i very much enjoyed reading this. your writing is super concise & distilled- like a soup reduction!!
something related i’ve been thinking about are the kinds of communities people build around suffering. people that have shared (negative) lived experiences often build networks based off of sharing the same pain. for example, r/depression, terfs and their existential anxieties about men, most identity based movements. this can be good for things like solidarity building, but the suffering can also multiply itself and fester if pain is all people are echoing off each other. members of the community sometimes feel pressure to prove whether their [assorted societal handicap] is real or not to keep their place in the community– perhaps a subset of aforementioned oppression olympics? i think this can be particularly bad with groups around mental illness. if youve recovered, you’re out of the ingroup.
i suppose what im saying is that sometimes a community around suffering is constructive, sometimes it's limiting (boo ambiguity). i think it depends on whether the goal is to stop the suffering or just relate to each other about it. (case closed cynicism bad optimism good).
i very much enjoyed reading this. your writing is super concise & distilled- like a soup reduction!!
something related i’ve been thinking about are the kinds of communities people build around suffering. people that have shared (negative) lived experiences often build networks based off of sharing the same pain. for example, r/depression, terfs and their existential anxieties about men, most identity based movements. this can be good for things like solidarity building, but the suffering can also multiply itself and fester if pain is all people are echoing off each other. members of the community sometimes feel pressure to prove whether their [assorted societal handicap] is real or not to keep their place in the community– perhaps a subset of aforementioned oppression olympics? i think this can be particularly bad with groups around mental illness. if youve recovered, you’re out of the ingroup.
i suppose what im saying is that sometimes a community around suffering is constructive, sometimes it's limiting (boo ambiguity). i think it depends on whether the goal is to stop the suffering or just relate to each other about it. (case closed cynicism bad optimism good).
mm craftily done