I'm over 40 and struggling not to conclude life on this planet peaked 30 years ago
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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The 90s were seriously such a bop.
The Matrix was right.
At this point we can only hope the Matrix is real and they reset this simulation soon because what we're seeing are the side effects from the uprising outside.
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You might even call it an Mmmbop.
If you were a kid in the 90s, sure. Your parents shielded you from all the chaos.
The 90s also had terrorism (IRA, WTC bombing, German and French hijackings, Israeli settler massacre, sarin gas attack in Japan, Oklahoma City bombing, bombings of US service members in Saudi Arabia, PKK suicide bombers in Turkey, Dagestan bombing in Russia (possibly a Putin-orchestrated false flag)). It had the ongoing AIDS epidemic, which was terrifying. It had the first Gulf war. It had the LA riots of 1992. It had the columbine shooting.
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The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland.
Put a bird on it.
Hey, at least you got to enjoy humanity's peak as a teenager. I was a kid, so I never got the chance to fully appreciate the 90s. My memory of almost anything pre-1993 is incredibly hazy. My strongest childhood memories didn't take hold until the decade was almost over.
Lucky you. I got at best the earliest of the 2010s...
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I remember agreeing with that back in 2021 when it was posted, and now, well...
I landed a job a job at a company that’s circling the drain, I feel like a parasite feeding off a host until it’s gone and I move to a new one
I'm a public librarian. Just dreading the day we are defunded. They’ve already attacked our national orgs.
Maybe this varies geographically, but our town's libraries are directly funded by the town. We recently improved a millage for renovations. I hope they would be pretty insulated from... sillyness.
Most libraries also have significant federal funding, and rely on resources maintained with federal funding, even if state and local funding is higher
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Jeez, that's a brave thing to openly admit right now. And I work in public education.
I have 'iterally been saying to my classes (especially as my various NIH/NSF/.gov links are breaking during class) "pretend nothing is happening outside the walls of this school, just for a few minutes".
Oof, "active shooter" vibes, shelter in place :/
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Absolutely know the feeling
When I quit a few years ago are my last employer, I was thinking, I'm the rat leaving the sinking ship
Fucking card house still hasn't collapsed somehow and old employer is now my main customer.
So...not much changed, besides that I don't have much security anymore
But hey! Illusion of freedom, when being self employed! ;-)
A while ago, I was talking to my mum and offhandedly said that I'd have to move north at some point in my life, due to climate change. For me, that's just a given, with record hottest summers coming in regularly and current summers already incapacitating me for weeks at a time.
But my mum's reaction was basically "What's this about now?". She's lived in her childhood town or close-by for basically her whole life. And she's old enough that she doesn't have to worry about the aftermath. But yeah, that was still brutal, how different our realities were in that regard.
The Upper Peninsula is starting to look quite nice this time of year...
Not just those under 40.
Plenty of my gen X friends have come to accept that they will never retire like the boomers. A lot of millennials never thought they would.
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Well, interestingly, gen z men are the Trumpiest demographic:
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/11/american-gen-z-podcasts-trump-harris
I guess the meme still holds true, but their concerns about the future are very different. TBH I can totally understand them becoming disillusioned with other old politicians following old voters who will just “do nothing at let it all happen.”
This is the saddiest shit ever. Young men being angry at the « Men » will vote for the men that will sold them to the bone mill in a heart beat.
There’s a Turkish proverb : and the forest vote for the axe because they where made of the same wood
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I know a surprisingly large amount of MAGA/Trump adjacent fans because of my type of work.
- They're all single dudes. Maybe divorced. Maybe never went on a date.
- There's Joe Rogan involved.
- After a few beers, they all will unprompted share their views on Jews, blacks, trans, lesbians, or some other racist shit then back off and pretend it's just a joke.
- Tell them anything involving empathy "Sorry your dog died" is met with silence or coldness.
- They all don't give a shit about anybody else besides themselves. And often see themselves as the victim. "Oh Trans person was brutally beaten? Yeah it's a violent world like one time some guy threatened me gotta stay strapped."
- They may not like Trump's antics. But to them, the Democrats aren't helping THEM. Remember that lack of empathy?
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Who are the positive role models? Weve got all these young guys watching sniveling cucks like andrew taint
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Hell, I'm 46 and it's really hard to not be cynical these days. I want to believe there's still good people out there but I run into so many assholes.
I'm also 40 something. Oh for the dizzy optimism of the 90s...
I will forever seethe that I missed out on the 1990s, especially considering how IT was a money printer back then & the rave scene was top notch. I just about caught the tail end of the old internet as well, even that has gone to complete corporate dogshit.
And owning a house wasnt a Pipedream : (
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I think they've got it the wrong way around. The under 40s have a chance of rebuilding after the war. Yes, there are hard times ahead but they are young enough to come out on the other side.
At 49, I'm quite sure I either won't make it through the coming storm at all or at least won't be able to enjoy the aftermath for long once things get better again.
The under 40s are going to be the ones fighting the wars, as always. Even if there is an other side for humanity after what's coming, no one alive today will ever have a peaceful life ever again.
I'll take prison or a bullet to the head before I decide to fight for a nation that has pulled the rug out from underneath me.
I hope more young people see it this way, maybe we'll actually get to a point where we can watch all these leaders duke it out in person because no one will fight for them
In my 30s, feel the same way. Why would I offer myself to the meat grinder for a nation that bitches about me all the time?
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My parents just stopped watching the news about anything and just sit thinking everything will be okay. Its starting to get difficult to have a relationship with them because they are so out of touch with reality. They even go to protests but for them its just a thing to go do because they're not doing anything else. They have zero understanding of any of the reasons they're happening other than trump bad.
Idk man, I’d kill just to have mine agree on the trump bad part. You do you, but tuning out our shit news cycle is low on the offense scale for me. It can be much worse.
My Mom is so disappointed that my kids are not active, do not goto protests. She wants to leave a better world for them but is no longer able to help make that happen, so needs to see her grandchildren turn the world around.
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In effect the relative lack of news back in the day was how people could feel optimistic, at least in the US and Western Europe. We could be pretty oblivious and happy about USSR going away and all seemed just fine because the news barely covered the bad stuff and the Internet was barely a thing and we didn't get a whole lot of global exposure.
Things can get better and we have to work at it, but we don't need to be hopeless. If we can't believe good things can happen, then what would be the point anyway...
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At this point we have to contend with small wins like Die Linke getting almost 10% of the vote in Germany, Elon Musk getting bullied out of politics, and Carney winning in Canada.
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am 40. still feel this way.
over 50 and felt this way for over half the millenia and before that felt it likely to be that way given how things were going.
Everyone over 40: "Yup, social media has really fucked those kids' brains up"
I am well over 40 and I agree with OP. Then again, I didn't give up my empathy at the door to adulthood.
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I'm glad to see folks talking on here. Makes me feel better knowing we're here all going through it. Gives me that Band of Brothers vibe "We stand alone, together."
Kind of feels like there's two kinds of people out there right now in the US. Once you think we're fucked, and the ones who think they have enough generational wealth that "their" kids won't be fucked.
There's probably a sizeable third pool out there that are just watching propaganda and going everything is fine everybody's overreacting or I don't care it doesn't affect me. I think even that pool's shrinking a bit.
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If the cure to existential dread is turning 40, it can't come soon enough.
I turned 40 this year. Sadly it hasn't helped my existential dread at all.
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Half a century here, I've never had a time in my life where the next year was better than the last
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