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Everyone's got their own opinion about what is to blame for this, I'll toss mine in. I see a lot of people with stress and despair related problems such as hig
by droithomme 7y ago
Everyone's got their own opinion about what is to blame for this, I'll toss mine in.
I see a lot of people with stress and despair related problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, alcoholism, drug use. Diet can be an issue as well but diet problems on these come from stress management tactics, it's not the diet that's the root cause here.
Currently a major source of stress is the general political atmosphere of endemic bullshit, violence, fake news, lies, shout downs, cancel culture, cover ups, self dealing, and all this on both sides. And if you say both sides both sides jump down your throat trying to bullying you into agreeing with them their side whatever it is is perfect and the other side are literal demons who need to exterminated. By not agreeing only one side is at fault, then you as well are labeled a demon worthy of extirpation as well. Choose sides or be cast into hell. But choosing either side is to buy into a delusion.
Another cause of poor health has been mentioned: the health care system really is shit for most people. My insurance runs over $20,000 a year for a really crappy policy that doesn't cover anything since everyone is out of network or there's a copay that is more than the cash price, meaning I just pretend I don't have insurance to save money. Any hospital emergency I can be assured that either the plan doesn't cover the hospital at all or doesn't cover the people working there. In network coverage for anything involving more than one person doesn't exist. And although many doctors are good people and competent a lot more are money grubbing and incompetent, having practices managed or advised by MBAs with maximum profit as the sole motive. Specialists are particularly hard to get ahold of and charge absurd amounts compared to literally every other country in the world.
How to fix any of these? None of it is ever going to get fixed. The deep state is not just a government thing, it also extends to medicine, teaching, police, and other professions which have invisible networks that will thwart any attempt at reform or improvement to protect their own positions and lifestyles. Trying to fix it is a waste of time that only leads to being made a target of attacks, and introducing massive stress into your life. One might as well try to fix communism from inside Stalin's Soviet Union. You'll only be disappeared or end up dead. Best instead to figure out ways to have as little to do with the system as possible, and undermine it whenever you have the opportunity, hoping it will eventually collapse. The only way out is collapse at this point. Some cars are so far gone they can't be fixed. Likewise with houses. I've seen people try to restore an old farmhouse or victorian with a rotted foundation and floors and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars ending up with a crappy house with poor energy efficiency and little resale value. They are broke and stressed out and just spent a decade exposing themselves to black mold and sometimes things like asbestos. They could instead have demolished it and built a full size replica using modern efficient methods for a tiny fraction of what they spent "fixing" it. Why did they pursue restoration instead? Because they bought the rotted house for what they thought was a bargain and ignored its long term costs, and also they "fell in love" with it through simple familiarity and comfort of knowing it was theirs. Tearing something down or throwing it out and starting over again is the only way out of things that are far too rotted and broken to be worth fixing. Political and economic systems, houses, cars, and relationships all fall under this rule.
- pnutjam 7y agoBullshit, take your apocalypse fantasies home and let the adults fix things.
- droithomme 7y agoPaul, you're only 41. I'm a lot older than you. I've spent 40 years trying to fix this broken down rotted house and things have only gotten worse in that time period no matter how much effort is put into it. It's a delusion to think this can be fixed using the method of repairs because the repair method has been the way it has been done for a century now and things continue to fall apart and many repairs lead to worsening the fundamental underlying problems, or not addressing them. The house needs to be rebuilt from scratch. It won't be though. For the young, I recommend resettlement in a more sane region. For the old, hope that collapse doesn't happen and wipe out savings and impoverishment. For those in between, nothing really. They are stuck with their car and unable to move to a new one so they hold on to the hope that the next car repair is somehow going to be the last one and the car will at last work as if new and functional. When a wiser older person cautions a younger one, offering life or career perspective, they always respond by contemptuously telling that wiser older person they are a moron and should piss off because "adults are working here". It's how things are and how they have been. Everyone has to learn their lessons on their own, and in the end recognize their personal failures only when it is far too late, and at that point they try to warn the next generations, and are called old fools. The cycle of life, which is based on delusions and cult adherance.
- scottlegrand2 7y agoI don't know how old you are but I'm a lot older than 41 as well. I am also stymied by the increasing tribalism in this country and I don't feel like a member of either major tribe. But I will admit there's a fine line between a wise elder and a crazy uncle at Thanksgiving. You sound like you started as the former but you're drifting towards the latter if you think you are entitled to respect simply because of your age. My own frustration is that most of our so-called challenging problems have relatively simple solutions, but one or more of the above tribes will block those solutions so we go nowhere fast. That said, the world is a lot better than it was a hundred years ago. And if we ever collectively get our heads out of our butts and own our bipartisan $h!+, we can fix this. But I'm personally betting that won't happen until we get a moment of clarity delivered to us from China or India. And I'm not sure I'll still be above ground by then.