• public libraries are still there.
• Book (physical) can still be purchased and fully owned, without any risk of them being remotely edited or deleted and without nay tracking of our reading habits.
• Walking is still free, without any subscription required.
• It is still legal to turn off one's phone.
• I love my spouse at least as much as I loved her when we first met almost 30 years ago. And, yep, she seems to kinda like me too ;)

Wallets are twice as likely to be returned as people expect. And the interesting thing is this holds true more or less globally.

Free Open Source Software is pretty amazing imo

Canada geese and white-tailed deer nearly went extinct. Now they're considered pests in some areas. It's possible for nature to bounce back, it just needs to be given a chance.

Here's one I like: despite the efforts of Big Oil and their orange-painted lackey, the amount of renewable energy generated in the first half of 2025 has surpassed energy generated by fossil means.

Source.

Fascism doesn't actually last that long. At some point, policies have to have some kind of attachment to reality, and fascists are incapable of grappling with reality.

Renewable energy and battery storage are seeing an absolute collapse in prices such that it is inevitable in the near to mid term future that we will move away from fossil fuel extraction leaving much of it in the ground. This will happen no matter who is in charge politically or who tries to subsidize fossil fuels because money is king and a lot of free energy hits the earth every day.

This, combined with falling birthrates, means we will hit peak carbon emissions and begin to drop back to a new normal, a new economy built around labor rather than capital because of the shift in balance between resources and workers similar to what happened during the black death. It is my opinion that this will begin to happen in my lifetime and will fully come to pass in our children's lifetime.

Trump is pretty old, and I cannot think of an example where a movement based around a cult of personality has successfully survived long after their leader has gone. Nor are there any viable successors that are likely to dodge any infighting. JD Vance as a successor? Yeah, ain't happening.

To summarize, the pendulum will eventually swing the other way. And the worse the MAGA crowd pulls it in their direction now, the harder it will swing.

There's a promising treatment for Huntington's disease in the works, and we might have vaccines for allergies and/or asthma at some point!

We're actually doing pretty well, globally, at shifting to renewables. We're making more, more quickly and more cheaply than ever before.

Chat Control just got defeated for the time being.

1. The world is αwful.
2. The world is much better thαn it once wαs.
3. The world cαn be much better than it currently is.
   All three stαtements αre true αt the sαme time. It's wrong to think these stαtements contrαdict eαch other.

You sαy there is doom in our current reαlity, and it feels true, but never discount the wonderful things either. While mαny in this threαd have focused on directly αnswering question, I suspect there mαy be αn underlying dissαtisfαction in your mentαlity.

This threαd cαn shαre wonderful things, but without α shift on mentαlity, it mαy be eαsy enough to brush off. I know becαuse I wαs and still αm like this. Prαcticing grαtitude or grαtitude journαling mαy help, it did for me.

• I'm grαteful becαuse vαccines hαve such α powerful αurα of protection, thαt we αs α society have forgotten the nαmes of the diseαses they protect αgαinst. The world can be better, because one day, we may even erαdicαte these diseαses which still plαgue our species.
• I'm grαteful I hαve opposαble thumbs, becαuse it mαkes it eαsy to be α potαto on the couch and doom scroll. The mere αct that I can see informαtion on α powerful device thαt cαn tell me the stories from αround the globe is quite incredible.
• I'm grαteful becαuse I don't comment very often, but I wαnted to this time. I usuαlly lurk quietly, but I too cαn be better thαn I currently αm αnd pαrticipαte sometimes.

Wow you all suck at this. Okay I'm gonna do an actual one. The amount of wars had around the world has SIGNIFICANTLY decreased from just a century ago.

billionaires are not immortal (yet)

!upliftingnews@lemmy.world and !wholesome@reddthat.com exist and I think that's beautiful.

This isn't a fact but I have a gut feeling that people will be taking their power back in the near future.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

I think that is really reassuring

What does that mean? This is one of the most logically true discussions of spirituality I am familiar with. It takes no position on what that condition might be, but addresses the issue in an almost circular reference.

Those who believe we come from nothing cannot argue that somehow, by having lived, we will go on to be something afterwards, per the First Law of Thermodynamics.

Those who believe we have a ‘soul’, something other than our physical bodies, that goes on after we die, admit that we had to have had a soul prior to birth.

And those that believe we are on a wheel, going through life again and again, understand that we are what we always have been, and will continue to be, when we’re not busy living our lives.

https://philosiblog.com/2011/12/05/after-your-death-you-will-be-what-you-were-before-your-birth/

cheese exists

I believe historically we are still at the most peaceful time in a global scale. Doesn’t mean things aren’t bad or getting worse, but I guess we’ve got that going for us?

When I need my fix of good news I go to iea.org and look at some graphs. I'm always thinking it should be faster but then again there's hope for climate change and the world is transitioning despite how entrenched the fossil fuel industry is.

Here's one on the investments being made:

My go to happy thought is this:

Wild dogs, wolves, coyotes, etc... don't have eyebrows. That is to say that they never evolved the muscles necessary to move their eyebrows in an expressive way.

Moveable eyebrows were a trait that domesticated dogs specifically evolved in order to mimic their humans and invoke more empathy (and let's face it...likely manipulate us for more treats)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/domestication-made-dogs-facial-anatomy-more-fetching-to-humans/