picture unrelated but it makes me happy to look at

climate doomerism

How do you cope with the impending climate collapse? I try so hard to just keep on going one day at a time but sometimes I get so deep in the darkness I have to go out and grab a coffee or something to keep my kid from seeing my mood and asking what's wrong.

I don't see the world being a good place for them to live by the time they're an adult and I feel intense guilt for bringing them into such a world. I've got plenty of arguments against antinatalism, I have plenty of theoretical reasons why people should continue to have children (only the fash having kids seems like a bad thing) but at the end of the day I feel like they will resent having been born when they find out that I was well aware of the state of the world at the time.

Sorry for the bad vibes.

If you don't have kids and reply I might get upset but I'll try to just ignore you

  • tmcgh@lemm.ee
    ·
    9 days ago

    I feel this so much. Having a covid baby radicalized me in a way I don't think would've been possible otherwise. Crazy to see family freak out at me for asking them to wear a mask to see/hold my newborn...nothing made me reevaluate more than those moments.

    • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]M
      ·
      9 days ago

      For me it was experiencing covid lockdown procedures at the hospital, where no one was allowed to visit and I had to stay in the hospital for the whole labor and recovery, while arguing with my HR department about how much time off I'm allowed. Turns out, 0 time off unless I used all my PTO and only getting 2 weeks as a result.

      Watching the lockdown end and being forced back into work (I do public school IT) but having to deal with the covid protocol at daycare. Kid would get "exposed" and have to spend 2 weeks out of daycare, no compensation to the family, and work would make you take days. Work has no "work from home" policy on the books. So thankfully my boss was cool and let me work from home, but it was under the table.

      The whole "school from home" thing was bad and not effective and clearly damaging to these kids. I'm glad my kids missed out on that. I feel for the kids who didn't though. The stimulus packages ending child hunger, houseless population at record lows, then it all just vanished. Most people learned nothing from the experience either. Clearly so much of our social issues could be resolved by policy, but it never will.

      • tmcgh@lemm.ee
        ·
        9 days ago

        Ugh, that does suck. I live in California and luckily had paid family leave available and my employer was okay with the time off.

        Yea, the forced removal with no recompense was brutal...luckily for myself, there were no daycare involved as it was our first child but my partner taught elementary kids so we saw tons of families struggling with the protocols.

        The school from home was rough too. It was difficult for kids who were already behind. It was especially damaging for children who cane from disadvantaged communities or those with low parent involvement.

        You know, with this bird flu coming around, maybe we can get another shot...multiple people where I live have contracted it. Albeit from raw milk....