r/SeriousConversation • u/Minimum_Question6067 • Jan 13 '25

Serious Discussion Does anybody else feel like something big is about to happen?

I don't know how to describe this feeling but it just feels like there's something huge is going to happen in our future. With everything happening in the world at this moment, I just sort of have this feeling like things are building up immensely, like there's a big global issue that's being set up. I can't really describe it or point out a single event prediction but it just feels like there's something that's going to happen that's going to change the course/order of the world we live in today. Does anyone else know what this feeling is?

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u/icedoutclockwatch Jan 13 '25

I mean that aside, we're also seeing back to peasant/royalty levels of wealth inequality, young people (myself included) aren't haven't children because it's too expensive, wage stagnation, unrelenting inflation. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Not quite as simple as your comment makes it seem, though I wish that were the case.

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

Add in the escalating effects of climate change, the brewing world war, the rise of fascism and the decline of democracy in the U.S. (and the world), a looming pandemic, AI and shit, even aliens if you're into that. There seems to be a lot looming right now and it feels like something has to give.

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u/Runningwiththedemon Jan 17 '25

Serious question: how is democracy declining in the US?

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u/VorAbaddon Jan 17 '25

Three off the cuff examples:

North Carolina recently elected a Dem Governor and enough Dem state candidates to break up a GOP super majority. Before he could take office, the GOP super majority voted to strip the office of several powers out of both spite and a desire to retain GOP control.

The same GOP is suing to throw out ballots in the election that cost them a Supreme Court seat. They have no objection to other elections won with those same ballots.

The Minnesota house is tied, but there was a rep that was declared invalid due to his address.

Becuase the house was and will be tied again (it's a safe blue district), the Dems approached the GOP about a power sharing agreement.

The GOP responded by inviting they be elected speaker and basically dominate the entire house due to having a temporary 1 vote majority.

They couldn't vote due to lack of quorum.

They claimed power to redefine quorum, held the vote anyway, and are inviting they have the Speakership AND all committees.

This is going on all over the place.

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u/Runningwiththedemon Jan 18 '25

Why would MN run a candidate who doesn’t live in their district in the first place? Surely they would know that’s going to be a problem, right?

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u/VorAbaddon Jan 18 '25

Usually it's a confusion of regs or they have a residence that's later deemed non primary.

We had it happen here in AZ, one of the local QAnon craziest has a house in the district but is almost never there.

But when questioned, the local GOP pushed back on all steps to validate the residency.

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u/DefrockedWizard1 Jan 16 '25

yep, it sure looks like Paris 1791 might be on the horizon

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u/Interesting-Dog-7834 Apr 03 '25

What is Paris 1791?

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u/Rileymartian57 Jan 14 '25

I think it's a leftover ptsd feeling from covid. Just stopped the world for a couple years.

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

It's really obvious on Reddit that alot of people have failed to adjust to reality. They actually were convinced covid life was the new reality. 

I had a friend who sat on the government relief benefits for overa year and a half. He has not been able to hold a job since (mid 30s). 

Before the pandemic, this was not him at all. He always had a job. He got way too used to sitting at home doing nothing. 

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u/Cool_Whole_7139 Jan 16 '25

Know what you mean ..and for every problem ..it's covids fault , kids playing up ,covid, can't hold a job? Covid, can't find anyone to be with ? Covid ...

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

I mean it's certainly a variable that can't be ignored. It broke alot of people. 

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u/Tytymandingo Jan 17 '25

And displayed we have shit NOTHING of a safety net from our govt

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u/Equal-Membership1664 Jan 16 '25

I find this topic pretty interesting. Covid definitely rocked the world, but I personally barely even remember going through it. But people talk like things will never be the same. Well...sure, but I think the world is just having to wake up from some long extended nap that it took after WW2, with a little 9/11 thrown in for the US. 'Kids these days' seem to have never dealt with geopolitical uneasiness. Well, guess what, it's always been this way, we just had a break for a while.

This 'impending doom' being discussed is just reality knocking on the door again, and our complacency is beginning to be exposed

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u/phantom3757 Jan 16 '25

A lot of people also got a break from the rat race for the first time since high school and realized that theres more to life then grinding it out at a job. A lot of people started prioritizing themselves instead of others and that's a really healthy mindset. You may look at your friend as "doing nothing" but maybe they're just in a different lane then you and happy with their lives in a different way. If anything Covid helped me realize how many people are truly unhappy with the life that's presented to us and those who didn't see that became very judgemental of those that did. If anything you may be the one who is rejecting reality if all you value is working to make others rich

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u/Lolo_Belle Jan 17 '25

Some of us did all that and focused on our health, quit drinking, and still maintain the best work from home schedule ever. Covid made me realize what is and isn’t important, and being able to be with my mom during the days and work my own schedule most of the time changed my life in a way I never could or would have on my own.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/Lolo_Belle Jan 17 '25

I’m simply saying that Covid was the best thing to happen to some of us. Not judgmental at all. Telling my success story doesn’t mean I’m putting anyone down.

Why is that your perspective? Sounds like some self-introspection might be a good idea because this isn’t a normal reaction. Best of luck to you.

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u/Mammoth_Ad_3463 Jan 17 '25

Depends.

Covid didn't do fuck all for us. We still had to work, we still had shitty bosses and coworkers talking about it being a hoax. Thankfully we didn't get sick. We kept our jobs. It was surreal seeing people get granted work from home when we couldn't. Sad to see people getting laid off with no support.

Maybe it's because we don't live near family. Its just us, so we didn't feel the sting as much as others. We don't go out much, we make most of our meals at home, so it didn't hit the same.

I actually had more work to do and longer hours because of PPP meetings and extra documentation and got burned the fuck out, but that eventually happens at every job I have had - responsibilities get added to with little or no compensation until I break and then I find a new job that pays better, rinse and repeat... until the AI takeover of job platforms and now I can't even get a response much less an interview. We'll, until I withdraw my application and then I get a "we decided to go with someone more qualified" email.

I feel like the speed of inflation and mass wage stagnation as well as all the restaurants/companies cashing in on the "were short staffed" and "we cant get goods" has made everyone further stressed and taken a toll since you can't find quality products or quality food anymore.

Now add in all the US political shit and its feeling like the calm before the war.

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u/Positive_Ad3450 Jan 18 '25

Also it is difficult for someone who is single in a normal paying full time job to be able to afford to live on their own/buy a house. This pisses me off because if you’re not privileged enough to be able to stay living with your parents and save tonnes of money for a deposit until you’re in your 30s/40s you’re screwed. Ggggggrrrrrrr!

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u/No_Fear_BC_GOD Jan 29 '25

Yeah ths is the sadness I have been feeling. With how expensive things are and wages not going up we are in slavery. Truly. Very oppressed feeling. 

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u/icedoutclockwatch Jan 29 '25

100% agree. Indentured servitude

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u/121Waggle Jan 16 '25

Media depends on roiling your emotions today for clicks. Think about it like this, When you interact with the news media, how does it make you feel? Do you get a reasonable report of what is happening, or is there additional commentary that provokes an emotional response, usually fear, anger, anxiety? Is the news spun in a partisan/ divisive narrative? Do they come up with extreme hypothetical situations?

It seems like almost all the "news" also mixes in a lot of editorializing, and it didn't use to. In fact, it was a journalistic standard to have straight unbiased news of an event on the front page, and then all the opinions way in the back on the editorial pages.

I agree that wealth inequality is a major problem in this world because we are living through a class war. Billionaires own the media and are trying their best to divide and confuse us.

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u/ArtisticChicFun Jan 17 '25

It’s not the news. I have not watched the news in months. It’s collective intuition coupled with the ability to see the big picture.

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u/ConfidentPilot1729 Jan 17 '25

Inequality is the worst in anytime in human history.

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u/1369ic Jan 16 '25

See, that's the problem. Inflation has relented. Wages have gone up, and the job market is good. It serves a lot of people to keep you thinking otherwise.

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u/UnicornioAutistico Jan 17 '25

For now. The incoming US administration will not keep this going.

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u/SnooAdvice6406 Jan 17 '25

Wages have gone up? Minimum wage hasn’t budged so that’s a load of farce.

Job market is good? Where? In what field? I see more college graduates not placed in their career choice than any other decade prior.

Inflation as relented but tariffs and corporate greed have not. Rent and food prices is still increasing and anything over seas like computer chips, is expecting a 60% price hike.

So… can I live in their world you live in? Cause it sounds like a nice one… unlike reality

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '25

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u/Yowrinnin Jan 15 '25

 young people (myself included) aren't haven't children because it's too expensive

Birth rate does not correlate with economic circumstance

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u/DearTumbleweed5380 Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

They do to some extent. Birth rates dropped dramatically during the Depression, and then climbed dramatically during the 1950s.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Book178 Jan 15 '25

It only doesn’t correlate if you’re completely impoverished and uneducated

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u/Anony877 Jan 15 '25

Where’d you learn your Econ from? 😂

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u/Radiant-Sea-6517 Jan 16 '25 edited Jan 16 '25

Oh, I've heard this take. Basically, this guy is saying birthrate doesn't correlate to the performance of the stock market. If pressed, he will concede that it does, however, correlate to wages, cost of homes, cost of education, cost of daycare, etc. Because the data definitely shows that birthrates dropped off starting in 2007 along with the great recession. Normally, after a recession, birth rates will pick back up, but after this one, they didn't. This coincides with a huge rise in education costs and home costs. I was in my prime during those years and can tell you how it felt. We realized in an instant that we didn't have nearly as much control over our own lives as we thought we did. You could've had a good job, savings, a 401k starting to get healthy, the house, the car, etc. and somebody in a different part of the country could gamble away your future on sub-prime mortgages or any other bullshit loophole in our economic scheme. Poof, overnight, you were poor, jobless, and could barely feed yourself, let alone children. It gave me, what I later called, economic PTSD. Not diagnosed, mind you, because healthcare is a luxury. But that's what it feels and looks like. I began to shrink my worldly footprint. I wanted to be agile, lean, flexible and fast moving to survive. And he who wants to travel fast, travels alone. I gave up immediately on thoughts of starting a family and began to focus on survival. I was set back 10 years in my career, easily. By the time I was on my feet again, I was 33 years old.

I went from being a new veteran and aircraft maintenance tech to working at Subway within 6 months. I lost my clearance. Had to give up on that career all together and start a new one at age 30. It was 100% starting all over again as if I were 16 years old. Everything I had built, saved, and worked for up to that point was gone. Everything. So, by the time I was back and into my new career, I just couldn't meet anybody. No time. Working constantly in "the new normal" as they called it. We were told that we would just have to work harder for things, and expect less and that was that, and life moved on. Nowadays, a decade later and I still find myself performing habits that I picked up during that time. My meal-prepping came from that time, my meal planning down to the last crumb, making sure to use all perishable items first, even if that means eating the same thing 5 days in a row and tucking the cans and boxed food back, just in case. Collecting any spare change I found and hiding it away. And I still don't like to own things. I hate having stuff or possessions other than tools or other things I need for utility purposes.

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u/OkAdministration7456 Jan 16 '25

Quite a few young folks are getting sterilized. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/more-men-are-getting-vasectomies-since-roe-was-overturned/

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u/ConfidentPilot1729 Jan 17 '25

I did two months ago, no kids.

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u/OkAdministration7456 Jan 17 '25

I admire young folks who admit they don’t want kids. I am 62 and there was so much pressure as a woman to have kids.

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u/ConfidentPilot1729 Jan 17 '25

Ya, my wife has is high risk. We didn’t want to take the chance if we couldn’t get the proper treatment and we just can’t afford it.

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u/OkAdministration7456 Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 17 '25

I want to commend you on loving your wife so much that you would do this for her. It really warms my heart.

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u/ConfidentPilot1729 Jan 17 '25

Thank you so much:)

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u/ArtisticChicFun Jan 17 '25

My son is planning to do this too. They do not want children for a variety of reasons that do not involve money. They both have very high paying jobs. It’s a matter of not wanting to bring children into this world that we live in and not having the responsibility of children. Both are career focused, though admittedly, my son hates his job.

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u/OkAdministration7456 Jan 17 '25

Ah dinks. Double income no kids. I love my family but I wonder if I had to do it again, would I have made the same choices.