Not Everything is Fucking Dystopian
Calling everything dystopian is emotional inflation. Not every viral video or meltdown is a sign of society’s collapse. Sometimes, it’s just people being ridiculous—let’s keep perspective and save ‘dystopian’ for the big stuff.
The word "dystopian" has become the go-to descriptor for anything remotely negative about our world today. Social media addiction? Dystopian. Climate change? Dystopian. That new Netflix show everyone's binging? You guessed it - dystopian.
But not everything that sucks is a sign of impending doom.
Sometimes, it's just fucking clown shit.
Now, I'm not saying we should ignore the very real problems facing our society. Far from it. But there's a difference between genuine threats to our way of life and the kind of absurd, face-palm-inducing nonsense that seems to dominate our news feeds and conversations these days. And when we lose the ability to tell the difference, well - that'll be some actually dystopian shit.
Orwell vs. Reality
When George Orwell penned "1984" or Aldous Huxley crafted "Brave New World," they weren't imagining a future where people would be arguing about whether a dress was blue and black or white and gold. They weren't envisioning Twitter wars over the proper way to eat a Kit Kat bar. And they certainly weren't picturing a world where grown adults would be filming themselves repeating the same bullshit "surprise" polaroid video for internet clout.
Those visionaries were warning us about totalitarian regimes, the erosion of privacy, and the manipulation of truth. They were concerned with the big, scary stuff that could fundamentally alter the fabric of human society.
What we're dealing with now? Some of it counts. Some of it would horrify those thinkers.
But.
A lot of it is just... well, stupid.
The Great Toilet Paper Panic (and Other Absurdities)
The Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020. Remember that? When the pandemic first hit, and suddenly everyone decided that the most crucial item for survival was... ass-wiping material? Shelves were emptied, fights broke out in supermarket aisles, and people were hoarding enough TP to last them through the next ice age. Was this a sign of societal collapse? A harbinger of the end times?
Nah. It was just people being fucking ridiculous.
Or how about the time a group of Reddit users nearly brought Wall Street to its knees over... GameStop? A dying brick-and-mortar video game retailer became the center of a financial tug-of-war that had seasoned economists scratching their heads. Memes about "stonks" and "diamond hands" became part of the financial lexicon. It was chaos, sure. But dystopian?
More like a bizarre carnival where the clowns momentarily took over the circus.
The endless parade of influencer scandals and controversies? From promoting snake oil "detox teas" to staging fake proposals for clicks, these self-proclaimed tastemakers keep serving up fresh batches of facepalm-worthy content. Is it annoying? Absolutely. Is it a sign that we're living in a Black Mirror episode? Not quite. It's just the latest iteration of human attention-seeking behavior, amplified by technology and a dash of narcissism. But we've always been like that. It's nothing particularly dystopian.
The Danger of Dystopian Overload
"But what about all the serious issues we're facing? Climate change, wealth inequality, erosion of democratic norms - aren't those dystopian?" Yes. You've got a point. These are fucking grave concerns and they demand our attention and action. But by labeling everything as "dystopian," we risk diluting the impact of that word. We create a boy-who-cried-wolf scenario where genuine threats get lost in the noise of everyday absurdities.
Our tendency to view everything through a dystopian lens can be paralyzing.
When we convince ourselves that we're living in the prelude to some apocalyptic narrative, it becomes easy to feel helpless, to think that our actions don't matter in the face of such overwhelming doom. But that's bullshit. It's a cop-out that lets us off the hook for actually engaging with the world and trying to make it better.
The reality is, human society has always been a mix of the profound and the ridiculous, the tragic and the comical. For every groundbreaking scientific discovery, there's a flat-earther convention. For every inspirational leader, there's a politician tweeting conspiracy theories at 3 AM. This isn't new. What's new is our ability to see all of it, all the time.
A lot of this stuff is fucking hilarious. It's okay to laugh at the absurdity of it all. In fact, it might be necessary for our sanity. When we can recognize the difference between genuine dystopian threats and garden-variety human foolishness, we give ourselves permission to engage with the world more effectively.
The Importance of Perspective
If everything is dystopian, then nothing is. If we throw the term at every Twitter outrage or TikTok trend, we risk becoming numb to the real warning signs when they appear. It's like emotional inflation - the more we overuse these heavy terms, the less impact they have when we really need them.
How about we start calling things what they really are? That influencer drama? Petty bullshit. The latest moral panic over a harmless pop culture phenomenon? Manufactured outrage. The politician who can't seem to grasp basic facts? A fucking clown.
By putting things in perspective, we're not dismissing the importance of these events or their potential impact. We're simply acknowledging that not everything that goes wrong in the world is part of some grand, oppressive design. Sometimes, it's just humans being their chaotic, imperfect, occasionally dumbass selves.
Which allows us to save our energy for the battles that really matter. Instead of getting worked up over every viral video or trending hashtag, we can focus on the issues that genuinely threaten our well-being and our future. It's about picking our battles wisely, recognizing when something deserves our outrage and when it's better to just shake our heads and move on.
Leaving Room for Hope
By resisting the urge to label everything as dystopian, we leave room for hope. Because if we truly believed we were living in a dystopia, why would we bother trying to change anything? Real dystopias are characterized by hopelessness, by the crushing weight of inevitability. But our world, for all its flaws and absurdities, is still one where positive change is possible.
Every day, alongside the clown shit, there are people working to solve real problems. Scientists developing new technologies to combat climate change. Activists fighting for social justice. Ordinary people performing acts of kindness and compassion. These stories might not get as much airtime as the latest celebrity gaffe or political blunder, but they're happening all the same.
The Luxury of Trivial Concerns
One could argue that our ability to get worked up over relatively trivial matters is, in itself, a sign that things aren't as bad as we sometimes make them out to be. In a true dystopia, people don't have the luxury of arguing about cultural appropriation in Halloween costumes or the ethics of pineapple on pizza.
They're too busy trying to survive.
This doesn't mean we should ignore the smaller issues entirely. Sometimes, what seems like clown shit on the surface can be indicative of deeper, more serious problems. The key is to approach these situations with a sense of proportion and context. Ask yourself: Is this truly a sign of societal decay, or is it just humans being weird and stupid in new and innovative ways?
Finding Balance in the Chaos
By maintaining this perspective, we can navigate the chaos of modern life without losing our fucking minds - or our sense of humor. We can acknowledge the real problems facing our world without getting bogged down in every passing outrage. We can laugh at the absurdities while still taking seriously the things that matter.
There's a balance to be struck.
Yes, there are aspects of our world that are genuinely concerning, trends that could lead us down dark paths if left unchecked. But there's also a lot of stuff that's just... fucking clown shit. And that's okay. It's human. It's part of the messy, complicated, often ridiculous experience of being alive in this particular moment in history.
It's worth taking a step back. Is this shit really the end of civilization as we know it, or is it just another example of the cosmic joke that is human existence? Chances are, it's the latter. In that case, perhaps the best response isn't fear or outrage, it's laughter.
"Dystopian" should be reserved for the big stuff, the real threats to our freedom and well-being.
For everything else - the viral videos, the Twitter meltdowns, the inexplicable trends that make us question the future of humanity - it can be called what it is: dumb. silly. Annoying but utterly fucking harmless.
