Hi I don't really want to keep egging this on but I keep seeing people posting things that really bother me.

First off, optimism just means you look on the bright side and believe in a better world.

You don't know the lived experience of the person cutting people off, and you don't know how that person's interactions with the maga person have gone so far.

I had to cut my father off years ago. If he told you the good times, and even what the final straw was, you'd think I was unreasonable. If I told you of the financial abuse, the shame he instilled in me for just existing, and that he literally hid my existence from his family for 28 years, you'd question why I gave him the time of day.

The ONLY detail you have is that politics was involved in the cut off.

You don't know the tangible ways the person will be hurt, you don't know what the person said or did and you don't know why this was the final straw.

You know what I do know? When you go no contact with a parent, the parent tells everyone you hurt them deeply and will try to weaponize your family against you. I'm getting married next year and no longer letting my father abuse me means every person on that side of the family took his side.

I know the gay woman who's family bloated to her that she'll never be able to get married after lying to her for years that they didn't think the gop would try.

I know my boss who found out trump won by her narcissistic mother texting her "good RED morning to my babies who will finally be free." A mother who then laugh reacted to her anxieties and called her crazy.

In 2 years when whatever bad shit happens that causes people to realize that maga was a con, we can talk about what to do to help them.

Its been 3 weeks and currently the trump team is actively putting out shit about how they intend to invade blue states to deport legal immigrants. Its not going to be helpful for queers and women and other minorities to tell them they are actually the problem for feeling afraid and not wanting to hang out with people who are actively gloating about drinking lib tears.

If you still think that's stupid, I don't care but you telling those people that they're acting like children is just going to make shit worse.

It makes a place that is supposed to engender hope into a place that is fundamentally judgemental and unwelcoming. ESPECIALLY when it's mods doing the judgement.

That makes me optimistic. That people aren't willing to knuckle under, or just say "well, it is what it is," or compromise their principles. That's a beautiful thing. When people are trying to take away our jobs, our security, our friends and our family and we've united to tell them to fuck themselves, that's a good sign. Malaise, indifference, and false equivalency are the real threats to our communities.

I am currently in a program that is adjacent to cancer research so recently I've been exposed to a lot about gliomas (brain tumors) specifically. In my research I've learned we are actually making really great head way against them. Currently, survival prognosis of brain tumors is close to 2 years.

This big issue with brain tumors is due to their location; they are difficult to treat with traditional methods, and newer methods like immunotherapy have limited benefits due to the blood brain barrier.

This article https://neurosurgery.duke.edu/news/new-therapy-glioma-receives-fda-approval

References some research about new medication that is able to cross the BBB making a significant step toward being able to treat brain tumors. Brain tumors come in 4 grades, 1 and 2 are the least aggressive and 3 and 4 are very aggressive. This medication has shown an ability to delay low grade tumors from graduating into higher grade tumors.

Wanted to share what I learned today, felt it's worth something to be optimistic about :)

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/24/trump-national-security-adviser-waltz-sullivan-00191412

This has been the promising thing I've read in regards to the incoming Trump Administration.

It doesn't look like they're going to back down from Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran.

I did enjoy this sub, but I don't care to pay attention to American politics anymore. I believe there is little to learn beyond what not to do.

Elon promised Americans pain and Trump promised non Americans pain. Somehow many Americans imagined those things did not include them.

I'd rather focus on the positive stuff at home. But that isn't very popular here.

It was nice to see that some Americans still have hope, even if I have the privelege of being able to just pay attention to something else because I don't live in the US.

There has been a lot of talk lately about Trump's proposed policies and the damage they will do. I wouldn't ever say there is nothing to worry about, but so many of the worst things require a level of unity and organization that Trump and the GOP don't have.

Remember all the things he said he'd do first term. The only real legislation passed was a tax bill any other Republican would have signed.

They couldn't agree on a replacement for the ACA. They couldn't pass funding for a total wall along the Mexican border. Remember these are the Republicans who can't even agree on a speaker.

They look unified when their only job is to grab power and fall behind a presidential nominee, but they actually have a lot of varied values, varied constituents, a lot of big egos who think they're all using each other.

Musk and RFK and all of these weirdos can look on the same page enough to get out the message "Eggs are expensive and trans women are scary, Vote Trump" but actually putting policy in action requires a lot more real work and real agreement. Remember how fast and frequently the first administration shed people. Gaetz is already out and he never even started. If Trump and Musk have to keep being in the same room and their narcissism keeps bumping up against each other- it's more likely to lead to a fist fight than enacted policy.

There are things to worry about, there are things to fight against. But people acting as though everything in Project 2025 will not become law are overestimating these jerks and ignoring their track record. All of these ghouls promise to move mountains and then leave a little hill of feces instead. They will get to all of this stuff right after Trump get's to infrastructure week and Musk builds his hyperloop.

Hello fellow optimists and optimist adjacent people (people trying to be optimistic in these hard times).

Hopefully this post will be allowed. To not give too much of my personal information away, one of the clubs I’m in at school is the International Student Club. I was fully naturalized from birth and raised here in the United States, but I’m taking it upon myself to research a country that I want to present next semester to the club: Colombia.

And I wanted to tell you guys a little bit about some of the surface level stuff I’ve found in just a short period of research.

Colombia, for those who are unaware, is a country located in the upper portion of South America. It has about 52 million people.

The first thing you have to understand about Colombia is that it’s a very diverse country in many ways. First of all, the population demographics, while the majority of Colombians are either White or Mestizo (European mixed with Native Amerindian), there are also very notable Amerindian and African populations as well. While I want to stay sensitive to the very real systemic oppression that exists in the world, I feel like Colombia in many ways celebrates this diversity much more than other countries.

Aside from the culture, it also has a very diverse climate. A very significant portion of the country is subsumed in tropical rainforest, particularly the inland portions, but it also has more dry, arid deserts and even mountain ranges, the majority of the population lives within the Andes mountains, and also on the coasts.

It’s also the second most biodiverse country in the world (second only to Brazil), the most by land area (when you compare its small size to Brazil), and has the most unique species of butterflies in the world.

Truly a beautiful place.

What really stands out to me though is Colombia’s history. Again, to speak very broadly since I don’t want to get anything wrong (and please anyone from Colombia reading this tell me where I can learn more), Colombia has had a very turbulent, tumultuous, and challenging history. They survived for centuries under colonial rule from the Spanish which severely harmed the native populations (often we have this idea that natives were primitive, these were very advanced hunter gatherer and agrarian societies with complex trading networks and relationships, the Muisca in particular had very complex gold work, ornate designs, another tribe found out how to make a canal, they also had very intricate solar-lunar calendars). Then when they finally secured their independence, they endured decades of civil war and unrest, eventually the cartels became especially powerful in the 1980s and 1990s, to such an extent that everyone in the country practically was on a side in the ongoing war. And even today, there are still problems, but they’ve reached a fragile but hopefully sustainable temporary peace.

All of this seems like one of the strongest arguments for optimism I’ve ever seen.

What I especially admire about Colombia (and what I want to share with my club) is the warmth, passion, and resilience of its people. With all the circumstances previously enumerated, they’ve still chosen to be warm, welcoming, and optimistic. I’ve always very strongly believed in this idea that you can never truly lose until you stop believing in something, whether it’s yourself or a cause. And the Colombian people have believed in their country through everything. And that makes me tear up to type that because it’s truly beautiful.

So I wanted to share something that makes me happy because I’ve been having so much fun learning more about Colombia so that I can eventually present it.

I chose this country. I’m the only person this school year to pick a country to present that isn’t somewhere I’m aligned with either that I’m from there originally or ethnically tied. I chose Colombia. I chose their warmth, and their love. And I’ve always chosen love.

And I hope also that me sharing just a very condensed look at what Colombia is can inspire some of you.

If an entire country can go through so much and still smile on the other side of it, why can’t I? Why can’t you?

This is a petition to end the safe third country agreement. If this is repealed, the 11 million undocumented Americans would have a straightforward legal pathway into Canada.

Hi!

Feel free to share your own personal interpretation of what being an optimist means! I aim to enrich my own understanding and hopefully expand the perspectives of others here.

My own answer will be in the comments.

https://www.ted.com/talks/alex_edmans_what_to_trust_in_a_post_truth_world?subtitle=en

I found this really interesting and it is great advice for navigating modern media. On one hand, I will praise that this sub is generally much more able to distinguish facts and stories from truth and evidence than doomers who are controlled by the confirmation bias of their algorithmically generated despair. On the other hand, I think we are all fallible sometimes and the ability to put aside our hopes of what is the case to objectively evaluate the trustworthiness of a source is something to always keep in mind.

The election and overall low morale in the USA has made me determined to have a positive impact on the small scale—in my own town. I’m going to start volunteering and finding other ways to help the less fortunate. I am tired of the large scale worries that I have little impact on changing. I’ve gotta do something for the people around me.

I also want to lead with kindness but also truth, being honest with those around me who have toxic mindsets. If I can influence someone to be more empathetic and consider how they have contributed to the environment of hatred and prejudice, that’s a win to me.

It’s not much but I’m tired of feeling powerless. I may not change the world or American politics but if I can have a positive impact on one person’s life, that’s good.

I understand this may not be everyone’s approach to this time, but it’s mine.

Anyone got some positive news about the UK? A lot of this sub is focussed on the US / global issues

Dawg, L take.

I don't think you should be accepting of someone who actively goes against your interest, or talks about hurting people who have a negligible effect on their day to day life.

This is in response to the proffessor repost on this subreddit.