[AKN #101] Everything Is Terrible AND You Can Help Fix It
LAUGH: An Interesting Question To Ponder, LOVE: RadioShack Has A Hell Of A Week
Sup homies?
Yesterday was Independence Day in the United States, but today is the perfect day for a rant about Independence Day.
The 4th of July is a day where the US celebrates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. However, in recent years amongst certain groups of people, it has instead become an annual day of railing against the “fictitious freedom we have in the United States.”
Certain groups choose to use the time to remind you that it is a hard day to be patriotic because “everything is terrible.”
Now, America is not without its faults. For instance, Independence Day would have been on July 2nd, however the Founding Fathers spent two days revising the wording of the Declaration to “remove its vigorous denunciation of the slave trade.”1
But I am always irked by the people who scream the “everything sucks” message the loudest on this day because — more often than not — they are the ones who benefit most from America.
They make six figures and live in the best parts of town. In fact, they even pay a 25% rent mark up to live in a modern apartment building which trades character for convenience. A soul less millennial compound whose basement is outfitted with a gym, spa, and daily trash valet.
They work from home and were able to remove themselves from any COVID risk until a vaccine was available by following the 5 D’s of avoiding COVID exposure — Dodge, DoorDash, Deliveroo, Dominos, and Dodge.
They go to brunch several times a week and order $30 millennial treats from some place that’s just two words separated by an ampersand. Cracked&Battered. Squat&Gobble. Dan&Shay2.
Their life is objectively GREAT. Yet there is unrest.
Now we could point these people back to how bad things used to be and how good we have it in comparison.
Like back in the day we couldn't just go order a crab benedict from Craftsman&Wolves from your phone. No. In fact when I was your age, I had to go to a food truck and make a whole charade about asking the lady who runs the food truck what I should get…only to realize that the food truck lady is giving off “I’m drunk on cough medicine” vibes. Now here I am getting a recommendation from a lady with huge “I drank too much Robitussin” energy and all I can do is nervously laugh, accept her recommendation, and say “as long as it’s not too spicy!”
But honestly, bringing up pastoral comparisons like that is a distraction from the heart of the issue. Some people DID suffer this year. They LOST rights they once had and they are ANGRY about it. That anger makes sense. I am not here to undermine that real suffering.
Which is why rather than focus on “well you should think about how bad it used to be”, I would like to instead dissect the fundamental issue with the “everything is terrible” movement.
“Everything is terrible” is a disempowering narrative. If you internalize this message, you are left feeling as though you have no agency over your life in America.
You are left to think awful is inevitable, there is nothing we can do, and maybe it makes sense to burn it all to the ground.
Then it gets worse.
Thanks to a portion of our brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS), when human minds are told everything is shitty, they become better at finding more data points to support that things are shitty.
So the RAS runs amok and you begin to find more and more wrong with the world. More things that make the world an awful place, your life an awful life, hell, you will start finding something wrong with everything.
You have found your way into the depths of nihilism.
This is an awful place for a privileged person to find themselves. Because while it might feel like there is nothing you can do, the truth is you are actually one of the people best positioned to change it.
YOU have disposable income to donate to a cause or support a business which shares your values.
YOU have ample free time to donate to educating yourself or volunteering for a community outreach program.
We as a society do not need you and your objectively awesome life to abdicate responsibility right now.
Instead, now more than ever, we require collective action from you and all other action oriented rational actors.
Will it be easy? No.
Will there be more suffering? Yes.
But suffering is universal to the human condition. All we can do is renegotiate our relationship with suffering and use it as emotional fuel to focus on the things we can change and control.
We can use our time to get informed, we can educate people who don’t have the time to read up on the issue, and — of course — we can vote.
None of that is me saying “you don’t get to feel sad”, but what I am saying is who the fuck do you think is responsible for changing this?
YOU are.
I am.
And when we do, we will go down to Boulder&Hash to get some vanilla custard French toast. On me.
Because if not us than who?
On to the newsletter!
LIVE: Refer To Introduction
What else do you want from me here?
I said everything I needed to say above. Jesus.
LAUGH: An Interesting Question To Ponder
LOVE: RadioShack Has A Hell Of A Week
Some of you may remember RadioShack.
For you younglings out there, RadioShack was a place we used to go in the early 2000s to buy various electronic gadgets and gizmos. A bit of an engineering nerd paradise.
Now RadioShack goes on Twitter and says things like:
Welcome to 2022. Where we constantly remind you that nothing is sacred.
When a brand goes completely unhinged and does stuff like this, I’ve always wondered why.
What do they know that I don’t know?
Thankfully, the following thread gave me a bit more insight into the strategy here.
Some things I learned:
RadioShack as a brand was bought by a a scammy Internet holding company
This scammy internet company re-launched RadioShack as a cryptocurrency (I don’t know what the fuck this means??)
This ridiculous Internet stunt was a marketing scheme to raise the value of the cryptocurrency and so far it didn’t work
Damn. Its almost like you need to actually sell products and provide a valuable service offering to customers to make money.
CLOSING TIME
You don’t have to go home, but you can subscribe here:
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are strictly my own. Who else’s would they be?
Big 101 Dalmatians Guy,
K.Rapp
Big Yikes
I will be pitching Dan + Shay on opening a Dan & Shay restaurant to appeal to millennials that love their music.