this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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[–] flicker@lemmy.world 139 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The message from the Elmo account, the follow-up and the Sesame Street account linking mental health resources is some of the most wholesome stuff I've seen in a while.

It's easy to get in your feelings, and it would've been easy for a social media "win" to play into the doom and gloom or to add to it. Or even to ignore it! But the people responsible for those decisions definitely count as some of Mister Rogers' helpers. I'm grateful for that.

[–] Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 55 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Mr Rogers could really help this world right now.

"Feelings are mentionable and manageable."

It isn't that everyone is special, like superheroes. Everyone is special because we are the only one experiencing the world how we experience it and how we react, in anger or in love can make the world a better or a worse place. He wanted the world to be a better place by letting children love and be safe, and work through the negative feelings in healthy ways.

Mr Rogers testifies in front of Congress for funding is a great video because the man in charge was completely ignorant of what Mr Rogers was doing but in minutes was able to change his mind about how the funding for public television education programs would clearly help children.

[–] dmtalon 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I've seen this before, and I watched every second of it again tonight. An amazing human.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 103 points 2 years ago (3 children)

A real time peak at what happens many years after selling out the health of your citizens so that insurers can generate money off of misery.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 53 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Just wait for the 23AndMe liquidation sale.

They're financially fucked and your genome is going to get sold out to advertisers and life insurance companies.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago

That site always sounded like a poly dating site to me. Is the domain for sale?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Life insurance? Pfft biochemical and pharma more like.

Monsanto!

[–] coolkicks@lemmy.world 35 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Been looking at therapists for my teenage daughter, she’s been debating therapy for a couple of years and has recently fully committed.

We have good insurance and are financially secure, and holy shit it’s still going to cost an extraordinary amount. I don’t understand how anyone struggling with financial insecurity could even consider having access to therapy as an option.

What a fundamentally broken system, there is not a single type of care that exists that is accessible to the people who need it.

[–] MrFappy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

As someone who is indeed struggling with financial insecurity, on top of depression, anxiety, and I’m pretty sure adult ADD, it sucks a great deal. My spouse also has similar issues, and so we try to just find the joy in our kids, but I’m worried about passing our issues on to the kids. I truly don’t know what to do at this point.

[–] Spot@startrek.website 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Check the HR, insurance extras or employee perks whatever page or call the insurance about Behavioral Health programs. Some companies (not enough by far) have some free or lower cost providers in those programs. Not just EAP, which is also a great offering, just usually not long term. Some, it may just be "virtual in-network visits" are discounted over "in person" visits or something simple. A common obe I see is ~5-8 free w/the matched provider then it rolls into the benefit payments if you keep them going.

Its all a very dumb game and I try to pass along any "tricks" I can find to make the system remotely usable. If anyone has any, throw 'em my way!

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[–] kofe@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I'm going to start seeing a sliding scale therapist at $60/hr once a week. I'm donating plasma to afford it, along with using student loans. I figure it's an investment that will pay off. There are therapists that will work pro bono, too.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago

And I just thought I'd reply to say thats 1 of the countless issues facing average people today.

[–] Lord_ToRA@lemmy.world 79 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

I came to the comments to see if someone just summarized what the article is about so I can decide whether or not I want to read it.

Since no one else did, here you go:

"Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?" the X page for Elmo posted. A barrage of responses – tens of thousands of them – were brutally honest and downright cynical about the dread people are feeling.

Here is Biden's (or his account's) response:

I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days.

Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it.

Even though it's hard, you're never alone.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 52 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ask for help? This country is built around avoiding meaningful help for others because of “freedom”. You are free to live in a box under a bridge. Free to lack upward mobility. Free to be jailed because of homelessness, drug addiction or mental health problems. Free to lose your home because of a health problem. Help is “socialism” in this country. Can’t have that. Gotta have those freedoms instead.

[–] troglodytis@lemmy.world 35 points 2 years ago (2 children)

In America, you are not free to live under a bridge. People get run off of that situation all the time.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

The bridges around here all have no trespassing signs. In English and Spanish despite this being Indiana.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

You’re free to go find another bridge to live under.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 5 points 2 years ago

Ok Mr. Biden, can you help me afford a house? I've been working my ass off for the better part of 2 decades and can't seem to manage it.

[–] LifeOfChance@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How is the guy (biden) who's in a position to actually get shit figured out responding like it's our responsibility to?

Just to be extremely clear, there is no presidential candidate worthy of the position. Trump and Biden can both wheel their crippled old asses to the nearest nursing home.

[–] Davin@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

How is the guy (biden) who's in a position to actually get shit figured out responding like it's our responsibility to?

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for the country...

I think that's one of the worst quotes from a president of a country. The government is for the people, it's supposed to be doing stuff for the people. It should be our sword and shield against the corporations and fascists, but instead it's become the shackles of the people.

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[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 54 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Garfield, the animated orange cat, famously hates Mondays.

Actually top-notch journalism. There's that one fucker out there who still didn't know who Garfield was.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The older Garfield is, the more people there are who don't know much about him even if they know who he is.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 9 points 2 years ago

Someone's a 10,000

[–] lntl@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's me! Didn't realize they ever animated Garfield. Always thought he existed in panel cartoons only.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

The Garf has been in animated form since 1988.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

ImSorryJohn

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If you are really experiencing anxiety, stress, addiction and/or dread, sometimes it's important to get it out there, acknowledge your situation and don't try to hide it from yourself and pretend everything is fine. Then get yourself the support you need from others and also try to change things, but recognizing the signs is a first step.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What I need is for the people creating problems in my life to get their shit together and fucking stop. No amount of support from others will achieve that.

[–] DangedIfYouDid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I would accept support coming in pretty much any form other than pointing at boilerplate "solutions" ignoring reasoning behind why they're out of reach, and washing their hands of the situation as though they did everything they could.

We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 25 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you. #EmotionalWellBeing"

Elmo lying. Elmo sorry he asked, just wanted to sell more junk. Existential dread no good for selling junk! And slogans not further good policies!

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I forgot HBO bought Season Street.

[–] frogfruit@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 years ago

HBO/Discovery has an exclusivity deal, which expires in 2025. The show is owned by Sesame Workshop. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/sesame-street-hbo-max-pbs-deal-1235252239/

[–] BassaForte@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

Inb4 MAGAts claim that Sesame Street was bought out by dark Brandon to spread his propaganda.

[–] MisterSteve@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Part of the problem, IMO, is found in the deep divisions presently found in our country. Most forward progress comes from the network in which people exist (notwithstanding the myth of "rugged individualists" as the secret to success). Our present society is riven with deep divisions along generational, ideological, political, socio-economic, and racial lines. If we want to break out of the present "us vs. them" trap we're in, we have to begin to reach across the divisions in everyway possible. (And I am not suggesting that we give up our differences, only that we reference them only when they are appropriate to the overall welfare of our network/society/culture.)

It's a lengthy quote, but it comes from one of the foremost authorities on democratic leadership, James MacGregor Burns:

"The function of leadership is to engage followers, not merely to activate them, to commingle needs and aspirations and goals in a common enterprise, and in the process to make better citizens of both leaders and followers. To move from manipulation to power-wielding is to move from the arithmetic of everyday contacts and collisions to the geometry of the structure and dynamics of interaction. It is to move from checkers to chess, for in the “game of kings” we estimate the powers of our chessmen and the intentions and calculations and indeed the motives of our adversary. But democratic leadership moves far beyond chess because, as we play the game, the chessmen come alive, the bishops and knights and pawns take part on their own terms and with their own motivations, values, and goals, and the game moves ahead with new momentum, direction, and possibilities. In real life the most practical advice for leaders is not to treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all persons like persons." ~Burns, 'Leadership,' (1978)

Edit: typo

[–] casmael@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Jesus Christ that’s the worst website I’ve had the displeasure to visit all year :(

[–] Smashfire@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

I learned of the below site recently to help avoid paywalls and crappy websites etc

https://archive.ph/

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Anyone remember when Elmo first started showing up and the horrible truth that Sesame Street was dead and would never wake up sunk in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQrB2hLClnU

[–] Smashfire@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago
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