Interesting about Star Trek as a way to deal with anxiety about bad outcomes :). My Trek love helps me too but more with giving me a nearly imperceptible glimmer of hope for humanity.

(I wasn’t sure if I was a true Trekkie but now that I’ve been catching up on all the post-Voyager shows I guess I must be because I love all of it… I mean I even found things to like about ST V, so… Lol). Anyway …

But yeah you may be onto something about people either losing the ability—or maybe the will—to dream of something better. Once you get discouraged enough, it is hard to bother dreaming.

If you spend enough time online steeped in endless doomerism, with no talk of action or organization or anything, learned helplessness inevitably sets in. Sort of by definition, you stop dreaming. Which is why my recent Trek binges have been so helpful.

I should add that meds and introspection have helped a lot with the anxiety and imagining the worst outcomes. Now I do it without getting twisted up in knots and it serves me vs the other way around. But I could still stand to imagine good outcomes more often.

Anyway I appreciate the dialog! You’re a good egg. :) Hope to run into you again in the Lemmyverse before long.