As a young American, how do I motivate myself to work? It feels like the entire system is a scam and it's pointless to even try.
As a young American, how do I motivate myself to work? It feels like the entire system is a scam and it's pointless to even try.
It feels all but certain that I won't be able to enjoy a prosperous life or get to retire. All of the wealth is going straight to the top. All of the opportunities to move up in the world are being rug-pulled. All of the federal agencies that help keep us safe and healthy are gone. The social safety net is getting flushed down the toilet. We will live in disease and squalor, and the most vulnerable of us will die.
Because I dared to not be a sociopath, I and anyone else who voted for sanity will be deemed enemies of the state and hunted down - which won't be hard, because it would be trivial to build the most robust surveillance state in human history if it doesn't exist already.
I myself have disabilities (which I don't think qualify for benefits) that make it hard, but not impossible, to find a job. The problem is that I just can't bring myself to do it because I don't get what the fucking point is anymore. I have to work so hard to get out of this rut just for some fascist fuck to kill me or toss me into a torture facility before I can even experience life on my own.
Have you been in a similar headspace and were able to escape it? If so, what snapped you out of it?
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Honestly, it sounds like you've been spending too much time in some online communities that are doom posting about everything. Do things suck right now? Yes, but they've literally sucked for as long as human society has existed. Things can always be better, or always be worse. However you can't just sit around passively waiting for the times to change, or your life will suck.
The single biggest factor in whether your life is good or not is you and your actions. Don't let things outside of your control convince you to give up. Do the best with what you have, and I promise you that you can find fulfillment and happiness in the life available to you.
However there definitively have been times that were better before they got much worse, and I'd argue that today is one of those times
On big difference today has compared to, say, 10 years ago, is that 10 years ago there was much more hope for.. well.. hope. Today? Well, things are going to get much worse before they get better, if they ever do.
There is nothing that says the future must always get better just because historically it for the most part have. Sometimes the most rational thing to do is to indeed prepare for the possibility that things will get much worse. Otherwise you end up with a situation like how people today wonder why more Jews didn't move out from pre-war germany
Honestly, it sounds like you’ve been spending too much time in some online communities that are doom posting about everything. Do things suck right now? Yes, but they’ve literally sucked for as long as human society has existed.
Ah. I was worried for a second he may have been stuck in places that are only pessimistic doom posting. Good to know that life sucks now, and has always sucked. That's the positive message we need right now.
Either that or a god damned pitchfork.....
Yeah.... it feels like what my mother used to say when I was a kid. "People have it worse than you in <insert country here>." Like okay, things suck and have always sucked. Doesn't really nullify his feelings though that they suck right now and they're having a hard time. Just feels kinda dismissive. The rest of it is fine but that part just bugs me.
It's contextualizing, things suck, that's real and gets acknowledged, not dismissed, they can suck more and probably do for other people, this is also real. It doesn't make the suck you are experiencing magically better but it does put into a wider context and helps to show that you, likely, aren't at rock bottom without any hope. Your actions and headspace matter. They won't magically make everything great, but they can easily be the difference between bad and legitimately "ok" or better.
People think that problems shouldn't exist, and that the authorities should have fixed it, and it's killing their motivation to live.
There is no authority. There is how you want to live your life, and who you want to be. We are in the anarchy. You live your live according to your principles, and that works for you or doesn't. We all want and can sometimes even have a nice situation, but underneath it, nature is metal - and we haven't "grown out of it".
You're right, I've definitely been doomscrolling way too much.
I think the biggest thing holding me back is the idea that it is too late to do anything because my life could effectively be over in less than a few months. I see lots of people dooming about fascist purges and the end of societal function and think, "Well, how do I know for sure that they're wrong? I don't know enough about society to make a solid prediction either way."
And so my brain thinks "There is a reasonable chance that my life is over (or at least the ladder to make any life progress gets pulled up) in a few months. If everything I do is all for naught, then why bother?" It's a belief that I have no long-term agency.
I think that in order to move forward, I have to disprove the idea of me being targeted in a fascist purge and complete economic collapse happening anytime soon with reasonable certainty. Are those sound predictions, or are they just nightmares dreamt up by a bunch of armchair historian doomers exaggerating how quickly these things happen? Is the theory that the "day one mass deportations" include all known political dissidents actually possible, or are the logistics too insane to work? That's what I have to figure out, or else I will likely continue to believe that I am helpless.
In other words, I think it's quite plausible that I'm reading misinformation, but the fact that I don't know it for sure is preventing me from dismissing it outright.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply!
First off, let me say that I see a close to zero chance that society will collapse in a matter of months or that there will be mobs out to kill disabled people.
America has reached a turning point and is certainly starting to spiral, but these kinds of radical changes you're talking about take a long time to happen. People revolt violently when they can no longer afford bread, and the US is nowhere close to that.
Quality of life is declining, job opportunities are diminishing, but America is so far away from bread lines that it's just not going to happen in the short term. Remember the elites DON'T WANT social collapse. That's very bad for business! They will gamble with our future and with the prosperity of the country for a little more over and over, but they want to keep the system up and held together with duct tape as long as possible or their profits fall too.
So yes, there is real turmoil, but nothing is coming to an end tomorrow, next month, or next year. Keep educating yourself, but stay positive and do what you can to enact change.
I recommend the It Could Happen Here podcasts from after election day. I'm not caught up, but the three I listened to acknowledge the terror of the situation we're in while also trying to put things like mass deportation in context. It's going to be so unbelievably expensive. So no I don't think dissidents like you or myself are on the list, yet.
Just my 2 cents, but the logistics part is substantial. Our jails and prisons are already overflowing (with the highest incarceration rate of the global north) so there's no quick process that is feasible. We should have plenty of warning as to what's coming down the works... as for having the means and ability to do anything about it? We shall see.
You're not helpless unless you don't take action. Build your community and celebrate the small wins. Find meaningful work(even volunteering) and build more connections to others. Having some of that to fall back on has kept me saner lately, and now I'm driven to focus more on that, least for the short term.
Consider the fact that you can change your life slowly with concerted effort. It helps me!
Yeah this is catastophizing. Sure it’s bad. Does it mean certain death? No. Is it the quest country to live in? Certainly not. Just stay focused. Find the best job you can, and don’t be a slave to them. It’s business, not family. You’ll make it through. While you’re making some money and have some mental and financial bandwidth, think about your next move. Be patient and try not to panic. It’s going to be okay in the long term.