I know this post is going to get downvoted to oblivion and I may get banned from this sub for saying this, but after a few months of being a subscriber here I feel the need to get this off of my chest.
This is a toxic, dangerous subreddit with a level of confirmation bias I haven't seen on any other subreddit I've ever visited, and I've been a Reddit user for over seven years. If you are a younger reader, like early college or younger, I would strongly advise you to leave this subreddit entirely, or at the very least take every piece of misinformation and harmful advice with a heavy grain of salt. I know this is a sub about collapse, but there are too many damaging flaws of this community for me to just sit idly by.
The primary reason I'm leaving and think others should start to leave this sub en masse is because of the life-damaging pieces of "advice" being thrown around here on such a regular basis. People claiming to be decades old telling younger readers to keep all of their money in cash or Bitcoin, to never invest your money in even so much as index funds, or only take jobs that will be useful after a massive societal collapse. This is SO damaging to younger readers. I have been reading the comments of posts here for months - a lot of subscribers here are young and therefore have very narrow and unformed views of the world they live in simply as a result of their young age. They are impressionable, and people here are filling their minds with, frankly, borderline conspiracy theories and truly awful advice.
Secondly, the pure amount of confirmation bias and doom and gloom attitude here is damaging. I know this is a subreddit on the impending collapse of society, but every person here is ultimately speculating that we will incur a global societal collapse. There is no definite proof that in the coming ten, fifty, or hundred years society will be reverted back to the stone age. Yet, people here are trying their absolute best to make it seem so. Stocks did poorly in December? Economic collapse inbound. TSA agents not getting paid? Good, they deserve it - they're government goons who have chosen the side of evil while the 99% (which they are a part of) continue their fight for good. It's sickening, this worldview that this sub has adopted at this point. The overall viewpoint I've gleaned from this sub is that, more or less, the 1% is on a steadfast mission to wipe out the 99%. That the 1% are malicious, evil megalomaniacs with a resolute will to make everyone else on the planet as poor as possible and strip it of all of its resources.
This simply isn't the case. There are plenty of high-income individuals out there who are doing all they can to better the planet. Charity, philanthropy, attempting to work with local government for positive change. I only say this now, because had I said it any earlier I'm sure most would just click away: I am lucky enough to be in the top 3% of Americans overall, and top 0.5% for my generation (millennial). I am in this percentage that so many people on this sub vilify, yet I wouldn't be shocked if I along with many others in my percentile do a lot more to help the planet than most of the armchair warriors here claiming that anyone making a good living is inherently a little evil (I've seen that written in a comment before). I have met individuals making over one million dollars per year donating massive amounts to charities. Hell, I've met people who have founded charities. While they still have a large net worth, the charity they've founded has built multiple schools and across Liberia. I think the fact they are wealthy is insignificant if they've done so much to help those in need.
So, before I leave, my message to any younger readers who happen to see this is as follows:
There's a lot of crazy shit going on in the world right now, nobody can deny that. Multiple world powers have incompetent leaders, and it's allowing other world powers to take advantage of things they haven't previously been able to. The environment is doing terribly, and the possibility of an ecological collapse is definitely very real. But, at the end of the day, all of this doom and gloom is just that - a possibility. Please don't let the wack jobs on this sub misguide you into thinking that the best course of action is stockpiling your wealth and moving as close to a pole as possible. Don't let them convince you that, without a doubt, the rest of your life will be miserable. Don't let them convince you that the 1% is evil across the board, or that gaining personal wealth yourself is correlated at all to the fate of the planet. They don't know any more than anyone else. They are seeking to reconfirm their opinions instead of looking at the facts.
The best course of action is to be mindful of our current geopolitical and environmental situation and do what you can to help, but take care of yourself. Invest in index funds. If you can get a college degree, get a college degree and do something that will provide you with a great life. If that's not possible, take up a trade. Take up any position that will provide you with the ability to provide for yourself and eventually for a family, if you choose to have one. If that means becoming a TSA agent, become a TSA agent. You're not "fighting for the bad guys," you're doing the best for yourself that you can.
Lastly, stay informed on all sides of the matter. This is important. If you don't, you'll be like many of the people on this sub, claiming that people barely making a living working as TSA agents are villains and have picked the side of evil. Claiming that anyone working in finance is a fat cat sociopath who deserves the guillotine. This is not the real world. This is not how the world works. This is a misguided, narrow, sheltered, one-sided view of our current situation, and not the full truth. Do your own research, do your best to understand both sides of every argument, and to understand the bigger picture of individuals' motivations.
That's all I really have. I'm sure this will get downvoted to hell, and maybe even get me banned from this sub, but if it means I convinced at least one eighteen-year-old to open a savings account and invest in a Vanguard index fund, then that's worth it to me. Because s/he just made a move to make his/her life all that much better in the event that, contrary to belief here, the entire world does not collapse into a primitive hellscape in the coming years.
If any young readers out there have any questions for me, feel free to PM me.
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