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Welcome to being poor … I mean poor poor … not the kind of poor where you can’t afford a Lamborghini … the kind of poor where you no longer have any luxuries like being able to go to the movies.
Where life is a constant hassle and struggle to survive. And where you constantly have to fight to stay above water. A kind of life where someone is constantly either trying to screw you, is screwing you or has screwed you. A kind of life where you no longer trust the people you see, the people you meet, or the people you live with. A kind of life where you know from the time you are born that everything and everyone will be hard.
I grew up like that and it became a normal part of life.
I learned to make a bit of money and survive and I’ve done good but not great … good enough to travel the world. It gave me the insight that the majority of the world is poor … I thought that before but after traveling, I realized just how true that really is.
The world we’re complaining about now is the world that most of the world already knows.
Welcome to being poor and hopeless.
I think this is less about being poor or struggling to survive, more about the struggle to find meaning in modern life.
I’m doing well in life. Could certainly be doing better (who couldn’t), but my bills are paid, and there’s food on my table. I don’t worry about these things, and I don’t struggle. But there have certainly been times when I’ve felt the sentiment of the OP. When your needs are met and you feel a sort of emptiness, trying to fill the boredom with the next best dopamine hit. I almost feel like I’m just floating through life, not yearning for, yet waiting for the day it all ends.
10.2% of US households aren’t food secure in the richest country on the planet with limitless food accessibility. I’m pretty sure it is about being poor and struggling to survive.
I don’t disagree with food insecurity being a major issue in the US, I just don’t get the vibe that that’s the topic of the OP.
I once described this to someone as:
You know you’re poor when you realize how bad powdered milk is compared to real milk. You know you’re really, really hungry when powdered milk tastes good.
Hot take: corporatism and infotainment. You control money and information, you control the world.
Major media bodies are owned by corporations or the state, and the state is also owned by corporations, so they functionally control all of it. QED Socialism or barbarism.
Pitchshifter warned us.
I’m safe in the knowledge that we’ll all be saved.
The 90s industrial/nu metal band?
Industrial then switched genres to Industrial Punk, but yeah.
Neat. Just was not at all expecting to see Pitchshifter in this discussion. (sorry I called them nu metal, felt strange to me too)
Yeah, I guess they did warn us. I didn’t really grasp the lyrics when I was younger. Even RATM was lost on me until I hit my 30s…
Man I used to have the dopest pitchshifter wife beater when I was 18
This is the coldest take on Lemmy. Not that it’s wrong, though.
Capitalism
It’s literally just capitalism, Marx called this alienation under capital
Corporatism=literally capitalism
Nope education is the downfall. Teach critical thinking well and you won’t have such a malleable idiotic population that buys into either of those.
Education has been fully taken over by Capitalism. For profit schools and “public schools” which are bound by the same economical principles provide an education that’s solely geared towards producing new employees.
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That’s maybe a part, but not the whole story.
Your (and your parents’, and your peers’) real and perceived economic circumstances and opportunities have a lot to do with what you’ll value and prioritize as an adult - how invested and loyal you’ll be in society. Every poor person we generate due to greedy decisions has a very high likelihood of being a destructive force back to us.
Now consider how many poor people were generated by black slavery, segregation, and explicit racism in America, and how, in a society, we all just swim around in the same trauma soup, deflecting pain towards one another.
Imo greed is an lack of education. As education is ideally schooling +life experience. Part of that critical thinking section needs to be taught by experience and society in the us at least didn’t give anyone enough time to see the world before deciding what to do, how to live and what kind of person you want to be.
Now consider how many poor people were generated by black slavery, segregation, and explicit racism in America, and how, in a society, we all just swim around in the same trauma soup, deflecting pain towards one another.
That’s a nice thought 😳
as an adult
That’s an interesting way to frame things.
Almost none of my well educated professional-managerial class peers have developed class consciousness. They seem to be even more class clueless than blue & pink collar workers.
Education was destroyed by the same people who forced corporate news down our throats.
Correct, but one had to go before the other.
We consume pseudo-food, watch pseudo movies and participate in pseudo sports, heck even pseudo politics. Why pseudo? Because everything is made as cheap as possible and to distract us from the suffering that capitalism brings us so that we won’t rise up.
Examples:
- Our vegetables are genetically modified so that they grow bigger but they can’t reproduce anymore and the seeds are copyrighted.
- The movies that are watching are catered to the mainstream and don’t even really get a message across. Marvel movies try to tell us that rich people with power will save the world
- Football games are there to distract people “give them bread and games and they will never revolt”
- The people at power, through massive propaganda, seperate our people into left and right. These two parties will then fight eachother instead of realizing who is really opressing us
Don’t vote Conservative
Next year will mark my 16th year voting for democrats, all they do is kick the can and move the line. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with saying don’t vote conservative, I do think it’s a bit like saying “CLOSE YOUR WINDOWS” when a tornado is coming. We’re screwed regardless of who we vote for, the only thing that changes is the rate at which we’re screwed; that is why Anon is sick of life.
The Dems can’t do anything without a majority. Give them a true majority where Sinema and Man Chin can’t hold things up. Then stand the fuck back.
Give the Democrats a 4 person majority then 5 conservative Democrats will Hum and Haw about fiscal responsibility to their voters.
It is really up to hard progressives to get in and vote as a block to keep the Dems from passing watered down policy by forcing them to earn the blocks vote with real policies the public already want.
Medicare for all, free college, 20 dollar minimum wage and more all all supported by way more than 50 percent of the country.
The Dems want to lose these fights for their donors they need to be forced to do their job against their donors wishes.
Democrats are also conservatives. If you allow the oligarchs and aristocrats to choose who represents you then they will always choose candidates who rule in their interest. You can’t change this system by playing within the ruleset you’re given. Democratic power can only ever be wielded by unions of workers and communes of citizens. Those organizations combine and concentrate the power of regular people and can effectively wield this against the ruling class.
It’s not even a matter of “Democrat vs Republican” - do you know what they all have in common? They’re all part of the same ruling class you mentioned, and they’re all also helping the corporate owners of America push their agendas.
Like… it’s pretty damn blatant who the GOP are rooting for when you consider what rich asshats like Elongated Muskrat want, and then look at some of the policies they passed and go “oh shit.”
Well, at least you’ve got a heads-up and some choice on how fast you get screwed.
We just got a guy we didnt choose who just suddenly and royally f🇷🇺ks everyone over every few years or so
The FPTP voting system means everyone is held hostage voting for the party they hate the least. If you vote for a third party you just make it more likely the party you hate most will win because the vote is split.
Obviously things still wouldn’t be perfect with a proportional voting system but I think it would take some power away from capitalist oligarchs because we will be able to vote for a party we like without just making the fascists more likely to win. The issue is the only two parties you can realistically vote for are highly incentivised to not change the voting system because they will lose a lot of the power they have.
Or how about everyone who wants to vote 3rd party, votes 3rd party?
I know it’s a little different because my country has proportional voting system, but the first two elections the party I vote for was below the limit to be in a parliament. I still voted for them as did others and now it’s one of the stronger parties.
If everyone who doesn’t like both the parties starts voting 3rd party, you have a chance.
I made the mistake of voting 3rd party in 2016. Massive fucking mistake.
That’s the good 'ol spoiler effect in action lol
Think about it on the constituency level, say you have a constituency with 100,000 people. One year, 60k people vote for party A and 40k for party B so party A wins. But during during the years before the next election people become disenfranchised with party A so they start voting for party C who they like more. In the following election, party A gets 30k votes, party B gets 40k votes again and party C gets 30k votes. Because FPTP is a “winner takes all” system, party B is now takes that constituency which is the the party A and C voters dislike most, even though party B got less votes than those other two. This is called the spoiler effect. When this is happening all over a country, sure maybe some constituencies will flip but for each that does like 30 will have the vote split leading to a probable landslide victory for party B.
Sure in your country, your vote was also “wasted” if your party of choice never entered parliament I suppose (although if you get to choose multiple parties in order of preference where it defaults to your second if the first doesn’t get enough votes then it isn’t wasted) but the ecosystem will be much more favourable to new parties growing because the way the voting system works makes it actually possible for them to do so. So the vote isn’t wasted like it is in FPTP.
CGP Grey has some great videos about FPTP on his channel if you’re interested in a better explanation that I can provide.
The spoiler effect was very evident when Ross Perot ran during the 1992 presidential election which put Clinton in office.
Well yes, that and the epic sax skills effect haha.
Can say the same for progressives! They progressed us so far, we ended up going backwards!
Progressive to me means fair wages, medicare for all, tackling climate change, defending civil rights, protecting against authoritarianism, tackling the wage gap, making government work for all people, etc.
Conservative means insurrection, praising authoritarianism, banning books, attacking public education, idolizing the ultra wealthy, culture wars, gerrymandering, preventing fair elections, etc.
I know what I prefer.
Can you? Examples, please.
Ohh that would almost be clever if it weren’t conservatives dragging the world through their unga bunga bullshit.
We started with hating the gays, then we accepted gays, now we hate straights. See, backwards. “Conservitves”, have been progressing in their own direction, which is not actually conservative but a branch of liberalism that focuses on things like anti abortion and more government control over that as well as border control and anti lgbt. One side of liberalism wants more government control over social things, the other wants government control over economic and state things. By things I mean…whatever those retards are bickering about ATM I’m not sure, thats just my own conclusion.
now we hate straights.
who the fuck is we? why do you hate the straights? explain how this is progressive’s fault that you ‘hate the straights’
now we hate the straights
No idea who hates straight people, but that line alone is telling me you need to touch grass.
by things I mean… whatever those retards are bickering about ATM I’m not sure
No, no, I’m fairly certain you do. Please elaborate on what things you’re talking about in this context.
Some people think of politics as a circle instead of a spectrum, if that’s what you mean.
From what I can tell gay people are getting a lot of hate sent their way lately. Didn’t someone just get shot and killed for having a pride flag.
Yes, an old granny who ran an art gallery.
No one cares about straight people enough to hate us. Spare me your fox news talking points about why we’re actually the most persecuted group in the universe. It’s old hat bullshit.
America is the world.
Lots of places have conservatives for which one should not vote
Turn off the news, and stay away from anything online that lets you or other people comment.
Lose Twitter, Facebook, reddit (or reddit alternatives) and the world will look like a much different place.
Can confirm this. I’ve been trying to set my life up to be as internetless as possible.
I did the same thing. I still am on social media such as lemmy and discord but its mostly to talk to people. And I havent watched the news since I was a child. Important things come your way eventually and I dont see it as being ignorant. Now I only receive information I can actually do something about if I want to.
Sticking your head in the sand will do that. Nothing will actually change but it’ll feel like it’s not there.
Is not being on most social media sticking your head in the sand now? I still read the news and try to stay informed. It’s just not in my face as much anymore. I would consider that a win.
More like “don’t stick your head in a pile oft shit”, ignoring these platforms is not ignoring the world, it’s changing your point oft view, you won’t miss anything of importance.
That’s may be true for you, but a lot of these type sites are a great source for news and information about the world. Ignorance is bliss as they say, but the world keeps spinning whether or not you pay attention to it. I’m not saying you HAVE to get news from social media, but that’s what I primarily use it for.
Social media is for social interaction. There are better alternatives for news. I’d rather invest some money in good journalism than picking relevant news in the flood of garbage click and rage bait articles. There is also good, free of charge journalism out there. For example the guardian
This is so honestly so true. Once I moved my news sources onto an RSS app and left my social media interactions for my hobbies or catching up with people my pessimism decreased dramatically.
News on social media is filled with bad actors, misinformation, and bots deliberately to drive up engagement through outrage. 99% of the time it’s not worth the mental blowback.
If it doesn’t cause you to act, then the news is just entertainment
Covid vaccines made available was the last news that actually changed my behavior. That was like years ago. The rest is just entertainment written to make people scared and angry
Bullshit. Responsible news consumption is how we make informed decisions about the world. It’s a critical part of any democracy which is why Burke called it “the fourth estate.”
That sounds like a ‘you problem’. I change my behaviors and my attitudes accordingly based on what I intake and digest. When McCain first ran against Obama, he was a moderate with decades of experience who had seen the dark side of war and wouldn’t thrust us into one senselessly.
Thanks to the news I saw the rapid conversion of a formerly moral politician into someone who would say anything for power.
When the situation in Maui came up I donated as I have in the past to people affected by disasters.
Should you assume information that doesn’t affect you personally is irrelevant or are you willing to step down from your Main Character title card?
You get a lot of information, but it isn’t news relevant to your life. It’s information meant to upset and disturbing you so that you pay attention to it, not because it’s a threat to you, but because then the website can get paid for pushing advertisements for products you don’t need under your eyeballs.
Give it a shot for a month or so. Stay off social media, only use direct contact communication with your friends and loved ones. Instead of news, talk to them about anything else. The world indeed will keep spinning, but you don’t need to know to worry about every little turn. It’ll be in the same place when you’re done with your break and your observation of it won’t change the trajectory.
I appreciate the concern and know about the potential negative consequences. But with all due respect, you don’t know me or the type of news I seek out or how I feel about it. I prefer to know what’s going on around me and the world so I can work towards making impactful changes. That doesn’t mean everyone else has to but it works well for me.
Sorry but I don’t have the ability to stop caring how the world is doing
Sorry in advance for the unsolicited advice, but if you’re a news junkie (like me), try out an RSS feed reader (Feedly, Inoreader, Newsblur is a FOSS option).
You get to bypass the comment section of social media while still being aware of what is going on around you. I use Ino because it’s cross platform. It makes it super easy to subscribe to anything from Nature to Vogue to my local news affiliate, and it has a trending section, as well as curated groups for hobbies/interests and your work industry as well.
You don’t have to stop caring about the world in order to live without social media.
Nah you’re right, but I’m always curious what people think too haha
I understand, good luck with it and I hope you can find peace of mind later in life.
If you have the opportunity, you might wanna try fishing. It’s a great way to step away from the information overload and just enjoy what’s around you. It’s cheap and accessible, as long as you’re near water, and it’s quite rewarding to spend a few hours casting away in nature.
I’ve considered fishing, but the equipment is expensive, and all the closest locations are pretty far. When I need to chill I just play a game or go for a smoke.
I think it’s more just reducing the overload, not really hiding. An information vacation.
A healthy diet, if you will. Fastfood is okay once in a while but eating it all the time just as tiring to one’s body as clickbait information to one’s head.
We’ll have a Dalmatian plantation!
Arguably that’s one of (though not all of) the reason for so many people not voting. They think if they disengage, then that’ll fix the problem. When in reality they’re just allowing the problem to get worse and pretending there isn’t a problem.
This is like you breaking up with a toxic girlfriend and she tells you “oh yeah well other people are still gonna date me idiot!”
Somewhere around 20 years ago/b/ was one of the first aggressively “us vs them” communities I was ever exposed to, and it only got worse from there.
You’re crazy, /b/ wasn’t around 20 years ago… I mean, it only recently started in the early ‘00s!
…oh no
A lot of chud energy has understandable sources but is funneled anywhere and everywhere but against the ruling class.
It was leaving the trees that did it, really.
Nah we should have stayed in the water.
Personally, I blame the amoeba that decided he wanted to have more cells than everyone else. All of human greed stemps from that selfish bugger.
I’ve found that disconnecting helps. Leave your phone at home and go out. Chat with the guy you see every day at the grocery store. Go play chess or pétanque in the park with a friend. You don’t have to do this too often, and you’ll feel less like a product yourself.
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Especially the elderly in my experience. The generation that used to tell us not to believe everything we see on the internet is now glued to Facebook.
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My parents use Wechat
Dear Faust. I’m not sure what worse.
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I don’t use any of those, but if you are not in China and will never visit it, then Wechat maybe fine for you. Build your own threat model.
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Addiction is a lot easier when you make the surroundings more hellish and thus the substance more palatable
I am with Anon. It’s all kinda surreal now. But I’m gonna live it up the way I know how.
Sometimes it’s fun to try doing things differently, but I sort of agree with you. As time goes on it’s harder and harder to break ourselves of our habits
Give into the hate, anon. Join the sixth.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the system we’ve built to buy and sell products, owning, trading and hoarding capital? No, that can’t be it…
The constant revamping of the production process, the uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, and the everlasting uncertainty and agitation of society distinguish the bourgeois era from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relationships, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away. All new-formed relationships become outdated before they can solidify. All that is fixed melts into air, all that is sacred is profaned, and people are at last compelled to face with sober senses their real conditions of life, and thier relations with each other.
-Some guy, in some manifesto, in 1848
We live in a simulation
Nothing is real
bury head in sand
Sleep
Until you realize simulated pain still hurts.
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Escapism in the 21st century.
