this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
81 points (100.0% liked)

chat

8612 readers
147 users here now

Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.

As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.

Thank you and happy chatting!

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

As capitalism gets more and more mask off brutal and it becomes harder and harder to ignore that the democracy people thought they had is at best very limited and easily revoked, the paradigm shifts more and more to a sort of internalised existential self reduction. A very natural response to life under capitalism, after all, life under capitalism has very little meaning for the average proletariat so why wouldn't people come to the conclusion that life is meaningless? I see a very tired, nihilist society.

It's like watching someone in an abusive relationship. People have been conditioned by their abuser into a state of submission via exsaution and erosion of their identity, their agency and their self-confidence. They want to escape, but are controlled by their abuser via financial, emotional and even the threat of physical abuse. This works well for the ruling class, as such victims are understandably very hard to organize. There is an attitude of "I don't matter and nothing I do matters, how would organizing change anything. It's unrealistic, egocentric even, to expect better." That we have to contend with and keep in mind when we try to mobilize people living in these conditions. I've struggled with such thoughts my entire life, and it's very strange to see such a thing slowly become so normalized.

Anyway, don't ever let the ghouls make you feel like you don't matter. The workers of the world deserve better than this

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Dort_Owl@hexbear.net 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The slow erasure of boundaries is another thing analogous to what we see in toxic relationships. Breaching of privacy isn't even something the ruling class even bothers to ask consent for anymore and the consumer has stopped even asking for it or considering it a breach of boundaries. Someone installing a tracking app on your device was once considered a form of abuse, something a controlling boyfriend would do. Completely normalized now.

Same goes for no longer owning things (having the right to your personal space and property) people will slowly get used to the idea of nothing belonging to them and their things being taken from them without notice. The abuser owns everything and allows you to have them for a while if you ask permission

All of these things are normalized through threat of ostracism and abandonment, among other things