Why Doomerist?

I've been called a lot of things in my life, but one label I hadn't considered was doomer. I have been guilty of doomscrolling, popularized in part by my friend Karen Ho, and I am worried about where the world is heading–who would have thought the end of retirement for Millennials as we know it would probably rank only midway through my concerns–but did that fall under doomerism?

Over the past decade we have lived through too many once-in-a-lifetime events. The way we do things have been scrambled. The rules we were supposed to follow don't seem to apply anymore: it's not difficult to assess that the myth of "if you just work hard enough, you can create a decent life for yourself" probably peaked just before Reaganomics. So, what are we going to do about it?

I don't think it's doomerist to see things clearly, and say them openly, particularly because that's the only way we will be able to get to something better. Let me say now that how I use "doomerist" probably isn't the same as what was written in the Vox article that playfully inspired the name. Doomerist, with a capital D here, isn't blanket pessimistic about the state of the world; however, given the long tail of colonialism and racialized capitalism, I'm not a blanket optimist either.

From the article:

That pessimism is understandable given the chaotic state of the world as we see it presented to us. But it badly understates both the amazing material and political progress humanity has made over the past couple of centuries, and especially in the last few decades; and the realistic hope we should have for a future that won’t simply continue, but continue to get better.

That spirit — grounded in facts and realism, energized by what contributor Hannah Ritchie calls “changeable optimism” — is what animates this edition of The Highlight, created by the Future Perfect team at Vox. We hope our stories leave you a little more hopeful about the state of the world and its future — a future that is worth fighting for.

Ultimately, the variation you'll find here doesn't imply that the future isn't worth fighting for, but that if we continue on this path, we'll reach something most of us would independently label as doom. When income inequality continues to deeper and we're seeing vulnerable people becoming more vulnerable, I don't know how much I believe that things as they continue will necessarily get better.

Rather, I think most of us are dawning on the fact that we're gonna have to participate in this society more to get things back on track. I think it's really important to think deeply and intentionally about the worries lodged in the back of our minds. Questions like: "Is GenAI mostly a waste of resources?" or "What does the future of work look like?" Maybe you have friends and colleagues to talk about these things, but maybe you don't. That's the kind of essays you'll find here.

I promise it won't all be doom and gloom.

I haven't figured out the publishing cadence for Doomerist yet, but subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published.