[Loughla]

There's this weird social media thirst for this to become the next spanish flu. My family (midwest conservatives) fall into one of two camps:

1. This was sent by Jesus and is a prelude to the rapture, literally.

2. The spanish flu happened 100 years ago, and 100 is a big round number, so this is going to do the same things.

It's very strange and surreal around the home town right now. Many elderly are openly embracing what they see as their future deaths because it's God's will.

I'm very, very confused by all of this.

[unethical_ban]

It is kind of interesting. Well, the fundamentalist Christian part is expected; there is a very creepy number of people who expect and welcome the Rapture (knowing full well many of their friends aren't along for the ride).

As for the rest of the world, I think catastrophe is a spectacle and people like to "live in interesting times". Take a NASCAR crash and multiply it by 10,000,000, you know.

[52-6F-62]

> 1. This was sent by Jesus and is a prelude to the rapture, literally.

This one has me concerned. There's a lot of overlap between that group and the preppers with itchy trigger fingers.

I've seen remarks from some about believing the virus is the case ("pestilence, floods") with others responding "Yes, praise God. It's time to make your peace".

[kipchak]

I think religion near the end of life, like the phrase "there are no atheists in foxholes" can be a powerful coping method to give the end of their lives perceived meaning. My Grandma is around that age and has grown more religous - looking at the end from a more pessimistic perspective for her likely seems rather bleak. Hopefully it's more that and less enjoying the idea of the end of the world.

[LarryDarrell]

My own personal opinion is that the Great Recession and it's repercussions (inequality, deaths of despair, the hallowing out of middle American economies, the opioid crises, Flint water crises, etc) over last 10+ years have really ramped up a zeitgeist of inevitable doom. I don't really blame anyone in the Midwest for being full of doom and gloom, because for the most part that's all they have known for the last decade.

My other opinion is that more so than racism and actually believing Trump would make America great again, that most of the support that pushed Trump over the edge came from wanting to burn the whole thing down.

[mercer]

I'd say 99% of my post-millennial friends (zoomers?) live with not just the assumption that their lives are shittier than previous generations, but more importantly with the assumption that the dire climate change predictions are true.

While some of them might still have kids, or act 'irrationally' in relation to that belief, it's there, and I can't help but feel it's going to have huge effects over time as these people become politically active and vote.

To be clear, that's putting aside my beliefs on these issues. Just describing what I'm seeing.

[Loughla]

I would agree with that. During the last election cycle (and already this one), the one thing the polls consistently got wrong was just how pissed "Joe-Midwest Average Voter" is that his life is much worse than his parents' were at the same age.

When people online and in the news express how they just don't understand why people still support Trump, it's because they're not trying to understand. If all you care about is disrupting as much of the system as possible and pissing people off as much as possible, you're getting exactly what you wanted.