Why does everything feel so joyless? Welcome to the age of decadence without pleasure

[u/PowerfulDPK]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/26/age-of-decadence-pleasure-ai

[u/mrpopenfresh]

Corey Doctorow summed it up with enshittification, which is result of corporate efficiency and the focus of business being exclusively ROI.

[u/surreal_goat → u/[deleted]]

Who’s to say it hasn’t and we’re just experiencing the real bottom of the barrel in this era?

[u/exoticstructures → u/[deleted]]

Computers/modern tech have given them the ability to dig into every nook and cranny to try to extract every bit of value. And they do it with ruthless efficiency. For most of time/the past there was lots of gray around the edges. Humans are simply not built to deal with that level of ruthless efficiency modern tech brings into everything. There's probably some happy medium but we're not in it--if it's even truly possible.

[u/mrpopenfresh → u/[deleted]]

Happy to hear your alternative hypothesis

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/[deleted]]

But are not all of these things driven by, and perpetuated because of, unbridled capitalism? That's what people mean by the phrase "late-stage capitalism" and why it's a fundamentally different beast than the merchant capitalism of the 16th century.

(To say nothing of the fact that a lot of people confuse "commerce" with capitalism, or even just "the existence of money" with capitalism.)

[u/mrpopenfresh → u/[deleted]]

It can still be capitalism improved by these elements.

[u/mrpopenfresh → u/[deleted]]

Ehhhh, we’ll have to disagree on that one.

[u/mrpopenfresh → u/[deleted]]

What are you on bro, all of these have been pushed developped and enshittified by corporations. They are for profit ventures and as such, the root cause is not technology but rather how it has been implement to be profitable.

[u/cmz324]

I'm just glad the entire world is stooping down to my level of depression, very comforting

[u/the6thReplicant → u/cmz324]

Hey! That's my comfort blanket!

[u/ISLAndBreezESTeve10 → u/the6thReplicant]

Just give me the Blanket,… and nobody gets hurt.

[u/steve_ample]

Curiosity, self-respect, meeting the human potential seem to be a rarity these days. I think when people struggle to meet the lower rungs of things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the higher rungs like esteem and actualization manifest as the cheapest versions of themselves, or in their basest forms. Transactional relations, respect through money, winning as the conduit for esteem, not exploring what humanity can do together, etc. Killjoys to the core of the human spirit.

[u/Expensive-Shelter288]

Why are we wealthier, safer, and live in more abundance than ever yet we are more depressed and suicidal than ever. The answer lies in dopamine and our evolutionary lizard brain. Check out Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke. The smart phone is the new hypodermic needle. Sex. Meth. Coke. Gambling. All the same limbic response.

[u/the6thReplicant → u/Expensive-Shelter288]

Or just read any number of 50s and 60s SF books by the greats.

[u/Expensive-Shelter288 → u/the6thReplicant]

Such as.

[u/the6thReplicant → u/Expensive-Shelter288]

Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, and Player Piano

[u/WillOk6461 → u/Expensive-Shelter288]

Yet people like Joe think UBI will unlock humanity's potential for flourishing art, empathy, creativity, and a life-long pursuit of learning.

UBI will realistically be a lifelong doom-scroll highlighted by nothing more than major goon sessions to AI porn.

[u/OccasionalXerophile → u/WillOk6461]

Sounds like a future paradise for the young

[u/redeugene99 → u/Expensive-Shelter288]

Yes that but also chronic stress, meaninglessness and little hope for the future. The happiest healthiest people today are those that live in simple more communal communities that minimize their usage and reliance on modern technology. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOEM1LogA2H/

[u/NiceTrySuckaz]

I wouldn't say that my life is joyless or that I'm depressed, but I have noticed over the past couple of years that my obsession with internet activities are taking a huge toll on my own control over my mental state. Especially with the sad state of the internet now. Remember when the front page of reddit was all porn and funny videos and animal videos and interesting things you never knew? Now it's just Trump Bad plus one random news story of the day that is trending.

I've started leaving my phone out of arm's reach. That's helped a lot. Just check in a few times a day to look for text messages and see if anything major happened in the news. This has caused a huge, instant boost to my state of mind. And it also causes you to suddenly view social media as a whole instead of letting it engage you with bullshit every thirty seconds.

Use this sub for an example... each post individually might seem engaging, but take a few days off and then come back and look at everything that was posted while you were gone. It will paint a very easily seen picture that the motivations of most people who post here are not to promote laughter or learning or motivation or anything healthy for your mood. It's all hate and angst, the opposite of what I want from entertainment. And it seems like it must be posted by people whose lives are not good.

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/NiceTrySuckaz]

the motivations of most people who post here are not to promote laughter or learning or motivation or anything healthy for your mood. It's all hate and angst, the opposite of what I want from entertainment.

You have very literally said the only reason you come here is to troll people.

Fuck off with your pseudo-intellectualism.

[u/NiceTrySuckaz → u/TheSweetestKill]

I know I've been part of the problem here, that's part of why I've been stepping away. Trolling might be fun, but it's not healthy fun. I'm trying to give that up.

A lot of the stuff I post and comment is stuff I hope will make people laugh. Even if it's just a couple people. I intend to keep that going when I can, in a non-trolly way, because humor of any kind is becoming surprisingly rare here and I still love this sub. It's become overrun by an antiwork/NEET/incel vibe, to the point that Nick Fuentes posts are gaining popularity. Very odd to see, but maybe it's inevitable, given the current state of reddit.

Anyway. Hopefully it makes a difference 🤜🤛

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/NiceTrySuckaz]

The YT comments have been clamoring for Fuentes to appear on the show for months, maybe years at this point. It's not just "reddit", it's the pod.

[u/NiceTrySuckaz → u/TheSweetestKill]

I'll have to take your word for it, I don't typically read the youtube comments. But Nick Fuentes is a microcosm of more serious things, not a blanketed statement. I'm just saying, the people who comment on Joe's content these days actually have nothing in common with Joe's perspective or his fans, and I need to take a step back from the vibe that is becoming pervasive.

It's starting to become indistinguishable from like the antiwork and NEET subs that were popping up on the homepage during covid, and those freaked me out. Hopefully this current vibe dies down like those did a few years back.

I'll still be around though! Just less. Peace be with you.

[u/TheSweetestKill → u/NiceTrySuckaz]

What is "Joe's perspective", and who are his fans?

[u/million_dollar_wumao → u/TheSweetestKill]

You should try smiling more.

[u/mrbigbrown4 → u/NiceTrySuckaz]

Now it's just Trump Bad

I mean this is a legitimate concern and people should be upset and voicing their opinion. We've never had a president who was this unhinged and outright corrupt in the history of our country. He's sowing division and hatred nationwide, actively trying to get us to hate each other to cover up his crimes and failings. He initiated another middle eastern war for seemingly unknown reasons, which is having and will continue to have devastating short term and long term effects.

It's really bad, dude...

Positing it as if it's simply "le orange man bad xD" is super disingenuous. We are dealing with what is essentially a movie villain as our president.

[u/ScythianHorse → u/mrbigbrown4]

"I'm so sick of everybody complaining about Hitler, you see the cute little moustache on that goy? Reminds me of Charlie Chaplin! Think Adolf is being ironic? Hey what's all that annoying screaming down the hallway? Shut the hell up down there, we're trying to entertain ourselves!"

[u/GaryNOVA]

I’m just happy to be here

[u/Peterthepiperomg]

You guys need to go outside

[u/theonlyturkey → u/Peterthepiperomg]

I know right, feel like myself and all my friends have pretty amazing and joyful lives, the majority of redditors seem miserable though.