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?
Don’t think too much, you get depressed. Do like everyone else, buy shit you don’t need and get likes on social media by bored strangers.
And watch Fight Club.
TL;DR: The following is going to be dark and harsh but it all comes down to one thing. Life doesn’t get better, you get better at dealing with shit. Hang in there.
You need to disconnect and find a way to focus on you.
It feels like the entire system is a scam and it’s pointless to even try.
It has always been a game where the only way to win is to cheat. Always.
It feels all but certain that I won’t be able to enjoy a prosperous life or get to retire.
The system is not setup with rest (retirement) as its main goal. The system is setup for you to play until you die. Even if you hoard more money than you and your descendants could possibly spend in a hundred years, you would likely still want to play, because you are winning. If your end goal is mere prosperity and retirement, then you should prepare to be under the boot and a slave until you die.
All of the wealth is going straight to the top.
Always has been the case. It hasn’t stopped people from finding a way.
All of the opportunities to move up in the world are being rug-pulled.
This has always been the case. You have to make your own opportunities and expect others to drag you down. We are all crabs in a bucket.
All of the federal agencies that help keep us safe and healthy are gone. The social safety net is getting flushed down the toilet.
Fantasy. These things has never existed in this country. At best, FDR gave us a yoga mat to land on when we fall off a cliff, where before it was a bed of nails. Fall hard enough in this country and you will get wrecked no matter what. It has always been that way.
We will live in disease and squalor, and the most vulnerable of us will die.
Same as it ever was.
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.
Take a breath. Here is a truth that will sound harsh but it is meant as a kindness. You do not matter. Just about nobody knows you exist. Nobody is coming to get you. This fact applies to almost everyone.
Since all we can do is live the life we perceive with the meat in our skull, we tend to see ourselves as the main character in the story of life. We’re not. We barely qualify for NPC status.
I myself have disabilities (which I don’t think qualify for benefits) that make it hard, but not impossible, to find a job.
That’s a problem, I am sorry. All problems have a solution, but one unlikely to be found here, with Internet strangers.
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.
Again. Breathe homie. That’s not going to happen.
Have you been in a similar headspace and were able to escape it?
100%…often. I have lived with chronic, sometimes crippling, depression and fairly severe PTSD since 1989. Long story short, a lot of trauma broke my brain. Combo that with ADHD, borderline personality disorder, heart disease and cancer, and we are living the life baby! Still, I have been able survive and rise from poverty to wealth without hurting too many people…I hope.
If so, what snapped you out of it?
Nothing did. I just kept getting up out of spite and contempt for this life. As time went on, i got used to it. The bullshit bothered me less until it just became background noise. A nuisance from time to time.
Wonderful response, and I agree completely. It echoes the thoughts I’ve tried to convey to friends in their 20s, but much more eloquently than I have managed.
you do not matter
You have no idea how much I needed to hear that right now
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.
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.
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.
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!
Consider the fact that you can change your life slowly with concerted effort. It helps me!
A mentor once gave me an exercise to identify my “core values” or goals or motivators. Out of a list of 60, the task was to narrow down over time and conversation to my top 5.
E.g., I value financial stability. Not to be confused with other values of earning high compensation or achieving lofty corporate positions and recognition.
It helped me frame for myself that I’m going to work to be comfortable and stable and beyond that, my motivations lie elsewhere, like spending time with friends and working on personal projects. There are people who put greater value on achieving a high salary or earning the c-suite title or having their names on patents; that’s perfectly valid and great for them, it’s not me and that is also ok.
There are tons of similar exercises online. If it sounds like something that might help you define your perspective on work differently, to narrow it down to you instead of getting overwhelmed with the whole world’s problems, please look into it and good luck.
I hated the idea for the longest time. Then I realized a few things. I changed my outlook of working a hopeless job to a job being a tool for me to get the money I need to live a better life. I also accepted that life isn’t fair and that not all the work I put in will equal the output. It feels like you have to do the work of 10 men to get anywhere. I accepted that and I put myself to work.
Sometimes you just have to get lucky and sometimes you have to grow. I worked many temp jobs and fast food restaurants until figured stuff out and landed a couple decent jobs. I started being able to hold a job for 1 year and then 2 years. I got lucky and found a temp job that decided to hire everyone perm. The catch was they waited to see who would sink or float. I floated. I wouldn’t have floated if I hadn’t had previous life experience.
Look at a job as an avenue or tool to achieve your goals. If you don’t have any goals then just pick something. It could be as simple as you want to save up for something nice. Start small and pick bigger goals as you achieve them. And going back to the job as a tool thing, if you don’t like the tool then get a new one. You wouldn’t use a broken tool to fix something. Sometimes you have a bucket of random tools and you have to pull out a couple before you find the right or that isn’t broken. Whatever to you pick, just try and keep trying. As long as you keep trying, you’ll figure it out.
I would also add to try to improve yourself along the way. Whether it be working on self esteem, how to write a resume, interviewing skills, how to cook, how to improve your finances, how to fix a car, work on a computer… Just work on something. You’ll only help yourself and learn transferable skills along the way.
I don’t have any good advice for you. My company held an all-hands call today during which the CEO said “Now that the election is behind us we can look forward to political stability”, among other equally insane things. You could say I’m feeling pretty down about the whole situation as well.
Get a STEM degree and move to a country that respects its citizens.
As someone that spent half their life very poor, I always take offense with the “just move” answer. Many people, if not most, in the US cannot afford to emigrate. It is also very likely that OP or someone else in their situation, cannot afford to get a STEM degree.
Or other degree that’s also useful, including social work or the arts.
Supply and demand. There’s less people in STEM so they get paid more.
I know it’s easier said than done, but try to find work that actually helps your community, but that you also find fulfilling - child, elderly, and or disabled care, working for a charity doing anything from fundraising to cooking to IT, working in a community centre or library, coaching, teaching, handy-work, gardening, and on and on. The pay may not be as high as it is other places, but at least you’ll know that you’re contributing to your community in a positive way.
Bonus points if the place you work is a non-profit, unionised, a co-op, or generally outside of the existing establishment (E: so not part of the state or a large corporation) - building dual power is imperative to changing society, we need communal structures and networks to fall back on once this shit collapses. You can be part of that.
Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!
E: while we’re here, Mutual Aid
My kids work because they want money.
It is hard to find a job, even harder to get by without one; I do have some friends who have never been employed exactly, only hustling, working for themselves, with varying results. It’s possible but not probable.
I’m really sorry you are hurting so bad but we can use every sane person, if we give up things just get worse.
If you’re still young and not too much in debt, try to work some fun jobs, like outdoor educator, youth hostels, ski mountain, or whatever floats your boat. Travel around. You don’t have to try to make it in the world right away
OP said that they are disabled.
You can still travel and work a lot of cool jobs depending on the disability. In fact there is a website called cooljobs that helps you find jobs at national parks doing things like working in the gift shop
lots of denial, nicotine, and THC
not a fix but will definitely smooth some of the rough edges out a tiny bit
if all else fails my grandfather says to run in circles screaming and shouting
I feel ya brother. I’m 41 and wondering why the hell im even saving for retirement. I’ll be dead before I’ll ever be able to
It is a scam, in the end it is pointless to try, but you gotta eat, clothe yourself, and it’s warmer indoors, which all necessitate to generate income._
Try to find a job you enjoy from 9-5. That means focusing on activities you enjoy that are the main activity of said job. I worked in a pet store because it afforded me 30% of my time playing with puppies, even though the remaining 70% was cleaning puppy shit and stocking goods. I now work as a therapist because I spend 70% of my time talking to people about their problems (which I enjoy), and 30% doing paperwork and correspondence. Make your job something you enjoy most of them time and it gets much easier. Then, you retire and collect Social Security. As long as you’ve worked for most of your life, that’ll be a decent retirement. You’ll have to live frugally, but it’ll be livable.
Also, if you can manage it, invest $10,000 as early as you can in a stock market index fund and pay for a fund manager. By the time you retire, that will provide you with a substantial cushion to rest on.
Move to a really poor country and meet real people there. Your life will get better, inevitably.
