I feel like this is very obvious to most people, but is really... Not something we are "allowed" to admit to, at least officially.
It's a very strange time, in this sort of... "Mental health" space. On the one hand we have literally thousands of Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr posts by edgy teens claiming to have mental issues, whether they actually do or not, and capitalising on that "brand", while on the other hand... The way we actually treat this shit is fundamentally not working...
Look, I appreciate that brain chemistry plays a role in most mental health issues. So does trauma. So does genetics. But the fact that "we", as a society, choose to pretend like depression and anxiety are purely caused by internal problems, and can be treated almost solely as such? That's frankly fucking insane...
The fact that men, in particular, are treated like it is their... Fault, that they are suffering, even if they are poor, even if they have a shit job, or are lonely, or have no friends that they can rely on, or are dealing with... Personal issues from having seen, or experienced, really bad shit... The fact that we say "just go to therapy" or "just take the pill, bro", or "just smoke some weed, bro. It'll help" - frankly it's fucked.
The sheer lack of support in society, to actually... Help people, and do more than just talk. To actually offer practical solutions, and get people truly connected to their society (men's sheds are great and all, but they fundamentally fail to replace what church, and the local sports team, say, once provided), and defeat that... Isolation, that has become the heart of "modern society". That's where the fundamental problems lie, I think. Let alone, say, if you get laid off, or sacked, or lose your position somehow - there is NO support, for most people, when that happens. None at all.
No wonder people fall through the cracks. No wonder we hear about people like Paul Green (rugby league coach - sacked), Jacinda Barclay and Harley Balic (AFL, womens and men's respectively - left out of their team squads during Covid) killing themselves, let alone "ordinary" people who generally have even less support, and certainly considerably less money to play with...
The whole thing is just... Pretty fucked up, frankly. Leftists constantly whine about Catholicism teaching "the flock" to "externalise blame", but now we have a secular society that teaches everyone to, in essence, BOTH externalise and internalise blame, both at the same time, which is... Probably not any healthier, frankly.
I just wish "we", in Current Era, dealt with these things better than we do.
It's because the external factors that cause mental health issues are factors that are purposely created by those who control society for their own benefit. Those that control society, do not care about you.
The "defeated people" thing is interesting - because Aboriginal suicide rates (in remote communities) are incredibly high, with children below 10 now killing themselves, with regularity (perhaps unsurprising. Being a female child in one of those communities comes with a startlingly high likelihood of being raped or abused by a male family member/"elder"), but all these "reconciliation measures" which are currently destroying the fabric of Australian society, much like Canada, have done less than zero to change that.
In fact, they've arguably made it much worse, by, for example, allowing alcohol back into these communities, to appease woke retards in the major cities, even if the communities themselves don't want it.
It's fucked. The only people who benefit are dumb white liberals and university-educated, city-dwelling grifters, meanwhile the rest of us "huwhites" are made to feel like "colonising scum", told that we can't even refer to our cities and towns by their actual names, and generally completely disenfranchised...
I can imagine Victorians under Dan Andrews probably felt fairly close to a "defeated people", for much of the last two years. With zero power to change anything, and a political system that actively admitted to hating them, gestapo and all, unless they submitted to worshipping "dear leader"...
Similar in NSW, Qld and WA, to a lesser extent. The disenfranchisement be real...
Well that got dark, quick.
Here's my contribution:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/05/death-of-nine-year-old-boy-renews-alarm-over-indigenous-suicides
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-25/nt-coronor-suicide-in-foster-care-inquest-findings/100649618
And
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-oz/news/should-remote-indigenous-communities-have-unrestricted-access-to-alcohol/news-story/09f58c509728f39f87a3c496311bf5f5
Shit is absolutely fucked, unfortunately...
Here's the end result of what this stuff leads to, as well:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-30/how-symmie-survived-against-a-rare-health-condition/11564470 (extreme fetal alcohol syndrome)
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/family-sacrificed-baby-girl-found-washed-up-on-gold-coast-beach-20181121-p50hc3.html (literal baby sacrifice, very much like what you were talking about. By an Aboriginal woman who was fortunate enough to go to a private boarding school, no less)
Yeah, things are not great, in this field...
The Symmie thing left me in despair, when I read it. It's how I remembered it, to be able to immediately pull that story up when it is relevant, lol (if you feel like more trauma, look up Turia Pitt. I don't think she's Aboriginal. It's just fucking depressing)...
Fitzroy River, where she was born, is the shithole to end all shitholes. I don't even know an equivalent in America - some terrible tribal reservation in North Dakota, maybe? Or Nome, Alaska?
It's just a terrible, terrible depressing place.
Bizarrely, though, it's in a naturally beautify area (because of course it is), and my parents were trying to convince me to go on a cruise holiday that stops in there, for a day...
I noped out of that one pretty damn quick, lol.
Highest rates of fetal alcohol syndrome in the country (I believe), and knowing about that story, was enough, for me, frankly...
They can blame whitey all they want, but their natural tendencies to molest children, sniff petrol and fucking drink themselves to death, en masse, while still being offered free welfare and most every provision under the sun (except the option to flee these shitholes - funny that) suggests problems that I'm not sure can be blamed on something that occurred, at worst, three generations ago...
And yet, I get death threats from their "city cousins" for merely wanting to point out that mountains belong to all citizens of a free country, not just "blak" men. Go figure...
It's just sad, man. It really is...
More real life horror payback (I owe you one :-P), if you want...
Look up Katie Stubblefield - world's first full face transplant (human, at least).
I won't subject you to a link, because it is genuinely... It will haunt you.
I unironically do not think the end result is "good enough" that she will be able to live with it, for the rest of her life. Not after that. But hey, what do I know.
But yeah, it... Genuinely still disturbs me, and I first saw it probably two years ago.
It's burned into my mind.
For an "eyebleach", of sorts, the girl who survived White Island still has a mostly intact, if scarred, face, and still looks normal-ish, so that's nice. But yeah, Katie and Turia (see below) - well, some fates are worse than death, I would say.
But Turia at least seems happy enough, if insane, lol.
There are many 'defeated peoples' who do just fine on this score, and even do much better than the 'victor peoples' both in terms of health and economics.
Maybe it depends on what framework you have for explaining your suffering. It was seen in concentration camps that people can endure almost anything (only mentally, of course), as long as they attach meaning to what they are enduring.
Aboringals and blacks in the US don't have that. Their suffering, historical and/or imagined, has no deeper meaning to them, so it bothers them a lot. At the same time, it's being harped on all the time, keeping the wounds fresh.
Your surprise that the advocacy of white liberals on behalf of any group has no relation at all to the benefit of that group is misplaced. This is very common. As Sowell describes, they adopt mascots for the gratification of their own ego, and nothing more.
If it is any consolation, the non-huwhites are also completely disenfranchised. You gain power by disenfranchising others, which is why they do it.
But we're not going to surrender, we're not going to give in, because while they have to imagine oppression and tyranny to fight against in order to feel noble, we have the real thing.
There are many ways in which someone can undermine the ruling classes and the system even from the position of being suppressed. If people like Solzhienitzyn and Sakharov could do it in the Soviet Union, so can we.
There's a lot of rightful anger around this "National Park closure (to white people" business. I'm not sure how, but I'm going to join in the campaign to use that anger, and try to push for a fight back. Because I've never seen a government so clearly admit their intention to enforce tyrannical, racist law like this...
If you haven't seen it yet, the NSW government is proposing half million dollar fines for using an existing walking track, and climbing a mountain that is very popular with tourists (Mount Warning), both domestic and international...
$550 thousand. For climbing a mountain.
And they plan to "ban" the use of images of the mountain, too (because apparently they can do that).
Hopefully that should be enough to piss normies off.
Culture war, woohoo!
And only if you are not aboriginal? That is insane, but not surprising - governments are despotisms.
Normies have close to no influence. It is highly organized, highly politicized minorities who do. Unless things go so bad to drive the normies in to organized groups opposing the status quo, it will be of no effect.
I strongly believe the worship of science plays a large role too. The average person knows nothing about science, so when they hear people use catchphrases like "brain chemistry," they just assume the Priests of Science are going to give them the blessing of Science to make everything better.
What you are acknowledging is the degradation of community. The internet while bringing mass availability of communication has left the community in a ditch. Like I said before, social media is peak democracy. The community becomes drowned out by the opinions of the world mass, or even bots. However the bots themselves are a symptom of the need to create a unified identity or ideology. One person speaking to another individual can generate a true connection unaltered by social manipulation, this however is made more difficult when an individual is “plugged in” to social media, as their perception is now dictated by the whims of those that wish to manipulate them. This can even be seen in our own forum as we have a moderator and purposeful trolls that seek to undermine legitimate free communication for a broader “acceptable” communication.
Yeah, agreed. Kind of sad I never got to experience any of "adulthood" without social media or smartphones...
Social media was already ubiquitous by my teenage years. Smartphones came around half way through.
I was already a pretty sad individual, but I definitely think social media made my life objectively worse. Haven't really seen that many positive benefits from it, anyway.
It was kind of alright for a while, but fuck has it been terrible for years. Even as a way of "keeping in touch" while being geographically far apart, it's a fucking terrible medium. So yeah, agreed.
Bowling Alone talked about this, even before this current era of "digital isolation", I believe...
In Australia, two massive parts of society, from at least WW1 onwards, have been "community clubs" (ex-servicemen's, worker's clubs, hobby clubs, etc. And the "country womens association", in particular, for women) and local, community sports clubs. Both are dying/being forced to merge to survive, particularly in rural areas. As is the church, of course.
No wonder people feel so isolated. No wonder suicide rates in these places are so high.
People go to Bunnings (big box hardware store) for their "charity sausage sizzle" now, and they buy their raffle/lottery tickets online. They don't bother with their local club.
I was also raised to look down upon that kind of thing (community clubs, local sport). My family is particularly fucking insane, so their warped snobbery was to the extreme, but I can imagine I'm probably not alone in that, at least among "middle class" people, sadly...
The local subreddit for my city actually celebrated, when it was announced that the local workers club (oldest in the country) would be closed, torn down, and turned into housing. They "celebrated" with glee when the local music pub closed down, too. Fucking weirdos...
Best recommendations I can make is find a “local watering hole” or something akin to a cigar lounge. You will find far more wisdom and social congruence from these interactions and then you can transplant them into a forum like this. The unique knowledge lost upon the internet is truly insurmountable compared to the unique interactions that develop true original thought.
Oh yeah, I definitely do try to do this.
It's just that many of those "local watering holes" have been taken over by despicable hipsters, with like "vegan sliders" and "organic nonfiltered beer" (no joke)...
I found one that I like, but it was also just kind of... Sad. Every old alcoholic in town (not literally, but a large number) was just sitting there, on their own, and wouldn't even engage in conversation with anyone, me included...
I'll go back there (because it was cozy, and old, and nice, with good drinks), but yeah, it was mostly just... "Sad", frankly.
Most of the other places that people like that would previously have gone to have either closed down, burned down, or been turned into the aforementioned hipster shitholes, replete with, I am not kidding, signs saying "This is stolen land" and "We will only refer to this place by its [made up] Aboriginal name. If you don't like that, you are not welcome."
Weird time to be alive, here...
Hate to hear that, I have been fortunate with the areas I go to having actual males of higher experience and knowledge. My family owns the main cigar lounge where I live and having the social availability of accomplished men is frankly one of the best experiences a young man can prosper from.
Then cut it out of your life. Find something beneficial to your life from which to get your dopamine hits.
Redditors are retards, regardless of where they're from. It bears no necessary relationship with the place.
Oh, it's still useful, for talking to certain people. I'm not quitting it completely now, lol.
I just use it increasingly sparingly. But with people I want to talk to only accessible to me on it, unfortunately I'm not gonna be cutting it out completely.
Though I do see your point.
I'm not using it for dopamine hits necessarily. More just to, uhh, "keep in touch", despite what I said.
Because that's what they rely on, isn't it? Everyone being on there. Not much I can do about that apart from try to convince people to take the convos elsewhere, unfortunately...
Edit: Reddit is the least useful, for this. So on that much, I agree. Fuck Reddit, lol.
If it's a net negative, there is still a lot of bad stuff you can cut out. Just start with the one you think is worst. I think it would be good for you.
That's how it should be used. But what parts are a net negative?
Agreed.
I assure you, though, I don't really bother "posting", in these places, anymore. As you say, there are better ways to get dopamine hits.
I just use them, as I say, as communication "tools", if shitty ones, because idiots insist that is the way they want to keep in touch. And also because my University mandates that we use both Twitter and Facebook for assignments, unfortunately. But I do try to push people towards more... One on one things, where possible.
And yes, Redditors are retards. Managed to get myself banned from the local subreddit for daring to go against an obviously astroturfed circlejerk (around local development issues, as above), so yeah, I realised that, pretty quick, lol...
lol, what? I'd sue them for privacy violations.
There are various local idiocies like that, but also a global idiocy that disallows you from setting up any community that does respect free speech.
Ha. They know that we can't afford to sue them, and best of luck getting a class action out of a bunch of terminally online Zoomers, unfortunately...
Twitter is for, no joke, "course engagement" (which the Uni uses to increase its own public profile, naturally), and Facebook, for the most part, is for group assignments...
Welcome to university in the new decade (it's been like this since at least 2015), unfortunately...
Massive dieback is inevitable at this point. We're just seeing it from the inside, rather than dispassionately from the outside.
Man's greatest strength is also his Achilles' Heel.
Isolation is a torture technique. I saw it happen in tribal lands in the US. A great technique is to stop cultural progression, and try to keep it down. So many people want the latest stuff and to find out new things. I knew a guy that learned Chinese so he could watch the latest action movie from Hong Kong. He did that using a satellite dish connecting to another dish to a home with internet.
Now imagine the same guy being told that if he gets a job, the money from the government won't arrive. The job pays less than the government, so he can't do things that normal people would. Then imagine drug smugglers promoting getting high with friends, through the same channels that you got the internet satellite dish. Then people who want to help also demand he lives more traditional and fit into the image of a tribe from 150 years ago. Perfectly brilliant people are lost because of this.
The same is happening to Hong Kong. The movies that get onto Netflix are all voice dubbed into Beijing style Chinese. The mainland Chinese want to be the only Chinese, so they erase the other Chinese cultures.
We can see the same happening to other cultures. They have to fit a description the government gives them, or they aren't truly from it. Technology and other cultural progression can only fit within the standards given by those who want to rule over them. Cultural and personal isolation is the threat if they don't. If the internet can set you free, then it is against that cultural control and needs to be stopped, so the threat of isolation is real.
I saw that happen in Seattle. We either accepted Pride month, or we were no longer seattlites. This was said by people from San Francisco who had been there for five years. Everyone says the clouds made us depressed, but never pointed to the insane cultural control happening.
That's like I pointed out in another comment: "We use the Indigenous place names here. No colonising names allowed. If you don't like that, LEAVE."
And this was in a pub. An over 100-year-old pub. Absolutely galling...
The fucked up nature of this shit was made really obvious to me recently, when the State government where I live planned to release a report on "abuse allegations" within the public health service on the anniversary of the death (likely by suicide) of the person (male nurse) who they are scapegoating as the main perp, within one of the hospitals...
He can't defend himself, of course, and his family has been given no recourse to provide contrary evidence, but just the sheer gall, of an actual government to think that timing the report in that way was in any way a "good idea", either for the family of the deceased, or indeed his apparent "victims"...
Only in our current era of "weaponised victimhood" could someone think that was a "good" idea (though my parents saw nothing wrong with it - which probably says more about them than anything else). It's just utterly batshit.
Paul Green's family (rugby coach that I mentioned) is now claiming that he had CTE, because his wife refuses to accept that he could ever have had depression, and she wrote an entire article delegitimising her husband's (potential) depression, and basically shitting all over the entire entire that clinical depression even exists, which the mainstream media then breathlessly reported...
All because she simply couldn't accept her husband's pain and mental illness, and wanted someone to blame externally, because it was "easier" to explain to her kids than admitting the truth. Appalling.
I hate this current era.
That is just life. Most people throughout history have been poor, had shit jobs - perhaps were lonely and didn't have no friends though. Most people had one or more of their children die.
So all this cannot be a reason for depression or anxiety, at least of the chronic variety.
All these make money for certain groups of people. Getting your life in order and starting to exercise (which helps combat depression) makes money for no one. They're also very easy.
It is a problem of knowledge. Local churches knew you, as do these other organizations. If they helped you, they did so with the knowledge that you have actual problems. Replace it with a bureaucracy and you'll need to "prove" that you have problems, which allows for a lot of fraud and a lot of legitimate cases to be passed over.
Do you not have unemployment insurance in Oyster oilia?
I am not at all persuaded that it's people with less money to play with who have higher suicide rates. They have challenges in life, and challenges keep you going.
You go about it the wrong way. Things are FUBAR in the Current Era. Accept that any any positive deviation will be a pleasant surprise, instead of you having to upset yourself over things that are not good.
I guess I'm just in the somewhat unusual headspace of hoping that people are, in isolation, not inherently bad, while also, for whatever reason, really, really caring too much, about shit going on around the place...
Which makes for an interesting conundrum.
I've always been "politically engaged". That seems to be an inherent part of my character. I don't think I can switch that off (believe me, I've tried), so short of... Completely isolating myself like a hermit, I'll always... Be someone who fights this stuff. It's just a matter of doing that in an actually useful way, though, I suppose...
This National Parks thing has definitely got me engaged in a more active way than I have been in years, though, so maybe that could be something constructive...
I'm already organising to fight back, there (because there's an organised campaign, has been for years, and I think that is a watershed moment).
So at least the anger and disappointment can be... Used, for something, I guess, lol.