I mean this less poetically than that title might make it seem (high btw so post may suck generally)
Maybe this is just a me problem for one of potentially several reasons (autistic and generally inexperienced in life) but I've realized that I had basically assumed an extremely simplified kind of capitalism ran everything, ignoring the human layer through which it operates. Like, obviously it provides the incentives to do shitty things, and everything produced under capitalism is therefore influenced/tainted by it in infinite ways both seen and unseen, but. Some people would still be assholes under socialism probably. Sometimes the relationship of a team results in a creative product that can't easily be reproduced without them. IDK. It's not Just Money in the real world, even if that's an undeniable influence
Also like. This is more likely inexperience/splitting on my part, but not having a job for 2 years while also brain poisoning myself here with you guys and through breadtube and a bit of actual theory and shit, I came into my current "job" as an amazon driver far more cynically than maybe I should have been. Like, obviously the owners of the contracted company I actually work for are greedy profiteering assholes whose only motives for treating their workers humanely is so that they don't quit faster than they can be replaced, but that doesn't mean every kind word isn't
im losing my own thread here nvm. hope you got some value from reading this IG
I just tried working 60 hours to get time and a half overtime in an Amazon FC and they cut me off at 59 hours cuz they didnt want me going over :shrug-outta-hecks:
I get paid $15.50 an hour and I dont get a raise for 2 years. Amazon WANTS warehouse workers to quit so turnover is high. They want the opposite for contracted drivers, to keep out a union. So I disagree, as a Marxist, because something isnt cynical if its right :marx-joker:
I agree tho that not having a job and spending all your time here will make you a goblin with some odd views for less online people or even leftists. Work can be good at teaching you how to read a room
Me and a few coworkers have discussed it, everyone I talk to is pretty pro-union.
But thats neither here nor there, I'm doing my part and I STRONGLY encourage anyone looking for a new job to get on at an Amazon warehouse. Do it and be a cool leftist
Yeah psychologically capitalism doesn't necessarily "feel" like the coercive system we know it is. It definitely can feel like it when push comes to shove, but maybe most of the time people are still people and can only subject others to so much psycho stuff without feeling evil themselves, and they don't have to because everything's all structured properly. But it probably depends mostly on what kind of job you have and how close you are to your breaking point, whether the system has you under control or needs to get you under control or not. But I imagine that, for example, foreign workers working in indentured servitude conditions can definitely feel capitalism, people in countries exploited by US imperialism who are poor and working in an industrial type job can probably feel it.
I mean cynicism makes you see the world and intentions of people in a very negative light quite often, but that doesn't have to affect you. Wether someone treats you humanely because they are ignorant of the world and their assigned role in it, or wether they are malicious and play their part knowingly, it changes little. If it looks like a dog, walks like a dog and barks like a dog, then it's a dog. Sure, it means I see people in the worst light generally, but here's the trick.
That's just normal. It's a part of life that they are the way they are, they aren't here by chance, and they are not driven by some dark and evil force, just the uncaring whims of reality. There is no reason to hate them for what they are, because ultimatly they are a product of their circumstance. Just like you.
You can see people who act against your interest with all the cynicism you want and still not go mad over it. It's the negative emotions that destroy you and let you feel like shit, self doubt, frustration, what not. It's not the cynicism itself that is the problem, it's your reaction to it. But why mald over things beyond your control?
You don't need to become an ignorant twat just to cope with that one life you have. You don't have to drink all the kool aid to get to a good point mentally.
Stoicism has its problems as a school of philosophy, but there is something to it that greatly helps to cope with living for me. It helps you see your own, as well as others faults, as just facts that don't need to result in a negative reaction. At the same time you can still indulge in the good life when it comes around occasionally.
I don't know if I could help you, we are all different and I only got my own experience to work with, but I felt like I might be able to give advice on coping with cynicism.
idk man. I feel the same way, just that I prefer to believe the cynicism came first. before I even got radicalized I saw the world driving off a cliff, I just couldn't put it in fancy words beyond lib culture war issues. I think I still would have been unfulfilled in this country just by my nature.
definitely not saying it's a good thing, it's not very useful. but it's a natural reaction to being sentient and online in 2022. if that means anything.
I think I still would have been unfulfilled in this country just by my nature.
