/lit/ - Literature

i write terrible cringy poem and one day i will die and they will be published by my survivors and people will mistakenly find merit in them because i am a corpse

>>15067072
the thing is, fiction is mostly useless for everyday life (inb4 anti-intellectual, just being real) and we should only study practical advice and stoicism for daily life so that we can do something successful and interesting in life.

Basically just read non-fiction from now on.

>>15067088
Isn't fiction inspirational? It allows us to conceive of possible worlds that we can't experience. It also cultivates empathy and allow us to understand alternate worldviews

If anything the solution is to stop reading and create something

>>15067085
Don't be like that guy who shot himself on Harvad's campus to shill his manifesto but it ended up being complete trash

>>15067088
Pretty much
I grew tired of fiction and got myself too-deep into nonfiction stuff which is mostly stuff like astrophysics, medicine, and history.

If I were to try fiction, it's either that book be well informed and well researched or I would lose interest quickly
I grew tired of Game of Thrones because of its unrealistic and unhistorical politics play. Paramedic was a wild ride as it was written by a real paramedic.

I work as a data processor for an offshore survey company. Mostly it's to do with processing multibeam data and ROV positioning.
Being offshore has a detrimental effect on my psyche. I suffer from terrible sea sickness so if the weather is rough I'm struggling with the thoughts of suicide, quitting my job and the mistakes I've made that led me to this point. On the other hand it helps me to build character and appreciate hard work. But the work itself is insanely dull and boring, to the point it being comical.
The best way I cope with this is I see my job as a form of punishment for the things I've done earlier in life and the choices I made which landed me where I am.

>>15067191
what did you do to deserve being punished?

Priest is the only /lit/ occupation.

>>15067405
lawyer is pretty /lit/

>>15067493
>doc review

how is this /lit/ again?

Would becoming a military officer of FBI agent be interesting? Or would I just be trapping myself in mountains of retarded bureaucracy

>>15067493
I hate it but I love it. Just like my writing. Just like myself.

>>15067538
From what I’ve been told being an officer is mountains of bureaucracy right now but I’m still interested.

>>15067072
Most lives are equally interesting if watched closely enough.

>>15067538
by sheer word count alone its would be /lit/ as fuck. but also for the understanding of logic and the cornerstones of law you have to have as a foundation to later waste your time reading court proceedings.

>>15067493
Is being a lawyer actually decent and worth it?

>>15067944
If you like it
Extremely high competition
Low salary
Low chance of employment
Extreme stress.
If you were lucky enough to work for a politician, you can bet that your boss is an ass.

But of course, every career has its flaws. Know what you believe has more pleasures than flaws based on your passions

>>15068025
>low salary
If you to to a T14 and graduate in the upper portion of your class your starting is 200k and in a decade will be closer to a million

>>15067072
I could go to medical school, become a miltiary officer, or go work in the oil fields in Angola.

Graduating college this year. I have no clue what to do with my life. Dubs decides. I'm open to doing anything that isn't degenerate.

>>15067072
NEET of course

>>15067166
>Paramedic was a wild ride as it was written by a real paramedic.
What's the name of this book? Can't really find lol

>>15068082
>>15067166
https://www.amazon.com/Paramedic-Front-Medicine-Peter-Canning/dp/0804116148/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=praetorian0f-20&linkId=081d7e7607ec9914312054aa1db1f9fc

This?

>>15068093
Yup.
Hot Zone and Devil in the Freezer were also absolute non-fiction horrors. Scarier than any other shit I've seen

>>15068145
Thanks fren. Any other medical non-fiction or general non-fiction you'd recommend too?

>>15067599
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>15068204
I also recommend One Perfect Op. Written by an actual Navy Seal, who were part of Team Seal Six, and was among the Red Cells who were given the rights to raid USA bases to show flaws on security

He wrote well how they managed to abduct the Captain himself and beat the laser trip wires of an air base that they were so proud of simply by dashing through with a metal sheet.
They were hated by the higher ups precisely because how well they were doing until the team was scrapped from the action and reduced to just advisor duties.
All because some superior said that he was abused by the Seals. Footage show that they did nothing out of protocol but the damage was done and their rights for the action was lost.

He also wrote about their raid on Granada and the bullshit going on there and how plenty of their friends were lost because the boat fell and yet they cannot mourn until they got home and was debriefed

>>15067072
I just want to read about others. I want to leave no trace on the world when I'm gone, do nothing memorable or notable.

>>15067072
I became schizophrenic after being in college for 10 years, attempted an incoherent blood magick ritual during a final exam, threatened the school because someone insulted a voice in my head, became homeless, went to europe to die, had a mystical experience, came back to the US, was homeless some more, got a sort of ok job and have been functional subsequently albeit poor. Finishing my Bachelors this year. Otherwise the only interesting points of my life are just video games and being abused as a child I guess.

>>15068258
Badass, I'm gonna read these books anon. I like your taste, anything else?

>>15068046
That's like 1% of the lawyer population, which is already 1% of the population. Also those 200k big law jobs steal your soul and are for the chads and stacies that never question any mode of authority or think critically about anything that doesn't move them up in the world.

>>15067493
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>15067590
You're probably right

What's the solution? Other government jobs that aren't just standard office work:

FBI Special Agent
DEA Special Agent
State Foreign Service Officer
US Marshall

Anything else worth considering? Am I crazy for considering doing these to have some exciting life experiences?

>>15068729
Navy SEAL?

>>15068380
If you are that interested in nonfiction then don't miss out on official military manuals written by the Department of Defense
https://archive.org/details/military-manuals

I recommend the improvised ammunition manual. Create explosives that look like bricks, create napalms with gasoline and animal blood, and of course, destroy a tank using a bag of sugar/salt/sand - load it on the gas tank and vola. You have caused a $1M engine to go fubar

surgical radiography

>>15068744
Thanks anon! People like you are why I keep coming back to this shithole

>>15068735
Don't think I'd want to join the military except as an officer, and you can't try out for special operations units for a few years if I understand correctly

Which means a few years of basic officer bureaucracy

>>15068729
>Volunteering to be an enforcer of the military-industrial complex
Where's that guillotine when I need it?

>>15068870
Then tell us how to live an exciting life in 2020 faggot

>>15068870
>Preferring a non-controversial bourgeois life to grappling with the reality of the human condition

"Many are domestic animals and happy that way. I speak instead to the men who feel stifled by this bug world"

>>15069031
I never advocated for that at all lmao. Take up piracy, rob banks, be a park ranger in Africa that shoots poachers. Be homeless & live under a bridge like a troll. Idk.

>>15068920
No. If your imagination is so limited all you can come up with is "work for government, cos they let me shoot guns at poor brown people occasionally" then you're going to suck as a writer anyway.

>>15067072
I work as HR and also as a Pimp on the side

>>15069064
It’s not about being some eccentric anon; it’s about being a man of vitality

>>15069064
Post physique. I bet your wrists are 6 inches.

>>15069092
Oh, and going & licking the boots of someone in a hierarchy above so that society gives you PERMISSION to have adventures will you make you a "man of vitality"? Pathetic. If you'd have ever known anyone in the military you'd know I'm right.

>>15069097
It's irrelevant whether I'm built like a truck or a twig - you're the one advocating being a cuck for bankers as if there wasn't a thousand better ways of being "a man of action". Quit seething so hard lmao.

It doesn't matter what job you have so long as you don't end up like this guy

>>15067493
Working alone is /lit/

>>15069724
wagecuckery and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
This is really sad, but he was not strong enough to go against the grain and payed the price. It is noble of him to warn others. Working jobs like that is fucking cringe. Never give up the dream bros.... We are all going to make it. UBI will happen within our lifetimes, and then it will be easy, just hold tough until then.

>>15069724
Anon, I needed that. Holy shit. I've been a lazy sack of shit for the past few days. I'm not anything like that guy but I've been moved in my drunken state.

Would you believe even being boring can end up a really worthwhile career? You think Kurt Cobain would have been half the rockstar without the crippling drug addiction? I don't suggest being boring or drug addicted but I've been close to both and things worked out well enough

They refuse to publish me like any true genius but fuck'em

I feel there's a lot of people who might have been extremely online during their teens during the early 2000s that felt they would one day get off the computer and live in the "real world" only to find that the real world had gone online once they became adults. That's at least an interesting perspective for me creatively.

>>15069750

What if you're not boring but just too much of a shell to even write about it or put it into something at this point

>>15067072
I'm an international relations grad student who spends most of his days writing political theory and philosophy.

>>15069767
Do you really want to be known as the fucking Dr. Seuss of the 2030's? Who gives a shit?

>>15069775
I wish I could post some of my writing here, but I can't dox myself. My strange life is that I live a dual life, one inside my mind and one with the people I work with and the people I love. In my head, I am something of a radical, an ideologue. I have grand ideas, heretical ideas that would see me killed. What do my professors know of this? Nothing, they see me as just someone who believes in the Categorical Imperative to a fault, even though I leave clues in my writing. My friends? They know none of this either, I drop hints here or there, but they're too stupid to figure it out. Even my own girlfriend doesn't know of my true political beliefs, as they are a closely guarded secret. I cannot reveal them, as they would leave me in exile from my social class, the class of the intellectuals, who are so degenerated and hedonistic that I would gladly see them crushed. But I must tolerate them for a time, until hopefully some man with greater strength and wisdom than myself will perhaps be inspired by what I write, until I can take someone under my tutelage and then reveal to them the bare truth of things.

>>15067072
Archeologist

>>15069800
Rule #1 of philosophy: Recognize that you are NOT the only one who has deep thoughts

>>15069805
I have a friend who went into archaeology believing that it was a /lit/ field before she decided she hated it and studied Epigraphy instead, which is much more /lit/.

>>15069807
I know well my thoughts aren't the only deep ones, but my thoughts are deeply unorthodox and if I ever revealed them, I would be reviled by everyone for my hetrodoxy.

>>15069807
I thought the point was to pretend you were though, at least in your pedantric writing

What's the most /lit/ way to go out in the world and have an adventure? Should I master a foreign language and go for the academic route? Or maybe is it better to become one of those white trash english teachers and go live in some distant place in south east Asia with chaotic streets and ancient temples invaded by monkeys? I don't want to sound naive, maybe the outcome will be that I don't like other lifestyles and that I'll be content to stay in the comfyness of the city I was born in forever.

>>15069814
Be humble, mate.
We have people here who experienced more tragedies in life than whatever youtube videos you have seen.

Personally found a NASA scientist and a British Lord around here

You are not unique, you are having a Dunning Kruger Effect

>>15067599
Rather beautiful.

Forest ranger

>>15067072
No one's suggesting librarian or bookstore worker?
Seriously, /lit/?

>>15070589
>mfw I'll never date the qt blonde clerk of my local bookshop
she's so cute bros

>>15070600
Oh, that's easy.
Ask her what her favorite books are and never again shall you find her attractive

>>15068446
A vast number of great writers worked in Law.

Law texts even make their way into actual literature, starting with the Apology of Socrates.

>>15070614
mind that edge anon

>>15070673
What edge?
You are on /lit/
You know what that girl is going to answer and you would instantly know what kind of person she is

>>15070688
I'll keep my little miss pipedream and my positive view of people, thanks

>>15070743
Take the chance. At worst would only lose a basic bitch. At best you would find a friend
See if you can grow that to love after months of hardwork

>>15070755
Don’t listen to this loser. Ask her out or don’t idc but don’t fawn over some bitch for months. I’ve been there and it’s not worth at all.

>>15068069
Where are you from?

>>15069064
The fact that you think robbing banks is remotely close to living with a military bearing and ethic is telling.

>>15069775
I want to do this. How do you write? Do you just maintain a blog or something?

>>15069800
Do you intentionally hide your beliefs or do they just not bubble up to your day to life?

>>15069805
Are you an archaeologist? I think this is interesting.

>>15067538
>>15067590
Military officer here. Maybe 20% of your first four years is leading soldiers, the rest is staff work which involves almost exclusively Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Adibe Acrobat. The 20% is worth it though, especially if you deploy, but these days the war is pretty much over for everyone not SoF (and even they don't really see that much combat).
After you get a command you'll never see the line again. Anon is right about beuracracy. It's unreal.

>>15069831
You’ll never know if you don’t go. There’s no one size fits all recommendation to being adventurous. You have to step off the beaten path and break taboos, which is something you can’t do with a standardized recommendation.

>>15067191
Hmm while my job is OK I feel oddly similar about my general position in life, I feel as if I am being punished for past deeds. It's just karma.

I'm unironically a detective. I work 6 days then get 4 days off so I have time to write, but ~65% of the time I want to leave

>>15070786
America

>>15070965
So why oil fields in Angola?

To be remembered, you need to have to two things. 1. The character to do something worth remembering. 2. The opportunity to do exactly that. When you work all your life (literally for someone else’s glory) then you prob won’t have the opportunity do do something great. If you do not work on yourself and build character, then you’ll the same outcome. Simple, either you succeed in whatever great thing you want to achieve or you’ll be forgotten.

I'm a forester
It's fulfilling

>>15067072
Most good authors had no life and spent their time reading and writing ie. Proust, Flaubert

>>15070855
Go navy, drive and fight ships and be on the job until you either get a command or wash out into some staff billet.

>>15070994
That's where I got an offer. Usually you go to some foreign shithole for adventure. Maybe, I'll meet some interesting people.

>>15068429
that’s why I’m doing Based public interest work at a t14 senpai

>>15069724
>9-7 job

Anon I pull consistent over 60 hour weeks I'd already have finished my novel by now if I had his bitch-ass schedule

>>15069775
What theorists do you focus on?

Mearsheimer?
Strauss?

Dugin?

>>15069800
If you're not a Straussian to some degree I will lose my mind

>>15067599
>>15070033
Are you fucking kidding me? How did you guys grow up????

Most people, especially middle class to upper middle class people, live effective non-lives. The only people I know who are interesting to talk to are either broke or extremely successful. There's no real middle ground.

>>15070832
I sometimes just write stuff for my professors, but I have a handful of articles published in journals.

>>15070847
Intentionally. I pretend I am a very rigid Kantian, but really I am extremely authoritarian in my outlook to the point of totalitarian thought.

>>15071312
Lately I've been focusing on Rawls and whether his theory of justice can be reconciled with authoritarian regimes. Also have done some Schmitt scholarship.

>>15071318
>Straussian
P much, but with an idea of synthesizing it with radical authoritarian ideas from both the left and right, with these views being justified not by the respective theories behind them in the left and right, but being justified through the application of the categorical imperative and Rawls' view of justice.

>>15071385
Anon do you feel like the justifications you're giving are just back-support for the position you want to argue in favor of? Not necessarily a criticism.

I wonder if this is what a lot of academic life is. For example, you want to make a case for authoritarianism, so you find a way to use the norms of Rawlsian political theory to reach this conclusion

Does anywhere other than Telos publish Schmitt scholarship?

>>15071385
>I sometimes just write stuff for my professors, but I have a handful of articles published in journals.

Do you have any advice then? I’m not a grad student so I’m thinking of just starting up a blog but that seems so amateurish and dead.

>>15071385
Are you really that radical if you hide your true beliefs from everyone around you though?

>>15071444
I genuinely do agree with Rawls' overall premise of justice, I just think that his conclusions about liberal democracy are mistaken, and that liberal democracy is a social system that is doomed to bring about social decay. Schmitt stuff gets published all over the place.

>>15071470
Have novel ideas and don't be afraid to show them to your professors in undergrad. Work on your prose, and don't be afraid to be opinionated in your philosophical work. I can't tell you how many times in undergrad my professors complimented me for "not making it a mystery what you believe." (yes, I know it's ironic).

>>15071475
That's a good point, but probably the radical idea behind it is that I am laying a philosophical groundwork to hopefully then, when I have a more permanent financial situation (such as tenure at a public university) begin writing more openly about my views. And I do occasionally drop snippets of my real beliefs, but sometimes the reaction I have gotten causes me to say "but I mean that only as a hypothetical" or something of the sort.

>>15071477
>With Rawls' overall premise of justice,
So you actually are a Kantian then? What led you down this path?

>>15070854
Its good to see you've overcome the stutter bro. You sound a lot less autistic than you used to. Im proud of you.

>>15071385
I don't see how a Straussian can take Rawls seriously. Have you read Bloom's review?

I'm wagecucking right now, and it's sucking the soul out of me. Whenever I walk to people about it, the response is almost always some variant on "that's how it is, just bear with it" or "things could be worse".

>>15071510
I just found Kantian ethics really convincing and his conclusions match with my feelings of disgust towards certain actions, regardless of their consequences.

>>15071577
I wouldn't say I'm exactly a Straussian, but I would say that is probably the mainstream label that fits me best.

>>15067072
From /sffg/, in Stephenson's The Diamond Age an interesting life is defined as a novel and unexpected life. Alternatively a subversive life.

It comes from purpose, desire, opinion, basically how you evaluate whether something will be good for your life or not. As the Stoics say is the only thing free and in your control.

The vast majority of the population has the most mundane goals, which can be summed up as aiming to live a middle class life. Get a degree, a corporate job, get a mortgage and a house, get a wife and kids, retire with a 401k. With this middle class purpose you will not lead an interesting life.

All the stories we read are people who never wanted this. From Socrates to Skywalker to Siddhartha, they all wanted something more, which led them to have interesting lives.

>>15071498
>show them to your professors in undergrad.
I graduated a few years ago. I’m possibly re-enrolling soon though. I didn’t formally study political science and don’t plan to.

>>15067166
>>15067088
I used to think like you as a STEM guy. Fiction has no bearing on reality and was completely worthless as it didn't provide knowledge, only entertainment. Then I realized that while the situations and worlds in fiction were 99% unrealistic, the characters weren't. The opinions and goals of a character were something any reader could choose to have as well.

>>15071591
I’ve experienced the same. It drives me crazy because if “this is just life”, I have no desire to take part in that kind of “life”. I’m not really sure how to get out of though.

>>15071810
>The vast majority of the population has the most mundane goals, which can be summed up as aiming to live a middle class life. Get a degree, a corporate job, get a mortgage and a house, get a wife and kids, retire with a 401k. With this middle class purpose you will not lead an interesting life.

This is true. My issue is how to recover when I’ve spent the first 25 years on the treadmill to this kind of life.

>>15068729
CIA. NSA.

>>15071844
Ikft. I've spent 20 and I'm going to spend some more. Maybe the problem is there's too many options. Anarchist, backpacker, guy who photographs war zones, treasure diver in the Philippines. We're aren't being told to do something for once. Or maybe we have a Buridan's ass paradox where because these things are so far out we can't evaluate them by any middle class formula of price vs work life balance vs career opportunities like we've always done. They all seem equally distant and we can't choose.

>>15071849
They're all desk jockeys nows

>>15071891
CIA definitely has a field operations part, but with PRISM and XKEYSCORE a desk jockey is still a virtual god.

>>15068069
Go get someone pregnant and open a jazz bar called The Rotten Pear.

>>15071952
That sounds degenerates anon

>>15071884
For me, it doesn’t feel like there’s really options at all actually. I mean I have to earn a living and anything adventurous would require schooling which I’m already finished with (regrettably picked a bug field). Otherwise, it’s corporate desk jobs as far as the eye can see.

>>15071759
Any books that convinced you to the Kantian viewpoint? I've only read the Prolegomena and the Groundwork

>>15072181
what field? Why not just go live in a monestary?

>>15072181
If you've ever been homeless or in the military you'll find out how little a person needs in terms of hygiene and food to subsist. Earning a living in our context means making a first world salary to fund our lifestyles. Like the Stoics and Buddhists say, the less material desires you have the freer you are. This is how society also functions at high levels of efficiency, by using a fine tuned system of carrot and stick to funnel people into repetitive but personally optimized tasks.

But strictly speaking, you have as many options as you can imagine. You may not get what you want, but you are free to pursue anything.

>>15067072
>i want to study and write philosophy
I write philosophy and read every day
>I want to develope virtue and practice asceticism
I've adapted to a virtuous, disciplined lifestyle to the best of my ability
>I want to honor my family tradition of military service
I'll become an officer after uni

If the opportunity arises, I'll try my luck with politics and a family; if it doesn't, perhaps I'll actually finish reading the 64 book compendium on the great works of the west and be able to write something of value. I want to spend my life in solitude and simplicity whilst helping my loved ones and so I do

>>15069724
How do people end up like this?

>>15067072
I'm planning on becoming a hermit up in the mountains like my father. I've been in dispute with the government over lands rights for few years, so I hope now I can move up there with a few sheep and get in touch with the world.

How do the Normies do it? Is there really such fullfillment in career, partner and kids? Am I just trying to cope or are they?

>>15072367
How would you do that? Would you just permaculture and then read all the time? How does that practically work?

>>15069724

>>15071219
Yet here you are shitposting on /lit/.

>>15072695
Anon it's a weekend

>>15069800
>there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

>>15073009
this but unironically

>>15073042
I bet.

>>15071219
Guy's a banker, dude. And he says that he was given a big promotion.
I doubt that time outside at the office is synonymous with day off for such a magnificent hardworking wagecuck.

> be me
> live at the stables for free to help my sister and be with horses
> read books, write shit, draw stuff, phonepost, be schizo
> i am the horseanon

>>15072758
So then why aren't you writing your book instead of shitposting?

>>15073644
>live at the stables for free to help my sister and be with horses
Sounds pretty comfy desu

>>15072758
So then why aren't you writing your book?

>>15073700
Not him but I live in a farm
Shit, shit, shiiiiiiiit
Rainy days are horror season.

They don't smell at all but I am a germphobe

Though, yeah. I ain't trading this for rich life in the city

>>15073622
You're right. My boss only thinks about work and recovery from work during his time off. Pathetic.

>>15073644
noice

>>15073708
>implying 4chan isn't in my book
Daddy tao lin showing us the way

>>15073644
Sounds cool bro, I kind of envy you

>>15069800
Yep it's autism

>>15067072
I'm a pseudo-contractor for a variety of local political campaigns, meaning that I hop from campaign to campaign, sometimes with a contract and sometimes not, and occupy different positions (field director, field organizer, etc.) depending on their needs. It's long hours and painful work and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. You get paid well, but employment is always temporary because campaigns are temporary. With the pandemic all campaigns have pretty much put their field work on hold, so I'm unemployed. I'm going to grad school in DC this fall, so maybe I will make something of myself. Not holding my breath.

>>15069724
The Stranger

>>15073717
Yeah I grew up in the countryside but we didn't have many animals other than rabbits and chickens. I got bored of it so I've been living in cities since i was 18, but it's kinda growing back on me. I'm more drawn to keeping an orchard and garden rather than bigger animals tho.

>>15073717
>>15073644
I gave up ranch life to go to college because I had to “do something with my life”. So, I shook hands with the Jew and accepted his usury loans to get an education, in economics of all things, a worthless field of study if ever there was one. Now I live alone in a suburban dystopia with my wage slave job amongst actual basedboys and bugs with their Tiger King and Pokémon Go or whatever the fuck. I still basically live paycheck to paycheck and I have so much debt that I couldn’t go back to the ranch if I wanted to. I wish I could say that at least college was worth it but it wasn’t at all since I can honestly say that I got nothing out of it.

>>15073717
>Rainy days are horror season
more llike no work season. hate it when ground goes to shit.
>>15073904
mfw im an actual joo and chose the right path for myself
just dont be a goy bro. you can always go back. can you fill for bankruptcy?

>>15073822
Republican or democrat?

Which school?

>>15074241
Democrat. Not by choice but of necessity. When I got to my junior year of college without any work or internship experience, I decided I needed to take the first offer that came to me - and that happened to be work on a congressional primary. After that it snowballed into real jobs via networking. I wish I could work on Republican campaigns without hitting the self-destruct button on my network, but that's not a viable option now.

I'm going to American University.

>>15074634
For what it’s worth, I knew someone who worked on Republican campaigns. He said it’s absolutely miserable because everyone he meets tells him to go die basically. I don’t think he’s even a Republican ideologically anymore either.

>>15074671
>He said it’s absolutely miserable because everyone he meets tells him to go die basically.
Holy Based

>>15074671
Yes, that's how most voter outreach usually turns out. Most people just can't be bothered even if you are a Democrat so I can't even imagine the pain of trying to do field work for Republicans unless you're in Middle America somewhere.

>>15074634
MPA?

>>15074671
Ha. I've worked on republican campaigns. People shut a lot of doors in my face, but it's also a lot less stifling than dem campaigns I'd imagine. It's also a little bit of a fun game

although let's be honest we'd all rather be doing cambridge analytica-esque shit

>>15074948
Masters in IR

>>15074999
Are you going to stay in democratic politics?

the heritage foundation has great food

>>15075134
I certainly hope not. What I'd really like to do is hitch my wagon to the burgeoning group of national conservatives that have their conferences in DC. Perhaps find my way to the State Department and become another unaccountable bureaucrat wielding policy influence to push his own beliefs - only my efforts will be oriented towards the common good.

>>15075169
I would laugh if the moment you got there, the politicians of republicans became someone you don't agree with.

>>15067072
>But most of us are either students, retail-wages, or office drones

>tfw chad manual labourer
>most common job is stop/go man in the middle of nowhere
>get to read my kindle on the job

>>15067088
I'm only getting into fiction (classics) to know what all the fuss is about desu, and so I can feel fully literate.

>>15075169
How did you decide on State anon? I go back and forth on whether joining the bureaucracy is worth it or a trap. Currently a federal contractor.

I've heard really bad things about most of the workers on the government side

>>15075389
I haven't decided yet. There's a number of avenues that can be taken if your goal is influencing public policy in some fashion, but it seems like the straightest shot. I'll admit I am half inspired by Adrian Vermuele's idea of integration-from-within and would very much like to take control of the hulking administrative state and deploy it for my own purposes with other like-minded colleagues. I have ambitions beyond merely making a living.

>>15075424
Have you read BAP's book? He makes a very similar point about getting into positions of power to subvert-from-within. Do you read the Claremont Review?

I've spent a good amount of time in conservative intellectual circles and I'm honestly a little shocked that someone who works for a democratic organization is secretly a nationalist who reads Vermuele. It's hard enough finding likeminded people in explicitly conservative circles.

>I have ambitions beyond merely making a living
I certainly hope everyone else does too

>>15075590
I read Claremont, American Mind, American Affairs, the whole gamut of post-liberal journals that have cropped up since 2016. I'm sure BAP has made similar points, though I am not a big fan of BAPism.

Believe me, it's not easy keeping your mouth shut when the totality of your work life and colleagues are comprised almost exclusively of progressive liberals and DSA types. But I have learned to slip in what I can and leave the more controversial stuff to myself.

>>15069724
This is me, except subtract the dignity of having had a wife and child. My, oh, my.
>>15069738
kek for opening line of your post.

>>15075749
Anon this is hilarious. When you come to DC come to one of the /lit/ meetups. I'm still on the fence about whether you can actually be a real person.

I know nationalists at places like AEI who feel at odds with the organization because they don't support free trade, but you, you make that look like nothing hahaha

>>15075974
>hahaha anon let me dox you
nice one glowie

I was half way through a Classics degree, caught a felony for assault, and now I'm happily a gardener.

Maybe I should write one of those trashy 'stoic' self help books

>>15075974
Unfortunately I'm real. You probably won't find too many others like that though. I'll be starting in the fall semester, so I'm going to make the move some time in the summer. It'd be nice to meet other fellow travelers so I will be on the lookout for any meetups.

Trade policy is one area I am particularly concerned with. Free traders are my biggest enemies. I can tell you from experience most progressives don't give it much thought, which tells you a lot about just how out of sync they are with the real problems facing the country. Same with the constitutionalist right.

>>15069724
Honestly, his 'novel' would likely have been trash - trite, obvious, and boring. I feel some sympathy for Lou, but he's also the type of person who helped launch the use of the word 'basic' as an insult.
>I want to travel the world and help people! I know I'll do that when I grow up!
That's the same sappy sentiment you get from 90% of high-schoolers undergrads today. Nothing original there. Nothing daring. I'm not surprised that he's ended up mired in his discontent.

I suppose at least he realizes he's mired in it, but it also took his wife revealing a decade long affair for him to realize how dead he was inside. Here is a hint - he was dead inside much longer than he thinks.

Anyways, my recommendation is to find a way to purchase land, and try to be self sufficient through husbandry/agriculture. It will not be easy, and you'll likely have some hard times. But there will be things to write about. Nature always provides material.

>>15076176
>find a way to purchase land,
Where in America do you recommend?

>>15071498
>That's a good point, but probably the radical idea behind it is that I am laying a philosophical groundwork to hopefully then, when I have a more permanent financial situation (such as tenure at a public university) begin writing more openly about my views. And I do occasionally drop snippets of my real beliefs, but sometimes the reaction I have gotten causes me to say "but I mean that only as a hypothetical" or something of the sort.
Just come out publicly already. Look at how well it worked out for Mike Anton. If your beliefs are convincing enough, there are still small private colleges that can offer positions.

>>15076185
Depends on your finances, but there is arable land across most of the country. Ensure that you have sufficient access to water (surface water or decent groundwater reservoirs are ideal; you don't want to rely on rain unless you have to), and then read up on what grows well in that region.

>>15067072
>tfw combat medic
>early in contract but I’m gonna deploy next year
>tfw no time to write anyway due to fucking covid
REeeeeeeeeee

>>15076244
Any combat medic books you recc?

>>15067088
Terrible take.

>>15071834
This entirely. Consider Stoner by John Williams. The protagonist is fictitious; most real life people would realistically do more ambitious, risky, and potentially destructive things in their life, even in their youth (sure, Stoner takes at least two significant risks, but they don't seem that big).
But the fiction enables a thought experiment where you can consider, "What if you lived your life with minimal ambition and risk?".

Also consider Catch-22, a piece that helped me realize that other people besides me do manage constant stress, burnout, and toxic leadership by saying absurd things and taking pleasure in absurdity.

Notes from the Underground, and other Dostoevsky books, also help you understand human nature far more effectively than fiction.

>>15067072
Student

>>15070854
I'm studying it, and it's great. You learn different languages and old cultures and get to travel alot.

>>15071334
this to be quite honest

>>15076176
>he is not unique
>what a loser
Yeah, I'm sure you are a special snowflake. Death of a loved one happens everytime in this world, does that mean we should not mourn it?

His self-loathing and lifestory is just another stark reminder to everyone that you must NEVER let yourself be dehumanized into a soulless husk who lived their lives without any purpose than to toil for money. He was once an idealistic youth. Naive as he was, he was alive. That was his regret.

>Anyways, my recommendation is to find a way to purchase land, and try to be self sufficient.
LMAO.
Go fuck yourself.
You either die from natural hazards or be a big foot. Abandoning civilization for your passion is moronic as fuck

>>15076956
You aren't going to starve in the first world if you don't have a job

>>15076163
How did you come to be against free trade? All my economics courses were incredibly biased in favor of it, never went over all the assumptions inherent in the Ricardo two-factor comparative advantage model, never seriously questioned the game-theoretic, dynamic value of "defecting" against a trading partner aside from the platitude that it's not globally optimal from the perspective of a static equilibrium, etc

Personally:
>Free Trade Doesn't Work by Ian Fletcher
>Free Trade Reimagined by Roberto Unger

>>15067072
Aren't most of us NEETs?

>>15076321
Cherry by Nico Walker

>>15076956
The retard that drew this really thought he was poignant.

>>15067072
Pain, striving and suffering, I'd guess. Either that or someone who does interesting deeds if they've come from a background where they didn't have to greatly suffer.

Personally I've lived an incredibly fucked up and unconventional life and I'm going to write it all down and try to get it published. Hopefully it'll sell once it's finished.

>>15067088
>>15067166
Why not both? Find balance, and harmony.

>>15067599
t. God the psychopath.

Is dentistry /lit/? I staved off accepting an offer from a dentistry school just so I don't have to commit

>>15079043
Yes, dentists have the suicide rate from any white-collar profession

>>15079043
What else would you do?

Currently doing a maths degree, what the fuck do I do afterwards? I do some tutoring to get cash and I think that I want to be a teacher at some point. How do I know if academia is right for me? If its not, then what else do I do?

>>15072367
get a few dexter cattle. they are tough and can live on shit land.

>>15067072
What do you guys think about being a high school english teacher? I wanna actually get kids excited about literature but I don’t want to be stuck rereading To Kill a Mockingbird and The Kite Runner for 40 years

>>15079452
>implying you'll be reading Harper Lee in 40 years

Hope you have an interesting take on The Hate U Give

>>15079223
hedge fund trader

if you're gonna sell out go big pussy

>>15079816
You can't do this out of undergrad.

Almost graduated but I don't want to work

>>15078429
It was a combination of real-world experience + theory. I spent a lot of time doing voter outreach in the western fringes of NY where the Rust Belt begins and what I saw there were towns that looked like they had been bombed out, people living in squalor, conditions that look right at home in any third-world country. It's truly awful to walk down the deserted broken street of a former manufacturing hub and see all the small businesses shuttered and talk to people with no future prospects or hope. From there it wasn't a huge leap to reading protectionist economists like Friedrich List and Mihail Manoilescu. To put it simply, the Ricardian trade model might work in a vacuum, but in the real wold that loses a lot of the nuance and it has become strikingly clear to me that China's entrance into the WTO, its elevation to PNTR, and free trade deals with European and North American "partners" cost us millions of good paying jobs and encouraged multinational firms to engage in labor arbitrage abroad for questionable benefits.

From a moral perspective, I enjoy Christopher Lasch's defense of populist-producerism. I've been following the debates in conservative circles on industrial policy and I have zero objections to cutting libertarians loose from the coalition.

im a lawyer with an extremely average life

>>15080403
When will you kill yourself?

>>15080414
I probably won't, I do not have that many suicidal thoughts and never had an actual suicidal impulse

>>15079926
You can’t do this at all. That world is closed off to all but a select few from specific backgrounds and you’ll know if that’s you. If it is, do something more worthwhile with your life. If it’s not, don’t chase the carrot.

>>15077876
Even beggars were found to be making more money than a retail worker

I do pediatric palliative care.

>>15081067
How does your heart not break?

>>15079452
Currently pursuing a Lit teacher degree, but in South America. I'm actually halfway there, and gave a few classes last year, but neolib politicians constantly pushing "reforms" on education make my outlook pretty bleak. Even if you're not a leftist (which I'm not), getting involved in education gives you a clearer perspective about what happens when you let capital and the market run free in this areas. Just burns everything to the ground.

>>15081505
I went into this field precisely because my heart breaks for them. I think if you go into this field cold you arent doing your job properly. In some aspects I wouldnt even call it a job. I go home happy because I give kids painless deaths and they look forward to seeing me. I feel like all the kids are my own and because of that I try to give them the best of care. some parts of the job are unwritten, like hiring costume characters or playing video games with the kids. Those odd little requests is what I try to give. This field is one of the last fields of medicine where its more about the art rather than science of medicine. And I hope it never changes.

Graduated university with a degree in Literature and Film Studies. Now a successful Software Engineer

>>15081534
Raz?

>>15081614
Who?

>>15069087
>pimp
elaborate

>>15081560
what kind of degree do you need for that?

>>15081560
Fuck. I have a general disdain for doctors and modern healthcare but I admire what you do.

>>15076941
Why are you so upset that someone might want to live differently than you, anon? For what it is worth, attempting to be self sufficient doesn't necessarily mean abandoning civilization. Until 150 years ago or so most civilization existed while relying the produce of on small farms.

>>15082068
Why would you hate doctors when 20% of them are already in ptsd - greater than veteran soldiers - precisely because of all the shit they go through everyday

>>15067072
>can't write good literature without interesting life experiences
ever heard of kafka franz?

>>15067072
Can you guys read something I wrote? It's supposed to be like a prelude or introduction to the rest of the book or collection of short stories or whatever.

>>15082246
Sure, post it here or post a link.

>>15082278
I'm 18 and have no experience writing, sorry if it's shit

>>15067072
If you're motivated by being interesting to other people then you're off to a bad start. It's more about getting in touch with yourself, indeed acquiring interesting life experiences but interesting to YOU, for your sake.

I've been to eight countries, spend two months alone in Peru last summer. Playing Dark Souls remains a more important life experience to me. I beat Manus - granted it came from flailing desperately at him with a lightning zweihander, but it mattered a lot to me. If I'm trying to provide someone a story of course I'll talk about Peru, about the people I met and the things I saw, how I teared up watching a religious festival, my sessions with Ayahuasca, etc - but in my heart of hearts I really just want to tell them about my strength builds. Especially in Dark Souls II, where I really had my identity locked down. Main outfit was giant chest, Havel gauntlets, and Vengarl's helm. And I was feared on the Iron Bridge. Sometimes (rarely of course, but it did happen) people I'd fought before would recognize me, bow, and throw themselves into the lava. I ran claymore, partizan, and the greatsword.
Sometimes vengarl's twinblade for cheap thrills. Thee claymore wasn't meta but it worked well in my playstyle, always caught people in the R2 combo. But I wanted to be good with the greatsword the most - that never manifested to my satisfaction, but victories with that weapon were still the most satisfying. I mean to get that sword tattooed on me once this quarantine is over, more as an act of love and tribute than one of vanity.
But who wants to read about that? I do, because it means something to me. I don't get a fix from video games anymore unfortunately but I cherish the memories alongside those of my more marketable experiences, of which I promise you all there are plenty. In any case, good literature is about being in touch with yourself, not emulating a contrived standard of being interesting. Interest yourself

>>15082241
I dropped out of a medical program precisely because my experience with doctors is that they’re almost exclusively in it for the money and the status even if they say otherwise. What’s worse is some of the people I know who went into the profession are generally people I would trust with my healthcare and they are also most prone to typical herd mentality and are willing to shell out pills and other “remedies” willy nilly, perpetuating the healthcare problem. There’s other reasons too. I don’t deny that it’s a hard and stressful job or that they work hard and of course, there’s some who are admirable like any profession.

>>15081934
Im an american doctor, trained in pediatrics with a fellowship in palliative care.

>>15082364
I think you can find those type of people in any profession my friend. Dont lump us all into that.
However in my class you can see the ortho bros/ surgery /radiology autists from a mile away. But id rather have an autist do my brain surgery than a compassionate guy. I don't think the doctors of the future are all about shelling out pills willy nilly, in fact not even my mentors do that. We have classes and training dedicated to not doing that. I think you just found a villian in medicine and just used a broad brush stroke. Dont confuse big pharma and hospital management with doctors/nurses themselves, in some ways we are powerless to them. But look at how medical students got narcan up an running, there is def a positive outlook for medicine in the coming future.


However if you went to some top 10 school, I can TOTALLY get how everyone you saw is a jerk. So I wont deny that doesnt exist. Last year I believe jefferson had a seminar on not being a jerk off to your fellow medical students.

Be the change you want rather than giving up. however, like you said I'm sure you dropped out for other reasons.

>>15082490
based, thank you

>>15080111
hey anon, if youre still in the thread i was wondering if you think the masters in IR is worth it. I finished my bachelor's in IR about 2 years ago, living in japan now working an saving money, picking up some language skills as well.
current plan is to move back to the states and get into local politics before considering a state department job, but im unsure if more school is necessary. master's seems like king of a meme when you can just build connections on the ground and work your way up

>>15082352
Anon I agree but there’s clearly a balance. I also want to be able to speak about my experiences with others and have interesting conversations. I don’t think strictly solitary passions are useful, even on a personal level, without broader material you can use to connect with others

>>15072358
>how do people end up like this?
It's easier than you think. They slip into comfortable jobs and grow complacent. Everything is provided for them, but they live to work. You go to work, have it eat away at your soul for 8 hours, and then go home. You make the first mistake and sit down on the couch, as it's been a long day. You should get up, but you don't. You're tired. Not even physically tired, but mentally and spiritually tired. You're completely drained, you put everything you had into that day's work. All you can bring yourself to do is rest and try not to think about tomorrow, but all the while knowing that it's coming and you feel powerless to change it, which saps any energy you had left. You go to bed and wake up and repeat it. Day in and day out, year after year after year.

You have days off, vacations even, but you still don't have the energy to act on them. You're still spiritually bankrupt, and you spend your days resting in the hopes that you'll finally feel better when you go back to work. You'll finally get your life in order and start making the strides to do what you want for the first time in your life, you just need to rest for just this moment and then you can tackle anything.

But you never do. You go back to work. You don't write that book. You don't go back to school. You don't fill out that application. You just work.

I'm fortunate. I'm still young and I can see the writing on the wall, what the future holds for me. Even still, I struggle to break the cycle despite barely having been immersed in it yet. Never forget that the moment you get complacent is the moment you end up like this. Complacency feeds the body but kills the man.

>>15082729
Definitely worth it. You will exponentially increase your chances of finding work inside the government. The resources and opportunities grad school can provide you alone makes it imperative. The language skills will help.

>>15067166
May I ask you, what do you do know with all those non-fiction that you gathered?

>>15083607
*non-fiction knowledge

>>15083256
Shit man, this is the story of my life as a 36 year old. Money is good and house is comfy and booze is tasty, but soul is dead.

>>15083607
Same as you - Personal enjoyment.
I am far too deep in it to enjoy common fiction now. Everytime a show comes up about medieval stuff, I always cringe at how badly they portray battles and have complete disregard towards formation, tactics, and discipline.
So goes for sci-fi stuff that does not care about proper war doctrines.
And don't get me started on the naive ideas about politics and economy

Bear in mind that I am not "that" guy. I am not judging anyone who likes those stuff.
I'm just a guy who prefers either non-fiction or well-researched fiction or absolutely ridiculous fiction that you cannot question.

The best part about being fond of non-fiction stuff is the company. I love being on /sci/, /his/, and /lit/ because it's almost untouchable by idiots spouting nonsense. Few trolls here and there but nothing cancerous. Everyone has something worth listening too

>>15067085
>and people will mistakenly find merit in them because i am a corpse
Cope.

>>15083256
It’s not just complacency. It’s also getting trapped mostly by debt and fixed expenses such as student loans, car loans, mortgages, a family. Debt is financial servitude to varying degrees and can make it very difficult to be free.

Yeah, so we got any ideas how to actually live cool, heroic lives in 2020?

>>15083537
i kinda figured. was considering grad school outside the US since its cheaper in a number of places but that misses all the networking that can be done stateside. thanks for the reply

>>15083847
That depends. What are you looking for when you say “cool” and “heroic”?

>>15084077
Beats me, what do you think anon?

>>15083841
Very true. To a degree, I tossed those in with complacency because in a lot of cases a steady job enables us to take out more loans, start families, etc.

>>15083629
There's still hope, my guy. The sooner you can see impact is the sooner you can try to find a way out. It's not easy, but it can be done! Take it one step at a time.

>>15084143
I wonder what you mean by “heroic” because I’m not sure you’ll find that except maybe in military service and only if you’re very lucky. I tend to think the military is the best place for young men despite the obvious faults can, valid criticisms, and unlikelihood of heroism.

>>15083847
Should we go into really dirty politics? Roger Stone or Lee Atwater-esque political knifefighting? It wouldn't be pure or heroic, but it would be worth talking about

>>15069384
lmao

Soldier back from the last thread if that one guy or anyone else had more questions about being an analyst.
>>15070855
Maneuver branch? I'm assuming army.

>>15086035
>>15086222
Both sound based to me. For military, the route is clear. Join special forces or intelligence.

How do you become another Roger Stone? Grind your way up the Young Republican leadership?

>>15086493
Link to last thread?

>>15086527
Fuck if I know man, just remember someone asked me something right before it hit the bump limit.
>>15086515
Intel isn't what you think it is, and I'm biased but the only reason to join the military is if you're dead set on going SOF. I suppose that will change with the job market.

>>15086597
>Intel isn't what you think it is,
How come? What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about it? What type of person should go into intel? Are /lit/ autists good candidates for this?

>>15086659
>How come? What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about it?
Regardless of organization, you'll have basically no autonomy until you either pick up a bit of rank, or get deployed. It's like starting out at the bottom of any big organization.
>What type of person should go into intel?
I don't think there's necessarily a type for it, but I can confidently say that if you're a competent adult and a self-starter you'll hate military intelligence outside of SOF.
>Are /lit/ autists good candidates for this?
Unfortunately, if you can string a decent sentence together you're far ahead of most soldiers, regardless of position. Civilian analysts are better. But if you're the kind of /lit/ autist that loves learning languages, then yes absolutely. You will get paid more, and trained more, to learn and read other languages than you will anywhere in industry.

>>15086035
>>15086493
>>15086597
>>15086515
Would you still recommend joining the military as an officer? I know for Army and Marines you don't get to pick your MOS, which gives me a lot of pause.

>>15086515
I'm not sure. Probably getting into some sort of establishment position that supports the Trump campaign for the re-election? I don't think the traditional GOP routes (Heritage, AEI, a Hill job) are the best routes for people with our interests. Even the chief of staff for some establishment hack politician or lead scholar at a neocon think tank doesn't have much freedom to deviate from the party line.

>>15086659
>How come? What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about it?
Didn't really address this in my first answer. I came in expecting the pinnacle of professionalism in the military, but it's still part of the painful government bureaucracy, and has all the trappings as such. I definitely can't see myself doing this long term, but it's definitely the best thing I could be doing right now.

>>15086938
I'm not an officer, but it comes down to what you want to do in the military. 4 years and out, and don't particularly care what you do, or want to go combat arms? Get a ROTC scholarship and commission. You'll get enough field time to outgrow it, and start developing professional skills to take you to the private sector, or somewhere in government. Have you done all the research you can about a handful of jobs and narrowed it to one like I did? Then enlisting isn't a bad idea either. If you want something in between those, look at WOFT, I sure fucking wish I hadn't pulled my packet and enlisted instead. I don't know if that's where your interests are, but I've met a lot of warrants, WO1-CW4, and so far not one has been unhappy.

>>15087023
Is it easy to get a combat arms slot as an officer? I'm currently 23 so would be going the OCS route. I'm only worried about joining and getting stuck with being a logistician or some other computer-bound job, in which case I'll just stick with the dull office job I have now.

>>15087056
If you're going OCS then yeah, MI, Signal, and Logistics are all much more competitive for OCS than ROTC. Or just get in the best shape you can now so your OML is high enough to get first pick. And get in shape anyway, because no matter what you branch, your platoon will hate you if you suck at PT.

>>15087056
I’ve been looking into this as I’m considering the same though I’m older than you. I was told that branching slots are awarded based on performance at ocs and if you’re a performer you can get one of the branches you want even if it’s not your first choice. I’m still iffy on it to be honest but given the alternatives I think it might be a good path for me regardless of branch. My only hang up is my timeline for school.

>>15087189
>>15087056
>>15087023
Where do you guys find information about this? Is there a book that gives an overview? I hate having to scour internet forums to find answers to this shit

>>15087528
Go to /k/ and look for the /meg/ thread. Otherwise, I just find information online and from talking to people. You can talk to a recruiter without committing to anything.

>>15071510
What? You can agree with Rawls and not be a Kantian

>>15088196
No

>>15067072
I want to become a family doctor.

>>15088970
Ew

>>15088970
Boring

>>15069724
Its never too late to change

>>15089126
lol bs

>>15090021
There's a one-legged senior citizen who climbed mount Everest
And a 40 year old woman who became part of a metal band

>>15088970
Based, but make sure you won't switch to philosophy halfway through your study.

>>15090877
Philosophy IS part of a medicine course because you would need to know how to keep yourself sane during worst case scenarios.
That's what my aunt told me in her school though

>>15090947
I suppose you could look at it that way, though I was referring to that Schopenhauer picture, who went into uni as a med student and got out as a philosopher.

>>15091696
Any good bios on him?

>>15068842
You would never make it as a seal. Your best bet would be marine ocs and try to become the type of person capable of special ops. Which the corps culturally and structurally assists you in

Previous jobs in chronological order: has station attendant, subway sandwich maker, grocery bagger, special operations paratrooper, grocery bagger, warehouse/purchasing manager,
Forklift driver, warehouse worker, photographer, bartender, “jazzy chair” repairman, halloween store clerk, bourbon salesman, warehousing manager, pharmaceutical delivery hub manager, facility manager for autism clinic.... clinic got bought out out by larger corporate entity and I’ve been riding unemployment since November. On the bright side I used the extra time to publish a novel and just finished another. Already working on the next one and planning another series

>>15092202
>You would never make it as a seal.
Why?
>become the type of person capable of special ops
What does this entail?

>>15069764
underrated post

I work on the staff of a medical journal, i.e. office drone

I don't think there is such a thing as a /lit/ occupation. It's more about having the /lit/ character, if that makes any sense.

>>15067072
I'm 25, an alcoholic pot head and have a new job every 3 months since I was 16 years old. I have even landed good jobs, but am not nearly functional enough to keep them. I just stop going to work. I've never been fired. I fight with the idea of suicide daily.

I cannot say for certain that I even care about succeeding in the career and economic areas of life at this point. I am tired of life.

Coast Guard. I'm drunk and the thread is dying. Ask away.

>>15092477
What’s the sodomy situation on those boats

>>15069807
Thats where youre wrong kiddo

>>15092465
Don’t do it. My nephew hung himself at 23 fighting with booze. He was just a baby and hadn’t figured everything out.There’s so much to live for. Find a way to push through. Quit the drinking. Find something worthwhile to take its place. Don’t check out early. I’m halfway through my 40’s and I can tell you things are going by too fast. Don’t give in. There’s beauty everywhere if you stop to look for it. I hope you get help. I didn’t fin my passion for writing until I was 28 and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. You’ve got plenty of time to be things other than tired. Don’t give in, friend

>>15071591
Buy a gun and shoot yourself

Im not saying that in a hateful way, I wish I had the courage

>>15092486
It's not gay if it's underway. But really though sex amongst crew lads to solid punishments. It's a no-no.

>>15072384
Just raise a small flock of sheep. The area was only abandoned in '06, so most of the moors around it are already drained. The hills are grown, too, so you can send the sheep there to graze in summer. Then you get a scythe, cut down the grass in the autumn, put it on a horse, and keep it there for winter when you herd your sheep back into the barn. It's not complicated.

>>15092509
>>15092509
Sorry for your heart wrenching loss. It would hurt my family if I killed myself. I'm aware.

Something odd, when I was 10 I told a friend I would kill myself at 25. It's so weird to me that I think I am somehow managing to fulfill that prophecy. A child shouldn't possess such power in words to affect their disposition in adult life. Another part of me wonders, "how did I know?"

>>15071836
Unfortunately, suicide is literally the only option. Life has been, and will probably always be, an abysmally worthless and trivial thing. There is simply no possible way in which it could be considered “good” or even worthwhile. I simply cannot begin to fathom how life could ever be worth living.

>>15092562
I'd rather not enslave animals as part of my lifestyle, even if it's a mutually-beneficial relationship.

>>15092633
Theory: Your friend's disbelief irked you to such an extent that you unconsciously made it your life goal to fulfill the prophesy. So, little by little, your subconscious manipulated you into a depression, calculating the exact amount of crap needed to make you deeply suicidal at 25. Hope you don't do it anon

>>15092633
You have forever to be dead. Enjoy the sensations of the living flesh of only for the better part of a century. You won’t regret it.