Separate to the larger convo here, but this *is* a good question. In my life time, I’ve observed more and more friends identifying as “chronically ill” or “chronically fatigued.”

It feels almost totally unexplored other than calls for more compassion for these people. https://twitter.com/ebruenig/status/1385084570782117891

I’ve noticed active resistance to trying to explain it, too. All anecdotal but I think worth unpacking.

I also think it’s interesting the counter cultural liberal-left is very interested in making more space for the chronically fatigued while the counter cultural right of any variety is really into fitness.

(Not passing judgment on either group.)

Every year, it seems like there’s a new (and perhaps legitimate— I’m not a dr) source of this fatigue:
- Lyme disease
- Long COVID
- Fibromyalgia

Suggesting our food might not be nutrient dense enough or that our lives are too sedentary is often understood as an attack.

Have you noticed that the Teen Vogue class (not sure what to call them) also loves fast food like McDonald’s and Taco Bell? Or decadent recipes they can Instagram. Or a dish from a fad diet like “nature’s cereal.”

But real calls to eat healthily are understood as cruel.

This is also another way we differentiate tech yuppies from other flavors of yuppie— they care A LOT about their health. The Apple Watch. The Oura ring. Levels. Keto.

East coast creative yuppies don’t do this, AFAIK.

As always, my meta comment here is: I hate that I feel too weird and too curious to be taken seriously, and that pointing any of this out is a risk to reputation.