# Describe the current Zeitgeist **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359 "2022-07-03T22:34:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/1 "2022-07-03T22:34:54Z")
Well? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/2 "2022-07-03T22:50:01Z")
Ailing? (I presume you wanted a single word descriptor?) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/3 "2022-07-03T23:22:22Z")
I don’t like to make things too specific. One word of a thousand, your choice. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/4 "2022-07-03T23:23:29Z")
“Anything goes?” “Whatever it takes?” ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/5 "2022-07-03T23:39:35Z")
Toxic. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/6 "2022-07-04T00:10:13Z")
Selfish. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/7 "2022-07-04T02:06:38Z")
A world that does not seem to work as it should – let alone as it has in the past – setting the stage for an even greater degree of dysfunction in the future. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/8 "2022-07-04T02:24:02Z")
My beliefs trump everyone else’s. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/9 "2022-07-04T03:17:05Z")
Imbalanced from overproduction of black bile by the spleen ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/10 "2022-07-04T03:23:13Z")
It feels like the start of the storm before the calm. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/11 "2022-07-04T03:33:53Z")
Desperate, no longer hopeful. A lot of “don’t worry about the risks, it’s all going down anyhow”. A fair amount of numbness too. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/12 "2022-07-04T03:45:24Z")
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/13 "2022-07-04T04:19:20Z")
pre-apocalyptic ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/14 "2022-07-04T04:27:50Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth … Which is not very helpful because that is the same scripture source that the fundamentalist Christian conservative Right relied on to put the US into it’s current mess. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/15 "2022-07-04T05:57:14Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Which is not very helpful because that is the same scripture source that the fundamentalist Christian conservative Right relied on to put the US into it’s current mess. And their wickedness in the Earth is great, is it not? As an atheist, I think it’s an apt metaphor - it feels like any conscious being that created us would be ashamed of us right now and regretful that it had created us. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/16 "2022-07-04T05:59:02Z")
Troubling. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/17 "2022-07-04T06:28:13Z")
Willful ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/18 "2022-07-04T06:45:57Z")
In a word: _koyaanisqatsi_ ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/19 "2022-07-04T06:52:26Z")
I fear it consists of maybe three groups. One that demands what they think is right, is right in spite of facts to the contrary. Or lack of facts. One that may believe and or know things but is keeping their heads down out of fear. One that does know the facts and is speaking them. But being savagely attacked and excommunicated if those facts conflict with the first group. Each of the groups may vary in their subject matter, points of view or actual expertise. But they operate in these ways. The frightening thing is what is done to the third group. With the second group going along with it, to get along. It has been this way to more or less extent at various times. But it is very terrible lately. I feel the overall Zeitgeist is growing fear, insecurity, mistrust. Our so called leaders using it to get ahead, instead of doing what is required to get all of us ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359/20 "2022-07-04T07:05:03Z")
Amplified minority polarisation. i.e. the extreme positions get far more column inches, screen time and attention than is deserved and the immediacy of modern media ensures this will continue. Most people are centrist, moderate and able to get along with others even when they disagree on certain subjects. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-the-current-zeitgeist/967359.md?page=2)