Real talk on the burnout many of us living in the US are feeling days before this election. The burnout we feel isn't tied to work, but the political and social environment we've been swimming in the past four years, and particularly this year. (THREAD) 1/

The best, most concise description of burnout is found in Mary's tweet: https://twitter.com/marcysutton/status/1292971874570256385

Burnout is a response to repeated attempts to make meaningful change while lacking the agency to do so. See problems > try to fix them > get shot down or ignored. 2/

Work is getting harder and harder for me. I'm feeling burnout that I haven't experienced, ever, despite a supportive company, good leadership, a pleasant work environment, with a motivating mission and goals, and full agency to pursue them. 3/

This particular flavor of burnout is the lack of meaningful change we are experiencing in our country, despite our voices + votes clamoring for change, and how to make sense of this against what we are told all our lives, and the values I teach my children. For example: 4/

"Work hard and you will be rewarded" is hard to believe in when we have a president who prides himself on not reading anything, rambles incoherently in his unprepared, off-the-cuff speeches, and rewards others not for hard work, but for their loyalty to him. 5/

"Doing bad things has consequences" is hard to believe when you see a president get away with sexual assault, crime, corruption, kids in cages, + much more without consequences; the most tragic being hundreds of thousands of deaths, and millions out of work. All being mocked. 6/

"Good things happen to good people" is hard to believe when you witness the injustice of blacks incarcerated for for things that wealthy, powerful whites routinely get away with all the time. How can we change the abuse and brutality of law enforcement? 7/

... when a black man's life is brutally snuffed out over fitting the description of someone who wrote a bad check, when a black man got curious on a neighborhood run, when a black woman's life was judged to be worth less than the property she rented from. 8/

ACB's SCOTUS confirmation was not b/c of her hard work and merit, but b/c her ideology favors those in power, coupled with the perfect political timing. She is a token, used in the worst way, with the hopes of dismantling rights her predecessor spent a lifetime to gain. 9/

That we continue to debate whether climate change exists, despite overwhelming scientific consensus & disastrous wildfires and hurricanes that worsen each year. Why tell my kids to study science at all, when those in power routinely ignore it to benefit their wealth? /10

How can I continue to teach my kids about kindness and compassion, of turning the other cheek, with the rise of hate groups emboldened by a president's tweets. What good is my religion when this hate is cheered on instead of denounced from "Christians". /11

That is what this presidency and the events of 2020 are telling me right now. That hard work doesn't matter, that bad behavior doesn't have consequences, and that rewards you get are not based on merit, that your values and morals are for "suckers and losers". /12

The reality I'm seeing: that you get where you are in life by power, birth and privilege, luck, timing, who you know, and whether you are willing to "play ball" or be the token to serve those in power. /13

It's really demoralizing. So the burnout isn't coming from work, it's coming from this rotten institution we call the US Government (or modern society) right now, and the illusion that is the American Dream, democracy, and "equality and justice for all." /END

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