Pessimists Archive

100 years ago a Baltimore college banned radio sets due to impact on sleep and loss of ‘pep’ among students (SF Examiner, 1926)

1926: motors, bands and radio blamed for low church attendance

100 years ago a Baltimore college banned radio sets due to impact on sleep and loss of ‘pep’ among students (SF Examiner, 1926)

“Should the flapper, with her elaborate make-up, her daring clothes, her bold and confident carriage, be suppressed as a menace to the nation's morals, or celebrated as its chief claim to art and beauty?” - 1921

“HAVE you an automobile? If so, you probably have an automobile eye. This is the opinion of Dr. William S. White” - Chicago Tribune, 1910

1899: Minister writes to police re female cyclists, Capt. responds they "wear shorter dresses than the laws of morality and decency permit"

Woman retorts he “must be very hard up for subjects. Perhaps he considers that he has conquered the devil in his own dominions.”

This won’t work and it’s not the right solution. Regulate social media, not kids.

YouTube video by Kirby Ferguson Everything is a Remix (2023 Edition)

Hello Bluesky! Let me reintroduce myself!

My name is Kirby Ferguson and I'm best known for making the OG video essay series Everything is a Remix (2012-ish.) A new version of that series was completed last year and I'm very proud of it. You can watch that below.

Come say hi!

Everything competes for attention, so everything is in competition with everything else.

1896 @nytimes.com article reports on book sellers blaming the bicycle boom on falling book sales

1900: Librarian says free libraries = too much reading

“Great care must be exercised by parents to see that their children do not read too much”

“When visiting a school recently 3 pupils in one room were noticed reading books under their desks"

1926: less radio, less reading in bed

2026: MORE please

The downsides of new things are an indictment.

The downsides of old things are endearing.

In 1913 the creator of Kellogg’s corn flakes predicted what babies would look like in the 21st century…

You either die a disruptor, or live long enough to see yourself become an incumbent

You either die a disruptor, or live long enough to see yourself become an incumbent

New Year's Resolutions of the Past: Vices That Became Virtues Virtues we now aspire to were once habits people vowed to quit

Via a new year newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/new-years-...

2026 new year resolutions : cycle, read, play chess MORE

1926 new year resolutions: cycle, read, play chess LESS

New Year's Resolutions of the Past: Vices That Became Virtues Virtues we now aspire to were once habits people vowed to quit

Virtues of today were vices in the past. Did people have opposite New Year’s resolutions? (Via our newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/new-years-...)

2024: Read more
1924: Read less

2024: Cycle more
1924: Cycle less

2024: Play more chess
1858: Play less chess

193 years ago Henry Colburn observed:

“objects of the highest importance to mankind, on their first appearance, are slighted and condemned. Posterity smile at the ineptitude of the preceding age, while it becomes familiar with those objects, which that age so eagerly rejected”

New Year's Resolutions of the Past: Vices That Became Virtues Virtues we now aspire to were once habits people vowed to quit

Virtues of today were vices in the past. Did people have opposite New Year’s resolutions? (Via our newsletter newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/new-years-...)

2024: Read more
1924: Read less

2024: Cycle more
1924: Cycle less

2024: Play more chess
1858: Play less chess

A black and white newspaper clipping about how "complicated" coffee in NYC has become

30 years ago this month, the New York Daily News ran this article bemoaning how complicated coffee had become, bemused by Dalton's introduction of pumpkin spice coffee and Starbucks' eggnog lattes, noting that specialty coffee "is a fad--like breweries. It's already peaked."

xcdd comic "Isolation"

Reminds me of this gem by @xkcd.com 😄 Also, you might occasionally join forces with @pessimistsarc.bsky.social

Populism runs on pessimistic nostalgia

Populism runs on pessimistic nostalgia

This, exactly. I call it "opportunistic conservatism". In a societal setting it plays on the basic human instincts of fear and tribalism, which can be easily exploited by populists. Julius Ceaser was one exponent, but the tale goes back far into history.

Because worry is driven by fear it is very vulnerable to hijack by self-interested populists.

So many of the unfounded concerns we share originate from societal elites trying to preserve cultural, political or economic power.

Once it was books, now its laptops & mobile phones.
Everything changed while at the same time nothing changed.

People take the best of yesterday and compare it to the average/below average of today and present it as evidence of a decline from the good old days.

This fallacy needs a name. The Apex-Average Fallacy?