Land ownership. We just have to accept that most of the earth is ‘owned’ by people who have no natural right to it whatsoever, they just happened to be born wealthy and so part of the planet that we all have to live on belongs to them.

There are people where I live who are now wealthy because the unfarmable strips of wasteland they’ve somehow inherited have recently had wind farms installed them, who pay them rent. Through no innovation or intelligence of their own, they are now rich. How is that fair?

You could develop a horrific disease or disability tomorrow. And if you do, a surprising amount of your “friends” will abandon you because you are a constant reminder their just world outlook is a giant sack of bullshit.

Karma does not exist. The most horrible people imaginable will get away with doing the most horrible things possible. They will never get “what’s coming to them” because nothing is “coming to them”. These awful people are also not secretly miserable all the time, that is a pathetic lie people tell themselves to feel better about watching awful people get everything they ever wanted.

Modern society is designed from the ground up to favor the high-functioning sociopaths who only care about themselves but blend in well enough to seek powerful positions. Because those people are the ones who will strive to get those positions of power, while also simultaneously being willing to step on others to accomplish it. An old saying went along the lines of “anyone who would actually be elected president should be barred from the office.” But this also goes for smaller spheres of influence too. CEOs, church leaders, etc… It’s possible for a good person to get that position, but it’s more likely that they’ll be shoved out of the way by someone with fewer principles.

The single largest determining factor for your future earning potential is which ZIP code you were born in. We can predict, with an extremely high degree of accuracy, how much a child will make when they grow up… Simply by looking at where they were born and raised. Because wealthy parents raise wealthy children. Your parents’ income is a glass ceiling that eclipses all others.

There is no karma. There is no fairness in this world. And justice is mostly bullshit.

Some of the things I’ve found it hard to come to terms with:

Rules and laws are applied inconsistently and unfairly

Nothing is permanent and someday nothing I’ve ever done will matter

Not everyone will get to achieve their goals in life

Not everyone will find love

There is always a possibility that someday I will live under a fascist regime

There is no way to know in advance what day some crazy, life-changing, or world-changing events will happen

Arguing on the internet isn’t going to change people’s opinions.

No matter what you do you will still die.

• you are owed nothing in this world
• “decency” is a construct used to control you
• you deserve everything you accept in life

It is always better to figure out life’s problems by yourself or with the help of those around you, their is no supernatural being available to grant your prayer wishes.

At best you can have a convincing illusion of control. But life is always entirely beyond your control. Ideally you learn to flow with it, including how it flows through you.

There are no divine guard rails, we really can be obliterated whether we do it to ourselves or the universe sneezes on us.

• Democracy is not a birthright, and each generation has a duty (starting to themselves) to be educated and informed, in order to vote regularly and responsibly. Too many citizens who fail to perform that duty mean that eventually such democracy will crumble.

• Capitalism is a heartless tyrant at the end of the day, willing to mindlessly destroy everything around it in the sheer, relentless pursuit of lucre. This is why a strong system of checks and regulations must always exist to prevent it from spinning out of control.

Those are both of my phrasings above, and I owe many people before me for helping me properly understand these things, and to keep improving on them.

You may fall in love with the perfect person, but nobody stays the same forever. You’re statistically likely to grow apart, and break up.

An “adult relationship” isn’t necessarily about love, but rather being the dependable one who will push the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” button you were meant to wear on your wrist, but forgot, because your grandkids were fucking around near the medicine cabinet and switched your drugs up. Now your hip has been displaced and you involuntarily donated fertiliser to the shopping mall floor at 7:45am.

Taking action on climate change is a test if democracies can do things in the general interest at all, and up to now we’ve been failing