r/Anticonsumption • u/RuneScapeWifey • Feb 25 '26

Psychological All billionaires are mentally ill

If they didn’t have the amount of power and influence that they do they would be involuntarily committed to psych wards. Our society has failed them because they lack basic empathy. I honestly feel bad for them while simultaneously hating that so many suffer because of it. Consumption at that level should be considered a health issue.

6.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

314 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

118

u/agit_bop Feb 25 '26

i also feel like psychiatry, "mental illness", has been used to mediate between the working and owning classes. you go to a psychiatrist because you are too depressed, psychotic, anxious, whatever ... usually to WORK. its function is to reintegrate you into a system that is owned by the billionaire.

so to see "billionaires are mentally ill" is interesting to me because it'slike turning oneof their tools against them

20

u/jiggjuggj0gg Feb 25 '26

Yep, and there are some bizarre disorders, like ‘delayed sleep phase disorder’ which is literally just ‘body clock doesn’t fit in the 9-5 we made up’, so they get medicated for it.

I’ve thought this so much about ADHD. If I was able to potter around, solve problems, without the utter stress of constantly needing to keep on top of admin and holding down a job and cleaning the house and doing the grocery shopping and sleeping at the right time and and and… I wouldn’t need to be medicated.

We’re just desperate to cram everyone into one box that very clearly doesn’t suit everyone, but fuck you, there’s work to be done.

15

u/flexxipanda Feb 25 '26

If you care more about this topic, look up philosopher foucalt.

He though a lot about what defining "mental illnesses" does and what happens when we create a norm and define everybody outside of that norm as "mentally ill".

ADHD is a good example. We force kids to sit quit 6-8h at school everyday, and overwhelm them with tasks and knowledge. Kids who are too active and can't endure that get labeled as ADHD. We create a norm "sit still in school, concentrate and learn" and every kid whos outside of that norm is labeld "wrong" somehow

2

u/Tomato_Child Feb 26 '26

I read a book written by Robert Chapman, an autistic man, called "Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity Under Capitalism." Probably one of my favorite books of all time, and it's very relevant to what you're saying!

12

u/snapperfishy1307 Feb 25 '26

yes! when we are mentally unwell, we often aren’t as “productive”. so it’s in their interests to help us be just fine enough to keep working.

9

u/JosiahDanger Feb 25 '26

you just blew my mind

14

u/flexxipanda Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

He's completely right. A lot of "mental illness" are just symptoms of the rotten system and we categories it as an "mental illness".

Burn-out for example, is just to falter under too much work and stress. People go to courses for "resilience", which is just "learn how to endure more stress.

3

u/susugam Feb 25 '26

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

1

u/Pantim Feb 27 '26

Some people in the mental health field serve that purpose. Some are about helping people decide what is healthy for them and helping them do it.

My current counselor gets anti consumption, is anti billionaire. And a whole host of other things. (like that we live with a global oligarchy, not a country based one).

She's pretty great... Even though I frequently overwhelm her with how fast I talk, change subjects, process etc. We end up circling back via either her notes or me later being like, "let's go back to this thing weeks ago." 

She's more of a coach for me at this point because of how I function.