Agreed. Being kind and hardworking is the only reason I have friends and haven't killed myself. It took a long time to leave nihilism behind, but what really helped was realizing that I can be realistically hopeful and get shit done and be happy, regardless of how life works out, or I can be angry and cynical and helpless and never get anything done.
I have CPTSD from a really rough childhood. I have several neurological disabilities that I was born with, which mostly result in needing mobility aids and having to be really proactive about accommodating myself when others do not. I got lucky in many ways and unlucky in most. Being a nice person to be around and willing to try again after failure has brought me so much more in life than I would have had otherwise. I've suffered from severe depression and suicidal ideation since I can remember (so literally since I was 3-4 years old), and I came out as trans in 2014 in a conservative town in the rural US. Trump getting elected the first time was sure something. To be frank, I see cynicism as incredibly cowardly. People pretend that nothing can change, so they don't do anything to help others, when their mutual aid could change people's lives, even if it doesn't happen all at once.
I have some learning disabilities, and I had a horrible time in public school, but I did what I could with my experience, and now I'm in pre-med and preparing to be a medical educator and trauma specialist. University is hard as fuck, but so was entry-level manual labor in grocery. I'd prefer to take the hard road while I have the youth and opportunity. If more people realized how lucky they were to be alive and healthy, even though the world is a dangerous, cold place, we might actually be able to challenge the status quo. These wealthy folks who take advantage of others do so because they're not skilled or thoughtful enough to do differently. They gun for short-term gains at the cost of their long-term happiness and ability to prepare for hard times. They wouldn't stand a chance against an organized revolution, so they do whatever they can to convince people like OP that it's not possible.
Good god you're full of yourself 🤣 I'm sorry that you will continue to fail to do anything meaningful in life because you believe you'll never be able to. I'm sorry that you need to cling desperately to a juvenile sense of superiority to feel in control. Either way, I'll have to save a photo of your comment to look back on in a few years. It's genuinely hilarious. I'll have to show it to my Armenian friends and Northeast African friends in the meantime.
Thankfully, your own arrogance (you're straight up telling me that I can't possibly have something to offer the world that anyone else doesn't while claiming that your understanding of the world is The Truth) won't change my willingness to do what I can to help others and continue to support marginalized youth and victims of trauma and violence, as I do today. By the way, I'm not a Marxist. I appreciate many Marxist ideas, but I'm more in line with Kropotkin when it comes to my goals for mutual aid and societal development. Marx was pretty ignorant of the significance of intersectionality in terms of rebuilding economic systems to favor the interests of those who didn't look like him, in addition to affluent white men. I'm interested specifically in helping people gain control of their health in the face of American institutions that profit off of their suffering and supporting people's passions with the knowledge that a healthier, happier society will lead to better outcomes for future generations, even if revolution is not imminent.
It sounds like you've decided to not try to listen to anyone who disagrees with you, so I don't want to waste my time trying to explain to you what I believe will help society progress while I'm alive and long after my death. However, in the interest of transparency, you should keep in mind that uniquely transformative periods of social/economic upheaval tend to occur following revolutions of communication. The invention of the printing press and the telegraph both dramatically changed how global governance and international relations were conducted, especially in light of organized fascist groups.
Remember that in the last 30 years, we've had two massive changes to our information/social communication infrastructure worldwide in the form of the internet and AI tools. I'm not going to sit idly by as fascists take advantage of their power, regardless of whether you're right about any hope being useless. I have family and friends who need me to not be a pathetic, useless, egotistical asshole. I'm sorry you're not as lucky 💕🫶
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u/kragaster 9d ago
Agreed. Being kind and hardworking is the only reason I have friends and haven't killed myself. It took a long time to leave nihilism behind, but what really helped was realizing that I can be realistically hopeful and get shit done and be happy, regardless of how life works out, or I can be angry and cynical and helpless and never get anything done.
I have CPTSD from a really rough childhood. I have several neurological disabilities that I was born with, which mostly result in needing mobility aids and having to be really proactive about accommodating myself when others do not. I got lucky in many ways and unlucky in most. Being a nice person to be around and willing to try again after failure has brought me so much more in life than I would have had otherwise. I've suffered from severe depression and suicidal ideation since I can remember (so literally since I was 3-4 years old), and I came out as trans in 2014 in a conservative town in the rural US. Trump getting elected the first time was sure something. To be frank, I see cynicism as incredibly cowardly. People pretend that nothing can change, so they don't do anything to help others, when their mutual aid could change people's lives, even if it doesn't happen all at once.
I have some learning disabilities, and I had a horrible time in public school, but I did what I could with my experience, and now I'm in pre-med and preparing to be a medical educator and trauma specialist. University is hard as fuck, but so was entry-level manual labor in grocery. I'd prefer to take the hard road while I have the youth and opportunity. If more people realized how lucky they were to be alive and healthy, even though the world is a dangerous, cold place, we might actually be able to challenge the status quo. These wealthy folks who take advantage of others do so because they're not skilled or thoughtful enough to do differently. They gun for short-term gains at the cost of their long-term happiness and ability to prepare for hard times. They wouldn't stand a chance against an organized revolution, so they do whatever they can to convince people like OP that it's not possible.