This thread is an exemplary case of how “we” (that is, liberal-minded minions uncritically parroting the talking points of the bourgeoisie) inhibit any social and class consciousness from sprouting in the proletarian mind.
The original post, titled “Nothing worth having in life comes easily”, goes as such:
Yes it does. Yes it fucking does. For SOME people. Some people were born into rich families. Money is worth having, and money came easily to them. […] Some people are born white. Not being discriminated against must be nice. I could go on. You get the fucking point. Why do people on Reddit keep repeating this blatantly false platitude? There are countless of examples of people in this world who didn’t have to work for shit, yet many things came easily to them.
As you might expect, the comments went on the offense to discredit OP’s sentiments, in different manners.
The first category of comments involves invoking “life” as some natural order of things which is beyond human control, ergo it must be accepted.
I get what you mean life is unfair sometimes.
Life sucks and then we die.
>Life is 100% unfair. Full stop. Get used to it.
This defeatist attitude just dissuades any doubts in one’s mind regarding the viability of the current system.
The second category includes comments that deny any exteriority to OP’s sentiments and focus on their own personal ailments:
Some people get so fixated on being victims of society that they seem to give away their own power to change their lives.
This post is somewhat delusional. Highly suggest to not compare your insides to other people’s outsides or you’ll always come away with a distorted perception. There are so many false assumptions in here I don’t know where to start but if you wanna pity yourself and put others on pedestals - knock yourself out.
Being mad and jealous, letting negative emotions permeate through every facet of your mind will make it better. Keep going.
They’re basically saying: “the world is fine, the problem is you; and you should feel bad for feeling otherwise.”
The third category involves comments that dilute the importance of wealth and socioeconomic status:
Every privilege you mentioned comes with its own set of problems.
It might not seem like it, but everybody has the same amount of issues as everyone else.
Dating, money, and privilege aren’t the meaning of life.
An obvious case of blatantly gaslighting people struggling to survive when they realize the unfairness of capitalism.
And an honourable mentions goes to those talking down white supremacy and systemic racism!
Agreed except for the white comment. Every race gets discriminated against, just in different ways.
Oh good more hatred of White people this will surely solve this loser’s personal problems.
Oh, if you are born white don’t worry, there will be plenty of people who will discriminate against you. One of the major political parties sanctions it. It’s socially acceptable. There’s plenty of people like you. You get the point.
Well white people get discriminated against and this is all very victim mentality based.
There are many other arguments, but you get the point. They all share the same motive: the annihilation of any hint of social consciousness. It is tragic because, more often than not, it is the oppressed who are gaslighting themselves and not the bourgeois and capitalists. The latter outsource even the labor of propagating their foul logic and arguments to the proletariat.
My favorite thought-terminating goalpost-moving/gaslighting cliches (not necessarily from the thread itself):
“Blame the government, not the people” told in response to raising issues about Western imperialism and specirically naming certain Western countries (but the same sentiment, of course, does not ever get applied to the Global South)
“You need to improve your time management if you’re struggling with staying on top of tasks” told in response to high school/college students raising concerns about workload who may or may not need to finance their studies by also taking up work, who may or may not also be a single parent, and has to sacrifice their personal time, social life, family time, etc… just to barely practice this advice.
“There are many people like you with the same set of problems” (alternative to “life is unfair” and not often mentioned). In a vacuum, it could be factually true, but in contexts like the one by OOP, it’s plain and simple disingenuous to just say that. Just like “life is unfair” it’s just a way to punch down people showing any hint of vulnerability, which just reinforces the idea that we should only be vulnerable if we or the issues that we have are “unique”…
What’s worse, is that these zingers (along with the ones mentioned here) are internalized and some of us, if not most, end up beating ourselves over it…
As for the last category, these people need to look in the mirror once in a while:
I would really like to hear what we could do to lessen the propagation of these silly ideas that are clearly said by people benefitting most from capital. Rambling over.
“Damn really, I should get together with them”
Libs hate us for this one (admittedly difficult) trick.