This article looks like a goldmine, but I don’t have time to read it all and won’t be interested in doing that once I have the time. Here’s my favorite paragraph of the part I read:
Today the party’s propaganda machine is spinning stories about young people making a decent living by delivering meals, recycling garbage, setting up food stalls, and fishing and farming. It’s a form of official gaslighting, trying to deflect accountability from the government for its economy-crushing policies like cracking down on the private sector, imposing unnecessarily harsh Covid restrictions and isolating China’s trading partners.
when u get to certain treats-level (anywhere in the world, I don’t live in China) manual labor is absolutely looked down upon. I am one of very few ppl in my coding person life who has previously held a manual labor job for any amount of time (irrigation).
and yeah, it sucks! That’s why I thought I wanted a desk job. And then you get the backlash that regular ppl who are busting their ass do sometimes where they tell u about how soft your hands are. You just can’t win!
see, I actually don’t mind doing manual labor, I enjoy building things and finding ways I can improve them, but only when I’m not massively alienated from the fruits of that labor. I wouldn’t mind doing irrigation if it helped people in my community that loved and accepted me, but wtf even is that, nothing I’ll likely ever experience except vaguely in the realm of ideas
The way society is structured currently manual labour might be marginally less alienating, but it will destroy your body, and you’ll have to do it for another 2 decades after it does just to survive.
Skilled trades seems like a nice midway point, but just like “learn to code”, “learn a trade” feels less like practical career advice, and more a long term labour cost saving measure.
yeah i call it irrigation but what I was helping to irrigate were lawns in the suburbs via sprinkler systems :agony-4horsemen:
i also agree if it wasn’t so alienated it would be fulfilling but like most other jobs its just for a paycheck
My job is like 70% manual labor and 30% programming, so I interact with a lot of middle manager types and IT people types who absolutely look down on me because I get my hands dirty. I like what I do, but it’s insane the attitudes people get when they realize the person they’re talking to is not a “businessperson” or “white collar,” especially so when I know I make more money than some of them. Had to explain basic networking principles to this one guy and he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “I didn’t think you were smart enough to know that.”
Secret to rough hands is to rock climb lol.
You can be white collar with a white collar hobby and still have rough hands!
this is gonna start sliding into shitposting territory but goddamn there are two strains of yuppie that are infuriating. Those who are contrarian about the latest fad in their city (in this case its a deluge of rock climbing gyms) and those who ‘don’t want to talk about work’
