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?
Lots of pessimism in USA right now, huh?
I think this is quite common for half of USA to feel this way when the other party wins the election. This is due to electoral system you have, which has very a side effect of very strong negative campaign. So if you believe one party whole wold will go to hell if the other party wins.
But the world will not go to hell. In my probably less affected opinion nothing this bad will happen:
- Although Trump had some tendencies to overthrow the voting system, such tendencies are usually gone when people win the election.
- No one will start concentration camps
- Trump is very bad at keeping his promises (where it the famous wall?)
- No one will prosecute others just for what they were voting. It is impossible to know who voted what. Also why would Trump want to start internal war? There is no support for such war. Etc. Etc. So no. The worst case scenario is not possible. Your system has way to many safety mechanism for whole country or world would go to hell. And a lot of people who voted for Trump are not that extreme. So there is no support for the most extreme policies.
About the work though. Under any government positive or negative changes are quite slow to implement. In many countries there is a housing crisis. And even if in my country government is bound to fix this issue it will take 10 or more years to fix it. So my generation will have to find a place to live somewhere in current market conditions.
So in any case it is very bad strategy to hope for the government to fix your personal issues like your housing, your salary, your job, your dating, your happiness. On those you have to work by yourself. And I can assure you the difference you can make on your life is enormous.
To fill you with some optimism you can try to write a list on what you life would look like if you really try to improve it. And yes of course live the politics out of it and focus only on your life and changes you can affect.
For my personal escape it made the most difference to become more optimistic:
- By practicing gratitude
- By always trying to look on the bright side of thing. I believe those things make the most difference. Because imo happiness comes from thinking you have awesome life.
I don’t know, I’m in the UK and feel similarly.
america is a capitalist country, or so i read and heard. money should be the motivator here.
and i also see your point. the general trend of money is to move upward. your fighting chance is to get the money to stay longer in your hands for you to benefit before it gets sucked up.
all i can say here is don’t stay too much on the bigger things. more likely, you will not have control for any of those. focus on the smaller things you can change on the dailies.
MVW… Minimal Viable Work. Companies think only they can deliver shit? Just deliver the bare minimum… as they don’t the customers.
Companies don’t care us, why should we care about them.
You know what’s better than the bare minimum? Give your work more than they expect, but keep some of your potential to yourself. Only give work 70% and keep that other 30% of yourself for yourself. You get all of the benefits of being an overachiever with none of the drawbacks.
You know your job is as safe as it can be because you’re exceeding expectations, and you can reap the bonuses and pride that brings but you still have remaining capacity to do more in your personal time. Plus if you’re not completely applying yourself every day you can hit the grindstone on a really bad day when SHTF and really come out looking like a hero
I enjoy eating and air conditioning. Gotta work for it.
Yeah, I mean it all really depends on how you define work… people don’t usually quantify their free time properly
I work because I enjoy healthcare, food, and shelter. The system has always been rigged, so you just have to find something you enjoy (or can tolerate doing). Ideally try to think about things that make you happy and can pay you, and maybe try doing something in that field.
When I go on vacation to tropical states there are always some overly tanned boat captains that just drive drunk tourists around and get paid decently well for it. I always think about those guys when I’m having a hard day at work, “man, they sure figured it out”
lots of denial, nicotine, and THC
not a fix but will definitely smooth some of the rough edges out a tiny bit
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.
you do not matter
You have no idea how much I needed to hear that right now
But society has to find you good enough to utilize, no? How does one manage that, when innate metrics like appearance is a huge part of it?
Barring special circumstances, the looks you are born with matter very little. What matters more is your presentation.
First, take care of your skin suit. It is the only one you own, it’s the one you have to wear, and it is the one everyone else interacts with. Hygiene. Grooming. Basic fitness. This doesn’t mean that you have to have a specific body type. This means that whatever body type you have, it has to be healthy. You can be heavy built and be fit and healthy. If you do not take care of yourself, why would some trust you to take care of them or their stuff?
Second, you have to prepare excessively. I always assume that I am not ready, so I over prep. Being prepared fills you with confidence. Being confident makes other comfortable and helps them trust you. There is no such thing as being too ready.
Third, keep your mouth shut and listen. Do not just hear…listen. This helps you better understand your situation, what others need, what to avoid, etc. When you do finally open your mouth, speak clearly, succinctly, and with confidence because you now know what is needed and you came prepared.
Bottom line is that, like all magic tricks, it is all about the prep work.
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.
I feel you, but you need to remember that the world is generally a pretty chaotic place and predicting the future when complex systems pass tipping points and transition to new equilibria (as they are at the moment) is pretty difficult.
Invest in yourself, your ability to cope with new and unfamiliar things, and build resilience. Resilience being the ability to bounce forward when you hit rocky patches. Don’t expect to bounce back and end up where you left off, but learn to adjust to the chaos where you need to.
Develop your capabilities until you have a sense of being a competent, worthwhile and dependable person outside of the circus going on around us. Someone that isn’t quite so dependent on the big bad system we are often forced to be part of.
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._
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If it is the election results that are making me feel this way. I try to be optimistic even about that. I imagine what if the party I did not vote for, manages to do the good things they promised. In USA example would it not be awesome if Trump actually manages to end some wars (in at least somehow fair way)?
Your mistake is assuming the actual definition of “a fair way” and what Trump means by it are so far apart from each other it’s not even funny.
For him the “fair way” for Ukraine is for them to submit and lick Putin’s boot, and have their eastern regions subjected to the full scale cultural genocide already in effect.
For him the “fair way” for Palestine is naked ethnic cleansing and genocide.
So yeah, it would in fact not be awesome for those things to happen.
You are describing the worst case scenario. This is not how optimism works.
There’s a difference between optimism and delusion
Optimism is good
Delusion is not
The optimistic view is that’s the worst that happens.
You know this is not true. And I believe it is also harmful responding this in a post of someone who is struggling with doom/pessimistic thinking.
Frankly it is. It’s a shame you’ve deluded yourself into believing otherwise.
Delusion is not the answer to doom and pessimism. You prepare for the worst, you hope for the best, and you keep doing the best you can with the things you have. But you sure as fuck do not delude yourself.
i remember what happened last time.
i remember almost losing the most important person in the world to me as a direct result of that asswipe.
i expect even worse than what i could possibly come up with on my own.
I get the sense from your wording that you might be in the younger end of the spectrum. Although the world can feel pretty shitty and messed up, it’s often worth remembering “this too shall pass”. Obviously no one wants the world to be awful, and living through hard times isn’t desirable, but just like the good stuff never lasts, the bad stuff changes too. The Great Depression lasted a decade, the Nazis ran Germany for just a bit longer.
Those were presumably fucking dreadful times to live through. But the decades that followed were comparatively prosperous for the countries. What’s happening in the US is depressing as all hell, but it’ll change, and all you can do is the best you can to make it less dreadful, for yourself and the people around you.
The difference this time, is that it doesn’t recover. Maybe bursts of recovery in specific places but on the whole, for the world, there is no recovery. Just subsiding into desolation.
I am literally sitting in the truck after having basically quit my job. I feel this post in my bones and I’m 30.
Sorry OP, wish I could give you some advice other than try to save some money and get a gun. Either to end the life of those who would do you harm, or for yourself when things become truly unbearable. Hard times are coming for all of us and they will last until we die, how bad things get is partially up to us. Do we just let them steamroll over us? I should hope not.
It’s really not that bad lol. America is still the richest country. I’m in the best financial and health spot I’ve ever been in.
If I don’t work I become homeless and starve to death. I do the minimum to keep my job and fuck the rest.
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
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.
