chat

Kissinger and Kirk died, and that always brightens my mood on glum days.

Things that have gotten better for me personally:

• Moved out of my parent's house.
• Finally escaped retail hell for a bullshit corporate job.
• Had multiple partners, including my current lovely partner that I'd like to spend the rest of my life with. M-Maybe we could even be in a larger poly relationship in the future??? o///o
• Partner went from $15/hr to $25/hr in less than a year.
• I frequently managed to pay off my credit card, in part because I used to get a ton of paid OT.
• I lost 55 pounds during covid and made some long term online friends that I need to hang out with more.
• I'm vegan now btw. uwu
• Not a lib anymore that goes on YouTube for free educational slop only to land on "North Korea bad, China building empty cities" propaganda and believing it without any critical thought.
• I was one of the few that got to WFH full time during covid, and it was glorious.
• Embraced my younger self and admitted to myself that I am in fact still autistic and that it doesn't go away with time.
• Stopped trying to mask with sad fat old lady wardrobe and got built a nice plus size goth wardrobe over time. I even got the confidence to dress casual goth at work.

Things that have gotten worse:

• Over 7 years into this job, and I'm still a contractor with no paid days off or real career progression, just like retail.
• The job market is too shitty to look for a higher paying job externally.
• Once upon a time, 2 people making a combined $100k a year or more (even pretax) could afford a "starter house" in a couple of years, especially if they didn't have kids. Or at least a nice condo. Yeah, we're still renters, and I wouldn't be shocked if we stayed renting even after I turn 40.
• Building on the last point, the concept of a "starter house" is now considered a joke by the average person.
• Not that we want them, but affording kids went from unlikely to impossible (unless we want them to go through American poverty and fascism, no thanks lmao).
• Pretty much EVERYONE, for one reason or another, has no hope for the future, my depressed ass included.
• Climate disaster gets worse with each passing year, and depending on what party you ask is either considered a joke or too inevitable to do anything serious about in the USA.
• Grocery prices exploded.
• Rent prices exploded.
• I had to beg for my wages to go up with inflation, and they're already falling behind again.
• AI is a cyberpunk nightmare.
• I gained most of the weight I lost because they made us go back to work.
• I finally told work about my disability right when the gross Kennedy shit was happening this year (yeah I have autism) and work didn't even let me WFH more days.
• I got super burned out this year, and I can't remember most of the year very well. It took like a half a year to recover fully while I was still working full-time.
• They're taking away most of our paid OT at work right before a recession hits.
• The 10-year break from official recessions was nice while it lasted, even if a couple of unofficial recessions happened during it. Getting mentally prepared for the next big one happening to a capitalist hellscape near you.

Honestly I kind of miss not having political understanding because now everyone seems like they’re at a 12 y/o level in my eyes and it’s so hard to not argue when they make the most absurd and nonsensical statements

I need to rein in my anger issues and stop arguing w people but it’s hard lol.

The single thing I can point to as improving over the last decade is my personal maturity and political understanding. And that’s pretty much just a result of getting older, would’ve happened no matter what.

I promise you there are plenty of people who remain stagnant and mentally in high school their entire lives

For me it's special coz I got married with a real life revolutionary and i love my wifu.

I know someone else already said this, but wisdom does not come with age, it comes with learning, something which requires time but can also be mostly absent from the time one spends. If you're more mature and have a better political understanding, you should be proud of that because it's not something that just happens passively (countless people in our society are testaments to that fact, especially old people who think they are wise just because they are old) and perhaps it might be worth considering how that development could open up new avenues for you, however minor a difference it really makes.

Funny thing: my life MIGHT have been able to have been better. I managed to land a FT job that paid 2.5x what I was getting. Had my partner and I been able to stay in our shithole apartment 1 or two years we might have been able to put together enough savings to get a down payment.

However our old lady landlord died who hadn't raised rent in 10 years died and her son sold the place. So all that income basically went to pay rent at a new place 2.5x more than what we were paying. So it's been. Barely keeping up with cost of living, getting by, but not thriving.

i have more money but it’s worth significantly less and my prospects of finding a decent paying job again are lower despite having more experience

QOL in amerikkka is rapidly deteriorating

I have a good job and 5 years ago could go out to eat pretty much every weekend without sweating it, now I have to pinch pennies even though I make 2x what I did back then

A decade ago I had friends and people to talk to. Thanks covid.

have you though about how many $300 55" 4k LCD televisions you could buy that would have cost five times as much a decade ago?

The single thing I can point to as improving over the last decade is my personal maturity and political understanding. And that’s pretty much just a result of getting older, would’ve happened no matter what.

hey a win's a win. Honestly, I don't believe that getting older automatically makes you more understanding or mature, it still takes effort and hard work to undo conditoning and biases. And for that, you can give yourself some credit 😊

I lost my mom and my cat in the last 10 years, still poor, still alone and the world is getting worse!

its not something uve prolly watched but the genre of yuri is actively going through a worldwide boom

yes but have you considered that ipads of today are xxx% better than ipads of 10 years ago?! -federal reserve chairman

+1

social connections are worse

health is worse

livelihood is worse

living situation is worse

world is worse-ish, debatably just things being out in the open that were always there though.

I got a cool bike so there's that

Same boat, down to the maturity/political understanding.

Im not trying to brag, but the last few years have been great for me better than ever.

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