Right like I (rightly or wrongly) associate the word “manifesto” with illogical rambling (maybe that’s just being a psych nurse, I’ve received a lot of gibberish manifestos at 2am) but every word of this makes perfect sense and are things I’ve been saying for years. Because over half my patients aren’t even manic or psychotic or have any other significantly mind altering disorder, they’ve just been pushed past every coping mechanism they had by this profoundly sick society we live in. One of the most powerful ways I help people in these crises is just by validating that and pointing them in the right direction. I’ve talked people out of literally physically punching me just by reminding them who we’re all really being oppressed by and trying to give them the emotional tools they need to put that anger back where it belongs.
He’s not any crazier than a construction worker out of work and living in poverty after losing their feet to diabetes because they’ve been living off fast food delivered to the jobsites they’ve spent most of their waking hours on for decades. He’s not any crazier than a veteran who’s been doing heroin for years to cope with their untreated service injuries and the realization that to get themselves out of poverty they were sent to Afghanistan to kill other poor people to make an oil baron more money. He’s not any crazier than a homeless mother of two living out of her car who can’t afford her kid’s inhaler.
Those types of situations are meant to induce anxiety and anger in people! We evolved (or even were designed by God if that’s how you view the world) to feel those emotions in the first place as a way to stimulate us to fight for our safety and protect ourselves. And what’s finally motivating people IS that realization that it doesn’t matter in the end if you’re black or white, religious or atheist, gay or straight, or ANY of that. My one hope out of all of this is that the illusion of the culture war is finally falling away. I’ve caught “normie” coworkers saying “the only war is the class war.” Conservatives and capitalist liberals; people I never would have guessed would see it. This can be the beginning if we let it be.
Right like I (rightly or wrongly) associate the word “manifesto” with illogical rambling (maybe that’s just being a psych nurse, I’ve received a lot of gibberish manifestos at 2am) but every word of this makes perfect sense and are things I’ve been saying for years. Because over half my patients aren’t even manic or psychotic or have any other significantly mind altering disorder, they’ve just been pushed past every coping mechanism they had by this profoundly sick society we live in. One of the most powerful ways I help people in these crises is just by validating that and pointing them in the right direction. I’ve talked people out of literally physically punching me just by reminding them who we’re all really being oppressed by and trying to give them the emotional tools they need to put that anger back where it belongs.
He’s not any crazier than a construction worker out of work and living in poverty after losing their feet to diabetes because they’ve been living off fast food delivered to the jobsites they’ve spent most of their waking hours on for decades. He’s not any crazier than a veteran who’s been doing heroin for years to cope with their untreated service injuries and the realization that to get themselves out of poverty they were sent to Afghanistan to kill other poor people to make an oil baron more money. He’s not any crazier than a homeless mother of two living out of her car who can’t afford her kid’s inhaler.
Those types of situations are meant to induce anxiety and anger in people! We evolved (or even were designed by God if that’s how you view the world) to feel those emotions in the first place as a way to stimulate us to fight for our safety and protect ourselves. And what’s finally motivating people IS that realization that it doesn’t matter in the end if you’re black or white, religious or atheist, gay or straight, or ANY of that. My one hope out of all of this is that the illusion of the culture war is finally falling away. I’ve caught “normie” coworkers saying “the only war is the class war.” Conservatives and capitalist liberals; people I never would have guessed would see it. This can be the beginning if we let it be.