The Productive Pessimist

  No, I'm not talking about the "seize the means of production!" kind of revolutions, but a more impactful, sustainable, accessible and inclusive form of radicalism; the "revolutions" in the way you approach and engage other people - and yourself. In 2026, the revolutions we need to engage in - or perhaps start  - are: . Revolutions of attitude  - focus on having impactful, rippling words, rather than the last word. Create a message  which carries, rather than relying on argumentative fallacies, sheer force of volume/tone, or insults. View people you find yourself in conflict or disagreement with as cultures to be explored, rather than problems to be solved. . Revolutions of approach - come with curiosity. Argue as though you are doing so in front of a sensitive cat, or a young child - if you can't? Journal the argument you  wanted to make, so you can look back at it over time, and refine the original argument into  a suitable ...

  Life being stressful isn't  an illness.  That's entirely correct. But "life being stressful" also  isn't acceptable to employers, either. It's not going to be the case, in the UK, in 2025, that if people "just stop going to doctors and claiming mental health issues and getting signed off because life is a bit hard, then we wouldn't be spending so much on welfare!" . "People don't like you" . "You're impacting your colleagues' morale" . "It's unfair of you to make your colleagues worry about you by being clearly upset" . "You can't talk about feeling burnt out when there are people dealing with far higher workloads than you - everyone is burnt out, but we have to keep going" . "If you aren't happy to be here, f-k off and get a different job" . "I'm sick of you coming in here looking like you want to k*ll yourself - why don't you just f-king do it, so the rest ...