Backlash Against No Contact!

 

                                          from a website I support....

The estranged parent movement is growing. Ollie Matthews has done multiple videos on estranged parents. One can tell the estranged parents are rallying. None of them speak of real reconciliation or taking accountability.  They all scare me. Maybe a few do have drug addicted children or ones who have other challenges, but reading this stuff is scary.  They look mean. Some snobby ones clean their neat freak large decked out houses while complaining about their adult children. In a narcissistic run society, that those who talk about narcissism openly are going to be vilified. 

There's a bunch of different "influencers" now on Facebook that are coming out against no contact and the ACON movement, I don't want to give their names. Let me give you paraphrased comments on their boards by them and their followers. All say going no contact is wrong, and that adult children are following a cult, and wicked in following no contact. Some are religious in orientation claiming they are Christians. Funnily enough in the Bible it warns in the last days, that there will be division in families and Jesus Christ even preached you are to follow him above any relatives. They are angry at adult children, in most cases their own, who went no contact.

Some paraphrased comments from a variety of these boards:

"As long as parents are blamed, children will suffer!"

"You grandparent alienators are creating great havoc!"

"Those therapists are lying to my adult children and gave them evil advice to go no contact with me!"

"Accept the imperfections of the woman who made you!"

"Your parents are imperfect humans, why do you expect perfection?"

"Too many parents are dying alone today over conflicts that could have been worked through if cutting contact hadn't been normalized."

"When did human flaws become unacceptable?"

"I have read new articles on adult children cutting off their parents. Some are reporting this cult like behavior is being promoted by suspect therapists, social media and some religious groups. It is considered cool nowadays to do."

"Mother hatred is now promoted; mother is blamed for everything!'

"The devil is causing division in families!"

"Therapists only get one side of a story, it's easier to dump a parent for life instead of encouraging communication and resilience. No one wants to be uncomfortable or have to work at a real relationship anymore!"

"Your child made you a villain for the mistakes you made."

There's scary memes like these:

20,30, 40 years of abuse isn't enough supposedly you are supposed to take more. I hate when they abuse Christian terms like "convicting".

Sad to see this as I agree with Rowling on other issues, here the class divisions I have mentioned rear their ugly head. Financially prosperous parents treat their children who haven't done so well like trash in too many cases, I see it in her words. Narcissistic parents will sneer, "it's not my fault you failed!", even ones who did direct sabotage. Also isn't it better to walk on from someone you are never good enough for or successful enough to pass their muster? I have said for years when families became competition clubs they were ruined. There was a certain point, some of us walk, knowing more years of put-downs are intolerable. We have to deal with our lives as they really are, not as someone thinks they should be. 

Hmm was being locked in my room for hours "normal parenting errors"? I agree don't blame every problem on your parents, you do have to be responsible in life but talk about minimizing of abuse when they call it "small mistakes or missteps.". There's always that certain strain, of "We did nothing wrong." 

This one makes no sense, people who had parents who said things like "Do your best" and "we will work together" wouldn't be going no contact in the first place in most cases. We were told we never would be good enough and figured out 4 decades in, we only had more years of put-downs and sabotage to look forward to until we got out. 

They got their own books now.

Hmmm this title says it all "Forget them kids",  It's kind of cold but they probably had that attitude pretty early on. Too many people breed who shouldn't I have funny thoughts about the "family" biological system failing. The bible warned in the last days people would wax cold. DNA doesn't mean much anymore does it. It sure doesn't ensure you get along with another person. I don't have all the answers but it does seem like some basic connections in society are being long ago broken. It's not all the kid's fault either. 

Didn't most of them move on long ago? Their inability to connect or feel is why many of the adult children walked. I felt kind of odd reading some of the estranged parent boards because many were lamenting the absence of their adult children. In my case, I've been gone so long it no longer matters. Mine really showed no evidence of caring that I was gone. There never was any tears, or written appeals of "please come back" or even feigned apologies. 

 Mine is glad I am gone, and the few impersonal cards were sent for appearances so she could tell people she contacted me. The cards never had anything personal written in them. She never cared about anything or anyone or had any emotions in the first place. Maybe this is why the crying mothers on estranged boards were kind of weird to me. All gave me the willies with the same traits there. This included the smugness, the overly high self-regard, the critical natures and seeing themselves as "perfect".

Mine was high on the spectrum, with possible psychopathy. We could never stand each other, there never was any closeness to look back on, so in my case there's no positive memories of each other to lament over. The hoovering is probably over now all parties have moved on. As I wrote earlier advanced no contact can be strange. I moved on with life and so did they. We have nothing in common. They don't value what I value and vice versa. With enough time, you are strangers anyway.

I notice with the influencers, none seem apologetic, or even admitting any faults. I had the thought, Did any of them bother to apologize and thought probably not? With all of them, there's a certain look in the eyes of the ones that made videos, where I could see why the adult kids ran for the hills. 

Then there is this essay which has been making the rounds on Facebook, I saw it repeated on at least 10 pages including one called "Grandparent Alienation". 

"No Contact is a trend with a cult mentality

There is a growing trend unfolding on the internet, the No Contact trend, which is a cult minded movement. Many are being entrapped in the absurd idea that what is best for their mental health is to be isolated from their most important relationships when something goes wrong. In other words, cutting off their principal internal support network.

Whoever wrote this doesn't realize that when people go no contact, most of the time there was never any principal internet support network! I was completely alone in the world before I met my husband. There was no one to turn to, no one who cared. If something bad happened to me or someone hurt me, my abusers would take up for others who harmed me. 

No contact has become "cool"; and relationships today have become disposable. It has become a black or white mentality where people have become expendable. "If you fail me in any way, I'm ghosting you". The trend has become so widespread, that today it seems cool to self-isolate even from parents, family, and friends. Nobody is safe from been disposable, not even their mothers. The only thing that they need to do is to put a label of "toxic" or "narcissist"; on their head and they are gone from their lives. Seriously? How can somebody think that is a good idea?

Too many relationships are disposable but there has to be a relationship in the first place. One thing I faced in later no contact, was the realization that there actually was no relationships, I had been shut out years ago. I knew nothing of the personal thoughts, dreams or ideas of those around me, and they had absolutely no interest in sharing of those things with me. How can someone be expendable when they never let you in the door? The self-isolation often occurs from the other side far earlier. It's sad how they call everything a label to describe what people faced. Some people faced real abuse and serious abuse. Mine didn't even care if I lived or died. And I was supposed to sit there and take it for the rest of my life? In many cases my own included, ostracization came from the abusers anyhow at a certain point. Most who went no contact were drawing a line knowing full separation was inevitable anyway. 
"They left me before I left them."

One thing about this society as it grows more authoritarian, this includes parental ties where authority is everything, I noticed something changing some decades ago especially when parents went all helicopter on kids, how control and domination became the central theme of families instead of cooperation and sharing lives. 

The leaders of this trend which have been using social media to spread the word, are especially cruel with mothers, using as their principal weapon the classic "mom shaming". Everything can be qualified as a trauma or abuse, and mothers are to blame for every frustration they had as a child.

Here they minimize abuse and trauma. Whoever wrote this maybe has never faced abuse or true toxicity, that's the only thing that explains it to me, or they are an abuser themselves seeking to minimize and excuse their actions. 

Mom’s today can easily be labeled as "toxic narcissistic abusers"; without a diagnosis made by a mental health professional. By dehumanizing parents with labels, the leaders of this cult minded movement have made them disposable human beings. Family is not important anymore. All the classic strategies of brainwashing are being used to attract and engage followers until they surrender their autonomy to the movement and isolate themselves from their most basic internal support system.

How is diagnosis going to happen except for maybe a few who get caught and are in the criminal justice system? These are not the type of personalities who are going to step foot in therapist office. Most narcissistic parents have dehumanized their children for decades before the adult child goes no contact. 

With the help of social media, influencers, life coaches, unethical therapists, and pop psychology, are promoting this trend all over the internet with books, web pages, courses, and videos. Sadly, this trend has been remarkably effective in changing the mindset of vulnerable people. The statistics on estrangement from parents nowadays speak for themselves. According to the most recent research 30% of adult children are or have been estranged from one or both of their parents in recent years. Research shows that about one in ten adult children in the United States are estranged from their parents at any given time, and the saddest thing is that the trend is growing.

The therapists for ACONS probably have saved lives, it's interesting they are the target of some of these estranged parents. They keep calling no contact a trend, when for many people myself included it was about saving our lives. It was running from evil and knowing we would have been destroyed to stick around. Sadly, more people will read this kind of stuff and be guilted into sticking to abusive situations. Their statistics do not shock me. I believe that the economic and other changes where one generation lived a certain kind of life that has now been taking away from the younger generations, definitely is leading to a massive crack up between generations. Sadly, too many members of the older generation are unable or refuse to face what has happened to their adult children's lives. They either deny it or they blame their adult children and call them "losers". So, there are multiple factors as to why this happening, the collapse of the US economy in my opinion is one of the biggest drivers and add the forced economic separation that began in the 1960s that I wrote in my Economic Nomads article. If you don't have money to see people or it becomes a huge economic burden to do so, the relationships over the years deteriorate. What does family mean when everyone lives thousands of miles away? Not much. 

What is going to happen with the next generations? How are the new generation of parents going to parent their children in a world where everything is a trauma, and every parent can be labeled as a toxic narcissist at any time for the most frivolous of reasons by their own children?

Hopefully if they have children, they will treat them better. The denials here are thick. How about some love? Some seem unable to even contemplate that word and what it means. No one leaves a family for no reason, this is not something you do for frivolous reasons, just the fact whoever wrote this, doesn't get that piece is sad. 

Today’s parents seem to be thinking that the no contact trend isn't going to affect them as well as their children are growing up. It seems that these parents that have gone no contact with their parents think that they are going to be perfect and not make any mistakes at parenting. How "narcissistic" is that? It may be naïve of them to believe that their children would not apply the same label they themselves found ok to them in return. How can this next generation of parents expect empathy from their own children if they did not have empathy for their own parents? This “no contact blank label” nonsense must end.

Probably many of them will not have children. Their own parents made it such a miserable enterprise, they probably want to avoid the whole mess. They knew their parents weren't happy with them so why repeat the process?  Beyond the economic reasons I think that's one reason Millennials and Gen Z are having far less children. The lack of empathy came first from the parents.

I found reading all this to be very sad. A few parents, maybe drug-addicted or children with personalities disorders of their own left, but with most I kept thinking, "None of them want to take accountability" or even question or look at what role they played in the failure of the relationships. Almost every ACON who went no contact goes through the process of questioning what they did wrong, for the relationships to fail. I did so in my 30s before no contact. I realized it was all unfixable and that's why I left. Their lack of taking accountability or the inability to do so is what destroyed the parental/adult child relationships in the first place. 

I weigh 465 now

 Some weight seems to be coming off. Gluten free may have changed some things. I do get scared, one little thing can make it go back up. The kidneys are still doing better to point I don't have to take as many kidney tests anymore. What did Celiac DO to me all these years? If I can get to the lower 400s, it would help functionality quite a bit. I have noticed hunger is not as bad as an issue, I can still get hunger pain at times I don't want it. I haven't been in the 460s since 2013 and the main reason for that loss was throwing up from kidney problems. I was around 450lbs when I had my 250lb weight loss in 2002 down from 700lbs. This metabolism has never been normal. I don't expect to ever be thin, impossible in this body, but smaller at all will make things easier, and that weight loss from medical treatment saved my life back then and gave me 25 plus more years. 

Books I Read in 2025

 

                                             Mr. Wise Owl likes to read! [art by me]

I wrote a list of books, I want to read, of multiple classics and others, this also includes great book recommendations from a friend of mine. This list isn't all conclusive, I read books laying around in my apartment, there's graphic novels and comics, I read here and there beyond this list. I am reading Cannery Row and a few old Steinbeck books now and checked out a couple novels by Tom Wolfe. Reading and going to the library is one of my hobbies. What books have you read or would you recommend? Feel free to add some. 

Some of my selections are what I call "easy reads" like the McFadden books, but there's more dense stuff. My focus did switch from more non-fiction to decent fiction. I learned I liked Sinclair Lewis a lot reading Babbit. I never had read Tolkien in completion, that took some time, I read them in order though they may not show in order here. I saw the movies, maybe I would get more out of the movies having read the books. I haven't had money to purchase new or used graphic novels this year. Some books were ordered from interlibrary loan. Lionel Shriver is a favorite new author, the Mandibles seems to predict the future, She does question some of the authoritarianism which I like.

 I still read some Stephen King, can't stand the guy or his politics but some books are interesting, sometimes I think they are ghost written or his son Joe Hill has huge influence on the new books. Some books were kind of dark like Revolutionary Road and Joyce Carol Oates. I have read almost every novel by Joyce Carol Oates back to her earliest ones, but I do question some of her latest themes. My writing group compared me once to the style of Joyce Carol Oates on poems. Demon Copperfield was one of my favorites, since Kingsolver wrote about a poor person, rare in today's literature. Some of the stuff with the drugs got a bit much, maybe stereotypical but I liked the book overall. The Valentine books will give you a new view of Vietnam and how politics and war work. They were intense but I recommend them highly. Merton I mentioned in articles here.  I want to get some more of his books. My local library doesn't have many spiritual books just the basics. 

The Art of Cartooning

Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Holly by Stephen King
History of the great American fortunes, by Gustavus Myers.
The CIA as organized crime : how illegal operations corrupt America and the world / by Douglas Valentine.
TDY by Douglas Valentine
Pieces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire by Doug Valentine

The Return of the King by Tolkien

The Two Towers by Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien
The Hobbit by Tolkien
Revolutionary Road
You Like It Darker by Stephen King
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Dirtbag Massachusetts
Ask Not: The Kennedy's and the Women They Destroyed
People Pleaser by Jinger Duggar Vuolo
House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Lies I Taught in Medical School by Richard Lufki
The Boyfriend by Frieda McFadden

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Idaho Four by James Patterson
Maniac by Lionel Shriver
The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver
150 Masterpieces of Drawing and several other art technique books
Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi 

The diary of Frida Kahlo
Ward D by Freida McFadden
Do Not Disturb by Freida McFadden
Fox: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates
The End of the World as We Know It [collections of stories based on The Stand by Stephen King]
Snafu: History's Greatest Screw-ups
Vinland Saga 12 [graphic novel]
The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire by Henry Gee
Gluten Free Gal
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
Kent State [graphic novel--reread]
Country schoolma'am
Jack of Spades Joyce Carol Oates
The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton
Book of Jonas by Thomas Merton
Chinese Girl in the Ghetto by Ying Ma

Say No to Data Centers!

Say no to Data Centers, they are bad news. They want to build these things all over my state even in remote towns no one has ever heard of. I may be joining a local group against these. I don't support AI. As I have written before, I will not knowingly use any AI, no one online is "AI pure" of course. This means refusing to use ChatGPT and using AI products. I try to use alternative search engines that are not hooked to AI.

Today someone told me about a new product, you can send a photograph in, and the AI will produce a paint by numbers painting kit for you. You get the board, the AI drawing with the assigned colors and everything! She had been given one as a gift. I said to her, "That's not real art!". She agreed and said her daughter meant well giving her the gift.  It's scary how they are having AI interfere with the arts. I belong to artist boards against all generative AI on social media. If humanity loses art, do you realize the deeper meaning of this? There seems to be a descending laziness and where intellect, experimentation and creativity would all be shut down. 

With the AI centers, realize they are part of a possible tech-control grid related to Digital ID and money. As the people in the video describe they are hell on the environment, the water shed, people's electric bills and land. I don't want any built near me. I am noticing some organizations doing AI promotion which worries me. None of this is improving our lives. As one guy says, we have a lot of other problems to spend this much money on. The electric grid is too rickety for this crap too. Look for your local groups against these data centers. Some states, they are building them ALL over, and when I mean all over, I mean dozens of the things in the most boondock area you could imagine! We don't want them. And as they show in one chart, who asked for all this AI garbage?

"Perfect House, Psychotic Inside"

This video nails it. Everything especially for those of us who were children of narcissistic parents was about appearances. I've written on this here before. 

Narcissists Keep Secrets

Trophy Children

A Video on How Badly Churches Treat Poor People

 

I've written about this topic several times. 

The Poor and Disabled in Churches

Churches and Me

The War on the Poor and Homeless

The other day, I was talking to my husband about the whole church thing, and how I didn't want to go back to being abused for being poor in the evangelical world. I told him, I was looking at this one local church but when I realized, they held multiple Dave Ramsey classes, it was off the list of possibilities. Dave Ramsey has helped spread many of the lies, that have too many churches turning their backs on poor people. He doesn't admit the reality of this economy. I think the lady in this video "Simply Christine" is a deconstructed fundamentalist, she was raised in the Christian Nationalism and homeschooling world. She is right about the individualism that is preached in churches. The pastors who love the system and this world never address the greater machinations affecting people's lives. I would love to read the book she mentions about capitalism and Protestantism.

The Catholic church seemed a bit different when it came to poor people. I told my husband once "Well you can go to a Catholic church and be dirt poor and no one is going to put you down for it." That's how it was for me anyway. Maybe because some of their religious take vows of poverty? The view was kind of different. One book I always wanted to read but haven't gotten to it yet is this one. I see the shortcomings of later wave feminism, but Caliban and the Witch is supposed to deal with the "creation of Capitalism". Both books would be interesting to read, I probably can get both from interlibrary loan later. 

Anyhow as I wrote in the church article, most churches and pastors now seem to be in the sway of the ruling class. They have no discernment. Very few seem to care even as the economy is imploding. I am sure there's a few exceptions to this as ones in poor communities are probably trying to help their own people and even the Revelations of Jesus Christ pastor, the week they were going to cancel EBT went out to help people get groceries. If a church has Dave Ramsey classes,  that's not the place for me. I will get the usual lectures and "everything is your fault" messaging and this vlogger mentions that how these churches tell people everything is your fault. I think that's done more harm to Christianity, where some forget Jesus fed people and gave them encouragement. 

I wrote this on this article "The Trouble with God and Religion"

As I wrote, megachurches are starting to fail. Some say there is a religious movement now where people are converting into the Orthodox and other churches. It would not surprise me. Much of evangelicalism has problems. If the American economy sinks down even further, I doubt Dave Ramsey is going to do as well. I am surprised his message is still selling in the churches, maybe because all the poor people left?

 I read his books, and his other nonsense. He has done untold harm to the poor and shut down hearts towards the homeless, poor and working class. He gives false hope. His whole program rests on stable high incomes which in the real world are rarer and rarer. Yes there are things people should do, be responsible, don't waste money, avoid credit cards, but he never questions a system that puts people into such huge debts or makes it so hard to survive or how the job world is ruled by nepotism. It kind of makes me sick they sold this guy in churches when everything he preaches is the opposite of Jesus Christ. 

Here's his latest book, that's a creepy title. Did Jesus say go out and be a millionaire?

Hmm thinking of a bible verse here...

Matt 19:24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

I said to my husband, "Religion is a business now in America, and well business doesn't go for the broke people without money!

It's interesting when she talks about how health care was part of church charity and reaching out to others and how Martin Luther's influences are related to today's for-profit health care. I laughed when she compared the obscene wealth used on megachurches relates to the sale of indulgences in the Catholic church to build grand cathedrals but with "far less artistic merit". 

She talks about the change where personal belief became far more important and Calvinism. I never subscribed to Calvinism and its denial of free will. Her comparison of Catholic theology and practices compared to Protestant ones are interesting too. [Remember in my case, I've been both] I questioned the hatred of images, being an artist that was always difficult for me when I was in evangelical land. Was it okay to draw Jesus even to show kids bible stories or was one breaking the second commandment? I have some icons in here now and watched videos on Youtube about paintings in English churches from the Medieval era that taught bible stories. I missed stained glass as an evangelical. 

Her comment "what do you have left when you have no fun, no art and white walls...work, hard work" [24:23] stands out to me. She goes on to talk about the Protestant work ethic. She's right about Dave Ramsey going on about belief, it includes God but also believe in this system. I think people are no longer believing in this system. I've lost belief in it. Why wouldn't I? The young seeing no viable future, also are realizing something is very wrong and that they have been lied to about how the world works. I wrote about my time in churches, but one struggle I had was everyone trying to impose these belief systems, and I am talking both liberal [UU] and conservative churches that did not pan out in my life. I am not talking about God/Jesus here, I do still think there is a God, but about the essentials of HOW this world works. Dave Ramsey is full of it and selling false dreams and sadly influencing church people to disdain the poor. 

Think this out in a world where most are now "failing" when it comes to the old rules and only a few superstars do okay, do you think people are going to believe in the system? I try to catch the edge of new things in religions, but I hope there are changes to the churches.  I do think evangelicalism is going to have more people just leaving or even bible reading Christians who just don't want to go anymore and listen to some preacher give us the economic lies who will judge us by how much money we have. This isn't what Jesus Christ taught.

One quibble I may have with the video is I don't think we have "capitalism" anymore, well "capitalism" has always had those who exploited people, it seems all financial systems all hit the barrier of bad human traits. We have some new version of capitalism today with all the monopolies and the marriage of government and corporations having become complete, where the government bails out banks, and silver markets and all sorts of stuff on behalf of the corporations. 

I do agree with her about the history and theology that impacted the crazy workaholism here, the rejection of leisure and this all getting mixed in with a false piety especially in Protestant traditions. This country has gone downhill with a lack of culture, she's right and bland food. This is what happens when a whole place just runs on people being consumers and nothing but and everything being about business, even the religion in many cases. 

Doug Wilson is one of the worse, I knew about him years ago.  She goes on about more culture and her marriage to a man from the Congo and getting to share in their culture. I have talked about this before, but I have lamented on this board, having no culture, "people" or heritage, this is something many especially white Americans do not get to have. We are so far removed from our European roots or are such a multiple blend now, there's no culture to have. What do I know of Hungary? Almost nothing. Like her I was in churches that forbid dancing, even art was a bit suspect too.

Sadly she is right when she says "If you are poor it's because you are lazy and you act like a victim" as being a predominant view in churches. She is right many churches teach that God is teaching people lessons via poverty and it is their fault. Remember these aren't Jesus's teachings this is stuff the churches have come up with. She may differ from me on some issues, but I agree with her that Jesus questioned the powers of the day. He defended the poor. I hope like her Christians realize how far they have strayed from the basic teachings of Jesus too. Almost every evangelical church I have been in, had some semblance of the prosperity gospel that they taught. 

The Whole Country is in Economic Collapse!

 

This is part of the upcoming Covid comic zine, which I know is taking me too long to do but remember I am a very disabled woman who is diagnosed with chronic fatigue. You know what is weird this panel was based on a cartoon in my journal drawn in 2020, maybe I thought pandemics always mean economic collapse and war. We could see the early signs couldn't we? They got away with Covid, and all that entailed so why wouldn't they go to town with the financial end of things? I had dreams about the above. I'm sure some New Agers would tell me such dreams are not a good thing and I need to stop manifesting "bad things" but it's what I dreamed about. 

I expect the streets to fill with the homeless soon, though it seems they are making the homeless "disappear". Put the picture together, if they are laying off millions of people and the prices have gone this high, where do you think things are going to go? Where is all the money going? Up to the tippy top, someone is profiting off all these out of control prices. Even mainstream news has mentioned the loss of 1.1 million jobs but then took the real news down.  One question I used to think on X, was where were the other poor people? Maybe most have had their internet shut off. The real poor people were shut up or shut down, so they could build more astroturf and controlled opposition accounts, with guys saying the homeless were all drug addicts or the poor ate too much avocado toast to brainwash people and make them feel all alone. 

The young lady in the video, trying to find a dishwasher/restaurant job probably is in trouble because the restaurants are shutting down. We have lost so many restaurants locally. Some are getting smart and realizing people can only afford take-out and can't afford tips and a sit down place anymore. It's sad her own aunt wants 800 a month from her in rent.  That's a bit much for a rented room.  Yes many young will realize welfare won't help them. I had no money coming in and got turned down in the 1990s, "you're abled-bodied". She has figured out her college degree is utterly worthless. I'm still in shock the college dreams are still selling. I do find her family pathetic in not sharing food with her. That's white families for you now, sink or swim, they can sit there eating a T-bone while she nibbles at her ramen noodles. That kind of crap wouldn't go down in the Latino or African American families. They still care about each other in most cases. 

Hey I had relatives visiting China and England, while I was wondering the streets of Chicago dumpster diving for canned food. Her future is being ruined. She is not building experience. At age 22, I had graduated and gotten my 14 dollar an hour juvenile home job by August. She's doing worse than I was. That age is the make or break age that builds or tears down the future.  Potential is now being ruined in America. Consider this, even I had seeds planted in my 20s, that have blossomed into the art shows of my 50s. What are the young going to be left with now?

The guy with the beard has a point, make stuff affordable again. I remember economics class, doesn't more crap sell if more people can afford it? Why don't they want to sell stuff?[because they are secretly dismantling this place? hmmmm] The teacher needs to get rid of the expensive nails and is paying way too much for car insurance. I relate to the African American lady talking about the "run away train". I always spoke of it as being on the edge of the abyss, don't look down or you may fall in. The month becomes nothing but a marathon to pay bills. The bills are all more than what anyone is making. We have cut everything off. I haven't seen a "new" TV show or any network news now in over a year and half, or maybe two. I probably will never have cable again. I watch only old stuff on Pluto. I read news online. I hope he will keep his phone shut off and pay what was left and let the rest go. I pay one subscription around 14 dollars for my Cloud storage which is necessary for our zines and my book illustration projects. I don't know how anyone with kids or who owns a home is supposed to do it. With the air conditioning lady, yes, where is the money supposed to come for emergencies, or repairs or car repairs? The whole system stinks. There is a point where it does not work for people anymore and this system isn't. 

The astroturfs and bots berating all the poors outnumbered the rest on X, I got tired of them. Rich people with no clue. Some wisely supported medical freedom but were annoying on other topics. There were always those farm people who preached self-reliant living not realizing us poors didn't have land to grow food on or barns to store animals in. 

 Yesterday I got a new bill, a premium for Medicare D that used to be 9 dollars is now 78. Some idiot thinks the disabled are rolling in money. I am approaching the place where there is essentially none of my disability check left. Add to that the CPAP monopoly sending me a bill for 422 dollars, they claim that's "WITH" insurance. These bills used to run in the 100s not the 400s. They actually send me a form, when I applied for financial hardship, where they wanted me to sign my entire bank account over, where it said on the form they could take up to 5,000 dollars out of my bank account at any time. I wonder how many old people needing CPAPS and nebulizer's aren't so careful to read this form. Lung problems don't help one discern predators.  The form is so bad, it seems fraudulent.  I called them up, "Process my financial application but there's no way I am signing my entire bank account over to you, since I could end up homeless if you clean my account out!"

I told them I want emailed from now on, my captioning kept failing during the course of this conversation. I am too deaf to use voice mail jail too. The eye doctor secretary got mad at me because I thought they would bill me and I had no money on me to pay the 17 dollar co-pay, Sometimes I think just pay what you can and let the rest go. I can only do so much. It is a bit ominous how some bills are getting higher.

We had just enough money to get a chicken and some vegetables for our holiday meal, I was glad to have two friends visit in the last two days so that was really nice. One we made art and collages so that was fun. Today my husband made some money to pay my phone bill, his phone got shut off, I'm not sure if we are going to turn it back on or not. He made just enough to go get something to eat tonight. The captioning worked far better on that phone, Sigh.  Sometimes when really down and out, I make some strange food, lunch was a masa biscuit, 1 egg, and kidney bean curry for each of us. 

It's weird on my social media, I posted videos like this, people either seem to ignore them or the ones with more money tell me the videos are "too negative". I know a lot of people don't like facing things like economic collapse, it doesn't make you too popular at parties. Many don't want to think about this stuff. For some of us the collapse already is here. It's worse for some others, I still got the power on, am housed, and got other basics though food is always a problem. 

Some of the reactions were strange, I guess some saw me a doomer. One very "Q" friend has told me that rescue awaits, and the quantum financial system is going to be put in, and we will all be prosperous during the new Trump-led golden age. They are middle class from what I can tell, their family is very close too, I am not so optimistic. The left outside of William Barber and a few words from Bernie Sanders who sadly was a Covid vaxx sellout never mentions the poor and working class even now. The streets are filling with the homeless, no one can afford groceries but none of them seem to care, the extreme identity politics still run the show. Even the church I left, the UUA, only talks about trans people anymore, their magazine shows up at our apt still. you would think there is no other social issue on the planet to be concerned about. The Christian churches all push David Ramsey [still!] and act like packing a lunch for work instead of eating out, will bring endless money to your door. Of course, those programs assume there is decent income coming in. Poor people understand there will be little understanding for our own circumstances in most evangelical churches. David Ramsey won't admit the economy is crumbling. He thinks one can pick off a job off the job tree.

Maybe the healthy can go get a minimum wage job in a group home or nursing home. I did that gambit in the past taking the jobs no one else wanted to survive.  I noticed all the wealthy Christians around here, were just telling a woman on my social media asking about financial help, to go take a Ramsey Financial Peace class. We are surrounded by closing businesses. There's a breakfast restaurant that opened up and died within a month. 

It's kind of scary to me, watching normal [non-disabled, conventionally good looking] people on all these videos hitting the financial skids. How bad is this all going to get? Why are Americans putting up with it? I guess the billionaires, have perfected the art of misdirection. Will we get another no kings fest without no mention of the economy again? I'm tempted to make signs, "The Economy is Crashing and None of You Care!" for the next one. How about "The Billionaires won and control this protest, that's why none of you mention the Economy!"?

My husband will be going on Social Security for age, but there's some time before it and it feels like we are both limping into the end of the race. Why are things so hard? Life used to be more than drudge, I do try to find fun where I can have it and the art world and my friends add joy to my life, but the sad faces at the grocery store are a bit much to take. Some seem so shut down. It didn't used to be like that.

You know what scares me, is we don't drink, no one smokes, never did drugs, I buy the cheapest food I can--[the same stuff from Aldis], I got clothing from thrift and get what I can from "Buy Nothing" board and there still isn't enough money. I am facing the fact my disability check due to inflation is now almost worth nothing, and yes it scares me. As I have written, my husband doesn't like my ideas about moving to Appalachia, , or a more remote area of my own state, rented rooms or finding somewhere to go. He sees us in another Chicago scenario. I've done things like go on Zillow searching for cheap apartments in my state. They were all HUD apartments which sadly we will still be over the newest cut-off, in very bad dangerous areas or very remote, with no hospital within hundreds of miles. I saw a few studios for the amount of money I was thinking of [700-800] in college towns and apartments that were less than 400 square feet. It is kind of weird they made even small towns expensive. We have gone round and round, "Where should we go?" but we would take the lack of money anywhere we go. It's better to be in an area where you know a few people. Our present apartment is safe. You can't take that for granted now either. I dread getting new doctors especially with my level of medical complexity and don't want to leave my functional doctor behind who has probably saved my life from kidney stuff alone. 

One thing I have noticed as I have researched places to go, is a lot of cities seem to be crumbling, and are having serious problems with homelessness, crime, and basically collapse of the infrastructure. You aren't going to see this talked about in the news. Have people lost their minds from being online, where they don't LOOK at the real world anymore and just believe the reality told there. One city I lived in for college, is now taken over by the homeless, it's so bad, I saw videos of this one guy on Youtube, feeding the homeless in that town and there were hundreds of them. My old small town, had a homeless shelter, that got closed, the rich MAGAS drove them out. I think they may be trying to rebuild something else. Things look bad. One town in my county, I considered moving to for cheaper rent, seems to have such a burgeoning crime and homelessness problem I am now not interested in moving there. I joined a local board on social media to see what life was like there. Hmm lets do a random glance today, Oh there's two shootings, looks like some bad stuff is spilling over from a larger town. Some thief is shown at a gas station. I'm glad I investigated this place a lot before moving there. My husband sometimes cynically says, "They've ruined everywhere". 

People have enough of their own problems, with everyone sick from the vaxx, they fear for their own survival. I made a list of everyone I know sick or deceased from the Covid vaxxes and it was dozens of people. I lost neighbors, church people, and endless acquaintances and some friends. These numbers are increasing as time passes by too. People are dying a lot younger. I have outlived multiple people I never expected to. I miss old nice neighbors. One I said hello to for years and was felled by a stroke in their early 60s, the lady who lived upstairs from me died of a massive heart attack in 2021. One person I cut ties with may have died. I knew in one case they definitely took the Covid vaxx. I even wonder if death notices are being put up. In some cases, it just seems like people disappear. You wonder "What ever happened to...."

Imagine this across the landscape, I belong to multiple "anti-vaxx" boards where people talk openly about all the people they have lost, some even seem to have whole families wiped out. This level of grief for a society isn't going to be doing good things to that society. I think America as a whole has a PTSD problem from the abuses of Covid/Covid vaxx. Now add in the financial abuses and pressures, it sometimes seems to me, if they press the screws much more the whole society is going to crack up.

I refused to ever touch credit cards again after a certain point and haven't had one in 15 years. However the medical debts now will pile up. Having a company abuse me over sleep apnea supplies is very scary, some of my huge weight gain came from untreated and diagnosed sleep apnea. I have to make the decision to put off some medical appointments so I can catch up on the hundreds I owe in medical bills. I may delay going to the kidney doctor, the ear doctor, I have to see them, so I go down the list to see who or what I can put off. The sleep apnea machine is scary as it uses filters up and goes through masks, but if they are going to charge me 200 dollars a mask what am I supposed to do?

Much of the rest of the world knows America is going down the economic tubes. Even if Trump is deporting people, I am tired of rich liberals who support endless illegal immigration. I have noticed they don't seem to care about poor Americans who are homeless. I still stand by what I wrote about immigration years ago. 

Legal immigration has a place, but in a country that can't even take care of its own, we can't take in millions per year. I can't stand ICE's tactics, but how come none of these liberals get the point that one reason Americans can't get jobs or survive is millions from other countries pouring in. They support the H-1B programs and other things that take jobs away from citizens and LEGAL immigrants. There too, you see the liberals protesting against ICE but they never seem to give a damn about the economic damage happening to fellow Americans and citizens. Maybe some immigrants are leaving reading the signs in the wind, this place is economically collapsing and self deporting while they still have somewhere to go. Maybe the news is getting out finally about how hard it is to survive here. People around the world realize things are getting bad here. Read this reddit thread, many overseas realize life is easier elsewhere now:

I visited my cousin in the US and realized I actually live better than him : offmychest

How is any of this sustainable? One can see the future and it's not too bright. They are making home ownership impossible. They are making having families impossible for the young. Many of the elderly and disabled are ending up homeless.

 I myself while trying to plan for the future have been put in an impossible situation, HUD blocks us out even as poor as we are, my husband couldn't make an extra dollar again even working for a newspaper.  The other place that we are on the list for raised the rent nearly to what we pay now and there's a time limit on the years the apartments remain "affordable" and then are raised to what they call "market rate rent". Food is insane. This good friend of mine sent me some gluten free foods from a local Trader Joe's she lives near. It is nice to have olives, nuts and rice crackers, foods I can't otherwise afford. I live in a food desert, there's not much to eat here, and no Trader Joe's. The health food store that is some miles away in another town, is going out of business, I suppose because no one can afford to shop there. I did during better times, but the prices rose so high even during working class times, I stopped going there. 

Jobs are more insecure. No politician or planner cares about making up for the jobs lost via AI. Some believe AI is a fraud and I've wondered if it is the excuse for deindustrialization and the end of oil. Are you noticing they don't care about the betterment of society anymore? I noticed this, the left doesn't care, the right obviously doesn't care. They aren't even pretending. Everything is about screwing people over, ruining their lives and extracting every drop of wealth for the ruling class. You know it and I know it. Everything is to serve the ruling class. Covid served all their needs and desires as they expanded depopulations and helped to monopolize business as they wiped out millions of small businesses. 

I don't think there's another CPAP company I can switch to. Think about that. They have no competitors. They are national, and that is scary! I could be denied care for a very serious disorder, that could bring back weight gain and heart problems. Life is being made worse, and the liberal world was destroyed by Covid. Sadly since more of them took the clot shot, there's more of them dying or getting sick. They only care about identity and corporate sponsored issues instead of the rising numbers of homeless. The right wing world, well, I was long ago tired of them with their reality denying lectures, and hatred of the disabled and up by the bootstraps myths. I know many people will just brush me off, "Oh she's a conspiracy theorist". Hate to tell you but crap we talked about 20 years ago on those boards is all coming true today. Do you think sell-outs like Michael Moore who pushed the Covid vaxx while he made millions cares? Where is that guy? Is he even talking about the economy? Hmm let me go look. Sheesh, just the usual no kings crap. What a disappointment he was! 

 Notice everything is to serve the ruling class, the oligarchy, the 1 percent. The world society, business, money, culture, is all being formed for their needs not yours or mine and they have plenty of servants to help make it happen. Do you see anyone fixing anything? Do you see anything being done for the betterment of society? All the technological advances are invested in surveillance and control not for alleviating any human suffering.

One thing I have noticed is most of the pundits except some independents on Youtube and elsewhere, never mention the reality about the economy. They aren't even telling people the truth. They are gaslighting even worse then when I wrote about it some months ago. I have a rule for any new pundit I listen to, if they don't admit the true state of the American economy, big potatoes or small potatoes, I don't waste any time with them. 

This society changed for the worse when they forced the young into serious poverty. I want to write an article about how the economy may have impacted declining family relationships too. Look for that next. There is a problem with older people who do not care, that their adult children are having worse lives. What kind of life can you build as detailed in the video above, if you are dependent on your parents well into your 30s? What happens to your life if you "work hard" and your job doesn't pay enough to cover your bills and you are always desperate with a hand out. Keep in mind as I have described my poverty sagas, I have a husband who worked all the time for years. Lives are being ruined.

 Why do people even believe in this system anymore? I am not sure the young even know what to extent they have been betrayed, they think this is normal to have life always put on hold because everything is too expensive. Blackrock and health care costs will extract the wealth of the wealthy boomers as they die off, and all the nice stuff like our decked out Senior centers, nice restaurants, libraries, parks etc. that we take for granted now, will all simply vanish. We have already lost magazine stands, cafeterias, bookstores, and most third places. Even church has become something only for people with money. Many of the small ones are closing. 

 It will be the Victorian/Gilded age with the rich being even more powerful. We are reliving the Gilded Age, but on steroids. Go read this book, I am up to page 177 but my eyes are bugging out reading it. They are doing the same to us now. Extracting all the wealth, redoing small crowded "tenements", making food impossible to afford but the bowls of gruel. Time to wake up! Seriously go read this book, here's an online copy History of the Great American Fortunes by Meyers. It's my second time mentioning it but it will help you understand what is happening.  Many of their ancestors today are directing things. Notice what is done to ordinary people for the achievement of this wealth. 

Those younger than me, don't remember the 1970s and 1980s and how different things were, how many vacations one could take, how leisure was part of everyday life. I became a poor adult, but I remember all that stuff, and got to enjoy it. Even family visits were different in the days before working people had to work so many hours. I notice on the video above, even those making 6 figures are pressed to the wall. They often live in very expensive cities and have expectations that increase the money. Their taxes are high, they have to pay huge money on insurance and medical bills. The lady being told to pay 1600 instead of 800 for medical insurance, probably will have no choice but to drop it unless she is a big earner. Some people live on 1600 a month or less. Are these insurance companies dumb? Don't they get that most people simply won't have the money and will drop the coverage? Maybe they will all go out of business. One can only hope. 

I did wonder if I don't come up with the 70 bucks a month if I will get dropped. Oh I also have to pay a bigger Medicare premium over 200 dollars, when I say nothing is going to be left of my check, I mean it. If I was not married, I probably would be homeless. I wanted to protect us both from homelessness finding housing in case the worse would happen to either of us but the way American society is set up, they don't care. This place is designed to push you into the streets. This is why we have giant homeless encampments everywhere. Look, if my old small town, which used to be a stable working class place has a homelessness problem, that means things are getting really bad. People don't have the family and social networks that used to protect each other. 

I do wonder what the solutions are. One thing I am noticing is we can't depend on the powerful and the famous. Most of the pundits, academics, people like Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, etc, serve the ruling class. They don't want to admit what is going on and the people who pay their salaries or give them deals don't want them to admit what is really going on. I suppose some could work locally and try to build up local networks. I've faced the problem, I can't even find a church that isn't brainwashed by the likes of David Ramsey condemning most poor people to walking out the door, because they can't take anymore shame. Some are fortunate enough to have good friends, I am. I try to focus on them and art to keep my head above it all. I and my husband always have projects. You have to know we do think of what life could have been with economic stability.

I do think people need to admit what is happening and talk about it. That's not too popular. I am glad a few are speaking out on Youtube. I did notice information was "controlled" in talking about the economy, this probably got me shadow banned on X as much as talking about any Covid vaxxes, fat people or conspiracy. I doubt things would be better on BlueSky though, I probably would go over there and be censored for not being a vaxx lover and not supporting trans, and probably would be told the economy is just fine. I notice liberals ranting and raving about ICE, and Trump but still saying nothing about the economy and lying to us and telling us it's wonderful due to a rising stock market. With the liberals, are they all rich? I don't know. Maybe the poor have figured out both sides don't care about us finally. 

 I think ICE sucks for rounding up citizens and legal immigrants and fear them being used to round up dissenters one day. However I wonder about liberal people who are in such denial about the death and destruction all around us from Covid and maybe it's spilled over into deep denial about the state of the economy. The right wing is going around saying all the homeless are drug addicts even as the job layoffs skyrocket into the millions. The corporations which both of these sides serve seem more hell bent on crushing us all and abusing power to the point you wonder how they expect to stay in business when no one has any money. They use fear to control us all. No one is left alone to live in peace anymore. As I have said to my husband, "I am fine being poor as long as I have a few simple art supplies, library to go to and can get my needs met", but I added, "They never leave us alone". Every step in life is a threat.

Many other people of other countries see Americans as weak and suck-ups for even putting up with this crap. I've seen the posts online, "What's wrong with Americans?" I wonder why American's aren't departing out of the system.  In earlier times, people formed communes, religious communities and other alternatives but all the doorways to those seem to be shut and/or cost money. Sometimes I think the elite just decided America the corporation is to be shut down, and that's the process we are now in. That's the only thing that seems to explain all the craziness. I understand the better off people not wanting to look at this stuff, it's not pleasant, but it's reality.