"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." - Socrates
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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Gonna get crucified for this, but:
While the comic is cute, the message is bourgeois slave mentality propaganda.
If the capacity to enjoy less is so aspirational as scorates, ghandi et al. would have us believe, then why don't the rich ascend to this purer existence in a trailer park? Why is it always the poors? It's because they have class consciousness and we don't.
These people have an objectively shit life and shouldn't have to live like this.
Don't get me wrong - If they want to - that's fine, but you can't really say you truly love something you didn't go out of your way to choose - and it doesn't seem that way here, and either way - this is a comic glorifying poverty, when there are many who don't want to live like this but have to, and it's kinda gross, tbh.
Also, weed is 21st century opium. Yes it should be legal, but you shouldn't do it if you want to have a life, it's no different from excessive social media use, it is an artificial relief for an ancient instinct of boredom that you have for a reason - it is your brain telling you to get off your ass and do something. Using chemicals to quell it - is just brainrot coated in an appeal to nature fallacy and new age aestheticism to make it more palatable.
Agree with everything but the weed, the pain killing properties are the only thing keeping my mom sane with her chronic pains.
It's still not great, even if it's better than the alternative. Certainly better if you're forced into it rather than stepping into that habit willingly.
Fuck it, just to be a little bit contarian, how much of a selection bias do you think might actually be present in the assumption "...then why don't the rich ascend to this purer existence in a trailer park? Why is it always the poors?"
For sure we hear about the people that get rich and only want to get richer and fuck over everyone that gets in their way, but personally now that I think about it, I actually do know a few people that got lucky, made a bit, and thought "fuck it, I'm done. I'm going to go farm and smoke weed" or some similar equivalent. You'd never hear about those kind of people unless you directly know them. How many trust fund kids are out there just chilling and enjoying life without trying to exploit everyone around them?
There are plenty of trustafarians doing this in California, I assure you.
They get bored and travel and also go visit the doctor when they need to but many come back to this bucolic lifestyle.
The people who are truly living these simple lifestyles aren't trying to sell you anything, so you don't hear about them. There HAS been a bit of an uptick the last few years with "cottage core" and "trad-life" influencers, but from what I've seen that is mostly the same capitalist grifters you see everywhere just trying to use the concept of humility to sell books and overcharge for "artisanal" products.
I've spent some time in trailer parks and known people like this who just... Aren't ambitious. You just don't hear about them because... Why would you? And the ambitious are constantly screaming into society, drowinging out everything else.
The comic is not "glorifying" poverty. It IS doing some handwaving by saying the couple "get by" somehow. There are plenty of people who live in cities, are completely sober, work multiple corporate jobs, and still live in poverty.
Calling weed "21st century opium" is an incredibly uninformed thing to say. Cannabis cultivation pre-dates cultivation of the opium poppy by somewhere between 3,000-5,000 years.
Saying "you shouldn't do it if you want to have a life" shows that you missed the whole point of this comic. Because that statement of yours is highly dependent upon how you are defining "have a life". The people in the comic are fulfilled, happy, and enjoying their lives. The source of problems for a lot of (I would argue most) people in the modern post-industrial world is the constant economic competition: getting a better job for better pay to buy and consume better things. The subjects of the comic have escaped that cycle.
If you can't have weed in moderation I agree but straight up I don't have insurance right now and 25$ to make my brain just not feel like it's on fire for a few hours at the end of the night has genuinely made me a more productive and capable person. I've been able to think through things more clearly when I don't feel like the world is collapsing 24/7.
I'm biased against weed fwiw I'll admit that, shit spikes my heart rate to like 140, no other drug ever done that, not even borderline lethal doses of cocaine.
It's super uncomfortable unless doses are extremely moderate, a couple tiny buds barely ground and stuffed in a (so they'd actually stay in the bong bowl(?) and not fall down into the water) would last me like a week if not more of going for multiple tokes daily.
Even when it did feel good though, I don't miss it, same as I don't really miss xanax or valium or alcohol or codeine. For me it was not a very productive drug, sure I'd paint once in a while but never would I have called it relaxing or bringing any sort of clarity at all - if anything the complete opposite, its obnoxiously anxiety inducing, I relaxed more drinking coffee on hour 4 of an LSD trip than anything I ever had on weed.
I have been tempted to try it in a combo with Vyvanse to see if it's more chill that way though.
I agree mostly, but my weed use usually inspires me to get off my ass and do something, not the other way around, let alone all the other people I know living pretty great lives. I don't think it's fair to paint it all the same
Yeah, I was kind of with them for a second, but caricaturing weed with after school special stereotypes kind of ruined their point.
Totally agree, I love to do things high: clean, chores, yard work, going for walk, sleeping, cooking, showering. But weed is expensive if you're not growing it yourself, I've spent thousands on weed and I'm still a broke unemployed fuck. I just started tapering my cannabis use and its so fucking hard but I'm taking different medications, that are actually prescribed by a psychologist. I feel a lot better and want to do more things with my life then I get hit with the crushing weight of capitalism and realize I can't even help myself where I am... god I need am edible rn
As someone who is also stuck in this capitalist hell, I get it, hard choices where there probably didn't need to be, just because greed. Don't let them tell you that not having money is a personal failing, it's them failing society.
Yeah fast forward 20 years when the couple has chronic dental/health issues and they can’t afford treatment. Or the trailer rusts and vermin sneak in. Or any one of a million emergencies that money could fix. This lifestyle only works if you’re “lucky” for an extended period of time.
There have been many wealthy individuals throughout human history. None yet have had their wealth save them from death.
Is it worth giving up several decades of the prime of your life as a wage slave in order to eek out a couple extra years in the Twilight of your life?
Are the desires we chase in the industrialized world really worth chasing?
This lifestyle is what has worked for mkar of human history. The lifestyle they are escaping is the source of violence the source of climate change, the source of suffering in the world.
You're so right that it's much better to piss away the time you have to build for the future.
I can tell you're a teenager or in your early twenties because you skipped from 20's to twilight years without a single thought for what's going to happen between the two.
Stay in school, this comic is a cautionary tale not a romance.
I'm in my 30's, have 2 degrees, have had a soul- rushing corporate job for more than a decade. I'm quite happily married. We bought a house when we were 23- younger than Carly here in this comic.
Part of that success was that we were willing to buy a cheap house. An old house in a rough neighborhood, a bad school district. A fine trade-off because we didn't want children. We didn't need a gigantic house, or a brand-new construction, or to live in a trendy growing neighborhood.
I make 6 figures, which for where I live is more than twice the average HOUSEHOLD income. As I've grown older I have seen how all of these expensive things, all these desires, are unhealthy. There is very little left that I want to buy. What I really lack is time. I spend ~10-11 hours 5 days a week either actively working or getting in/out of "work" mode. I have molded my sleep schedule around work. It consumes my life, dealing with inane corporate nonsense in exchange for that paycheck.
I stopped desiring new and expensive things a long, long time ago. I have had a bad knee for more than a decade. My retina somehow detached itself several years ago, and while it was re-attached that eye is only half as good now as it was before. The fancy 70" 4k TV hanging in my living room became difficult to focus on and I don't use it much anymore, preferring smaller and closer screens. And I have been incredibly lucky- I have not been in a car accident, I don't have any chronic diseases, and aside from my knee and eye I am in good health. Most people my age have several conditions that require medication and regular appointments to manage. I know full well that my own flesh will continue to fail me. It is quite easy to "piss away" your entire life by trying to "build for the future" that never comes.
I've traveled. I've gone to tons of festivals and concerts and movies and comedians. I've eaten at fancy restaurants and sampled expensive wine (my mother-in-law is a licensed sommelier). And yet, when I look back on my life my favorite memories are the simpler ones. Snippets of conversations with people I care about. Moments playing with our cats. Afternoons I spent completely alone, laying in the sun on my back porch, listening to the birds vying for mates or the squirrels fighting over food. Playing guitar and writing music.
"Stay in school" only worked when that paid off. I would still recommend finishing high school, but profit motives have made secondary education in the US a much more nuanced and individual decision in the past couple decades. I will say that it's a good idea to avoid weed, alcohol, or any other recreational drugs until you have become as established as you want to be. There is a balance to be found between avarice and sloth.
So you were in an incredible position of privilege, your advice is only good for the bourgeoisie not for the people this comic actually applies to.
Idk what flex you thought you had but being middle aged with a teenagers sense of the world is incredibly sad.
I'm bourgeoisie now? What means of production do you seem to think I own? Privelege? Well sure, everyone has some level of privelege - we could talk more about how the subjects of the comic are white, cis, heterosexual, and one of them is even male! But none of that is relevant to the message.
When I was a teenager I wanted things. The latest videogame, the new movie, the new novelty item from the fast food place, the new technological gadget that promised to make my life better. I wanted to go to college and get a job, work hard, get rich, get a big house with a pool and a huge yard and have 3 kids.
Are philosophers like Lao Tzu, Socrates, Diogenes, Aquinas, and most schools of Buddhism all a "teenaged mindset", or are you just trying to infantilizs and undermine anti-consumer sentiments? Are you saying what you truly believe, or just parroting what the advertisers have told you?
"I'm in my 30's, have 2 degrees, have had a soul- rushing corporate job for more than a decade. I'm quite happily married. We bought a house when we were 23- younger than Carly here in this comic."
Yes you are because all of this starting privilege doesn't go to poor people. You're extremely privileged roleplaying as some communist keyboard warrior when in reality you know nothing of the struggles of the people this comic represents.
I won't glaze you. You're incredibly privileged and have found success because of this privlage. Any argument otherwise is delusional.
There's a huge different between being privileged and being bourgeoisie. Or else the proletariat would be virtually non-existent.
And poor people, including people in trailer parks, can get 2 degrees and a corporate job, and buy a house. It's difficult, and especially the part about secondary education has gotten worse over time.
You're just a slave to desire, to avarice, to greed. Convinced you can work yourself to death and that one day the benevolent overlorda will reward you with happiness.
"You're just a slave to desire, to avarice, to greed. Convinced you can work yourself to death and that one day the benevolent overlorda will reward you with happiness. "
Says the guy who opened with how much shit he owns and how young he was when it was given to him.
You're not impressing me with your bourgeoisie denialism. It's genuinely sad that you think you're the opposite of what you actually are. You're lying to yourself and it's incredibly obvious.
Look dude, I almost completely agree with you and am in a very similar position to you, including the philosophy part.
However, you're utterly denying the privileges and ease of life that comes with money. Money removes the existential dread of "how will I survive AND pay the bills next month." In your position, you have almost certainly either experienced at least a middle class childhood, or were fortunate enough that you had the cognitive capacity and necessary support to overcome the cards stacked against you.
You're completely ignoring the effects of poverty and resulting helplesness, either through low education, untreated (mental) health issues, abusive families, or all of those. All these issues compound and make your statement just laughable, even with the token remark about education.
With this, you're not just showing a complete and utter lack of empathy and understanding, you're actively supporting the conservative "lazy poors" rhetoric and the system leading to systemic oppression of the less fortunate. You're pulling up the ladder behind you.
That person's a NIMBY, or performative liberal if you prefer. I was a bit too much of a dick about it but I could tell immediately and refuse to glaze.
Anyone who spouts that level of naive shit and isn't a teenager is willfully ignorant and most likely a conservative at heart.
Lol I'm not denying any sort of privelege. I grew up on the borderline between lower and middle class as my mother's fortunes changed. But trying to analyze my personal life experiences is just a terrible, meager excuse to dismiss the historical value of asceticism. It's the equivalent of dismissing socialism because "capitalism made your iphone!". I've had to scrape by with an empty bank account and max'd out credit cards, relying on whatever was left in the pantry and whatever gas was left in the tank to make it until pay day. But it doesn't matter if I've had those experiences or not- the message from this author is not dependent upon just how poor some random member of the audience happened to be at various points in his life. Yiu can't make any sort of actual argument here and are trying to "win" by personally attacking me, as if that's going to accomplish anything for anyone.
And yes- not having money can be incredibly stressful. But...once again look at the comic. First of all, the author acknowledges that this is not a perfect lifestyle, but makes it clear that the characters are not as stressed out about financial difficulties as you might expect. And if you stop to think about it...
What bills do they need to pay exactly? What is it you feel they should be so stressed about that you're judging them for being satisfied? In rural areas like this they likely have well water and a septic tank. We already know they don't have heat. They probably don't have a natural gas hookup. The comic says the pay for electricity, but heck there are plenty of ways around that if you want. If you ever go out to rural places like these you'll see cheap solar panels all over the place where it doesn't make sense to run main voltage electricity, and in the hills you'll find people running micro hydro. I am imagining they inherited the trailer and land or somehow managed to buy it in the past- trailers are cheap and land in rural areas is cheap. Property taxes... Maybe, but what no permanent construction on the property that's going to be miniscule. Maybe cell phone bills? But with all the alternate forms of income I mentioned it's not that much of a stretch to think that they could scrape together the money for that, if they wanted.
I've acknowledged elsewhere here that I was lucky, and college degrees have become more expensive and less valuable since I graduated. So I'm not sure why you seem to be accusing me of accusing poor people of being lazy. In fact that kind of goes against everything else that I'm saying here- the people in this comic appear to be living a virtuous and satisfying lifestyle without all the trappings of wealth and capitalism. I know people who live similar lifestyles and are quite happy.
You're the one judging poor people here. Suggesting that wanting to live like this is immature or a sign of mental illness. The truth is that tons of people live like this and are happy. And while it's not a lifestyle I personally want to embrace, there are lessons to be learned from studying other lifestyles. It's important to ask what it is that we are spending money on, what we are working for, and what the opportunity cost of labor is.
No, what I am saying is that you are denying that the vast majority of people would not choose to live like that if they had a choice. It is simply what they fell into and all they know.
You said that poor people can go and do two degrees and what not. Sure, in fantasy land anyone can become anything. In real life, it's not that simple and no, they cannot. Or they can, but with 10 times the effort of someone in a more privileged position. That is not to be expected of anyone just to live a self-fulfilled life.
I did not attack you personally and you don't have to justify your life to me. I was pointing out that you are fortunate enough to be able to make that choice in life. Not everyone has the capacity to think and read about philosophies of any kind, and you do. Your conclusions come from a place of luxury and freedom that you are denying in your statements.
Comrade, you may have had a point earlier, but now you’re out here just throwing punches at people. Put down the phone.
Nah you can suck up to bourgeoisie bootlickers but I won't
Ok 👍🏻
Glad you're on the same page now.
Your last point is just more Reefer Madness propaganda.
Uh-huh. You do you bro but I have better things to do than downers.
You really should learn more about drugs before you start throwing terminology around.
Weed doesn't really fit the upper/downer dichotomy because cofactors like the various terpenes and cannabinoids other than THC.
It can have both stimulant and system depressant effects.
Unlike opium, marijuana usage has not been linked with overdose and isn't anywhere near as addictive.
Thc has been implicated in exacerbating mental health issues like schizophrenia but it has not been linked with direct physical damage to our bodies. Besides smoking which obviously always carries a risk.
Regardless, your opium hyperbole is like comparing caffeine to meth amphetamine. It's utterly ridiculous to anyone with any knowledge on the subject.
Uh-huh. I've done enough drugs to know a downer from an upper. Weed is an upper only in the way benzo withdrawals are "stimulating".
Yes and? And lol many plebs still get """addicted""" to it anyway.
Bro is cooked.
You are right, I am comparing meth and coffee, coffee is for normatron dweebs and all it does is make em twitch and I'd rather do meth anytime.
I'd rather be addicted and OD'ing on something that gets me something than waste my life on "terpenes" that aren't linked to overdose.
How the hell are they both wage-slaves and unemployed?
They’re not very good at being wage slaves
That's clearly not true if you think about it for a second.
The rich are never satisfied, and they're always in competition with other rich people. That's why even if they have the best life they'll always seek for more even if they make people suffer.
I'd say the comic is taking a more Diogenes look at things, despite OPs Socrates quote
I'd argue it's going against the typical propaganda, which is saying that the poor, unemployed, drug using people at the bottom of the rung are miserable, stupid, hate their life and you should always fear that position in life. The solution presented is to work, for the benefit of a wealthy few. A comic that shows this station in life as desirable and good, that people living outside of the rat race can be happy, is subversive. It's not saying "know your place and stay there", it's saying "you can still have beauty in your life even if you're not wealthy".
Basically: if you don't have choice, you don't have freedom.
However, I see the value of reinterpreting your only option and get to love it not because you choose it, but because you can appreciate its (perhaps few) good things.
my two cents
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