this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 4 months ago

Hell yeah anon

[–] [email protected] 72 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago

Employmentmaxxed

[–] FireRetardant 60 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I wish one of my close buddies would get this. He is nearly 30 and has never held down a job. He feels like life is pointless, has no money, cannot afford anything. He kinda wants a job, but all he can imagine are super unique positions like being a jeweler, a historic weapons restoration or other obscure jobs. I hate to burst his bubble but his jobs are often unrealistic for his experience and education level but he refuses to do some basic position.

For example, he has never owned or fired a gun and doesn't have a gun lisence but expects a museum will hire him to work on historic firearms. He refuses to attenpt to get any other positon. He is just waiting for his mom to get enough money to move to a different city so he can go to another college program to try to get this job. He won't even do the first step in my opinion which is getting a gun lisence and getting actual experience with real firearms.

[–] Num10ck 42 points 4 months ago (1 children)

these people are enabled by loved ones. he'll start trying as soon as he has to.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 23 points 4 months ago (11 children)

In my experience, entry level retail work is absolutely soul-crushing and the pay is barely worth showing up for.

People imagine getting a job and moving out of their parents' homes, living Melrose Place style in an apartment full of hotties, having a social life, hooking up, and building adult relationships. But OP's experience seems more like the exception than the rule. A lot of these places have incredibly high churn, no upward mobility, and are a huge physical/emotional suck that leaves you feeling exhausted the moment you're home.

Good for getting a leg up literally anywhere else, as they prove you can "be normie". But horrendous for any kind of actual professional career advancement outside of a casual recommendation going into your next job. And the pay is so bad that it often doesn't even cover the basic cost of living (car, food, utilities, etc). You're still going to be living with your parents. You're not going to have any kind of fuck-around money. There's no promotion path that gets you out of this hole. Its not where you want to spend one more minute of your life than you absolutely have to.

[–] Num10ck 29 points 4 months ago (2 children)

what you say is true, but it beats NEET for mental health. Got to start somewhere. Also theres no reason to only apply to retail jobs. Reach out to every company you can find that fits your criteria (geography/industry/company size, etc .) a librarian can help with this.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

what you say is true, but it beats NEET for mental health.

In my experience, it causes NEET-tier mental health. These rise-and-grind employment situations burn through people rather than developing them into more skilled and useful workers.

Reach out to every company you can find that fits your criteria

By all means, absolutely do that. But I see a ton of dysfunction on the corporate side of the coin that rarely gets acknowledged when we talk about "NEETs" as a social phenomenon. As though hundreds of thousands of young people just woke up one morning and all decided to be lazy at once. From my experience, people are being thrown into an economic wood chipper. Some of them escape. Some miraculously pass through. But a bunch are torn to shreds - physically, psychologically, emotionally - and then told to take responsibility for their mangled state.

I've seen this arc before, aimed specifically at minority youth groups (African Americans, in particular). From my experience, what comes next is a ton of brutal policing and human immiseration for anyone who can't climb through successfully. And then you get another Ferguson.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

My mental health improved considerably after I was fired from my basic retail job and was no longer spending 8 hours a day having panic attacks and dissociating. It's not good, but it's a lot better than it was and I can't go back to living like that. Even a year later I still sometimes wake up in a panic from nightmares about working in that place.

I want to work and be productive, but every job I could reasonably qualify for has a sanity cost and I'm all tapped out.

[–] Num10ck 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

so what are you suggesting these NEETs do instead?

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[–] FireRetardant 6 points 4 months ago

My parents own a swimming pool company. They were willing to pick him up and drop him off at home while he worked for them and he refused to do it. I used to work there too and I will admit it can be labour intensive, but it was a good job, working outside in small teams. Its also a good enterance into plumbing or gas fitting trades and a lot of the labour experience could be used as experience for any trade/job.

The guy defintely has mental health issues as well, he barely does any chores or anything for himself. He wouldn't have even needed an interview for this job, he could have just been ready to work one morning and started.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Yep, imagine that, work that anyone can do sucks balls.

Now let's go back about 80 years or so, when simply growing enough food for your family was a real concern for a large portion of the "First World" nations.

My parents and grandparents were always hungry. Always. It's why my grandparents emigrated to the US, and my parents moved from where they grew up to somewhere with opportunity, hundreds or thousands of miles away from family.

So yea, my soul-sucking jobs (usually 2 at a time until my 30's, sometimes 3 at a time) sucked. But they were still better than what my parents went through, by a long shot.

I had heat, hot water, food, and a car. Multiple changes of clothes and shoes, not just one or two (or none). I didn't have to sleep in the barn with the animals like my grandfather. Or in a cold house with nothing but a wood stove in the kitchen like my parents. And I could shit inside, not have to go to an outhouse in the winter (these still existed, even in cities in the US in the 50's).

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 6 points 4 months ago

Yep, imagine that, work that anyone can do sucks balls.

Given the turnover rate, its not just anyone. The miserable nature of the work and the awful pay tends to make these jobs difficult to fill.

Now let’s go back about 80 years or so

Subsistence farming hasn't been the primary means of employment in the US in over a century.

But they were still better than what my parents went through

The inflation adjusted minimum wage of 1950 was $2 more than it is today. By the 1970s, the min wage was an inflation-adjusted $12.60. And that was with housing at less than a quarter of the going inflation-adjusted rate and utilities practically being free. Americans saw an explosion in quality of life between the 1940s and 1980s, peaking in the 90s at the dawn of the information age.

I didn’t have to sleep in the barn with the animals like my grandfather. Or in a cold house with nothing but a wood stove in the kitchen like my parents. And I could shit inside, not have to go to an outhouse in the winter

My home town of Houston is in its second city-wide blackout in barely more than a month. If our grid degrades any further, or a big enough storm tears up enough excess infrastructure, we could conceivably be back to wood stoves and out-houses by the end of the year. And we're hardly alone. From Flint, Michigan to Miami, Florida, core components of municipal infrastructure are failing in large part thanks to over-investment in consumer facing sales and under-investment in public works.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I had a friend when I was in college. Her older loser brother who lived in her mom's basement called one day. He asked if he could stay with her. She knew him and didn't want to have him staying with her and her boyfriend, taking their sofa, eating their food, and so on. She said "sorry but no".

Apparently he called everyone he knew looking for a place to crash because their mom gave him an ultimatum. Nobody would take him.

After he tried everyone, he killed himself in that fucking basement. 😖

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I hate to say but everyone who said no dodged that bullet. If they took him in and eventually asked him to leave he'd off himself in that person's house instead.

[–] Wilzax 14 points 4 months ago

If someone would sooner kill themselves than find a job of any kind, that's a really sad way to live. I'm so sorry for those that knew him and who have to suffer either grief or guilt that they're not sad that he's dead. But I'm also sorry for that person whose executive dysfunction drove them to avoid any kind of self improvement and made them suicidal rather than determined to change themselves. I wish for anyone who might end up like this again that they find the courage and means to get therapy, and that said therapy prevents this.

Unhealthy minds and unhealthy brains are probably the scariest parts of the body to be unwell.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Jesus Christ. What a tragic life...

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 78 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not Employed, in Education, or Training.

[–] Huschke 37 points 4 months ago (8 children)

I swear, the older I get, the harder it is to keep up with these acronyms.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 4 months ago (3 children)

That's a common phenomenon, it's called AAAAA (age associated absence of acronym awareness).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Damn that's good. Gonna put it in my back pocket.

[–] Rolando 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Oh, so you're gonna GIMP it? (Going In My Pocket)

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[–] CaptPretentious 3 points 4 months ago

I like how, when I'm frustrated with all these new acronyms I don't understand and I just scream... AAAAA! It's 100% accurate!

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[–] momocchi 39 points 4 months ago

This is not a new acronym by any means

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

NEET is a term that came out of the 90s in the UK, and was a borrowed acronym in Japan after that. not a new term by any stretch of the imagination and is barely younger than the modern internet itself.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In academic circles, sure, but it's fairly recent that it has been seeping into internet language, mostly through 4channers who started using the term for themselves in a self-deprecating way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

its often used in circles relating to japan for awhile, mainly anime as shows like Welcome to the NHK(2006) cover it. still technically speaking, not a new term, and i wpuldnt be suprised if /A/ on 4chan used it for more than a decade now. definitely not recent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Well I'm sure it's been in use for a while, but not in mainstream internet lingo is my point.

Speaking for myself, I only learned about this term a year or so ago, because I remember looking it up, and I remember thinking: huh, so there's a word for that now. Since then, I've seen it come up several times, almost always in greentext posts like this one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

We actually used to see this term more often back around the 2010s when 4chan had a bigger presence

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I learned about this acronym in a Geography class in school, 15 years ago, and this wasn't in an English speaking country. So it's old enough and common enough that it was part of the curriculum even though it was a foreign acronym.

[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim 7 points 4 months ago

It's the academic and more polite way of referring to losers who never did anything with their lives.

[–] bandwidthcrisis 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

fr fr no cap blud ong ong 💀 💀 💀

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I only know these thanks(?) to the Internet, honestly.

[–] blazeknave 2 points 4 months ago

*doggone acronyms

Ftfy

[–] TheBat 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Unemployed but not a student either.

Edit: Neither retired.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Yup. Not employed, trying to get employed, or working to improve employaibility. If you're old w/ a nest egg, we call it retirement. If you're not, we call it mooching.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

"Not in Education, Employment or Training"

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

That's great anon, really. But there's also /c/wholesomegreentext now. Let's keep this one focused on 4chan insanity instead. I need my fecality fix.

[–] kamenlady 39 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Idk, the text looks pretty green to me and i don't mind the occasional palate cleanser, in between an enduring fecality fix.

Just like a glorious slice of gari, in between some yummy sushi.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

Plus, like, Lemmy ain't big enough for that kind of specialization yet, in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

I need some light racism with overtones of misogyny from angry asocial loners.

[–] samus12345 20 points 4 months ago

Fake it 'til you make it. Good on Anon.

[–] Sam_Bass 15 points 4 months ago

Yeah its a hard door to break down but well worth it

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Turns out if you go out of your way to not be a sexual deviant, people won't have a safe word around you. Go, Normie.

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