[crawfordcomeaux]

I used to aspire to work in FAANG or start my own startup.

I now live below the poverty line, using food stamps, have a child with a partner, am growing a community of supportive loving people, and am pursuing radically different projects of my own creation, including a culture construction carnival that's donation driven.

Economic self-determination is a luxury of people who have lots of money AND/OR creativity AND/OR willingness to live radically.

Fuck the norms. Postactivism is where it's at for meaningful life changes. That's a relatively recent word that effectively acknowledges that activism will always be necessary, so it makes sense to be in a way that accomplishes activism as a side effect, rather than setting aside time to do activism.

There's no way I would trade what I'm doing now for money. And the things me and my friends are working on require life skills FAANG doesn't teach, like embracing death and communal healing.

OP: don't let the money fool you. There are so many ways to go about life not involving money. Developing an awareness of what constitutes universal human needs and how to meet them without money can help focus on figuring out ways to cut money out of your life. This can help you dial down your dependencies on money. It will also reinforce the idea that money is absolutely not a need. Finding and accessing gift economies (such as Buy Nothing) is an easy first step to learning how to meet needs without money. Learning to live without money includes developing the skills of need identification, strategy identification, asking for help in coming up with the previous things, asking for and receiving freely given things/help, abandoning shame & healing through trauma around gift giving/receiving, and offering/giving freely offered things/help.

Don't let haters sway you if you choose this path. Many people will try to shame or guilt you into not following this path with nonsense thinking like "you owe it to society to use money" or "you can't possibly cut out all money usage from your life and, even if you figure it out, you're a hypocrite if you use money in the meantime." Debt is a myth, especially debts to society. Hypocrisy is a shaming term for "in a transition from one state to another"; embrace messaged of hypocrisy as signs to keep going.

Keep calm and clown on.

[ozzythecat]

> I now live below the poverty line, using food stamps, have a child with a partner, am growing a community of supportive loving people, and am pursuing radically different projects of my own creation, including a culture construction carnival that's donation driven.

Reading your whole post but coming to this, it reads like Frank Gallagher from Shameless.

It sounds like you’re capable of much more, but you choose to live on food stamps because “debt” is a myth, among other advice you gave to op.

100% disagree with everything you said. I definitely support food stamps and other forms of assistance for families in need and people who cannot support themselves, but you’re bragging about living off of others when you could support yourself.

Do better.

[crawfordcomeaux]

Everyone lives off others. I'm also autistic, anti-work, and believe any government only giving food to some, instead of offering it to all, is already oppressive.

Use whatever means necessary to meet those dreams if it harms nobody. Moralizing others actions along the way and catering to magical should-based thinking are efforts in futility.

Be real. Live shamelessly.

I choose to live with as little money as possible and that places me below the poverty line. Getting that money from an investor, government, employer, friend, or stranger is no different for me than getting money from family or any other source. Why limit oneself in a capitalist dystopia like that?

Would you consider getting out of your own way and maybe stop judging how people are going about doing things....or perhaps even get a little more curious about what's going on when you do judge them?

[ozzythecat]

> Everyone lives off others. I'm also autistic, anti-work, and believe any government only giving food to some, instead of offering it to all, is already oppressive.

Why the need to tell us you’re autistic? It doesn’t justify nor is it a defense for how brazenly you brag about abusing the welfare state.

>Use whatever means necessary to meet those dreams if it harms nobody. Moralizing others actions along the way and catering to magical should-based thinking are efforts in futility.

No one can force you to be better. Only you can control what you do. Absolutely.

There are real families and single mothers in need. A grown, able bodied person bragging about abusing the system because they don’t feel they’re “harming anybody” really is shameful and embarrassing. But as you said, you choose to live “shamelessly”.

[chii]

> any government only giving food to some, instead of offering it to all, is already oppressive.

if the "gov't" offers food to all for free, then who makes that food?

The only reason food is being offered for free in the US is because it's such a rich country that leeching off a few to give food to those in need is not a huge expense.

> Getting that money from an investor, government, employer, friend, or stranger is no different for me than getting money from family or any other source.

getting money from the gov't is different from getting it from any of the other sources you listed. The gov't money is taken from people in the country by "force". The other sources you mentioned are all voluntary and so is acceptable to take from.

> maybe stop judging how people are going about doing things

well, it's getting judged because this method of living is called being carried by others when you didn't have to be. Aka, taking advantage of the welfare state, or less charitably, leeching off the work of others. It's one thing for such welfare to be available to those who need it - it's another to expect your life to be paid for by taxpayers.

[crawfordcomeaux]

> if the "gov't" offers food to all for free, then who makes that food?

> The only reason food is being offered for free in the US is because it's such a rich country that leeching off a few to give food to those in need is not a huge expense.

I don't think any of the world's current governments are setup to ethically distribute food because none of them are founded on universal human needs. If they were, then they could be constructed from a framework of needs that makes sense and can be somewhat verified in reality. Instead, we paved over needs with moralistic rights. If you want to talk more about it, find me on facebook.

If there's no simple way to opt out of capitalism, every form of income is potentially coerced.

Pretending otherwise and then moralizing around the resulting worldview is an effort in denial.

You have no awareness of my needs as a person or the needs of my family members that allows you to determine whether or not I need assistance, government or otherwise. And I don't need to prove to you any of my universal needs. Nobody does. That's quite literally not your business, as in you've not been paid or otherwise summoned to study us.

If you want to, though, I'm open to hearing your assessments after having gone camping with us for a week.

And let's be very clear:

$700/mo to feed 2 adults and a child isn't expecting my life to be paid for by taxpayers. It's graciously receiving a little help each month with living within our values. It doesn't even cover the food bills each month. The US government's assistance programs don't allow one to simply live their life however they see fit.

You haven't even bothered to ask anything about my life. That's literally how uninformed on this opinion you are. You have no idea what I do with my time, where my daily efforts go, etc.

And you want to somehow shame me for receiving money from a coercive government?

Are you even TRYING to bring down this state with me? Because last I checked, the money for food gets alloted based on usage and demand, in part, and every penny worth of food I get is not a penny going to the military.

If you're not actively trying to take down the state, then go take a look at the morality of your complicity and complacency before coming at people for how they eat in this nightmare country, let alone meet any other needs. If you are actively trying to take down the state, find me on facebook and let's figure out some collaborative villainy. I've got a lot of stuff in the mix.

[askafriend]

> It's graciously receiving a little help each month with living within our values.

No. This country was founded on a puritanical work ethic. Working hard and taking pride in it for its own sake is very cultural to the U.S. and is a core value going back to the founding colonies. Many people point out this exact difference in work cultures between the US and Europe.

Don't co-opt the word "our" and just smash your own values on top.

[t-3]

If you're on food stamps or other government benefits, you're economically dependent. Maybe your vision of self-determination is different than mine, but I wouldn't say that you have achieved it. (Parasitic dependence could certainly be a strategy for change, though I don't know that I would call it radical either)

[crawfordcomeaux]

I'm economically dependent if I can't do without that source of funneding. I can do without it and it would take a little extra work to set up our lives in such a way. That's what I'm working toward and I'm in no rush because there are more pressing issues at hand, like housing.

Also, CLEARLY it's radical to accept government funds to many people on this site who believe it shouldn't be done if one doesn't fit their idea of who or what government assistance is for.

[t-3]

> Also, CLEARLY it's radical to accept government funds to many people on this site who believe it shouldn't be done if one doesn't fit their idea of who or what government assistance is for.

People disagreeing doesn't make something radical. "Welfare is a social good" is a very mainstream position. "Welfare is a social evil" is also mainstream. Universal welfare is nearly mainstream, I wouldn't call that particularly radical either.

[crawfordcomeaux]

I think choosing to cut back on expenses and income to the point of living below the poverty line is radical and using government assistance to that end doesn't seem like something also commonly considered to be an option for doing so.

Radical or not, it's what I'm doing and I know very few people who do this. It sure seems radical to me because people seeking to stop using money is something I see something noted in the mainstream as radical. If what I'm describing is mainstream living and mainstream usage of government assistance, would you point me to where to find the rest of the people doing this? I could really benefit from more community support around such endeavors.

[jen20]

> There's no way I would trade what I'm doing now for money.

So what are you doing?

[crawfordcomeaux]

For the past 4 years, I've been a full-time stay-at-home parent experimenting heavily on how to nurture a child through anarchism. It is a full-time unpaid gig and I'm loving it.

Most parents do not understand how we do what we do because they're afraid to allow kids the freedom and empowerment we allow for. Friends have found it exhausting to hang out with us because their childhood traumas start ringing when they see the kid do things they never would've been allowed to do and, instead of processing their trauma, they suppress their emotions, which takes a lot of energy.

And now I'm starting a carnival circuit dedicated to culture hacking in order to help people repair/recover/revolutionize their cultures in order to better meet their needs.

[nopeYouAreWrong]

Everything about this screams "Somebody please call Child Protective Services and get this guy committed"

If you start gaining followers....you're starting a cult

[crawfordcomeaux]

What are you reading into this? I'm very curious what specific quotes suggest to you something questionable is going on.

[askafriend]

This is only going to end in disaster and life-long trauma for that child. Poor luck of the draw for that kid.

[crawfordcomeaux]

Would you go into more detail so we can better account for what you're fearing?

[crawfordcomeaux]

To be clear: I wouldn't quit doing this job for one that pays money.

I'd much rather work to make parenting a paying gig, since it's clearly exploited in modern society.