There’s very little hope for a decent life. It’s not rocket surgery. Unless you get lucky being born into wealth, success in entertainment industry, stock market stuff, something else that gets you enough money to be financially independent… is rare and unlikely.
The rest have to work jobs we hate. Rising cost of living. Own a home… Ha! Then you work your shit job and when you retire at 70 it’s mostly just time to die, having wasted life working to prop up some billionaires enjoying yachts and diddling kids.
People are realizing there’s not much hope for a large number of us.
Even though i do get the privilege of being born into a lucky circumstances, i have to watch all of my peers in my age group suffer while i am somewhat compelled to spend all my time with folks in older generations because all of my fellow millennials are too busy being exploited or exhausted just to keep their head above water.
Will i be one of like a handful of millennials who fair a passable life? When i get to a possible retirement will i even have any peers to hang out with? Am i a shithead for not sacrificing enough of myself to make a better world? What could i even sacrifice to make a better world? after all there needs to be organizations to turn sacrifice into change, and all the organizations are run by boomers who are quite comfortable because millennials will barely even show up to community social groups, let alone commit to leadership let alone play the bullshit social games to fight for power and control.
What even is the point for me - an okay off millennial - to fight for the cause of the rest of us when everybody in our age bracket seems to be lining up to give the best excuse for giving up? If things are already this shit, then surely the odds are in y’alls’s favors to take a cause and go into the community and make a belligerent stand?
That’s where I’m at. I graduated college at 22, got an engineering job right out of college that put me in the top 0.5% of income earners for my age, then did that for 5 years. At no point was I even close to being able to afford a down-payment on even a shitty condo where I lived. Now im unemployed, smoke weed all day, and im basically waiting to either participate in a revolution or run out of money and die. I am strictly unwilling to participate in capitalism anymore, I’ve got enough blood on my hands for a lifetime and nothing to show for it other than than the experience needed to realize how much of what I grew up believing was nothing more than cynical propaganda.
A weird combination of electric, radar, computer, and hardware test. I used to do technique development and operational testing for radar jamming equipment on a strategic bomber for the airforce. I tried going back to school for a bit, but I learned that academia is run by pathetic cowards who can and will build weapons for fascists in exchange for funding. I came to the conclusion that the only thing I was changing was how likely I was to have to see the piles of corpses I was helping create. Now im just not looking anymore. I still get a daily deluge of emails from war profiteers looking for somebody willing to be a principal engineer in shithole towns like Huntsville or Abilene
Appreciate it, but I stopped looking a long time ago. I was raised in a military family to be an attack dog for fascists, and i realized that everybody i ever looked up to or trusted would rather support fascism than accept even a mote of discomfort in their personal lives. I dont trust another soul in the world and honestly im not sure i have the capacity to; ive only ever experienced cynical monsters of human beings vying for dominance, and I got extremely good at that game. If there even is anything worth living for in this faustian existence, the weight of my sins is such that I don’t deserve to experience it
Well said, I sympathize and we have very similar backgrounds based on what you’ve said. Are your sins and blood on your hands due to working for defense contractors or military or related? If so I feel that to my core. I tried saying “at least I’m not making bombs or missiles”, but even if you’re supporting them in other ways it’s still part of the machine where poor people end up dead or impoverished, all because of billionaires war games. And they get richer along the way.
We’re not special. We’re primates. The greatest smartest ape on the planet. But it’s still just a more advanced and complex form of what chimps do in the wild. The animalistic competition and domination is fucking stupid when you start to recognize it. We’re the only fucking species intelligent enough to transcend that shit, yet look at us?
Take what I say with a very fine grain of salt. And I would never presume know what’s best for people or try to tell anyone what to do. But if you want to be effective in the one in a billion chance there’s a revolution or anything remotely like it, maybe prepare? Health wise and whatever else you might think. I’d like to smoke and drink every day too, but what about just in case? Personally I’m ready to pull the trigger if an opportunity arises, but I would want it to count. Yeah, I’m kinda saying don’t give up just yet. They way you think, we need people like you.
I don’t think people like you and I are alone. I think it’s possible more people are/will grow to feel and think this way, given the way things are going.
Yeah, I was a defense contractor. I grew up periodically wondering if this was finally the deployment my dad wouldn’t come home from, and getting the chance to work in radar jamming to keep american aviators alive felt like a dream come true at first.
I am afraid to try to change the world again. I already know that I have the capability to change things in the world, I spent plenty of time doing it. I also know that I developed my values and morality while being raised as a white supremacist, and that I am gullible enough to be misled into doing evil. I dont remotely trust my own judgement on what would make the world a better place, and I trust anybody telling me what I should do even less. I’ve already had to see and smell the consequences of trusting other people who justify violence to me.
I am really impressed with your ability to break free of your educational mold. That’s an incredible achievement in itself. You were constantly in an environment glorifying war and war related activities, and you stiff alone against that. That’s awe inspiring.
I am but an internet stranger with a completely different life history and background, and i can bring small snippets of a different world to you.
An example: I have a clear memory of a defense contractor coming to my uni to give a talk, and asking my professor off he was interested in collaborating. Money was good and plentiful, but it was painfully clear that the research they wanted us to do could be used both for peace time and in very scary applications in war time. I was queasy about it, but my professor had been looking for funding left and right to keep our group going, so it seemed that was the golden ticket. Unexpectedly, instead of jumping on the opportunity, my prof send the contractor out of the room, and asked the group how we felt about it. Nobody really dared saying anything negative. Prof invited the contractor back to tell him we wouldn’t be participating. No excuses, just a pretty rough no to his face, never brought up the topic again.
People can and do turn down flowing cash when it clashes with their morality. You are not alone.
The answer is for future generations to stop having kids. Fewer consumers for billionaires to leech off of and turn into corporate slaves. More houses to go around once older generations die off. Less competition. Corporations will probably raise prices like crazy and turn people into super-consumers and of course some people will still have kids and we all saw idiocracy.
In capitalism, there is no going back. You have to beat least year’s profits no matter what.
There is plenty of housing currently in Western countries, it’s just not being made available to those in need. That won’t change with lower birthrate, it will stay not available to them. It can only change with system change where no one can hoard insane billion amounts of $ € ¥ numbers on their screen or have thousands of homes as their belongings.
Definitely a lot of corporations turning homes to rentals but if there are fewer people to rent those houses, it’s not as lucrative an investment and with a surplus of homes, there’s more opportunity for people to buy them. I get what you’re saying tho. They have all the power to turn any situation in their favor.
In some situations they’ll rather have empty houses than rent it out to the poorest people for lower prices. Or actively destroy (“upgrade”) affordable housing to keep prices of the rest up. And if the prices do really go down a lot it’s still poors with mortgages but suddenly no more enough income selling their places for bargain prices to the ultra rich for whom even in a real estate crisis with crashed prices it’s all still just a game situation, not a food on the table one. They use it to gobble up even more.
Yeah, speaking from the american perspective on population and housing… The ‘war on immigrants’ (which I’m amazed the clown in chief hasn’t started using) is a farce. It fucks up lives, and the rich still pull in more desperate immigrants. It’s not about actually lowering the amount of immigrants in the country, its about tossing red meat to their dumb voters, and putting a pervasive fear into anyone who would dare to ask for better working conditions. If ever the population fell enough for the rich to feel any squeeze, they’d just stop patrolling the border as much, conduct slightly less enforcement of visa overstays, and the population would rise just enough.
As for the housing, they’d love to keep buying up residences and turning them into rentals. Folks might die and pass them onto children, but how many of those inheriting the house can suddenly move into it and use it as their primary residence?
Not difficult to understand.
Why bother?
There’s very little hope for a decent life. It’s not rocket surgery. Unless you get lucky being born into wealth, success in entertainment industry, stock market stuff, something else that gets you enough money to be financially independent… is rare and unlikely.
The rest have to work jobs we hate. Rising cost of living. Own a home… Ha! Then you work your shit job and when you retire at 70 it’s mostly just time to die, having wasted life working to prop up some billionaires enjoying yachts and diddling kids.
People are realizing there’s not much hope for a large number of us.
Tax the rich or bring back guillotines, or both.
Even though i do get the privilege of being born into a lucky circumstances, i have to watch all of my peers in my age group suffer while i am somewhat compelled to spend all my time with folks in older generations because all of my fellow millennials are too busy being exploited or exhausted just to keep their head above water.
Will i be one of like a handful of millennials who fair a passable life? When i get to a possible retirement will i even have any peers to hang out with? Am i a shithead for not sacrificing enough of myself to make a better world? What could i even sacrifice to make a better world? after all there needs to be organizations to turn sacrifice into change, and all the organizations are run by boomers who are quite comfortable because millennials will barely even show up to community social groups, let alone commit to leadership let alone play the bullshit social games to fight for power and control.
What even is the point for me - an okay off millennial - to fight for the cause of the rest of us when everybody in our age bracket seems to be lining up to give the best excuse for giving up? If things are already this shit, then surely the odds are in y’alls’s favors to take a cause and go into the community and make a belligerent stand?
That’s where I’m at. I graduated college at 22, got an engineering job right out of college that put me in the top 0.5% of income earners for my age, then did that for 5 years. At no point was I even close to being able to afford a down-payment on even a shitty condo where I lived. Now im unemployed, smoke weed all day, and im basically waiting to either participate in a revolution or run out of money and die. I am strictly unwilling to participate in capitalism anymore, I’ve got enough blood on my hands for a lifetime and nothing to show for it other than than the experience needed to realize how much of what I grew up believing was nothing more than cynical propaganda.
What kind of engineering? Are you not able to find a job or just not trying? Just looking to understand other people’s stories a bit more.
A weird combination of electric, radar, computer, and hardware test. I used to do technique development and operational testing for radar jamming equipment on a strategic bomber for the airforce. I tried going back to school for a bit, but I learned that academia is run by pathetic cowards who can and will build weapons for fascists in exchange for funding. I came to the conclusion that the only thing I was changing was how likely I was to have to see the piles of corpses I was helping create. Now im just not looking anymore. I still get a daily deluge of emails from war profiteers looking for somebody willing to be a principal engineer in shithole towns like Huntsville or Abilene
Fair enough. Here’s hoping you find whatever happiness you’re looking for in life.
Appreciate it, but I stopped looking a long time ago. I was raised in a military family to be an attack dog for fascists, and i realized that everybody i ever looked up to or trusted would rather support fascism than accept even a mote of discomfort in their personal lives. I dont trust another soul in the world and honestly im not sure i have the capacity to; ive only ever experienced cynical monsters of human beings vying for dominance, and I got extremely good at that game. If there even is anything worth living for in this faustian existence, the weight of my sins is such that I don’t deserve to experience it
Well said, I sympathize and we have very similar backgrounds based on what you’ve said. Are your sins and blood on your hands due to working for defense contractors or military or related? If so I feel that to my core. I tried saying “at least I’m not making bombs or missiles”, but even if you’re supporting them in other ways it’s still part of the machine where poor people end up dead or impoverished, all because of billionaires war games. And they get richer along the way.
We’re not special. We’re primates. The greatest smartest ape on the planet. But it’s still just a more advanced and complex form of what chimps do in the wild. The animalistic competition and domination is fucking stupid when you start to recognize it. We’re the only fucking species intelligent enough to transcend that shit, yet look at us?
Take what I say with a very fine grain of salt. And I would never presume know what’s best for people or try to tell anyone what to do. But if you want to be effective in the one in a billion chance there’s a revolution or anything remotely like it, maybe prepare? Health wise and whatever else you might think. I’d like to smoke and drink every day too, but what about just in case? Personally I’m ready to pull the trigger if an opportunity arises, but I would want it to count. Yeah, I’m kinda saying don’t give up just yet. They way you think, we need people like you.
I don’t think people like you and I are alone. I think it’s possible more people are/will grow to feel and think this way, given the way things are going.
Yeah, I was a defense contractor. I grew up periodically wondering if this was finally the deployment my dad wouldn’t come home from, and getting the chance to work in radar jamming to keep american aviators alive felt like a dream come true at first.
I am afraid to try to change the world again. I already know that I have the capability to change things in the world, I spent plenty of time doing it. I also know that I developed my values and morality while being raised as a white supremacist, and that I am gullible enough to be misled into doing evil. I dont remotely trust my own judgement on what would make the world a better place, and I trust anybody telling me what I should do even less. I’ve already had to see and smell the consequences of trusting other people who justify violence to me.
I am really impressed with your ability to break free of your educational mold. That’s an incredible achievement in itself. You were constantly in an environment glorifying war and war related activities, and you stiff alone against that. That’s awe inspiring.
I am but an internet stranger with a completely different life history and background, and i can bring small snippets of a different world to you.
An example: I have a clear memory of a defense contractor coming to my uni to give a talk, and asking my professor off he was interested in collaborating. Money was good and plentiful, but it was painfully clear that the research they wanted us to do could be used both for peace time and in very scary applications in war time. I was queasy about it, but my professor had been looking for funding left and right to keep our group going, so it seemed that was the golden ticket. Unexpectedly, instead of jumping on the opportunity, my prof send the contractor out of the room, and asked the group how we felt about it. Nobody really dared saying anything negative. Prof invited the contractor back to tell him we wouldn’t be participating. No excuses, just a pretty rough no to his face, never brought up the topic again.
People can and do turn down flowing cash when it clashes with their morality. You are not alone.
You won me over with “rocket surgery” <3
The answer is for future generations to stop having kids. Fewer consumers for billionaires to leech off of and turn into corporate slaves. More houses to go around once older generations die off. Less competition. Corporations will probably raise prices like crazy and turn people into super-consumers and of course some people will still have kids and we all saw idiocracy.
In capitalism, there is no going back. You have to beat least year’s profits no matter what.
There is plenty of housing currently in Western countries, it’s just not being made available to those in need. That won’t change with lower birthrate, it will stay not available to them. It can only change with system change where no one can hoard insane billion amounts of $ € ¥ numbers on their screen or have thousands of homes as their belongings.
Definitely a lot of corporations turning homes to rentals but if there are fewer people to rent those houses, it’s not as lucrative an investment and with a surplus of homes, there’s more opportunity for people to buy them. I get what you’re saying tho. They have all the power to turn any situation in their favor.
In some situations they’ll rather have empty houses than rent it out to the poorest people for lower prices. Or actively destroy (“upgrade”) affordable housing to keep prices of the rest up. And if the prices do really go down a lot it’s still poors with mortgages but suddenly no more enough income selling their places for bargain prices to the ultra rich for whom even in a real estate crisis with crashed prices it’s all still just a game situation, not a food on the table one. They use it to gobble up even more.
Yeah, speaking from the american perspective on population and housing… The ‘war on immigrants’ (which I’m amazed the clown in chief hasn’t started using) is a farce. It fucks up lives, and the rich still pull in more desperate immigrants. It’s not about actually lowering the amount of immigrants in the country, its about tossing red meat to their dumb voters, and putting a pervasive fear into anyone who would dare to ask for better working conditions. If ever the population fell enough for the rich to feel any squeeze, they’d just stop patrolling the border as much, conduct slightly less enforcement of visa overstays, and the population would rise just enough.
As for the housing, they’d love to keep buying up residences and turning them into rentals. Folks might die and pass them onto children, but how many of those inheriting the house can suddenly move into it and use it as their primary residence?