Why are we losing subscribers so fast in here these days?
Posted by trickortreat89@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 329 comments
In just a few days we went from 135K to 133K.
Only recently I started counting, so I am not sure how many we were in here just a few months ago, but that’s when I started noticing at least, that the numbers of subscribers are going down.
People are leaving this sub faster than expected (!).
But why?
What the hell is going on? If anything, I would have thought that people would be joining more than leaving? It’s really worrisome.
Does anyone know why this is happening?
We desperately need people to become more aware of the collapse, not fleeting from what is inevitably!
Personally I’ve only been a member in here for around 5 years, and through these years I’ve just been witnessing how it is going worse and worse and the weather is getting more and more extreme. Now I believe we’re really facing a year with bad harvest again, constant conflict and war, which means the global food supply chains will be extremely difficult to maintain.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
collapse-ModTeam@reddit
Rule 4: Keep information quality high.
Information quality must be kept high. More detailed information regarding our approaches to specific claims can be found on the Misinformation & False Claims page.
Vegetaman916@reddit
I was here about as long as you. And I rarely come here anymore, and never post.
In my opinion, the sub was compromised. The new rule that allows the mod team the ability to declare posts as AI with no proof at all was the last straw, and itself proof enough to me that the censoring of topics was in full swing.
I've tried many times over the years to post certain things, and I do understand that my "extreme" take regarding collapse isn't the majority one. But there is a reason that the Limits to Growth predicted collapse for us without even considering climate change.
Anyway, I digress... The point is that this sub has become hostile to certain collapse factors, and even hostile of climate scenarios that can be labeled as "worst-case."
Because of that, and the censoring, I left. I can't speak to the reasons of others, but that is mine.
feo_sucio@reddit
>Because of that, and the censoring, I left.
Says a guy who pops in from time to time to tell everyone he left. Hey guys, I’m leaving! Don’t try and stop me! No, I’m gone for good! Leaving in just a few minutes!
This after you tried to troll the mod team with AI related posts and users on your own competing subreddit asked you if you’re an idiot.
After seeing you respond on the subreddit proudly and periodically declaring your “departure” I think I can safely arrive at an answer to that question.
Lord_Vesuvius2020@reddit
I agree. It does seem like there’s a kind of orthodoxy about collapse that’s acceptable to consider here. It’s climate change and post 2050. Somehow the other causes are hard to talk about. And that collapse isn’t evenly distributed. Some places have already collapsed. If you’re homeless and living on the street then you have experienced a kind of personal collapse. We are all familiar with Limits to Growth and that the updates to it are the same models. That’s lurking in the background. But the idea that geopolitical tensions are the immediate cause of collapse are less apparent here. I keep hoping we will hear from people in places further down the downslope of the LtG model.
Blackforrest79@reddit
I’ve been a member here for over 6 years and I’ve honestly been considering leaving as well.
The quality of the sub has clearly declined. Back then, discussions were focused on real collapse-related topics — climate systems, geopolitics, solar activity — things grounded in reality and backed by data or at least rational thought.
Now it feels like a large portion of the content is driven by panic, speculation, and in some cases people who seem to be struggling mentally. Instead of meaningful discourse, you mostly get fear amplification and low-effort doomposting.
It’s not that concern about collapse is wrong — but without grounded discussion, it just turns into noise. And that’s probably why people are leaving.
shhsandwich@reddit
That's my experience, too. I see posts from here and while living the rest of my life, it's hard to tell how serious to take the concerns people are freaking out about without having the time to devote to researching. When posts enter my feed, they're not anything actionable about how to prepare or what to expect, but instead just doom and gloom, which isn't helpful and is just scary and bleak.
WildFlemima@reddit
And AI essays. Don't forget them
roblewk@reddit
Seems to me any post over 1,000 words should drop to the bottom of the sub. No one is typing that much.
WhyDoIEvenBotheridk@reddit
Maybe we need the mods to remove more content that’s not applicable to this sub
magniankh@reddit
A lot of the recent posts are straight up conspiracy theories, or at the very least they are full throttle on the worst possible outcome. I've seen articles posted here that take the smallest problem and amplify it as if it's bringing the apocalypse tomorrow.
The world IS in a tough spot right now, but there are countries out there that are still governing reasonably well. American leadership has lost the plot and its democratic institutions are crumbling, but it still has an insanely high GDP and deep rooted scientific institutions. America can turn around, it's just trying to do it peacefully for the moment.
I believe that humanity can pull out of the dive because we have scientific and technological answers to the serious consequences of climate change, but we need better governments across the globe. We need a full mental shift to get us away from resource squabbles. The globe needs a global leader but we do not have that right now.
OrangeCrack@reddit
Exactly, surprised this isn’t higher on this topic. This subreddit is rarely recommended anymore and there’s barely any science discussion these days.
Perhaps this is partially a symptom of US defunding science agencies and general censorship of the media but this place isn’t worth paying attention to most of the time.
No-Papaya-9289@reddit
Nah, US defunding of science is too recent. It's that people have come here because the sub was mentioned in the press recently, and lots of people posted videos here for clicks. Moderators should delete them.
Blackforrest79@reddit
Yeah that could be one point, in my opinion It’s the collective degradation of consciousness worldwide.
People became a lot dumber then 20 years ago - even so knowlede is far better accessible.
Fox_Kurama@reddit
I think there is another reason too. Collapse is more and more being recognized to be either in progress or inevitable by people these days, resulting in more of them finding this place, but not necessarily subscribing. Those who were here before may unsubscribe simply because of said change.
No-Papaya-9289@reddit
It would be great if all the for-click-scary-youtube-videos were moderated and deleted.
detreikght@reddit
Even the weekly digest mostly cites low quality mass media as sources. 1 simplification here, another there and the whole discussion becomes yellow press comment section.
WTF_is_this___@reddit
People are tired of doom scrolling and switch off?
turtleandmoss@reddit
One aspect could be the sorts of people who pay attention to collapse are likely the sorts of people also infuriated by the ai slop escalating on the daily. Reddit is getting unbearable across the board. Maybe it's not r/collapse specific just an indicator of reasonable people throwing phones against walls
CellWrangler@reddit
This is so true. I wish there was a better alternative that blocked AI content. Ive delete all my other socials, so reddit is all I have left. Otherwise id delete that too.
LitlThisLitlThat@reddit
Same. Off FB and Insta first, then TT so all I have left is this and some youtubers I follow.
CellWrangler@reddit
Proud of you for kicking TT. I never got on it so that was easy, but all of my friends are addicted AF to that platform. Anytime i mention the idea of them deleting it they crash out
cerseiwhat@reddit
Reddit signed a $$$ deal in 2024 with Google and OpenAI to use Reddit to train their LLMs/promote Reddit content to AI search engines.
They're not slowing down anytime soon (Reddit is currently talking about dynamic pricing for the AI contract renewals and is very happy with how often Reddit threads come up in search results), sad to say...much less letting us opt out.
WombatusMighty@reddit
Time to scramble all your old comments and posts with redact or other tools. Make it as hard as possible for the AI.
cerseiwhat@reddit
Because of the deal made the companies have access to Reddit's data which includes post/comment edit history. Scrambling comments after the fact doesn't erase them from being used in training.
It wouldn't take up much space in a data center, either, the entirety of Wikipedia text is only \~22 gb compressed.
GPT-4 was also already pretty good at unscrambling in 2023 ("Specifically, GPT-4 can almost perfectly reconstruct the original sentences from scrambled ones, decreasing the edit distance by 95%, even when all letters within each word are entirely scrambled.").
WombatusMighty@reddit
It's not only about training data, it's also about referencing posts. Scrambled posts are useless for AI to reference.
Furthermore the backups get updated as well, which will then include the scrambled contents.
GPT can also not unscramble properly scrambled texts.
Which tools like Redact do not do, they completely change the words and turn the sentence into a meaningless collection of random words.
Reasonable_Swan9983@reddit
No wonder, reddit's on stock market and we all know how that goes
PromiseToBeNiceToYou@reddit
Yeah I deleted my socials as well. I've got reddit and youtube still (for viewing, not posting). And my youtube algorithm is still working for me.
brezhnervouz@reddit
I curate/cull my youtube feed like bastard lol in an effort to stay ahead of the algorithm
MajesticEgg1848@reddit
is there an app for that? if not there should be
BayouGal@reddit
I watch weird shit sometimes to mess with the algorithm 😂
ssquirt1@reddit
Same. Reddit and YouTube are all I have.
Critical_Wrap5617@reddit
Maybe it's time to move to an alternative. Discord maybe.
CyberSmith31337@reddit
I literally found out earlier today that you can’t even post on opinion pieces on the Canada subreddit without having a verified email address.
This whole verification process being forced by tech companies is going to destroy the internet even more than they already have. Anonymity is the joy of the internet; not everyone wants to be registered and tracked at all times.
I would imagine many people are just stopping their usage of Reddit. If I knew where to go, I would leave too. Way too much moderation and censorship nowadays here, not to mention the amount of bots and AI slop posts.
WombatusMighty@reddit
Use email services like Protonmail, they offer "fake" email addresses that you can use to sign up and verify, and all the email goes to your "hidden" real account.
Ghostwoods@reddit
Horrifyingly true.
JHandey2021@reddit
It's been a downward slide since COVID. The thing I watch is the weekly observations, down to 20-25% of what they were 4-5 years ago and often much more repetitive than they were.
A couple of theories -
- Things are happening - now - and people don't want to talk about it. They don't want to witness it. I see intimations of this far beyond here. People don't want to talk about it, and I'm not just talking about climate. It's everything. We know that something that can't go on forever, won't - but we don't know know it. We think we are Norman Vincent Peale (Trump's lodestar, BTW) or Wile E. Coyote, that we'll run off the cliff and keep going based on faith, and while that can work some surprising magic, don't count on it working forever.
- A while ago, there was mini-purge here from two sides: one, there seemed to be an increasing sentiment among some posters that it was better for r/collapse to be smaller and purer, and two, the mods came down pretty hard on posters for a while. Combine that with the occasional brigading actions driving down the subreddit's collective IQ (AI bros showing up to defend AI, or barely-literate anti-natalists showing up the moment population is mentioned), and the vibe just became less welcoming and more unpleasant.
Years ago - and I can look in my DMs right now - a couple of times I corresponded with seriously credible and credentialed people who saw what was happening and made time to come here. That caliber of poster is almost gone now.
I'm not sure where to go from here, but it does appear as though r/collapse's collapse has been self-inflicted.
ParisShades@reddit
Wait, what? When did this happen?
JHandey2021@reddit
About six months ago, a Nazi was spamming a few threads with references to some asshole from the Third Reich who had a "solution" to potential issues that will likely surface from mass climate migration (basically, a form of race-based feudalism with "Aryans" on top).
I called him on it, and then referred him to the moderators, who said (paraphrasing) that they wouldn't do anything as free speech was the top priority and that Nazis and other mass murdering extremists who show up on r/collapse would effectively show themselves out/be shunned by other posters. I still have the conversation in my DMs.
Note that while main submissions themselves were being held to a very high standard for being "on-topic", extremists - the kinds that in other countries you'd call the police on - were being allowed to post freely.
Critical_Wrap5617@reddit
Have been collapse aware since the early noughties. Back then, got good information from Greer, Orlov, Chris Martenson. Now they've jumped the shark and gone pro-authoritarian. So this place is all that remains.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
CollapseBot@reddit
Hi, you appear to be shadow banned by reddit. A shadow ban is a form of ban when reddit silently removes your content without your knowledge. Only reddit admins and moderators of the community you're commenting in can see the content, unless they manually approve it.
This is not a ban by r/collapse, and the mod team cannot help you reverse the ban. We recommend visiting r/ShadowBan to confirm you're banned and how to appeal.
We hope knowing this can help you.
This is a bot - responses and messages are not monitored. If it appears to be wrong, please modmail us.
hermiona52@reddit
I started to visit here less often for two reasons.
Number 1 is how American-centric it's becoming, specifically their economic and political systems fuckery. I understand it's awful for Americans but it's not really relatable to people from many other developed and developing countries. And here in Eastern Europe we probably are living in the best time in the history of our countries, at least we certainly do in Poland. We remember the shithole we came from 2-3 decades ago and how far we've accomplished in such a short time. We can afford things we only could see in movies when we were children. So all my fears are purely climate crisis related, and discussions about scientific research is what kept me returning here. This type of content is getting drowned by Trump, GOP, worsening of worker situation and corporate takeover of the USA. I wish they had a separate American collapse sub for this.
Number 2 is the weird "vibe" shift. From many commenters I get a sense of them wanting the collapse to happen. Like it's "collapse porn". I suspect it's because the quality of life for an average person in their countries has dropped, they have fewer opportunities than the previous generations, so they have no sense of purpose and hope, and just want to check out of the life. So they imagine that the collapse would be like a return to the "pure and simple" life. Well, almost every previous generations of women in every part of the world had shitty lives, they fully depended on being a property of their father, then husband, with no rights and no option to say "no" to their current owner. I'm a woman, so collapse of the society would be a literal hell, in which me and other women would be turned into pleasure and baby-making machines against our will. So no, I'm not longing for that return to purity and simplicity. I prefer working 40h per week until I'm 67, than "live" like previous generations of women.
There are probably other smaller reasons, but I find that YouTube has good climate-related collapse content, like Just Have a Think or Dr Gilbz, so it's not all lost.
Critical_Wrap5617@reddit
Cogent remark. I agree there are some lunatics who don't want modern medicine or suchlike. Generally Americans who have bought lots of guns and harbour a survivalist fantasy. And it is EXACTLY that - a fantasy.
bunbunsweet@reddit
OMG exactly, collapse porn is what it is.
Eiswolf999@reddit
Too much AI slop and an influx of the "AI will kill us all in 3 months, AGI by next Friday" crowd, so I find myself not visiting as often (your numbers are from weekly visitors). I'm not leaving, but I sure as hell miss people like Richard Crim.
BlackMassSmoker@reddit
With everything happening to I do sometimes find myself thinking "I wonder what Richard would make of all this?" I miss seeing The Crisis Report.
Critical_Wrap5617@reddit
Hope he's ok..
Ghostwoods@reddit
Me too.
ASIextinction@reddit
Why do you have to lie? I made two of the recent AI posts and in neither did I claim “we are all going to die in 3 months”. People’s inability to take this topic seriously or talk about it in good faith is staggering….. Bernie Sanders and the British government aren’t considered reliable sources to sound an alarm on this topic? Then who is???
Eiswolf999@reddit
I was not talking about you specifically.
ASIextinction@reddit
You said “the influx of”. There are barely any posts about it, only 3 this month and like 5 total in the past 6 months. So I think you are making up this problem in your head because either A.) you don’t want to admit you have been wrong about AI capabilities hitting a wall or B.) you want to put your head thoroughly in the sand and not have to look up
Eiswolf999@reddit
You do realize how often posts get deleted by admins for violating the rules we voted for in this subreddit?
Sorry if you feel the need to defend yourself or your position. I simply don't care about you or your worldview. Bye.
ASIextinction@reddit
They don’t even get through, I have tried to post more than two but the only two that got through were the panel on existential AI risk with Bernie and the British government declaring a cybersecurity emergency because AI capabilities are doubling every 4 months. A scientific paper published by Stanford about AI systems capable of generating viruses that could cause a global pandemic and one about Sam Altman backing a bill to reduce liability for AI caused mass deaths didn’t get through. Apparently they “didn’t follow the rules”….. ByE….. your worldview is based on your filtered cognition… so tainted
ASIextinction@reddit
They don’t even get through, I have tried to post more than two but the only two that got through were the panel on existential AI risk with Bernie and the British government declaring a cybersecurity emergency because AI capabilities are doubling every 4 months.
A scientific paper about AI systems capable of generating viruses and one about Sam Altman backing a bill to reduce liability for AI caused mass deaths didn’t get through. Apparently they “broke the rules”…..
ByE….. useless liar
Eiswolf999@reddit
Sure buddy.
TheHistorian2@reddit
Because the ratio of posts looking at long term implications to posts worried the world is going to end on Wednesday has plunged. It’s almost as exhausting to be surrounded by those who are overreacting as those who aren’t reacting at all.
FakeGamer2@reddit
Seriously. I got mass downvoted in here not long ago for commenting that 2050 is when we will begin to see massive effects from climate and resource changes, and people were pissed i wasn't saying 2027 instead
flybyskyhi@reddit
Believing that the literal end of civilization is coming in ~5 years absolves you from having to seriously engage with the world as it is today, either on a personal or societal level. It’s a coping mechanism and a secular equivalent to Armageddon
darkpsychicenergy@reddit
Eh. Believing that nothing is going to happen for at least ten years has the same effect for most everyone else.
Pretty much everyone is just looking to be absolved regardless.
And collapse is an uneven process. Some will be severely impacted long before others feel it. Some are being severely impacted right now. They may or may not recognize that their experience is part of this process.
snowydays666@reddit
personally I cannot bear the weight of the doom. I have been staring into the abyss since I was a child. I searched tirelessly trying to be proven wrong only to be proven right. I am only in my early 20s and looking forward is bleak. It is hard to imagine what life will look like in three years. I hate to think about the future. I have been thinking about leaving this sub because of how it keeps me up at night. If there was absolution it would have fell into my lap as soon as my cards were dealt. I am tired of the hope, I am tired of the struggle. It is painful to see what this world is coming to as the seconds creep on. As the minutes feel fickle. I have been wishing for this world to be different from the age of 4.
The conclusion that I have come to is that reducing harm is absurd. Humanity is only capable of righteous sadism and I am indeed human.
Purplealegria@reddit
I feel you.
Imagine seeing it from a young GenX eyes and first knowing something was very wrong your whole child/teenhood, then when you become a adult, helplessly seeing this coming for like 3 decades.
Im so tired.
snowydays666@reddit
I have heard the stories from my father and read about my grandfather’s time. Arguably you guys had it worse. Tensions from the cold war still persisted and much of nato was sent to the Baltic. The culture and the social fabric was so fucking bad. You guys couldn’t catch a fucken break. Endless conflicts not just minor ones. Domestic and foreign. A nuke was at my grandfather’s doorstep and he was only disheartened by the fact that he was too medically unfit to fight. Can you believe that? Entire cultures that were pro war? Everyone was indoctrinated. I don’t think that you can even believe to imagine how devastated I was not to be spared by the spoils of war. My family is in ruins because of things that my nation decided at least 3 generations ago. My country is weak because of things that it decided in the 1760s. I can only imagine what it’s like to be a country that was in the midst of these battles. Forced to sell their land, anything just to get by. My grandfather used to live on a farm. They would have chickens and crops just to eat. My father was sent to christian school. The oppression that they experienced was unlike anything the younger generations have ever seen. It was “cheaper” everything is synthetic. No one had knowledge easily… but back then it was even worse.
As a child I used to have these fantasies. I would dig underground and bring only one person with me. I was a callous and selfish child but I wished that my fathers had built a city length of bunker by the first sound of the alarms. For their own sakes, and for the freedom of the next generation.
When I got even older, I was dishevelled reading about the heart of man. How selfish it could be. How women are continuously wronged. I understood why they didn’t build those bunkers and never looked towards the future. I studied sociology and culture… It is to my dismay to admit that if there was a simple solution, there wouldn’t be as much conflict as we are seeing.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
I don't know when it's going to happen but everyone should still be maxxing their 401ks just in case.
SomeRandomGuydotdot@reddit
2027 could very well see serious problems in America due to climate change. The water crisis in the Colorado river basin is very, very real.
Getting people over the hump from we're all going die, panic sell everything to understanding catabolic collapse takes a lot of time and patience. I'm convinced that the after general collapse awareness, it just takes time to develop the more nuanced views as you see both problems and "solutions" ebb and flow.
pegaunisusicorn@reddit
And you can still be bullish on collapse without being irrational. I think we'll start seeing things in the next five years that are remarkable and noteworthy. But I agree. I've been on this sub for a long time, and it has been a steady downward trend in the amount of people who actually talk about the science. Probably because it's exhausting and there's only a small pool of people who want to come online and talk about science and do it in an environment that's as acidic as this one can be.
RiimeHiime@reddit
People can radicalize each other by trying to top each other, no matter the topic.
"Consensus is that we're going to face major decline by 2040, with current feedback loops"
"Actually, I think we're going to face complete extinction by 2040"
"Yeah? Well I think it's gonna happen by 2030!"
etc.
Will society collapse entirely in my lifetime? I genuinely can't even begin to guess.
StupidizeMe@reddit
Well said!
Dry_Ganache178@reddit
Yeah. I am 100% collapse pilled (always will be) and am starting to find this sub exhausting and stupid.
Collapse is coming (already here in some parts of the world) but its impossible to predict exactly when, and how, and how bad.
Theres ton so people posting as if its gonna happen tommorow. And when it doesnt happen tommorow they post the same thing... tommorow.
NoFood2149@reddit
it's interesting, i think it's maybe a case of humans failing to think beyond their own timescales and what they are used to and comfortable with. the total collapse we are worried about is something possibly many generations of carelessness away from us in time. the whole point of this place is not just to point at the impending apocalypse but to find ways to stop it or just to cope with it.
i only joined a few days ago, but i'm noticing a lot of posts triggered by an increase in oil prices, like, complaining about cost of living. it's frustrating, it's definitely a sign, but it's not the first oil crisis caused by a war and, if things keep going the way they are, then it definitely won't be the last. i've been thinking about collapse (i've called it decay) for years, but as i don't have a solution (beyond returning to animism) i tend to keep out of the discussion
hereforthebeers@reddit
Agree 100%. This sub seems to have become more mental health support of people convinced the world is ending tomorrow and choosing to give up. Negative mindsets no matter about what, are exhausting.
Maybe I am abnormal, but I don't let it ruin my day/week/year/life. We only get one life no matter what. Once I accepted that these are going to be very hard times coming up, I've found a lot of joy and freedom in that. I absolutely love watching a movie with my wife now. Who knows how long we will have that. Before it was just a normal Friday night.
"Wow, think of all the people who have died anyway having good lives, and how interesting is it to be possibly the generation of humans who gets to see all of human history, and how it ends?" - that's been a really helpful thought for me. Not wishing for destruction, but accepting it, and embracing it.
wageslave2022@reddit
It's happening now slowly and surely. I hope you are not waiting to hear it on the 5:00 news. It's not a hundred nukes going off but when you hear things like the national debt is now higher than GDP it's part of the bigger picture, you are thinking this collapse is like a motorcycle hitting a cement truck at 90 mph instead of a slow grueling cancer. This thing with the oil over there is not good. The thing with the data centers isn't good either, did you hear the thing about the E files? Something about the ones running the world practicing devil worship and eating babies and stuff? That's the stuff that they are telling us, if this is not collapse then what do you need to see?
uberbluedb@reddit
Agreed. I miss Richard Crimm’s posts. RIP.
FantasticOutside7@reddit
And Michael Dowd too, RIP. His content is still available and a great resource, especially the SoundCloud material.
pegaunisusicorn@reddit
oh no!
I had no idea he had passed away. That's truly sad. His posts were great.
AndrewSChapman@reddit
RIP Richard. No one puts in the effort like he did. Miss him heaps.
throw_it_awayyy8@reddit
Who is that?
uberbluedb@reddit
He posted under u/TuneGlum7903 here.
daviddjg0033@reddit
smokingtyger on youtube was a ml/AI voice reading his writing when I went to search for Crim when his media went dark. i knew that could not be him and had the same feeling well, when my so died. i hate that timeline but its all stages of grief. if you accept that every beginning has an end this process gets easier. still hard.
No_Computer_3432@reddit
https://richardcrim.substack.com/
whereismysideoffun@reddit
The scientific consensus is way too slow. This sub is getting further and further and further ahead.
I have been on this sub since 2011. There have been annoying time periods of this sub such as the influx of latestagecapitalism, which reduced everything down to solely capitalism. All industrial civilization systems lead to the same place, capitalism or no. Civilizations collapsed well before capitalism. It also brought a lot of people who are miserable and depressed now, and collapse was their way to quit trying now. To justify wallowing in misery. Not my vibe. I'm still trying to exist with empathy for ithers ajd to make life better to the end. Anyways...
The current state of the sub may be the most annoying, so I am far from a daily used at this point. It's the lowest effort for posts and comments that it's been easily in the last decade. People are just freestyling at this point on a lot of posts. Comments with scientific studies in support of the comment get no upvotes or get downvotes while the doomiest comment that a person freestyled gets crazy upvotes.
The guy posts "BOE data" that is actually temp projections for latter this year, not BOE projections and it gets eaten up. It's that sort of thing ad nauseum.
Things are fucked, but let's not be crabs in a bucket climbing each other clamoring for the doomiest take with no backing. You can't just extrapolate on top of extrapolation on top of extrapolation.
There is enough truly damning data and awful current events that we don't need tabloid level doom on top of it.
I enjoy parts of this sub, but am not willing to fight for it to be better than a cess pit of doom. There is too much real world bettering to due rather than trying to save a subreddit.
Though, one bright spot as of late is that when talking about my own person efforts of adaptation and mitigation through farming and fishing, I've had less bad faith debates from others. Maybe that is a sign that we are shedding some in good ways too. It's typically clear that I am debating people who have no farming knowledge or even no knowledge for life outside of heat/ac/supply chain/petroleum and are Dunning-Kruegering the shit out of the conversation. But having some good engagement to that recently has had me piling around again.
The socialist groups and vegans who make individual posts and brigade those posts are also a semi regular presence here. Both trying to recruit from this sub. The brigading is obnoxious and adds nothing to the sub.
All that to say. The amount of substance has gone down and there is too much of a freestyled doom loop. Those elements of the sub are no longer rooted in reality. I'm here for actually discussing collapse.
frugalerthingsinlife@reddit
The ClimateChange sub is better for climate change stuff than this one, imo. But there is a lot of crossposted in both.
All the other collapse topics, I can't find in one sub. Other than the normal news. That's why I'm still here.
theCaitiff@reddit
I'm with you on this. There seem to be two camps of people with regards to farming/fishing/etc, there's some who think it's the magic cure all pill that's so easy everyone will be able to just plant a few tomatoes and be fine and others who are convinced that if you cannot go full self sufficient with zero outside inputs then it's a waste of time.
I've gardened for years, I've made a point to put in fruit trees at my place and my friends homes. It's not a magic cure all. Subsistence farming is HARD, it sucks, people have wanted to stop doing that for hundreds of years. I grew my own sorghum last year and harvested the cane for sugar. Sugar milling fucking SUCKS. Hated every moment of it, but really glad I did it because now I know I can.
But on the flip side, every calorie you grow is one you don't have to buy, or rely on complex supply chains to bring to you. I'm not a believer in the fast collapse theory. The whole world will not cease to function tomorrow. You do not need to replace all of your grocery shopping on your own or die a terrible death next week.
When I think about the collapse of our society I think it's going to be a slow inevitable downward slide that happens over the course of years. Things will become more expensive, then become rare, then disappear entirely. In that scenario, putting in an apple tree saves you a few hundred dollars per year. Growing zucchini or tomatoes saves you another couple hundred. Rows of salad greens planted in waves will keep you crunching through salads all summer long. As prices increase, every calorie you pull out of the ground is one you don't pay through the nose for.
It's not easy, but it's still worth doing what you can.
SomeRandomGuydotdot@reddit
I think you're being a bit too rosy about previous eras. At one point someone pulled up the top posts from a decade ago and the current top posts, and it was surprising close to the same stuff. There's always some topical coverage.
A lot of the really serious stuff isn't sensational. Collapse of the Colorado river basin? Cadillac desert was published in 1986. Resource depletion? Limits to growth was published in 1972. Overshoot was published in 1980.
As much as I personally would like it if there was more talk about core infrastructure and adaptation as it relates to collapse, it's just not what people want to talk about, and it won't get a lot of attention even here until it's in the news cycle and amplified by the algorithm.
gnostic_savage@reddit
Thank you especially for two points. One, it isn't just capitalism, it's overexploitation of all kinds under any label. Veganism is fine, as long as you grow your own food or at least obtain your food very locally, and without a vehicle beyond a bicycle. It isn't just commercial meat production that is the problem, it's commodification of everything that humans did for themselves for most of the past 315K+ years by walking around outside very close to where they just slept for the night, and picking it up, whether they planted it themselves or just gathered it seasonally, or they hunted it. It's this entire anthropocentric way of life that doesn't work. It's the taking beyond what is needed to meet our real needs, it's the transportation, the infrastructure, the people needed to "manage" it all, the ungodly amount of natural world resources and destruction to the planet necessary to live this way, and it's the overpopulation.
When people have single note, simplistic reasons for "the problem," like how it's capitalism, or eating meat, or the boomers, or, "human nature," I know they have no understanding of history, especially the history of western civilization, no understanding of what a healthy environment looks like or how long we have been working hard to demolish it all (it's been for centuries in this culture), or what sustainable cultures look(ed) like.
JorgasBorgas@reddit
I remember an old post from an engineer highlighting the amount of maintenance that goes into parking garages as an example of an underrated weak point in the system. That was a worthwhile and interesting post.
Seeing political cartoon spam and the general mouthbreather reddit demographic posting "WELP, looks like we're still fucked!!" is pretty disheartening even before you get to obvious AI rants that are left up hours longer than they should be
ArrrrKnee@reddit
This entirely. So many posts about a "super el nino" like it's going to be some massive, world breaking event. Go ask the people in the meteorology sub what they thing. Ya know, a sub that actually is knowledgeable about the topic. They are much less concerned.
nommabelle@reddit
Ive been here for quite a while and find the sub overreacts a lot of the time. It really messes up my own reaction to collapse, as I fully believe it is happening but I do think its a super slow process. Its hard to determine how much collapse should dictate my own life (such as whether to have kids, where to live, what to spend my time and energy on, etc)
strega_bella312@reddit
That's my thing - i haven't unsubscribed yet but I don't pay as much attention to this sub as I used to. I came here for valid, relevant information to try to better prepare myself or my children for the future. Instead I get a ton of fear mongering "the world as we know it will be gone by next year" bullshit. Its not good for my anxiety and it doesnt help anyone in the long run.
bunbunsweet@reddit
Not to mention the explicit hostility toward parents. Yes, I have kids, and of course I worry about their future. I’ve since found other communities that are far less toxic. I only check in here occasionally, and it’s clear nothing has changed—if anything, that just confirms I made the right decision to leave.
strega_bella312@reddit
Yup, I didn't even want to bring it up but that was another issue for me. I have 1 kid. I'm not out here popping out 10+ kids like a Mormon sister wife. The child-free weirdness has bubbled over into a lot of unrelated subs. But whenever I comment here and mention being a parent, the only "advice" i get is that I shouldn't have had him at all. Its too late for that, I'm trying to do what I can to mold him into someone productive, and prepare him as best I can for whatever might happen when I'm gone. I don't need the boomers to tell me that we're both going to end up starving to death on 5 years while the planet boils around us.
Gyirin@reddit
not having kids would be good idea these days regardless of if the whole civilization collapses next week or not.
JerryNomo@reddit
Maybe its because this sub goes more and more in a cult direction.
Jeveran@reddit
Maybe admins are successfully slaying bots.
iLLy_RiLLy@reddit
Because everything is overly political on Reddit
Ragecomicwhatsthat@reddit
Everyone here is wrong.
The answer is is the mobile app is glitching and removing long-time users from subreddits they've been a part of for years.
Source: it says I'm not a part of this subreddit but I have been for years
Agreeablepeeable@reddit
Honestly I’m just focused on having fun awesome sex with beautiful women and consuming marijuana and lsd while also volunteering and exercising a lot. fuck
trickortreat89@reddit (OP)
lol actually sounds like a good plan haha
johannesfranco13@reddit
Bot accounts keep getting deleted
Cygnus__A@reddit
Because this place has turned into a nutcase conspiracy sub.
Agreeablepeeable@reddit
Sometimes it feels like all the posts are coming from psyche wards
cranberries87@reddit
I am noticing a different type of propaganda being repeated across subreddits: that everything is great, this is the best time in history to be alive, and anybody sounding the alarm on geopolitical happenings, climate change, increasing pandemics, etc. are just “dOoMeRs” who need to go touch grass. Everything is absolutely perfect off of Reddit, everybody is holding hands and living in perfect harmony, it’s just doomers making you think otherwise. I believe this is an intentional form of propaganda to lull people to sleep.
Also, I wonder if there are other reasons why subscribers would have dropped? Were there an unusual number of bots in here that have had their accounts deleted?
Agreeablepeeable@reddit
In a weird way I feel like my neighborhood and my city peaked last year but since the beginning of this year it has been insanely violent and everything is breaking down so fast
I’m just trying to enjoy every day and laugh as much as possible. It will only get worse from here but I can choose not to be miserable
Extreme-Homework-697@reddit
Crazy, because we're literally seeing that right under this post lol. So much misattribution and misdirected cynicism.
Super-D-1@reddit
Don’t look up.
antichain@reddit
Maybe because this community is basically just misanthropes spouting vaguely populist hottakes rather than substantively engaging with science and systems-thinking (the way it was pre-COVID)?
Lord knows I've stopped coming by as much as the sub is basically evolving into yet another instance of r/latestagecapitalism
findingjasper@reddit
This. I know this is r/collapse but when did everyone on this sub start hating other humans?
Wow….now that I’m typing this out….i realize i kind of hate it here. We have one life. When it ends, it will end. And it will definitely end for all of us. But we don’t have to hate one another and find joy in another humans pain while we’re here.
summercookiess@reddit
Ikr? I'm disturbed at how extreme the misanthropy can get in here. Some users here have literally said "every human deserves maximum punishment" and "I want us to suffer", and they get upvoted with little to no pushback. It's like they're becoming sadistic.
findingjasper@reddit
I’ve think about leaving too and then just forget to as I scroll to another sub. I think about leaving primarily bc this sub seems to have become a negative echo chamber for the odd and mentally ill. Any attempt at logical and meaningful conversation seems to get downvoted. Therefore , it becomes noise which becomes a waist of time. Honestly shocked this showed up in my feed bc I no longer even engage with this sub.
barefootrebellion@reddit
I think because it’s becoming overwhelming. It’s too real. I avoid this sub these days.
Accurate-Biscotti775@reddit
I wrote a post about the importance of farmer's market's in the face of collapsing industrial ag systems, got a bunch of (mostly pretty thoughtful) comments and had it removed by the sub admins for being insufficiently related to collapse. I know they are fighting a rising tide of spam and AI, but if they just reflexively shut down conversations in the sub, that does have a chilling effect on the community.
Also, I think a lot of people tuned in during the beginning of the pandemic and have tuned back out again.
kingfofthepoors@reddit
Because it used to be funny do some people kind of a joke where they wanted to Doom scroll and whatnot but ultimately they figured everything will work out but for a lot of them they've come to the realization that the Doom is actually real there's no denying it anymore so it's no longer fun to them now they're faced with real existential dread and they have no choice but to leave for their own sanity
Environmental_Art852@reddit
Manipulation by the powers that be
Mackwiss@reddit
Historian Here: People didn't panic when the Black Death spread across Europe. They embraced death as part of life and that reflected in art style even as images with happy dancing skeletons started showing up.
You can only spill too much negativity. We're hard wired to keeping our minds in a positive state to face adversity instead of dwelling on the incoming doom.
I'm pretty sure people are more likely than not getting fed up with a constant stream of negativity which is common now everywhere you look around... so people are reacing by disconnecting from it while enjoying what they can in this life...
Being aware of the end will make people want to enjoy the journey more instead of walking through it glued to screens of negativity and disaster.
Hikigaya_Hachiman7@reddit
Totally agree, this recent wave of negative doom-dwelling has only just appeared, while our brains are naturally wired to live in the moment and focus on survival, not constantly predict or anticipate the end.
Mispict@reddit
The doom dwelling is getting a bit over the top. When I first joined, there were a lot more interesting articles. Now it seems to be lots of people with anxiety.
slayingadah@reddit
I mean... gestures around
I think an amount of anxiety is warranted.
But you're right; I tend to gravitate toward the posts w the climate maps and new studies related to that, and I always read last week in collapse on sundays (thank you to the fellow reddit human who does that- I should know your name). Usually there's a few links in there that round out the things I need to know to stay apprised. Some of the posts these days feel just too screamy or propaganda-y but about real things, and that irks me. We don't need propaganda to sell what is actually happening. Just hard facts.
These days, my reddit sends me to way more foraging, homesteading and fermenting subs, because it is true; we are gonna have to act to try and save ourselves. It is probably hopeless, but the way my spouse and I see it is we are aware of the state of the world; we can't just sit and do nothing. We have to try. So anyway, we're trying.
Mispict@reddit
My partner and I just had a discussion about what we're going to do if there's a catastrophic event. So far, the most realistic answer has been "let's just head across the road to the pub and wait for the wave"
slayingadah@reddit
A totally viable option. But we have a nearly grown kid (we were unaware 19 years ago), and we are obligated to try for him.
Mispict@reddit
Yeah, I have two grown. I'd like to try for them too. I do try. I have always worked for charities, work in environmental grant funding, try to live well and make my part of the world a nicer place.
I still think I'll probably just go to the pub.
slayingadah@reddit
Oh nooooo we are only trying to save ourselves. My life's work (caring for children, especially underprivileged kiddos) is being ripped out from underneath me and destroyed. I wanted to save the world, too, for my kid and all the kids. Now, we are just gonna focus on our holler and the 15 acres we bought. The wave can come for us there.
Have a few for us at the pub, fellow awake person. I'll be in my forest witch era.
Mispict@reddit
I would LOVE a forest witch era! Unfortunately I live in a city with no space to witch!
Wishing you the spookiest of witching! Cast me a nice spell if you get the chance. I'll toast you with something decadent, highly alcoholic and delicious! ♥️
VICamp_daddy@reddit
This exchange was a delightful read thank you both.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
I'm astonished how many people with young kids totally ignore the coming collapse. I care more than they do.
slayingadah@reddit
So, up above i alluded to my lifelong passion working w children. I have gone from being younger than all the parents of the children I helped raise to being much, much older. I can tell you this, their nonchalance about collapse is a survival tactic. Because literally, their brains cannot fathom a world in which their children will suffer they way they most assuredly will in the coming years. It's an easy trap to fall into if you dont dogure collapse before having children. Luckily, many are, and that is one of the reasons the reproduction rates are tanking. Thank god.
The babies I care for will be 25 in 2050. It's such a shit deal for them.
Redditisfakeleft@reddit
Your local wouldn't happen to be the Winchester, would it?
AlwaysPissedOff59@reddit
I tried talking about that same event with my spouse; she quite forcefully refused. They absolutely know most of what's going on, but will not even consider thinking about it. That's the main reason I'm here (not a subscriber, BTW).
DocTaotsu@reddit
I used to get upset about this reaction but now I think I get it. I have some very smart and compassionate people in my life who generally refuse to go too deeply into collapse because they know if they do they'll just sit down and give up. Not because they would do that in an emergency but because the amount of anxiety they would feel NOW would absolutely preclude their ability to function on a day-to-day basis.
I read a couple of studies awhile ago that mental health problems, even serious ones, seem to improve for a lot of people in emergency situations. When the SHTF most people tend to lock in and connect with their community and try to help. Which makes sense right? That's how we've survived throughout history.
So while I think it's worth THINKING about the future and how to adapt I think it's actually reasonable to limit how much we worry/emotionally engage with that future. Largely because it degrades our ability to experience and enjoy life today and it's not going to make our hypothetical lives in the future any easier.
Like should I feel bad about eating a nice dinner today when I could be starving in a decade? Pre-paying my misery isn't going to make starvation any less terrible. I've never heard a genocide or natural disaster survivor say they should have felt worse before the event, they generally just say they wish they had prepared better. But if you drill down further a lot of them will admit there wasn't a ton they could have done to prepare because there was no way to know exactly how it would go down (beyond the basics of food, water, etc).
winston_obrien@reddit
"Let's go to The Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all this to blow over"
shryke12@reddit
Not really. Just living immersed in anxiety does nothing for you and sabotages your own life and relationships.
Classic-Progress-397@reddit
And a lot of people fixated on negativity. Yeah, we are all gonna die, I get it. But I appreciate OP reminding me that I should mute the group for a better feed..
Dizzy_Pop@reddit
And heavy defeatist depression.
I had a thought recently though. Therapy and mental health advice teaches people to avoid “catastrophizing.” That’s valid and it’s important. We don’t need to always jump to the absolute worst case chain of events for every single possibility in life.
HOWEVER: that doesn’t mean that we need to delude ourselves with irrational optimism, either. Sometimes, the most probable, logical, reasonable, and likely outcome is exactly what we need to consider, and it’s not “unhealthy” to face that reality.
The challenge with sub in particular is that the “doomer” case is almost certainly the correct one. Honestly assessing the evidence, the news, the studies, and the emerging developments that point in that direction is NOT the same as “catastrophizing.” In fact, accepting the truth and reality of it is an essential part of a healthy response.
Even so, though, we do see plenty of anxiety and catastrophizing here. “We’re all going to die, and indeed probably sooner than expected” is an honest appraisal, but that’s not the same thing as “Venus by Tuesday”.
There are different levels of doomerism, though. Part of our responsibility in this sub is to help each other understand, to the best of our ability, what is actually happening, what the honest probabilities and their timelines are. Thats not an easy task.
Given the sheer volume of horrible news we see everyday, and the escalating nature of it, the balance between acceptance and anxiety is a difficult line to walk.
Kazuma_Megu@reddit
Yeah, legit nowadays 90% of post in here are "we'll all be dead in 5 years this time for sure."
Gets old, man.
Mispict@reddit
I think I reached acceptance a while ago. It's fucked and until it ends, the best I can do is try to make my little part of the world a bit more bearable for me and the people around me.
Worrying is just using up energy I don't have, but it's really hard not to feel angry watching the powers that be fuck things up for everyone at a faster pace.
kollaps3@reddit
So simply and beautifully put, no notes.
CrimsonBolt33@reddit
This is exactly what I noticed....getting rather dramatic here
Schatzin@reddit
And this living in the moment feature of ours is also the primary driver of why its so difficult to solve many of the world's problems
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
You’re either lying about being a historian or are not really knowledgeable on this specific subject.
As a historian myself i can guarantee you there was immense panic during the Black Death, at least in Europe as that’s what i’m most knowledgeable about. The chaos and panic was basically unprecedented during that time.
Sick people were left to die and often rot in the streets because people were to scared to even come close to them. Parents were leaving their children out of fear, spouses would leave each other out of fear. Priests would stop giving last rits to dying people which was a very, very big deal back then.
A lot of governing people fled towns or just died leaving towns in total disarray. The dead were often left unburied in the streets because there was no one left to command people to do so. Some towns got almost completely abandoned out of fear of death.
Most taught it was a punishment from god and did a lot of crazy things to try and get it away. We had a whole flagellant movement, people roaming trough towns wipping themselves in hopes for gods forgiveness and to put an end to this wrath that they believed he put on them.
While you da make a fair point that some embraced it as a part of their lives. But not in a good sense like you try to portray. Many expected to basically die very soon so they just started feasting and drinking like there was no tomorrow as they were convinced life would end soon.
Minorities were being executed because they were looking for scapegoats. Jews, lepers, beggars, foreigners and travellers got burned at the stake.
People really thought the world was ending and it kind of did, it’s one of the events that totally reshaped humanity for ever. The world was not the same as it was before the black death.
Just want to add Giovanni Boccaccio’s own words as he describes very well the hopelessness people were experiencing during that time :
"One citizen avoided another, hardly any neighbor troubled about others, relatives never or hardly ever visited each other. Moreover, such terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs."
Mackwiss@reddit
yeah... no... you're wrong... I'm not going to discuss this. The link I shared has all the bibliography you need to learn... have fun. 😄
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
The fact that you’re only defense is a wikipedia article definitely confirms your lying about being a historian. This specific type of art style originated almost 100 years after the black death (as you can see in the article) so this is in no way shape or form an accurate representation of the state of mind of people during that time.
Mackwiss@reddit
whatever rocks your boat m8 😄
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
The truth rocks my boat and whatever your saying is far from it.
Mackwiss@reddit
Some sources that show how ignorant you are 😄
Rittershaus, Luisa; Eschenberg, Kathrin (2021). "Black Death, Plagues, and the Danse Macabre. Depictions of Epidemics in Art". Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung. Supplement (33)
DesOrmeaux, Anna Louise (2007). The Black Death and its Effect on 14th and 15th Century Art (MA thesis). Louisiana State University
Tanner, Norman (2008). The Church in the Later Middle Ages: The I.B. Tauris History of the Christian Church. Bloomsbury Academic.
Pulliam, June; Fonseca, Anthony J. (2016). Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend. ABC-CLIO. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4408-3491-2. Since the 16th century, costumes have become a central part of Halloween traditions. Perhaps the most common traditional Halloween costume is that of the ghost. This is likely because ... when Halloween customs began to be influenced by Catholicism, the incorporation of the themes of All Hallows' and All Souls' Day would have emphasised visitations from the spirit world over the motifs of spirites and fairies. ... The baking and allowing them to go door to door to collect them in exchange for praying for the dead (a practice called souling), often carrying lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips. Around the 16th century, the practice of going house to house in disguise (a practice called guising) to ask for food began and was often accompanied by recitation of traditional verses (a practice called mumming). Wearing costumes, another tradition, has many possible explanations, such as it was done to confuse the spirits or souls who visited the earth or who rose from local graveyards to engage in what was called a Danse Macabre, basically a large party among the dead.
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
Immagine calling yourself a historian without the ability to properly interpret historical sources. Which is like the number one thing they teach you. Not even going to argue further because you just have no clue or even remote understanding of what you’re talking about.
Mackwiss@reddit
dude... you still on about it? You clearly are bullshitting your way now and you're an arrogant idiot with an shitty nickname. So how about you just shut up instead of digging your own hole further?
BTW!!! THIS WAS TAUGHT IN MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN HISTORY BACK IN 2008 WHEN I FINISHED MY DEGREE!!!! YOU'RE SO FUCKING DUMB YOU'RE ALMOST TWO DECADES BEHIND IN WHAT YOU KNOW.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk...
collapse-ModTeam@reddit
Hi, Mackwiss. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:
Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.
You can message the mods if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.
enidblack@reddit
Ngl it's entertaining to watch him scramble to responses after his lil' "I'm not gonna reply" comment 🤪
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
Mostly impressed by how confidently incorrect he is. Normally i wouldn’t care so much but it’s the most upvoted comment on this post and he’s posing as a historian so a lot of people will take his misinformation for truth which just really bothers me.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
Guys, give it a rest. You're both right in your own ways as another guy above explained. Your behavior now is a good demonstration of why humans are hard-wired to self destruct.
Lo-weorold@reddit
Another historian here, y'all are both correct. Everything referred to by the person you are replying to is correct. Additionally we have a plethora of primary sources to support written by priests, historians, town officials, etc. from across Europe. People rioted, fled their homes, & persecuted minorities, especially the Jewish communities.
Try reading the Great Morality by John Kelly. It is exceptionally sourced with direct accounts from the plague and how people reacted.
That said you are correct also that some reacted with acceptance of their situation. However, to claim that since some people accepted their situation that in turn means that it applies to all people in Europe is simply not what current scholarship says about the Black Death.
Mackwiss@reddit
I don't reply to anyone that starts a post discrediting others like the original commenter to my comment... So thanks for actually explaining further.
The Black Death was not an event of a day or two it took years. Also there where consecutive plagues that lasted centuries to be fully resolved.
This had an impact on society that death became accepted as part of society (my original comment and the link to Danse Macabre)
In regards to the panic of course it hapenned as the event took hold very quickly of society once it started just like people panic when there is a fire or an earthquake.
So in short, yes your comment is correct that both scenarios hapenned because they hapenned at different moments of this event. One when it started stricking the population, another when it was already set in society and death and dispair was all around.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
So... for us this means... stock up on ammo and analog media?
RandomBoomer@reddit
Seriously? I've been reading about the Black Death for decades and none of the historical reports support your view. u/TurbistoMasturbisto nailed the overview of the effect of the pandemic on society.
Mackwiss@reddit
some sources beyond superficial info:
Rittershaus, Luisa; Eschenberg, Kathrin (2021). "Black Death, Plagues, and the Danse Macabre. Depictions of Epidemics in Art". Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung. Supplement (33)
DesOrmeaux, Anna Louise (2007). The Black Death and its Effect on 14th and 15th Century Art (MA thesis). Louisiana State University
Tanner, Norman (2008). The Church in the Later Middle Ages: The I.B. Tauris History of the Christian Church. Bloomsbury Academic.
Pulliam, June; Fonseca, Anthony J. (2016). Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend. ABC-CLIO. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4408-3491-2. Since the 16th century, costumes have become a central part of Halloween traditions. Perhaps the most common traditional Halloween costume is that of the ghost. This is likely because ... when Halloween customs began to be influenced by Catholicism, the incorporation of the themes of All Hallows' and All Souls' Day would have emphasised visitations from the spirit world over the motifs of spirites and fairies. ... The baking and allowing them to go door to door to collect them in exchange for praying for the dead (a practice called souling), often carrying lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips. Around the 16th century, the practice of going house to house in disguise (a practice called guising) to ask for food began and was often accompanied by recitation of traditional verses (a practice called mumming). Wearing costumes, another tradition, has many possible explanations, such as it was done to confuse the spirits or souls who visited the earth or who rose from local graveyards to engage in what was called a Danse Macabre, basically a large party among the dead.
Clark, James M. (1950). "The Dance of Death in Medieval Literature: Some Recent Theories of Its Origin".
RandomBoomer@reddit
As multiple posters have told you, SOME people is not all people. SOME people reacted in the way you describe, but it was not the majority.
Mackwiss@reddit
right... some... that influenced completely the art style of the whole end of the Middle Ages and even created Halloween as we see it today... just "some" people...
"when you believe in something just because of believing it's hard to be rational about it." 😃
helio2k@reddit
"Many expected to basically die very soon so they just started feasting and drinking like there was no tomorrow as they were convinced life would end soon.
Minorities were being executed because they were looking for scapegoats. Jews, lepers, beggars, foreigners and travellers got burned at the stake"
I stopped in this paragraph and tried to imagine how today's people will react.
magniankh@reddit
I refuse to believe any historian makes as many spelling mistakes as you have. Not that your information is necessarily wrong.
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
Well English isn’t my first, second or third language so apologies for making mistakes. Typing on a phone also doesn’t help.
magniankh@reddit
Your syntax is fine which is usually where ESL people make mistakes, but yes, it's the spelling from autocorrect. To vs too. Things like that.
OprahTheWinfrey@reddit
You have to assume that they don't speak English as a first language which is very evident. Also, they have cited sources and real-life historical events, so I'm not sure why you are being so dismissive.
BitsAndBobs304@reddit
I wish i could be positive.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
The blackness comes and goes. We have so little time on this earth is a shame to waste it on things we can't really change.
BitsAndBobs304@reddit
It sucks i have to feed myself every day, thus i shouldnt bother.
detteacher@reddit
This is the answer. I used to be a daily visitor of this sub and fairly common poster/commenter. Now, I’ve accepted that my material conditions will certainly further deteriorate as the world keeps spinning. I now focus on time with my family, my dogs, my garden, and my art. Nothing else really matters anymore.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
I've found that range time helps. At least it's a little something I can control.
Extreme-Homework-697@reddit
Still that same misattribution. I don't know why people think negativity is some unknown phenomenon with no source. We get negativity because the world is going to shit. That reflects in society. Not acknowledging the negativity does NOT make it go away.
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
Once a problem grows to the point of being big enough to be noticed, people will start paying attention to it.
darkpsychicenergy@reddit
No, no, instead we should all be very concerned about what really matters: A decline in subscription! Oh, the humanity!!
atari-2600_@reddit
People are also disconnecting from social media, period. I’ve whittled my social media down to just Reddit at this point—for others they may be sticking with - different platform and removing others (like Reddit). Facebook has recently lost a significant number of users—it’s not something exclusive to Reddit.
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
I did something similar. I only mainly use Reddit and YouTube for my daily social media usage. Otherwise i'm trying to live my life.
Resident_Character35@reddit
Well said and absolutely correct.
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
No he’s incredibly wrong and lying about being a historian.
No-Papaya-9289@reddit
People certainly panicked when the black death appeared. Some villages closed themselves off, people in cities went to the country, etc. It wasn't the kind of panic we see now, because news travelled so slowly. But many thought it was the end of the world, the biblical apocalypse.
One overview: https://history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/blow-struck-world-immense-terror-accessing-emotional-reactions-black-death-1348
Nathan-Stubblefield@reddit
Dancing skeletons depicted during the Black Death makes me think of the move “Life of Bryan” which suggested men being crucified should “Look on the brighter side of life” and whistle a happy tune.
Silver_Bag_6629@reddit
Interesting take, especially from a historian, thanks! I find myself oscillating between doomerism and what you’re describing 🤷♀️
gregbard@reddit
/r/someta
Sumnerr@reddit
Same old same old, except the quality posts are SUPER far in between now. "This year is going to be big" "US empire is in decline, gone in a decade" blah blah blah. Bad predictions, emotional projection, little information. Come back to reality, collapsniks. There is PLENTY of oil to burn, baby. The arctic going ice free for a few weeks and then refreezing isn't the end, etc. etc.
PsudoGravity@reddit
Well, for a few years it was getting worse and worse. Then even more bad omens piled on, and on, and then something weird happened. The world didn't end. Nothing happened actually.
So I guess the hype is dying down.
Ill stay subbed, but I'm not checking daily like I used to. Got blue balled by the imminent apocalypse one too many times.
shryke12@reddit
This post reminded me to unsubscribe! Thanks! Doomerism of this sub is way over the top and unhealthy.
banmeagn@reddit
I left this sub years ago but still check in now and again. Was too bad for my mental, like I'm aware that we're fucked, there's not really much use in knowing in what new ways we are also fucked
ProgressiveKitten@reddit
Tbh I've been thinking of leaving a lot of my subs including this one bc it's just too much. The every day stress of my full time job along with the state of the world right now, it's affecting my mental health and I don't know if I can do it much longer.
immortallogic@reddit
Not sure but maybe there's a day where we could have collapse4collapse, like collapse-aware people who want to date other collapse aware people? Like the childfreee subreddit.ayne it could help with numbers haha
Syndicalist_Vegan@reddit
Because hope is back on the menu.
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
Why?
DidntWatchTheNews@reddit
bots and ai.
the responses have become shifted from our common fte to well orchestrated responses and long winded discussions.
the world is ending, no one has time for that
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
How do we know it's not bots getting banned or deleted that's responsible for the loss of subscribers?
StanYelnats3@reddit
What happened to climate change in the mainstream media? Too many vocal naysayers spouting, "they've been saying 'costal cities would be under water in 12 years!' since 1988!" People just up and decided it's just better for their mental health if they focus on their daily lives, getting better sleep and eating a little bit healthier, than to dwell on impending doom.
So they did.
Odd_Awareness1444@reddit
Part of it is people need to take a break from the horrors that assault us daily. They just shut it out to maintain sanity.
wordaplaid@reddit
Suicide? Definitely a bummer zone.
iipok@reddit
Im still subbed but rarely come on here. Or much of reddit for that matter. Instead of interesting replys with more info or good insights, it's full of politics and just general childish remarks on most threads.
adeptusminor@reddit
I can only speak for myself. I'm overwhelmed by everything horrible that was preventable (in the US) but is happening because so many selfish, mean spirited humans wanted to see brown people suffer. (I'm white if it matters)
It's going to fall apart.
They told us in Project 2025, and now they're doing it.
It's so depressing I'm practically suicidal, and following along online is only making it worse.
Feeling powerless as the cost of my groceries and utilities become untenable and knowing this was preventable is too much for this old lady.
asteria_7777@reddit
Didn't we have 500k around 2020?
diedlikeCambyses@reddit
No. Lets see... I joined in 2017 and there was 75k. By 2020 I think it was maybe 300k tops. Then covid destroyed this sub and here we are. I don't think it reached 500k til after covid.
knucklepoetry@reddit
Oh no, it’s a collapse!
diedlikeCambyses@reddit
This sub collapsed during covid. That's what broke it.
pegaunisusicorn@reddit
Faster than expected !
HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit
That's okay! I am reading about the collapse...on the Collapse sub! 😄
daviddjg0033@reddit
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/15/4508?fbclid=IwdGRjcARldBVjbGNrBGV0D2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHv6r7Lz1EhzpUpuqamYQ45PaUnx52HA2zKvPjQOa0MTZLayP9-akOUnvR5VL_aem_6G5WomzixA7wciO4iReQhw
here is an article from 6y ago. what has changed since then in hopium land?
Uchuuko@reddit
Because a lot of the news isn’t causing collapse in the present or immediate future. It seems like a lot of fear mongering, despite the concerns’s being very real.
srr210@reddit
I stopped visiting so often because everywhere else seemed to be at a new level of awareness of our unfolding polycrises so i stopped needing feedback that i wasn’t crazy from this specific source.
Piethecat@reddit
Part of the reason I stopped commenting/posting is after making a post about the Thwaites Glacier. At the time it seemed like a huge deal that parts of it were calving off, though later on I learnt it to be part of a cycle and no-where near the deal it was made out to be (at least in that particular point in time). The reason I mention this is because it's posters who, like me, aren't knowledgeable about the topic and amplified scientifically incorrect/ misleading fringe news. I don't seem to see many posters with academic backgrounds anymore, which leads me to my next point.
It's when I see George Monbiot publishing an article regarding the recent news regarding AMOC slowdown that it feels we're collectively becoming more collapse-aware as a society, and so it feels like a lot of the news relating to collapse is becoming more mainstream. With this in mind, what is the purpose of r/Collapse when the fringe opinions we've had are becoming more accepted?
roblewk@reddit
I find it too hard to post here, actually impossible as my every attempt was rejected. I think this sub should be a free for all on the subject to generate more interaction for the world at large. I literally only come here for the “last week” section. That is real to me. The 20-year in-depth analysis of March rainfall in Syria is not compelling to the average person.
Shoddy-Childhood-511@reddit
An answer for u/trickortreat89 related to this remark:
This sub deletes maybe half of the posts, not immediately but eventually, because they want the archive to be pristine.
That's one way of running a sub. Also, reddit makes this less problematic than other platforms, since the author will always have their own post. In fact, this maybe helpful to remove all the stupid mindless doom.
Yet all the deletions likely discourages some people too, or push them elsewhere. Nobody deletes your posts on fediverse, bsky, twitter, etc.
roblewk@reddit
Luckily we have this handy dandy little voting process whereby the topics which have the most interest rise to the top. Trust the process.
Shoddy-Childhood-511@reddit
Again I'm neither judging nor supporting this sub's odd policies, but..
Voting & likes are a shitty moderation system.
Although dead now, Twitter had moderation pretty optimal: No subs, just individuals, and organisations. You just follow, mute, or block individuals.
Reddit needs some mute-like functions, but more advanced than what twitter required. There are people who's posts I consider mostly uninteresting for me, so I want to not see them when browsing myself. Yet, I do want to help those users when they ask and/or mark their posts approved in the subs I moderate, because I respect that they stay sufficiently on-topic. I'd love to bookmark a recent posts search in a sub, but with specific user's excluded.
CRZYFOX@reddit
For me, it seems many here are intolerant to opposing views points especially when it's something pushed by MSM (climate change). I always found this nuts bc any of you aware how the system is rotten should know the info streams via main and alternative main are also ripe with deception. If anything. I see it as a cover for the weather modifications and warfare being conducted. That's my take. Y'all need to be more tolerant of others views here bc most of us agree on everything else. Y'all need to. Understand just how deep disinfo penetrates group think ideologies.
yinsotheakuma@reddit
>We need people to become more aware of the collapse, not fleeting from what is inevitably!
Do we? That kind of mass consciousness would be needed if collapse was "evitably." But if it's "inevitably," then mass consciousness is pointless or it simply means aware folks are competing for resources.
Who fucking cares are sub numbers?
saul2015@reddit
too much policing form overzealous mods always kills online communities
gay_little_spider@reddit
I think about leaving a lot. like everywhere else on reddit, the flood of AI slop is just too gross for me.
yinsotheakuma@reddit
But I just saw this video post and you won't believe what happens next! /s
hagfish@reddit
Collapse-related threads have migrated out into other subs; askreddit, worldnews, economy, supplychain etc. We might as well ask why it's so quiet in the '/human' sub.
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
Didn't notice that there are collapse related threads on r/worldnews. Probably because i've been banned from it and i didn't break a single subreddit rule.
M00ncar@reddit
Because every title is cringe and over doomy like shit's going to end tomorrow but it never does. It's not a sub for getting updates it's for people that want the world to end
Own-Medium5232@reddit
The collapse is happening too slowly and ppl are getting tired of the bau
morganational@reddit
People are gaining optimism. 👍
BennyOcean@reddit
Have you seen THE DOW!?
Oldspaghetti@reddit
It seems like there has been a decent pushback against doomscrolling or doom and gloom going through the algorithm lately. Or could just be my algorithm. But just my 2 cents.
MadAxxxx@reddit
Being collapse-aware isn’t really great for mental health. I would imagine some people are making the choice to remove this kind of messaging from their feed so that they can just find some peace.
AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit
Reddit has gotten fairly serious at banning accounts and technical rule enforcement since the use of AI detection.
Even long standing accounts with an opinion are not safe.
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
I was banned from r/worldnews and r/politics without my account not breaking any subreddit rule whatsoever. Something is afoot.
AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit
I've been banned for pointing out and providing factual links / evidence on several subs.
Like.... not angry, not even an opinion... just a "well theres this here"
SeriouzReviewer@reddit
Because it's spring and summer is around the corner. Fuck collapse, i'm gonna enjoy rest of my life. See you later when it's November!
pegaunisusicorn@reddit
That's just feeding your seasonal affective disorder. If anything, you should do the reverse.
SeriouzReviewer@reddit
Having seasonal affective disorders is 100% normal. It is actually bad if you don't have.
Mercybby@reddit
I’ve been collapse aware for years. Before I had to seek out discourse around collapse. Now that way more people are aware, I feel it’s almost everywhere. I’ve come to full acceptance and have decided to stop following as closely as before. I want to fully enjoy the last of my “better days” as stress free as possible.
i_am_randy@reddit
Reading through the comments on this post has convinced me how low quality most of the posts are in this sub. I’m out now too.
ferenginaut@reddit
bot farm going dark
springcypripedium@reddit
Interesting discussion. I remember when I first became collapse aware----I wanted to take in as much as I could, in part, because I didn't understand the trajectory we were on. I was utterly fascinated and wanted to gather more and more information to determine how dire of a situation we were in. R Collapse was a huge part of this.
Letting go of my obsession with r collapse (I was here a LOT) reminds me of a time when I was trying to figure out what it meant to be in a malignant narcissistic relationship. I was obsessed with learning about narcissism. Immersed myself in narc abuse websites.
And then . . . I finally understood and eventually let go of my obsession with narc abuse videos, articles etc. I understand it now and do not need to know much more. Just how to live a meaningful life with this knowledge that my family of origin was highly dysfunctional.
It feels that way with collapse related things. As I witnessed how destructive our way of living is (in the u.s.) and how I could see the very negative changes in the natural world, I wanted to get to the bottom of what was happening to our planet due to humans. So . . . I dug VERY deep into collapse material, science, data and--- r collapse.
Now . . . 8-10 years later I have accepted that the biosphere is collapsing and there is no way to bring back the destroyed ecosystems. No way to stop the poles from melting and no way to stop warming even if we stop burning fossil fuels today. This is not being a doomer. This is not being an alarmist or defeatist. Unless I see data to convince me otherwise, these are the facts at present.
I'm not sure if that is what is happening to others? They don't need to know much more?
I can't imagine I will ever unsubscribe as I still like to see the recent data on AMOC, CO2 levels, jet stream, state of oceans etc. What I see happening around me in the natural world can be explained here--- it validates my response (alarm, sadness, fear etc.) to the collapsing biosphere. And I do like to hear how others are coping. There are VERY few people in my life that care to discuss broken jet streams and what that means as but one example!
Increasing use of AI would be the tipping point for me to unsubscribe. I come here for human to human connection, perception, knowledge. Not AI.
Last thought: even though many here say there is less content that is science and data based, they still show up here and there is still a level of critical thinking. Let us not forget that studies show that as societies collapse, critical thinking collapses also. So it does make sense that there will be a reduction in critical thinking and a movement toward conspiracy and fantasy or extreme nihilism.
https://live.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/fantasy.pdf
qwtd@reddit
Because this sub has been on the decline since 2020. It’s a shell of its former self
Sharp_Oral@reddit
I’ve wavered with deleting because I have accepted it’s going to happen and don’t see the “dark humor” in it anymore.
This just sucks - and I want to live my life in as much comfortable ignorance as I can.
steakforyouandme@reddit
For me personally, it's too much doom and gloom on this sub. I've been following on and off for a while and it got to the point where I just don't want to read so much negativity.
Yes we should try to prepare for the unexpected which is a smart idea. Nobody knows if it'll ever get that bad. Best anybody can do is live your life with happiness in mind, learn valuable offline skills, stay healthy, help others, keep growing.
There will always be bad news throughout the world. It's just a historical constant. Stay positive, contribute to society, show compassion when appropriate, the rest is out of our control.
Do your part. That's it. Just yours. That's all anybody can control.
Perfect-Whereas-1478@reddit
Collapse collapse? Meta, babey!
Armouredmonk989@reddit
I just don't have the energy for it anymore still here but I browse and comment less and less.
ReMoGged@reddit
For me, this sub is mostly depressing, as every day I’m reminded of how bad things are. I’ve almost pressed the unsubscribe button multiple times. Like, what’s the point, anyway? As an environmental engineer, I have very little hope that things will change for the better, the snowball is rolling downhill and picking up speed, so I guess I just want to watch it roll.
gatorgrowl44@reddit
The subreddit is collapsing.
lavapig_love@reddit
Hey everyone.
I've been here for a long while now. This is one of my favorite subs, and I wouldn't devote my time to moderating it otherwise. One of the unique things that I love about our sub, is that our mod team and our community actively acknowledge that collapse is a lot to take in and that it's perfectly ok to take a break from it.
"Overindulging in this sub may be detrimental to your mental health. Anxiety and depression are common reactions when studying collapse. Please remain conscious of your mental health and effects this may have on you." This is longstanding guidance we have in our sidebar over on the right side of your screen, or under the About section if you're on a smartphone. It's not hyperbole.
We'll be here if you want to return.
jadelink88@reddit
Because this sub has slowed up on any rational discussion of collapse in favour of hardcore doom porn. What exactly is the point of being more aware if you think that near term human extinction is baked into the system?
I think its a GOOD think when this place falls, though I'm a 20+ year veteran here.
It's become a way to get people who might change the system, who might mitigate the savagery of the crash, people who could look their societies collapse in the face and ask 'what can we preserve and pass on' and turn them into depressed doom-mongers who get aggressively self righteous when their 'venus by Tuesday' narrative is questioned.
A few of us are still trying to work with the fairly grim prognosis and do the best we can, but here has steadily become a worse place to do it, and it wasn't that great at what it did back 20 years ago.
Geistacwm@reddit
Because dwelling on the inevitable destruction of our miracle biosphere does not make for positive mental health?
It’s quiet the challenge leading a happy life after the green pill..
whoa_thats_edgy@reddit
for me, i comment and view less because i have to protect my mental health. or i won’t make it. the constant doom and gloom gets to you and makes you feel hopeless.
Calvins8@reddit
Sub changed a lot in the last few years. This was the first place I learned about COVID and prompted me to buy supplies months before the shutdown. It also leaned heavily left wing. It was essentially a leftist prepper sub. These days it's extremely black pilled, apolitical, and focuses almost exclusively on climate collapse. I don't know if it's because leftists were purged from Reddit, the algo, new mods, or just changing demographics but I barely come on here anymore.
ShivaAKAId@reddit
Because most of the things that are causing collapse are not allowed to be mentioned on this sub. If you don’t believe me, try posting about anything spicier than the weather and see what reason is cited for taking it down. This sub, like Reddit in general, cares more about controlling information than sharing it, and consequently learning about collapse is done better anywhere else.
OceanChildRD@reddit
Some people embraced collapse and removed themselves from subs like this because it tells them what they already know.
Some are scared to be reminded of what is to come (and what is already happening) so they don't want to be reminded.
For me, i've embraced it, but the curiousity of what is happening makes me want to keep following this sub, but others might leave for that exact reason.
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
I'm on the subreddit because i want to learn about collapse in many areas. Mainly from geopolitical and societal points.
But the decrease in numbers could probably be because of a sheer number of bot accounts being banned.
trickortreat89@reddit (OP)
Yeah, it’s the exact same reason for me as well. I’m just curious and there’s no other place like in here that makes genuine updates on what is happening around the world anymore. Without this sub I’d turn more and more ignorant I believe, and I don’t want to be that, at least I just want to know what’s happening
PromiseToBeNiceToYou@reddit
People are burnt out and don't want it in their feed anymore. I've done that before to a bunch of subs to give myself a break.
Admirable-Let2858@reddit
Have been on the sub for about a year.
The quality of the sub has deteriorate. Went form being level headed to just an online trend.
imminentjogger5@reddit
probably a bunch of bot or inactive accounts that got cleaned up
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
That's a real possibility. Bot accounts are everywhere on Reddit. Not to mention that are probably more of them elsewhere.
watergoat93@reddit
Maybe because everyone thinks collapse will happen very soon but they have thought that and posted about it for years now
fecundity88@reddit
They migrated over to r/stopdrinking
Rich-Ganache-2668@reddit
My number 1 possible reason for me to unsub would be stress from all the negativity. If i get too much of it, i’d rather just live in my own bubble of things i can control.
raerae704@reddit
Personally I just mute the sub when it becomes too munch for me. I don’t want to fully leave
anadayloft@reddit
I just lose my patience, call someone a dipshit, and get a temporary ban when I need a break...
darkpsychicenergy@reddit
lol same
trickortreat89@reddit (OP)
I don’t even mute it, I just scroll past. I don’t have capacity for daily doomerism like most people I assume, but that doesn’t mean I just became ignorant and won’t even be curious anymore about what’s going on… I genuinely feel that the real news about the state of the world comes from this sub, without it I would start losing touch with reality (even if that sounds sick, but what is reality anyways these days)?
raerae704@reddit
Look I’m not ignorant I just have mental health issues and sometimes I genuinely cannot see the content or it will push me over the edge. It’s not currently muted for me so I’m doing moderately ok at the moment.
HousesRoadsAvenues@reddit
That's a good strategy.
21epitaph@reddit
I know that the amount of AI super intelligence blablabla related posts made me hesitate. We got enough with ecological collapse to worry about sci fi scenarios pushed by billionaires.
Barr3tt50c@reddit
There’s too many posts that clearly used AI.
haste319@reddit
Does it really matter?
r/nihilism
Berlinesa77@reddit
It's getting harder to figure out who's just a bot, and also there're a lot of people just looking for easy karma... those sarcastic one-liners? I love as much as next as the next person but they get tired after a while. Especially when someone (bot? who knows?) posts a sensationalist headline and then most comments are variations of that. Sometimes with no nuanced discussion at all, and that used to be different. Maybe we're all plain exhausted.
Kahnza@reddit
A lot of bots also will comment on a post, but the reply is literally only a reaction to the words of the title.
totalwarwiser@reddit
Could be bots.
Could be people who already know things are going to shit and dont need any more info.
Could be people who think the constant doom scroling is bad for their mental health.
Could be people who dont need it anymore.
Kahnza@reddit
This is a problem that most people don't seem to realize. There are countless thousands of bots active on reddit 24/7. They make posts, they leave comments, and to most people, they can't tell a difference. If anything, this sub should look inward at reddit for collapse.
Eighwrond@reddit
They are going for bicycle rides, having picnics, taking vacations, spending time getting well instead of staring at bad news.
Classic-Bread-8248@reddit
I‘d suggest that some of the leavers are doing for their own mental health. I don’t know why you’d leave instead of abstain, but it’s their choice. I like the dignity of leaving without a flounce. It’s a fairly low percentage overall.
Kahnza@reddit
It's probably bots getting banned
SoDarkTheConOfMan@reddit
Because it's impacting their mental health. I remember coming here for the first time years ago, and sorting posts by 'top' and 'all time' and being so depressed by what I was reading. I no longer come as often now so I'm no longer depressed. But in order to function through life, sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Electronic_Charge_96@reddit
Agree. Saw that and tried to write a post to engage people to help (SME in grief and anxiety). It was taken down/not allowed.
What they want is another post about what we e lost in the world today. Just facts. No conversations or ways to deal with it. It’s very frustrating. Thats not a community of people just take turns shrieking about the lost emperor penguins/AMOC, etc.
DrenRuse@reddit
For a lot of folks, collapse is here. Has been for years.
This sub seems to give takes and viewpoints from those of privilege. Just my two cents.
Drycabin1@reddit
It is very politically one-sided.
CheerleaderOnDrugs@reddit
One side argues that climate change is a hoax, so.
me-need-more-brain@reddit
I´ve been here since 10 years, subs were at 40k back then.
Major subscriber rushes i remember where 2016 and 2020, for obvoious reasons and the sub swelled to 500k, the quality should have dramitically dropped, but the the mods were working night and day and sweating blood, i assume, to keep it up and good quality.
a lot of subscribers were desaster tourists, probably, not regulars.
Now with r/all being nuked (mostly)outside traffic on all subs is likely lower and reddit makes up for the loss by bombarding homefeeds with even more agressive shit.
This sub was never truly popular,due to being negative (aka realistic), and requiring at least some basic understanding of very specific scientific facts that not everyone has the time and energy tod ig deeper into.
Not even at the subscriber height did the traffic match the subscriber numbers.
qdilly@reddit
Have you seen some of the post on here? Some of them are just straight up braindead misinformation. I literally saw a post here telling people to run up their credit card debt.
oxero@reddit
Genuinely my feed from here has shifted horribly. As a long time member, about 8 years maybe (?), it's gotten steadily garbage in the last two years.The community was worried about the sub going public would ruin the atmosphere here, but it seems to have already happened.
Posts here use to be very informal, based on good papers and opinions that were usually discussed at length. It was thought provoking at the least, even if some of the claims or data were unreal. It left room for discussion.
Now? Every time I see this sub pop up in my feed there is a 50/50 chance the post is either by a user from r/ conspiracy posting complete bullshit, or it's some sycophantic AI slop that appeals to the collapse aware with bullshit data and ideas with no substance to back up the conversation.
The mods end up removing a lot of the garbage, but at the end of the day, if I log in and see a ton of garbage in my feed that was posted in the last 1-2 hours and the mods haven't gotten to it yet, I probably don't want to be in the sub much longer. It would halp if the community actually started calling these posters out more, but so many just upvote mindlessly and move on.
It sucks, but it's also collapse related because the internet is dying thanks to AI generated slop and the refusal of people to write their own posts and comments.
ElectricalPie3846@reddit
Reddits AI is getting rid of spam accounts/bots
DrummerBummer32@reddit
Why do we need more people aware?
_Hashtronaut_@reddit
Subscriber numbers collapsing.
ekjohnson9@reddit
Ironic
Funke-munke@reddit
Because at this point ther is not much that can be done and we all know it.
Less_Subtle_Approach@reddit
I would posit the reverse. There's a great deal to do but very little to discuss. Even the high quality articles posted here elicit a "well yes, obviously" at best. Time spent scrolling reddit is time not spent in the garden, learning to sew, or drilling pistol draw speed.
The 400th update on climate science being too conservative is much less useful than having produce to eat that hasn't already rotted on the store shelf.
WildFlemima@reddit
AI content. I've been considering leaving and that's why.
TwoRight9509@reddit
I miss Richard Crim : )
He wrote with such passion, and so beautifully.
Mew3One@reddit
Because the place has become glorified r/antinatalism :)
BigJobsBigJobs@reddit
By some reports traffic is down overall at Reddit. Some users may be abandoning US social media companies.
Regarding r/collapse - have you ever read Kafka's In the Penal Colony? The sentence is to have your crime carved into your back over and over again until it kills you. Sometimes reading r/collapse is like that.
TwoRight9509@reddit
I stopped posting when my posts kept getting taken down because they were supposedly ai : )
After that I have to admit that I read fewer posts / participated less, then stopped checking the sub.
Sarah_Cenia@reddit
That sucks.
atlasdrugged91@reddit
Because this sub is incredibly negative and some of us want to fight/survive.
Agallujah@reddit
Because nothing ever happens. Yes the world is shitty for a lot of people but it will never "collapse" like the people on this sub think it will.
Contles@reddit
You said it yourself. It's an inevitably. So nothing we can do and no point worrying about it. Enjoy your time left.
Extreme-Homework-697@reddit
Well, our time to enjoy ourselves will further be shortened if we keep engaging in our current behavior lol. It's almost like none of you learned cause and effect or something.
ItilityMSP@reddit
Because the quality of submissions and discussion has decreased.
Practical_Hippo6289@reddit
It could possibly just be a bot purge.
suchsnowflakery@reddit
Because r/nihilism.
cureandthecause@reddit
I've noticed very recently there were several subs popping up in my feed that I thought for sure I'd already been subbed to, but when going to comment, realized I needed to join [again].
totem_pole_atx@reddit
Because reddit is actively targeting and banning liberal leaning accounts. Hell, they are still letting epstiens right hand be a mod.
https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/photos/breaking-internet-denizens-in-shock-as-suspected-ghislaine-maxwell-reddit-accoun/1504242948473941/
Frequent-Ad-6206@reddit
The mods are awful.
Ok-Philosophy1958@reddit
Is this evidence of a 'collapse' in membership. Drumroll ... I'll see myself out......
murphski8@reddit
I haven't learned anything here in a long time, so I'll probably be leaving, too. I can doom scroll anywhere.
mmob18@reddit
bots being banned. I'm not saying it's just this community; any subreddit with potential to sway political opinion has been heavily infiltrated.
TurbistoMasturbisto@reddit
The fact that you’re only defense is a wikipedia article definitely confirms your lying about being a historian. This specific type of art style originated almost 100 years after the black death (as you can see in the article) so this is in no way shape or form an accurate representation of the state of mind of people during that time.
pumpkinspicecum@reddit
Your sub might be suppressed
chesherkat@reddit
Sub name checks out
thunda639@reddit
Because headline news has all the same content we do now.
IKillZombies4Cash@reddit
Probably bots collapsing.
cranberries87@reddit
This was my first thought.
VoiceofTruth7@reddit
A sub named r/collapse is… collapsing you say 🫠
Fnordus235@reddit
Ppl don't like AI slop.
Resident_Character35@reddit
Collapse is here. There's nothing left to do but wait for it to come to your own individual community and house. I am no longer that interested in talking about it, because there's nothing left to discuss. I have been collapse aware since 1993 and there's no force in the universe that can turn this around now. What's left to say?
burn_weebs@reddit
thanks for reminding me to unsub from here
tombdweller@reddit
For me the AI doomerism/Eliezer Yudkowsky/LessWrong takes on AI almost have me unsubscribing.
It's completely stupid and eneducated, feels almost like trolling or marketing spam (mythos is dangerous!!! Amiright?) and is completely incompatible with the core beliefs and knowledge base of the sub (climate change is real and serious, we're in resource overshoot, energy is a limited resource, infinite growth on a finite planet is stupid, etc).
I think it should probably be banned before it does any more damage. "AI is bad because of it's economic and sociopolitical implications" should still be allowed of course.
BlackMassSmoker@reddit
I'd say it could be a wider sign that people are getting off, or using less, the internet in general.
The internet has many wonderful things but clearly it's had a profound negative effect on society and more people are realising that for all the benefits of a connected information superhighway, it is making people deeply unhappy.
The line that keeps popping up is: "We used the internet to escape reality, now we use reality to escape the internet".
But for sure as well, collapse aware folk know today is best its going to be - why keep discussing it? I know my time on here is far less than it used to be because I just flick on the news to see how collapse playing out these days.
Icy-Medicine-495@reddit
I hate the constant doom with out people claiming it is pointless to try and do anything. Sure somethings might be pointless to try and survive but that doesn't mean everything is and I should just roll over and give up. Why doom scroll when I can plant potatoes, install solar panels, or saw firewood all of which I have done in the last month.
Low_Complex_9841@reddit
I quit from everywhere so my "main" feed on reddit is always empty and my posts/comments everywhere meet equal unsucess.
Vdasun-8412@reddit
Asi que cuba es niserable por el capitalismo
CrimsonBolt33@reddit
I have found this place to be increasingly dogmatic...any pushback to any degree against the idea that the world is ending tomorrow is met with tons of downvotes and non constructive comments like "oh you lost Child" or "you just don't see it"
wildrabbit12@reddit
Collapse is collapsing lol
WatchingyouNyouNyou@reddit
Getting banned over mentioning of genociders. This sub feels like a honeypot
england_is_my_gender@reddit
Weekly visitors is different from total subscribers. Check https://subredditstats.com/r/collapse . Still at about \~500 k as you can see, just less engagement.
s0ngsforthedeaf@reddit
That website is out of date since Reddit started charging for API
ItsFuckingScience@reddit
I unsubbed because the content here devolved into extremely low effort doomerism without any substance
Most of the popular short term collapse predictions made over the last decade have been extremely exaggerated and inaccurate
Yelworc0242@reddit
I leave regularly and rejoin after a few months. Why? Sensory overload, Trump's constant flooding of news channels, the way the bullies from the schoolyard now rule the world everywhere, the constant bad news about everything mean I need regularly news free time. Plus the amount of doom mongering, the sensationalism and clickbait is exhausting, compounded now by AI slop and articles which are unreadable due to adverts or so short they contain nothing of value. Propaganda glorifying billionaire scum, salaries trailing inflation, ever decreasing quality of life, It's all too much, I join for ever briefer spurts. At the end of the day nothing I do will stop anything and I'm better off just enjoying what I have and hoping my life is good enough and things don't get too bad in the time I have left on earth.
I know about collapse, but knowing won't save me or change a thing.
dudesurfur@reddit
The platform could be purging bots
EcchiOli@reddit
Occasional bot purging, perhaps?
I've seen the same topic show up occasionally on various subs, with the general consensus that reddit runs periodical cleanups of recognized bot accounts.
Comrade_Compadre@reddit
Because I've been aware of collapse for over a decade and I'm just tired of it.
If you ever want to feel completely powerless to the coming storm that was brought on by capitalist fucks than this is the sub for you.
I've almost unsubscribed quite a few times but haven't yet, I understand the ones that do.
AlexTaylorTheKing@reddit
Maybe this subreddit is collapsing too... just maybe.
feo_sucio@reddit
Collapse is more mainstream and is frequently discussed in other subreddits
Collapse is a difficult subject to grapple with and many may remove the discussion from their visibility for mental health concerns
No-Papaya-9289@reddit
Maybe Reddit is culling accounts? Maybe people are getting tired of all the over-the-top YouTube videos being posted here?