Now, #AI is coming for the #jobs that people are passionate about. It's coming for the #writing and #artistic jobs that were supposed to be our consolation when all the "tedious" #work went away. The predictable, repetitive jobs went away long ago, and now those of us who have struggled to survive in a society where our basic ability to live is tied to being employed will have to struggle even more, yet there's no political will to implement #UniversalBasicIncome or #JobsGuarantees or similar programs. So what, exactly, are we supposed to do?

I feel like more and more people are seeing through the lies of #capitalism and #TheProtestantWorkEthic and the notion that work in and of itself is a good thing, especially as more of us begin to realize how much our work contributes to #ClimateChange and many other crises our planet is facing. More and more of us know these things, yet the vast majority of us can't give up work because we need it to survive.

We've seen some resistance to the currently unworkable state of work: #QuietQuitting, increasing support for #unions, and the successful SAG-AFTRA and WGA #strikes. Right now, it looks like the bosses are hoping they can just automate us all away with #LLMs and maybe #covid19 will disable enough of us that we won't be able to fight back. Even if that happened, I don't think they've fully thought through the logical conclusions of a world without #workers or consumers, but if the #capitalists were forward-thinking, we wouldn't be in the #polycrisis we're in to begin with.

I saw someone, I can't remember who, say that #capitalism seemed to have reached a stage where those in power wished it could exist as an autopoetic system, perpetuating itself without the need for workers, #consumers, or resources. #VentureCapitalists may think #AI is the answer, but I don't think so. I don't think people will go quietly into the increasing precarity we're all facing.

The connections between the macro-level #polycrisis we're facing with #ClimateChange, #capitalism, #precarity, and #covid19 and the day-to-day slog of having to smile and pretend that everything is normal and good to get through the day at the meaningless jobs we're supposed to be passionate about is becoming overwhelming. At least, it's becoming overwhelming for me, and I'm lucky because I actually have a job! I get the impression it's becoming overwhelming for a lot of other people, though.

I just don't know where we go from here. Our present circumstances are increasingly difficult to live in, but so many of us (especially me) are so very unprepared for a future where it looks like we will have to increasingly fend for ourselves. In the past, I'd end these things with calls to organize and build community! And we should do those things, but they're vague actions without much concrete substance, and I'm too burnt out to pursue them