I know just how you feel, religion to me is nonsense ( mumbo jumbo) and I am dismayed at the amount of people who are taken in by such obvious drivel.. But what's worse is they think I'm the idiot with blinkers on! To top it all off I look at the fanatics that want to kill kill kill for something that does not exist. It really is a mad mad world.

Hi there, town-mate!

I could have written this post. I identify very strongly with everything you've written. I am only one half-step removed in that I've decided to medicate this hopeless melancholy in myself with intention.

I have struggled with varying levels of depression and anxiety for most of my life; from my forays into varying treatment paradigms I am already well acquainted with the idea of taking my attitude firmly in my own hands toward a better quality of life. Working on my outlook in the particular regard you've specified feels like a natural outgrowth of this self-care regimen.

Buddhism has helped me tremendously in building a base from which to orient myself. I also reflect on the idea that human nature has likely not changed very much at all throughout our history, and the evils we're seeing today are not fundamentally different from the darkness that have always plagued us. I balance this idea with the notion that for all its inherent "evil", humanity also contains a core potential toward transcendent actualization and compassion--here again Buddhism is instrumental.

I decide what to focus on, I decide what kind of meaning to make for myself, and I give myself the job of perfecting my compassionate heart. I believe that compassion will cure what ails us, and I believe that leading by example is the only real way to make change--so I've got to do it. I've got to learn to love all beings, without condition or reservation, to show it can be done. It's the only thing I can do, and the most important thing I could ever do.

If the only thing I accomplish this way is hanging onto my sanity, I'll consider it a success.

I can certainly relate to everything you stated in your OP. I pretty much have disconnected from the human situation on this planet as much as possible. It is just ignoring the almost hopelessness of the situation however.

I have always felt contempt for human hubris ; especially in the face of overwhelming human stupidity. I don't feel despair though - long ago I learned to change my sadness to anger and this has kept me from despair, though frustration and disgust are frequent emotions.

Beautifully put. My feelings, as well. This may sound corny and lame, but some things that help me through a troubled mind are breaking a sweat, getting my hands in soil, wrestling with my dogs, exchanging smiles with a stranger, smoking some weed and listening to music.

Hey, lighten up. This might hepl:

As another stated herein, this insanity is a cyclical thing. The pendulum swings back and forth, very slowly it seems at times, but nontheless, it reaches a crescendo, then goes back the other way. It seems to take so long because of the relatively short time we all have here. But I cannot help but think things are turning around, that it's like growing pains; it's going to hurt for awhile, and some more than others, but the light seems to be at least a pinpoint at the other end of the tunnel now.

My heart aches at what sometimes feels like the overwhelming insanity of all the things you stated above, but again, I think that those things are such a monumental obstruction and loom so menacingly because we now recognize the for what they are, and the work must begin to reverse that. As I wrote on another post here somewhere, I am sick to death of the call to discuss gun/firearm ownership in this country. All the goddamn talk has not and will not change the zeal of those people. We simply, henceforth, have to castrate the fucking NRA, and vote out of office that whole lunatic contingency. Hopefully, the young people most affected by all of this will do better than we older folks have done.

I find it easy to get caught up in the dis-ease of our society and my place in it. What has helped me the most, is to realize that it is not the great things (they are important), that keeps this old world turning, but it is the everyday efforts of each of us. If you think about it... is it really possible to do nothing? If we create chaos, that adds more dis-ease. If we create good, with our actions and our words...that cannot create more dis-ease. The few great things that are so glamorized, and repeated, can fool us into thinking, if we can't do something great...then whatever we could do, does not matter! I do not believe that any more, I have come across so many brave and courageous people, making a difference and few people were even aware of their efforts! Claim your place in this life, and honor your efforts, as we all must!

I'm 22 and I absolutely feel the same way. I cannot find any hope for humanity, it's like it's only a matter of time before our species shoot itself in the foot so I just spend the rest of my time reading and doing things I love not caring at this world.

I feel the same, some days are worse than others, I don't have a TV, don't buy newspapers or read them that seems to help however from time to time stuff slips through and brings a downer with it.
Let's face it we were not meant to know about or try to heal everything that brings trouble in the world we were hunter gatherers for 10's of thousands of years with the most news being how the days hunting went. After that progress was still relatively slow and news wasn't the world news it was still fairly local. In the last 100 years things have sped up so much and I just don't think we can take it all in or process it. In my lifetime I feel like nothing is simple any more and we're being bombarded daily by world negativity

I can relate.
I am a misanthrope but like with dog hate, if you are biased against them in general you might still meet a cute and well behaved one once in a while. Keep your eyes open. Try to find and read good news. There is a lot out there but mainstream media makes it a little hard to find.

No. I am 64, Retired and still getting myself in trouble. There is still fun to had. Make music your partner when nothing else works. Music can heal you.

I have pretty much struggled with depression most of my life, and without even trying tend to have a nihilist bent philosophically. Needless to say, there are days that almost break me. And sensing that there's nothing coming after this, I don't see the need to prolong it either. So it's quite a challenge.

As to the science deniers and conspiracy theorists, I find hope that they will some day be forced to acknowledge it... but I doubt that I'll be here when that happens.

I gave up on swaying people's opinion too, but I'm starting to notice there are more people that are atheists now than there were back in the day. So, cheer up, we're moving in the right direction

I've found that usually the most ardent believers in a given myth are usually the most ignorant of anything else. I, too, am appalled at all the antiscience being brandied about. Can't help but want to blame education.

No, people are born then they die no changing that. Sooner or later, people will either go extinct or evolve. Nothing I can do about it.

VOTE!

Yep, and total frustration. I think we have dug our hole too deep.
But, where there is life there is hope?
Civilizations have collapsed before, though none I am aware of have taken out the biosphere with them, yet we have had massive extinction events before as well. Life kind seems to somehow bounce back on this rock. I grow things, it gives me satisfaction.

I can relate

I can relate

It is from Dr. Who - but I have this on my refrigerator:

Every life is a pile of good things and bad things... The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.

It is difficult these days with the aggragate of all of the bad things that exist. We have to keep pushing along and trying to add some to the pile of good things.

What really hurts me is what us humans are doing to nature mostly without a care in the world. people are a horrible virus mostly.

I think despair might be too strong a word; to a lot of people, feelings of despair evoke images of someone laying on the couch, moaning, "what's the point?". I'm not despairing like that.

But I am deeply disappointed. Before the Trumpocalypse I dared to think humanity was heading firmly in the right direction, and had maybe even reached some sort of tipping point where inclusive and egalitarian sentiments would win the day. But now ... I'm going to die in a very different country than I was born into, and the inmates are running the asylum in ways that has never been true before. Democratic institutions are eroding dangerously.

It has caused me to substantially withdraw from politics; I just can't handle the daily creepshow that is the Trump administration. I am too old for that shit. I still follow it, and I would still turn out for a protest if Trump tries to fire Mueller or Rosenstien or something big like that. But on a day to day basis it's just too depressing to watch. I feel badly about this; as an elderly WASP and a male heterosexual tech professional to boot, I have little in practice to fear from Trump's proto-fascism and probably a few minor benefits will even accrue, selfishly speaking. At least for the short time left to me on this earth. But I just can't take the daily grind of the resistance anymore, on top of the normal pressures of life. Nor can I take on the extra freight of bearing witness to the resulting human suffering. Where I live, for example, there are people who have been taken in by refugee resettlement programs, become a vital part of the community, and then get to live in terror of being deported back out by ICE on some pretext or other.

So yes ... you are not alone by any means.

I've given up on attempting to sway anyone's opinions about anything. People have stopped listening.

I'm really close to that point. Especially after spending over a year of helping to get Sanders to the top of the primary cycle. Helping those that didn't know him become educated about him. Spending countless hours of posting the flaws, lies, and misdeeds of the Clinton's neoliberial politics that have harmed the country and other countries its touched. Then be betrayed by the sellout. Same as to the history of Trump and what he would bring to our country. Along with the act of republicans fake despise in him knowing they were licking their chops knowing they'd be able to push the agenda of the establishment through so easily, mostly unchecked. Yea, I look at a lot of people and family in a new way as they still hold fast to these people. Even with the evidence they've been duped, morals lowered, and blatantly lied to. Perception management has become their reality and our downfall will come from it. The vast majority of us have become numb to what is being done in our name onto others around the world. It will some year come back to haunt our future families. Society is profoundly sick. Humans suck.