Where I'm from in Europe I think most people sort of think of it as just basic common courtesy, especially for older/disabled/people carrying stuff. At least, that's what's taught, but I wouldn't speculate on how often it actually happens here vs. the US. I did also once have a colleague from the US who was extremely (almost performatively, I would say) friendly about those kinds of small, polite gestures. So what do I know.

Thanks a lot, really hope you find something else (or a different way to do it that is less crushing). I don't know anything about your background, location, safety net etc. so it would be irresponsible/unserious to say "just quit", but all I can say is that it felt really good to walk out, even knowing I was walking into some uncertainty (had no idea what I wanted to do instead at the time). Felt like something got lifted off my shoulders.

Wait, you can like "hold" a door open? What, with your hand? I'm European and I've literally never heard about that. I thought slamming doors straight in other people's faces was a universal thing. Learn a new thing every day.

I kid, of course. But for real, what makes you think of door-holding as a uniquely American thing?

I wasn't in quite the same field, but I dealt with a lot of the same shit you're describing. I quit last year and are trying to get a childcare degree (pedagogy it's called here, not sure if that translates). Thinking it will be a line of work where I get out, do something relatively meaningful for someone else, even if it is hopelessly undervalued and paid here. But with social anxiety, I don't know if that's an option, depends how you feel around kids, I guess.

Makes me so fucking dejected. Not even just for myself, but I have wonderful nieces and nephews and they don't deserve this shit

So public support for Palestine is just straight up outlawed then? Wonder if they're already handing out fines to people wearing keffiyeh yet?

Nasty mental illness known as "some semblance of a conscience"

I saw a thread on praising the Macklemore Gaza song, in which he explicitly says he won't vote for Biden. Someone wrote a comment like "yeah, I won't vote for Biden either. Genocide is a dealbreaker" or something like that, and the comment had like 50 downvotes and a bunch of nerds going "what, you prefer Trump who will do genocide but on steroids??". Honestly hilarious that they were seemingly fine with the song, but the moment a "normal" had the nerve to repeat the lyrics their lib attack dog mindset kicked in.

In fact, it could easily be argued that it would be in your best interest to do everything in your power to stop the bus

What an absolute badass

Parenti has a good bit in Blackshirts and Reds which is a bunch of quotes from Soviet officials, intellectuals etc. gushing over western democracy, freedom and markets. Then he follows that up with brutal descriptions of the consequences of shock therapy, forced privatization and so on and lots of people going "what is this shit? Why does nothing work, and only like 5 guys are rich??" and "wow, I had no idea these leopards would eat my face"

That's basically what I did. My partner was generally lib/apolitical, then I have gradually radicalized her. I did get super lucky that she understands and had/has very strong opinions about climate and environmentalism (part of how we bonded in the first place), so that was an easy vector -> explaining why I believed that solving those problems was impossible without communism. Now we'll be watching some slop tv show and she'll start to do unpromted material analysis and it gets me all hot and bothered