This is almost too sad to dunk on. People running the world have never had a reflective conversation with a professional trained to help process emotions and healthily cope with the human condition. They're in charge of billions of dollars worth of resources and guiding society's investment into the future. Cooooool
I've worked in the service industry for years and years, and while the teens I worked with could be obnoxious sometimes, it wasn't before I got my first tech job that I realized that those kids were more far more emotionally mature than the backbiting man-children that the tech industry courts. I've never participated in a more reactionary workplace. Devoid of solidarity and zero interest in anything that challenges their beliefs. I've met dudes in retail that can quote anarchist literature and met a union organizer for the first time in food service. Professional techies can't go more than 3 sentences without salivating over the their own relative triumph in the market over their "lessers." I was pretty competent at the job, but I'm never going back to that industry unless I'm offered a wage far above what I can eek out while being among people that are more likely to share an interest in materially (rather than bazinga-ly) improving conditions for the vast majority of humanity.
Nah, I work in tech and even the 'cool' coworkers I've had are crawling with brainworms. The bad ones make me console myself with the knowledge that if a revolution ever happens they'll be some of the first put up against the wall.
I'm not terribly opposed to also being put up against the wall by people cooler than me when that time comes if it makes a better world.
I once spent a lunch talking to a table full of well-off techies talking about their routine hiking vacations across South America to go on drug trips to "reset their personalities."
One of the other people at the table was from Ecuador, and I spent the entire conversation trying to figure out if he was about to explode in anger, explode in laughter at these basic white people, or just simply nod at his countrymen fleecing these idiots with cheap drugs.
Needless to say I take lunch at my desk most days now.
It's become more and more popular with the same kind of people who take MDMA or acid to be more efficient. These global north urbanites pay what to them is little money to local people to disrespectfully and without paying any attention to the cultural and spiritual value of the rituals, just take drugs that have a sacred role for indigenous peoples because broooo psychedelics make you like, a much cooler person
I sometimes worry people think of me like this since I like talking about drugs and psychedelics but really I just like getting fucked up as escapism and would rather extract DMT from bark than travel to South America to get my kick
The real good IT co workers I had were all from the GDR. The good other ones often were libertarian and scared of collective action as they are not used to work together with others, except under an umbrella of nice-ness in which conflicts are not dealt with.
I mean sure I'm self loathing but the entire FOSS movement is built by techies and is basically anarchist, it's far from a monolith and I was just (lazily) calling that out