lots of THC and tons of ignoring reality

I manage by being scandinavian. It’s not as bad here.

By not buying anything I don’t have to, not taking on debt, avoiding subscriptions, contributing to and availing myself of mutual aid societies, and growing as much of my own food as possible.

Recognize that a lot of what you’re suffering from is, well, suffering; that it’s part of the human condition and not really specific to one historical epoch, country, or economic system. Sickness, poverty, cruelty, envy, selfishness, domination, and other woes have been with us for much longer than economic or political modernity.

People have been investigating how to alleviate suffering — in the general sense — for a very long time. There are whole philosophical and social movements about it, which have proposed strategies such as —

• “Love your neighbor; forgive those who have hurt you. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the afflicted.” (Christianity)
• “Avoid killing, stealing, lying, raping, and getting drunk. Seek out wholesome companions. Maybe do some meditation.” (Buddhism)
• “Pursue a simple life. Try to avoid pain rather than seeking out pleasure. Don’t worry about gods or politics.” (Epicureanism)

Not being American and spending locally.

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Best way, try to be as self-reliant, both as an individual and as a group/family/friends. So it helps to have the same mindset. Quality will always beat quantity in this regard. Not to mention will help make you more content. Ignore happiness, it is a short, fleeing feeling that marketers will exploit. Contentment lasts. Seek that. Worth noting my background was in Marketing before I walked away from it.

So, minimize consumerism, keep it reasonable, ethical and try to grow or make most or at least part of your food. The more the better. Learning how to cook well is a good start. Highly limit social media in general.

I stopped watching TV/cable over a decade ago. I am amused and minimally horrified at ads online and on TV these days. Social media is little different. I would rgue it us far more harmful to your psyche. Especially if you spend too much time on it or to younger minds.

Use uBlock on FF derivatives and you will never see ads. That alone is very worth it, specially over time.

Saving up can be done with things that have value, focus on real world assets. Never too early to start.

Hoping beyond hope, that in a few months I might find a job that allows me to leave the state that is actively working towards the genocide of my kind, before it gets worse.

lying in bed and pretending things aren’t the way that they are helps sometimes

We sold our house we were not be able to afford anymore, we are soon moving to a smaller town with cheaper homes and more land. I’m going to get a job that doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of responsibility and quietly pay off that mortgage while learning blacksmithing so I have something to do when the world falls apart more.

I’m slowly weening myself off of the subscription bullshit. It’s gotten way out of hand. Used to buy a cd for the curren price of renting a show and i COULD KEEP IT FOREVER

bring back the dvds.

I looked into moving to other countries which made it very obvious which skills were worth cultivating, changed careers accordingly and moved somewhere (in the US) that isn’t fully car-dependent until I could accumulate decent savings/investments. This was pre-covid and “orange pilling”, I just kinda lucked out

And, no, none of this was easy, just easier than saying “I’ll accept this without a fight”

Image description: Black, all-caps graffiti on a wall that reads “I’m fucking fed up and tired and I want to die but living is the most punk shit I’ve ever fucking done”

I experience suicidal ideation a lot, and grappling with that is tricky when so much of what is dragging me down is a function of the unjust world. I feel swallowed up by the enormity of what I can’t change, both for myself, and for others.

What gets me through is solidarity, and correctly directed rage. My late best friend learned a lot from being friends with me, and would often end up outraged on the behalf of people whose plight he had learned of. It was good rage though, he didn’t make it about himself and actually through him, I realised that because I felt so powerless, all the negative feelings had ended up being directed internally, which wasn’t good.

It’s not much, but I’ve found refuge in acknowledging how fucked up the world is — even embracing the fact that The System™ would almost certainly prefer me, and people like me, to not exist. I’m so tired, and it’s fucked up that just existing takes so much effort, but it feels a little easier with the understanding that even on my shittiest, low energy day, my life is an act of active resistance. Good old punk spite helps me by.

Combined with climate change I’m reading up on subsistence farming. I remain hopeful green tech will keep gaining steam but its still gonna get worse before it gets better

if reality becomes too depressing, i just jump straight into some videogame