While most of the comments are correctly pointing out the late-stage capitalism as the main culprit, I must add something I didn’t see mentioned: COVID-19 pandemic.

To me, a Zennial, it was the main once-in-a-generation disgrace event. I still clearly remember the days when I began reading about a “mysterious pneumonia-like disease noticed among the patients from an ophthalmologist in Wuhan”, the first cases reported in South Korea, all the way to the outbreak in Italy, then World Health Organization finally declaring it a pandemic in March 11th 2020 (I can’t forget this specific date, either).

COVID-19 left so many marks. Emotional, as millions died from it; biological, as many who survived lived or are still living with the “Long COVID-19 syndrome”; and also societal, as it fundamentally shaped society as we know it.

I feel like I was never the same after I first got COVID-19. It’s as if my entire existence became split between “before 2020” and “after 2020”.

Maybe, just maybe, one of the explanations would be that SARS-CoV-2 is known to affect more than the respiratory system, it can also affect the brain. SARS-CoV-2 or not, the pandemic truly messed up with our brains as a society, I became sort of traumatized by it and so were countless other people, especially from my generation, because we spend a significant part of our adulthood with a world struggling to fight a virus. It was also the first time we experienced the concept of quarantine/lockdown (I was already an introvert person who’s accustomed with staying indoors, but the pandemic messed up with my graduation because I couldn’t elaborate my thesis, let alone present it, until I ended up giving up of a bachelor degree).

So, if I were to guess, the disgraces that followed up to nowadays, including the late-stage capitalism, seem to be heavily tied to that pandemic six years ago (which I remember as if it were yesterday).

!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I think all the appeals to preserve “whimsy” in recent years lends credence to your observation.

No, you are not wrong. The USA is being punished for her crimes. Capitalism is failing, Democracy is rearing its ugly side, traditional values are proving empty, religion is falling flat, race has its ugly side displayed for all to see, patriots cant relate to their national identity anymore. The USA is cannibalising itself. This makes it to where people are losing their future, desperately trying to keep what is familiar, and overall reaching a state of hopelessness/powerlessness.

This is really obvious to me, but this is what happens to society when conservatives are actually in power.

There will always be people who try to be merry in hard times, but it actually crushes people everywhere.

It just really feels like there is no future. Just grinding to live day by day. What’s the point?

This has been dawning on me as well.

Aside from all the things people are mentioning, my take on it: culture, at least in the U.S., has stopped. If a person finds something to be excited about, they do so in spite of their government that should otherwise be helping them flourish. We try to find joy in spite of the profound inequitable conditions that are celebrated by the elite. We have to give up a third of our paychecks to fund pointless destruction and slaughter overseas, and lavish lifestyles for our feckless politicians and federally-subsidized billionaires at home.

What collective identity can we develop under these conditions? We only find an identity defined by anger. Hatred. Resentment. We must constantly experience these feelings in order to remain grounded in reality; they are the only way we can stay in touch with the truth of things.

I’m sure it’s been articulated better elsewhere, but I’m starting to think that’s a big part of fascism: the death of culture, the destruction of what we could otherwise draw hope from. Fascism says that everything people cherish and find self-actualization in is sinful and aberrant, but offers nothing to replace them except hollow parodies of culture. In the current moment, it’s either Christian white nationalist parodies of culture (just look at literally any creative work they make; they are soulless and hollow) or AI-generated slop culture.

We’re also living through something pretty unprecedented: corporate technofascism. History has never seen fascism breed with the kind of unchecked capitalist insanity that will come to define this era. There are a thousand digital barriers between you and real life, and you are told you should be happy and excited about such “innovation” when it’s been 10 years since there was anything to be excited about.

That’s my distilled diatribe on this idea.

We’re fucking tired, man. We’re in debt, behind on bills and having to work more than since the depression.

Look at the cars. You used to see a lot of brightly colored cars on the street. Even simple family cars and minivans were red, or bright green, or even purple. Now everything on the road is beige/dull silver.

The fucking world is burning, Nazis are back, we’re about to be eradicated by ai, food shortages, fuel prices rising, people can’t afford to live, racism and bigotry is on the rise and seems to be protected, corporations are working us to death, governments are actively trying to remove our rights… There’s a fuck tonne of reasons to be angry and tried now.

I promise to be more vibrant just as soon as I get a good night’s sleep.

You are seeing the effects of late stage capitalism.

People working 2 jobs and still not have as much disposable income as they had with a single income in the past.

Not having money aside of the work, no time and mental load: it kills motivation, not wanting to be creative, and your health goes downhill also and you can’t afford to treat it anyway.

If you ask a 50 something about how long they think have left, yo will have half the amount than 2 generations ago.

Everything is on fire …

Goes outside, gestures at everything

I think you underestimate the amount of alcohol consumed in the 70s and 80s.

I’m in my 40s and I feel very tired. My bones are rattling already, way too early. Migraine once a month. I used to think I’m depressed, but really I’m not, just tired. And soo many of the people I know feel the same! Some put it down to long Covid, some say it’s the vaccines, some call it chronic fatigue, some call it other things. But many are tired. And angry, because when I was very young I fought against environmental destruction, grownups told me to stop or go to jail, and look where we are now, while the very same thing is still happening!

For me it’s the polycrisis: the knowledge that things are most probably going to get worse for many people before they get better. Like some bad vibe in the background, while one still has to try to survive every day, which gets harder and harder. I’m earning half of what I used to while everything is twice as expensive, go figure. And I’m one of the lucky ones, with a setup that enables me to work less hours than average.

Also someone mentioned CO2 one of these days, and not to forget the heat - that might be why my brain really doesn’t work very well anymore.

Smartphones, social media and uncontrolled capitalism at work.

People today are boring as fuck and addicted to phones and being enraged at disinformation.