Thread by @umairh

It seems like there are three different kinds of people out there in the world these days. A world that’s melting down at astonishing speeds. Democracy’s on the brink. Ocean temperatures off the charts. Emissions, still rising. Economies, stagnating. 🧵(1/)

Three kinds of people.

1) Those that deny it all — while blaming the problems this polycrisis, as scholars have begun to call it — on innocents. This group of people has regressed at light speed back past modernity, into forms of authoritarianism and fascism.

I don’t have to tell you what and who I mean. Think of the way that in America, everyone from women to the LGBTQ to teachers and doctors are under attack.

Let’s call this group the Regressives.

2) Then there’s... those in the middle. They appear…more or less unmoved. Indifferent. To any of it. It seems that this group of people are only interested in the next Netflix show or superhero movie or Instafluencer.

They appear totally oblivious to any form of empirical reality right about now. Record temperatures? Turn up the AC! Crop-killing heatwaves? Hey, pass me the Doritos!

Let’s call this group the Indifferent.

3) Then there are…the rest of us. The ones who care. We’re trapped in the middle of all this madness.

And it can feel as if *we* are the crazy ones.

But we're not.

One, it’s empirically true — as in factual — that the above things are being lost. Yes, for example, democracy really is dying, at seriously alarming rates. Yes, species really are dying off at shocking rates, and a Mass Extinction really is happening.

Yes, politics really is going fascist and authoritarian. The point is that these things really are being lost.

And because it’s real, it’s not just OK to grieve for it — it’s the correct and healthy and perfectly appropriate response. eand.co/if-it-feels-li…