The quality of discourse in this thread, especially from Nude Raider and Vrael, remains stunningly poor reddit-tier hot takes. You will not get any further to understanding the world by reading the headlines of reddit threads or listening to "expert" consensus.
What any right-thinking man cares about is very simple: maintain peace, maintain the environment, build things that last, prevent the consolidation of wealth and power, and generally give people the opportunity to succeed. The global trend in these areas has been very poor.
We treat the far east as an open-air slave camp run according to the lowest environmental standards, and then "experts" concoct completely delusional environmental apocalypses to justify transferring wealth from the poor to the rich, while our reddit-tier friends cheer at the thought of seeing their political enemies humiliated. Anyone who listened to Nimoy opine about an imminent ice age that would doom us all, or listened to batshit insane ozone nonsense in the 90s will recognize this crankery for what it is. Moreover, such scams and illusions are trivially popped: imagine for one moment that they were real for even one second, what would the necessary action be? The first one thousand items on a list of such actions is to bomb, bomb, bomb every third world country until nothing is left but ashes, ending our over-scaled and over-industrialized civilizations for good. No where would wealth transfer into the hands of oligarchs appear on the list.
And of peace? Let us look to the globe for possible threats: we see two powerful nations both in the grip of authoritarian regimes, first Russia and secondly China. How might such enemies be contained? Members of a forum dedicated to a game of war might be imagined to think more clearly on this subject: contain them economically and militarily. Meanwhile our genius friend Vrael observes the might of Europe being built up and enhanced by its own strength, and he sputters incredulously that to grow stronger is to weaken oneself! The intellect of a king. Elsewhere, we see the same pattern in the east: enhance the relationship and increase the might of India, Japan, and make overtures to North Korea, taking away whatever power these scoundrels have.
Peace, of course, is the one area we see the most progress in because the structure of our government demands that to build anything (say, through an infrastructure bill of New Deal proportions) is a matter for the legislature, and in the hands of a divided government no such action is possible. Foolish men who think themselves the height of cleverness and moderation congratulate the idea of divided government, positive that if nothing can get done then everything shall turn out just fine. Mere cuckoldry and insanity in any age, but damnably heinous in ours, where deranged and broken malcontents are the prime crop for the ever expanding power of a ruthless, inhuman corporate state. As such, we see the malcontent obeys no simple rules about what branch is to do what: if he controls the executive he rules by decree, if he controls the judiciary he interprets new law from the aether, and if he controls the legislature he writes what he pleases. The only meaning to division is to provide a guise by which the lesser party, the outer party, might delude its base a bit longer.
No where is the hypocrisy and devilry of the reddit-tier mind more evident than in how quickly it has abandoned all positions it once held. It lauds war and decries peace, it praises weakness and belittles strength, it mocks truth and rewrites history, there is no low to which it will stoop, and in the stooping it has reached the lowest low of all: total obsequiousness to corporate power. What price did this malcontent fool get for his soul? Holidays of death and pain are celebrated each year with a colorful and brief rebranding to rainbows and black fists raised high. The soul of the malcontent has been sold not for money or power or truth or change or earnesty or any virtue whatsoever: he sells it freely for a change of paint upon the mast which signifies nothing, and he believes himself a hero for it. There is no poorer nor more pathetic creature on the earth than this.
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Now this has been all very negative, but there's no need for all that. The future remains bright, because it is a future of your choosing. You do not need to sit in front of data feeds nor listen to announcements from beast-marked satanics. Take up the real and abandon all the soporific drugs, the smut, the hedonist drives towards nothingness. You may work to improve your station, receiving whatever small gains you can. Work on your relationships with friends and family. Strive towards friendliness, openness, and charisma. Enjoy all that life has to offer. Learn to cook, and prepare a meal for friends. Learn a practical skill, and help a relative fix something broken. Turn off the computer, set aside the phone. Eliminate all darkness and hate from one's heart, and learn to love again. The virtues, as with the sins, are not a religious but a secular concept, and hold Truth over all. Find for oneself a role model - a successful, happy person - and strive to emulate them. Send a letter, a friendly hello, go outside, and most of all: lift heavy objects.
None.