Finally realized my gifts, coming to terms with tons of trauma and growing a lot, contributing to my community and always making art... Hell I'm still alive and that's pretty cool... But every day I look at my phone like... How is this real life? I transitioned and I'm hot so that also awesome
I don’t know if it’s because I work for elections and I’ve seen the whole picture but this is where I’m at. I’m in the field getting the “my vote doesn’t matter speeches”
Feels like there was a brief window (or maybe it was the tail end of a period we were born into) when it was okay--encouraged, even--to want to be smart and make good grades so we could get an affordable college education and become upwardly mobile.
And then that window was slammed shut. Hard.
It's kinda shitty.
I've been waiting to become my actual self for years now.
I'm painfully rebuilding my life up.
And I don't even know whether I'll succeed.
The feeling that it's not in my hands is strong.
Welcome to the wonderful age of being Too Old to really be considered a young adult, Yet, since you're a millennial, still treated like a child when you're old enough to have high schoolers.
you know if you have a blowtorch you can sorta grill it a bit until the bottom is firm enough to pink up, and then you can maybe scoop it back into the pan
I was cleaning up after making lunch in the staff room and threw the spatula I was using in the trash and almost put the paper towel I was wiping it with in the drawer.
Thinking about whether or not I want to suffer a short decade or less of life before a nuclear war or fascistic dictatorship kills me, or if I should just find a place in the woods to lay down and die. I have no hope for a better future.
Far right is a rising force in great part of the world now. We can't hide, we have to stand up and fight. Nothing is conquered by running away. Difficult times demand strength from us
There is a possibility for a good future, and it necessarily involves destroying capitalism. We won't be happy with this system crushing our bodies and souls
There really isn’t at least not before an immense amount of suffering and death has occurred because of fascism. I genuinely don’t see any good future moving forward whatsoever at least in my lifetime.
No “destroy capitalism” won’t work b/c enough of the proletariat will defend it & the freedom it grants. What u want to say is we need to cap capitalism, u get to $10m that’s maximum wealth you get a statue & a well done letter from the President. Moderated capitalism is what oligarchs really fear.
I think the best way to frame it is to say, “having more or less wealth doesn’t change that much.” Similar to the max wealth cap, disincentivize wealth pooling among the wealthiest by limiting how much one can acquire and what you can do with it.
And on the other side of things, make losing wealth less harmful and stigmatizing. It’s not a thing to fear or spend your life collecting wealth to avoid. You know you’ll always have shelter and food and a reasonable quality of life, so you can feel free to pursue your passions.
Any system has these same downfalls because it’s ultimately just made of us, people, at the end of the day. We need to break out of learned helplessness and outlaw exploitation itself.
I just feel like the younger left needs to be aware that when it comes to capitalism throwing the baby out with the bath water has without a doubt has been historically proven to be a bad idea.
It's been pretty rough, mostly because of other people's shit. But you can't fix that, you can only fix your own shit so I've been working on that and it's got a bit better. Hopefully it will stay on that path, come what may.
Even if I've navigated to a decent place in life, I reflect on almost every step of the way and wonder if it really needed to be that hard. Might be some common external-to-me themes there, who could say?
Glad with a roof over my head, rarely sick and a full time job in a lot of different companies since 2013. Enjoy my free time with music, live shows, friends, hikes, familly. No wife, ni childs, but hey "always look on the bright side of your life" Monty Python said, I was so so bad some years ago
The economy is in shambles
I can't find work
I'll likely never own a home
I might never have kids
Fascism on the rise
World is burning
Environment collapsing
Bleak hope for the future
Generation that raised us stabbed us in the back
Retirement plan is Societal collapse
My cousin (whos gen x) sends me stupid fb videos all day, i reply with stupid videos, we havent had a meaningful convo since my mom died last year....so i'm peachy
Amazed I'm still alive, and that somehow the chronic stress that started around 2015 or so hasn't already aged my brain into dust. Trying to take things a day at a time, since I can't actually see any real future for myself or my family.
Just turned 40 on 2/26, and honestly?…life is great, greatest I’ve been in years. There’s reasons RIGHT NOW in my personal life that I should be doing miserably but I’m the exact opposite. It’s a miracle.
I suppose my back hurts and I’m going to need bifocals. 🤓
I run a successful comic dub adaptation on Youtube. @book4air.bsky.social. If you like Avatar The Last Airbender, check it out and support us on Patreon so we can make more. https://www.youtube.com/@Book4Air
Really hoping that the government doesn’t gut guaranteed benefits for breast cancer patients before I can get my second breast later this year.
Don’t want to be stuck with one frankentitty.
(No, I can’t do it sooner, alas.)
My economic, physical, mental, and social health are all dead, but my sense of humor keeps me going.
I don't know if this is a good thing or if I would be better off having a nervous breakdown, getting institutionalized, and starting my life over from scratch.
we are suddenly looking at a system where the last people in charge are breaking the controls and ripping copper out of the walls, and we don’t have opportunities or a way forward that isn’t selling ourselves for less and less while everything gets more expensive.
It no longer seems likely that things will get much better for me personally, but I still have plenty of hope that I can make things worse for the people responsible for that.
MAGA is all about grievance politics, but the grievance is just as often people who want to be treated with equal dignity as it is people forcing indignities upon them.
Everything I was taught growing up turned out to be lies, which makes me kind of mad and disillusioned, but my personal health and circumstances are pretty good, because I ignore the insane culture now and make my own decisions.
I should clarify: by "insane culture" I mean capitalistic, corporatized US culture where everything is a meaningless "brand" and nothing for sale actually works. I try to always think in terms of ecology and basic needs now; protect my health first and then make room for fun and creativity.
I do think it’s a coming of age moment for our age group, to realize the majority of our teachers and mentors had no fucking clue what they were doing and only measured us by our capacity to fix their own broken lives
In retrospect, it seems obvious that it was all lies. They told us that there was a loving god and that if you didn't go to an ivy league college you would have to serve french fries for the rest of your life... but I couldn't get a job serving french fries until I was halfway through college.
Still reeling, somehow still alive. Holding everyone's sanity for dear life while listening to loved ones and strangers. Overall, reeling but mostly ok!
Mate... it's about the lives of everyone, not *just* your own.
And even then, whether you've noticed or not, your life *is* affected by politics, you just haven't stopped to look at how, yet.
Don't fall victim to the mindset of individualism. We survived as a species because of a communal nature.
Without other people, an individual human does not survive, not very well, and not for long, no matter what media tells you.
Any single person's life is shaped and aided by other people and the world around them.
Always. No exceptions exist at all, anywhere.
We millennials are living through our umpteenth tragic/historic event, the world and life we were promised doesn't exist and will never exist at this rate. I have both physical mental disabilities which impact my work speed so people don't want to hire me. Every night I wish I simply won't wake up.
Not good, my mental health is at a breaking point, my marriage is struggling, work insecurities, financial problems. Car is due for a service, my GPU died. Uhm, I mean it's all peachy, peachy fucking creamy.
Drained, 20k in debt, and having to retire indefinitely from my work field of nearly 15 years. I am still staying as strong as I can, not giving up hope.
I started working at 12 or 14 (rural) and paid for college with scholarships and savings while performing in a band that was known across the state and building as much of a community as I could.
Now I make pizza to try to pay off my debt, and my happiness is predicted on my cats.
I'm not great.
Today I had anxiety about turning up the bottoms of my jeans because Gen Z might laugh at me. Which is a quaint little worry cherry on top of a terror cake.
‘cotton in water: shrinks -
Early wearers of jeans knew they had to buy their jeans an inch bigger in the waist, & 3 inches longer in the leg. Eventually, the denim would shrink…they had no idea what a fashion statement this look would be many decades later.’
Considering my life took a turn right to shitsville in 2000 and I'm still in the throws of PTSD from it, I agree. Let's go back to Dec 31st '99 and stop this.
It's like I'm in the same cycle and same circle in real life. The world is in the same cycle that never changes and I'm in the same runaround with my parents. ~_~
I think it only seemed that way from certain perspectives.
We were bombarded with messages saying that injustice was over. Sexism was over. Racism was over. But it wasn't. How soon you found that out depended on your privilege.
Makes a lot of sense!
I was raised in a privileged bubble, but my mother even more so. She still thinks racism and sexism are over, and weren't ever really a big problem. She thinks there were just no black people in this *town in the 60s-70s. She literally never saw them. *Just outside Detroit
Comments
It’s very discriminatory here.
You’re kind of a bigot.
Ageism is not OK.
And then that window was slammed shut. Hard.
Stay strong! 🫂
I've been waiting to become my actual self for years now.
I'm painfully rebuilding my life up.
And I don't even know whether I'll succeed.
The feeling that it's not in my hands is strong.
also, not well
Please respect my family's privacy at this time.
I'm pretty sure I've done similar.
It hasn't signed the Human Rights Charter, has the barbaric death penalty, is a surveillance state.
Come fight for freedom, against fascism, in a civilised country.
But my entire life it's had terrible healthcare, vast wealth inequality, lacking welfare and services, abysmal firearms murder rates.
These long preceded Trump.
You don't owe a country like that anything
I can't find work
I'll likely never own a home
I might never have kids
Fascism on the rise
World is burning
Environment collapsing
Bleak hope for the future
Generation that raised us stabbed us in the back
Retirement plan is Societal collapse
Won't lie pal, been better.
OTOH, starting to think it's time to begin searching for the best school to equip him for an adulthood of post-apocalyptic warlording.
I suppose my back hurts and I’m going to need bifocals. 🤓
Many of those of us who refused to be fed to the wolves ended up becoming them.
I did extremely well for myself but oftennmeeting with old time friends leaves a bitter taste.
Many struggling who shouldn't.
https://www.youtube.com/@Book4Air
Also buying stock in Dassault, Rhienmetall and Saab, because I have fucking eyes.
Don’t want to be stuck with one frankentitty.
(No, I can’t do it sooner, alas.)
I don't know if this is a good thing or if I would be better off having a nervous breakdown, getting institutionalized, and starting my life over from scratch.
It’s fucking miserable.
Nobody is actually willing to do it.
Trying a new medication tomorrow that might help but who knows, no matter what you do it never seems to be enough in this economy huh
And even then, whether you've noticed or not, your life *is* affected by politics, you just haven't stopped to look at how, yet.
Don't fall victim to the mindset of individualism. We survived as a species because of a communal nature.
Any single person's life is shaped and aided by other people and the world around them.
Always. No exceptions exist at all, anywhere.
Millennials, my bum!
Gen X weathered those storms.
Mills were barely born!
Now I make pizza to try to pay off my debt, and my happiness is predicted on my cats.
I'm not great.
Early wearers of jeans knew they had to buy their jeans an inch bigger in the waist, & 3 inches longer in the leg. Eventually, the denim would shrink…they had no idea what a fashion statement this look would be many decades later.’
https://www.levistrauss.com/2014/05/15/turn-em-up-the-history-of-the-blue-jean-cuff/
Meh!
And somehow. Fucking SOMEHOW.
Everything in the world is just worse? EVERYTHING is just WORSE.
We have to have justice.
We were bombarded with messages saying that injustice was over. Sexism was over. Racism was over. But it wasn't. How soon you found that out depended on your privilege.
"Things will only get better"
Man... They really played us like fools
I was raised in a privileged bubble, but my mother even more so. She still thinks racism and sexism are over, and weren't ever really a big problem. She thinks there were just no black people in this *town in the 60s-70s. She literally never saw them. *Just outside Detroit
I hope they feel it hard. They brought us here.
Cliffnotes version? I'm doing okay. Don't have enough spoons to really get back to my work, but that may just be the overall American atmosphere.