People are concerned about the planet we're leaving for our kids, but give zero fucks about what kind of kids we're leaving for our planet

okay, honestly, this comment accomplished the impressive feat of making me think even less of you than the original one i replied to.

and as much as i'd like to end this there, perhaps with a profanity-laced, impassioned, but ultimately meaningless comment about how ellipses have THREE PERIODS, NOT FOUR, YOU FUCKING FUCK

but you know what? fun as it is, that's not the kind of person i want to spend the rest of my life being, and more importantly it doesn't accomplish anything. i mean, up front, i think you're an idiot. you aren't going to give a shit about what some asshole like me thinks of your punctuation. and punctuation doesn't matter anyway! i get really angry about it, but it didn't prevent me from understanding you. even if i have nitpicky complaints about how you phrased it, you're right. i can raed tihs.

here are some things that i do think matter. if you have the capacity to give a shit about anything, i submit the following for your consideration:

  • everyone has the right to use their wealth how they like: if they didn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation. what you are mad about is people criticizing you for how you spend your money. unless it is coming from someone you respect, and who knows what they're talking about on the issue at hand, other people's criticisms just shouldn't bother you. it's so rare for us to experience truly universal cultural experiences these days that we often forget that most people are completely insane, shocking stupid, or both. read some youtube comments. visit a DMV in a failing post-industrial town. go to a place nobody you know goes to because they all know how many idiots go there. that's people. they're the worst. they get lucky in life and then reimagine their success as the result of a heroic struggle against fate. they vote to repeal social programs that they are recipients of, then get mad at someone else about it. they are why most of television is shockingly awful but still considered successful. and they are rich and poor. beyond the effects of extreme poverty on nutrition and home stability, stupid comes in every income bracket. if someone says something you did is wrong, and they're not your boss, your family, or your friend, then you can, and indeed should, not give a fuck.
  • unless you think they might be right. and, frankly, if someone's criticism of you truly upsets you, it's more likely than not some part of you is worried that they are right. for example, when the wacky jesus freak mountain men come down in the fall to scream about gay people being abominations at the local college, that doesn't bother me, because i've never seriously been worried about my own abomination-ness, and those guys are 30-something that look like 50-somethings whose lives are, always were, and will likely always remain sadder than mine. on the other hand, when someone insinuates that the gay community can be petty, vindictive, gentrified, and simply childish, it makes me uncomfortable, because a large minority of the time i think i might agree with them, and not just about some abstract "gay community" composed of old white gay men i imagine i would dislike. i worry about them being right about me. and nobody will ever be better at criticizing you than you.

i was gonna Get Into how this isn't about poorness and richness, it's about how having every need and whim fulfilled in your childhood pretty consistently results in you becoming a horrible adult (and bad with money). but, frankly, that should be obvious, and if it's not, i'm sure you can find someone else to explain it to you.

the take away is this:

  • if someone criticizes you, that is their problem, unless they have power over you to make it your problem.
  • if someone criticizes you and you get angry/sad/depressed/whatever about it, that is your problem. and it's a stupid, preventable problem. your life will be better without it.
  • i will never ever feel sympathy for someone who feels wronged simply because something made them angry. because it didn't make you angry. you got angry at it. you felt the hot, tense rush of rage from your reptile brain, and rather than be responsible and wait the approximately 10 seconds it takes for you to remember that anger is stupid, you listened to it. you let your reflexive anger at something that by chance ticked you off become something you hate. that is the most fundamental form of human weakness, and it makes both you and our species worse every time you do it.
/r/Showerthoughts Thread Parent