Honestly, it’s mind-boggling how the top 1% have us believing their relentless greed is just the norm and that we’re helpless to do anything about it. This is particularly noticeable on platforms like Reddit, where we, the users, are the real value creators and even volunteer our time.
Just a few days ago, during the Reddit protests, the only thing required from us was to log off. However, it seemed that even this small act was too much for some. It’s a stark wake-up call, making you question how and why we don’t take a stand when our rights are truly in jeopardy.
In this day and age, it appears we’re all too engrossed in our personal lives. If it doesn’t directly affect us, it’s shrugged off. This “not my problem” mindset is damaging to us all eventually. It hinders our ability to empathize with each other’s struggles and to unite against common adversities. This isn’t the type of society any of us should want. It’s alarming to see our sense of community dwindling, and it’s genuinely heartbreaking. Maybe I’m just overthinking it, but the large number of people who seem indifferent is truly concerning. This should serve as a wake-up call for all of us. What do you guys think? (Pic not relevant)
I was a kid in the 80s. Back then protesting greenhouse gases or saving whales was seen as cool. Nowadays… not so much (why is being a greenie now a pejorative?). I’ve gone to plenty of protests in my life, small ones, big ones. I’ve seen a definite trend over time where people care less. People used to say protestors could be annoying but generally supported people’s right to protest, even if they didn’t agree with it. (I’m talking generally here and in the past 40 years or so, of course history shows some awful atrocities committed against protestors and I’ve seen first hand some traumatising treatment of fellow protestors more recently).
But now… the general sentiment feels like most people think that protestors are a bunch of annoying loons. I’ve seen the general public scream at peaceful protestors, yell obscenities, spit on them and at one protest even try to run some protestors over, all because they were annoyed at being inconvenienced by the protest (and I’m talking about an extra few minutes driving or walking time, not anything major). Suddenly a little bit of inconvenience matters more than fundamental rights, including their own.
I don’t get it either. The apathy is growing and it’s alarming. I’ve been doing volunteer work for over a decade now and it’s the same thing - volunteers are getting harder and harder to come by because everyone is “too busy” (even when they’re not). The volunteer work I do is getting harder and harder and I have to put in more hours because there’s less people to spread the work between. Doesn’t matter how hard you push “many hands make light work”, people would rather ignore your struggle as a volunteer and just say, “Thanks for your sacrifice”. I don’t want thanks! I NEED more people to care. Non-profits don’t run themselves.
I don’t know what the answer is. Just that I have noticed this slow decline and feel both deeply saddened and incredibly alarmed about the future for us all.
Some of that really resonates with me. My personal take on the lack of empathy and the aggression towards protestors, volunteers, or other non-profit work really spirals into one thing; the widening wage gap. I know if I could make enough money without having to work 50+ hours on an above average wage to make ends meet, I’d probably do more things with my life. I’d create, do volunteer work, protest about things I care about. When I was making less and actually struggling, any little extra hurdle on what was supposed to be a fun day off or little chores were suddenly a lot more emotionally draining, demotivating, frustrating, and all the other negative connotations.
I think as more and more people start losing what comforts they are used to, they lose a lot of the safety nets that kept them pleasant in the first place. keep in mind, there are a lot of people who were middle class just 5 years ago that got squeezed out, and even if they were polite people, wealth doesn’t make people grow, it just makes problems go away. So we had a lot of people who never grew because they didn’t go through these hardships and haven’t had time to learn all the hard lessons. Probably feels like they just fell off a fun slide and broke their leg on the dismount.
So, yeah, I do think people are more apathetic to problems. I’ve been told multiple times to my face by personal friends, “It’s not a big problem”, “It doesn’t affect me, so I don’t really care” and other ways to politely deflect the conversation into a “it’s not my problem” and that’s the real stickler. People like that won’t really care until it’s a problem that affects them, personally. It’s why I think, in a twisted sort of way, that people being ripped out of middle class and others losing some of their safety nets is a good thing.
I do want to clarify that for the generals, it is not okay, and is a worse trend for everyone overall. But it forces these people to suffer the indignities they regularly come to expect, forces them to realize that this ‘minor setback’ is in fact not minor at all, and will keep them perpetually in this place in life if they do not deal with a problem that is not unique to them. Forces them to think about someone other than themselves, which is a hard thing to do when they don’t want to do it themselves, especially if they have no reason to.
Now they do.