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Sometimes people say I must have my economic opinions because my family is rich To set this straight: my family sometimes had trouble affording food. I couldn't afford college. As an adult I went hungry because I couldn't afford food. I worked on a factory floor for a year.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jul 24, 2020

I went into sex work when I was homeless, sleeping on a friend's couch, and desperate for money but I didn't want to go back to working at the factory. I still had libertarian-leaning economic views even when I was scraping change off the ground to eat.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jul 24, 2020

I was like "I'm willing to do anything to survive." I remember applying to a job working in poop sewage because I was so determined. I think that my belief in the intense "libertarianish" ideals helped motivate me; if I'd been upset nobody was helping me it would have been worse.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

and to be clear libertarianism has its problems, but the general attitude - intense 'It's you. You have to do this. Nobody else is here for you. The pain is part of life' resulted in such intense blossoming and drive. It's a difficult but useful attitude to hold about the world.

7:07 AM · Jul 24, 2020

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I'm afraid of the impact of the messaging that other people are responsible for your wellbeing. It seems like it has a bad effect on motivation and drive. It seems like it would redirect energy into anger at the people who aren't helping you, instead of helping yourself.

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This is the kind of thoughts that I follow you for. I love that you are being so lucid, and instead of reporting on your opinions, you capture the observation of yourself observing things. Thinking not as an identity trap, but as widening awareness.

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Some of the libertarian ideals are ok but from what I've seen on cspan the political organization is lacking.

GIF

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Agreed, but I would also challenge that that type of thinking is antithetical to living in a community that at least on some level relies on others to survive

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Yes but...pain isn't usually a GOOD thing in and of itself. We should fix it wherever we can. We SHOULD be there for each other. It's fine to *recognize* hard facts about the world, but I don't think the aloneness should be *endorsed*.