this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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I currently scrub toilets for a living while I'm back at school for a mid-life career change. I work ten hours tonight, my feet are still a bit sore from my shift two days ago.
Suck it up, buttercup, get a real job. I'm not sharing all of this to sound like I'm better, I'm sharing this to show what a significant chunk of people do for a living, Joe Jobs.
Being a social media influencer isn't a job for most people, it's a vanity hobby.
This is the most boomer take I've ever seen on this website. And that includes what few conservatives have filtered in.
yeah I'm pretty shocked that a socialist website would value labor over entertainment like that
That entertainment is labor. What are you talking about?
Socialism is about more than unions, that's just the most obvious aspect in a heavily capitalist society. It's about the sharing of burdens, which includes more than physical labor.
Does social media create a physical product? Remember, computers need engineers to repair them and electricians to keep the power on. Physical infrastructure.
May I ask what your age range is, and what you do for a living, as well as how much income you make?
By that metric do authors or poets or actors create a physical product? Do computer programers? Since the death of physical media, books and art are now far more frequently digital than paper or canvas. Applications and software is 100% digital. Newspapers are dead, so journalists don't create a physical product. Is your argument that only physical labor producing physical things is "real" work?
No, there is value in artistic expression and other intangibles. Our ideas are what give the tangibles scope.
What I AM saying is that people seem to think that social media influencers are more important than farmers or gas station attendants or grocers. No they are not. Most aren't creating anything more than a hobby level. That's okay if that's what you want to do with your time, just don't expect sympathy from those who feed you, keep your lights on, and ensure the comfort of all.
Why won't you feel sympathy for someone who's hurting? Why do you feel that someone needs to fall into a very narrow category to be "worth your time"?
Just because someone doesn't fall into your narrow view of what's worthwhile doesn't mean they're not worth basic human compassion.
Of course they are worth compassion. I just don't understand their desire to be the center of attention, when all the acclaim of the crowd doesn't truly bring individual satisfaction.
Fame is fickle and not worth chasing. Achilles found that out the hard way.
There is that aspect of it, but there's also the aspect of writing your own destiny, about creating something you care about instead of just being a nameless cog in an industrial machine putting out consumerist crap day in and day out. Why is the latter more admirable to you than the former?
It doesn't come across as you appreciating value in artistic expression and other intangibles when you say "suck it up and get a real job". That may not have been your intention, but it can definitely be read that way. I think that is the "boomer" people have commented on.
I don't think there are really that many people who think social media creators or better than farmers or essential services personnel, and those that do are completely out of touch, but there are plenty of people who see alternative media creators as less than any other job. I personally think A-list actors, celebrities and sports professionals are no better than grocery store worker or warehouse person, but I won't deny they work just as hard in different ways.
My point is that no matter what, if you have success at something, there's going to be blood, sweat and tears involved. Sisyphus doesn't complain about his boulder for cheating Death, why should they? It's pointless.
Just keeping up with the boomer takes...
Something doesn't need to be a physical product to hold tangible value.
Where did I say that social media creates no value whatsoever? I'm just saying that without those who work in physical reality, creating tangibles with tangible things, make the mental edifices possible.
Also, you didn't choose to share your profession with us. It makes me think that you're attempting to create a social media presence of your own. Trust me, it's pointless. I had a facebook fan page with 150-175 people on it. All foolish vanity, nothing more.
To win the acclaim of the mob is what the worst of us amongst human beings do. Do you want to be a politician in terms of expression?
Either that or I don't think value is only subjective to what you do for a living. That my opinion is somehow less valuable because I don't fall into a specific field you perceive as valuable.
And often those non-tangible things help to give those who make the tangible things the willpower to go on. It's not a one way street, where value is only created by those who create tangible goods and stolen by the intangible. That's a very pessimistic, if not "holier-than-thou" perspective. As though anyone who doesn't do what you respect isn't worth as much as someone who does.
Like I said, a very boomer attitude.
Who did you vote for?
What business is it of yours who I voted for? I even voted for Musk, so what?
You're not the best troll, but practice makes perfect. Keep it up!
You figured me out
Do I get a cookie?
here, take a pie from the shelf
Now I can officially say Pie Fed me.
Who did you?
As Mark Twain would attest to, I voted for the used diaper.
You are better.
No I'm not, walking down that path leads to arrogance and unearned pride. I just live in reality, instead of falling prey to the lies of false riches in the social media popularity contest.
Seek for your own answers and Know Thyself. Please, all of you that are always on social media. Withdraw, do not fall prey to the Siren's Tale of the Glory of Achilles. Instead, seek a good life, one that is quiet, and belongs to you.
Do not become a false god, you cannot live up to that burden.
You're not like everyone else!
Yes I am.