Doomscrolling, American politics, a second apology
I’m really sorry once again for my tasteless joke.
My doomscrolling had consisted of the wild suggestions that RFK junior had been kicking around for America’s health system. Such as removing fluoride from water and vaccine skepticism - but also the proposal of having “wellness farms” (labour camps) for people who used illegal or legal drugs including antidepressants or adhd meds.
I’m quite concerned about suggestions like that which slide easily into fascism. Hoping that none of the really crazy stuff actually happens over there - or filters down into Australia. As American culture or conspiracy theories can tend to do. I’m worried for the future. What happens to anyone outside the norm if that idea gets legs.
But even as dark humour and worry for the growing fascism in America and Australia, it was hurtful and not ok for me to say. I’m very sorry to survivors and relatives of people who did actually endure internment.
I just have to stop looking at or worrying about this stuff. And not smart off about painful serious things.
Don’t worry about what Seagoon said tbh. My urgroßvater (great grandfather) was captured by the Russians and spent the rest of the war in an actual gulag, he suddenly returned home after the war ended. He could not and would not eat with his family, and would only make himself a sandwich when everyone else was finished (he didn’t trust anything he didn’t make himself due to his experience). And yet, I have joked many times, while going to work, “welp back to the gulag”.
It’s an offhand joke, and not worth worrying about tbh. I only said the above to state that everyone has different opinions, and different ways of coping and joking, and I personally do not see an issue with what you said.
But yes, doom scrolling, reading about the US and worrying, it doesn’t help our mental state. It’s feels heavy and insurmountable.
But, you have us and your hobbies, and while it may be difficult to do everything you want, you can still find joy and peace away from those news sites/reddit/whatever. They are nothing more than enragement engagement machines designed to make us feel angry, sad, and helpless. But you are amazing, kind, considerate, thoughtful, clever, you have so much to offer the world. Don’t have to take any advice from me, but overall it’s better to avoid the sites that bring us down. You are an integral part of this community 💜💜💜
I use dark humour every day to cope, whether I vocalise it or not. I insult my mother and make jokes about her, I joke about my ex, I joke about my trauma. You joking about gulags is not a big deal. It really isn’t. If we cannot joke and find humour in our darkest times, that is when all hope is lost.
You apologised, whether it is accepted or not shouldn’t matter to you. It’s okay. Do not let this curb your funny self!
I do have gallows humour. I don’t think this will happen openly and immediately. However I do get quite nervous at seeing certain trends due to historical events, similarities in patterns, and the slipperiness of the slope.
And the fact that more currently people do lack critical skills and keep buying into certain kinds of ideological manure
I’m fucking scared. This tide has been growing there and here, and certain things have been more mask off since the annoying orange took power in 2016.
Fascism doesn’t come openly. It comes to ‘clean up’ your country, give you more jobs, do something about those awful people. Protect the children. Drop the price of eggs and petrol/gas.
That’s how it happens. Fascism frequently correlates with economic downturns. People focus on the promises of a better quality of daily life, think ‘surely these extreme things would never happen’. And then you’ve lost Roe and Wade and some very loaded and ominous proposals are being made.
And fascism creeps. It doesn’t limit itself to one minority, or one country.
Ugh. Sorry to make this cosy thread all dark. It would have cost me nothing to have kept my yap shut
I think it would have cost you more than you think to remain silent. I am glad you are sharing these fears. The cozy places are the best places to share our fears, because they are the places we feel safe.
There’s a quite famous poem about not speaking out until it was too late, not speaking out until there is no one to speak out… Better to speak, I think.
I didn’t mean to upset or chide, I was half joking . hugs
life is insane , who knows what will happen
and can I add that news is presented much differently now than when I was much much younger.
Now we hear every about every single event that happens in Sydney or Adelaide or overseas as if these events have relevance to us. They don’t, they aren’t news. Yet all these reports add up to a mental image and feeling that the we are surrounded by accident and evil when that’s just not true. I don’t watch or read local news anymore because it’s not local, I just read big headlines now.
Doomscrolling, American politics, a second apology
I’m really sorry once again for my tasteless joke.
My doomscrolling had consisted of the wild suggestions that RFK junior had been kicking around for America’s health system. Such as removing fluoride from water and vaccine skepticism - but also the proposal of having “wellness farms” (labour camps) for people who used illegal or legal drugs including antidepressants or adhd meds.
I’m quite concerned about suggestions like that which slide easily into fascism. Hoping that none of the really crazy stuff actually happens over there - or filters down into Australia. As American culture or conspiracy theories can tend to do. I’m worried for the future. What happens to anyone outside the norm if that idea gets legs.
But even as dark humour and worry for the growing fascism in America and Australia, it was hurtful and not ok for me to say. I’m very sorry to survivors and relatives of people who did actually endure internment.
I just have to stop looking at or worrying about this stuff. And not smart off about painful serious things.
Don’t worry about what Seagoon said tbh. My urgroßvater (great grandfather) was captured by the Russians and spent the rest of the war in an actual gulag, he suddenly returned home after the war ended. He could not and would not eat with his family, and would only make himself a sandwich when everyone else was finished (he didn’t trust anything he didn’t make himself due to his experience). And yet, I have joked many times, while going to work, “welp back to the gulag”.
It’s an offhand joke, and not worth worrying about tbh. I only said the above to state that everyone has different opinions, and different ways of coping and joking, and I personally do not see an issue with what you said.
But yes, doom scrolling, reading about the US and worrying, it doesn’t help our mental state. It’s feels heavy and insurmountable.
But, you have us and your hobbies, and while it may be difficult to do everything you want, you can still find joy and peace away from those news sites/reddit/whatever. They are nothing more than enragement engagement machines designed to make us feel angry, sad, and helpless. But you are amazing, kind, considerate, thoughtful, clever, you have so much to offer the world. Don’t have to take any advice from me, but overall it’s better to avoid the sites that bring us down. You are an integral part of this community 💜💜💜
No, I do have to learn to curb the dark humour especially without context.
I say some horrific things coping with my own stuff but it doesn’t apply to other peoples struggles and I forget how my gallows humour comes across
I use dark humour every day to cope, whether I vocalise it or not. I insult my mother and make jokes about her, I joke about my ex, I joke about my trauma. You joking about gulags is not a big deal. It really isn’t. If we cannot joke and find humour in our darkest times, that is when all hope is lost.
You apologised, whether it is accepted or not shouldn’t matter to you. It’s okay. Do not let this curb your funny self!
If it’s any consolation I wouldn’t be laughing long. Due to multiple intersections my arse would be collected quite quickly
You have gallows humour? All this time I have been thinking you are serious.
And I say that sincerely.
I do have gallows humour. I don’t think this will happen openly and immediately. However I do get quite nervous at seeing certain trends due to historical events, similarities in patterns, and the slipperiness of the slope.
And the fact that more currently people do lack critical skills and keep buying into certain kinds of ideological manure
We certainly live in dark times. The times only get darker if we cannot joke about them.
No one has a monopoly on horror.
No one should make you feel like you cannot joke about those horrors.
It is not tasteless to joke about the horrors that exist, and have existed. It’s tasteless to pretend they didn’t exist, don’t exist.
I want you to forgive yourself for making light. We NEED light.
The dead have already suffered. The dead do not command us. The dead do not control us.
Live for the living. Laugh for the living. Laugh for yourself. Laugh for me. Laugh for us. Laugh because we need laughter.
Here is one of my favourite jokes:
A holocaust survivor dies of old age and goes to heaven. When he gets there he meets God and tells him a holocaust joke.
God says, “That’s not funny.”
And the man says, “I guess you had to be there.”
I’m fucking scared. This tide has been growing there and here, and certain things have been more mask off since the annoying orange took power in 2016.
Fascism doesn’t come openly. It comes to ‘clean up’ your country, give you more jobs, do something about those awful people. Protect the children. Drop the price of eggs and petrol/gas.
That’s how it happens. Fascism frequently correlates with economic downturns. People focus on the promises of a better quality of daily life, think ‘surely these extreme things would never happen’. And then you’ve lost Roe and Wade and some very loaded and ominous proposals are being made.
And fascism creeps. It doesn’t limit itself to one minority, or one country.
Ugh. Sorry to make this cosy thread all dark. It would have cost me nothing to have kept my yap shut
I think it would have cost you more than you think to remain silent. I am glad you are sharing these fears. The cozy places are the best places to share our fears, because they are the places we feel safe.
There’s a quite famous poem about not speaking out until it was too late, not speaking out until there is no one to speak out… Better to speak, I think.
I didn’t mean to upset or chide, I was half joking . hugs
life is insane , who knows what will happen
and can I add that news is presented much differently now than when I was much much younger.
Now we hear every about every single event that happens in Sydney or Adelaide or overseas as if these events have relevance to us. They don’t, they aren’t news. Yet all these reports add up to a mental image and feeling that the we are surrounded by accident and evil when that’s just not true. I don’t watch or read local news anymore because it’s not local, I just read big headlines now.
I wasn’t joking that he really was interned
Fair