It feels like no matter where I turn some septuagenarian, or older, is making life miserable for myself and others. Usually these are older white Christian conservatives, obsessed with a delusional sense of reality that no longer has a basis in fact, or perhaps never did.

There is a disproportionate amount of wealth concentrated in the older generation and those who will inherit it will probably be even worse with that money than the last generation. Certainly we see evidence of that already, anyone in their 30’s who has parents who help them out VS those who don’t have that have radically different outcomes. For some reason those lucky enough to come from good families ascribe laziness and bad attitude to those who don’t have the family support, as if they are somehow enjoying “self made success” while mummy does their laundry for them.

No generation previous needed this kind of assistance well into adulthood, but this infantilisation of working adults has happened because of the hoarding of wealth, refusing to pass on the torch in workplaces and just blocking change for the sake of stoking petty politics. Most of us will never own our own home but all the politicians want to talk about is whether it’s OK to dehumanise trans people or not.

I’m 36 this year. For most of my teens I thought there’d be some kind of tipping point where the conservative boomers would fuck off or at least let the next generation step in, but that hasn’t happened. Back in the 1990’s you could be a girl and wear jeans and be empowered, now this is considered some kind of woke statement. As if we recently invented this idea of women and men being equal.

The faces of my two dogs, my cat and my husband are all that keep me going. Knowing they need me gives me just enough to get out of bed in the morning and start moving… but I’m struggling to do even that without having a breakdown. My husband and I have medical expenses we can’t afford and are borrowing money to survive right now. I run my own business and just feel this immense pressure on my shoulders, that again is compounded by how unfair the world is right now.

Anyone got any advice for coping with this late stage capitalist hellscape?

  • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    If you want to hear your worries repeated again and again, hang around Lemmy

  • OpenStars@discuss.online
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    6 months ago

    The entire world is going through this right now. Many of us will never own a home - and no I don’t mean just Gen-Z and maybe Millenials, I mean people your age even. Fwiw, you/we still are doing better off than at least 95% of the world, but that is not to diminish the pain that we are losing hope b/c we are not doing as well as we thought we would. Find a way of coping that works for you - I am still searching for mine…:-( I just thought it might help to say that you are not alone:-).

  • gzrrt@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    I’m almost exactly the same age as you. If I’ve learned anything up to this point, it’s that people would start to have better and richer lives as soon as they cancel their cable TV subscriptions, delete all social media accounts*, and delete all news apps from their mobile devices. I really believe smartphones are a huge culprit in making people miserable, and it’s because we’ve let these things get totally out of hand instead of consciously making them as boring and utilitarian as possible.

    The issue of being ‘informed’ or not can be covered by reading Wikipedia’s current events page for a few minutes each week. That should also free up plenty of time for people to focus more on what really matters day-to-day, which is their local community, friends, family and neighbors. Useful information is actionable, and actionable information can be found when you’re laser-focused on your local area and the ways you can help improve it.

    • Lemmy / kbin isn’t social media, IMO. ; )
  • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Stop reading the news.

    I’m serious. Just stop. It’s ALL biased to one side or the other so whether you’re on the left, or the right- you’re going to get hate and negativity thrown at you. Also, know that it has ALWAYS been this way. It’s just that it’s difficult to not see it all happening because of the internet- which brings me back to my original point.

    STOP READING THE NEWS. Nothing good comes from it and your mental health isn’t a fair trade for staying up to date with the current dumbassery in politics.

    • kwking13@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Sticking your head in the sand is a great strategy for never helping to enact change. Knowledge is power, learn what you can.

      • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Willingly turning from bullshit and negativity is not sticking one’s head in the sand.

        Or do you feel Buddhists are sticking their heads in the sand?

        One needs not gorge themselves on the negativity happening around them in order to get along.

  • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    Sucks doesn’t it – I too used to think that the Boomers would at some point exit stage left and let newer generations take over, but not only have they continued to hold onto power well into their 60s/70s, they’ve also done everything they can to consolidate their own power and riches, while knocking the ladder out from under the later generations.

    My only advice is to take a break for the news and focus on yourself, maybe find a de-stressing hobby like drawing or sewing. Aside from that, I just wish you best of luck.

  • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    Owning your own business and self employment are kind of not specifically designed to thrive in this kind of economy. Unless you and/or your business have a prospect being bought out by a competitor you might be burdening yourself with an unnecessary degree of stress.

    It can be stressful to run your own business if your livelihood depends on it.

    Now this depends heavily on what kind of business you run too and how much you enjoy it.