It feels like no matter where I turn some septuagenarian, or older, is making life miserable for myself and others. Usually these are older white Christian conservatives, obsessed with a delusional sense of reality that no longer has a basis in fact, or perhaps never did.
There is a disproportionate amount of wealth concentrated in the older generation and those who will inherit it will probably be even worse with that money than the last generation. Certainly we see evidence of that already, anyone in their 30's who has parents who help them out VS those who don't have that have radically different outcomes. For some reason those lucky enough to come from good families ascribe laziness and bad attitude to those who don't have the family support, as if they are somehow enjoying "self made success" while mummy does their laundry for them.
No generation previous needed this kind of assistance well into adulthood, but this infantilisation of working adults has happened because of the hoarding of wealth, refusing to pass on the torch in workplaces and just blocking change for the sake of stoking petty politics. Most of us will never own our own home but all the politicians want to talk about is whether it's OK to dehumanise trans people or not.
I'm 36 this year. For most of my teens I thought there'd be some kind of tipping point where the conservative boomers would fuck off or at least let the next generation step in, but that hasn't happened. Back in the 1990's you could be a girl and wear jeans and be empowered, now this is considered some kind of woke statement. As if we recently invented this idea of women and men being equal.
The faces of my two dogs, my cat and my husband are all that keep me going. Knowing they need me gives me just enough to get out of bed in the morning and start moving... but I'm struggling to do even that without having a breakdown. My husband and I have medical expenses we can't afford and are borrowing money to survive right now. I run my own business and just feel this immense pressure on my shoulders, that again is compounded by how unfair the world is right now.
Anyone got any advice for coping with this late stage capitalist hellscape?
distract yourself, ignorance truly is bliss.
i have multiple hobbies currently. i collect HotWheels, Nerf guns and the occasional LEGO Technic set.
3D Printing has been very fun, most entry level machines are 200€ and you can use fusion360 for free. the gridfinity system will restore order to any cluttered room.
also comitting to watching shows, reading books gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
to add to that, i set up an old PC as a NAS running truenas and jellyfin as a docker app. i'm also planning to add nextcloud to it.
i'm still very depressed, but without my hobbies i wouldn't be here right now.
I have a veggie garden, three pets, two businesses, multiple digital and physical projects...
All the distractions in the world don't help much when my husband is writhing in pain and we can't even see a surgeon. The Australian health system thinks walking, being able to work and living without pain isn't a priority, in the next week we'll have been on the waiting list for a year.
It gets my goat when we can't even get into the public hospital without having to walk 500m through the car park because the private facilities have taken over the entire complex.
that fucking sucks.
my dad told me of a friend who broke his neck and was paralyzed from the neck down once. he was able to recover almost fully, but only because he was a football player and had a lot of sponsors paying for his therapy. otherwise he would've remained paralyzed probably.
not even tax euro funded hospitals help often times.
we are all royally fucked at the moment and we can't really do anything about it except electing the least corrupt and most empathetic people as possible.
but whatever you do, your husband needs you. even if you can't cure whatever problem there is, i'm sure being there for him and caring as much as possible, even if it's very exhausting, means a lot to him.
that's an easy thing to just type out, and i have no idea how hard it actually is. but keep going. this is what we do, this is what we have always done. that's how we survive.
don't become a statistic, become the change you want to see.
The global opiate crisis has created a situation where normal Australians in acute or chronic pain can no longer access pain management. The crazy thing is, due to strict prescribing guidelines we never really had the kind of problems that were seen in the USA, yet we have made doctor petrified to prescribe where there is genuine pain.
2 years on a waiting list is a very long time to try and get on with life in serious pain, and I'm very sorry that you are dealing with this. I know it can be difficult to carve out the time and money, but if you can push hard to see a pain management specialist you might have more luck. There are synthetic options that can be taken long term whilst you await your specialist appointment/ surgery but you have to PUSH. Visit the ER daily until you get an outcome if you can't afford to buy your way in.
This country is under attack and every single person that buys into the lie of private healthcare drives another nail into our coffin.
You're awesome, and hobbies are awesome.
Thank you for sharing.
I have a lot of similar hobbies, although I've been working so much lately I haven't had much time to work on them. Can't wait for the summer then I'll have more time!
I highly recommend looking into Audiobook shelf if you listen to audio books.
having to go to work is definetely one of the sources for my depression. and without giving too much personal info, i look forward to not having to do it in the future.
i do sometimes listen to podcasts, but haven't tried audiobooks. i think my ebook reader can do them, i might try that sometime.