They seem to think everything just comes easy, everything is obtainable. I was just reading a thread on reddit about a woman who screams non stop at her son and takes all her frustrations out on him and all of reddit are like "She needs to get therapy, for a long time, maybe years, maybe permanently." Like, what the hell? Who on earth could even afford that? Do they all just have endless money? Even if you live in a country with socialised healthcare you normally have to spend ages on a waiting list for a short course of therapy. Who are all these millionaires who think everyone can just be in therapy permanently? Whenever anyone has a problem the reddit answer is always "Therapy, now!" With no thought at all about whether the person can access or pay for that.
I've noticed this with other things on reddit too. There was once a reddit thread where people were asking why poor people buy takeaway food and how they can't be poor if they buy it. I spoke on there about how I'd been in a situation where I was living in a bedsit, had run out of money, only had a few pounds left. There was no money left on my gas or electric meter. I could either put my last few pounds on the meter, or I could buy food, but then with no gas or electric I wouldn't be able to cook any food. So my only option was to buy some cheap ready cooked food like chips from the fish and chip shop. Some really rude redditors refused to believe this, saying no-one is ever in that situation. They are so dissociated from reality they really don't even believe people can be so poor they have to choose between utilities or food.
I've see other threads where someone posts photos of a medical condition they have, asking what it could be. When told to go to the doctor they say they have no medical insurance, no money to pay, etc and the others are like "Just go, this could be serious." Like OK, just materialise money out of thin air then. It's like they think everyone actually has an emergency fund but just doesn't want to dip into it. It makes me think there's no hope for humanity, when so many people are like this, not even wanting to believe how poor other people are, there will never be enough appetite for change to actually change things.
EDIT: someone on hexbear read this and told me that the people on reddit are well meaning, I'm choosing the worst interpretation of what they say, I seem like someone who would never be happy no matter what they said, and the redditors are right, I budgeted badly in buying chips. If even people in favour of communism think like this then our cause is doomed.
I was working full time, three dollars above minimum wage, all day manual labour in like 25-30° celsius, and still not affording food. I ate what I could, and was deeply miserable. And always painful and tired. I did what I had to in the hardest times to eat. My rent was about $700 below market for similar units. My phone bill was cheap. BUT GOD FORBID I care for two senior cats. Neither need medicine, I just pay for food and litter and ever year or so a new set of toys. I never missed a beat for them. Vet visits and all.
And still, I was being told to leave behind my cats. My $80 a month cats. I nearly screamed, "That's like saying stop drinking coffee at Starbucks".
Meanwhile I was walking through the financial district to go to my grueling job looking at the wasted half eaten take out. If even one person had just given me their uneaten half from the garbage I'd never go hungry.
I thought every day of killing myself. But my cats needed me. And I was being told I could afford to eat if I just gave them up. My whole world. Why eat with no reason to go on?
I left that job suddenly and used every favour and the pathetic social security to get by before beginning my new grueling job which pays ever so slightly more. I nearly lost my apartment. I'd stay up all night waiting for the sheriff to knock on my door. I became paranoid, I had delusions, I barely slept many days.
And this kind of thing happens everyday to thousands and thousands of people in my capitalist country. Children. Elders. I work with kids now and they tell me harrowing things. Their teachers equally so. Programs cut now weekly by our feds.
Redditors see stories like these and think, "too bad, budget harder".
This reminds me of a thread on reddit where they were saying that people on disability benefits should be given just enough for basic shelter, and the most basic food to keep them alive. No entertainment, no extras. I was thinking, I'm so disabled I'm virtually housebound. Am I meant to sit here alone, staring at the empty wall, bored out of my mind, all day every day until I die? Why even keep us alive then?
— Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Hey, I wanted to check in with you (are you doing better? Your talk about suicide is concerning).
Yes, I am doing better. I have much more stability, and many things to look forward to these days. Thank you for your worry!
they would never tell you to give up your kids