how could someone view this as anything other than dystopian?

Are you sure this isn’t just a picture of Captain Jonathan Archer?

I’ve felt this way quite often in my life, including recently, and I usually get through it by focusing on the small moments that I can enjoy. But reading your words and thinking about that feeling again this time made me think “I should do a random act of kindness for someone”. It sounds cheesy and kinda pointless, but helping someone else or doing a random nice thing for someone else can sometimes make the world seem like a better place. And when the world seems like a better place, it has the potential to become that. I guess it’s the old “be the change you want to see in the world” thing.

This is all stuff people have told me over the years when I’ve sought help for depression, and I usually brushed it off, to be honest. But I empathize with your words, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to feel the hopelessness about the world that I’ve felt, so I thought “maybe a niceness would prevent that feeling for someone else”.

Idk, I’m rambling now, but I hope this makes sense. And I hope you (and I) find a way to feel better about the potential of our world, as opposed to its apparent current state.

And when those people eventually get caught, they would be dealt with by the populace. Consequences for people’s actions is the same deterrent that currently “stops” people from stealing shit all the time (i.e. people still steal shit with the existence of police)

I think you’re probably right, but a world where robots do art and humans do the tedious manual labor sounds eerily similar to the world we live in. At least, it is not outside the realm of possibility.

Are you one of those people who needs an authority figure to tell you what you are experiencing?

absolutely agree

lol I’m more concerned with it being evidence of biased wording on a government website. Kill the fuckers, for all I care

Why not just call it an insect? Why does the article call it a “pest”? Is it some “we protect our borders” posturing?

Why must I chase the cat?

But how can he reach maximum productivity if he’s sitting down ?!

Examples?

This sounds like a description of empathy, which, as far as I know, cannot be taught, unfortunately.

Absolutely insane that this shit is happening in America in 2023. We really need to get young folks voting these “christian” fascists out of office