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Positivity is an incredibly powerful tool. If you always look on the bright side and see the glass as half full, you’ll have less stress, a stronger immune system and better mental resilience. But it’s important to know when it’s beneficial to force a smile and when it’s time to face uncomfortable truths head on.
Redditors have recently been discussing issues that we’re expected not to worry about, despite the fact that they’re actively harming society. From being obsessed with screens to the prevalence of microplastics in our food and water supply, this list is full of some bleak realities. So it might not be the most uplifting read, but these are topics that we can’t ignore forever.
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#1
Anti-Intellectualism.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” - Isaac Asimov Asimov_Isa...d067a7.jpg 
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#2
Social media. Destroying our attention, ability to focus, our sense of community and empathy, and now becoming a way for lies to dominate our sense of reality.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
Couldn't agree more, which is funny as I'm killing a little time here.
#4
Religious Zealots and them trying to force control on people's lives by intruding the Goverment.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
I root for the Church of Satan now. When the christians want to put religion into government, the Satanists are right there wanting to participate too, and it's hard to lock them out because they can claim religious discrimination. It's a funny way to shut down the jesus freaks. We need more of that. (Levayan Satanism doesn't actually involve any supernatural deities, to be fair. The Church of Satan is basically atheists with a mascot.)
#5
Cheering on "self-made" Billionaires, while they take government grants & tax breaks, meanwhile we wait out illnesses cuz it's too expensive to go to the doctor.
#6
Lack of empathy for fellow human beings.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
And now, here in America, it comes straight from the top. Those people are the larvae of flies, the magats.
#7
The hoops people have to jump through now just to have a job. Ghost jobs, AI screening out resumes, remote work that isn't really remote (especially remote jobs not telling people where they can and can't hire), easy baiting and switching, the job platforms allowing scams, and all the aforementioned.
All this stuff is just to be able to participate in society. Yet people are always giving useless advice that is often conflicting. People's mental health is ruined by layoffs and I wouldn't be surprised if people took their own lives over this.
Gabriel Camomescro 9 months ago
Or the lives of others. I do not encourage or condone it, but too many seem to ignore that it IS possible, even eventually inevitable.
#9
Lack of care for people who suffer from mental health problems and wars.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
The traitor trump said that the disabled should just d!e. Again, lack of empathy cometh from above. I am both bipolar and autistic, so I have an iron in this fire.
#10
The instant gratification. With the increase in technology, we’ve become impatient and entitled. We want immediate results for everything. We go to a restaurant, immediate results. We go to a hospital, immediate results. We’ve lost our ability to wait for anything. Patience is a virtue that sadly not many have nowadays.
Beak Hookage 9 months ago
AI being shoved into f*****g EVERYTHING isn't helping at all. Facebook even wants to do AI summaries of unread PMs so I don't have to just... read them myself. And then scape the resulting summaries to train more g*****n AI.
#11
Over consumption - of everything, food, clothes, toys. There’s just too much stuff available. I feel like Pixar’s wall-e was prophetic.
#12
The age of information has turned into the age of disinformation. F*****g echo chambers.
I miss the Dewey decimal system where you had to look up actual published information now it’s a s**t hole of disinformation and even educated people eat it up and we are in a free fall into fascism. Social media will be the downfall of society.
I’m a father of 4 and I just want my kids to grow up in the America I grew up in. Disagreements on both sides but meet in the middle on most things. Not the America where Russia is the victim.
The Darkest Timeline 9 months ago
Those who think Russia is the victim or think we should be like Russia are much closer to one side than the other
#13
A chronic lack of sleep. 99% of adults need 7-8 hours of good sleep to remain healthy. A chronic lack of sleep increases your stress levels, inhibits the functionality of your immune system, increases your risk of cancers, causes all sorts of cardiovascular issues and all sorts of serious neurological complications.
Olmoneypit 9 months ago
Do some research on bi-phasic sleep (two sleeps). We used to sleep for a few hours, then get up to do chores, stoke the fire, and do a safety check, then have a second morning sleep. This all changed over time, but now we are very hard on ourselves for waking up in the middle of the night and not getting enough sleep. Anyone who is sleep deprived may benefit from rearranging schedules to accommodate two sleeps. (I know, we all work during the day) I'm just saying, be easy on yourself, it wasn't always like this.
#14
Obesity. We tend to tamp down the seriousness of it in America for the sake of body positivity. Where I work, the VAST majority of young patients coming into nursing homes for rehab, sometimes turning into long term stays, are only there because one small issue (the flu, a knee surgery, an infection) left them unable to function anymore due to their obesity and related illnesses sapping their strength. I spend so much time trying to get people who weigh 300+ lbs to sit up and get out of a supine position just once or twice a day. I see how hard they struggle just to move. They can't clean themselves, their legs are too heavy to even roll themselves in bed. It's a problem.
Edit: to clarify, I'm aware that obesity can start in childhood, and can be outside of your control (trauma, genetics, financial situation)... not trying to shame anyone's weight.
Corvus 9 months ago
People who speak out are often accused of "fat shaming." This hurts obese people more than anyone else because it precludes a proper conversation about the problem and its solution. Body positivity isn't a bad idea per se, but it often devolves into people gaslighting themselves into believing that they don't have a problem.
#15
The failure of American education systems.
The Darkest Timeline 9 months ago (edited)
Learning is a choice. You can’t teach those who don’t want to or are not expected to learn. We’ve also deceived ourselves into believing having access to information is the same as knowing things.
#16
Capitalism.
Having scrolled through the comments, capitalism is the actual cause cause of 95% of what people are commenting.
MWH1980:
The idea that if you don’t possess wealth than you aren’t even human seems to really be filtering through.
joseph legatt 9 months ago
Capitalism isn't the problem, corrupted capitalism is. Once you give control of the government to business you no longer have capitalism. you have an oligarchy.
#17
Lack of universal healthcare.
#18
Disinformation 100%
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
Even more than this is the inability to differentiate between facts and utter b******t. The u questioning acceptance of whatever you’re being told. It is our DUTY to question authority, because someone being in a position like that isn’t always qualified for it, does often have an agenda that’s counter to the greater good, is often in the back pocket of/being blackmailed and/or threatened by/is wing coerced by groups that are evil and thuggish, and can only proliferate their evil agendas through force and coercion. Question authority to test its veracity and its intentions. Don’t be an automaton that does what it’s told without question. Think for yourself, and learn to recognize b******t when it’s being dumped on you. Smarten up people.
#19
Microplastics.
Get this. Plastic was created in 1907 which makes it roughly 118 years old. It’s been around a little more than a century and it’s everywhere. Antarctica? Microplastics! Deepest oceans? Microplastics! All your foods? Microplastics! The worst of it is Nylon, Polyester, Acrylic, Polypropylene and lots of others.
Scientists are trying to study long term affect but with no control group it’s very difficult. Everything has microplastics in them.
#20
Global warming and pollution.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
We humans are the only species that willingly destroys the environment in which they live. The climate changes and evolves over time, but we are definitely adding to the changes, and it only seems to be accelerating. As a middle-aged Gen X'er, I'm glad I won't live to see the worst of it, and I feel for those alive now who will see it get worse.
#21
Mental health struggles—anxiety, depression, burnout—and how they’re often ignored or stigmatized in favor of "toughing it out" or just pushing through. The societal pressure to constantly perform and be productive can lead to mental exhaustion, but addressing it feels like an afterthought in a lot of ways.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
This Gen X'er applauds the younger folks and their increased focus on mental illnesses and how they affect people. I wasn't diagnosed (properly) with bipolar until I was 39, and the treatment has made a huge difference in my life. I can only wonder what could have been had I been diagnosed sooner. My child also has mental health issues, but was diagnosed much, much younger, and that made a huge difference that I didn't have until years later. To the Millennials, the Gen Z'ers and the upcoming Alphas, keep up the fight. You're making a difference.
#22
Sedentary lifestyle.
Most people I know sit for 8 hours a day. Maybe 1/10 actually exercise.
Spinal problems, posture problems, breathing problems, blood flow problems. We weren’t born to sit down this much for these long periods of time.
#24
Religious idiots.
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
The kind who don’t understand that, if people don’t willingly join your group, and you have to make them join by force, even violence, then the issue isn’t with the people. The issue is your group’s entire objective, its raison d’etre, is completely counter to the good of the people, is wrong, bad, maybe even evil, and will inevitably end up imploding—-which I guarantee will not be pretty when it happens.
#25
Coming from someone who is chronically ill and into public health: BPAs, microplastics, pesticides, mold and mycotoxins, chronic viral infections, dyes in our food, SUGAR, alcohol, general inflammation, preservatives, heavy metals, EMFs, PFAS, bad air quality, bad water quality, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, sedentary lifestyles, lack of sleep, a*******n, and number one: STRESS... yeah, I'd say that's the tip of the tip of the iceburg.
#29
Isolation from our immediate communities.
The ability to go online and avoid interacting with your immediate surroundings has crippled the social ability of predominately social animals.
#30
Cars. It shouldn’t be a Mad Max death race to go to work in the morning.
Maggie Fulton 8 months ago
I hate traffic. If I could have any superpower, it would be teleportation.
#31
MBAs. Their drive for a yearly increase of profits above inflation is destroying everything; families, the environment, people's mental health, and the sustainability of the economy. A collapse is coming, and those whose lives aren't already destroyed are watch a slow motion car crash.
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
Growth just can’t be sustained, and isn’t at all a reasonable expectation, especially the level of growth most long established companies expect. For a new and growing company, yes you’re going to have a healthy percentage of growth. But if you’ve been around for decades and have been successful, there comes a point where all you have to do is maintain your profit levels, within reason. If you come out with some kind of new and innovative product or service, then of course you’ll see a spike, but it too will level off eventually. There’s no shame in getting g to the point where you’re no longer growing, and there’s a whole lot of accomplishment in being able to maintain a good profit level. Expecting permanent, unlimited, and highly unreasonable growth, to the point where you grind your employees into the ground after treating them like s**t, and having to buy influence to keep on doing business that way, is a good way to ruin a perfectly good solid company. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen eventually.
#32
Stress.
#34
Smart phones / the problem socially and mentally caused by kids getting addicted to screens to early is scary. So many study shows social media and mental health problems links are crazy. I work with kids seen it first hand.
#35
Convenience. I feel like the defining factor of the western world that I grew up in is Convenience.
Everything needs to be cheap and disposable and constantly accessible. I feel like it’s at the root of so many of our issues. All the plastic and over consumption. The quality of our food. Our anxious reliance on and relationship with the internet. Our dwindling attention spans. It shapes our labour conditions and the loss of craft and trade skills. It fuels the gig economy. It’s embodied by personal vehicles and commuter traffic. It goes on and on. I feel like Convenience is the defining a*******n of our age.
#36
I think the biggest thing that is slowly k*****g us right now is the inability to see the good in others or even look for the good and others. It's like everyone is so jumpy about what other people say to them, and many people take offense so easily. I was at a location where someone was working that was very similar to several places I had worked, and I simply asked whether or not she enjoyed her job. She literally told me she felt like she was being attacked. She did not say so meanly, and in fact, she actually looked scared. She couldn't figure out why I would ask such a question.
#38
Self diagnosing based on social media videos. Based on the ones I've seen I have OCD, ADHD, PTSD, and I fall somewhere on the spectrum. There is also a chance that I may possibly be neurodivergent and dealing with anxiety.
I wish people who truly need help find someone who can help them, but social media is not the way.
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
Considering how a doctor’s appointment often results in nothing more than a few questions and answers, and no actual testing, it could be a good idea to do some research on your own as well—-the caveat being to make sure you’re reading scholarly, peer-reviewed sources for your information, and not some pop culture influencer b******t. Read and trust Mayo Clinic articles instead of watching Dr Oz or Dr Phil, who are both just shills for c**p companies to sell their snake oil.
#39
Ignorance.
We pretend as if reading a WhatsApp forward is all the information we need, don't even double check the facts and choose to believe what we want to. 100% wilfull ignorance.
Savannah Newman 9 months ago
I was trying to lead a person to good information they could read themselves. They said they read the first sentence and didn't like what it said so they just stopped research and clung to their perspective. Uh, OK. I tried.
#40
Cars, and car-related support industries. Think of how many superfund sites and cancerous chemicals are generated to support cars. Beyond that, Florida is going to make radioactive asphalt roads. 8 million people die annually from fossil-fuel-related diseases.
THEN we get to the 1.2M annual deaths globally from the things.
Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
Well, maybe the radioactive element in the phosphogypsum will mutate the alligators into crocodilian Godzillas. Let's face it, a bunch of kaijus rampaging through this state wouldn't be any weirder than half the sh!t that goes on here now.
#42
Tik Tok and IG Reels. Have you seen how people can spend HOURS just stupidly scrolling through those apps? And the kind of STUPID content they watch?
#43
Loneliness.
#44
Louis CK referred to it as "the inability to just be a person." We used to have a lot of gaps in our days where you just had to sit quietly and let your mind wander. It's meditation and it's often when you make real realizations about yourself and when you empathize with others. With the constant availability of distractions, we don't do that enough anymore. .
#45
The belittling of normal people. Man the more people that can't go to work and work 8 hours and have enough to afford a small apartment food and transportation internet. The worse life gets for EVERYONE including billionaires. There's not enough billionaires to create the best parts of life that do not cost money. Things like beautiful beaches with people there. A beach with nobody there is only so cool for so long. Things like resort destinations etc. But man everyone acts like EVERYONE is just not working hard enough it's like what if the person to your left in real life and the person to the right of you at your 60 hour a week job and you still can't even afford enough to to clear an apartment rental without a co signer. Like what.
#47
I hear there is a looming loneliness epidemic. Or it's happening now. I also hear loneliness is shortening people's lives, mainly men.
Tabitha 9 months ago
Some of that loneliness is self-inflicted because those experiencing it embrace antisocial philosophies and behaviors. Unfortunately, they don’t realize that improving themselves could cure their loneliness by making them into people others feel comfortable talking to—-or even just approaching in the first place.
#48
CHEMICALS: synthetic fragrance in everything, additives and pesticides in our food, fluoride in our water. People's hormones are out of wack and we're all fat and sick and mentally ill because we douse ourselves in chemicals all day everyday.
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What do you think ?
lwolf1952 9 months ago
I think greed is a huge problem and it has been forever. It's a human sickness that enough is never enough and too much is never enough.
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
One of the seven deadlies, and for good reason.
Load More Replies...
Danish Susanne 8 months ago (edited)
I got worried about the food we eat. When looking for a recipe for cookies I saw one that called for butter with a high content of fat? I mean butter IS fat, so what else can be in a butter with low fat content? Are there other foods that are not at all what they claim to be?
lwolf1952 9 months ago
I think greed is a huge problem and it has been forever. It's a human sickness that enough is never enough and too much is never enough.
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
One of the seven deadlies, and for good reason.
Load More Replies... Danish Susanne 8 months ago (edited)
I got worried about the food we eat. When looking for a recipe for cookies I saw one that called for butter with a high content of fat? I mean butter IS fat, so what else can be in a butter with low fat content? Are there other foods that are not at all what they claim to be?
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