Ok normally I make a joke in the mega threads but real talk today folks:
Being unemployed due to Covid has been the single most liberating feeling in my entire life. I didn’t feel this good when I got out of an abusive relationship. I didn’t feel this good when I finally kicked a crippling addiction.
It has taken a few months of guilt for not working, but I just spent that time to take care of myself instead of working 60 hour weeks and focus on my hobbies and doing things I genuinely enjoy and I’ve never been happier. In the beginning of the unemployment I started walk my dog at 2pm just because I fucking can, now I do it every day because I genuinely enjoy it and not because it’s a chore. Now I read during the day. I wake up early feeling well rested despite anxiety and depression because I just feel comfortable. I’ve even made some money from my hobby of making vinyl decals and it might end up being sustainable enough to never return to the grind I used to live.
Late capitalism is quite literally designed to oppress you and leave you no time to explore your other options in life. We force this feeling of guilt on people who aren’t being conventionally productive because as a society we have completely normalized the idea that if you can’t monetize your labor you don’t deserve to live or be happy.
Im so glad some guy on the Internet back when I was in high school told me to just try reading Marx even though I was an edgy libertarian dipshit. It really opened my eyes to a life outside of valuing yourself just based on what you produce, and this stint of unemployment which forcibly removed me from the system has really helped all of it come together.
I went into this pandemic an unemployment a jaded commie feeling trapped and helpless. Now I’m a commie who wants to help everyone I can enjoy this same feeling of liberation from being a slave to capital, and will do anything I can to help us get there together.
I feel you.
The kicker is, what you want isn’t production heavy. You want a roof over your head, food, a nice park, some dog food, and some technology to play with.
The thing that forces us to work isn’t necessity, but rather an upper class’s desire to extract and live extravagantly.
This is so well said. I can work 3 or less hours a day (in NYC, no less) and afford my rent and all of my bills fairly easily. I’m not ripping people off with what I sell, I make it all and assemble it myself, I use the USPS for shipping, and I feel like I am getting the true value out of what I produce.
I don’t need to be laboring in a mine 10 hours a day, I don’t need to be burning myself out doing 12 hour days making coffee like I did in college. It actually takes very little work to provide for yourself when you don’t have to make somebody else wealthy with your labor
Also, if you’re paying rent, chances are you’re mostly paying literal economic rent, as in, value that isn’t attributable to any increase in labour inputs or improvements.
If your rent was just the minimum of labour necessary to build the property and upkeep it, you’d see your necessary working time reduce further.
Exactly. I’m paying somebody else’s mortgage basically which is now only half of the people leaching off of my labor but still so fucking insane that I need to prove my ability to sell my labor value just to have a bare minimum safe place to live. Fucking insane that people just live like this and never question it
This is so well said. I can work 3 or less hours a day (in NYC, no less) and afford my rent and all of my bills fairly easily.
It actually takes very little work to provide for yourself when you don’t have to make somebody else wealthy with your labor
wait, how did covid make this happen? I thought they only sent out like a single $600 stimulus check or something
can I buy vinyl decals from you
thanks
But for real, that's fucking awesome and I know what you mean, I had a similar little renaissance in lockdown
I went into this pandemic and unemployment a jaded commie feeling trapped and helpless. Now I’m a commie who wants to help everyone I can enjoy this same feeling of liberation from being a slave to capital, and will do anything I can to help us get there together.
fuck i'm gonna cry
What was your lockdown story? They’re all so amazing to read because no matter the circumstances they all put us into the same situation and we mostly came to the same conclusions
Yes I’ll link you to my Etsy shop if you DM me it’s mostly games and stuff but it’s what I like
Well I radicalized in early february, then bernie lost and lockdown hit and I was spinning. Hadn't been involved in politics before but went ham for bernie. Luckily by the time he lost I had already had hopes for electoralism mostly beaten out of me by chapo so It wasn't too crushing, but I was just suddenly directionless and didn't know what to do, and then lockdown hit
and I decided that I'd learn to bake so if shit got real bad I could at least feed myself and others easily, and holy shit baking is great and I do it all the time now, and want to open a bakery.
But that's just the hobby. The really amazing part of all of this for me has been chapo, and getting to help build something new and amazing with you all, especially being able to play a part in the discord while this place was being built. I guess on the whole I've had a largely internal renaissance, grown a lot as a person and more than anything else have a driving purpose and desire to help my comrades in any way I can and do what I can to become stronger and more skilled to work towards a better world
everything sucks and is terrible, but for now I have shelter and food, and I'm the happiest I've ever been because I get to do shit that matters
Purpose and self fulfillment are so important and I’m glad you have both now and continue down this path. It was scary at first but it feels so much better now
It does. A lot relies on good luck right now which isn't great, but hey that's alright
I’m lucky to have dabbled a bit in monetizing what I enjoy doing before the pandemic so it really helped me hit the ground running when that became the only way I could feed myself, so yeah luck is a huge factor and I know not many people are as lucky as I am sadly, but that’s why I wrote what I wrote.
I just want everyone to remember there is a world outside of making a CEO rich through your hard labor
Hey, I just want to say that your story is really, really damn relatable and validating. Ive also wrestled with the bullshit guilt of not having a job, (during a global plague) and while I know that ultimately my health is more important, that doesn't make the societal pressure to sell my labor go away. So I'm dealing with it all by using my time in quarantine unemployment to dive into hobbies I've always enjoyed on a surface level. Getting fucked up can only fill so much of a day, and is only fun for a while. Started sculpting, casting, painting and writing, first only little and more recently as an obsession. Sculpture especially competely absorbed me. It feels like it's own kind of fever now, losing track of time and world. When I sit down at the kitchen table, my hands instinctively reach for my knife and wax. I've assembled a strange pantheon of cosmic things, each carved out with a faster hand and quieter mind than the last. Frankly, it's the most compelling thing I've felt in a long time, and the rest of my life is slowly being drowned out and subsumed by the pouring and the cutting.
Anyway, I figure I may as well make some money from this obsessive thing I'll be doing no matter what, so I made an etsy page. It's not up yet, because until now I've just been too nervous about taking the next step, but something about how your experience has mirrored so much of mine makes the possibility of success real in my mind. The fear of failure is being eclipsed by the desire to see my stuff out in the world, which I'm sure you can relate to. So thanks for your story and the motivation. Also, it'd be really cool to see your stuff. Mind if I get a link in the DMs?
Ziezek had an interesting thought kinda like what you wrote, something along the lines of the NEET gamers that live at home without paying rent are the freest of us all.
Posting this sexy comment @Beatnik left in the left unity thread earlier today because it's appropriate and awesome:
Anarchists get shit done and really live by their principles. Their ability to self-organize and also hold one another accountable is admirable. Food Not Bombs is an example of an amazing anarchist organization that has saved the lives of so many hungry people.
If a large scale socialist project ever fully takes off in America, it will very likely have Anarchist characteristics. Those in power are aware of this and the fixation of politicians and media on "Anarchists" during the BLM protests was them overplaying their hand. Those of us who ascribe to other tendencies should be paying attention.
When I'm at a protest, I don't care what tendency the people marching next to me are. When I was holding a shield wall at the last protest and the riot cops were charging, all that fucking mattered was that those alongside me stood their ground so that we kept the people behind us safe. Everyone stood their damn ground. "Who keeps us safe? WE KEEP US SAFE."
Tendency and theory are tools for making sense of the world. They are not religions. They cannot represent you as a person. They are not your myers briggs personality type. They are not a fucking astrological sign. If you look to theory to hand you the answers, it will fail you. It is a means to an end and we have to remember that.
There are distinct and real differences between tendencies. This is a good thing. We should acknowledge those differences and talk about what that means for building socialism. This discussion cannot be in the spirit of "winning" some good vs bad ideological struggle. That is liberalism. That is sectarianism.
Anarchism has strength and I respect those who have found their way to the left through it. The best man at my wedding is an Anarchist and I love him the same as any biological sibling. We talk shit and grill each other all the time (including "tankie" and "anarkiddie" shittakes), but I have always been confident that we have each other's back.
I say all this as a Marxist-Leninist, which is how I found my way to the left and is informed by the theory I have read so far. Maybe some day that will change and I will shift to a different tendency. There is no "correct" theory. If you truly view yourself as a scientific socialist, then you understand this. Socialism will always change its appearance based on the material conditions it arises from.
Our goal is socialism and, past that, a classless society. I care about that. I care about building a coalition with others who want that. It's why Chapo resonates with me as a community and it's why I give enough of a fuck to work on this site alongside so many other talented and driven leftists. We need an independent platform if we're going to have any chance of bringing folks together, especially as the failings of capitalism continue to physically isolate people further and further from one another.
Anarchists are comrades. If you can't see that yet, get the fuck off this site and go outside for a while until you want to get something done in this hellworld (or at the least shitpost).
When I say leftist unity, that isn't just a buzzword. I stand by it.
:left-unity 2:
lmao I just noticed that he linked to this post in the body of this thread I'm silly
I think that people making fun of Trump and calling for him to die has caused him to leave the hospital early. This in turn may lead to his death. Bullying works.
It's gonna be weird when we end up getting blamed for bullying him into it, rather than acknowledging that he was too much of a proud pissboy and too beholden to projecting strength to take his own illness seriously.
It's gonna be awesome if we get blamed for that. posting is power!
They arrested the pig who shot the man in Texas. He's been booked on murder charges and is being held on $1M bail.
good news, but it seems like when these pigs get arrested they let them go as soon as they are out of the spotlight
you ever feel like you're over a certain person but then you hear some music from that period in your life and all the emotions come back
actually I don't even really miss this person in particular, I just miss the feeling, and I'm sad that I don't think I'll ever feel that way again
You ever relisten to a podcast and a bit brings you back to exactly what you were doing the first time you heard it?
Holy shit this so much. A lot of cumtown bits remind me of my years working shitty grocery store jobs, staying after hours by myself to do bullshit
I had a dream that I was on a bus being driven by bernie sanders and he got off the bus but it kept moving and the thing clipped through a retaining wall and coasted into oblivion under the terrain
The movement must go on without Bernie Senpai, and there are no brakes #notMeUs
Hi everyone, it’s 5:30am right now, I’m getting ready for work and about to ride a helicopter for an assignment, just wanted to wish you, yes you reading this a nice day, stay strong comrade.
it'd be pretty painful, but hopefully could radicalize some of the more genuine/well-meaning libs
I have my first job interview in fucking ages coming up in 45 minutes. I was pretty thrown off because after months of getting zero response from any company I applied to, I sent a follow-up email to this guy yesterday and he was almost immediately like "yeah sure bro how bout we talk tomorrow". no idea how this is gonna go
Good job man! I got woken up this morning by a recruiter so I'm hoping things work out for me too. Keeping my expectations low though.
Geology department was clearing house and they let us have some, check out these sweet rocks. Petrified wood, two amethysts, cuprite, and a megalodon tooth. Lighting sucks cause it's one in the morning
Covid’s already been the equivalent of 66 9/11s. It’d be nice if one of those metaphorical planes hit the centre of global finance again.
