We live in a collapsing world, which means that energy becomes more expensive as the years go by, which means that focusing your time and attention on what matters is more important than ever. A dying society will not slowly fade away in silence, all of its dying institutions will scream off the top of their lungs in hundreds of conflicting directions, and if you are not prepared for this madness in information, you will lose precious time and energy for your own life.
The problem is that we are so surrounded by bullshit that it can be difficult to keep a clear mind about what actually matters. This is why there is some value in identifying the common topics which are bullshit, even if focusing on them too much risks creating the opposite effect: focusing on the things that control you, rather than creating the life you want.
Some of these things are:
§1. The news, which give you the illusion of learning about what's happening, but really make you blind to the broader trends (societal collapse is happening and it's inevitable), and to what you can personally do in your life. It's a waste of time and energy (anxiety controls you in a way that can be difficult to tell).
§1b. Related to this, focusing too much on who is to blame. If society is collapsing, how does it matter whether you've identified the "right" people to blame? Chances are they are so far away from you (and sheltered with their wealth) that you couldn't possibly influence them in any way. Not that this is totally useless, but by and large you need to realize that no one is coming to save you if you don't do something about your situation. Social media will not bring you the food and water that you need, and it won't prepare you for hardships and uncertainty.
§2. Arguing with people on social media. A complete waste of time. Even if some people on there agreed with you by some miracle, what would it change? Society would still collapse. The sooner you accept that collapse is legitimately inevitable, the sooner your actions will be oriented in a direction that can actually matter. Nowadays we do not even know if the people we are chatting with are even real, so it becomes even more true.
§3. Everything related to finance. The idea of "investing", that your money will magically grow to be more valuable, is no longer true in a collapsing world. This is especially obvious for abstract tokens of "value", like cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds, etc. Don't even think about pensions, be suspicious of investments with a promise of safety and high returns, or of investments that will only pay off 5 years from now. It is not wise to think long term in a collapsing world, you need to insure your present survival. Even physical currency, like gold, silver, and rare coins, might not be particularly valuable compared to actual useful resources like diesel, gas, water, food, tools, medicine, and so on. And to the extent that they are valuable, they might turn you into a target rather than someone with whom people trade. Careful of being wealthy in an empoverished world.
§4. Any promise of a future, especially based on technology. They want people to hope so that people stay calm and keep playing the same scripts, commute, go to work, buy things, distract themselves, prop up the fake value of real estate, etc. Of course you should always stay calm, panic will never lead to any sensible action, but you should also not believe in the scripts of a broken world. There is no careerism, or long-term plan for mortgages, or whatever have you. What you need are food, water, community, energy, security (fight if you need to), medicine, tools, health, and a good attitude to hardship, fear and death. Modern society will provide none of those things to you, because you only get those through working a bullshit job that makes you more and more useless (and unhealthy) as you get older.
§5. Inane distractions. I expect most people to turn to hedonism as the hope of their future comforts will crumble right in front of them, because they do not have the agency to even try anything. They are too scared to do anything, so they will turn to video games, pornography, drugs, degenerate sexuality, individual or collective, all that kind of stuff.
§5b. Doomscrolling (and again, engaging in politics and the news) is another form of inane distraction. It will present itself as "wiser" than those who engage in hedonism, because it is more cynical, but do not judge people by their ideas and supposed intelligence, but by their actions and life. Most people are utter cowards, but they disguise that under pretenses of intelligence.
§5c. Nostalgia is another form of distraction. It's one of the most popular forms of bargaining—if only we could go back ... we wouldn't have all of those problems. Well guess what, the past is in the past. Even if you think it's better, it is a fantasy. The only thing we have is the present, which is why the best you can do is accept what is in front of you, find beauty and love in the present, and accept hardships. Everything else is cope and social media engagement farming.
§5d. Outrage porn. Anger at the failing world. Anger at wealthy people, at immigrants, at the Jews, at Russians, at Chinese people, on and on. All of this agitation can be very good at capturing people's attention, but once again, what does it do exactly? Nothing. People are being controlled because they do not know how to grieve. But if you can accept societal collapse as it is, you are free to use whatever time and energy you have to live consciously.
If it wasn't obvious already, point number 5 is about the 4 stages of grief before acceptance: denial, depression, bargaining and anger, in the order I've listed them. They are not linear, and it is often the case that people go back to stages they've previously visited, but by and large it's a good model for human psychology.
§6. Funnily enough, content about collapse. Once you get the collapse message, hang the phone and do what you must. This one is not as binary, because it can be useful to read from sources who examine practical realities about collapse, perhaps to see if there is any place to relocate to or stay away from, anything to buy which will be in high demand soon, that kind of stuff. But merely reading about collapse can be a massive distraction from actually living your life and preparing to whatever extent you can.
Waking up from the distractions of the world is a bit like waking up from a trance, and you realize that everyone by and large is stuck in one. The meer act of being on a phone is a sort of hypnosis, and personally, I'd rather be awake even if the truth is harsh and painful, than to live in a fantasy world, because sooner or later the pain knocks at your door, but if you get woken up abruptly, it all comes at once.
Moreover, if you are awake, you can appreciate the beauty which is still (and always has been) there. Even amidst societal collapse, the sun rises and falls, which is one of the most beautiful displays we get to witness, and for free at that! Reality is so amazing that even the hells that human beings create cannot totally seal us away from beauty, the latter always finds its way through the cracks, like the glimmer of light peaking between the clouds, or the dandelion sprouting between the pavements.
There is a lot of bullshit amidst societal collapse, but one of the upsides to whoever will be able to make it is that the people remaining in the post-industrial world will live in social environments with significantly less bullshit in them. For the simple reason that their lives will be governed by practical survival, and the reality provided by them through their senses and community, rather than the insane, shattered kaleidoscope given to us by the intermediary of screens (and middle men). People will actually have to deal with Reality, instead of living in their echo chambers and ivory towers, pretending that our society is in any way sustainable (or even good).
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Collapse Agency Bullshit Attention
2026-04-11