some of you— I just can’t…
I am going to copy and paste something I wrote earlier which I think is a big condemnation of modern culture. I mean–I am still trying with almost every situation to inject a healthy dose of empathy and respect. I am spending a gross amount of time trying to convey my messages and I think the culture at this point no longer possesses the ability to empathize fully because we spend virtually no time on any of it. We are instant gratification at our peril and will not afford anyone else the space in our own brains to fully empathize because it is full of too much other shit. Sensory overload? Not exactly, but we are no longer forced to prioritize much because everything can be done later. Fuck. I do it, too. I have done it with this fucking blog for years but at least I see what is going on and want to fix it. As it is our inability to full empathize comes with a few realizations I have been floating around as theories in my head. This FOMO culture (fear of missing out) causes us to neglect shit that should be tended to more immediately than our wishes to be involved in everything everyone else is doing. We are shit prioritizers and at the end of the day–none of you spend any grand amount of time living in the shoes of others to any great extent not physically emotionally or even just through imagination alone because we do not value investments in much besides decade long tv series.
We stopped reading, largely as a culture. What we used to be able to depend on was some sense of empathy gleaned from being immersed into another person’s ideas or values. It allowed us an ability to gauge or measure our responses in context.
Now we largely live in a throwaway instant gratification culture where it doesn’t really matter what someone else is going through because you can find an instagram story or buzzfeed article to help you pass the time you would normally spend thinking or wondering about that person or persons. And it feels much better, too, even if you secretly, but only secretly, feel guilty. Also, it appears we have decided to utilize scorn over empathy and my comments on these articles on abortion and everything are far different than anyone else’s. My comments are the currency you guys use is scorn and judgment and nobody has done a thing to advocate for help or turn that scorn around on government agents who refuse to help these women you want to force to have no other choice.
But guess what? I still read a lot of fucking books. And I don’t have my cell phone on me all day every day. I leave the house without it often and you will never ever see me and Don eating anywhere with a phone out. It would never happen. I still give too much of a shit about other people who could give a fuck about me. The irony is sometimes bittersweet–but the issue is nobody seems to worry about shit unless it comes down on them personally because–ta da–they forgot how to empathize or imagine.
Now if you don’t read currently, I get it, retraining yourself to have the spaces to read up on things that don’t directly concern you is maybe asking a lot–but for god’s sake at least fucking raise your kids to read. I had a thing earlier today where once again, the joke was missed and quite literally taken into context as an insult. I mentioned Don mentioning your jobs as parents is to “condition the sociopath out of your children” which clearly is not fucking serious but is kinda serious but again, goes back to the lack of recognition in the metaphor of referring to someone’s potential baby as a parasite. It’s a metaphor, everyone. I am not writing fucking science books. If you cannot understand what I mean, why the hell would you just react instead of question?
Because every single one of us is looking to be offended apparently. My very existence offends more people than comment here which should be a sign since after twenty years nobody does….but I keep doing it. I write away. And now I am thinking this little space and idea might have to house my musings permanently since I continue to lose friends on the most banal “I thought we agreed” issues on other social media platforms. I tried to deactivate Facebook today but I don’t remember my password so I think I am just going to vanish off that shit, too. Certainly nothing big comes off that place.
