There are some misguided people who think you can just force happiness with willpower or exercise, which is not ideal. Being charitable I think generally people who say that are trying to be helpful and do not know how. We are all just trying our best, and sometimes miss the mark.

I agree! Always argued with my ex because she was exactly the “force a smile and it’ll be better” person. I am the “let me dwell in my melancholy and I’ll get out a happier person” person

There’s a balance to be struck. Emphasizing only positivity or only the harsh reality can potentially be damaging. We need both acknowledgement of our suffering as well as gratitude for what good things we have and some hope that we can someday have more of the good.

Yeah, I do.

Let us make our dark jokes and giggle in our misery.

If you’re not going through it, do what you can to support us.

Please

I remain amazed that there are real concentration camps; we’ve seen the GOP OBBBA reconciliation package get passed which shuts down the benefits I depend on. We’re watching the Federalist-Society SCOTUS super-majority throwing reason and precedent into the wood-chipper to give the Trump executive (and Trump specifically) more power to swing like a wrecking ball.

And ICE – what is the modern Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS (SD – Intelligence and Secret Police branch of the Schutzstaffel ), and was always meant to be the secret police of DHS that does the dirty work of the current administration, has just been given a budget infusion like the Russian Army (the one attacking Ukraine), and Steve Miller still has set a quota of 3000 abductions and renditions a day – is coming after every last one of us, though the less white we are; the less rich we are; the less important as laborers we are; the less snappy our salute to the Führer, the higher we are on the purge list.

And my support folk suggest blithely well there’s nothing we can do about it.

I posted recently something I wrote to my mom, worth reposting here:

I once likened this era to living on an active and volatile volcano.

Now, I compare it to living inland in Tokyo, while Godzilla, Ghidorah and Megalon are fighting each other downtown by the bay. Things appear okay in my day to day life, but every once in a while, a chunk of skyscraper, uncoupled trolley or piece of freeway intersection arcs above and smashes the local deli, crushing some homes as it rolls to a stop. Titans rumble above us and we can only watch in horror and hope it stops before we get crushed, ourselves.

We don’t get used to this. We are in war-time with spies everywhere and the battlelines are not safely across the pond. And we’re careening towards the worst ending.

But sad people make The Rich sad as they drive by in their Cybertrucks, and that’s not acceptable. The least the proles can do is put on a smile so the CEO has a pleasant commute.

So inconsiderate.