Liberals fully embracing the fascist “life is suffering and suffering is life” pseudo-mythological bullshit.
The writer here is being a massively rude piece of shit, but they are not necessarily an entirely wrong one either. It's 2/3rds the way through the article , but the actual point she's ostensibly trying to get across is summarized in these two paragraphs.
It may be the case that many personal infirmities can only be fully repaired in a repaired world, but this does not obviate the need to pull ourselves together as best we can in this broken one. Any serious attempt to topple capitalism would require more discipline, more courage, more endurance, more capability, not less.
When living “under capitalism” becomes a catch-all explanation for what you can’t manage — whether that’s getting on the metaphorical treadmill or stepping off it — it assumes the nature of a complaint to an adjudicating authority. Since capitalism has impressed such impossible conditions on us, we can’t reasonably be expected to deal with it until they improve. But in fact there is no one to adjudicate between you and capital, no one to say yes, that really is too much, let’s reassign this project. There is no political program that will release you from the necessity of doing more than you should have to or feel capable of doing, in politics as in every other part of life.
Mind you, this is basically also the nature & source of my own melancholy & frustration with engaging with politics (especially on this site). It doesn't matter how much I complain about my own social isolation, or inability to meet a lot of the basic necessities of living independently ("independently") given that I have ASD. Absolutely no-one from this goddamn website, or my personal life is gonna step up to be there if I can't manage "life under capitalism", and that just is the fact of the matter until people start deciding to act differently, and to help take on other people's burdens of their own accord; for the sake of building a fundamentally different world.
Many people on here have admitted exactly as much to me. What you're mad about is that it's being applied to you & your concerns now.
Until then all we can do is operate as the most efficiently optimized individuals that we can be until we are willing to take the time, indulgences, and personal autonomy out of our lives, and exert the discipline necessary to operate as a collective political entity. And even then that's gonna start, and is gonna have to start with those who are already the most materially & socially connected people among us.
One should keep in mind though, that she is not necessarily directing these statements to the Proletariat; she is in fact speaking to her fellows in the Liberal Intelligentsia; whom luckily have been spoken about around here recently.
And of course, there are more sinister possibilities than learned helplessness. Since under capitalism no one is really responsible for their actions, since we’d all be making better choices if the referees would just level the playing field, you can’t be blamed if you build weapons for Raytheon or AI for Facebook or write vacuous propaganda for the Washington Post, or climb to the top by betraying others . You’re not cravenly protecting your own interests at the expense of principle, you’re just participating in society somewhat. The totalizing nature of capital’s domination simultaneously excuses us both from revolutionary action and from an attempt at a life with honor within it.
However it is obvious here also that the Proletariat is, nevertheless, far from exempt from these basic realities.
Any serious attempt to topple capitalism would require more discipline, more courage, more endurance, more capability, not less.
Hard to argue with that point. There has to be a balance between helping people get through the difficulties caused by capitalism and being functional enough to get rid of capitalism altogether.
There has to be a balance between helping people get through the difficulties caused by capitalism and being functional enough to get rid of capitalism altogether.
The article itself isn't really about helping people, and my evidence is the scare quotes around capitalism in its own title. It's a privileged petite bourgeoisie New York columnist doing the usual condescension against the poor, but a few nuggets of wisdom might be sifted out of the brunch-generated pile of shit.
Even if not technically correct, I'd argue the New York identity and affiliation leans petite bourgeoisie, especially with other evidence of jet settery here https://www.economicmodeling.com/ and here https://www.ncronline.org/authors/clare-coffey
She doesn't really provide labor as a service as much as she's paid to nod along and court favor among the favored.
"Yes man" (or woman/person) is a very labor-aristocratic job. It's still based on actually doing something rather than ownership or arranging to extract labor value from others yourself.
Now, that "something" really leans into the "aristocratic" side in this case, it makes econ professors look like normal proles by comparison, but it's still a type of labor.
I do wonder what the boundary is where "failson did the dishes so gets trust fund access" is on one end of it and "kissing ass to get paid more than they're worth" is on the other.
I know quite a few poorer chuds that get stomped on by their bosses but romanticize their drudgery and blame anything/anyone but the ruling class, even saying amazing :cope: like "the reason I don't get raises is because there's so many shoplifting thugs in this town!"
The poorer chuds I mention tend to take comfort in being able to punch down as the payoff for remaining firmly in their place in the hierarchy. There's homeless people to froth about, and sometimes a black kid has a joint and :the-pigs: are more than eager to act accordingly to call-ins of either.
Actually, according to someone that is "smarter than us, better than us, cooler than us, and fucks more than us," the real message intended by the columnist is totally "organize or die!" :galaxy-brain:
but you can also turn off your email notifications. You can choose to prioritize the good life over a promotion or pleasing your boss. You can live with the loss of status and resources that this probably will entail
In many professions, in particular ones that are office type jobs (ostensibly who the author is thinking about) this kind of thinking doesn't lead to just a "loss of status". It means your name is at the top of the list for when there's the next bad quarterly results and so the CEO has to make cuts.
deleted by creator
Liberals fully embracing the fascist "life is suffering and suffering is life" pseudo-mythological bullshit.
Also very telling about "loss of status and resources". Yeah, I guess you could call starving to death that.
The writer here is being a massively rude piece of shit, but they are not necessarily an entirely wrong one either. It's 2/3rds the way through the article , but the actual point she's ostensibly trying to get across is summarized in these two paragraphs.
Mind you, this is basically also the nature & source of my own melancholy & frustration with engaging with politics (especially on this site). It doesn't matter how much I complain about my own social isolation, or inability to meet a lot of the basic necessities of living independently ("independently") given that I have ASD. Absolutely no-one from this goddamn website, or my personal life is gonna step up to be there if I can't manage "life under capitalism", and that just is the fact of the matter until people start deciding to act differently, and to help take on other people's burdens of their own accord; for the sake of building a fundamentally different world.
Many people on here have admitted exactly as much to me. What you're mad about is that it's being applied to you & your concerns now.
Until then all we can do is operate as the most efficiently optimized individuals that we can be until we are willing to take the time, indulgences, and personal autonomy out of our lives, and exert the discipline necessary to operate as a collective political entity. And even then that's gonna start, and is gonna have to start with those who are already the most materially & socially connected people among us.
One should keep in mind though, that she is not necessarily directing these statements to the Proletariat; she is in fact speaking to her fellows in the Liberal Intelligentsia; whom luckily have been spoken about around here recently.
However it is obvious here also that the Proletariat is, nevertheless, far from exempt from these basic realities.
Hard to argue with that point. There has to be a balance between helping people get through the difficulties caused by capitalism and being functional enough to get rid of capitalism altogether.
The article itself isn't really about helping people, and my evidence is the scare quotes around capitalism in its own title. It's a privileged petite bourgeoisie New York columnist doing the usual condescension against the poor, but a few nuggets of wisdom might be sifted out of the brunch-generated pile of shit.
You are generally correct, but is this person petite bourgeois or a labor aristocrat?
Even if not technically correct, I'd argue the New York identity and affiliation leans petite bourgeoisie, especially with other evidence of jet settery here https://www.economicmodeling.com/ and here https://www.ncronline.org/authors/clare-coffey
She doesn't really provide labor as a service as much as she's paid to nod along and court favor among the favored.
"Yes man" (or woman/person) is a very labor-aristocratic job. It's still based on actually doing something rather than ownership or arranging to extract labor value from others yourself.
Now, that "something" really leans into the "aristocratic" side in this case, it makes econ professors look like normal proles by comparison, but it's still a type of labor.
Well all right then. :the-more-you-know:
I do wonder what the boundary is where "failson did the dishes so gets trust fund access" is on one end of it and "kissing ass to get paid more than they're worth" is on the other.
deleted by creator
:same-picture:
deleted by creator
I know quite a few poorer chuds that get stomped on by their bosses but romanticize their drudgery and blame anything/anyone but the ruling class, even saying amazing :cope: like "the reason I don't get raises is because there's so many shoplifting thugs in this town!"
deleted by creator
The poorer chuds I mention tend to take comfort in being able to punch down as the payoff for remaining firmly in their place in the hierarchy. There's homeless people to froth about, and sometimes a black kid has a joint and :the-pigs: are more than eager to act accordingly to call-ins of either.
deleted by creator
Actually, according to someone that is "smarter than us, better than us, cooler than us, and fucks more than us," the real message intended by the columnist is totally "organize or die!" :galaxy-brain:
:jordan-eboy-peterson: I'm smarter than you. I'm better than you. I'm cooler than you. I fuck more than you. :shapiro-gavel:
It does have copypasta potential, plausibly-deniably I R O N I C or not.
In many professions, in particular ones that are office type jobs (ostensibly who the author is thinking about) this kind of thinking doesn't lead to just a "loss of status". It means your name is at the top of the list for when there's the next bad quarterly results and so the CEO has to make cuts.
There's a level of insulation and unexamined privilege there.
Unexamined privilege from a thinkpiece author? I guess there's a first time for everything
Yeah asshole, you can raise children under those circumstances, but odds are it'll suck shit for everyone involved.
"Things should be better and can be better"
"Stop being so entitled omg"
/r/getmotivated :so-true: :reddit-logo: :very-intelligent: