2025: The Downfall of Us

Scrolling Facebook while I’ve been awfully ill and bedridden with pneumonia has illuminated the challenges of humanity’s future. Despite planning to abandon all social media by January 2025, I surfed Facebook often during this time of personal isolation and despair. Searching for comfort; seeking escape. Instead, I uncovered a feeling of emptiness.

Swiping by as I lay glassy-eyed, the first image I see is an AI generated MAGA Trump elephant, with an ex-family member spouting about how things will now get better. Though obviously a fake image, this is how it begins. Opinions, spun into facts, spun into laws. Our news media has already been exposed as being nothing more than a hollow echo chamber for talking points made popular by billionaires. Sadly, these Magats believe that they’re closer to billionaire status than destitution, and that’s all part of the grand illusion. How better to get the people to believe than suggest that if they vote for you, they could be wealthy too?

Next, it was more AI telling a riveting story, captivating my empathy. Without googling it, i wouldn’t have been able to tell that it wasn’t real. The falsehood evoked within me rage; a grave embarrassment of feeling duped. Stories are the hallmark of humanity. It’s been our defining characteristic since the inception of our species. To bastardize something so precious to our being is to disgust God. In the age of authenticity, it’s clear to me authenticity is dead. It’s been dead since it was co-opted and commodified by influencers. The pain I feel at this betrayal of ourselves is unlike any other, the scale of which is profound.

Again, I find another AI video, another fake photo, another corrupt story. Over and over again. I’d guess that Facebook is now 25% AI generated content - maybe more, and it’s only going to grow.

Attempting to hope for the best, I try to ignore it all. But, at a certain point, it becomes too hard to ignore. The misuse of AI flows into the misinformation of today, and the misinformation of the day influences generations to create morbidity and unfettered chaos. Fear is the underlying current of the times.

2025 is the continuation of what began a decade ago. The downfall of not only democracy is at stake, but so much more. Public health, news, media, education, and more are all corrupted by this ignorance which will impact us all. The downfall of authenticity is achieved. The world of truth has crumbled. 2025 is a brand new phase. A phase which many will suffer, and more will perish. I pity those who were coerced into participating in their own demise. May the universe, mother nature, and God give us all we need to persist.