i hate the idea of a True Self that you Never Show To Anyone like the me by myself isn’t me partly because humans are defined imo by their social interactions as we are social creatures but mostly because that guy is a gremlin. the disgusting idiot who crawls out of my bed at 1pm and eats peanut butter from the jar isn’t me he’s the manifestation of a collection of weird impulses that all give way at once. saying that dude is Truly Me In An Objective Way, as if that exists, is such bullshit like [holds up a creature that is on the cusp of going insane because its species literally cannot be alone for any significant amount of time] behold, a True Self! give me a break
peanut butter gremlin man is exactly as True as the dude who got invited to a frat party is exactly as true as the man who goes to job interviews and doctors appointments and applies to specialized courses and it’s useless to insist that one is truer than the others. truth isn’t real and peanut butter man has a 3.5 gpa. the self is a whole even when we insist on looking at it in situational fragments
I just watched The Blob for the first time and not to spoil it but cold is the only way to stop it so they ship it to the arctic. And these old B movies get a lot of flack for not actually being scary but the last line of the film was that the blob can’t be killed but at least it’s stopped “so long as the arctic stays frozen” and lemme tell you that is THE most terrifying line a viewer in 2018 could hear.
Emo subculture was, and is a perfect illustration of the reality of widespread, normalised, psychological abuse.
As a young teen when Emo first became a term, everyone I knew who associated themselves with it did so because they had been shamed for feeling emotions. The term emo itself is a shortening of emotional, and it is a sub-culture, because it was not considered ‘normal’.
This shows the beginning of the problem.
Emo kids were children who had been so badly treated, so routinely shamed, they considered themselves abnormal for having feelings at all. Because the adults around them told them they shouldn’t.
“Emos” then became widely known, characterised and defined as minors who were depressed, minors who self harmed, minors who had suicidal ideation and were at risk of committing suicide.
This should have been horrifying. It is horrifying to me now, to think of people so young being so terribly hurt and so badly treated that they are at risk of committing suicide before they even reach their late teens.
But the adults did not sit up and take note, they did not start caring for them or looking after the children. They made fun, they mocked them. “Emo kids” became a joke that adults passed around and shared in, worsening the emotional abuse by telling these already at risk children that their sadness was not valid, and their life-threatening depression was a joke.
They just ramped up the abuse on these children who were already known to be at risk of suicide. They simply did not take it seriously.
The “silly emotional teenager” narrative actually prevents minors from being taken seriously by doctors and other professionals, regardless of the nature of their ailment, purely because of their age.
Yes, teens will get anxious about things they are new to dealing with, and yes they will get depressed when things are hard, but it is our job as adults to teach them how to deal with it, how to cope, and to be there for them when they need that.
The previous generation had no such idea. So wrapped up were they in the economic boom they enjoyed and the pure narcissism they inflicted on their children.
They blame those same children for the things they suffered. Called them “problem children” and called them “emotional time bombs”, and pretended it was nothing to do with how they were raised, nothing to do with the psychological abuse they endured from all adults and media.
And now, they continue to laugh about “silly depressed teens”, while also berating this new wave of self-loving ones.
This new trend for self love and acceptance is beautiful, and necessary.
Those same adults who mocked and made jokes of their own suicidal children are now mocking and making jokes of their own children who like themselves in spite of what they are being taught.
They call you Narcissicstic for not being self loathing, but they made Emo Kids an international joke for self loathing.
There is no way to win against the emotionally and psychologically abusive, and when it becomes a cultural norm in this way, it’s very hard to find people who broke out of being that way.
The only way to win is not play at all.
You need to keep loving yourselves.
¯_( ಠ_ಠ)_/¯ 