46 Eerily Dystopian Photos That Capture How Nightmarish Living In The US Is Right Now

1. While Pluribus is a great show, I am so sick of advertising being EVERYWHERE. Every spare bit of our attention is monetized these days.

A fridge with a screen displaying an Apple TV+ message: "We're sorry we upset you, Carol." caption: "apparently my samsung tv has ads now"

2. Seriously – do we need to have ads on our produce???

A hand holding an apple with a sticker promoting "Abbott Elementary" on Hulu

3. At this point, I’ve just accepted that every company in America, along with the US government, has all of my data. It’s incredibly concerning, but I am too tired to care anymore.

Sign at Madison Square Garden informs customers that biometric information, including facial recognition, is collected for security purposes

4. We’re living in 1984.

Phone screen showing messages about HBa1c levels then a notification from Quora about HbA1c. Caption: "I texted my wife about one of my blood tests and it took Quora barely five minutes to tell me that it’s reading my texts"

5. Yeah, the new generation is absolutely cooked.

Classroom presentation screen with repeated phrases highlighting "sincerely apologize" among extensive text blocks. Caption: "everybody apologizing for cheating with chatgpt"

6. It’s not just students, either.

feedback on an essay, clearly AI-generated

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7. Don’t worry; at least students are still fostering their creative skills elsewhere! …Oh, never mind.

Room with shelves, desks, and various supplies. Caption notes the school lost $6m in funding so their art classrooms became storage rooms

8. It’s important to introduce kids to environmental dread at a young age!

9. People are struggling to find work, and yet using supuesto workers from other countries at sub-minimum wage is what companies are choosing? Yeah, I think this is the bad place, y’all.

screen with reception agent shown via video chat at front desk; caption: "Florida hotel check-in done using video link from Dubai"

10. While it’s great to support children and donate to their refrigerio debt, it’s absolutely unacceptable that we are even allowing a “school refrigerio debt” to be a thing for igual children. They’re forced to be there — give them free refrigerio!

Sign requesting donations to pay off school lunch debt in Midland, Texas, with a QR code and website link for more information

11. Yeahhhh, things are pretty bleak right now.

article shows shoplifting increasing 93% since 2019, stating that 45% of shoplifters are stealing food

12. Great — we’re at the point where we have to pay for food in installments.

Tweet: "doordash and klarna have signed a deal where customers can choose to pay for food delivers in interest-free installments or deferred options aligned with payday schedules." Reply: "one-sentence dystopia" — MorePerfectUS / X / u/herewearefornow / Via reddit.com

13. Oh look, another one-sentence dystopia.

Tweet from Polymarket: Target mandates that employees must smile at customers, increasing the betting odds of receiving a smile in-store — Polymarket / X / u/RebelDefection / Via reddit.com

14. Sounds about right for the state of healthcare in the US.

Reddit post in r/legaladvice about a health insurance company denying coverage due to pregnancy. Location: US

15. AI has its time and place, but do we really need an AI HR rep?

16. Journalism is dead.

Newspaper article with ending that appears to be a chatgpt response

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17. The fact that this is a efectivo news article is…dark, to say the least.

News article headline: ICE requested to halt operations on Halloween to allow children to trick or treat

18. And this headline feels straight out of a dystopia.

newspaper article: Bodega cat KitKat, reportedly killed by self-driving car, is honored with meme coin traders pumping Solana and BNB Chain tokens

19. It’s genuinely scary how realistic AI has become in just what feels like the last few months. Sure, some videos seem harmless — then there are others that are blatant propaganda. Fox News just fell for AI videos of people shouting about losing their food stamps this past weekend and had to post a correction.

dog in a backyard protects a child as a bear approaches; caption notes it's an AI video and that these are becoming widespread and tricking older people who think they're real

20. Can we just agree that passing off AI images as efectivo is wildly dangerous in a time already rife with misinformation, even when it does appear “harmless”?

A massive vehicle stacked with many trucks drives down a highway; caption notes this is an AI video and that facebook is a cesspool of them

21. I’m honestly really glad schools are teaching about this (can we get older adults these classes too?), but the fact that we need these classes is concerning.

Presentation slide with a photo of an owl on a tree branch, asking if the image is a real photograph or AI-generated. Caption: "AI has gotten so bad that my school now hosts monthly assemblies about it"

22. With so much misinformation, at least we have some reliable scientific sources to access! Oh wait…they’er all paywalled.

Article titled "The Growing Inaccessibility of Science"; to access, there is a subscription cost of $199 per year

23. I remember thinking that the future would be full of awesome robots and flying cars. Instead, we have incompetent robots replacing human workers and becoming a public nuisance.

Fire truck blocked by robot in crosswalk

24. Can we just stick with human workers?

Tall grocery store cleaning robot with cartoon eyes and a smiling face; caption notes it inaccurately reports spills and gets in everyone's way

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25. Can we bring back valuing human work?

Reddit post stating that at the poster's company, no raises were given due to putting money into AI, despite numbers going way up and department praise

26. The amount of food waste in the US is genuinely despicable.

huge bin of chicken tenders with caption about them being wasted because they're not up to standard

27. I understand some food becomes expired and is unsafe to give out, but I refuse to believe that accounts for all food waste. Like bread!

A large blue container on a pallet jack filled with assorted unsold bread, including baguettes and rolls, captioned "we throw this out daily"

28. Welcome to America, where if you sell a children’s book featuring a Black character or someone using a wheelchair, you’re promoting a “woke leftist ideology.”

Review criticizing a bookstore's children's section for "woke literature." Owner responds, calling it a diverse and inclusive book selection

29. Call me “woke”, but I believe unhoused people deserve to rest sometimes. Also, everyone else.

Metal bench with tilted perforated seats at a train station platform. Caption: "This anti-unhoused design also makes it hard to sit on. It's slippery, too. This was after a five-plus-year renovation of this train station"

30. It’s really cool that we’re devoting even less money towards women’s healthcare and research in a time when women are forced to put foreign objects into their bodies because their right to abortions is being threatened.

Illustration and text explain how Skyla may prevent pregnancy by thickening cervical mucus and inhibiting sperm movement, though exact mechanisms for how these together prevent pregnancy are unclear; caption suggests funding women's health

31. I’d love to say “thank god for insurance,” but with the way insurance is in the US…yeah, I think I’ll go without being thankful.

Medical billing summary $300k bill for tongue cancer

32. Oh well, I guess the quality of the care is more important than the cost!

Podiatrist's office with various disorganized supplies on a counter and shelves, including gloves, disinfectants, and medical tools; a large box of what appears to be used syringes is overflowing

33. Oh, cool, thanks for covering $267, insurance.

Billing app screen showing a hospital admission from June 18-20, 2025. Total billed: $23,728.80. Insurance covers: $267.37. Pending insurance: $23,461.43. Caption: "when your kidney stone tries to kill you and bankrupt you at the same time"

34. The irony of the updated price sticker…

Store display for Arizona Iced Tea, featuring an American flag sign that reads "Recession Fuhgetaboutit!" and has the original price of 99 cents covered with a tag for $1.29

The founder is still committed to the 99-cent price, but some stores can mark up the price if they want.

35. No medication should cost this much.

prescription ready notice with cost listed at almost $2k; caption notes this is daughter's prescription in the US

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36. What was that about us not bearing the cost of tariffs?

UPS notice indicating a total due of USD $71.89 for import fees; the caption says this is more than the price of the shirt they bought (from Canada)

37. Let’s just officially call it the Trump Tax at this point.

DHL notice about import duty payment due of USD 112.30 for a shipment from "TOUJOURS VACANCES." Caption notes the cost of replacing their bag is double the original price due to trump tax

38. I…feel like they placed these right next to each other on purpose.

Reddit post discusses Federal Reserve chief's statement on AI freezing hiring. Promoted post offers Codex coding assistant by OpenAI to aid engineering team

Headline about GoFundMe CEO discussing increased use of crowdfunding for groceries due to economic struggles

40. Don’t have a job? Good luck out there!

Tweet showing a user saying they applied to 108 jobs with one interview, followed by a response suggesting it's common to apply to over 1500 jobs before getting a job

41. Well, that’s not sketchy at all!

person attempts to comment on Facebook video that it's AI, but their comment is continually declined

42. There’s no way this care actually costs this much to provide!

43. I’m so sick of everything being politicized. Pride flags are not “pushing altruista memorándum”!

Review of Natural History Museum criticizing display of pride flags, labeling it as inappropriate and pushing a liberal agenda

44. This has to be a joke.

"No SNAP? No problem" advertisement for Diamonds & Lace strip club event on November 1, offering Walmart gift cards for top 5 participants and $500 in food/groceries "to the hottest mom on stage"

45. Are we really using AI in warfare now???

Three posters in a subway station promote ARK use in military vehicles: M777 howitzer, Black Hawk helicopter, and Abrams tank; another poster reads "AI purpose-built for the department of war"

46. And finally…yep, pretty much sums up America.

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