good ass effort post i thought, using brat to discuss the current social landscape

  • iie [they/them, he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    25 days ago

    *Took me a while to write this comment, didn't see your edit. Fwiw I recommend the latter half of the video.

    I hope this doesn't sound confrontational by text, but have you watched the video or did you quit after he started talking about drugs?

    The parts of the video I was responding to were the "market fetishism," "dysphoria mundi," and "enough" sections, roughly the last half of the video. I do think he has some interesting things to say here. This is where he gets into the "feelings with no one to feel them" idea. That's what I meant when I said "I feel especially susceptible to this" as a person with ADHD. I'm prone to losing touch with myself.

    • SocialistDovahkiin [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      25 days ago

      I understand what you're saying here but

      It became a chicken-and-egg problem where I rotted to escape the pain of rotting.

      I mean? I guess I do the same thing? But I really really do not view it that way. It's more like distracting myself with things I know are safe and happiness inducing. I try to avoid advertisements and social media, I just focus on interacting with actual friends and doing normal fun activities.

      I really, really don't want to watch the second half of a video explain to me how I need to change my lifestyle and self-flagellate. I've come to realize there are external reasons I have the habits I do and no matter how much I'm worried I'm hurting myself by being a computer nerd or being a furry I'll always fall back on these things as long as they actually serve me, as long as I have genuine reasons for it.

      Pathologizing that seems extremely harmful. Viewing, say, the usage of this site, as rotting myself or being a failing of character that I haven't stopped, can't be healthy in and of itself. To constantly do things and then hate oneself for it, repeatedly unable to change anything because of an individualistic perspective of choice and behavior, feels immensely unpleasant and the fact so many people think that way scares me. I think the chance of such self deprecation being unhealthy is way worse than the chance that enjoying playing video games is actually part of a capitalist plot to destroy my sense of self to stop me from revolting.

      I understand where you're coming from but stuff like the "45 second silence" absolutely infuriates me. I refuse to subject myself to listening to someone with that level of condescension and infantilization of their own viewers. It's unbelievable. I'll continue building in Minecraft and they can fuck off with their weird gotcha attempt. I don't enjoy being bored. Who does? I'm not going to purposely torture myself just so I feel more morally pure about my hobbies.

      And also, I think the whole not having a sense of self in the way people usually describe it is just a common autistic thing. There's a reason "kins" are so popular among autistic people as well as an inability to describe one's own feelings in words. Our experience with identity is simply vastly different from a neurotypical person's, it has been before computers were as frequently used, too.

      • iie [they/them, he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        25 days ago

        Sorry, I edited a bunch out of my comment before i saw your response, including the part you quoted. I decided it was too personal.

        I really, really don't want to watch the second half of a video explain to me how I need to change my lifestyle and self-flagellate.

        that's not what the second half of the video is about, or I wouldn't be recommending it to you. The dysphoria part, for example, is what it says on the tin, it's about dysphoria. It's just cultural analysis, not about what you personally should do.

        To constantly do things and then hate oneself for it, repeatedly unable to change anything because of an individualistic perspective of choice and behavior, feels immensely unpleasant and the fact so many people think that way scares me.

        I don't want to misinterpret, but are you saying I hate myself? I don't feel ashamed of "rotting on the computer." I feel upset about it. That's not a feeling someone else put in me. It's not internalized protestant work ethic or ableism or whatever else. I genuinely do not like the experience.

        There were external reasons, but there was also the feedback loop I mentioned, the chicken and egg. That's my personal experience and I'm sure it's different for everyone, but it's a way that i personally relate to the idea from the video of "feelings with no one to feel them."