1/
The phrase "I'M SO EXHAUSTED" in upper class intellectual professions comes from Social Justice activism and belongs to the same constellation of concepts as:

-emotional labor
-do the work
-triggered
-trauma
-self-care
-white fragility

So, "I'm so exhausted":

A Thread https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1384958008074121220

2/
When upper-class professionals performatively say "I'm so exhausted" they aren't saying "I did lot of physical labor today and now I'm tired"

The "exhausted" in the phrase "I'm so exhausted" is exhaustion in terms of what woke Social Justice activists call *EMOTIONAL LABOR*

3/
Once we know what "emotional labor" is explaining why people say "I'm so exhausted" will be simple

"Emotional labor" originally referred to having to manage one’s emotions in a particular way as a part of one’s work requirements

IE: being required to be polite to customers

4/
This idea was pulled from it's original context and the meaning was expanded to include every day social interactions. Thus "emotional labor" was used to analyze the effort required to manage emotions, both others and your own, in every day relationships and social situations.

5/
The term "emotional labor" was then co-opted by Social Justice Activists who claimed that since society was fundamentally oppressive, oppressed minorities had to do emotional and social labor just to cope with the unjust and unfair social expectations of an oppressive society.

6/
The idea is that society places social and emotional expectations on people which force them to engage in certain social and emotional behavior whether they want to or not. According to Social Justice Activism, keeping up with these expectations is a type of emotional labor.

7/
IE: feminists often claim patriarchy expects women to adopt the role of home-maker; a role requiring them to be sweet and happy while managing the behavior of both themselves and children, and this is a form of emotional labor women are unjustly expected to do, uncompensated

8/
According to woke Social Justice, the White Male Cisgendered Patriarchy has placed its emotional and social norms on everyone. This means that unless you're a White Straight Cisgendered Male you're (allegedly) doing constant emotional labor just to cope with all the oppression

9/
This is why:
-Being black is exhausting (pic 1)
-Being a Woman is exhausting (Pic 2)
-Being a non-binary sports fan is exhausting (Pic 3)
-Being trans is exhausting (Pic 4)

10/
And also why:
-Being fat is exhausting (pic 1)
-Being a lesbian is exhausting (Pic 2)
-Being latinx is exhausting (Pic 3)
-Being pansexual is exhausting (Pic 4)

11/
The idea is once you "wake up" to the fact society is forcing you into white cisgendered straight male ways of emotional and social engagement, then managing the expectations society is trying to force on you while you're trying to resist them takes a lot of emotional labor.

12/
The thing to remember is that in the woke Social Justice worldview it isn't just the expectations which are exhausting. Being "woke" to the systems of social forces that oppress you and managing the expectations of those systems adds another layer of emotional labor...

13/
that the woke person has to do as they dismantle the systems of oppression in society. They are "saving the world" and fixing society while managing all the toxic, patriarchal emotional responses society programmed into us...and they aren't even getting paid!!!

14/
This is why upper-class professionals claim to be "exhausted."
When an upper-class professional says "I'M SO EXHAUSTED" they are claiming to be emotionally depleted from all the work they do managing all the toxic social and emotional behavior going on around them....

15/
Both activists and upper-class professionals claim the mantle of both the victim ("I do this for free while not being compensated and I'm being oppressed") and the hero ("I'm managing all these people's emotions while fixing society and bringing about Social Justice")

16/
Thus being exhausted is a sign someone is:
1. aware of how society *really* works and are resisting the system unlike all you sheeple.
2. Managing the toxicity of everyone around them while fixing the oppression.

Not all heroes wear capes, but all of them are exhausted.

17/
As such "I'M SO EXHAUSTED" serves as a signal that someone is both aware of the systemic oppression, understands it, feels the weight of it, and is resisting it while managing all the toxic not-woke people who are unconsciously spewing their non-woke toxicity everywhere...

18/
This is why it is becoming common. If you aren't exhausted, then either you don't know whats going on (you're not woke to the system, you're asleep) or you're not resisting the oppression and fixing it... if you were, you would be exhausted....just like them.

19/
I realize there are exceptions (IE, if someone says "I just lifted weights for three hours and I'm so exhausted" they are likely just tired) but in activist and media circles this is what is going on, and this is what it means.

Thank you for reading.

/fin

PS/

In making this thread I made heavy use of the "emotional labor" entry from @conceptualjames encyclopedia of woke jargon which can be found on the New Discourses website here: https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-emotional-labor/