#Capital Youth

[rooseveltrecords]

[hyperlexichypatia]

As I keep shouting into the void, pathologizers love shifting discussion about material conditions into discussion about emotional states.

I rant approximately once a week about how the brain maturity myth transmuted “Young adults are too poor to move out of their parents’ homes or have children of their own” into “Young adults are too emotionally and neurologically immature to move out of their parents’ homes or have children of their own.”

I’ve also talked about the misuse of “enabling” and “trauma” and “dopamine” .

And this is a pattern – people coin terms and concepts to describe material problems, and pathologization culture shifts them to be about problems in the brain or psyche of the person experiencing them. Now we’re talking about neurochemicals, frontal lobes, and self-esteem instead of talking about wages, wealth distribution, and civil rights. Now we can say that poor, oppressed, and exploited people are suffering from a neurological/emotional defect that makes them not know what’s best for themselves, so they don’t need or deserve rights or money.

Here are some terms that have been so horribly misused by mental health culture that we’ve almost entirely forgotten that they were originally materialist critiques.

Codependency What it originally referred to: A non-addicted person being overly “helpful” to an addicted partner or relative, often out of financial desperation. For example: Making sure your alcoholic husband gets to work in the morning (even though he’s an adult who should be responsible for himself) because if he loses his job, you’ll lose your home. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/opinion/codependency-addiction-recovery.html What it’s been distorted into: Being “clingy,” being “too emotionally needy,” wanting things like affection and quality time from a partner. A way of pathologizing people, especially young women, for wanting things like love and commitment in a romantic relationship.

Compulsory Heterosexuality What it originally referred to: In the 1980 in essay "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/493756 Adrienne Rich described compulsory heterosexuality as a set of social conditions that coerce women into heterosexual relationships and prioritize those relationships over relationships between women (both romantic and platonic). She also defines “lesbian” much more broadly than current discourse does, encompassing a wide variety of romantic and platonic relationships between women. While she does suggest that women who identify as heterosexual might be doing so out of unquestioned social norms, this is not the primary point she’s making. What it’s been distorted into: The patronizing, biphobic idea that lesbians somehow falsely believe themselves to be attracted to men. Part of the overall “Women don’t really know what they want or what’s good for them” theme of contemporary discourse.

Emotional Labor What it originally referred to: The implicit or explicit requirement that workers (especially women workers, especially workers in female-dominated “pink collar” jobs, especially tipped workers) perform emotional intimacy with customers, coworkers, and bosses above and beyond the actual job being done. Having to smile, be “friendly,” flirt, give the impression of genuine caring, politely accept harassment, etc. https://weld.la.psu.edu/what-is-emotional-labor/ What it’s been distorted into: Everything under the sun. Everything from housework (which we already had a term for), to tolerating the existence of disabled people, to just caring about friends the way friends do. The original intent of the concept was “It’s unreasonable to expect your waitress to care about your problems, because she’s not really your friend,” not “It’s unreasonable to expect your actual friends to care about your problems unless you pay them, because that’s emotional labor,” and certainly not “Disabled people shouldn’t be allowed to be visibly disabled in public, because witnessing a disabled person is emotional labor.” Anything that causes a person emotional distress, even if that emotional distress is rooted in the distress-haver’s bigotry (Many nominally progressive people who would rightfully reject the bigoted logic of “Seeing gay or interracial couples upsets me, which is emotional labor, so they shouldn’t be allowed to exist in public” fully accept the bigoted logic of “Seeing disabled or poor people upsets me, which is emotional labor, so they shouldn’t be allowed to exist in public”).

Battered Wife Syndrome What it originally referred to: The all-encompassing trauma and fear of escalating violence experienced by people suffering ongoing domestic abuse, sometimes resulting in the abuse victim using necessary violence in self-defense. Because domestic abuse often escalates, often to murder, this fear is entirely rational and justified. This is the reasonable, justified belief that someone who beats you, stalks you, and threatens to kill you may actually kill you.

What it’s been distorted into: Like so many of these other items, the idea that women (in this case, women who are victims of domestic violence) don’t know what’s best for themselves. I debated including this one, because “syndrome” was a wrongful framing from the beginning – a justified and rational fear of escalating violence in a situation in which escalating violence is occurring is not a “syndrome.” But the original meaning at least partially acknowledged the material conditions of escalating violence.

I’m not saying the original meanings of these terms are ones I necessarily agree with – as a cognitive liberty absolutist, I’m unsurprisingly not that enamored of either second-wave feminism or 1970s addiction discourse. And as much as I dislike what “emotional labor” has become, I accept that “Women are unfairly expected to care about other people’s feelings more than men are” is a true statement.

What I am saying is that all of these terms originally, at least partly, took material conditions into account in their usage. Subsequent usage has entirely stripped the materialist critique and fully replaced it with emotional pathologization, specifically of women. Acknowledgement that women have their choices constrained by poverty, violence, and oppression has been replaced with the idea that women don’t know what’s best for themselves and need to be coercively “helped” for their own good. Acknowledgement that working-class women experience a gender-and-class-specific form of economic exploitation has been rebranded as yet another variation of “Disabled people are burdensome for wanting to exist.”

Over and over, materialist critiques are reframed as emotional or cognitive defects of marginalized people. The next time you hear a superficially sympathetic (but actually pathologizing) argument for “Marginalized people make bad choices because…” consider stopping and asking: “Wait, who are we to assume that this person’s choices are ‘bad’? And if they are, is there something about their material conditions that constrains their options or makes the ‘bad’ choice the best available option?”

[weepysharkcowboy]

BEWARE WE BITE!

[aronarchy]

[image ID: Facebook post by Songbird Schwarz

I often think about how gross it is the way we’ve normalized kids hating school. Like to the point of fear and avoidance. “Lol he’s pretending to be sick to stay home.” “She was so happy it was a snow day she jumped for joy.” “Hahaha he’s hiding under the bed to avoid going.”

It’s... It’s not funny. It’s actually really gross the way we make kids sit a desk all day to be force fed dry as hell information and make them ask if they can use the bathroom, for 7-8 hours a day. 5 days a week and then go home with oppressively unfair amounts of homework.

And then we laugh - we LAUGH - at how much they hate it. It’s become a cultural touchstone. To shake our heads and chuckle while kids try to scheme ways to get out of it.

That’s… That’s bad.

And then we ask adults to do the same with work.

/end image ID]

[porcelanitaa]

friendly reminder: Everyday is a good day to punch nazis <3

[psychabolition]

A take that I read on here a lot is that personality disorders "arent real" since theyre just specific manifestations of complex trauma that society doesnt like. And people act like its an anti psych take while its really not.

This line of thinking doesnt question hegemonic psychiatry at all .I bet most psychologists would actually agree with it and say sth like "oh yes, personality disorders are almost always caused by complex trauma". You just replaced the word "disorder" with the word "trauma" because it sounds a little bit more nice and its true, youre actually being treated a little bit nicer with cptsd on your record.

But calling personality disorders "complex trauma reactions" changes nothing in the end. Not the way we are treated, not the stigma, not even the framework we use to think about our own experiences. You could even come to the insane conclusion that "the personality disorder categories are important shorthands for different trauma reactions".

But in the end, blaming mental distress on "trauma" still leads to denying any specific external cause for mental distress and making it instead into an inner "mental health" problem that no one is responsible for (read:at fault for) but yourself.

Only if we stop thinking this way about mental distress its possible to finally ask Where this distress is actually coming from. The solution to patriarchy isnt better trauma-informed therapy. The solution to capitalism arent antidepressants. The solution to youth discrimination isnt telling children and teenagers to think less negative thoughts (=CBT). The solution to drug addiction or suicidality isnt to lock people up.

Also no diagnostic category is a shorthand for mentally distressing experiences. Psychologists act like we are (for example) suicidal because of depression which they only label us with in the first place because we are suicidal. Its a circular reasoning that doesnt explain anything. Its especially ridiculous if you say sth like "my personality disorder causes me to be impulsive" - like on god? My personality makes me impulsive? I couldve just said "Im impulsive" - this doesnt explain anything or tells me why I acted in a certain way.💀

[inezrable]

Unpopular opinion but teens and uni/college students shouldn't be expected to have a job

[graveyardgayme]

How to Annoy a Man You Grew Up Pestering: a novel by Mitch Marner & Dylan Strome Leafs @ Capitals | 2024.11.13

[uncanny-tranny]

I love you smile lines and worry lines and grey and white hair and wrinkles and purple spiderweb veins and the process of aging and living in a body that is standing the test of times. I love you experiences that make you wiser and stories that make you laugh, and every little process that happens to get to the point where you have so many memories because you have the fortune to be here and be so radiant

[h4t3mys3lfm0re]

Please sign the petition to help prevent what's happening in the USA happening to the UK. Elon musk plans on donating 100 million to reform UK, this could result in higher restrictions on abortion, and a ban on transgender ideology within schools, that would mean stopping social transitioning. America is a very influential country. "We don't live in America it doesn't affect us." Wrong. if you turn a blind eye we'll be in the exact same circumstances, don't be selfish sign the petition. It doesn't affect you until it does, don't wait until it's too late.

[hyperlexichypatia]

This post reminded me of it, but my partner has observed that in contemporary gender discourse, maleness is so linked to adulthood and femaleness is so linked to childhood, that there are no "boys" or "women," only "men" and "girls."

This isn't exactly new -- for as long as patriarchy has existed, women have been infantilized, and "adult woman" has been treated as something of an oxymoron. Hegemonic beauty standards for women emphasize youthfulness, if not actual neoteny, and older women are considered "too old" to be attractive without ever quite being old enough to make their own decisions. There may be cultural allowances for the occasional older "wise woman," but a "wise woman" is always dangerously close to being a madwoman, or a witch. No matter how wise a woman is, she is never quite a rational agent. As Hanna K put it, "as a woman you're always either too young or too old for things, because the perfect age is when you're a man."

But the framing of underage boys as "men" has shifted, depending on popular conceptualizations of childhood and gender roles. Sometimes children of any gender are essentially feminized and grouped with women (the entire framing of "women and children" as a category). In the U.S. in the 21st century, the rise of men's rights and aggressively sexist ideology has correlated with an increased emphasis on little boys as "men" -- thus slogans like "Teach your son to be a man before his teacher teaches him to be a woman."

Of course, thanks to ageism and patriarchy (which literally means, not "rule by men," but "rule by fathers"), boys don't get any of the social benefits of being considered "men." They don't get to vote, make their own medical decisions, or have any of their own adult rights. They might have a little more childhood freedom than girls, if they're presumed to be sturdier and less vulnerable to "predators," but, for the most part, being considered "men" as young boys doesn't really get boys any more access to adult rights. What it does get them is aggressively gender-policed, often with violence. A little boy being "a man" means that he's not allowed to wear colors, have feelings, or experience the developmental stages of childhood.

This shifts in young adulthood, as boys forced into the role of "manhood" become actual men. As I've written about, I believe the trend of considering young adults "children" is harmful to everyone, but primarily to young women, young queer and trans people, and young disabled people. Abled, cisgender, heterosexual young men are rarely denied the rights and autonomy of adulthood due to "brain maturity."

What's particularly interesting is that, because transphobes misgender trans people as their birth-assigned genders, they constantly frame trans girls as "men" and trans men as "girls." A 10 year old trans girl on her elementary school soccer team is a "MAN using MAN STRENGTH on helpless GIRLS," while a 40 year old trans man is a "Poor confused little girl." Anyone assigned male at birth is born a scary, intimidating adult, while anyone female assigned at birth never becomes old enough to make xyr own decisions.

Feminist responses have also really fluctuated. Occasionally, feminists have played into the idea of little boys as "men," especially in trans-exclusionary rhetoric, or in one notorious case where members of a women's separatist compound were warned about "a man" who turned out to be a 6-month-old infant. There's periodic discourse around "Empowering our girls" or "Raising our boys with gentle masculinity," but for the most part, my problem with mainstream feminist rhetoric in general is that it tends to frame children solely as a labor imposed on women by men, not as subjects (and specifically, as an oppressed class) at all.

Second-wave feminists pushed back hard on calling adult women "girls" -- but they didn't necessarily view "women" as capable of autonomous decision-making, either. Adult women were women, but they might still need to be protected from their own false consciousness. As laws in the U.S., around medical privacy and autonomy, like HIPAA, started more firmly linking the concepts of autonomy with legal adulthood, and fixing the age of majority at 18, third-wave feminists embraced referring to women as "girls." Sometimes this was in an intentionally empowering way ("girl power," "girl boss"), which also served to shield women (mostly white, mostly bourgeois/wealthy) from criticism of their participation in racism and capitalism. But it also served to reinforce the narrative of women as "girls" needing to be protected from "men" (and their own choices).

I'm still hoping for a feminist politic that is pro-child, pro-youth, pro-disability, pro-autonomy, pro-equality, that rejects the infantilization of women, the adultification of boys, the objectification of children, the misgendering of trans people, and the imposition of gender roles.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Gen Z has nowhere to go: The erosion of third spaces in the U.S.

By Jace Carter

A telltale sign of an empire in serious decline is the degree to which the ruling class continuously gaslights Gen Z, saying that if we all want to stop feeling so lonely and depressed — an unresolved effect of the COVID-19 crisis almost five years ago — we need to “get off TikTok and our damn phones and go outside to socialize.”

The same ruling class that created these material conditions by grooming us to become hyper-individualistic. Where exactly are we supposed to go to “socialize” when we neither have the time nor, most importantly, the money for it?

[psycholovesyou]

*LONG VIDEO BUT PLEASE WATCH TIL THE END*

*VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED TW:VIOLENCE*

POEM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mother starves

While the father feeds

On the children he promised to treat

The father rolls in piles of money

While the mother and children

Have nothing

The mother tries to fight with peace

While the father murders children in the street

We won't live long

Because we simply don't matter to our father

The father does not care about his children

The only thing he raises is his money from his pockets to his heart

We are the orphans

Our mother has tried but she is dying

And we can't take care of her or ourselves

We don't matter to him

All that matters to him

Is his little green baby

I won't live long

YOU won't live long

Unless we meet the father at his level

The father is our enemy

And that's hard to believe

Because we would like to think he raised us

But he didn't

In fact, he is killing us

We must fight him

How he fights us

Because peace gives us nothing

With peace we are in poverty

With peace we are in pain

And our father is as happy as can be

Rolling around in his piles of green

[nando161mando]

"The army: where the rich send working class youth to be maimed and killed for profit" (EN: English)

[embodiedfutures]

ID by our volunteer Wren: all slides have a background of a pale green-yellow to light blue gradient. The first slide is titled "who are we?" in light blue text with a thin dark blue outline. The title follows the curve of a large white ring in the center of the slide, which circles BFP's logo. Inside the ring and below the logo, blue text reads "building a better future worldwide for youth. by youth." End ID.

ID: all slides except the first have a dashed-line white border around the slide. the second slide is titled "welcome!" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide has blue text on a white background that reads, "hey! we're better future program (BFP)! founded in 2016 in bulbancha (so-called new orleans, louisiana, usa), we are an entirely youth-run registered nonprofit [globe emoji]

our mission is to globally expand peer-led political education, support, and imagination for marginalized youth!

we actually achieve this goal through offering 3,000+ free resources through our liberation library, providing 60+ youth with the leadership roles and tools to host their very own social justice teach-ins, 24/7 peer support through our discord server, mutual aid-based fundraising campaigns, and so much more to come! [speaking emoji].” in the bottom right corner, the number 1 is circled. End ID.

ID: the third slide is titled "guiding principles" in blue text on a white rectangle. the subtitle reads "what sort of values guide our work?" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide has blue text on white backgrounds which reads, "[chick emojil youth-centricity [arrow] we understand youth as an oppressed class and thus we center the voices of youth in everything that we do!

[fist emoji] self-liberation [arrow] all volunteers should be at the forefront of their own liberation. allies are meant to uplift, not overstep

[window emoji] transparency [arrow] staying open and honest about all BFP-related actions and intentions

[check emoji] accountability [arrow] holding ourselves and our peers responsible, with an eye to fairness regarding capabilities and knowledge". in the bottom right corner, the number 2 is circled. End ID.

ID: the fourth slide is titled "guiding principles" in blue text on a white rectangle. the subtitle reads "just a few more! keep going!" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide has blue text on white backgrounds which reads, "[equal sign emoji] horizontality [arrow] valuing the decision-making abilities of our volunteers and thus, fostering power alongside one another rather than over each other

[hug emoji] community [arrow] valuing the impact of a shared story, collaboration, and an effective, non-carceral support system

[woman emoji] intersectionality [arrow] recognizing how various aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege". in the bottom right corner, the number 3 is circled. End ID.

ID: the fifth slide is titled "core beliefs" in blue text on a white rectangle. the subtitle reads "we wholeheartedly believe in and support:" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide's text is a list, starting with red text at the top, with each list item changing to another colour of the rainbow until the list ends with red again.

The list reads: "the right to organize, youth liberation, religious liberty, climate action, gender equity, bodily autonomy, abolition, anti-authoritarianism, educational equity, anti-racism, disability justice, decolonization, queer/lgbtq+ liberation, fat liberation, caste abolition, anti capitalism.”

at the bottom of the slide, blue text on a white background reads "[magnifying glass emoji] betterfutureprogram.org/about-bfp". in the bottom right corner, the number 4 is circled. End ID.

ID: the sixth slide is titled "our structure" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide has blue text on white backgrounds which reads, "BFP reinforces our principle of horizontality through committees! each committee forms its own interdependent goals and initiatives to fulfill which are discussed during international, weekly meetings via zoom [film camera emoji].

additionally, we use 'consensus-based decision making', in which every concern is acknowledged before moving forward

this horizontal structure also allows for more flexibility and adaptability in terms of our roles! this doesn't mean there aren't challenges, of course, but we think those challenges are worth the benefits! [green heart emoji]”. in the bottom right corner, the number 5 is circled. End ID.

ID: the seventh slide is titled "upcoming" in blue text on a white rectangle. the subtitle reads "what we've been working on lately [hand clapping emoji]" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide has blue text on white backgrounds which reads, "we're in the process of starting global liberation schools, inspired by Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the Black Panther Party's Oakland Community School, and Huey P. Newton's theory of ractionary and revolutionary intercommunalism.

and we've already got 3 schools in the making! look out for BFP in washington, dcand new orleans, la in the united states as well as sydney, nsw in australia! [australian flag emoji]

if you're confused about any of those names/titles/theories above or want to start political education classes near you, join us (& bring a friend!) [smiling covering mouth emoji]". in the bottom right corner, the number 6 is circled. End ID.

the eighth slide is titled "getting involved" in blue text on a white rectangle. the slide has blue text on white backgrounds which reads, "1) BFP is always looking for new youth volunteers to uplift and empower. if you're 25 or younger, you may be eligible for a leadership position! application in our bio!

2) if you still want to get involved but with fewer responsibilities, we've also got a general volunteers committee just for you! same application, same bio [hand holding pencil emoji]

3) if you don't have the time or capacity? don't worry! we'll still be here. instead, you can interact with our international community via discord! we've got game nights, cultural presentations, study sessions, and more, so feel free to join us! ([link emoji] in bio. again. lol)". in the bottom right corner, the number 7 is circled. End ID.

ID: the ninth slide is titled "donate" in blue text on a white rectangle. the subtitle reads "feeling a lil generous? [looking eyes emoji]" in blue text on a white rectangle. the rest of the slide has blue text on white backgrounds which reads, "we're now accepting donations! your gift will go towards promotional and material resources for our teach-ins, supporting artists of color, our mutual aid network, and even creating paid internships in the future!"

below, blue text with a dark blue outline reads "scan the qr code.” it's beside a qr code.

below, blue text on a white background reads "EIN: 88-2043966.”

[magnifying glass emoji] betterfutureprogram.org/donate". in the bottom right corner, the number 8 is circled. End ID.

Welcome, welcome! We'd like to reintroduce ourselves, especially with such an exciting initiative on the way! BFP (@bfpnola) is starting GLOBAL liberation schools and we'd love your support. Get the word out! And if anyone ever asks, "Oh, what's BFP? What are they working on?," just send them this post! 🤍