[mmooss]

> This is a political act of resistance. Margaret Thatcher's motto, after all, was "There is no alternative," by which she meant, "Stop trying to think of alternatives." The bully's trick is to present your defeat as a fait accompli: "Resistance is futile."

More broadly, that trick is the most effective and important today: No matter the issue, people - including on HN - will tell you how powerless they are and how pointless it is. It's such a social norm that they will actively resist and attack anyone who violates it and suggests otherwise - goodness forbid you have hope, an idea, or want to do something. I see many adopt bizarrely false perspectives and opinions for which the only sensible explanation (IMHO) is they are strong defenses against action and empowerment - many/most won't even talk about serious issues like climate change (see - I bet you're triggered by the suggestion of discussing it).

People never accomplish anything without believing in it first. It's old, basic military psyops to preach hopelessness to the enemy soldiers, in dropped pamphlets, radio broadcasts, through propaganda campaigns. Sorry, I forgot - we can't talk about those things either.

Until people believe, nothing will change. When they believe, everything will change. That's why there is so much impetus toward despair.

[jonahx]

> Until people believe, nothing will change.

I'm with you here.

> When they believe, everything will change.

Taken literally, this is absurd. Belief might be necessary for change, but it's not sufficient!

> That's why there is so much impetus toward despair.

Sometimes people really are in hopeless situations. It seems cruel to blame their despair on not believing enough.

[danaris]

> Taken literally, this is absurd. Belief might be necessary for change, but it's not sufficient!

I don't read this as "if you just believe, you can do anything!", but rather "when the populace as a whole starts believing that they can fight back against an oppressive minority, they can definitely do that."

[mmooss]

> Sometimes people really are in hopeless situations.

The fight for despair is surreal; at least people believe they can really be hopeless and won't let anyone stop them.

[skybrian]

I don't find empty platitudes like "you can just do things" all that inspiring. I prefer seeing a specific example of something you could do and an explanation about why it might help.

[MarkusQ]

Ok, here goes:

You could look at your situation, think about it as objectively as you can (ignoring, as much as possible, any media driven mind worms), pick any particular problem you face that looks solvable, and try to solve it. If none of the problems seems particularly solvable, break them into pieces and look at the resulting sub-problems in the same way. Regardless of the outcome, iterate, since it's ultimately a numbers game.

The reason this might help is that 1) you might solve some fraction of your problems, 2) to the extent that you're suffering from learned hopelessness, you'll be unlearning it, 3) regardless of either of the above, you'll be likely to learn something, as this is a very common side effect of trying to do stuff.

Hope that helps.

[skybrian]

That’s a generic algorithm, not an example. I mean specific examples. Like, people sharing things they did.

[MarkusQ]

No, it's a specific thing you can do.

You can literally just sit down, right now, and do this.

But if you insist on hearing about a specific example of something I did, here's one that's appropriate. I was frustrated that all the time I spent reading/hearing/watching about other people solving their problems left me oddly dissatisfied. I realized that that was because it wasn't actually solving any of mine (except perhaps assuaging boredom a little). Thinking about it, I realized that that was because I was wasting the impetus to improve my situation on voyeurism.

[mmooss]

> I prefer seeing a specific example of something you could do and an explanation about why it might help.

Great! Come up with an example!

[danaris]

I mean, that's an extremely broad request.

You can install solar panels on your house, and a heat pump. This will help reduce fossil fuel energy usage.

You can self-host Mastodon and help move your friends and family members still using Xitter onto it. This will help reduce the support being given to fascist oligarchs.

You can find a local soup kitchen, or animal shelter, or library, and volunteer some of your time there. This will help provide for people and animals without other support.

Trying to do something bigger than that is going to require more people, and may require resources you don't have; I don't know your situation. You haven't really given anyone much to work with in giving you examples, and the post you're replying to a) isn't really giving "empty platitudes", and b) is talking very broadly about problems in the abstract, so there's not much guidance there as to what kind of "something you could do" you're looking for.

[fragmede]

The only way out for climate change is through. While we're doing crazy things like data centers in space, we "just" have to capture CO2 from the air and store it. While that will take some revolutionary breakthroughs in materials science and engineering, all we can do is dump money into those areas and hope they pan out. And despair a little less.

[mmooss]

We can reduce climte change-causing emissions. We could do it dramatically if we wanted. The only thing stopping us is that it's hopeless.