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Hard disagree with this entire position on climate optimism. THERE'S A MASSIVE HOLE IN THE PLANETARY LIFEBOAT! It's time to sober up and take this seriously. Peddling optimism simply enables people to continue doing nothing. It enables denial and business as usual. Please get some serious people on board. If you want to live a fantasy, you might try another planet.

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I oft wonder if already chronically ill/depressed ppl have the truth of it, implicitly, BC we've already been failed by these systems. Ppl will never understand, BC it really is a loop. It just makes life harder, since 90% of ppl are still "having faith in the systems".

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“So-called ‘optimism’ is for kids, not adults. Psychologically mature adults remember what they actually are; where they actually are; how these actually work and what has actually happened in the past. This sane remembering (which requires that we get over ourselves and come back to Earth) helps us to more clearly notice what is actually happening now and to comprehend what is actually, inevitably, going to happen as a result of the law of cause and effect.”

https://medium.com/@jeffmiller_14689/this-cataclysm-isnt-all-about-you-5ed5af0e4cf7

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I'm a bit confused by this statement because why couldn't optimism exist in a state of grounded awareness? Toxic positivity and passive optimism definitely doesn't belong on the climate solutions table, but a grounded optimism that is birthed from a will to try to get this right, no matter what, is what I believe to be so essential. Besides, I think it's sad to state that optimism is only for kids, not adults, as it so clearly points to how much we've lost touch with our inner ability for play, wonder, curiosity, and imaginative creation. And if we are to create a world that is different, not just a reflection of the past, don't we need all those qualities? I understand the sentiment, but I'm afraid I don't agree with it!

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Yes. You are confused. Did you read and neutrally give serious thought to the info / data in the linked Medium article without projecting your habitual conceptual patterns and trained emotional reactivity onto this info / data? It seems that you didn’t.

You prefer to entertain yourself with ‘made up’ imaginative good feelie stories, and to play, as the last remaining iteration of human is, literally, in a very real existential crisis again.

This is understandable behavior for a child. It is ghoulish and ignorant behavior for an adult as countless millions of humans are suffering in the extreme right now as a direct result of this fast moving and recurring cataclysm that is going to take down this sick / toxic civilization in the near-term and that has, literally, driven the last remaining iteration of human to the very edge of extinction.

Check your privilege and the blinding effects it has on your vision which seems to be thickly clouded with received ‘belief’ and driven by what you want rather than a clarity of what is actually happening and right on time.

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Follow his link. It answers your questions, although it might hurt your lil feelies.

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I find it increasingly difficult to practice this, especially given that we are not nearly as post-modern as most would like to think, some of us really do have undiagnosed weird disorders. Yes, yes, positive mindset is important, kinda difficult to hold on to when you're getting increasingly debilitated tho.

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I'm 84 years old and have been aware of, and teaching about, climate meltdown since the early 90's. I am not an optimist, but hold a very strong Hope. I have four young grandchildren who have every right to live into the next century. It grieves me beyond words that their chances of that seem so slim. But OF COURSE I continue to work steadily and with hope. I live in a retirement community where I helped to found a climate group that now counts over 800 people--all elders committed to their grandchildren and their future (see SSAFE.org). We have to work on behalf of all life, regardless of the odds against it in the long haul. We literally have no choice--and that's good. For more on why people work for the common good despite the odds, see our book, "Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World," especially Chapter 7.

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