People who think like this need to read up on what the gov did to the Black Panthers' free breakfast program for kids. Slander and violent destruction of the BPP's efforts as a response to feeding children.

As Kwame Ture said (and someone correct me if I'm misusing this out of context): "In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none."

If there is anyone who could become a billionaire and then, somehow, without any working class force to make it happen, through sheer incapability to do anything sensible, become an eX-billionaire, it would be Elon Musk.

I've noticed what (sounds like) a similar wall with more than one person where they are more or less willing to agree with me that the current setup of things is a mess, but the moment I start talking a solution that is more than reforms, the Cold War type of indoctrination kicks in (I'm USian) and I feel suddenly like I'm being putting on the hook to justify people or countries (which are in their minds) monsters. IME, it seems to have something to do with the extent to which a person still thinks the US project is some kind of "flawed, but admirable project", and believes perspectives presented to them by imperialist media on other countries with little questioning. But maybe this is a whole other different take on it too if she calls herself an anarcho-pacifist; although I do wonder because I was once at a point where I called myself a "libertarian-socialist" before I had any exposure to theory and I just sort of thought that made sense because it sounded like the "not controlling and violent" way of doing things. Demystifying and dismantling the fog of Cold War stuff seems to be an important element in getting through as well as serious reading of theory, if only I knew how to get there with people. I think Luna Oi's videos and streams on Vietnam helped me some with concretizing defenses of socialist projects, though my ability to memorize details and share them to others is abysmal, so I would have to convince people to sit down and watch.

I sympathize with your position here, but I would add that some observable benefit has been had in his orbit. Using myself as an example, some of the grassroots energy and political education that came from people who supported his campaign, or who saw some kind of value in it even if they thought it was a lost cause, helped lead me to the views I have now. We shouldn't underestimate the value of seizing upon working class movements to educate, provided it's not faux working class reactionary stuff. And in saying this, we don't have to give Bernie himself credit for it, of course. My point is just that we shouldn't let the disgust with the situation deprive us of leveraging opportunities to fight against the indoctrination. This next election may contain such opportunities too, where we'll encounter people who stubbornly want to do "fix it from within," but may be easier to get through to when combining the knowledge we can present with certain campaign messaging that is getting them to think about things they'd otherwise have ignored.

I can personally attest that Wolff's "Let's Talk About Socialism" helped open me up to the idea of it. Though I think he also softens it to a somewhat misleading degree at times, IIRC. Don't know anything about Piketty.

I'm going to answer more generally first: I'm not sure it would really be healthy to. That you are attached to others and cherish your time with them seems healthy to me. If this fear is paralyzing you in some way, I could see reason to be concerned and perhaps urge you to seek out a professional to talk to if at all possible. But if it's just that it occasionally bothers you, that seems pretty human to me.

More specifically: As you do mention some preoccupation with it that you view as abnormal and seem to want to know more about it, I would ask you to consider... is it that you feel you need to understand death so you can cope with it? Is it a knowledge gap? A curiosity thing? If you are someone who wants to be as informed as you possibly can so you can face something, then you may have to either accept it's the one thing about life you will never really know until it happens, or it may help to explore fantasy stories and different religious takes on it to feed your desire to understand it better (if that does apply). Though you can't know, you could get a clearer picture of how human beings tend to view death and what they do about it, dissecting it on a cultural and materialist level, so you can sort of "zoom out" a little.

Another element to consider is, would you consider these thoughts intrusive and obsessive? Because if they are, it may help to practice welcoming them in, rather than trying to push them away (if that is something you think you are doing). Similar to anxiety spirals and being anxious about being anxious, becoming upset about the nature of an intrusive thought can make it worse. (Disclaimer here: I'm not a professional, just going off of what I know from personal research.)

Yeesh, sounds like she is very resistant to accepting an alternative POV. I do wonder with people like that if they basically are only ever going to be swayed by example (e.g. organized working class power happens in their area and they become a part of it). IIRC, there was someone in passing kinda like that in the How Yukong Moved the Mountains documentary, who admitted to having been skeptical or resistant to the changes at first, but saw value in what was being done when the results came to pass.

The Outer Worlds, one of my favorites. The messaging is a bit limited in its criticism of capitalism, but overall, it's refreshing to see and it combines it with a game that is pretty brief and to the point (not getting bogged down in repeatable quests and such things). It's also an RPG with choices that don't always have black and white, good vs. evil answers, and that's my favorite type of video game. And also, in spite of having some nuanced choices, it doesn't do the enlightened centrism thing of making it sound like the clear worst faction of the game could be good ackshully; it's pretty clear on that point and leaves more of the greyer stuff to side plots.

I feel you. I do like the pretty colors of them when I can actually see them and some shows are pretty neat in how they put the colors together, but I only find the noise tolerable in that context (which is usually at more of a distance) and most fireworks set off casually or in a context where I can't even see them just end up feeling like I'm surrounded by loud noises I don't want to hear. People also set them off at any and every hour in my experience, and any and every day that is near the 4th and sometimes other holidays too. 😐 It would prob be more tolerable if there was like an hour during which everybody did it and then it's done.

Reminds me of that sketch The Expert. Seems like the gist of it is analogous to he wanted to draw seven red lines, strictly perpendicular, some with green ink and some with transparent ink, and when the expert told him that's impossible, he said, "I am richguyinnovator, hear me roar!" And reality did what reality tends to do.

Also seemed like the media was trying really hard to turn it into some kind of real life version of The Martian, when it was pretty clear from the start it was over for those people and there was nothing heroic or brave about what the guy running it was doing; just needlessly playing on the razor's edge of existence, living out a delusion of human supremacy over nature. I almost want to say it's like a microcosm of capitalism as a whole in that way. The way it acts like it can dominate nature somehow, while ecosystems we depend on face collapse as a result of the unsustainable systemic practices.

Hey, I'm new here, but not entirely new to theory and discussion of these things (highly recommend George Jackson's Blood In my Eye). Hope I can learn some things and contribute too. May have developed a slight tendency to overgeneralize differing material conditions from engaging with people online who are not used to this stuff and trying to condense it, and am willing to listen if I come across as missing the historical context of something at any point. I try not to say too much about stuff beyond the US, as it's what I'm most familiar with the conditions of, but I do try to venture beyond if it seems appropriate and something I've done some investigation on.