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Something interesting about the idea of fascist ideology being an “answer” for reactionary angst is that it only serves to heighten and weaponise that angst, not present a harmonious world view that alleviates it. Fascists live in a state of perpetual, mortal fear of the total destruction of everything they hold dear via conspiracies like “white genocide” and “cultural Bolshevism,” which is always just around the corner. The average person is not bloodthirsty and evil so fascism needs to inculcate into them a fear of their fellow human being. It’s fundamentally alienating and unhealthy to live with reactionary beliefs, but this is especially the case for fascism.
Also there was always a latent thought in the back of my head that life can’t just be this way “because it is” I refused to accept that no matter how many times I was told.
Holy shit this really hits home for me. I have said those exact words so many times. One time I said it to my lawyer / mentor friend and he asked me, “So what should life be like?” It stopped me dead in my tracks because for the first time I realized that I didn’t have an answer. Like, any answer at all. I hadn’t even thought about what the answer should be, I was just working toward some unspecified “better” without having any sort of picture of what that would mean. Studying theory is the only thing that’s filled that hole in my thinking.
I swear it’s like, exclusively a Reddit thing. Friends of mine that used to use Tumblr/4chan are way easier to talk to, Reddit makes you annoying at best (probably including me). YMMV though, don’t go cozying up with /pol/ posters.
You can’t go on the website in general without seeing it at some point. Browsing in 2020 means ignoring a decent number of posts depending on what boards you use, a lot of people have a pretty thick skin at this point but it normalizes shitty content at the same time.
Dude in sometimes hanged out with in university wanted Vietnam to become a puppet of USA. Capitalism is all-pervasive so your experience is clearly nothing rare.
On an unrelated note, I am dreading my decision to follow game development. Am I supposed to please these terrible people with my labor of love? Hoo boy, I can’t wait to see the dipshits drool over the Vietnam bits in the next Cowadoody!
I’m coming from a Buddhist perspective, so please excuse me if this is too blunt and out of the left field. The thing is that it did not really change them. The seeds of karma compelling them to become reactionaries were always there. They simply hatched and became brainworms from encountering favorable conditions: the increasingly irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism. This is how I reconcile Buddhism and Marxism. Both are intent on looking honestly and directly at the human condition. Even reactionaries should be shown compassion so I can’t quite vibe with celebrating knocking pigs out with bricks. It just doesn’t help anyone.
Bonus: the case against reality. People are the way they are because they only survive thanks to their inability to see the truth.
Interesting perspective, though it’s spoken to my lately-desperate need for another guiding principle that isn’t rooted in anger because I feel myself slowly becoming colder and less empathetic towards people I deem as harmful to society. I want a way both out of viewing the average person as an ideological enemy and feeling more compassionate and patient overall, but every route I see feels like willful blindness.
Are you a westerner, by chance? I’ve been interested in Buddhism for a few years now, but I can’t figure out how to like…become Buddhist lol. I’m agnostic and not religious, but I’ve wanted to take some of the secular aspects of Buddhism and apply them to my life, but have no idea where to even start. Care to share any starting points?
My understanding is that Buddhism acknowledges that life is full of suffering and pain, but if you live a certain way you can find inner peace and be a better person to those around you.
A dark shadow looms over this thread. The specter of capitalism.
