Millennials don't believe protesting works.
I've seen a lot of discussion about why millennials aren't coming out. Yes, they work and have young children. They are taking care of their elderly parents. All of these things are true and valid.
But also millennials have gone to the Occupy Wall Street protests, which accomplished nothing. The BLM protests, which accomplished nothing. The Women's March, which lol. I protested during all of these things only for our country to slide even further into capitalistic greed and corruption. When Bernie was running, someone we could get excited about, he was undermined by his own party.
Many millennials don't even believe their vote matters anymore in the face of gerrymandering and the electoral college.
I still want to believe protesting can effect change. Or frankly that American citizens have any power at all anymore. I'll be protesting on the 5th, but man is it hard to keep hope alive when our generation has been crushed under the establishment for our entire lives. Combine that with how oppressive the 40+ hour work week is and can you blame people for not protesting? Millennials barely even have the energy to do their laundry.
I'm not sure how to energize people. I'm not even sure how to energize myself. The Democratic party offers no leadership or hope whatsoever.
Please offer your local millennial (and me!) some hope. Please tell me we aren't just screaming into a void.
Originally Posted By u/duckhunt420 At 2025-03-31 11:47:11 AM | Source
I feel this whole thread in my 40yo bones. While we're all pretty fucking miserable, it's reassuring to know the way I'm feeling right now is not just my mental illness getting worse. It's also that, but still reassuring that it might not only be because of that.
My wife and I welcomed our first born into the world in late December of 2019, right before COVID really started to ramp up worldwide and lock the whole world in fear. For years now I wondered if I was a bad father because, despite my son and wife being my world, I've been in the grip of passive suicidality for a while now. I don't take care of myself and my health anymore, I don't try to better myself or my immediate surroundings, I don't fix broken things so much as just working around the problems, and where I used to be passionate about my work, now I basically do the bare minimum to keep my job. I'm just over this rat race.
Nothing we were told was true about the world, and our place in it.
Anymore, everything feels like an immense struggle. Life feels like a second or third job. I don't know how I'm going to survive the next several years. Thanks to MAGA and apathetic voters, we now get to relive the world of our parents and grandparents, fearing world war at the hands of fascists, -- and introducing nuclear annihilation this time around, -- rather than some sort of utopia brought on by technological advancement that seemed so promising in our earlier years.
I want to be here for my son and wife, but like the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan in Green Mile said, "I'm tied, boss."
Fuck your job but not your life dude. One thing is worthless and the other is everything.
I do bare minimum at work to not get fired and get whatever scraps they are willing to feed me. Then I take those and try my hardest to turn those scraps into whatever happiness I can. There is no satisfaction in our jobs anymore but it doesn’t mean that doing something for yourself or someone you care about can’t be satisfying. Even if it’s all worthless in the end somebody’s „thank you”, or even your own pride for the smallest of things that you mend are more valuable then all the money they could ever print.
I try to think that we are still the lucky ones, it’s all going to turn to real shit in a while but right now nobody is shooting at us yet, so let’s make some memories for that evening in the trench, we sure as fuck aren’t going to talk about our jobs.
I know it can be hard to look past the fog of depression sometimes, especially if the society tells you your only purpose is your work. But that’s simply not true. Your only purpose is to be happy with yourself. Im rooting for you bro. See you in the trench!