He and I agree on everything but yeah we had a good text-talk. He keeps haranguing his mom to give him some reason that she still supports Trump. But how are you going to respond when someone is sending you 34 emails in a few hours?
I explained to him my theory that it’s all about the other aunt. His reply: “It seems more important to her than her son’s sanity or respect.” which is pretty heartbreaking.
I told him that politics is all intertwined with religion now, and we all know you’ll never change someone’s religion with facts and reasoning. Maybe it got through a little.
The really messed up part is when he starts sounding semi-suicidal, I hear a lot of me in there and kind of relate to him. Not that I’m going to kill myself I promise. But I do have a pretty dour outlook a lot of the time.
I’d be a terrible suicide prevention counselor because some of the time I’d be thinking, “Yeah you make a pretty good case there.”
I wrote this out before I caught up fully with the thread but still wanted to include it to show why I’m really happy you guys were able to talk. Thanks for being a person he can lean on and just talk things through.
Tell him you’re freaking out a little and could really use someone to talk to about what’s happening. You know he’s got some thoughts so was one of the first people you thought of.
Don’t treat him like he’s got a problem you’re desperate to fix. He needs help processing what he’s experiencing. If you can just get him talking, that will happen on its own. You are good at this. I think things will go well if you can get him on the phone or something.
Also a good chance he’s just too far gone to reach right now though. Nothing you can do but wait until the fog clears and support him in whatever way is healthy for both of you until that happens.
It’s really great you reached out to him. Even though it might not have seemed like much, I’m sure it meant a lot for him to hear from someone who has informed opinions of what’s going on right now and was able to show him some empathy.
I hope you stay in touch with him. I’m no expert on this field besides having lived with depression for a long time myself, but I’d try to get him to focus on things to get his mental state right before worrying about the job thing. Trying to push a job on a depressed person doesn’t usually work out well from my experience… and mental health is always important than money. Get him moving, laughing, and excited for the future again, and the desire to resume working will come naturally.
You realize UBI is fundamentally different than unemployment.
This isn’t the thread so I’m not going to derail but I would maybe pickup a book about UBI and do a little research. I will be happy to recommend a couple if you are interested.
Also unemployment insurance is a good thing even if you know a few people who never found their footing after going through some hardships.
I’m all for unemployment insurance. I’m just leery that paying people just enough to do nothing for the rest of their lives is going to work out well for most people. But I think we’re both very clear on this issue - you disagree with that fundamental position. So yeah let’s not derail.
Oh yeah. Wouldn’t be surprised if there an assassination attempt (or a successful one) on Biden during inauguration day. Honestly, there shouldn’t be an in-person inauguration celebration due to covid.
There also won’t be a shortage of future insurrections during the next four years. Wouldn’t be surprised if we find out about another COINTELPRO type of operation against right-wing terrorism this time though.
Anyway, the deplorables I know have been pretty silent on this insurrection. Guess they’re waiting for their orders from right-wing media before sharing an opinion. Probably get it now that Trump is being impeached.
The fact that we’re experiencing a time where there simply isn’t enough useful work to go around kinda makes this hard. Especially since we’re intentionally driving towards a “Player Piano” type future instead of a Star Trek type future spells disaster for the people who need work to find meaning in life.
I’m not sure I can agree with this. I understand the argument, but it’s very hard to square this assertion with the reality of the modern workplace. Many (most?) workplaces now are dystopian nightmares designed and run by sociopaths. The groupthink, transparently shallow propaganda, coded criticisms, and constant pressures are for many people thoroughly, thoroughly destructive to mental wellness (not to mention physical wellness). IMO it would be a major stroke of luck for a person that is mentally unwell to find a job that makes that better, not worse.
One of the ironies of the modern workplace is that there are more analogies between current corporate leaders / leadership styles and the Soviets than there is between current corporate leaders and 20th century American leaders of industry. But current corporate leaders would swear up and down that they are capitalists to the bone.
It’s definitely common in Canada, but I wouldn’t say that it betrays much of a bias toward work. It’s more of an attempt to identify common ground with a stranger, which is good social practice. “What do you do for a living” seems to me to be more akin to “how about that weather out there” or “golly Local Sports Team sure is doing great/awful, how about that Local Sports Team”. It’s not like you get shunned by society if you say that you are between jobs or something. People will just move on to another attempt to establish common ground.
One could argue that earning a subsistence level salary from the govt could give the average worker a ton of “fuck you” equity which would go a long long way towards fixing these issues in the modern workplace. “Yeahhhh I’m gonna need you to stay late and then come in on Saturday…” “lol no fire me.”