Self Improvement
A community which focusses on improving yourself. This can be in many different ways - from improving physical health or appearance, to improving mental health, creating better habits, overcoming addictions, etc.
While material circumstances beyond our control do govern much of our daily lives, people do have agency and choices to make, whether that is as "simple" as disciplining yourself to not doomscroll, to as complex as recreating yourself to have many different hobbies and habits.
This is not a place where all we do is talk about improving "productivity" (in a workplace context) and similar terms and harmful lifestyles like "grindset". Self-improvement here is intended to make you a generally better and happier person, as well as a better communist, and any other roles you may have in your life.
Rules and guidelines:
- Posts should be about self-improvement. This is obviously a wide category, and can range from advice, to finding resources, to self-posts about needing to improve in a certain area, or how you have improved, and many other things.
- Use content warnings when discussing difficult subjects.
- Do not make medical decisions solely because of a discussion you have had with any person here (e.g. whether to take or not take medications; diagnoses; etc.) as we do not vet people. All medical problems should be discussed with a real-life medical professional.
- Do not post harmful advice here. If this is seen, then please report it and we shall remove it. If you are unsure about whether it's precisely harmful advice or not but feel uneasy about it, please report it anyway.
- Do not insult other users and their lifestyles or their habits (unless they ask, I suppose). This is a place for self-improvement. Critique and discussion about a course of action is encouraged over shit-flinging. Don't talk down to people.
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If this comm was done by anybody but you, I would not have interacted at all with this comm. We could also yell at fashion, fitness and many many other communities with very similar arguments. Is there a MD running the covid comm?
i do think some issues were out of the comm's depth and should have been moderated. But the sidebar makes it clear that you are not getting experts' opinions for serious issues.
I can't wait for the revolution to reduce behaviour that is damaging to me. No political group can run a rehab program alongside taking on hegemony. Some have tried. No one can not play computer games for me. What an anonymous online group can do is providing limited emotional support.
Also, I acknowledge that I am incredibly priviledged to be able to address my minor habits and addictions. I want to put the time I gain back by this to good use and help other people or become more knowledgeable, not to flex my "discipline" (which consisted in being afraid of embarrassing myself in front of online acquaintances in no small degrees).
Finally, and this goes out to everybody reading this, interactions on Hexbear have become increasingly grating and the tone feels hostile. Maybe I am out of line here but I would appreciate a more constructive tone and way of discussion in general. Nobody needs to prove they are the smartest of them all and yell the loudest.
That's very nice of you, thank you.
Apologies for me perhaps not understanding the tone, but are you agreeing with me, disagreeing with me, or putting a series of points down that both agree and disagree? I also will freely admit that I am no expert, but trying to find an "expert" in this sort of thing who isn't a reactionary or actually busy doing their own job as a therapist or psychologist or whatever is like trying to find a needle in a planet-sized haystack. As Frank and WithoutFurtherBelay have said, bell hooks is the only person that I know of who is trying to weld together revolutionary politics and "improvement" (though, obviously and correctly, is framed towards community improvement as otherwise it can easily become narcissistic).
Nakiochi had a recent post about this, and I of course agree. I think there's generally a tendency (throughout most people who pay attention to news/politics, across society) to be the Most Bestest Politics and Geopolitics And Military Understander And If I Have A Single Bad Take Or Admit That I Don't Know Something Then That Is An Admission Of Defeat. Sometimes I fall into that paradigm but I do try and make an active effort to just admit that I don't know shit sometimes and need advice or a second opinion. I kinda loathe irony-poisoning after having it for so long.
agreeing. The demand for "experts" is not a serious criticism. The community needs to read things, but it's one week old and running on honeymoon fuel. Panicking about having a den of reaction on hexbear is a bit much rn
We should limit the scope of communities, as the sidebar sets out to do, instead of trying something a shitposting reddit-upgrade (with a good but small user base) will not be able to achieve. I am saying some discussions should have been intervened in earlier - a point where I guess I am agreeing with OP.
I wasn’t suggesting we have actual experts, just we need more people to read theory, like always
https://hexbear.net/comment/4460086
Yeah I’m clarifying what I meant by experts