This is a massive overshare on main that I’ve never really told anyone but like my dad is dead okay (most ppl know this that isn’t the overshare). He had cancer. He stopped getting treatment and just kind of gave up. When he knew things were getting bad he didn’t seek any type of help or anything he just let himself wither away. Very traumatic for me very awful very 0/10 recommend as an experience. Anyway I’ve always had a theory that he lost his entire will to even exist bc his once thriving industry went under and he couldn’t really make money at it anymore, so he was forced to pick up work he despised making a fraction of what he was used to, and you could tell he was miserable. Just going through the motions. Being forced into a humiliation ritual every day as a 60 year old man with decades of experience bc the world took a turn and he was left behind. I think he felt there was really no point bc he didn’t see a way to get ahead ever again. So he just literally allowed himself to die quicker. I say all this to say, this is what a large percentage of Americans are experiencing now. Things they’ve worked so hard for, paid for an education for, and have years of experience in…gone. Forced into roles making slave wages or cannot get jobs at all. I witnessed what that did to a singular person firsthand. Losing your passion. Losing your livelihood. Feeling like you put so much into something that became a waste. We are not in a good place as a nation. People are giving up. I can recognize it because I’ve watched it.