Reddit Post: A Farewell To The Doomsphere

I’m going to unplug from the doomosphere and just read a quality mainstream newspaper on real paper instead.

I’ve been a collapsenik since 2001. As a kid I loved nature but when I moved to a city with my dad, cars became my new obsession. I believe that car freaks now, in our history, were the nature freaks of the tribe, who knew every animal and plant. In a city that energy gets diverted to cars. So I was a mix of nature boy and car freak. I studied Industrial Sciences in the equivalent of high school here in Belgium. When I say “studied” I mean I never studied and was always the last of the class. But I managed to get my diploma. I enrolled in Industrial Engineering with the dream of making ultra economical cars. But during the introductory days a professor basically laid out ‘collapse’ and I believed it. He explained the whole thing as we know it now. Peak Oil, the problem with renewables, the Jevons Paradox, exponential growth and a limited planet, climate change,... I had a massive panic attack. I had a nervous breakdown bordering on psychosis. Collapse wasn’t the only trigger but it was one of them. It wasn’t my first nervous breakdown. And not my last. I dropped out of school and became a minimum wage laborer.

I am addicted to commenting on the internet. Before collapse, starting in the nineties I would discuss cars on an internet forum. I would read German car magazines and share all the scoops. I rolled from a television addiction as a kid into an internet addiction. Then it went from cars to collapse. When I am about to compose a comment I get a jolt of some reward chemical. I suspect dopamine, but I’m not a neurologist. I have the same jolt if I’m struggling with weed or junk food. People often turn their addictions into their religion. They have all sorts of reasons why this habit is actually something useful.

We have an expression here. We say: “herpakken” which translates to “re-gripping”. When you are slacking at work people just say in passing “Herpak U”. “Re-grip yourself”. We are not a very talkative people, the Flemish. Well, I just got hooked on my stash of homegrown weed again and I was drinking a lot. Eating a lot of junk food and not exercising and getting even fatter. I decided to re-grip and part of that will be stopping my impulsive habit of posting doomer comments on the internet. I really suffer from “someone is wrong on the internet”. Then I get into arguments. It’s stupid. Doom Scrolling is an addiction like gambling. Social media in general is. If you are mindful, you will notice that jolt as you are about to share your ideas. Social media is a casino slot machine.

I’m going to unplug from doom and from social media. I just subscribed to a quality mainstream newspaper which will land in my mailbox in paper. I’m just going to sit by the window and read the newspaper. And put my phone out of reach. I think I’ll become a more interesting person because I often realize that I have nothing to talk about but doom. And it’s always the same. I stopped drinking and smoking weed. I’m exercising. I’m cooking vegan meals.

My conclusion after more than 20 years of doom is: Degrowth, Mostly Plant Based Diet, Small Families, Walkable Towns, Localized Economy, A Sharing Economy (like sharing a AC building during a dangerous heatwave or sharing a car). People much smarter than me are working on that. I don’t need to freak out people online to save the world. I think my real motivation was actually a massive “I Told You So”, which is ego driven. I’m just gonna read my newspaper and chill.

Goodbye people of reddit.

I will leave you with a message that my good friend Lucy taught me: "Cynicism Kills Love".

I’m Audi 5000. Peace!

(I'm unplugging right away and I'm not going to read the comments. I suggest you do the same. Herpak U!)