On Sept. 10, 2024, I was taken to task by my opposite number at the Massachusetts Daily Collegian’s News team, over my rather depressing, or “doomer” take on the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. I argued that neither had really won, because our elections are decided not by discerning voters analyzing debate answers and reading policy briefs to arrive at educated conclusions, but largely by quadri-annual vibes enthusiasts in Pennsylvania for whom there is never enough information, and who are sure only of one thing: that they never are.
Looking back, this take was somewhat ill-advised; Harris received a significant bump in polling numbers after her performance, especially with undecided voters. Though I’ve ceded the point now – much to Collegian Head News Editor Daniel Frank’s delight – I’m quite stubborn, and so I held out for a long time. Every accusation of cynical pessimism rung hollow, as I thought I had the accurate measure of our national pulse. It wasn’t until I was accused of “doomerism,” that I began to question if maybe it wasn’t everyone else who was wrong.
But what even is doomerism? As best as I can explain it, “doomerism” is a depressive tendency within our generation, specifically with regards to the future of the country and the systems of the world at large. It is a complete lack of faith in our institutions, bolstered by their abject failure at combating the problems of our era: climate change, polarization, police brutality to name but a few. In a bit of cop-out, I haven’t exactly defined it for you, but as Justice Potter Stewart once said of obscenity, “I know it when I see it!”
I see it quite frequently in our generation. And don’t kid yourselves, so do you.
The numbers bear out my thesis: the younger generation has a bleaker and more cynical outlook on the future than ever before. They view political participation as seemingly pointless and largely ineffective. So, what now? What is to be done about this epidemic of political depressives? What is the antidote to doomerism?
Sadly, every conversation around this subject exemplifies the worst aspects of our political media and public discourse. Google “doomerism,” pick out an article and blindly scroll to a random paragraph. You will be greeted by one of three incisive, biting and positively scintillating analyses: the kids are “doomer” because woke – and no, there’s no defining terms going on here, you’re simply supposed to read into the word whatever the right wing’s flavor of the month wedge issue is – or the kids are doomer because of “social media usage,” a horse which everyone’s favorite Centre-left adults-in-the-room over in the establishment media have done a marvelous job beating into the ground, and finally my personal favorite, the kids are “doomer” because capitalism bad, everything actually does suck, tear everything down, abolish bedtime and abolish homework, because capitalism is really, really, really bad.
The list above isn’t exhaustive, but it’s pretty good. Sure, sometimes, in particularly daring moments of true intellectual fortitude and near Spartan bravery, the Centre-left types will say the kids are “doomer” because of social media and “woke.” Sometimes conservatives will feel they’re due for citing a statistic for the month and will mention social media usage rates.
Regardless, I’ve given you a fair picture of what our public discussion around “doomerism” looks like. It’s really quite useless, and I don’t wish to rehash it in this column. Nor do I want to get into a discussion of whether the world does suck enough to warrant “doomerism.” I and any competent leftist could trade insults back and forth on this subject until the heat death of the universe, and while that would be quite fun for us, it isn’t productive and mostly just annoys everyone else in the friend group.
I want to focus specifically on one kind of “doomerism” and what we can do about it. By the time this magazine is in your hands, dear reader, the nation will be at polling stations, voting for our next president. On that same day, the share of young Americans not exercising their right to vote will also be at a concerning high water mark.
The urgency of the moment is apparent, and the forthcoming articles will hopefully serve only to bolster that point. We face an existential choice in this election and loathe as I am to sound like an annoying “#Resist Lib,” democracy itself is on the ballot. Non-voting doomerism is a problem, and we need to do something about it.
But what can be done about a problem as seemingly vast as this one? I am not under the delusion that one – albeit long-winded – campus newspaper column will be the silver bullet that cheers up a generation and increases turnout. But I think that that search for a silver bullet is exactly the problem.
Our political media has failed us on this and countless other issues. They search in vain for highly intellectualized explanations of why younger voters don’t vote and generally disregard the system. But people do not act because of complex life philosophies where each action is the result of logical reasoning from premises; they act based on how they feel. And a huge part of how we feel is the company we keep. Once again, the numbers bear this out: voters were much more likely to have other voters in their close friends and family, and vice-versa for non-voters.
The answer is almost too simple, so our genius commentariat has decided conveniently to ignore it. We tend to surround ourselves with likeminded people, and to act similarly to them. If we’re surrounded by people who consider the system a failure and decide that voting is a useless activity, we are more likely to believe that too.
When I was called out for “doomerism,” it was quite a novel experience for me. I’m pretty bullish on the United States, and I’m not one for political cynicism. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m an immigrant that gives me a different perspective, but I think the U.S. is a pretty great place, all things considered. All of this to say, I’m not one for “doomerism.” And yet, my opinion on the debate was quite out of line with what you would expect given my politics.
I spent some time considering why this was the case, and in a moment of ironic hypocrisy, fell prey to the same over-intellectualizing tendency I just lambasted the media for. I was watching the debate with some more “doomer” friends of mine. That was it. Their opinions colored mine, because that’s how humans form opinions. We do not reason from premises, nor do we exist in vacuums of logic. We exist alongside our friends and loved ones; we influence them, and they influence us.
You want to solve doomerism? Get out of the ivory tower reasoning chamber and start talking about the importance of voting. All of us have friends who might be more cynical and jaded as far as politics go. Talk to those friends. Make your opinions heard. Talk about just how crucial it is to vote in this election, and how much you personally believe it counts. Don’t expect everyone to immediately cede the point and don a Harris-Walz 2024 trucker hat, but don’t expect to be hit with immediate nihilism either. Your friends are not robots operating from on Nietzschean philosophical principles; they are humans existing among other humans, making it up as they go along.
As are you, but hopefully you have the benefit of knowing that.
Manas Pandit can be reached at [email protected].
