Learning more about history and the hideous tentacles of empire is...depressing. Seeing the state of the world is...depressing. My family pleading with me to vote Biden is...depressing. Being an environmental science student is...you get the gist. The only sources of positivity I see are moderately-propagandistic videos from CGTN and from PRC simps about some of the great things China is doing, but I can't completely internalize those because I am still stuck in the western/american regime of 'Positive news about China/Socialist Countries is always wrong or exaggerated' (which I'm trying to work thru) so yeah.
Is there anything to be optimistic about in the world?
I recently graduated in geophysics with an emphasis on climate science, so trust me, I'm painfully aware of the fucked state of the climate. A recent paper constrained the margins of climate change predictions, making an increase of 3 degrees to be the most probable future. That's still terrible, but in my personal low cynical expectations, the thought that a 4 degree future is unlikely makes me feel a bit better.
Personally, I see straight-up optimism over how much I've converted lib friends and family. Furthermore, the hold outs are deeply convinced that if Trump is voted out, then everything gets better. I suspect that Biden getting elected and things continuing to get worse will be the final straw for most of the hold outs.
I don't know where you're living, but I see solidarity having a greater impact than division and xenophobia.
Yeah, my local DSA has had a tenfold increase in membership over the past 6 months. Some newer folks were asking if there's any hope and I'm just sitting there like "fuck dude, people are finally starting to look for something different".
We're in the beginning stages of a massive shift. The right is shrinking in size while growing in state control, but the people are coming to us in droves. It's only a matter of time before legitimacy of the American government starts to fade, and we got the people.