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Hard not to sympathize. World is fucked.
Solidarity with rats worldwide
Today, over 4 million American Gen Zers remain jobless. In China, the government has said that as of February, 1 in 6 young people are unemployed.
I hate mixed comparisons...
There's about 69 million (nice) Gen Z in America.
So America = 5.7%
China = 16.6%
Are those 69 million all adults/working age already?
For full context it might also be useful to see the unemployment rates in other age groups in both countries.
Gen Z are all 18+ now, and it's a safe assumption neither number includes students
Most definitions I find define Gen Z as early 2010s or 2012 as the end year which would make plenty of them underage still.
The rat seems to be their equivalent totem to the raccoon/opossum
the gutterpunk peoples speak of this as a sign
You sure it's not just depression?
If it is, staying in a dark house and not exercising is definitely not what one wants to do.
I'm sorry, but Millennials or Genz did not invent quiet quitting. The media made it up to describe just doing your damn job
I can get behind this. Overthrow your country's oppressive working conditions by simply refusing to engage and proudly calling yourself a rat. Everyone in capitalist hellscapes should do that.
Aren't rats notable for their hygiene and social skills? Seems like a poor comparison.
Chinese culture has almost satirical levels of disrespect and misunderstanding of animals so it's very much on character.
I used to have 3 rescue rats and they are incredibly clean, active and social animals. I'd used to take them outside and observe how they explore new areas and its was really incredible how coordinated and thought out their exploration plans would be and executed with utter most curiosity. Also very cute how they'd come back to me and ask to be taken home to their cage by basically hugging my foot.
Are they? I thought they piss and shit poison and eat their babies for food. Are you thinking of mice?
Isn't there the japanese thing "lay flat" where it's just about surviving and not excelling in life
I would be surprised if there was not
So how do they keep a roof, four walls and food?
holy fuck i want to spend days in bed
thanks for that :D
how can you afford staying in bed scrolling on phone and ordering takeouts? rent, electric, phone, gas bills? is it because their boomer parents have one child and pay everything for them even when they grow up?
wondering this as well
Bingo. Gen Z is still a young adult by definition so the parent's hope is they might land a job somehow. China is a fast moving economy and it's ultra competitive, some people would be inevitably left out.
My guy, gen Z's parents are gen X and millennials, not boomers
I mean if I lived in China I'd give up too, or worse. Seems very sad to be there
How do you have a house or eat if you don't have a job?
living with their family and hoping that food stays cheap, i guess
The millennial era of “work hard, play harder”
I hate to be that guy that calls everything Orwellian, but this is NOT how Fortune was describing Millenials 15 years ago
Ah, yes, the rhetoric 'grind culture' disguising working three jobs just to eat and sleep in conditions that are semi-humane. But being scolded and scorned for never being able to buy a house because we like avocado toast. Working so hard, but never working enough in the same breath.
It was never about the fucking toast. 'Goblin mode' and 'adulting' and 'gamer shut-in' and 'NEET' was never about being lazy. It was always about painting out the propaganda to guilt us into not meeting the model of expectation instead of our elders accepting blame. Maybe, hear me out, they should open their eyes and see that we're living in a level of poverty so hilariously deep that not even our kids--Gen Z and Gen Alpha--will be able to dig it out.
They're not giving up because they're lazy. They're opting out of a system designed to fail.
bitch I'm disabled
Wow! I'm totally a rat person! I do work but I hate doing anything else.
I always find these articles being so popular in western social media weird and subtly braggy. It's like the Lyndon Johnson quote about about making white feel better than black people so you can rob them of whatever. Such a distraction that makes people feel like we're better than them/at least we're not them. Yet pretty much every trend I've seen about Chinese ennui was at the time true of Americans and western Europeans just articles being written about the ennui would not be mainstream for a couple more years. Like minimalism during the financial crisis or recently quiet-quitting in the US were celebrated in US social media as great workers movements that are positive social movements and a sign of cultural strength while lying flat in China in US social media is a sign of societal decline. Whatever either is, it's the same shit. It's always weird exoticism to me. You don't get popular articles about youth expectations about young people in Romania or Greece
I would imagine it reads rather differently to different people. Rich guys reading Forbes probably think it's a great dunk on China. Meanwhile, I'm reading it thinking, "Shit, I could get behind this. Just wish I lived somewhere that it didn't mean I would be homeless in less than a year if I tried it."
The greatest tragedy of 21 century is masses of pacified people who farm karma and validity online in some circlejerks to feel dopamine hits from moral superiority.
It’s the real brain drain of today.
When they give up, the Machiavellists who were countered by brave people in the past come in full force.
I ask you… no I beg you. Use the internet to enhance communication, not just as an escape. We cannot afford to run from the problems any longer
To tell another story, workers are like kindle of the great furnace of the industrial-capitalist complex, and to stay at home is to take away the fuel from the machine.
Only when the machine stops can we finally take it apart and fix all its problems. (I dont entirely know what this means I just wanted to say something profound-sounding)
If only all the rats of the world combined into an unruly rat king... Then things would change.
Friend, fuckin' same. It seems like all the propaganda hit pieces do is make them feel more relatable, damn.
You have more in common with a Chinese or Russian worker than any billionaire.
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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