ya know i wrote a legit essay about how we are all screwed and whatnot, I was in a real bad mood when i wrote this n all.
this was written with the prompt: How do you envision the world in 50 years

The future is an incredibly hard facet of reality to understand. Minor changes today will inevitably have major fallout in the world of tomorrow. We can only estimate to a certain degree of accuracy based on the general trends of today. Luckily with more information on our hands than any previous generation before us we can also predict the future with more accuracy than ever before. In terms of government I believe we are closer to a dystopian america than ever before. I also believe that art will become even more worthless than ever before. As well as those two things, the future of critical thinking seems grim as well. If it seems like my faith in humanity is waining, it most definitely is.
The government of today already shows many signs of being closer to a totalitarian one then a true democracy, and one of the most shocking aspects is that everyday citizens are some of the people bringing on this change. Our polarization of topics makes us separate from each other, and thus making us all weaker in general. “A house divided cannot stand” is a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln and I think more than ever is applicable in our world today. We as citizens would rather see our own side prevail rather than to seek if the side they support is correct or even morally sustainable. Our government is simply a reflection of the will of the people. A common counter argument is that the power lies in the rich and the powerful, which in some aspects in true, but the general populus would rather rally and protest then try to insert themselves in positions of power, and I would argue that this version of self-empowerment is the most crucial step in the prevention of an oppressive government. As we wait and protest, the government mocks our ideals and finds the most extreme cases of protests to dismantle any semblance of a positive reputation we can muster. Then upon the most extreme cases the government finds excuses to put in place more regulations. A prime example of this is the proposed law that makes protests prosecutable under the label of “Economic Terrorism”. This is highly detrimental as it labels protestors as “Terrorists” which is a word that carries many negative connotations as well as making acts of resistance no matter how peaceful illegal.
Art is of unequivocal importance, it’s a part of our culture and helps us define who we are, but yet we are thrown into reality where artists can barely find jobs and are told with constant undulating statements that they would “never be able to get a job” or that art had “No purpose” and therefore useless. School is also a major factor in the decreasing value of art. In the blatant hierarchy of classes at school where math and science are placed at the top, Art is placed at the very bottom. We cannot solely blame schools for what they teach as there is a rather large pressure from major corporations and the government to churn out scientists and mathematicians. A fantastic quote by Albert Einstein is “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” . This quote holds an important truth as a major byproduct of today’s society are people who are gloriously talented and spectacular individuals that believe that they are worthless and spend their lives wondering what is wrong with them. We can look at schools as a certain mining operation of the human brain, an extraction of the resources that society values and a disregard for things society deems unimportant. In the future this can only accelerate as our population accelerates in growth, we will soon understand that only the best of the best in their respective studies can even survive. This trend can be seen in academic inflation and the knowledge that things like degrees are losing their meaning, what used to require a bachelor's degree now require a master's.
Another facet of the future that I believe will happen is the the widespread destruction of critical thinking. Like what I have stated beforehand, people can barely see the bigger picture and are too caught up in their little squabbles to see what the fallout of their actions are. Out of all oppressive governments and all of my other complaints about society this is by far my largest. This is the root of why I have a grim outlook on humans, as well as myself. We can view our society as hoards of zombies, large mobs of people who do not interact with those we disagree with, we don't understand that we blindly follow each other and disregard any opinion that is not our own. Of course as I am human I am not exempt, more often than not, I perpetuate my own fears. We can see the future where people view things on such a shallow level that the people of Fahrenheit 451 becomes a reality. People choosing presidents based on their looks and people avoiding things that make them unhappy at any cost. We already avoid things that make us unhappy, and we can see this in the culture of “Political Correctness” and how this makes potentially offensive opinions have more social fallout than ever before.
In conclusion I believe that the future is very grim, and may very well drive our species into an early grave. More than fighting against oppressive governments we must fight our subconscious thought that we are always right. We must listen to what we disagree, and embrace the fact that we aren’t always correct. To fix others we first have to fix ourselves. The future may very well be one where we have no art which is a physical manifestation of our identities and our individuality. Last but not least we must promote critical thinking and delve way deeper than surface level analysis. I honestly doubt that any of my idealistic criticisms will ever be in fruition, or ever impact anyone, and with that in mind I believe that the future in 50 years in is not a future I want to live in, but I do believe it is inevitable.

Edit: TL:DR : we all dun diddly gonna finna die