Better things are possible
Hi Tilderinos!
I've recently found myself being less and less interested in posting to Tildes and reading less, which surprised me as it had become a pretty strong habit for me. After giving it some thought, I've realized it's because I have noticed a sharp uptick in negative sentiment being posted about/shared here (largely in the forms of pessimism/defeatism and/or apathetic/indifferent responses to people's struggles and experiences), and so I wanted to actually do something about it rather than simply grumble and let it continue unabated.
This isn't to shame or tone-police anyone - it's rough out there, and I don't think posters are on here trying to put struggling people down. But I wanted to come back with something firmly, boldly optimistic: I believe that we are actively making the world a better place. Yes, even you, random reader who might feel like they're stuck in a rut and/or doing nothing notable. Just by frequenting a website that's explicitly geared towards constructive communication and deeper thinking, you're making the world a better place. I truly mean that!
I think good things are still happening, and I think a lot of really smart people aren't giving up on trying to make the world a better place, one small step at a time. To quote one of my favourite BlueSky Poster's Username: Better Things Are Possible.
Never forget it!
I'll share a few positive trends I've noticed lately in the comments, and hope others will share as well - but no pressure. I hope this brightens even one person's day!
In no specific order of interest or magnitude, here are some things that make me feel more optimistic:
I live in Cook County and want to add that Kat lost the primary to Daniel Biss who has been at the local/state level for over a decade and had pretty much the entire establishment behind him, so it was really quite remarkable how well she did.
I am not a big fan of Biss, because of the academic retractions he's had to make and especially after one of his former students disclosed an inappropriate relationship he had with her. I also think he's been pretty ineffectual as mayor of Evanston. But he will probably vote correctly on bills and we could do a lot worse. (I early voted for Kat before the news about Biss's student broke).
Also I will be attending a very small Q&A with Biss next month, if anyone has questions you'd like answered I'd be happy to ask them if I have the opportunity and then convey his answers here, particularly for anyone who lives in the district.
Wow, cool! I feel very similarly about Bliss. Don't love him as a candidate, but we (progressives, supporters of Democracy) could do a lot worse.
In terms of questions for him, I feel like as a non-resident (and non-American!), it's not really my place to suggest what he should be grilled on. I'd be curious to hear any interesting answers, though. I'd love to hear his opinions on whether or not it's a viable strategy to be pursuing impeachment (not just of the President, but of pretty much the entire administration of this point) and/or abolishing ICE. I'm very much in favour of a tear-it-down approach to cleanse the infection, but I'm open to hearing why that's not feasible. Though I will say - Mamdani's work so far really makes me skeptical of "oh it's just not realistic" arguments.
I have been working towards a similar goal, but, concentrating my focus just on my own happiness.
There are things about this world that I cannot change, but it doesn’t need to affect my happiness. I can still control the world around me and find beauty in it, even though there are wars happening far away from me.
I very strongly believe that a better world begins with myself, if I can find satisfaction in myself and whats around me, then I can begin to change the world.
I have already found that when I am happy I can make the people around me happy, and they’re the world to me.
I think when you look at the news and global political issues, it can feel like you're not entitled to happiness, or that personal happiness isn't possible.
I find it helpful to reflect on the fact that human beings have found happiness despite being in some truly awful situations. People have found moments of joy in the middle of horrific war zones, in prisons, in deadly pandemics, shipwrecks, concentration camps, you name it.
There are, have been, and will be terrible things going on in the world always. You can still be happy in spite of them though.
Yes! One of my favourite quotes is "Duty, assuming all things, can betray arrogance. We cannot know the future my friend. And the world is never more broken than it always, always, is."
Striking the balance between keeping informed and not letting it overwhelm you is hard, but also crucial to making the world a better place. If you're not happy and having fun, the world is much less for it.
And, yes. Things might feel like they suck now and have been getting worse, but if peasants and other uneducated and poor humans across history have been able to find joy and still create art and scholarship, goddammit so can we!
Its not that, exactly, although the news does get me down.
I’m a software developer and the product I work on is AI related. My "unlimited" PTO is actually limited to 20 days, which seems like so much and I should be so lucky, but it means I still spend 92% of my whole life doing a job that I hate, that doesn't need to be done, and actually causes me stress even though it doesn't matter. Worst is, it'll only be a few years until they lay me off in favor of some AI agent writing my code for me, so I can't even spend the money I'm making because I'm going to be forced into retirement at age, like, 40.
There are things about the nature of this world that conflicts with my idea of happiness, and I have to just accept that and find my happiness elsewhere. I can't control my employment situation. All I can do is be happy that there are so many lizards on my front porch.
I find lizards a reliable source of joy, so that's not nothing!
Get out there and grant yourself permission just to sit and watch for a while. They have quite complex personal lives - it's like watching a tiny (scaly) soap opera.
Oh I do dude. They’re my life. I have both indoor lizards and outdoor lizards and both groups will eat mealworms while I watch.
I fkn love lizards. They’re so dopey. They freak out and run away but have no traction so they slide all around and some got those eyes that they’re lookin right at you and still staying perfectly still like how do you not know I’m looking straight into your soul lil guy?
My indoor lizards are crested geckos and my outdoor lizards are a mix of five lined skinks and green anoles with the occasional brown anole which is invasive and I swear I see green/brown hybrids sometimes but cant prove it.
Oh they know - they know. :-)
Other side of the world here; it's wintertime in Australia right now but I'm looking forward to springtime when our local skinks wake up and start to cause mischief. We have modified our garden to be much more lizard friendly and now have five species we see regularly, and a couple more that come and go.
The thing that gets me is that everyone considers lizards to be 'cold blooded' in every sense, but in the wild they seem to be quite social and have distinct alliances with some individuals, and territorial disputes with others. You just have to watch them for a while to see how rich and complex their little high-speed lives are.
Oh dude, crested geckos can vocalize. They absolutely carry on whole lil chirp conversations. They chirp and bark and everything in between.
What did you do to your garden to make it more lizard friendly? 5 species is crazy! I've only ever seen the two here my whole life.
Australia was basically designed with lizards (and snakes) in mind.
We have added water sources (like bird baths but at ground level and with a strategic stone added to enable any that fall in to get out again), stone palaces (piles of reasonably attractive stones with lots of nooks and crannies), natural timber edging to garden beds, and we planted back a fair bit of low-growing ground cover to provide safe habitat.
Our regulars range from big blue tongues to tawny dragons to grass skinks. We also have two kinds of local night-active geckos (but neither of them say very much), and a couple of other small skinks.
They all have quite different habits and personalities.
The grass skinks in particular seem to live in little groups and spend quite a lot of time bickering with each other in ways that look very social - and at times not all that survival oriented!
They are very funny to watch; surprisingly human-seeming for tiny reptiles.
Damn, meanwhile in my area they’re still clear cutting entire forests to make way for single family homes with monoculture grass lawns
I don't really understand the appeal of lawn. I mean a bit is nice for the dogs and kids to play on, but most of a garden needs to be other things; flowers and trees and shrubs and maybe a few vegetables. Part of the joy of having a garden is sharing it with other critters.
Its cheaper in labor to maintain than a garden, and many homes in the US are like 1/8th-a few acres, and its really hard to maintain a garden that large so even if you have a garden theres still lots of land you have to cover with something.
A lawn you just have to mow every two weeks in the summer, a garden needs weeding and sowing and harvesting etc etc etc its a ton more work than just mowing every two weeks.
Local is everything (a fact I always forget myself as a devout lover of big picture social systems and world-changing events). Good work! If even a quarter of the population were all so dedicated to improving our local communities or even our personal happiness, the world would be monumentally better.
Yep but I cant think like that, I don’t control what other people do.
Thank you for posting this, and I hope I haven't been one of the people spreading negativity and pessimism here. Been having a bit of a morning and it really brightened my day to see this, instead of doomscrolling instagram.
I'm really thrilled to hear it helped brighten your day! I believe in you and you're gonna go do great things!
Cheers! Negativity bias is the cognitive path of least resistance, especially when things are hard. We sometimes need to intentionally push the other direction.
And I agree, countless hordes of people are working to make the world a little better all the time. We're just leas likely to hear about it because negativity gets more engagement and so gets pandered to. Also agreed that little things like trying to be (authentically) positive contribute to brightening the world far more than we often realize.
Renewables are definitely having a moment, and that's huge from my perspective. I'll add some links to expand on that:
Ember’s 2026 report allows me to be confidently optimistic about climate, when before I was just hopeful. The global energy transition is unstoppable. The forces informing renewable expansion are beyond any single government’s flailing attempts to prop up the fossil fuels of bygone eras. This is freeing, gleeful knowledge. Atlas’ shoulders no longer bear the dreadful weight of this particular impending global doom.
There are many outstanding concerns in society, but rapid global warming was one of only a handful accurately described as “existential” for humanity. Remaining engineering challenges in emissions are meaningful but of a comfortably achievable magnitude. Our trajectory is not only manageable but positive.
We can heal the world. I do not fear the future—at least not for this reason. It is a great joy.
Thank you for the sources! I always prefer to share sources too but was running out of time and didn't want a lack of sources prevent me from sharing positivity.
Growth of renewables in the US in particular is so promising. Even with the monsters in power, it can no longer be stopped!
Renewable Energy in Germany Exceeds Fossil Fuels (First time ever)