Haha for real, I have seen that a lot and fought not to be that person the second I noticed I wasn’t good at this and it wouldn’t be different.

I went out of my way to have a pretty rough time where I was basically burned out for a couple of years so my kid would always be met with safety and love. But it nearly killed me and is exactly why I only have one.

Those years are too formative to be fucking around with “I’ll just damage you for my own selfish desires.”

Even still I live with guilt most days worrying about the damage I do not really being wired for this. I wish I’d had better self awareness before I got into it all.

So take everything I say as a sample size of 1. I am autistic and have CPTSD from childhood neglect.

Yeah it’s true. But to me it’s not a good thing. It’s that your standards go to shit! I’ve said my whole life that parents don’t seem happier with kids they seem so utterly broken that they are able to celebrate really basic things.

You become thankful for the small things because the big things are gone. You choose to love X because Y is not an option any more etc.

There are chemical processes that make you all lovey dovey for your kid for sure, but to be honest… Definitely not enough. I remember in the first year thinking how did we survive evolutionarily? I would def without a solid moral compass have left this thing in a cave and walked away so many times! 😂

In short, before I had kids I could do what I want, when I wanted, I had friends, I saw my family, I had more money, I could spend time on personal development, I could take a couple of hours to breathe and reset my nervous system if needed, etc. For years those things stop existing and they mostly will not be the same again for at least a decade or so… Even then I don’t know. It’s genuinely a horrific decision in so many ways.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure the whole “your mind clicks a different way” isn’t just a trauma response 😅

Anyways, I know I’m an outlier. But it’s hard for me to really believe folks that speak SO positively of it… I just don’t see it in their lives, they also look like they have given up so much for so little.

Or a submarine.

That it isn’t different when they are your own… I really don’t like young children (like under 3/4 or so.) Thankfully I actually do like them as they age but fuck me are young children the absolute worst (for me).

Just my personal opinion but I think while you are right - a lot of the time it’s almost coincidental that these two factors overlap.

I say that because I think a huge factor is an underlying psychological need to feel powerful and in control. So in their actions they target those who it is easy to feel powerful over. But in their posturing they seek positions that are viewed as powerful.

It’s all a somewhat normal biological drive that healthy people grow through and integrate into their psyche while going on to add things like empathy. For these people that part of their development remains at that of a tiny child. Maybe genetic, maybe trauma, whatever it is they need help - and help far away from the vulnerable and positions of power so people can remain safe until they can (if it’s possible - and I’m not sure it is always) heal.

To be clear - nothing about these people’s actions is OK, they are terrible people. But I do think we should be trying to figure out more why so many of them end up in powerful positions and what we can do about it, is there early interventions we could be putting in place etc. to catch these people and head off their harm at the pass.

Thanks for saying this - I did click the link but saw it was 45mins and was immediately out until I read the comments.

Incredible video. I love him!

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense to me, part of me balks at meeting in the middle with such extremes already in play especially given that even these numbers will still be seen as nigh poverty enforced by evil socialist to the ultra wealthy.

Yeah I can see that, very interesting example. I have to think about that more as I’m already thinking of loads of similar examples. I guess at the end of the day a 90-99% tax above $x would still be “fair” but it def is a different perspective on ultra wealth that might not necessarily be “stolen.”

So zero critique but to me these numbers still seem insurmountably huge. I wonder what makes $10/100 million your cut off points?

I ask because it’s hard for me to imagine how one individual can amass $100 million in wealth without theft from those actually producing value. But I’m also aware that somewhere along the way actual lines have to be drawn and don’t necessarily have my own metric for where that should be.

This but also for a lot of people the impact the car has on communities, suburbanisation, defunding public transportation etc. is a big factor in wanting to see change.

Capitalism loves to point at mental health - especially after spending decades shaping public views and systemic approaches mental health to be a personal defect and issue.

9x out of 10 psychopathology done thoroughly rather than just ticking off some symptoms in the DSM/ICD identifies above psychological or biological factors the main factor in mental health struggles is sociological.

Simply put: society is depressing people, society is making people anxious… And behind all that it is capitalism that dictates that success and survival is based on ability to produce. And if you fail to produce the whole system is stacked against you to reduce your ability to function mentally.

For folks interested in this I highly recommend checking out Lucy Johnson of the BPS (British Psychological Society)'s Power Threat Meaning Framework for a radical new way to see mental health.