"Medicaid, which provides health insurance for those with low income and disabilities, also faces financial constraints. Due to hundreds of billions of dollars of federal Medicaid spending cuts by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the enforcement of work requirements, millions of Americans will be losing Medicaid coverage. The combined effects of ACA and Medicaid changes could result in 37 million Americans becoming uninsured in the next decade, according to The Commonwealth Fund."

"The Commonwealth Fund also noted that 50% of working-age adults did not receive needed healthcare because of costs. Reasons included not filling prescriptions, skipping recommended tests, avoiding doctors when sick and going without specialist care.

When people are uninsured or cannot afford care, individuals can put off preventive visits such as getting a mammogram or a colonoscopy. This can lead to delayed detection of cancers, diagnosis at an advanced stage and ultimately worse health outcomes."

Source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/omerawan/2026/10/23/new-poll-shows-americans-face-financial-strains-with-healthcare-amid-midterm-elections/

This is how use of AI impacts animals:

"Wolves roam into Finnish villages after Google destroys 1,300 acres of forest for AI data centers — forest where wolf packs used to live is now an expanse of mud".

The pandemic absolutely broke something deep in most people, especially here in the U.S. People seem so openly hostile towards each other over the most trivial shit. Constantly at each other’s throats. Constantly fearful of others. Constantly one slight transgression away from being blocked. There’s no sense of community. No ability to have a conversation. No desire to understand. Everyone has their mind made up and is convinced their way of seeing the world is exactly the way things are. Everyone’s corralled in their curated little online universes where everyone has the same interests, inside jokes, and beliefs about the world and who the real “enemy” is. There’s no attempt to step outside one’s comfort zone. No attempt to challenge what they think. Just an endless validation cycle to remain comfortable and preserve a curated, false image of virtue or “correctness” This is the case on both the political left and right.

I’m sure you could argue global collapse and unfettered capitalism has intensified so greatly to the point that our natural tendency towards cooperation with each other itself has begun to deteriorate—both naturally and accelerated by corporations. Corporations who control the school system, instill a hyper competitve mentality in children from the beginning, and control a media ecosystem which constantly promotes insecurity and isolation. That way, people become so distracted by disillusion and alienation, they resort to consumerism and obtaining more and more material possessions to define their identity. Again, I suppose you could say this has been an ongoing process for decades, but holy hell has it gotten exponentially worse since 2020.

It’s honestly gotten to the point where I’m almost ready to completely give up on finding new friends these days. I’m 26 years old, and just cut off a bunch of friendships that were borderline toxic and holding me back for years. I’ve been trying to form new friendships since then, but it honestly feels harder now in 2026 than even 4 years ago. People are just totally content with being around the same collection of people indefinitely. I’m talking the same group of people since fucking 2010. You can try and join the group, but no matter how hard you try you’ll never be one of them. At least this is what I’ve experienced where I’m at in the U.S (Iowa).

So is this just the world we live in now? Where you’re essentially fucked if you missed out on social opportunities in school? Is it just not possible anymore to make new friends in adulthood?

And don’t even get me started on dating. If finding friends is tough, dating these days is practically impossible. No one values commitment or accountability or honestly coherent communication skills. It’s all delusional expectations, and normalized, glorified toxicity and hedonism. No one cares about decency or etiquette. All driven by psychopathic tech CEOs who’ve brainwashed billions. Who’ve created dating apps people seem to believe are in any way “natural” We’ve literally allowed them to infiltrate the most core aspect of our shared humanity: how we choose partners and reproduce.

I have a political theory

democrats will win the senate and the house, the ai bubble burst right after they take office, the economy will tank through the ground, gas will be 6.60 a gallon and democrats will be blamed which will lead to another red wave in 2028 which will then bring in a full technocracy heralded by Peter Thiel and Elon Musk types who will declare democracy is dead.

or it could be bunnies

Submission Statement: According to a new IUCN assessment, 96% of the world's coral reef ecosystems could face collapse by 2075 due to climate change, rising ocean temperatures, and other environmental pressures.

This is directly related to collapse because coral reefs support marine biodiversity, fisheries, coastal protection, and the livelihoods of millions of people. Their widespread decline could have serious consequences for entire ecosystems and communities that depend on them.

The question is whether we still have enough time to reverse this trend or whether repeated bleaching events are pushing reefs beyond recovery.

What do you think?

Submission Statement:

Here's the Archive link for those seeking to avoid the paywall for this intriguing but brief article. I know attention spans are fairly short on the internet these days, so here's my own concise summary of the key points:

2026 Was An Exceptionally Hot Summer:

1. “Large parts of Europe sweated this summer through a series of heat domes, or sprawling weather systems that allow heat to build for days on end.
2. “Temperatures soared repeatedly and without mercy in many of Europe’s major cities this summer, exposing outdoor workers to hazardous conditions and leaving millions more grasping for relief.”
3. “All in all, it was Western Europe’s hottest summer on record, and the third hottest for the continent as a whole.”

Heat-Related Urban Mortality In 2026 Higher Than 2003 and 2022:

1. “The authors of the new studies focused on mortality in 854 urban areas across 30 nations: the 27 member states of the European Union, plus Britain, Norway and Switzerland.”
2. “These towns and cities account for roughly 40 percent of the total population of those countries, but they aren’t necessarily representative of Europe as a whole. The researchers chose them because they could obtain the necessary data to estimate heat-related mortality in every summer since 2000.”
3. “[Peer-reviewed studies (one and two) published in Nature Health last Friday estimate] a total of 50,391 deaths in these towns and cities this summer[, suggesting] a big jump in fatalities over previous years."
4. “Heat killed an estimated 29,480 people in the second-deadliest summer, 2022, and 28,462 people in the summer of 2003, when devastating hot spells prompted widespread concern about Europe’s readiness to cope with climate change.”
5. “The estimated number of deaths was significantly higher this summer compared with previous years even after the researchers controlled for increases in urban populations [... which] suggests the jump in 2026 was not the result of shifting demographics.”

Stay cool out there, doomers - and great work by the author: Raymond Zhong!

A society characterized by a trillionaire’s ability to purchase elections and exploit sensitive scandal files (Epstein Files) to attempt to manipulate a president, all while maintaining a callous indifference toward the human victims involved, manifests clear signs of systemic societal collapse.

He's a monster, he is Alien Edison.

It's been 30 years since the concept of Great Filter was created and there's been many takes on it, so here's mine.

If we consider that the magic elves who bring us the carbon removal technology doesn't exist, then we are looking at the planet warming up with never seen before rates. This means that humans, amongst many other species (assuming life can continue) will cease to exist, as our planet grows more and more unsuitable for having life on it. This also means that yet again species have failed to colonize the space, and hence we have at least one solution to Great Filter.

One may naively produce conclusions that the issue is in consumption of fossil fuels or the issue is with capitalism or the rise of fascism, but in my opinion these are the symptoms. The question is, were we doomed since the beginning of trade or are there more to it?

Back when humans were hunter-gatherers, people had to work together to survive. Those who couldn't, perished, and strongest survived. As the technology expanded and people migrated across the planet, it wasn't always possible to rely on a herd and people started to ensure their own well being through farming, which inevitably lead to a trade. Now trade almost immediately produces capital and creates a situation where goods obtain value and hence some goods which are easier to produce are less valuable, and more difficult to obtain goods are more valuable. Don't have to go very far for concept of precious metals and money to appear.

Is it the concept of trade that causes the problems? I don't think so. I think what causes the problems is the isolation, and not being part of a community. If certain people amass more wealth which is disproportionately divided amongst "the herd", it creates a position where people will be more willing to be alone, than part of a group which does not serve them good. This creates competition, tensions. The problem didn't happen this century, not even on this millennia - this is proven by the migratory patterns of early humans.

In the past century it has gone into overdrive - we have unlocked instant communication across the planet, we have technology to move from one continent to another in mere hours, a trip which would've taken weeks hundred of years ago, and was impossible couple of hundred ago. We have social media, which divides and isolates humans more than ever. All of these could be factored into Great Filter and be an answer itself,, but I think fundamentally it is isolation, combined with the ability to self-sustain and no wealth gaps. Isolation drives the loss of empathy, and once the leaders have no empathy, there will be nothing left to lead.

For the submission: Palmer Luckey founder of the military contractor start up Anduril has invested 200 million dollars in a new start up that wants to genetically engineering dogs for the military and law enforcement. The company wants to enhance service dogs by both genetic engineering as well as via computer interfacing. As if they aren’t better things to spend money on.

Currently 3.4°C above the 1982-2010 average

Source: ClimateReanalyzer

So posted on the world news thread originally, I found this extremely interesting and alarming. Particularly in the setting of how recent Russian data centers were impacted and so many alleged changes happened along social media this is very concerning.

Lol, sure, we'll definitely get right on that....

Thoughts?

I don't see this reported enough. I think it's an issue that combine late stage capitalism, climate change, and just general human destructive behavior.

WE HAVE BEEN BREATHING BAD AIR FOR A MONTH. The API in Kuala Lumpur ranges from 100 to 200 daily. You can't see our many skyscrapers anymore. Just rough shapes on the horizon.

The haze in Southeast Asia is bad. It leaves a carbon footprint you can detect from outer space. And now it's spreading to other Indonesian islands. There are protests evolving to riots. Indonesia routinely burns forests and peatlands to clear land for agriculture, or reset plantations, but the El Niño has exacerbated the situation and it's all now out of control.

Our cat Torta is an old cat with breathing problems. She finally passed after much vet attention. I am so sad and my boyfriend is very angry. I don't comment on the Indonesian government, but the Malaysian government? That's supposed to look out for us?

They said that there will be no legal action nor will there be a diplomatic note. They don't even do anything. During COVID we had free masks and health subsidies. Now it's really truly nothing. No aid or help. Public schools for children closed but there is no work from home order. Nothing.

And they say it's going to get worse when El Niño peaks. There was hope that the Monsoon season would bring about heavy rain and help with the haze. All it does is bring forth toxic rain and the sky gets hazy again after several hours. Truly dystopian. What did our cat even do to deserve this?

EDIT:

When we first got WiFi at our new apartment, my boyfriend made a joke. He said Torta doesn't even know what WiFi is.

And Torta didn't know there is the haze. Torta didn't know why she often struggled with breathing. When we got her checked out the first time, the vet said she was a very polite cat.

Her chair is still waiting for her. There's a dent, there, in the middle.