People spend their whole lives trying to prove to the machine that they aren’t a burden, so that they aren’t next on the chopping block. If they have a problem with that, well “it’s up to you to deal with that.”

So everyone has to perform. Constantly. We all need to prove we are an irreplaceable asset or we’ll end up on the street. “I am my best self. I am useful. I have marketable skills. I am calm and collected. Because I can’t trust anyone to support me but me.” That’s hustle culture in a nutshell, isn’t it? But can people (especially those who aren’t sheltered by wealth) really live like that all the time? Especially in the face of a world full of problems that a positive attitude alone can’t solve? With the constant pressure to wear the skinsuit of a perfect asset even if the world is burning around them? Isn’t it obvious that it would make everyone so tired?

To top it off, when the inevitable happens, and people crumble under the weight of the mask and and all their fear and anxiety explodes out of them, often the world will give them the exact response they feared. Confusion at the sudden collapse followed by “Well I guess they weren’t strong enough to handle it. Not my problem.” or at best a “Let’s get that mask back on.”

  • Ildsaye [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    37·
    3 days ago

    I remember, as the Biden admin had more or less erased covid from consciousness, critics mentioning the cognitive load involved in having the vast majority of people no longer be able to acknowledge the million dead, the measures we had taken for each other, the seriousness of it. They attributed this cognitive load to people in the public becoming shittier drivers, and more impatient and short-fused in general.

    It’s a double-whammy. The load of one’s own denial, and the load of having to live within everyone else’s denial.

    • juniper [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      20·
      3 days ago

      public becoming shittier drivers, and more impatient and short-fused in general

      I’m pretty sure that’s just Long Covid, unless that was your point over-your-head

      • Dort_Owl [they/them, any]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
        29·
        3 days ago

        Could be both.

        One thing I’ve learned from studying ecology is that systems can usually handle one or two stressors. When they collapse it’s because they have so many stressors that they can no longer handle all of them at once and they crumble under the weight.

        Even societal systems are like this. Empires fall not from a single problem, but from many problems eating away at them for years until the threshold buffer is gone and the floodgates open.

        • juniper [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
          20·
          3 days ago

          Yes, I am well aware because I work with ecologists.

          The brain damage attributable to Long Covid is well documented, ergo I think it’s safe to say such behavior is the likely cause. The other stressor is “just” alienation which has been getting worse since before Covid, and yet people are behaving much more erratically with reduced cognitive functioning in the years after 2020.