Optimism is inherently more reasonable and pragmatic than doomerism.
I was inspired to make this post thanks to a question posted in the current Censorship megathread.
Optimism isn't a thing to do just because doomerism feels bad. Yes, being optimistic improves your mental state, makes your life better, and all these other things. But that's not really enough. You can't be fully convinced of your optimistic views without understanding WHY optimism is more realistic than doomerism, otherwise you're sticking your head in the sand.
Optimism isn't pretending everything's fine. It's not when you ignore problems. It isn't where you deny how bad the world is. Real, effective optimism that genuinely sticks around in you actually needs acknowledging how bad all the problems in the world are, for exactly how bad they are. But rather than running away, you respond with the planning, hope, and the determination to bring those problems down. Because that's the most reasonable thing to do.
Slavery wasn't abolished because people hid away and said it wasn't possible to fix. Women didn't gain the right to vote by thinking it was impossible to do it. No problems in the world were ever fixed by thinking it's impossible to fix them. ALL of the world's problems have been fixed by people thinking it WAS possible to do something. That it can be done, that change can happen, and then actually doing it.
Yes, cynicism can persist at times. I'm guilty of this sometimes. And sometimes that's okay. But no matter what, NEVER forget that things can be done no matter what. No matter how long it takes. Completely giving up and giving in to gloom, doom, and despair isn't rational and it won't do anything to help make the world better.
Don't give into despair about the world's problems, but don't hide away from them either. Don't ask "Where's the optimism here?" Instead, ask "What do we do about this, and how?"
No matter what, there's something that can be done. No matter how small it might be. There are always ways to make things better for yourself and everyone else, as long as you're willing to look for them.
Feel free to respond to this post with some ways we can fix the various big problems in the world. Show everyone else here on this sub how we all can fix the problems in the world, how they are being done, and WILL be done if we put our efforts into it.
We've got this.