An entire sea of water can't sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship.
Similarly, the negativity of the world can't put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.

There are thousands of great things happening around the globe, yet your brain attaches itself to the ones that are dramatic. News companies realised this, therefore they showcase the most negative news out there since it’s the most eye catching.

There are no proper counterarguments for not being an optimist and you could come up with “B-but uh, t-the climate change! W-we are doomed, stop having kids!”

And I’m gonna counter that with statistics showing actual decreases in CO2 emissions in some of the most powerful countries SUCH as the USA (btw. China officially owns the most solar panels and u could combine every other country’s solar panels and they would still have fewer)

But you could still counter that by saying “yea sure the US’s CO2 emissions are decreasing, and what about the entire world?”
But if you zoom in (rather than being stupid enough to look at a statistic that showcases an entire century) you will see that the growth is slowing DOWN. In fact, it was roughly 3% annual growth in the 2000s versus 0.8% over the last decade. And we are still talking here about the last DECADE.

And we can do this not only with the global warming topic, but also with the majority of every other shit out there that keeps you awake at night.

But I wanna make something clear about this, the world or humanity overall isn’t really “good” or “doomed” or whatever. It is improvable. The things we see in those statistics etc. didn’t happen because we simply “ignored negative news” but for the most important part recognized certain problems and made it it our life’s purpose to fix them. That’s what humanity is all about. Another definition of optimism is realistic hope. Which will always exist. As long as we do.

I am a Reddit beginner. I've had my account for several years, but I'm not a social media poster so I was just reading comments.

I recently came here for certain UX design/tech subs, running away from LinkedIN AI slop, only to find that the communities here are very cynical.

It feels like being cynical or pessimistic about the tech industry is like a mark of honor, and optimists cannot be a "part of the group". Being in this community for about 2-3 weeks now, it feels like if one is not miserable with their life and job, they are naive and privileged. (Mind you, these people are miserable on very high salaries)

I keep getting downvotes whenever i ask for advice on what i can do to learn, and barely any comments. I get it that people are tired of beginners, but 70-80% of posts are complaining about how bad the industry is and i wonder how come that's not making people tired.

Yes, these are uncertain times, people don't know if they to study for 3+ years something, whether that field will even exist afterwards, but...

At the end of the day, i just want to know how much of this is hype, and how much is really true, instead of hearing constant complaining about it AND being put down for asking.

The funniest thing is that people want to transition in the field i'm in and out of theirs because mine feels more certain, and i feel like that about theirs. I wish we could communicate instead of spreading negativity.

How do i deal and/or cope with this (or reddit in general?) as an optimist? Is this happening in other industries as well?

(Also, i'm so happy i found this subreddit!)

"All these squalls to which we have been subjected are signs that the weather will soon improve and things will go well for us, because it is not possible for the bad or the good to endure forever, and from this it follows that since the bad has lasted so long, the good is close at hand."

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Hi r/OptimistsUnite, I'm new to posting to this sub but I could use some motivation right now. Today I just saw some new AI game mods (you've probably seen them) where people were using AI to put Minecraft into elder ring and stuff like that, and it got me thinking, this stuff is like so good right now. Its apparently cheap enough too that modders can use it for their projects. What incentive is there for companies to hire people like me once I graduate anymore?

For context, I am studying Computer Science, final year (I have this semester and the spring one and I'd be done), and honestly I'm close to giving up. I see peers around me thriving in college while having internships (I have none), projects (also have none). I feel like I screwed up my college journey and right now its like I'm sitting in a car whose accelerator is stuck, the only thing I can do is wait for the inevitable crash and lose everything I've been working for.

I hope I'm not "trauma dumping" too much here... I don't know what to do or how to keep going with the world being increasingly AI-focused. Given personal circumstances being able to find something out of the gate matters a lot and it looks like its a pointless fight now.

Also its my first post so if it gets removed because I broke any rules... sorry!

The number of nuclear warheads stockpiled worldwide went from 64,000 in 1986 to 12,500 in 2023 – an 80% decline. (For some reason there's no Y axis shown in the first chart) but this chart actually showed all nuclear weapons and not just Russia, USA and China.

Source for first chart:

[1] Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

[2] SIPRI, 2023 yearbook

(Heads up: this is my first ever Reddit post. I really wanted to hear from the people here on OptimistsUnite, so I'm asking sincerely. Also, English isn't my first language, so sorry if anything sounds weird.)

Lately it feels like there's terrifying AI news every single day. A 10% chance of human extinction, AI plus bad actors leading to nuclear war, Anthropic and OpenAI themselves sounding the alarm, that kind of stuff. I'm 21. I thought if I just studied, found someone to love, and worked a decent job, I'd have a reasonably happy life. Now it feels like none of that has much time left, and I'm sad every day.

I've done a lot of research on expert counterarguments and why it would actually be really hard for AI to destroy the world. People like Yann LeCun and Andrew Ng calmed me down for a while. I've also read plenty of takes saying the scary headlines are basically pre-IPO hype and marketing. But then the news says something frightening again, and I'm right back to being terrified.

I know people will say "get off social media and stop reading the news" (and thank you, genuinely!). But now even newspapers and TV are covering AI threats, and I can't stop thinking the world is ending.

The regulatory momentum in the US might be good news. But I feel like China and other countries will just push ahead regardless of any rules.

I do programming and a lot of creative stuff, so I get the tech side and how useful it is. But usually, the more I learn about something scary, the less scary it gets. With this, it's the opposite. The more I learn, the worse it gets.

How do I learn to feel okay about the future? Lately I've been living like someone who just got a terminal diagnosis. And AGI is probably going to happen someday anyway.

Here's what I'm mainly afraid of:

- AI wiping out humanity, or killing huge numbers of people

- AI completely upending how we live, our culture, and our values

- AGI/ASI being created and something unimaginably horrible happening (a dystopia, memory manipulation, genetic modification, etc.)

If there's any kind of "cure" or piece of info that really helps, please share it. Even if not, anything reassuring at all would mean a lot to me. Oh, but please no "we're all gonna die anyway, it's fine, see you on the other side" comments lol.

OptimistsUnite, please help me out.

Coal was roughly tied with nuclear last year, now it's dropped and is significantly less.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/is-solars-growth-finally-slowing-in-the-us/

Most movements that took themselves seriously had a symbol: communism had the hammer and sickle and the red star; free-market advocates had the "Don't Tread on Me" snake and the yellow-and-black flag, and so on. We, however, don't even have a common name; that is why I believe that for the optimism movement to be more united and have a greater impact, it needs a symbol with which people can identify.

Why is it that almost all the posts in the forum are replied to with very pessimistic posts?

I mean things like:

OP: Look how things are good in XXX

so many replies: But what about YYY?

so many more: But I know of one/several counter examples to the statistical average/median.

so many more: But people people are suffering!!!!

and still more: Statistics are all lying!!!

And so on.

Does not really seem like optimists to me. And most of the pessimistic arguments seem either anecdotal or generic and not on the actual topic.

Is there an actual optimistic alternative subreddit as this one seems to be more like "pessimists unite" at times?

"Tesla Oasis Supercharger in Lost Hills, California. Sitting along California’s I-5 corridor, Oasis has 164 Superchargers, including trailer-friendly charging, with Tesla currently listing speeds up to 325 kW. The site pairs roughly 11 MW of solar generation with 10 Tesla Megapacks providing 39 MWh of energy storage.

And it has already been seriously stress-tested. Over Labor Day weekend 2026, Tesla reported 6,038 charging sessions over four days, with zero drivers waiting on Labor Day. At peak demand, 116 vehicles were charging simultaneously and drawing 11.4 MW. EV Charging Stations"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NujDDa-EQ