Fatalistic describes a person, a look, a shrug, a sentence, a whole mood: it means they are thinking like a fatalist. A fatalistic attitude says, ‘Nothing I do will change this.’ Writers like the word because it paints a picture — a fatalistic smile, a fatalistic silence — without a long explanation. It is about outlook, not about dying. A fatalistic comment after you miss a bus is ordinary talk; a fatalistic view of a whole country is heavier, and people may argue with it. The word is a little grown-up and essay-like, but you will also hear it in news when someone describes a crowd that has stopped hoping. Though actually, people call themselves realistic when others hear them as fatalistic: the line between ‘I cannot fix this today’ and ‘nothing ever changes’ is easy to cross, and easy to argue about.