Sorry for being negative.
This is the first post where I HAD to read through all the comments just to get the rest of the story.
These are just awful. I guess an up vote means they are awful-er than the others. But I wanted to down vote them. So sad.
I bookmarked this under Republicans. If you don't agree, please reconsider what Republican values, and their political platform really supports. Forgive me for stating the obvious, (to most readers I hope), but virtually everything they do is in support of big business, nothing more nothing less.
Bored Panda's showing their political bias a lot with this one......alienating half of your clientele should never be on the agenda, if you want to keep in business.
900 % of this post is nothing but political b******t- as i said repeatedly - eat s**t and die
I hear and read americans complains about their country, but I've been there once 10 years ago. It's a wonderful country. It have some problems but if i look at the big picture, USA is a huge amazing place where everything is possible. Americans that complain about this country, please come to live in my country for a while and then tell me what do you think about USA.
People complained when Obama was president, was that a fashion?
Load More Replies...This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Load More Replies...Ok, I've seen a lot of comments on this post about how "America is the worst country". You think we LIKE having mass shootings every two minutes? You think we like having a president who puts immigrant kids in concentration camps? You think we like leading the charts in obesity? No. We don't especially like any of that. So please stop acting like the entirety of America is shooting each other in the head. Because we aren't. Only a few are.
If you don't like the state of things in the USA, get off your a*s and make sure that you are registered to vote. If not, go register! Do your homework on candidates, and cast an informed ballot in November. If you don't vote, you don't count.
Load More Replies...What I've learned in life, is that, the Earth is doomed. Whether humanity nukes itself or global warming kills us by 2100 with excess carbon dioxide, I've learned to just accept the time I have. Yes, I recycle and don't use plastic bags, I'm not a savage. But I've learned to appreciate and love life, before the world dies. And fight it anyway... you never know. Sorry for being negative.
This is the first post where I HAD to read through all the comments just to get the rest of the story.
These are just awful. I guess an up vote means they are awful-er than the others. But I wanted to down vote them. So sad.
I bookmarked this under Republicans. If you don't agree, please reconsider what Republican values, and their political platform really supports. Forgive me for stating the obvious, (to most readers I hope), but virtually everything they do is in support of big business, nothing more nothing less.
Bored Panda's showing their political bias a lot with this one......alienating half of your clientele should never be on the agenda, if you want to keep in business.
900 % of this post is nothing but political b******t- as i said repeatedly - eat s**t and die
I hear and read americans complains about their country, but I've been there once 10 years ago. It's a wonderful country. It have some problems but if i look at the big picture, USA is a huge amazing place where everything is possible. Americans that complain about this country, please come to live in my country for a while and then tell me what do you think about USA.
People complained when Obama was president, was that a fashion?
Load More Replies...