you can just not do the thing

(og thread)

“The entire internet gaslighting itself into watching Morbius is one of the most hysterical things I’ve ever experienced on social media”

been waiting for the right example to make this point and I think this is as good as I’ll get in months or maybe years:

you can just not do the thing.

the penalty for not doing the thing, in many, many cases, is nothing.

you can just not do the thing. nobody is forcing you

a lot of people talk in this weird way that relinquishes autonomy. I’ve seen things like “every time we’re forced to talk about X…” – and they’re talking about internet discourse. What? It’s not like you have to discuss a movie or your family gets arrested by men with guns

“Oh they’re exaggerating for dramatic effect” – yall know how I feel about jokes. The language you use shapes your perception which shapes your reality. And the more you joke about being coerced by your social reality the more it begins to feel like an actual psychological prison

your attention is yours. it’s yours. it’s YOURS. you get to decide what you want to do with it.

🤔 Isn’t it interesting how the jokes seldom if ever go the other way around? Hardly anybody jokes about having more power and autonomy than they actually do. Some people posture that they have it, which is bravado and bluster, or you might get manic Kanye type episodes…

“power resides where men believe it resides” is roughly true for personal autonomy as well, outside of extreme contexts. I’m just continually startled to see how easily people relinquish their power. I get it, it’s too much responsibility to bear, so ppl choose psychic bondage…

[muttering] the timid hypocrisy permeating everything reveals the massive opportunity in plain sight for anybody who dares to say what they mean, mean what they say, and act accordingly. the price of pulling the sword from the stone is you can no longer hide from your own BS…

we could have a hundred million people doing tremendous things. everything we dream about is just a little bit outside the frame, just past the bullshit

well, if I’m gonna rant about this stuff I should get off my ass and write the difficult things I’ve been putting off…