Comment by andersonpico
4 days ago
their cynicism is perfectly understandable once you correctly identified the demographics (which you did), so I'm not sure why you're holding pessimism against poor people with a bleak future; like it or not that's far more anchored in reality than anything around these parts, as there are far more people with "bottom rung jobs" than software developers and VC investors in the bay area.
Most people in the US begin life poor, and most of them are not poor forever. I wouldn't call this a "bleak future". I was definitely poor when I was 18, but I wasn't pessimistic. Pessimism at such a young age is almost always a mistake.
> Most people in the US begin life poor, and most of them are not poor forever
Thank heavens young Americans can look forward to a $63k/year median income when they are employed full-time.
Social mobility is decreasing since the 1980s. This is increasingly closer to not being true anymore.
Yes it has decreased from an amazingly high level to only a reasonably good level compared to most of the world's population.
This is no reason for abject pessimism at 18 years old.
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Or maybe it’s just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism.
"Pessimism at such a young age is almost always a mistake."
Is pessimism a consciouss choice?
You can develop pessimism without a conscious choice, but once you become aware of how negative your outlook is, it's a conscious choice to not try to do better.
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Indeed most choices we think we "make" are unconscious choices due to our environment. That does not mean we cannot introspect and learn and consciously change them.
I am much more pessimistic generally than I was 20 years ago. But that's something I work on, not something I accept passively as a fact of life.
Yes. It is mostly because of environment, and you can change your environment.
with some it's an celebrated lifestyle: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPCJpclgW04/
The subtext is that most Redditors have significantly better lives than 90% of people on Earth.
Life is bleak if you perceive it to be bleak.
You mean most Redditors live in a country with a higher GDP than 90% of people on Earth. That doesn't necessarily translate into 'significantly better lives', especially in a country with wealth gaps such as the USA has.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiymTzsZfoA
Who in the world has it worst? I want to make sure I listen to the right person.
You act like this is an enigma. Let’s start with people without college degrees and no family history of college degrees.
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To wit, the vast majority of them have:
- easy access to clean water
- sufficient calories
- safe shelter
- education (presumably they can read and write if they’re on Reddit)
- internet access
- free time (can’t be writing nasty comments on Reddit if you’re swinging a pick axe in a coal mine)
Many of these things can’t be claimed by millions in the world.
And yet, it’s one of the most cynical, negative places on the internet.
This is not the 1950s. Most American's have internet, where they can see average people living lives around the world. Their houses may be a bit worse, but their cars are normally newer, they have internet, they have FAMILY. They have vibrant COMMUNITY. They have free time.
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It depends on how you measure quality of life.
I can't afford the yacht lifestyle enjoyed by Jeff Bezos, so my life is ruined. #EatTheRich
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> like it or not that's far more anchored in reality than anything around these parts
TRUTH.
I don’t think Reddit is representative of poor people. It skews educated and white collar.