:yea: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2022/09/11/walled-lake-man-killed-police-after-killing-wife-shooting-daughter/8058356001/

  • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    at the end of the roman empire, death cults appeared on the fringes of society. these death cults frequently preached heretical libel against political figures and gods

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I mean that somewhat describes Christianity with all they talk about human sarifice (self sacrifice but while you're alive as in living your life in the service of others which obviously almost none of them actually do) and figurative dying and being reborn

        • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          yeah but you can't solve martyrdom religious growth with murder and Rome never had a second idea after they thought of solving problems with murder

          • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            They did try saying “Please just say you’re not a Christian and then we can let you go and not murder you” but Christians have always been allergic to shutting the fuck up

            • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              it's against the Christian religious belief to deny that they hold it. You might as well ask why Muslims targetted by the Spanish inquisition didn't just eat pork so they would be let go

              • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                If I was Muslim in inquisition era Spain and the inquisition said “We’re going to murder you if you don’t eat this ham sandwich” I would absolutely eat the sandwich.

                This is mostly based on the fact that when I was Christian if someone had said they were gonna murder me if I didn’t deny I’m Christian I wouldn’t have hesitated.

                Obviously that doesn’t make the person giving threats okay but when given the choice between a relatively small sin against your religion and being violently murdered, most people pick the first one.

                • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  loads of people didn't though and they didn't not because they didn't understand that being killed was bad but because they didn't accept that armed men could tell them not to practice their religion

                  • MaeBorowski [she/her]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    Exactly. And in addition... A person might easily say "yeah, I'd lie about my beliefs to save my hide!" But when the opposition forces it to be a matter of your very being and culture, when they force it to be a rejection of all the traditions you associate with your family, your very culture... It becomes a lot more understandable to be willing to die in defense of it.

              • NPa [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                The Communists (Christians) disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social (and religious) conditions.

                • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  fair enough but there are issues they have stuck to their guns on

                  https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/07/paellas-dark-role-in-the-spanish-inquisition

          • happybadger [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Martyrs don't mean much if the people who'd remember them join them in the lion pit :think-about-it:

            • jkfjfhkdfgdfb [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              yeah they could have just done extra murder and it would have worked

              you can't half ass it mostly

        • ssjmarx [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          The Romans literally were Christians after about 200 ad.

      • nine_leven [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        “Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.” and all that

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I think it's bad history. The Western Roman Empire was Catholic for about 500 years before it fell (the ERE Orthodox), and the "fall" was a slow dissolution of the central Imperial authority and its replacement by the existing systems of patronage evolving into fuedal contracts, not some cataclysmic event.

        Cults, including what could be called "death" cults, were a constant throughout Roman society, not a sudden appearance that hailed the end times. They might have been more common in and around certain cataclysmic events, like plagues and invasions, as a societal coping mechanism, but that's just speculation.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The saddest part is the poster thinking the state is on his side and not an active participant in pushing that shit.

  • InvaderZinn [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I hope the FBI tightens its grip on you.

    My brother in Christ, they ARE the FBI.

    • ConfrontEvil [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've always been open tot he idea that Q-anon, Alex Jones, etc.... Are controlled opposition to make anyone who criticizes the status quo look like a nazi

      • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I think the idea is more to make "conspiracy theorist" associated with "batshit insane." They want folks who "theorize" about stuff the CIA has come out and admitted associated with Turning The Frogs Gay Guy.

        I expressed some pretty measured skepticism about the Warren Commission version of the JFK assassination to someone and they (semi-seriously?) asked me if I believed we landed on the moon.

  • Nakoichi [they/them]M
    ·
    2 years ago

    "Please be made up for internet points"

    checks news article

    :doomjak: "Fuck"

  • Bloobish [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Anyone else get the feeling we might end up seeing multiple Waco situations every fucking year now? Like jesus christ the only way MSM news and specifically right-wing news may back down from this shit is if one of these crazy bastards broke into one of their news stations claiming their trying to find the real Donald Trump

    • D61 [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      At this point, my :trueanon: :brainworms: have me thinking that the FBI is so deep into any right wing group large enough have a compound and a sizable fighting force that they're already pretty much neutralized.

      • Bloobish [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Honestly that'd be the "good" ending though I'm always aware that the FBI could also royally fuckup these honeypot attempts and then groups go rogue.

        • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I’m always aware that the FBI could also royally fuckup these honeypot attempts and then groups go rogue.

          That's their standard operating procedure. Read "The Terror Factory"

        • Commander_Data [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I mean the complete ineptitude of the US security apparatus is why I had to sit through cringe during every commercial break when I was watching the baseball game yesterday. Oh, and also why there is the huge, horrible "special military operation" going on in Ukraine rn.

          :joker-amerikkklap: and :amerikkka: and :amerikkka-clap: fuck this fucking place

    • Cunigulus [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Waco requires too much actual social interaction. There will be a ton of atomized, stochastic violence like this, but not many organized groups unless the Feds get serious about going after the III percenters and the like. I'm pretty sure the organized groups are mostly about grifting and funneling the crazy money/energy into mainstream Republican politics.

      • Bloobish [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Oh yeah nothing as organized as Waco but I could see a group of them breaking into or laying siege within a DNC headquarters, a ice cream parlor, or a fucking hospital.

    • BigAssBlueBug [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Getting the atf called to my home because of the qanon neighbor and they shoot my dogs 35928404 times each whereon 90% of the bullets shot at my dogs go directly into my wife's skull

  • amber2 [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Scary to think of how many of America's dads are just a few bad months from doing the same thing. This country is so sick

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Just like the recent surges in mass shootings, americans in general are a few bad months away from snapping. As shit gets worse we're seeing it more and more.

      • nine_leven [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        And yet they keep shooting random people in grocery stores... It's so fucking weird, even the right-wing redacted don't bother with their precious Gates/Schwab/Soros/etc :confusion:

          • hostilearchitecture [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Well, they're the least creative people in the world for the most part, so I'm not surprised they keep running the same shit over and over again.

      • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
        ·
        2 years ago

        How many of us are even now just a few bad months away from ending ourselves? I think there is going to be a massive wave of suicides that almost coatails along with the more heinous crimes like this one. The slide into outright fascism isn't going to be pretty, and there are going to be a lot of victims of it that precede the literal concentration camp phase.

    • Sleve_McDichael [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      My dad used to watch Fox and read The Drudge Report religiously. I started insisting that he turn it off while I was visiting because it was giving me an aneurysm. I have no idea what his media consumption is like these days, but he has mellowed out considerably in his old age. His old habits made his relationship with me and my siblings really strained. If Qanon stuff had been mainstream 10-15 years ago I would have genuinely worried about him.

    • BigAssBlueBug [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The funnies thi g is all the "fstherhood" ads that ar reposted everywhere because the entire country is suffering from fatherless behavior

  • Snackuleata [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I'm sure this time period will be interesting to read about in history books if we survive that long.

    edit: He radicalized in 2020 to this extent. Fuck me. I still feel new after radicalizing into communism in 2018.

    • SuperZutsuki [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Just imagine if communist propaganda had billions of dollars behind it.

  • Bay_of_Piggies [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Friends aunt has gone down the rabbit hole and alienated everyone in the family other than my friends other insane aunt who is also on the qanon train. Neither are Americans nor live in America. The first aunt is sueing my friend's mom over the care of their mother suffering Alzheimer's. She is also sueing the place of care because they won't let her in without a vaccine passport. She also forged a vaccine passport and the place of care is counter suing and she may face jail time due to forging a government ID. Lol.

    My friends grandma shortly before mentally declining gave my friend's mom power of attorney because she knew her other daughters were not to be trusted. My friends Grandma would be dead if the two aunts had power over her care. My friend also tells me their aunt wants to put their grandma in a medpod? Some kind of sci-fi tech like those pods in Alien: Prometheus that the alien lizard people who control the world secretly have and she has a guy who can get her mom into one. It'll cure her Alzheimer's apparently.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        What is it with Q people and movies?

        My guess is that building a conspiracy theory is easiest if you start with a pop culture references that everybody already knows or that's super-easy to explain. Younger people might like memes but older people would probably like movies a lot more. And you you've got to hook the old folks for the fastest and greatest maximum insanity.

        Edit: Also the word "Hollywood" is a right-wing dog whistle for "liberals" so hate for anything connected to Hollywood is already built in.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        It''s important to remember that THE STORM tm is not only supposed to bring about the mass executions of Hillary Clinton, every Democratic politician and all the liberal celebrities they dislike (and more importantly, force their estranged relatives and family to talk to them again) but also a utopian golden age where all the secret technology the Cabal has been hiding will be made public.

        This will mean access to scifi medbeds that can cure every disease as well as the cancellation of all debt. I think infinite free energy is also a floated about (not because it'd be good for the environment, but because they don't like paying for electricity or gas)

        Satanic Jewish communists from China want to do socialism destroy MY COUNTRY AND WAY OF LIFE... that I hate so much that I have to construct a fantasy world where Donald Trump will cure my chronic back pain with magic if I post memes on the Internet hard enough

        • medium_adult_son [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          It's like syncretism with new age beliefs in a way, to bring the people into those things into the fold of Q and to become Republican voters ultimately.

        • Des [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          damn somebody got to tell them you have to put in work for their fully automated luxury space post-scarcity communist utopia

          • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            IT'S NOT COMMUNISM, IT'S A RACIST BILLIONAIRE HANDING OUT MAGIC SCIFI TECHNOLOGY TO YOU, IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

            :frothingfash:

        • UlyssesT
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          deleted by creator

          • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            I think it's closer to those incredibly sad faith-healing Facebook communities they talked about on QAA

        • panopticon [comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Wow I guess I never really looked into Q stuff because that's a lot more pathetic than I'd imagined :pathetic:

      • Bay_of_Piggies [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I don't know where qanon got it from. But that was my friends first thought when they mentioned it. Both of us seemingly know more about their beliefs and where they come from than they do. Its hilarous how convinced they are of these beliefs but don't even know where they come from.

        • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I've seen a lot of their core beliefs come directly from film. They Live, Eyes Wide Shut, where we go one we go all is from White Squall. It's like the brainworms vector of Q is boomer's obsession with pop culture and film, it's wild.

            • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Oh yeah I forgot about that movie, it first introduced adrenochrome into pop culture. Again, all their shit is lifted from movies, none of it is original!

              • Bay_of_Piggies [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                Makes me think of the Marx quote that "Antisemitism is the socialism of fools". At least to me They Live reeks of anti-capitialist rhetoric. But idiots read it as (((THE JEWS))).

                • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  That's a banger of a quote. Yeah it was so bad that John Carpenter had to take to twitter to tell morons to stop saying it's about the jews. Did chuds listen? Of course not!

        • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]M
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Alex Jones is the same way. Comparing virtually everything to V for Vendetta, Star Wars, Eyes Wide Shut. InfoWars is like Family Guy reference humor except its not funny, its for conspiracies.

          editing this because i just realized i implied that family guy is funny. it is not.

        • sovietknuckles [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Important to note that, although Watkins owns 8chan, 8chan was originally started by Fredrick Brennan, who, since leaving, opposes 8chan and has been instrumental in continually pressuring hosting providers to boot them, as well as doxxing Q

          • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It’s been years since I’ve paid attention to Chan lore but didn’t 8chan originally spin off as a place for the anonymous people that wanted to keep doing hacktivism versus just trolling people? I remember there being a schism between “for the lulz only” and “internet’s protector” camps

            • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              8chan was legit because of gamergate and :freeze-peach:

              7chan was either set up right before or right after /b/day which is when 4chan banned the old invasion board (also CP which is the actual reason 7chan got big).

              • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                7chan also had its own split after there was that really stupid anti-Scientology campaign that went nowhere, and then that split again because of some early 2010s issue I don't even remember. Then yeah, gamergate.

                I remember someone here speculating that at some point chan moderation was infiltrated by more coordinated white nationalist types, like weev and his friends.

                • nine_leven [none/use name]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  7chan wasn't too terrible, but I only used the invasion board. I used to hang around some IRC channels with weev before he went to prison, honestly if he was a white supremacist (very funny because his family is not white lol) it was not obvious before he went to prison. Even the most offensive things he was involved in were basically just misogynist or casually racist 4chan humor of the era at worst. Somehow I never got in trouble for doing so much shit back then... I forget if it was WikiLeaks or .au filtering traffic to the Pirate Bay related, but I got into all these servers in DC & elsewhere via poorly secured RDP and used them in the DOS attacks on Australian gov sites and all their ISP nameservers/DNS resolvers. Wrote a modified Low Orbit Ion Cannon called Longcat Deathstar that was basically a volunteer botnet where we could repoint all the LOIC instances running on peoples' computers, and 1000s of people downloaded it after we made some graphics and posted them all over 4chan...

    • videogame [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      4chan's currently owned by Hiroyuki Nishimura. Some guy who also owned 2ch in Japan (before it was seized by the webmaster, who coincidentally, is Jim Watkins), seems to be a controversial figure in Japan as well, I don't really know much about him. Moot left before things got REALLY bad there, 2015, so right before the 2016 election.

      • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        He's a really weird dude, the last I read about him was something about him selling user data from 2channel and people rightfully getting pissed at him. I think Moot works for google now, go figure.

        • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I said in mid-2020 that there’s a non-zero chance that the date historians will later decide the Second US Civil War started is already behind us

          • Commander_Data [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Not to conflate an objectively stupid thing with an objectively good thing, but the 1/6 nonsense is probably analogous to JB's Harper's Ferry raid, and we haven't had Ft. Sumter, yet.

            If I had to guess, it will be a huge firefight between some TLAs and PF/PB/3P at a joint training OP that someone informs on. Possible timeline is spring of next year, especially if Dems hang on to both legislative chambers in the midterms.

  • FlakesBongler [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    God, the libs are just completely unprepared for the shitstorm of shit that's gonna go down in the next ten years :deeper-sadness:

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I actually empathize with that. I never realized how awful my relatives were until they went full tilt Qanon. As a kid they'd take me to get ice cream and we'd hang out on tire swings and other generic positive memories.

      Maybe it's just that I was a child and never noticed how racist they were because I had no context for what that meant.

    • TheSpectreOfGay [he/him, she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      my brain tries to trick me that my parents were loving my entire childhood and i literally have mental illness from childhood trauma so uhm yea lol

      • fox [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        My parents absolutely loved me and did their best, but unrelated to their efforts is I Am Neurodivergent so a normal childhood is kind of passively traumatic, even with dedicated help for my specific neurodivergence. At least I've attained the self-awareness to know how far I've come?

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    This type of stuff has been happening for ages. Spouse had an uncle who punched his own ticket years before Trump/Q. He probably always had some mental health issue but had been fairly okay as a person for a very long time but then started down the FEMA camp = Concentration camp path when Obama was president. Spouse and he were in touch through Facebook where he was slowly posting more and more unhinged conspiracy stuff and emailing right wing conspiracy stuff. Very, Alex Jones "Prison Planet" vibes. Then one day/night, nobody knows exactly because he lived alone, and was found days later by a neighbor after he took his own life.

    From what I heard about the details, I do not envy the neighbor who found his body.

    • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Edit: sorry, I think I'm supposed to do a CW if I express suicidal intent. So... Content Warning.

      Pretty sure I'm soon going to go out in a very similar way in the near future, only from a leftist perspective of hopelessness and extreme alienation instead of rightwing batshittery. But I suspect the fw people who still know me tangentially will chalk it up to the same thing. So I have a sense of solidarity with people like that (ones who just off themselves, not ones who hurt others), Even so, if it's racist conspiracies that pushed them over the edge, then fuck them, no sympathy.

        • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Good. Pass those fucking conservative (fascist) shitfuckers, outlive them and do good revolutionary work. Stick around as long as you can, comrade. I wish I had your resolve but I just don't. It's already so bad and it's quickly getting worse, and personally, I just can't do it. But all the more power to those who can.

          • MaeBorowski [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Maybe inappropriate but I really do mean it: :meow-hug:

            Please stay and help?

            • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
              ·
              2 years ago

              If I had a community like this IRL? Sure. I'd stick around. I could make something of my small individual self with the help of people who cared about me and shared a leftist vision. But I don't. IRL, I'm surrounded b chuds and if I'm lucky, liberals. The only community worth having is online, and whenever I get too attached to that, it just means it's time to touch grass. I should have checked out a long time ago. I'm happy the world might be soon seeing som multipolarity. But the part of it where I am living is also going to see a rise of fascism that I don't even want to try to survive. I have no community irl and I can't will that into changing. As much as I'd like to. yay idealism.

                • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  Where all the hexbears live?? :matt-jokerfied: That would be nice, but nah, I don't think it works like that. I actually live in what's supposed to be a "progressive" area, but that just means rich people here are making it impossible for poor people to get by. I don't have the financial, mental, or emotional means to go anywhere unfortunately.

                  • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    How about Cuba. if you're thinking of killing yourself you might as well consider upheaving your life instead.

                    • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      I'd love to. But I feel like if that were possible, lots of people would be headed there. From what I know (not much), it's not easy to get to Cuba, let alone secure citizenship. Without any money or skills especially. If I'm wrong about that, then yes, let me please go live in Cuba.

              • RedDawn [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                I’m seconding the idea of looking into moving as an option. It’s worth a shot if your current situation is that hopeless. And I’m speaking from some experience, I left the US months ago for Latin America, unfortunately I’m going back in another few months to try to break into a decent paying industry, where I plan to work for a few years tops and then get the fuck out again… just being out of USA for a few months has really given me a chance to catch my breath and realize that there is so much more out there than the horrors of American capitalism. Not that things are perfect anywhere, but there are places that don’t grind you to a pulp the way American capitalism insists on doing to the poor.

                • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  I hear you and I thank you for the advice. Also good luck with your own moving and finding decent work in Amerikkka and/or Latam, however that ends up working out. I'm a drug addict NEET, so prospects aren't great for me going anywhere. Doesn't mean I'm not grateful to people here being kind and offering ideas.

                  • Commander_Data [she/her]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    I could tell you that we need good people like you to stick around and help us make a better world, or that if you could break free of this prison of trauma your story could be a beacon to others stuck in the mire, or a thousand other things to give you a reason to go on and get the help you deserve, but I won't. What I will say is this, I know at some point in your life you've experienced joy. At least a brief glimpse of happiness and contentment. You deserve to feel that again, and often. Life isn't always full of joy, but I truly believe there is more of it out there than not. You are worth that. No matter who you are, you are worth living.

                    • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      Thank you. I'm not sure what else to say but thanks. I feel in my bones that everything you said is true, correct. I know there really is, like you said, more joy out there to be had. But I have been in many ways, including declining physical health, just cut off from it. There are walls and fences that have to be climbed to even have hope of reaching that fleeting joy, and for some people, they just don't have the energy or ability to climb them anymore. Certainly not without the help of friends and community irl.

      • UlyssesT
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        deleted by creator

        • KiaKaha [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Thesis: I’m all alone.

          Antithesis: I’m not alone.

          Synthesis: We’re all alone together.

          • UlyssesT
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            deleted by creator

        • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Thank you. I will try to comment more often. Not sure if that will change much, but I'll try. This place really is the only place left where I feel like there's still a sense of camaraderie or real solidarity.

          • UlyssesT
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            deleted by creator

      • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]M
        ·
        2 years ago

        Hi, I might not be able to offer much insight, but if you ever need an ear, please reach out! People here care, and the world is better with you in it.

      • CTHlurker [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Have you posted this before? Because I think you and I had a brief interaction a month or so ago. I tried being as cheerful as I could, but it can be hard to convince people who are lonely and alienated that they actually are deserving of love and compassion, and that there is a reason to hope for a brighter future.

        • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Sorry, I just now saw this. No, I don' t think I spoke with you before, but I could be wrong. My memory is pretty fucked up these days, and I do use different accounts to post a rare comment here and there. I've seen other people post similar things too (which is part of the reason I don't feel so alone here on hexbear), so it maybe wasn't me but someone else in a bad place? If it was me you spoke to, I apologize that I don't remember. Whatever the case, thank you. Your compassion is appreciated, and it's the people like you who make this place the only place on the internet, the only "social media" I ever actually feel comfortable enough to speak to others on.

          I'd also like to say that I don't want you or anyone else here to feel any kind of obligation to convince me (or others who are probably on their way out) of a brighter future. Again, it is appreciated, truly it is. But my despair is the fault of my own failures in life, and much more so the fault of this fucked up capitalist machine, this juggernaut that dehumanizes and alienates everyone. I know (or at least I'd like to think) that I am as you say, deserving of love and compassion, deserving of a brighter future. But many of us are simply just cut off from that, whether we deserve it or not. A little bit of solidarity and kindness, and even just friendly interaction from a stranger on the internet does help with how alone I (and presumably others) feel though, so again... thank you.