Ever wonder if we're actually living on the darkest timeline? It's a bit of a common joke, I know, but each day it feels increasingly plausible.
I was watching some YouTube videos earlier and happened to come across one by "Wood", from the channel BeatEmUps. I'd never watched any of his own content before, but had come across Wood numerous times on The Game Chasers' channel. The video was named "I have depression. i need your help". YouTube recommended it to me today for some reason; I didn't notice until after the fact that it was actually from back in March.
In the video, Wood described how he had been living with anxiety and depression for most of his life — in his case, largely brought on by a childhood in which he suffered physical and emotional abuse by his parents. The video was primarily to announce a livestream during which he was hoping to raise money for a number of different mental health charities, but as part of his explanation to camera, he also talked a bit about the abuse both he and his girlfriend had been suffering, purely because some people out there didn't like him, and thus felt he didn't "deserve" to have a Patreon account, affiliate links, sponsorship deals and suchlike — you know, the means through which a content creator like Wood is able to actually make his passion into his job.
Hearing that this was happening, I found myself wondering how on Earth anyone could behave that way; how on Earth anyone could consider it in the slightest bit appropriate to decide someone wasn't worthy of making a living doing what they enjoy. Unfortunately, I must also confess that many instances of witnessing "boy who cried wolf" situations online led me to want to actually see some evidence of him suffering what he had described — but in this instance, it didn't take long to find some abuse in the comments.
I don't know Wood or his content, as I mentioned above, but he always comes across as a thoroughly pleasant person with a good sense of humour. The raw honesty of his video touched a nerve, and I found myself wondering just what is wrong with people to get him into the emotional state he was in during recording.
Between instances like this, abuse I've suffered myself online (including some from ex-colleagues as well as from organised troll groups) and the generally miserable state of the world in 2019, it's hard not to feel like we really are in that darkest timeline.
Question is, how do we escape it?
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