this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Sooooo… when are we gonna admit that men’s mental health is unfortunaly heavily tied to their career prospects?
No, not yet?
Okay I’ll keep waiting.
sigh
…
It's capitalism.
Men's well being wouldn't be tied to career prospects if it weren't for the rat race we are all brainwashed into since birth that is capitalism.
You have worth as a human beyond your capacity to produce profit.
This is only true in a vague, wishy-washy metaphysical sense. Fine, whatever, you have intrinsic value. If that warms your cockles, more power to you.
But the extent to which other people value you is entirely dependent on what you can provide to them. This has nothing to do with capitalism. Do you think that in a socialist society, a person who refused to do any work at all - not because they couldn't, but just because they didn't feel like it - would be shown general love and acceptance and kindness? No! They would, at best, be tolerated and given the bare necessities to survive - but they wouldnt be celebrated. Do you think primitive tribes love and support the lazy asshole who never contributes and just expects food to be brought to them every day? No, of course not! They kick that motherfucker out when they are dead weight.
And what you "provide" for other people doesn't have to make money. But it does need to provide some kind of value. Do you have a beautiful smile that brightens peoples' day? Are you tall enough to reach things on the top shelf, and willing to reach them for short people? Can you make hilarious dolphin sounds at parties? Are you a supportive friend who listens to others' struggles when they are down? No? You just sit your ass on the couch all day and watch TV and interact with basically no one? Then why the fuck would you expect anyone to value you, when you provide no value to them? This is not a capitalism problem. This is a human solution. Dead weight gets dropped. Period. Always has, always will.
...But old people can retire. As long as they dont fuck up the government
Yes? What's your point?
I figured it was obvious
I agree. People need to learn to get away from far-fetched fantasy if that doesn't translate to real value. I know it's harsh, but everyone needs to deal with reality.
Because a man’s prospects weren’t important in feudal, classical, and ancient societies?
No, they weren't. Class was much more important. There was no class climbing prospect. You either were born into a having family or you weren't. Even amongst peasants, men weren't suppose to "have a career" or a prospect. You inherited whatever your family had.
There was expectations of performance, of course. There was internal competition, but no peasant would ever realistically transform into nobility via merit or otherwise.
Those ignorant of history forget that our current worldviews and values weren't always universal. The notion of a linear career, of having prospects, to be successful, to grow from a low place and climb the social and financial rings, accumulating wealth enough to retire early then leave a lofty inheritance to children and grandchildren. All that is modern construction that is not present before the 19th century. Furthermore, the expectations that all the other poor people are lazy scumbags, but my poverty is merely a circumstantial setback is a very American exceptialism view.
So you are saying that a father of a girl at any class level in a feudal society cared not about the ability of a mate to provide for his daughter or grandchildren?
That kings and earls didn’t bring wealth and power into matchmaking calculations?
In general, no. It was a business transaction and whoever provided an appropriate dowry would get the girl. No matter their future prospects. The family didn't care much for whatever happened to the girl afterwards. High class and nobility might've care for prestige and title inheritance. But otherwise it didn't matter. We got so many historical novels with the plot point of a girl marrying a destitute nobleman and being abandoned by her original family that it is sort of a trope in the romantic period. Girl being sold by bankrupt father to save on food with one less mouth to feed was also a trope. You have to remember women weren't valued much beyond their capacity of bearing children. They were little more than cattle for most western feudal societies.
Capitalism probably doesn't help, but I don't think male alienation is really unique to this time or culture. Any time you have social hierarchy the lowest tier ends up eating a lot of shit. Our social hierarchy is very capitalist but you'd easily find the same kind of thing even in hunter gatherer societies. Socialism has plenty of hierarchy baked in as well. Anarchists are about the only ones who actively attempt to "flatten" society.
"Career prospects" in this case means that men want to feel like they’re of use to society. The issue is only tied to capitalism in the sense that the current capitalist environment doesn’t offer many of them meaningful work. I’m not sure what alternative to capitalism you imagine would solve that problem - without also giving men those same career prospects they’re currently lacking. Taking care of and providing for the tribe is what we're hardcoded to get meaning from.
I've seen so many men just suck at doing adult stuff in my life and career. It's not a problem of men not having the opportunity to show value, it's more that they expect to have value without providing anything. So if you feel useless, it's more of a you problem that current media allows you to blame other people for.
Capitalism is causing some of these issues. The core issue is men expecting the world to hand them a sense of value.
Sometimes it helps to remember that a lot of people are actually hopelessly stupid. And this isn't like some elitist ivory tower commentary - there is a good percentage of the population which struggles with basic problem solving, knowledge synthesis, critical thought, etc.
"Advanced capitalism" is sometimes literally called a "knowledge economy" and this has really properly fucked people who could have previously earned a fine living doing mindless physical work. And again, this isn't like some normative statement - for most of human history this equation has been inverted, and intellectual opportunities were scarce. Honestly, part of the problem is probably very specifically that we have hit that inflection point, which is cultivating a new form of alienation for those who are on that lower cognitive tail, who both lack opportunities and are also made to feel inferior for it.
Sounds like bootstrap talk to me.
In an ideal world, yes, men and women would be handed a sense of value from society.
I thought about this for a while and nuance is missing from my argument. I was thinking of a specific few men who were basically human garbage. Like talked down to women and treated them like objects, and also sucked ass at their jobs.
It's fine to think society should give everyone a sense of value. I disagree on the everyone part.
You don't need someone to create jobs for you, people just need to do useful stuff and it will get attention. As long as work is organized, it doesn't make sense someone would "create" a job for you. It's all about History. These neo-aristocrats have a hold on capital, so they decide what to do.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't care about work with this, just that no jobs are "created".
There are many men in progressive political spaces. What?
Buddy I know a ton of men well placed in their careers and lifestyles that eat themselves up everynight out of loneliness.
How bout instead of waiting you arm up and help overthrow the EXTREMELY VIOLENT capitalist system? Go hunt a hedgefunder or private equity broker
Leftist incel vibes
No, freedom-endorsing patriot vibes
SOOOOOOOO…..we can all admit now that socioeconomics is real. Cuz I’d hate to think anyone would think this is a new concept and would affect only one group recently and they still sit there and think they are unique to this ’phenomenon’ whilst it’s been an effect for generations already and has gone ignored for about as long. And they've had to just ‘deal with it’.
Cuz I’m real sick of seeing this argument like it’s not been around and affecting whole swaths of groups of people for centuries.
You can admit there’s been slaves and it’s affected their families poorly? Let’s start with that. And it’s still happening. And it’s still being brushed under the carpet and there’s still flagrant racism targeting entire communities to ignore their prospects.
For generations.
Cuz that all happened way before incels in the burbs came about.
Who is pretending socioeconomic inequality isn't real? I agree with what you say, but I'm not sure who here you're directing your comment at.
Violence is the answer
So how would you imagine it would work out for a POC to open fire like a typical Incel does?
Depends on how good his aim is and choice of venue. Also, honkeys can help out
The only reason Luigi is still alive is he’s white.