“Suck it up, buttercup.” “What does not kill you makes you stronger.” “Rise and grind!” We have a poor habit of telling everyone that they should toughen up instead of taking our animus out on those who cause harm in the empire. There is nothing kind or compassionate about that, and I think people should start considering that this attitude may be the reason that we have a bunch of psychopaths running the country. Maybe instead of telling everyone that they should tolerate pain, we should ask ourselves why we never do anything to eradicate pain in a broken system.
“Back in my day, we had nothing, and we were still grateful!” Yes, and there were a number of safety nets that existed, which a bunch of people never saw because we see towers built by exploited individuals and call the people who own the towers “self-made.” So many things have changed, conditions are no longer manageable on the scraps of hopes and dreams, and living with dignity in poverty is no longer allowed by the extremely wealthy. Nobody cares about how things were in the mythological past with history that all the comfortable people fear.
So many idiots want to stand around pretending the nothing has changed–in both parties, with all ideologies–because they want to believe that everything happens in a vacuum, or that an individual is capable of controlling everything on the outside. Refusing to acknowledge change does not make anyone strong, and all these idiots have done is make it more important how well someone can lie than what someone actually does. Costs of living, job security, transportation efforts, and social safety are just dreams for so many people, but instead of rationally observing these issues, people want to believe that blinders are more important than addressing anything.
Guess what? People have to care about others, pour resources into that care, and follow through without lying about it for things to actually change. Organizing is impossible while pretending that everyone just needs to “suck it up” because that amounts, not only to ignoring history, but ignoring reality in general. Technoligarchs are openly planning to starve everyone to death, and people are still telling teenagers that they need to “work harder” and develop ambition while actively being erased. At what point does the bully’s sidekicks become the bullies, too?
Teaching everyone that they should enjoy slow torture, instead of ending it, is what emotionally immature people do. No, there is no easy way to exist, but the fantasy of climbing back into curated media images of reality is not a “thing.” Pain is a part of life, but mocking others’ pain just makes people cruel. “Tough love,” “toxic positivity,” or emotional highs are not markers of strength.
Chasing A Dying Empire 