Post #1440991

2026-04-07 18:13 UTC

This place serves people who've had major mental health issues or substance abuse, been houseless or incarcerated etc. The marginalized. Many are not very educated. When the group was asked what kind of work they want, one person shrugged and said "Janitorial". The teacher winced and amended her question, "I mean what did you want to be when you grew up? What's your DREAM job?" There was a heavy silence. One person thought about it for a long, long moment and said, "...Grape picking?" "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "........Better pay?" "But what role in your job? What do you see yourself doing?" "...My own apartment?" This is the population the fascist techbros see not even as prey, just vermin. Pathetic suckers. Bowls of worms. Stupid. Disposable. Misery cultivated to scare other workers into line. Some of us are already so ground down we don't know how to dream anymore. It all seems so far out of reach. Some FEEL stupid, due to how they've been treated, with little awareness of the insight, wisdom, and potential they actually possess. The faces in that room were determined but tired. So very tired. I walk in to a facility like this with my smartypants vocabulary and the staff look bewildered that I'm even there and say, "Oh you'll have NO problem" but it's not fucking true, I've never been able to support myself like a functional grownup. My grades were always bad, I'm constantly late and forgetful, I couldn't finish college, I keep getting fired. I've been couch surfing for years. Most of my adult life I've been living on around $500/month. But I sure sound smart. On paper, I'm supposed to be a genius. I stand with one foot inches from an elite world, and the other foot inches from the gutter. I want to use that, and help bridge the gaps of understanding. I'm a peer support specialist. Marginalized folks are the population I'll be serving. Some will be "gifted" burnouts like me, and more will be people who don't know a lot of words over two or three syllables. I've got to be effective at connecting with people who've had very little education, and/or have developmental disabilities or a lot of damage from trauma and substances and so on, without alienating them or getting condescending. I at least have some awareness of how bad things really get, but my own life has been frankly pretty sheltered. I even look soft-- it shows on the skin, when somebody has been on the streets a long time. I'm not going to be as useful in this role, in some ways, as say that hardened guy over there with all the tattoos or my coworker who overcame a multi-decade meth addiction (I've never even tried normal smoking). I'm headed to the psychological front lines. I'm going to be hearing some of the most heartbreaking, awful stories and seeing a lot of suffering. I'm looking for people who've seen the cracks in the system, been burned by the festering evil driving it, and want to push for a real change. Some of them I might be able to help reach a way to move forward and fight. Some, we'll lose to the pits of drugs and despair. Some will die. It's a soul-destroying meat grinder out there. Where's my niche? Where can I be most useful? How well can I handle the stress? Big question marks.

Replies (8)

@dasgrueneblatt@wien.rocks 2026-04-08 08:43

@violetmadder 💚🍀

Open ##1440997
@johnbrowntypeface@spore.social 2026-04-09 16:21

@violetmadder i've been asked those same questions, by a former partner - they didn't like my answers i haven't really had a "dream job" since i was a kid. my experiences have not led me to associate labor under capitalism with dreams coming true. i'm also a person for which predicting my life or the state of the world in 5-10 years seems kinda ridiculous a lot of the help offered to struggling people is predicated on having the mindset of a cog & expecting good things from a bad system

Open ##1441001
@artagnon@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-11 18:51

@violetmadder It's a real shame that society isn't able to accommodate these people. I have several marginalized people in my social circle, and they're a real joy to talk to -- they are very intelligent (just not in the traditional way) and interesting people! On the other hand, the "normie" people I have as acquaintances are just privileged, and haven't had an original thought in decades -- they're all very similar to each other, and honestly, quite boring.

Open ##1441003
@futurebird@sauropods.win 2026-04-15 14:07

@violetmadder You’re the janitor. You have health care, you have an apartment, and a pension. When you arrive at the school the teachers and kids say “hello— !” because you have been there for a decade and they know and trust you. You spotted a leak in the basement once and probably saved the district thousands of dollars. You know where all the supplies are AND how to get sharpie off of glass. The school is safe and the kids can learn because of YOU and everyone knows it.

Open ##1441005
@StaceyCornelius@zeroes.ca 2026-04-15 14:20

@violetmadder This is so hard. People get ground up by a system designed to do just that and are then judged for getting caught in the grinder. Thank you for saying all this so eloquently. So many people have no idea.

Open ##1441011
@TofuTheSquirrel@piaille.fr 2026-04-15 14:30

@violetmadder I mean... Their answers are very sensible. Part of education is learning that one should not express it that way, and rather frame it as the will to grow and take responsibility and some other bullshit but... It's just an act. It's silly, and it excludes those who have not learned it, but it's just an act.

Open ##1441019
@NilaJones@zeroes.ca 2026-04-15 18:23

@violetmadder It's a big cultural difference between poor working class and middle class And these class cultural differences are impossible for higher middle class people in our society to understand, because they are taught there is no difference When I was working those jobs, I would have given the same answers. I had no sense of a ladder, where work was concerned You just always look for the best job you can find. The one that pays a few cents more than minimum wage, the one that is easier on your body or your mental health. You expect to be earning approximately the same pay for the rest of your life And even my mom, who had a graduate degree in math and was working as an instructor, was doing the same thing. Every year or two she had to look for a new job, and she looked for one that might make a little more money, or that might be in a place that she would prefer to live I don't know if her job would be considered working class or lower middle class. But it was definitely not a job with a ladder Who knows if we will even have industrialized society in 5 or 10 years, at this point

Open ##1441021
@eyrea@mstdn.ca 2026-04-15 19:39

@violetmadder Of my dad hadn't been killed by a sudden heart attack, he had a friend who was going to get him a janitorial job at the high school I went to, and our family was THRILLED at the prospect. Union. Benefits. A pension. And even if the hours were not 9 to 5, they were steady. His education had been massively messed up by WWII, and then when he tried to get his Canadian high school diploma, the guidance counselor told him (incorrectly) he had the Canadian equivalent of a grade 4 education and would have to do so the years to grade 12. He spoke five languages, read non-fiction history books for enjoyment (in English, not the languages he'd been educated in), and taught me math I didn't learn in school until grade 10. In Germany, the second country he'd lived in, after the war, he skipped 5 grades. His teacher offered to go to the school board on my grandparents' behalf because they weren't fluent in German. People wind up in all sorts of positions for all sorts of reasons.

Open ##1441031