If you are a real G and you are “in the know” of our current culture, with regards to where we’re headed as a failing civilization, and what working conditions are like for the average member of society who does not happen to be rich and must work for a living despite toxic environments and so forth, then you might be aware of the large amounts of people quitting their jobs in America right now. And you might be at least partially familiar with the “Lying Flat” movement in China. If you’re a regular reader of this website at all, you might remember that I wrote about how the main real solution to our modern problems (climate emergency, and collapse) would be if everyone quit their jobs en masse. A slave revolt of sorts, if you will. Of course, this is just wishful thinking, as the average person is just trying to get by and not really on some great Colin Kaepernick-esque mission to sacrifice their bread and butter for the greater good. I’m not judging and I get it: life is hard enough for most people just trying to scrape by. I don’t respect it, but I get it. Most people are losers and value hoes, it’s fine, it’s cool, I get it. I’ve been stabbed in the back before by people trying to protect their best interests, it’s cool lol, I get it. I’m no stranger to the game: everyone is a whore for money.
Once they realize they probably don’t have the balls to do anything major under this hellish system we’re all trapped in, the next best thing the average working person has is subterfuge at their job, and/or bitching about their situation with their co-workers. This is all there is left really: if you’re an employee of an exploitative workplace in America, let’s say it’s McDonald’s, then it’s in your best interest to take home a bunch of ketchup packets and napkins or some shit like that. This way, you can probably use the money you’d be spending on ketchup/paper towel groceries and put it toward health insurance. And talking with your co-workers is a good start at doing things like unionizing, and protecting everyone in the event of someone getting targeted and fired, etc.
Reddit is a breeding ground for some pretty interesting types — both good and bad — but I think one of the most compelling subreddits to emerge in popularity in recent years is “Antiwork.” They are a group of people who, like most interest groups online, aren’t really harmful in the grand scheme of things if you’re some major corporation potentially worried about your bottom line. The most members of a subreddit like this could probably do basically just amounts to skimming off the top, which most corporations are probably expecting to a certain degree. It is not a subreddit to really worry about, as no one wants to make a genuine, concerted effort and band together in real life to do real damage. It’s a subreddit primarily for blowing off some steam, bitching with your comrades on the same rung of the capitalism ladder you are. Basically just informing yourself about what’s going on and class consciousness, nothing to worry about. (I hesitate to use the word “movement” to describe something as pedestrian as a subreddit, because it’s more about slacktivism and informing oneself, but for the purposes of simplifying things I will use it for this essay).
However, I guess partly due to what mainstream media has been calling, “the great resignation,” that’s been going on since covid began, the antiwork subreddit has gotten a lot of heat lately. News outlets see it as a place that is harmful to their overall interests, because it espouses Marxist beliefs, and is obviously heavily critical of capitalism. Even though the Antiwork subreddit started in 2013, it’s only been getting mainstream media attention fairly recently as more and more people continue to quit their jobs in the face of poor treatment, and life threatening working environments now, thanks to the bat AIDS flying around these days. So of course, the media needs a scapegoat and must set an example to the masses, and Antiwork fits the bill perfectly.
This media attention reached a climax the other day when Fox News invited one of the subreddit’s moderators to speak on television about the group, and their various beliefs on work. If you haven’t seen the video, you can imagine how well it went: a man in a suit interviewing a person who I assume has autism, with poor social skills, chilling at home wearing a hoodie. It was a total shitshow that ultimately led to the moderators making the subreddit private for a few hours. I thought it was noteworthy for a couple of reasons I’d like to get into below.
Firstly, what I find most fascinating is that, this was not a case of censorship or free speech. This was a clever tactic on the part of Fox News, a grey area that fell perfectly in the middle. They did not prevent anyone from saying what they truly think on their platform, BUT (and it’s a HUGE “but”😉😂) it is clearly obvious that they went out of their way to choose this moderator in particular. The person in question had an internet footprint that would suggest they would have no business dealing with the public as a speaker, especially as the leader of a whole movement, because they weren’t. This was just one moderator out of a number of others. The movement does not have a leader really, it’s just a group of people who believe the same thing, and the moderators aren’t people anyone looks up to or anything. It’s not like they’re some amazingly profound orators like MLK or someone like that anyone cares about, they’re just moderators of a group (that, once again, I remind you: isn’t even a “movement”).
I think this is what the new form of censorship in our culture will look like in the future, should any dissenting voices arise: you will be allowed to say pretty much whatever you want, but you will still be made a fool of. Something I found particularly fascinating was the way this moderator’s own group members attacked them after the interview: people seemed to be more on the side of Fox News than the moderator. The basic consensus seemed to be, “Wow, you made us all look like a bunch of idiots. Why did you do that? Why did you have no answers prepared? Why did you not dress up? Why why why why?”
To be honest with you, I thought this person handled shit perfectly. The whole point of antiwork is whatever your definition of not working personally happens to be. To one person it might be dog walking, to another it might be getting out the game completely and never working. There is no single definition or leader. And I’m a little shocked that no one else seems to be backing the moderator. It’s just a case of media propaganda, designed for people to think the whole movement is silly. If you look around at some of the headlines describing things right now, you’ll see words used like, “awkward Fox News interview,” “disastrous Fox News interview,” and “moderator bombed on Fox News.” As hilarious as they looked, I cannot help but feel that this is a clear case of everyone’s favourite Malcolm X line, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
We should not be making the moderator feel like a shithead anymore than they already do, if anything, we should be celebrating the fact that a major news network was forced to pay attention to our little internet bullshit for a day. It’s not about judging a person’s performance, it’s about how we managed to troll a network and get them to fucking notice us. I don’t see this as a loss by any stretch of the imagination, I see it as a huge win. That smug, corny, hair gel motherfucker was forced to have someone on his show because we are the most interesting thing about the world right now and his entire way of life is going the way of the dinosaurs and dodo birds. The new real Gs of the world do not look like the Fox News anchor, the real Gs of the world are antisocial dudes with some type of mental problem who don’t have money and use Reddit too much.
The anchor seemed to say it himself, “I don’t understand it.” That’s because he and people like him are going extinct. That’s what happens when capitalism doesn’t work for everyone and the scales are tipped to such an absurd degree. He’s got money and employment now, but where is it headed? He was amused by a person who has a passion for walking dogs and not making that much money, but what does that say about him? That he’s a value hoe who has to trick himself daily into thinking he’s doing a job “that matters” etc. He thinks he’s superior now, but all he’s really got is money, and that doesn’t last. I don’t think anyone should be falling for this media propaganda; that is how a “movement,” if you want to call it that, implodes.
