I think I’ve put my finger on what coming back to the UK feels like. If an actual nation state could be suffering from clinical depression, this is what it would look like: Everything is slowly going to shit; the country seems to see no future for itself; it’s making decision after decision that is self neglect bordering on self harm; quite possibly the most unpopular government to be removed by democratic vote rather than bloodshed is about to lose an election by a cataclysmic margin, and when the opposition, who are set to clean up, are asked what they’re going to do differently, the answer is a shrug followed by, “nothing”.
And people here more or less accept it, because boiling frogs and suchlike, but then you go elsewhere (no, America, not you, sit back down), and it’s like the colour returns to the world and you didn’t even realise it was missing.
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Estarriol, Cat owned Dragon
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@andrew
Had a booklet through my door listing the candidates for south yorkshire mayor.
Labour, Tory and LibDem had identical manifestos, could have been cut and pasted.
Then there was the Social Democrat with the same manifesto but added fascism explicit.
Lastly the green candidate who actually had a manifesto that was for the region.
Guess who my vote will go to?
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Alexa (She/Her) 🏳️⚧️
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jzed74
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Sarah Brown
in reply to jzed74 • •@jzed74 @Andrew Not quite.
Labour aren't actually making campaign promises.
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jzed74
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Eve, Is Not Part Of Section 31
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This is terrible enough on its own, but what gets me is how it's often paired with a smug disdain for anyone who wants different
"UGH, of COURSE we have to be as performatively cruel and bullying as possible instead of making anything better, it's called being an adult! Don't you know ANYTHING?"
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violetmadder
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@GlasWolf @bobthomson70 @timrichards @EveOfTheFuture
There are a lot of reasons I connect personal depression, with the state of the world today.
The steps it takes to achieve a personal, internal revolution against depression work in much the same way as the collective steps it takes to achieve systemic change.
Colin H.
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I'm guessing self-empowerment is one of them.
violetmadder
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@GlasWolf @bobthomson70 @timrichards @EveOfTheFuture
Yes. Despair and learned helplessness are weapons the system exploits deliberately-- this is psychological warfare. Oppressors are bullies.
We have to resist the abuser logic that colonizes our own brains-- the shame, the impulse to measure ourselves against toxic standards. In order to salvage good feelings out from under anhedonia, you have to discover and build on the things that really mean something to you and nourish you-- and you have to learn to value small accomplishments, feeling pride and hope from subtle and special things our culture poo-poos and looks down on. Turning away from the unrealistic things we're conditioned to want, the capitalist goals that won't bring us true happiness even if we reach them, means questioning the status quo and venturing on our own path. Finding better ways.
Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫
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"There is a a war on", but without the insight that it's a class war.
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Russell Garner
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ffffuuuuu this is so accurate.
Greece in July. I'd stay there, were it not for Brexit.
Cybarbie
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •You get the government you deserve.
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Unknown parent • • •Nudeln Al Dente
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adritheonly
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Not everyone in America is suffering from delusions of grandeur 😀
(OK, so most of us are. But some aren't. Honest 😀
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in reply to Mike Breedlove • •@Mike Breedlove It's worse. I grew up in the UK of the 80s. It was shit for a lot of people, but if you were in the yuppie set at least it felt like there was something dynamic going on, even if it excluded most from the rewards.
But now there's nothing.
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Sarah Brown
in reply to Mike Breedlove • •@Mike Breedlove It categorically is better in other places. I know, because I emmigrated.
Other places have problems, yes, but certainly my new country, Portugal, doesn't have this all encompassing feeling that the whole of society is engaged in some sort of agreement to die from self neglect.
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in reply to Mike Breedlove • •Cysio :verified_gay:
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Quixoticgeek
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having just returned to the continent after a weekend in the UK. You sum up what I experienced exceedingly accurately.
It's heart breaking to watch.
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exactly. I used to go back every 6 months, and the change was gradual enough to not notice it as much. But COVID meant I couldn't go for 3 years. It just broke the cycle of the boiling frog.
In a way I feel survivors guilt for having managed to escape.
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Unknown parent • •@Andrastaxx 💚💜🌼🌎🇦🇽 It literally is the country. That's why the "massive pile on" to which you refer would happen. The media is an arm of the state and nobody even needs to threaten or conspire to make it happen like that; it's just how British society works.
It is utterly, utterly endemic, and it took me immigrating to see just how deep it runs. It pervades British society and consciousness at all levels. The government is not the cause; it is a symptom.
Sarah Brown
Unknown parent • •@Andrastaxx 💚💜🌼🌎🇦🇽 I was a district councillor for 4 years, where my proudest achievement is creating a free swimming lesson scheme for disadvantaged families, did 8 years volunteering on health oversight boards, was on the board of 2 local charities and was vice chair of Stonewall's trans advisory group, was a director (unpaid) of Tour de France 2014 Ltd. which oversaw bringing the first 3 stages of that race to the UK.
The only one of these positions that paid anything was the councillor one, and that was less than minimum wage.
You may now commence removing your foot from your mouth.
Sarah Brown
Unknown parent • •PointlessSpike
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HairyChris
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •As someone with depression this rings rather true.
(My poor decisions aren't rooted in some sort of rose-tinted history so ymmv)
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Ed Chivers
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you're 100% right. I felt the same way after recently returning to the UK from a trip to the Netherlands, only I couldn't have articulated it nearly as well.
I can't speak for the other UK nations, but in England it just feels like we've given up. I hate it.
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S31bz
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eLearningTechie
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S31bz
in reply to eLearningTechie • • •I agree with everything you just mentioned, regarding the USA as well. Everything is broken, corporations run everything from our infrastructure to our insurance and medical straight into the ground, and someone like me on the autism spectrum is left to attempt picking up the pieces and making something of it all.
@goatsarah
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Billy Smith
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@geonerd @ianturton
Yes 😁
After the Brexit vote, but before the UK MEP's left the EU Parliament, the Scottish MEP's were explicitly told that Scotland would be welcomed back. 😁
This has since been clarified and confirmed during EU Parliament sessions last year. 😁
perfect brains
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could be ukers are stuck with an incompetent ruling class, so neither party can do anything
in that case you must depose your ruling elites
do you have to stones?