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Hey Pandas, What’s A Ticking Time Bomb You Believe Will Explode During Your Lifetime? (Closed)
From global issues to everyday risks, we all sense ticking time bombs around us. What do you think will go off during your lifetime?
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#1
Fascism in the USA. "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it," attributed to philosopher George Santayana.
Why do the unhinged always pick the losers? Confederates, Fascism, uns.
Final score:
26points
Harry Gondalf 3 months ago
I would say that it's not one thing but many. Modern society is like a house of cards: one little jiggle and the whole thing comes tumbling down. 1) economic upheaval and collapse, 2) exhaustion of natural resources, 3) social collapse due to economic inequality, factionalism; in Europe, cultural clashes due to unlimited immigration, in N. America, political polarization, 4) climate change causing drought, crop loss, sea level change, extreme weather events causing widespread starvation, political unrest, political upheaval that spills over into the relatively affluent north, 5) other natural disasters such as megavolcanism or a Carrington event leaving all of Europe or N. America (or both) without power for weeks, 6) societal collapse due to low birth rate (for 100 children born today, there will be 7 grandchildren to pay for social security) 7) celestial event such as an asteroid or comet strike, nearby star going nova. I think most of these will come to pass before 2050.
RELATED:
#2
America
Final score:
20points
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 3 months ago
Civil War, again, I think. Between MAGA cultists and everyone else
#3
Obvious answer, but capitalism. Since its very existence is dependant on endless growth to satisfy the shareholders, the prices of goods will grow bigger and bigger while the salaries are stagnating, resulting in the workers having less and less purchasing power.
There will come a time where the people, save for several % at the top, simply won't have enough money to buy the ultra-expensive goods from companies. And then what? There'll be people who can't afford basic necessities and corporations making no profit because nobody has the means to buy their products. An explosive combination.
Final score:
19points
#4
World War 3 will probably come around, the current situation looks a lot like it did back then before WW2 started. Inner instability all around, maniacs and idiots in power of nations, economical recession etc.
The difference nowadays is that the most likely super powers of the conflict are also those with nuclear weapons
Final score:
16points
StrangeOne 3 months ago
It will start with the USA starting a military war, or instigating one, and that is already happening.
#5
Monocrop farming, industrial farming of meat. The intensity of farming is destroying our soils. The majority of crops goes to feed animals in industrial farms which are polluting hellscapes ruining the environment. Our increasing desire for meat will lead to the collapse of the food industry.
Final score:
12points
Rich Black 3 months ago
This true of the population time bomb generally. Pivoting from burgers to bean sprouts is only a temporary bandaid
#6
Food shortages. This isn't going to happen,m it's already happening. Remember the panic during Covid? People elbowing each other out of the way for d**n toilet paper... Now imagine the riots that will take place when food supplies are running low and people's children are at risk of starvation.
Farming is not an attractive occupation: seriously hard work, high overheads, awful hours, no breaks, and very little monetary compensation. So none of the woke new generation are interested. Ergo, who will grow our food?
Secondly (even though deniers in the same category as flat-earthers will denounce this), the planet's population growth is unsustainable. We expand, so we need more housing, and therefore more stores and supermarkets. This takes up more land, meaning less space for animals to graze. Okay, so we stick the livestock in tiny cages - not nice, but hey, we're the dominant species, right? But wait... what do the animals eat? Grain and feed. From where? Farms. On what land, and worked by whom? Uh... uh... hm...
Seriously people, read the novel 10:59 by N. R. Baker and find out for yourself how bad it's going to get. It's a stunningly good thriller, but full of very scary facts. Not advertising, but honestly, just read it.
Final score:
12points
Philly Bob 3 months ago (edited)
They're getting rid of the only people who pick the food "BeCaUsE ThEy'rE tAkInG oUr jObS aWaY!" Now the food will rot in the fields. OK, Mofos... they're gone so now there are a ton of jobs for you to do. Get pickin'!
#7
Health care is going to collapse. There are more people who need doctors than there are doctors to be seen. Literacy rates are dropping because kids can't comprehend anything not spoon fed to them, so medical school is going to spit them out long before they can graduate. It's not just insurance companies that are going to K*ll us all.
Final score:
12points
Miss Ann Thrope 3 months ago
The average American has a 7th grade reading level. One in four Americans has not read a book the previous year. How are we going to have a country with a barely educated populace?
#8
A bit of exaggeration on my part, but if rampant political extremism goes unchecked, there's a chance we may go into a second Civil War. Violence, death threats, just bashing everywhere. I do not see a safe way out of this.
Final score:
11points
#9
A new satellite telescope that will replace the James Webb Telescope, allowing us to see even further into the universe and better images of exoplanets, and we'll find more Earth-like planets, and possibly more planets that challenge our laws of physics.
Final score:
11points
#10
I've been expecting one of these space tourism flights to end in disaster. I hope I'm wrong.
Final score:
10points
Rich Black 3 months ago
You aren't. Look at airliners, trains, cars, and cruise ships. Mechanical failure and operator error are statistically inevitable.
#11
The 6th Extinction. Already started but with humans this time. No we can't exist without the other species. That's including jungles, forests and sealife.
Final score:
10points
Rich Black 3 months ago
How will I bwme able to on without shark fin soup and rhino horn sexual potency suupplenents?
#12
Another Pandemic but worse than COVID19. So many people haven't learned their lesson from last time and as far as the USA goes, the gutting of the CDC experienced staff will be totally devastating for them.
Final score:
9points
#15
RFKII
Final score:
6points
#16
I really believe the US is going to break up. I read The Continental Divide series by Alanson Rand a few years ago, and it's kind of scaring me now that so much of it seems like it could really happen, especially with the talk of "soft secession" these days. Waking in Ruins started the series with a pandemic(!), and the events spiraled from there. I just laughed it off as a work of fiction when I read it, but now I'm going back through the books and going, "Wasn't there something in here about this?" I have read so many works of fiction that are now plausible that it's spooky. I'd like them to be too weird to be possible again!
Final score:
6points
StrangeOne 3 months ago
That will be a good thing for the rest of the world if the USA breaks up into their own little countries or joins up with other countries. It might not go very smoothly though. But the USA just isn't working and overtly trying way too hard to thrive.
#17
Most of the US people vs. the Republican party
Final score:
5points
BeesEelsAndPups 3 months ago
I seriously doubt this one. I think about a third of the US population is actively anti-Trump. Of those, maybe half (at most) would be willing to go to the streets, and of those maybe 15% would be willing to take up arms. Another third of the US population is pro-Trump, and about 90% of those would be willing to go to the streets, and 60% of those actively WANT to take up arms. Finally another third of the US population couldn't care less who is in power or what they do. I don't think you're going to have much of a revolution with less than 5% of the population.
#18
Yellowstone.
It's a dormant volcano. Dormant, not extinct. When it blows, the ash cloud will be 300 miles in every direction, making the entire region uninhabitable for decades.
Ash is made of silica, which is basically glass. Breathing it cuts the lungs into ribbons.
The disruption to the food supply will cause mass starvation.
The loss of live will be immeasurable.
Final score:
5points
StrangeOne 3 months ago
Likely, as long as the geysers are venting, it will still be a long while before Yellowstone explodes. When the geysers stop jetting up water, and everything starts quieting down, that's when you'll have to worry.
#19
Since we're all indulging in some doom scroling here, let me add the singularity.
Final score:
5points
#20
I live between a nuclear power plant (now out of use, but putting them back in use is on the agenda of some politicians) and a site where countless barrels of atomic waste were dumped into a former salt mine because what could possibly go wrong... I expect to hear from at least one of them in the next 25 years.
Final score:
5points
#21
The state of american politics. it is reflecting the first triumvirate in roman history led by caesar and cassius that changed rome from a republic to a monarchy, much like trump is doing now
Final score:
5points
Rich Black 3 months ago
At least we're not sending american citizens of Japanese ancestry to concentration camps like FDR did. Or nuking major Japanese cities. Maybe America HAS evolved,
#22
Artificial Intelligence
Final score:
4points
#23
Trump but Vance is working on it.
Final score:
3points
#25
Mobile phone gambling run by Artificial intelligence. You can buy chips/stakes, but never withdraw winnings. Only use them for more wagering.
Final score:
1point
What do you think ?
Robin Roper 3 months ago
Global warming is causing massive changes to Agriculture which will lead to shortages of ice, wheat, and corn, potatoes, cocoa, coffee, bananas, and wine grapes - all will be harmed due to riding temperatues, changing rain patterns and resulting floods and drought; seafood is at risk due to ocean acidification caused by rising ocean CO2 levels; and melting ice will cause massive floods and the worldwide destruction of property located near the coasts.
Dona Laura 3 months ago
I read all the answers and they really just focusing on the ones problems , yes fascism is an issue also social inequality , but that happen throughout human history it’s nothing new. Somehow it always rebounds to some sort of brief normality . I do believe we will experience in our life time to the collapse of ecosystems of marine currents and nature as we know it. And that will affect all mankind and will be irreparable, it’s a one way road, and it’s already happening faster than it was originally excepted.
Robin Roper 3 months ago
Global warming is causing massive changes to Agriculture which will lead to shortages of ice, wheat, and corn, potatoes, cocoa, coffee, bananas, and wine grapes - all will be harmed due to riding temperatues, changing rain patterns and resulting floods and drought; seafood is at risk due to ocean acidification caused by rising ocean CO2 levels; and melting ice will cause massive floods and the worldwide destruction of property located near the coasts.
Dona Laura 3 months ago
I read all the answers and they really just focusing on the ones problems , yes fascism is an issue also social inequality , but that happen throughout human history it’s nothing new. Somehow it always rebounds to some sort of brief normality . I do believe we will experience in our life time to the collapse of ecosystems of marine currents and nature as we know it. And that will affect all mankind and will be irreparable, it’s a one way road, and it’s already happening faster than it was originally excepted.
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