So… The world sucks now doesn’t it? It’s way WAY easier to get sucked into the pipeline of pessimism… of course knowing what’s going on is important but the fun combination of every company with a website trying to grab your attention and the frankly ridiculous actions by SOME PEOPLE… has lead to a very fun reality where basically all news is just dread-sludge as a constant reminder that the world will not be getting better any time soon. I think about that a lot. Dread-sludge. News made solely for the exploitation of the human desire to know how bad everything is. Funny word, but I’ve seen this constant consumption of dread-sludge affect someone’s entire being, and that just makes them forget how to be happy. Simply just a constant stream of stressors.

This is even spreading to people who don’t consume news??? somehow??? Well not somehow, I know real well how this is spreading. Its either in real life, where you physically can’t get away from it, or just… everywhere online. Most if not all people need it to do their jobs or for recreation, so for the most part you can’t just leave. And I would like to mention the worst part… THIS HAS PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS AFFECTING PEOPLES ACTUAL REAL HEALTH!!!!!!! Of course I think it lines up with symptoms with general severe stress & anxiety but that’s still INSANE. I’ve seen someone experiencing nausea and panic attacks from this???? I didn’t even KNOW that could happen!!! But… That isn’t… the only path someone takes to deal with this.

I think there’s three main ways people deal with “dread-sludge”, assuming they either willingly or unwillingly engage with it. That example of the nausea and panic attacks was the Pessimism route, that I think is characterized by constant pessimism or anxiety from or about dread-sludge and the state of the world. The other side, which I believe is the direct opposite of the other two routes. Apathy! Where you hear so much about it that it becomes impossible to care. I fall into this category most of the time, and I think it stems from a mindset of “I can’t do anything about it, so why should I care?” This also lines up with Pessimism a bit, but I think they fundamentally are different as with Apathy you aren’t spending that much energy on dread-sludge, but it’s probably still damaging. And the last route… The last route.

Radicalization. The most energy-hungry of the three. Where the pressure from dread-sludge leads someone to choose… a “side” is the best way I would put it, and focus seemingly all of their time to spreading or engaging with that side’s views and politics. I can’t really tell how this affects someone’s being, but I sure as HELL can explain how it affects the people around them. I’ve seen someone take this route. And ever since like… I want to say late 2025, around 70% of conversations that I happen to have with them always turn into or start as political. Sometimes I can ring around politics sometimes, but I can’t stand to hear about it anymore. I agree with most of their opinions too, its just that. It’s so… loud. Genuinely I see that side of them as most of their personality now, and that's EXTREMELY HORRIFYING. Then I just end up detaching from the conversation because I really don’t feel like listening to how John Capitalism is destroying everything and how we need to switch to BitchType2006 to get away from the big bad corporation software. Also, I don’t know where else to say this, but if you align with any of these “archetypes”, please don’t take this personally! I don’t have any authority about who you are and what you believe in, and if that truly makes you happy, I can’t stop you.

...pretty pessimistic end. I can’t just end it like that! So lets do something about it! However dread-sludge affects you, I can assure you that there’s a 99.97% chance you can get yourself out of there. So how do you start? Well.. it depends how dread-sludge gets you. I’ll address the “easier” type of sludge consumption to treat. If you willingly consume dread-sludge… Stop! Just stop. I’ll elaborate, but that’s basically the one way to help you recover. Find out where you get your dread-sludge, and spike that football out of your life. You gotta think about if this information actually gives you any knowledge worth keeping or if it’s just there to farm engagement from fear. This source is different depending on the person, but I feel that “twitter-likes” (Twitter (duh), Bluesky, somewhat applies to Tumblr) are prime areas for dread-sludge to spread. If you’re not directly consuming sludge, it becomes a lot harder to ignore it. And to be real, I’ve only had mild success trying to get rid of dread-sludge. But you just have to remember that the bad stuff isn’t all of the world. There are things to enjoy and things to live for! It differs for every person, and I’m sure you have something or someone to be happy about.

That’s the main thing I think I’m trying to say. Don’t let dread-sludge get to you. There’s lots of things wrong with the world, but there’s also nuggets of joy! You gotta hold onto those nuggets. I’d make me happy if you did.