modern malaise

American society is driven by hyperindividualism: we are all free and independent individuals who can choose to do pretty much what we want.This clearly isn’t true, since people obviously aren’t free: they’re controlled by socioeconomic circumstances. I think most people feel like it’s impossible for them succeed in today’s world (“I will never be ... See more

All meritocratic platforms are winner-take-all, with the top 1% of performers collecting a vastly disproportionate share of rewards. Look at Substack and Onlyfans. This is not a conspiracy engineered by anyone: when anyone is allowed to compete, a small percentage of people tend to capture most of the profit. The platforms themselves aren’t incenti... See more

The world is controlled by people with the skillset to succeed under capitalism, so it’s hard for them to understand other people’s despair because the system has been perfectly fine for them. Most people who say they dream of socialism are humanities-oriented and aren’t economists and technologists. Politicians either advocate for actions that obv... See more

People have become anti-work because work used to be a source of meaning and prosperity, and now it isn’t. But meaningful work is the one of the only sources of meaning along with family and religion. If we lose it, we only have nihilism. Freddie deBoer on why the left is a labor movement. From David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs: “Perhaps the reason the... See more