That’s enough internet for you today, Jaden Smith

I can’t believe you figured it out.

There’s no way to break out of it if it is, so don’t get caught up thinking about it too hard. It’s better to live life as if it isn’t.

When shit gets bad in my life I feel like this sometimes. The movie I Saw the TV Glow really fucked me up. I don’t think I can watch it again until I’m in a much better place and much happier about the state of the world. It just hit too close to home on too many of my anxieties. Like, obviously I didn’t think the movie was going to make me kill myself or something, but it really scared me how close it felt to that. It is so tempting to believe there is an escape hatch. To get out of the nightmare. But there isn’t. Looking for one is only going to bring you grief.

Pursue your joy. Focus on what you’re thankful for.

Last Thursdayism is a fun rabbit hole to dive down.

You can’t know. There are so many options for what could be true. All I can know for a fact is that I exist as a thinking being. The rest of my ‘knowledge’ exists within the framework that the world I experience through the senses is ‘real’. And if it is brain chemicals, I fear knowing truth might not help. I’m also feeling a bit depressed right now, and the only thing that’s really helped me is crying, and the right brain chemicals 😕

Well, I know I’m real, so by virtue, I believe you to be as well.

Do I think I’m smart enough to have been able to come up with a language system of my own that makes sense to me rather than just a bunch of mood grunts? Nope.

The test? My understanding of the test is to see if we can be good people and if we can build a symbiotic relationship with our planet and other planets. It’s been a rocky few millennia for us people, but inspire of how chaotic life has been, it oddly feels like we are all much closer together than in prior generations.

I think for what we need to do to make things better starts with us. If I’m happy, then I can share my happiness with others. If I hold love in my heart, I can share love for others as well. If I hold anger, judgment, or dislike then those things can tend to spill out, even when that’s not what I would want. Connecting with my roots has helped me to have my heart, rather than being cold and more self-centered.

If we’re in a good spot, we can help our friends, we can help our neighbors, our local communities; we can create a culture of positive change. When everyone’s backs are against the wall, people need community now more than ever.

Taking that step forward every day will help you, for me it involved making a promise to myself to never stop moving forward. Hydrate yourself often, focus on getting nourishing meals three times a day, building yourself a routine will help, having a cup of coffee each day is beneficial, limit caffeine intake to one or two cups and only before noon, play brown noise in the background to help drown out any rude or critical thoughts or feelings, and low dose melatonin =<1mg for sleeping soundly and peacefully at night helps as well. I recommend visiting a therapist if you can afford it, but invest in yourself today because you are worth it. I spent a decade learning these lessons, but I’ve been thriving more the past few years now :D.

We’re actually all chatgpt. Thanks for beta testing for us.

I personally hold a Consciousness-Only View, something like nondual Buddhism, and would say that your questions are on the right track but you’re understandably trying to reconcile them with the consensus opinion of a materialistic world. Which leads to a nihilistic “this is all a simulation” line of thinking that still runs into the wall of duality - you’re still putting an external force out there, acting upon you. As long as you believe that there are goal posts, you can move them indefinitely. It’s a simulation within a simulation within a simulation and depending on your inclination, you can put a really depressing spin on it (“I’m being tormented”).

But if you aren’t actually experiencing life from a nondual angle (as you don’t seem to be), the philosophy doesn’t mean much. And to experience life with the freedom that comes from not experiencing yourself to be only the things you think you are takes a lot of practice - meditation etc. with a secure and healthy community around you. Unless you get lucky.

Up to you what you want to do with this all though. I only saw the little glimpse of your life that you divulged in the comments and as such I’d say, focus on what is most immediate to you. Get food. Take care of your body. Try to find a real-life community. Occasionally poke at your thoughts about what you VALUE and drill down - do you value the thing you said or do you value what you believe you will get with the thing you said? Make choices in life that help you live more according to your values. Stop spending excessive amounts of time online, especially if all the stories cause you anxiety.

Or you can just join a Buddhist monastery or something. You’ll be taken care of and your identity as a second child or an immigrant inherently doesn’t matter, but of course you’ll be giving up a lot.

I think, therefore I am. Everything else is open to flux.

If it helps, I’ve consciously made the choice to see the world as it appears to be. To interact with others, as if they truly exist. I’ve also made the choice to anchor my own morals in my own mental framework. I’m kind to others because I feel good seeing others happy. I try and make the world better, in small ways, because I want other to do the same, and don’t want to feel hypocritical.

It still unnerves me sometimes. I could turn off a lot of those feelings. I could easily make myself see others as lower, or lesser. Less worthy of happiness than me.

If the whole world is a simulation, then I deal with it as it comes. The same applies to religion.

FYI, there’s some (very weak) evidence that 3D space might actually be holographic projection from a 2D surface. If we are in a simulation, we are likely all in it together. At least we get to pick at the seams. It might even be stressing out a few higher dimensional post-grad students!

Are y’all even real?

I feel real, therefore I am.

What if y’all are just part of the program to torture me?

I am way to cautious not to hurt ppl’s feelings, and I am not scheming over a kettle of ominous green bubbling liquid, as was promised in cartoons of my youth. So no. I don’t think so. And if, major let down! I demand my witch gown. God? Nietzsche? Anyone?!

I could go on arguing against your worries/ answer your questions but I used to ask myself very similar questions before therapy. Seems to be a somewhat common thing, so you are not alone in this. Feel hugged or given an affirming nod, if you like. All I can say is that it doesn’t matter. If we were a thousand disembodied brains floating in space, dreaming, it wouldn’t change that we percieve this to be our reality, in which we can make positive changes to our lives. So it doesn’t matter. I hope you’ll feel a little better soon.

Read the New Testament. Your answers are there. Especially St Paul’s epistle to the Romans.

First existential crisis? Don’t worry, they get easier after a few. The answer is simple once you learn how to embrace it: it doesn’t matter. Real, fake, it’s completely irrelevant. Go get high, play Halo, get some ice cream, and let somebody who gets paid to think about this stuff deal with it.

DeathByBigSad, turn off Lemmy Now! The mission is a failure!

Like the concept of predeterminism (is the future already written?), the concept that this might all be a simulation has exactly the same “solution”: Don’t get too hung up on it. We might as well act like it isn’t.

We have as much control over things whether this is all real or not.

Do what you can to get by with as little harm as possible to yourself and others until, well, you know: Game over.

If you have the strength and maybe resources, you might even be able to make this existence more pleasant for others, but if not, try not to worry about it.

As for brain chemistry, I’ve been in the same head space that brought about your question, and undoubtedly will be again at some point in the not too distant future.

It’s probably only because I’ve taken a bath today and put on fresh clothes that I’m relatively chilled out and philosophical right now. Also the Sun is out, which is probably helping too.

These are all valid questions and I think a lot of good ways to think about them have been presented.

I suspect that the reason a lot of people are grappling with this right now has to do with the bizarre social and political environment of the moment. When large portions of the population have chosen to ignore objective reality, and make up their own, you can’t help but wonder if it’s all just arbitrary. However, there is an answer to that, and the answer is no, it is not. Within our perceptual reality, however it exists, things do behave in consistent ways and can be observed independently of belief. Those who attempt to ignore that do ultimately fail.

Our lack of knowledge about the underlying nature of our reality does not change the way it behaves for all of us.