A good thread post by EG regarding the nefarious use of “mental health” as a tool of gaslighting

[TAW122]

Here is a good thread post by EG (existentialgoof) in the anti-work subreddit and it summarizes the problems of the capitalistic society with respect towards the right to die and also enslaving people into suffering and existence. I have put his post in quotations in the event that the Reddit moderators delete it, but I have also provided a link to the thread that he posted as well.

Is anyone else concerned with the fact that "mental illness" has become so normalised as a way of telling people who are overwhelmed by the lack of work/life balance, and work stress in general, that the problems are effectively all inside their head? The concept of mental illness and the conveniently unfalsifiable 'disorders' that suffering people get diagnosed with seems to be a godsend to the capitalist system.

This way, your employer can force you to work for 5 days out of every 7, steadily increase your workload and increase their levels of surveillance on you; and they can pay you barely enough to cover the bills so that you are living a hardscrabble existence from paycheque to paycheque; but then if you start to crack under the strain, it's because you are "mentally ill". Then they'll virtue signal with their "mental health first aiders" (which just consists of trying to calm you down, signposting you to free resources and maybe calling the police to carry you off to the mental hospital if those actions are unable to adequately mollify you) and "mental health awareness" programmes. Put up a few suicide hotline posters for good measure; and the company comes up smelling of roses, and builds a reputation as being caring and progressive, despite having taken no tangible actions to actually reduce the causes of work stress and are actively exacerbating the suffering through their policies.

Suicide prevention is everyone's favourite cause celebre at the moment; but in practice, it merely consists of gaslighting you into thinking that you're the problem and that you just need to call a suicide hotline, and then a few sessions with a psychiatrist to re-educate you out of your malaise. But the reason that suicide prevention and capitalism make great bedfellows is because if the government has the power to eliminate access to all highly effective suicide methods, then you are essentially left with no recourse in the event that the system starts to make life much harder for you. You still retain your right to quit your job if the workload gets too intense, or the type of work that you're doing is unbearable. But once death is permanently taken off the table as a potential option, then you're likely to end up leaving your current job for one that is equally as stressful, or even moreso; just in order to avoid the fate of losing your home. A society without the option of suicide is one where you are helpless in the face of whatever fate capitalism has in store for you.

I have also taken the liberty of bolding and color-coding the parts of the quote/post that he made in order to emphasize the most prominent points with respect to anti-psychiatry as well as the right to die. In summary, I agree with his sentiments as it is very well written, to the point, and highlights not only the problem with our capitalistic society, but also with regards to bodily autonomy and the right to die. I feel like I may have said the same, if not similar things in various threads that I've written in the past, albeit just in different words and addressing different points (moreso bodily autonomy itself).

Anyways, I thought I'd share his post as it shows everything that is wrong with sentience as well as the current state of society itself and all the problems that come with it. Furthermore, the disgusting tactics that pro-lifers use is not simply limited to the workplace, but also in other domains and settings as well, be it entertainment, sports, academics, dating, social activities, and just about any other activity that humans partake in. It's so ubiquitous that even in niche hobbies, there are people who invoke mental health or use mental illness as a way to gaslight, shame, invalidate, and worst yet, infringe on another's civil liberties in the name of health and safety. There is no greater tyranny than omnipotent moral busybodies!

 

[TAW122]

Bumping this thread as I believe it has reached a narrow audience.