I was watching a video on the recent achievements in the Tetris community, and my mom came up and watched over my shoulder for a bit. There was a moment in the video where the narrator was talking about the moment Blue Scuti reached the game's killscreen for the first time. Years of effort, countless hours of practice, chasing something that people thought was literally impossible for decades, and then he fucking does it. This is a seriously cool and inspiring story, right?
"Does he get paid for that? You can't spend that much time on something if you're not getting paid."
Are you telling me you literally can't imagine wanting to do something just to do it? That you can only imagine spending effort if it's to chase a cash prize or a wage? That you can't imagine the desire to just... be the best at something, or achieve something before anyone else? I love that woman but a lifetime of being in the system has burned out a critical part of her brain - she can't imagine having a job and not spending all of your free time sucking up to management for a promotion, she is exactly the person all of the "hustle grindset" bullshit influencers and motivational speakers try to turn you into, and i swear to god if she hadn't worked for the government her whole life she would have gotten in on the ground floor of an MLM and made a shitzillion dollars.
It's so fucking depressing.
Hustle culture is why I never started any hobbies. It's like "why bother if it will be years until I can make something baseline sellable?" And then people wonder why things are such shit, if everything is gatekept by wealth. Then only wealthy people have the privilege to be creative, and this means art sucks. Look at all the dime a dozen fashcomics on Twitter that are the same mean-spirited potshots on loop that wouldn't be too out of place in a 6th grade lunch period. The only reason they're popular is because normies simply agree with the politics, nothing more.