Here is some more for you.
When my grandfather was born, his father was crippled from fighting in the Civil War. A compound fracture of the leg, when he was HIT BY A GODDAMN CANNONBALL at the age of 10, when he was carrying gunpowder to Union troops, resulted in his leg being removed.
My grandfather fought in World War I and World War II. During WWI he was gassed, and suffered serious scarring in his lungs, his face, and his arms/legs. At one point he was buried in the trench when artillery collapsed it. He came to buried in mud, blood, and corpses, and clawed his way up only to encounter phosphene gas which almost killed him.
During World War II the ship he was on to play poker with "the squids" was sunk at Pearl Harbor, and he fought in the Pacific campaign, for a period of time running a flame thrower.
He was #10 out of TWENTY children. Of those children, only 13 survived to their teenage years. Cholera, smallpox, German Measles, farming accidents. By the time he was 50, he had exactly 3 brothers and 2 sisters left. Some of his sisters died in childbirth. His first wife died in childbirth, and only 1 of the triplets survived to teenage years. His second wife lived to almost 80.
He was only 5' 4", had suffered from poor nutrition during his life, was toothless by 1935.
My father was born in 1925, sixth child and fourth boy that had survived, and had a 2nd grade education (he was a farm boy, and he joined the military in 1941) and worked on the family farm. He worked starting as soon as he could walk, and by the time he was 13 was working from before dawn to after dusk. Medical care wasn't a huge deal, and he had a huge X-shaped scar where the doctor had removed his appendix FOUR DAYS after it burst.
When my father was born, is was customary not to name the child for the first year or two, just in case they died. His brothers and sisters died of such things as infections (His twin sister died at the age of 5 from a cut that became infected on her hand), diseases that are pretty much stopped cold by herd immunity, accidents that now would be easily preventable or the injuries fixed.
The only book my Grandfather read, up until post World War 2 was the Bible. Even then, he would have been considered illiterate by today's standards. Things that he did as a kid for enjoyment required other people, or physical exertion, and that was IF he had the energy after he got done working on the farm. He had very little free time, and it wasn't uncommon, toward the tail end of winter, for him to often be hungry.
My father remembered what it was like to go to bed hungry often, and remembered people standing in long lines for a bowl of soup that was little more than broth with a few chunks of old vegetables and some 5 day old meat.
Food poisoning was a very real thing. There was no refrigeration on the farm my father grew up on until 1944 (My grandmother saved up Green Stamps for a LONG time to be able to get the first "mechanical Icebox" and had to wait 3 months for it to be delivered. The farm didn't have electricity until the month before the fridge showed up) so food had to be canned, salted, or eaten before it went bad.
If you saw a steak that was greyish, would you eat it? Now, most people would throw it away. Back then, you fried it and ate it.
To quote Chris Rock: "Don't eat red meat? No. Don't eat GREEN meat."
All of the males in my father's generation that were too young to go to WW-II worked either on the farm, or at a local factory making bolts for the Department of War. We're talking conditions that would have the factory shut down today. My Uncle Roger had a scar on his back from when he was under the big machine (I forget what it was called) and it threw a gear, smashing into his back and breaking three ribs. He almost died. To top it off, the two bolts that got lodged in his lung? The factory charged him for them out of his paycheck, so he didn't get paid for a week. That's right. A week's pay for two fucking bolts. One of my aunts died when her sleeve was caught by the machine she was working next to and it YANKED HER ARM OFF, and she bled out, on the factory floor, at the age of 9.
If my father wanted something, he had to ask his mother to buy it, then had to wait 2-4 months for it to arrive. Even then, while $18.50 for a Remington .30-.30 lever action sounds fantastic, when he wasn't working on the farm, he worked in a nearby slaughterhouse and made a whopping $1.50 a week, before taxes and deductions.
Now, why did I show you all of this? Because you need to realize just how fucking good you have it.
You have abundant food. You aren't dropping out of ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to help support the family when goddamn locusts wipe out the year's crop and the bank is talking about taking your farm. You don't even have to go outside for entertainment. Education is a RIGHT and mandatory, not something that only some people get if they are lucky.
You have immunizations to protect you from diseases that made millions ill each year, and killed tens of thousands every year. You've never been exposed to Cholera, German Measles, Smallpox, trichinosis, botulism, rubella, and other diseases that are either kept at bay by proper food handling and storage (trichinosis and botulism), or are nearly wiped out by immunization, herd immunities, and inoculations.
Did you even GET chickenpox growing up? Or are you young enough that you got the immunization before you ever got it? Do you have the scar on your shoulder like I do from smallpox immunization?
In school, have you EVER been sent the principals office, had to bend forward with your hands on the desk, and then been beaten with a paddle for acting out in class? Have you ever had your hand tied to the desk to teach you not to be left handed?
How many times have you gone to bed hungry because your activity required more nourishment than what you had to eat could provide? How many things do you not eat because "you don't like them" and haven't heard the words "Eat or go hungry" and so eaten something you can't stand because it's that or an empty belly? Do you have to help can food? Do you get fresh fruit in the winter and spring?
Do you drink from an unfiltered well? Have you ever had to use an outhouse in the middle of the night? Have you ever had to wash your clothing in a washer with a mechanical wringer and then hung those clothes on a line to dry?
Has your Mom or Dad or even your teacher hauled off and busted you one across the mouth for "being smart" or spanked you with an open hand or an object for not doing your work or acting out?
If you want entertainment, is the Bible the only book you have to read? Can you read? If you want to have fun, do you have to either amuse yourself like something like a hoop and a stick, or little airplanes you made from scrap, or exploring by yourself? Do you have to play with siblings or neighbors or kids from school, making up your own games, you own rules?
If you want to go somewhere, do you have to hitch up the horses? Do you wear clothing you've already worn a few days by choice, or because it isn't your turn for laundry?
Have you ever been injured and treated at home for something like a major gash or dislocated joint? Or do you go to the ER for an upset stomach and headache?
Look at your fucking life. Look at how healthy you actually are. Look at how much food is in your kitchen. Look at how clear the water is coming out of your faucets. Go in and take a hot shower, and revel in the fact you have hot water, indoor plumbing, and aren't the third child to use the bath water.
How many siblings do you have? I'll bet it's nothing like as little as 100 years ago, where children helped worked the farms and tend the animals.
Does your TV have static and more than 1-4 channels (Counting UHF, do you know what that was?), hell, do you even have a TV? Have you ever listened to a radio show or had to wait to hear your favorite song till the DJ got around to playing it because there was NO OTHER OPTION you had?
If you want to talk to someone who doesn't live near you, are you paying $0.10-$150 a minute? Can you talk to friends in a war zone in real time? When was the last time you mailed a letter to a friend and eagerly awaited the return letter in a month or so?
How are the stores in your area? Do you have more than one? Do you have to order everything from a catalog? Do you have to hunt for more food, or raise your own animals? Is your father working 10-16 hours a day in horrible conditions for almost no pay, while your mother does little jobs for other people for like a quarter?
How about other countries RIGHT NOW, with no clean water, no electricity, no doctors, crushing poverty where the only hope is to have enough kids to make sure the family survives. Nations where there is no such thing as human rights, accountability of police and community members, where there are child brides, gang rapes, systematic rape, murder, brutality, torture of political opponents and their supporters, where fear and terror (not media generated fear, but fear of someone actually killing you) is a valid political tool.
Don't tell me life is shit and the world is a terrible place.
Tell me it's terrible when your best friend has the measles, or fucking polio, and you had to write me a letter to tell me how shitty your life was.
Until then, just remember, your life is very very sweet. You are living in a nation where the rule of law is upheld with the lofty goal of justice being equal for everyone regardless of race, sex, religion, economic class, or political beliefs. (No, we haven't reached that yet, but most nations work at constantly)
Go outside, and realize that your life is very good, very sweet, and very privileged.
Stop hanging out on web forums and chat rooms where your world view is just constantly reinforced. Try leaving the echo-chamber of the internet and engage REAL PEOPLE in real conversation. Don't dismiss someone just because they don't agree with you 100%. Make a friend who has different beliefs than you, but you are both able to be civil about your differences, instead, focusing on your common beliefs.
Stop sitting in your comfortable, climate controlled room, with all of your toys, crying Woe is Me! as you're surrounded by luxuries and things you don't even think of.
Go outside. Meet real people.
And stop goddamn crying.
