I’m aware but worth pointing out. It’s easy to forget. Also to forget that our personal experience is not universal.

I had really bad anxiety in my youth. I’d get nauseous. Staying inside alone made it worse. So much worse. Taking the plunge and actually going out, talking to people, engaging, regularly, that lead to progress. Even if it meant throwing up in the bathroom sometimes. But that probably won’t work for everyone.

But I guess some part of me has a visceral reaction that’s just like “you’re making it worse! You’re just hiding from the problem and it’s never going to get better this way! Just go outside and nothing bad will happen, and you’ll stop freaking out eventually!”. But that’s not everyone.

But yes, to your point, a lot of the time it seems like they’re not even trying, and I can’t know their inner world. Sometimes they’re not, sometimes they are.

I don’t think it’s an accurate assessment to say “everyone is doing their best” though because some people certainly are not.

This was a useful perspective for me. Thanks.

No, it’s “I don’t think you’re doing enough to deal with your problems” first.

Because a lot of people I know and see are like “lol I’m a mess” without seeming to do anything to address the situation.

Though that’s aggravated by the capitalist hellscape that makes getting health care difficult.

But also I’m less generous about this because it’s frustrating to be on the receiving end of someone’s crippling anxiety.

And this comic is a cutesy, romanticized if you will, representation of it.

…why though?

Reminds me of a favorite line from a song, “I don’t want you to romanticize falling the fuck apart”

I don’t get it. Are they afraid of possibly having a brief interaction with a neighbor?

At one of my jobs there would be like Important Requirements because someone said something to someone, but if you actually skipped the layers and just asked “is it important this be like this?” they usually didn’t care.

But somehow people are mad at queer folks and foreigners instead of the C-suite and their boards.

If we’re waving magic wands around, change the tax laws to limit how much you can inherit.

Changing the step up basis thing is actually pretty low hanging fruit.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stepupinbasis.asp

https://smartasset.com/investing/buy-borrow-die-how-the-rich-avoid-taxes

My cat would always try to drink out of people cups, so I conceded. There are tea cups on the ground in the hallway for him.

I also cannot recommend her novels The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.

I hope you meant you can recommend them. They’re both very good.

I liked the dispossessed a lot

Part of the humor comes from subverting the expectations. You might expect this kind of conflict- that one wants kids the other doesn’t, that one wants to change their gender expression into something the other doesn’t like- to cause conflict. Fighting. Anger.

Instead they just fully support each other.

Further, it subverts the mainstream possessiveness of partners. It’s very typical for people to be like “don’t be interested in my partner!” Or to be very uncomfortable with their ex seeing other people. Instead, this person is being very supportive of their person.

A lot of behavior in typical monogamous relationships is really shitty and selfish.

It’s not the funniest thing ever, but that’s how I see the mechanics of it working. Subverting some relationship expectations.