I am on the precipice of one and don’t want that to turn me into a disengaged normies, lib, or chud. I know that a local DSA chapter was financially backed by a person of incredible means, so I wonder what keeps such people left wing or at least SocDem.
by how much i fucking hated the job (other than the pay), to the point that i quit bc the depression and desire to self harm it tried and succeded to induce wasn’t worth the money
Death to America
and also just a general conviction that everyone should be able to be materially comfortable without such grave spiritual sacrifices, or vice versa
Death to America
Hearing from some of my other high paid coworkers talk about social issues reminds me that I’m nothing like them. I think for me, I just happen to have a high paying job and the pursuit of infinite wealth does not interest me. I’d only want more funds to fund mutual aid and things that grow communism.
I was in tech for two years recently. It gave me enough money to purchase a vehicle to live in and to coast for the next little bit, but among the many reasons I quit (it was bad for my brain, it took up way too much of my time) was feeling the distinction in class interests. The biggest expression of this was that my coworkers had such bubbled views of social relations and had strange expectations of what the world owes them simply on account of how much money they have.
I think if you’re committed to your principles you’ll be fine. I just found I didn’t like being around people of that class for such extended periods of time.
my coworkers had such bubbled views of social relations and had strange expectations of what the world owes them
Can you elaborate on this?
I found very few of them had any close contact with “outsider” groups - the big two that come to mind are queer people and neurodivergent people (at least those who would have trouble masking all day so as to conform to the culture, dress, etc.) Some of them were certainly a bit socially isolated, but they could count on being able to pay for not just basic needs but treats, comforts, and brand identity markers to paper over that. With an above-median personal income, the main next steps are to secure house ownership and then start a family, which can serve as your main purpose in life and also your main social unit that isn’t governed by economic transactions. I found very little interest in community building or intersectional solidarity.
When you’re on that level there’s no reason to question eating out or ordering food several times a week, flying across the world and staying in hotels several times a year, or ridesharing into work every day. There’s no need to think about the massive amounts of service labour that go into making those comforts accessible at the push of a button, nor anything that would lead them to realize that very few of those labourers can afford any of that themselves. For them, service labour is something you do in high school for some extra spending cash and a way to teach diligence to the youth.
I’m not particularly highly paid compared to most people i work with, but it seems like a simple way to not have your convictions eroded is to begin thinking about issues in a more structural way, rather than just the immediate.
So sure, the driving contradiction in my life is the fact that my rent and car-payments and childcare expenses are taking up a solid 105% of my post-tax pay, but I’m also capable of looking outside and seeing the fact that a 1000 people just fucking died of heatstroke during the Hajj, because temperatures in Saudi Arabia crested 50 degrees celsius. If you are actually interested in socialism, you’d probably pretty easily be able to connect the lack of income growth compared to inflation and climate change, as both issues have the same fundamental cause.
I’ve said this before, my family is basically the Park family from Parasite
It’s a big picture thing for me. Capitalism “benefits” me individually in that it enables my family to live in decadence right now, but it’s not sustainable. The world is burning up and while it won’t affect me initially, it inevitably will. The immense alienation and loneliness is also a direct consequence of individualist ideology.
My family is upper class, but not billionaires. We will be on the chopping block later than most, but we will end up there eventually. Capitalism, like fascism, has no end goal. While it might temporarily benefit me to close my eyes and pretend like neoliberalism is epic, I can’t ignore how fucked we are if nothing changes.
