Brat and the Culture of Addiction [Alexander Avila] (CW: dysphoria, drug use, postmodernism, mr beast)

As someone with ADHD and diminished executive function, I feel especially susceptible to this

This is why I feel like takes like this video are often kind of... crypto-ableist. Because a lot of the implication is that our adhd symptoms would just disappear if capitalism wasn't around. Think about how stuff like watching a video essay while doing the dishes or not sitting around for the 45 seconds is mocked and ridiculed in that video.

What is the actual harm of those of us who are neurodivergent and benefit from keeping ourselves busy? I understand the emotions in the concerns over being unable to do collective action, but this seems misplaced. I've never felt out "base impulses" as much of a barrier to revolution. Yes, they can be problematic if misguided, and capitalists often attempt to do this quite often, but it is those same impulses that lead to revolution in the first place.

And people don't give up those impulses en masse. What purpose does commenting on all of this serve? The "opiates" of checks notes, uh, fun things, are not like religion. You can't really get people to revolt against and defect from a behavior that actually makes them feel more satisfied because of direct biophysical reasons, like you can with people who are committed to religion out of fear and social obligation.

It infuriates me when I see people debase and insult these "base impulses", "primitive drives" (what a problematic phrase). There is nothing about being human that isn't those drives. There is internal selfhood, but it is a composite, a powerful personal meshing of all of our intense desires and drives into a cognisant reality.

And some might recoil at this idea. Does this mean caring about others is impossible? Teamwork? Honesty? No.

Social interaction and morality is a 'base drive' for many, if not most, people, just like sex or comfort or shelter or food. We pretend it isn't because those drives are crushed and starved because they are actively harmful for maintaining oppression.

We will never get people to give up any attempt to densitize themselves by indulging these desires. It is simply not something that can be done on a collective level. Attempting to go against these desires on a social level is extremely hard if not outright impossible.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with a conclusion that only really effects one group of people: Those who are, for many reasons, drawn to specific forms of self-soothing using 'consumeristic' methods. And many of these are exploited, yes! Social media is a generally coercive mentally harmful shitfest. The same is true of a lot of marketing schemes and strategies. But that doesn't mean that like, people who like microblogging are committing a moral failing.

It means they deserve platforms and ways of indulging those desires without being manipulated. It means we should be doing harm reduction by informing and creating healthier and safer forms of what are currently harmful forms of recreation.

So the only actual person this sort of moral panic about widespread addict culture helps... is people who don't want visibly disabled or neurodivergent people around them. They want us to hide our suffering and our issues, to not make them things they have to observe. People will anaesthize regardless, they just want the anaesthization neurodivergent people indulge in to be invisible and "normal".

There is no failing or issue with watching a video essay while doing the dishes. But there is something evil about someone who wants to exploit the person watching video essays. And there is something evil about trying to morally judge behavior you deem strange and concerning because you personally can't relate to it (not you, person I'm replying to. "You" as in essay video maker)

Ableism and the scapegoating of social media CEO's, disguised as a leftist social critique. I don't know if that's literally true but it's how it feels to me whenever I see this stuff, like with "dopamine fasting" "biohackers" or whatever.