> if they were sufficiently self-confident to pursue what actually made them happy on their own, they would have already been doing so. they would have found a job that did not stress them out.
Gato Psychiatrico - eso es muy bueno.
Interesting to see what parts of society hated their own lives the most, eh?
“My life sucks, I want it to stop - but I don’t want your life to go on either.”
Yet another thoughtful and insightful piece from a writer rapidly becoming one of the most important and compelling commentators on current American life and times.
One of the most alarming aspects of the last year or so was seeing how many Americans are dissociated from reality. When people believe that “The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change” or that “at least half of (Covid) infected people need hospitalization”, it’s clear that anxiety and delusion are overwhelming rational thinking.
...."y’all know i love data and digging into it, but we’re getting the point where we’re past that. if you could read data and be convinced by it, you would have been by now." - totally agree.
you are completely correct. now add in the aging of a massive, powerful, permanent-childish Boomer cohort - who desperately want to live forever, and have no great impetus to leave their lavish homes any longer - and you see where things are going. they will try to drag everyone into the grave with them. if it takes all of our imprisonment to keep them safe as their immune systems fail them, that's fine with them.
perhaps you're seeing different boomers than i am, but i saw very much the opposite. the old wanted their lives back and called BS on this. it was the young, panicked millennials and even the kids that went whole hog for this. generation neurotic signed up in droves and claimed it was for the oldsters, but the oldsters were mostly saying "do not want." i think this got projected onto them by the younger crowd that sought to dress up its own fears and desires as virtue by claiming they were doing it for others and not balming their own insecurities.
I am 70 yo BOOMER, retired US military, no one should thank me for my service! My take: I can protect myself, you alls young healthy get back to work! The years I served in SAC living within a mile of ground zeroes did not scare me why should a harsh chest cold? My children, 40 somethings, are mixed, a few are desperately afraid of long covid and long term side effects: basically horrified by possible, ignoring probable. They are vaccinated! I will stop!
I agree a lot of this has been a projection on the boomers but there's also plenty of them behaving this way. Not to mention benefitting from another massive wealth transfer. The youngs are pathetic with their constant virtue signaling and complete lack of rebellion, to be sure. Sad they signed up for this in the first place.
The symptoms of this malaise defy societal generalizations. It is like an evolutionary escape clause that picks out a few people to be sane across all the social and demographic markers.
That is one of the most beautiful pieces I've read this week (well, last week, this week is only starting). Your wit is medicinal. I wrote this piece about joy last September, about how a similar dynamic played out in my native post-Soviet culture. https://tessa.substack.com/p/how-dare-you-be-happy-when-i-am-miserable
I fought to keep my own normal by keeping up my workout routine, going to swim at a state park lake when the pool closed down (and having a picnic afterwards), setting up a mini-gym in our garage and continuing to hike/run and ride our mountain bikes. I am luck I am retired, but my sub jobs waned for sure and I haven't been back because of the masking of kids/teachers and I won't have any part of that. My daughter who has been working in behavioral health all this time (no they NEVER shut down, as you can't put 10 year olds who have already survived trauma, out on the street, and foster families weren't allowed to step up)- so she has a totally different view than her friends who could sit at home and facebook about the "crisis" at hand. The obscene suggestions of not visiting relatives was embraced by my sister..just another reason to not go hang out with my 94 year old mom. I have been back twice and stayed a couple weeks. We are fine. Off to lead my ukulele group in a few- getting the "band back together"- those that "aren't ready" and continue to shop at Walmart, will not be attending. Thank God.
You're on fire El Gato, totally agree. I just wish you were not having to do this, and we were not living in this hellish nightmare. UK is particularly bad, we still can't bloody escape to hardly anywhere 🤬
This makes sense on paper but personally, it's not what I have observed. I'm personally very introverted, have social anxiety, probably considered anti-social by many people. And in some ways lockdowns have had a lot of silver linings for me - I don't miss socializing at work, or finding an excuse to avoid that birthday party - but I've hated this new normal from Day 1. Whereas many of my most extroverted friends are the ones now shouting on social media about staying home and wearing masks, etc.
I truly don't think anyone ENJOYS living this way. I think those that cling to it have just rationalized it and made it part of their political/moral identities.
it seems obvious to me that the young extroverted types shout on social media about masking and staying home etc bc it earns them the social credit that they are often desperately seeking, mask selfies and “i got vaccinated!” profile “stickers” are very low-skin-in-the-game methods of convincing others of your virtue while in no way having to practice what you preach, bc let’s face it - to the the lefty types, words matter far more than actions, and they never liked sharing the air with other humans anyway. you don’t have to be introverted to be a snob.
I absolutely love that last cartoon. I am going to steal it, tweet it, and am unlikely to give you any credit for it. This is the way. Keep doing what you do, My Brother. You are driving every ball out of the park!
And that's why 50 centuries ago, and counting, they've carved a mythical cat keeping guard for eternity to their Pharaoh's tombs.
As for my humble human take on the split second photogram of History we're currently witnessing, screening the reel back from Babylon's Hanging Gardens up to these bawling hiding Karens, I'd say it all comes down to fight or flight, with about 10% of any given population always instinctively/formatively set for the former, while the herd goes blindingly for the latter, as eager as lemmings towards their cliffs.
Which averages along Milgram's and Stanford's Experiments results and as Susan Sontag's ratio states:
"10% of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10% is merciful, no matter what, while the remaining 80% can be moved in either direction."
And that direction, since the Sphinx sands to the Blitz bombs, depends only upon that ineffable and irrepressible spirit with which Churchill led the free world on: “I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar.”
Amazing work, as always, and well presented. I would add that there is very much a top-down aspect to consider. I like the idea of resisting tyranny from the bottom up, but we need to acknowledge, I think, that this is a psyop designed to drive behavior from top levels: "President Biden was widely praised for creation of a “new biomedical research agency” modeled after the US military’s “high-risk, high-reward” Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA...the proposed agency would merge “national security” with “health security” in such as way as to use both physical and mental health “warning signs” to prevent outbreaks of disease or violence before they occur. Such a system is a recipe for a technocratic “pre-crime” organization with the potential to criminalize both mental and physical illness as well as “wrongthink.'"
> if they were sufficiently self-confident to pursue what actually made them happy on their own, they would have already been doing so. they would have found a job that did not stress them out.
Gato Psychiatrico - eso es muy bueno.
Interesting to see what parts of society hated their own lives the most, eh?
“My life sucks, I want it to stop - but I don’t want your life to go on either.”
This is the thread we should pull on further.
Egged on by cultrural marxism explains BLM/antifa
Yet another thoughtful and insightful piece from a writer rapidly becoming one of the most important and compelling commentators on current American life and times.
Share share share!
One of the most alarming aspects of the last year or so was seeing how many Americans are dissociated from reality. When people believe that “The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change” or that “at least half of (Covid) infected people need hospitalization”, it’s clear that anxiety and delusion are overwhelming rational thinking.
...."y’all know i love data and digging into it, but we’re getting the point where we’re past that. if you could read data and be convinced by it, you would have been by now." - totally agree.
you are completely correct. now add in the aging of a massive, powerful, permanent-childish Boomer cohort - who desperately want to live forever, and have no great impetus to leave their lavish homes any longer - and you see where things are going. they will try to drag everyone into the grave with them. if it takes all of our imprisonment to keep them safe as their immune systems fail them, that's fine with them.
perhaps you're seeing different boomers than i am, but i saw very much the opposite. the old wanted their lives back and called BS on this. it was the young, panicked millennials and even the kids that went whole hog for this. generation neurotic signed up in droves and claimed it was for the oldsters, but the oldsters were mostly saying "do not want." i think this got projected onto them by the younger crowd that sought to dress up its own fears and desires as virtue by claiming they were doing it for others and not balming their own insecurities.
I am 70 yo BOOMER, retired US military, no one should thank me for my service! My take: I can protect myself, you alls young healthy get back to work! The years I served in SAC living within a mile of ground zeroes did not scare me why should a harsh chest cold? My children, 40 somethings, are mixed, a few are desperately afraid of long covid and long term side effects: basically horrified by possible, ignoring probable. They are vaccinated! I will stop!
I agree a lot of this has been a projection on the boomers but there's also plenty of them behaving this way. Not to mention benefitting from another massive wealth transfer. The youngs are pathetic with their constant virtue signaling and complete lack of rebellion, to be sure. Sad they signed up for this in the first place.
The symptoms of this malaise defy societal generalizations. It is like an evolutionary escape clause that picks out a few people to be sane across all the social and demographic markers.
That is one of the most beautiful pieces I've read this week (well, last week, this week is only starting). Your wit is medicinal. I wrote this piece about joy last September, about how a similar dynamic played out in my native post-Soviet culture. https://tessa.substack.com/p/how-dare-you-be-happy-when-i-am-miserable
I fought to keep my own normal by keeping up my workout routine, going to swim at a state park lake when the pool closed down (and having a picnic afterwards), setting up a mini-gym in our garage and continuing to hike/run and ride our mountain bikes. I am luck I am retired, but my sub jobs waned for sure and I haven't been back because of the masking of kids/teachers and I won't have any part of that. My daughter who has been working in behavioral health all this time (no they NEVER shut down, as you can't put 10 year olds who have already survived trauma, out on the street, and foster families weren't allowed to step up)- so she has a totally different view than her friends who could sit at home and facebook about the "crisis" at hand. The obscene suggestions of not visiting relatives was embraced by my sister..just another reason to not go hang out with my 94 year old mom. I have been back twice and stayed a couple weeks. We are fine. Off to lead my ukulele group in a few- getting the "band back together"- those that "aren't ready" and continue to shop at Walmart, will not be attending. Thank God.
You're on fire El Gato, totally agree. I just wish you were not having to do this, and we were not living in this hellish nightmare. UK is particularly bad, we still can't bloody escape to hardly anywhere 🤬
A great perspective. I think shameful solitary internet habits among the masses have been setting the stage for the past 20 years.
Beautifully stated, el gato malo. I think you'd appreciate this young woman's take as well. A different approach, but eloquent in its own right. https://www.tiktok.com/@raginlokilex/video/6954140084027329798?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
Spicy, spicy, spicy. This is definitely something I'm sharing.
Social media is a devil for the ones mentally disposed to this. FOMO increases greatly when some see pictures of others enjoying life.
its a symptom of narcissism
This makes sense on paper but personally, it's not what I have observed. I'm personally very introverted, have social anxiety, probably considered anti-social by many people. And in some ways lockdowns have had a lot of silver linings for me - I don't miss socializing at work, or finding an excuse to avoid that birthday party - but I've hated this new normal from Day 1. Whereas many of my most extroverted friends are the ones now shouting on social media about staying home and wearing masks, etc.
I truly don't think anyone ENJOYS living this way. I think those that cling to it have just rationalized it and made it part of their political/moral identities.
Stockholm syndrome ring a bell?
it seems obvious to me that the young extroverted types shout on social media about masking and staying home etc bc it earns them the social credit that they are often desperately seeking, mask selfies and “i got vaccinated!” profile “stickers” are very low-skin-in-the-game methods of convincing others of your virtue while in no way having to practice what you preach, bc let’s face it - to the the lefty types, words matter far more than actions, and they never liked sharing the air with other humans anyway. you don’t have to be introverted to be a snob.
Stockholm syndrome and virtue signaling. The lemmings are everywhere.
I absolutely love that last cartoon. I am going to steal it, tweet it, and am unlikely to give you any credit for it. This is the way. Keep doing what you do, My Brother. You are driving every ball out of the park!
And that's why 50 centuries ago, and counting, they've carved a mythical cat keeping guard for eternity to their Pharaoh's tombs.
As for my humble human take on the split second photogram of History we're currently witnessing, screening the reel back from Babylon's Hanging Gardens up to these bawling hiding Karens, I'd say it all comes down to fight or flight, with about 10% of any given population always instinctively/formatively set for the former, while the herd goes blindingly for the latter, as eager as lemmings towards their cliffs.
Which averages along Milgram's and Stanford's Experiments results and as Susan Sontag's ratio states:
"10% of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10% is merciful, no matter what, while the remaining 80% can be moved in either direction."
And that direction, since the Sphinx sands to the Blitz bombs, depends only upon that ineffable and irrepressible spirit with which Churchill led the free world on: “I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar.”
Keep it on Gato!
Amazing work, as always, and well presented. I would add that there is very much a top-down aspect to consider. I like the idea of resisting tyranny from the bottom up, but we need to acknowledge, I think, that this is a psyop designed to drive behavior from top levels: "President Biden was widely praised for creation of a “new biomedical research agency” modeled after the US military’s “high-risk, high-reward” Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA...the proposed agency would merge “national security” with “health security” in such as way as to use both physical and mental health “warning signs” to prevent outbreaks of disease or violence before they occur. Such a system is a recipe for a technocratic “pre-crime” organization with the potential to criminalize both mental and physical illness as well as “wrongthink.'"