Opted Out, Still Watching

[putnam6]

I’ve spent a lot of time outside the lines lately—off the grid, off the script, just… off. I stopped trying to "fit in" somewhere around the time the world started demanding more performance than participation.
We weren’t meant to live like this. Tied to screens. Addicted to algorithms. Medicated into submission. Watching politicians, corporations, and “influencers” fight over who gets to rent out our attention next.
I used to work, used to play the game. Wore the shirt. Clocked the hours. Smiled when I wanted to scream. Then something snapped—quietly. It wasn’t a big moment. No bolt of lightning. Just this slow, creeping realization:
This isn’t life. This is survival dressed up as civilization.
So I left. I didn’t rage. I didn’t protest. I just walked off the stage. Started hopping trains. Camping deep in national forests. Writing coordinates in a notebook where my phone might pick up a single bar of signal. Watching the stars and letting them remind me what it feels like to be small on purpose.
I saw something once in a forest in Pennsylvania—something I now know fits the old stories of the Wendigo. You can laugh if you want. I probably would have, once. But after seeing it? You don’t laugh. You remember. You carry it with you. Not everything fits inside science’s box. Some things belong to older truths.
People talk a lot about waking up lately. But waking up doesn’t always feel like freedom. Sometimes it feels like grief. You mourn what you thought the world was, then try to rebuild something real from the ashes.
And if that makes me crazy, a dropout, a weirdo? Good. Because I'd rather be a fool in the forest than a pawn in a dying empire.
Just thought I’d add my frequency to the static. Maybe someone else out there is tuned in.
—Redsun

I think a lot of people have your realizations it just manifests itself differently, glad you escaped and found your path.

Most do not the sound ofthier own wheels drives them crazy and they die a slow agonizing death like a fly trapped between the window and the screen. 

The problem is if everybody opted out we would have 95 people per square mile, and not everybody is suited for off-the-grid.

[sahgwa]

At home one can destress and think more clearly and more in-depth with all the work environment distractions and interruptions removed.

And rock out to tunes loud on the old stereo monitors and discman setup which sounds better than the old streaming or mp3s at work with headphones. Yeah yeah rock on

[quintessentone]

And rock out to tunes loud on the old stereo monitors and discman setup which sounds better than the old streaming or mp3s at work with headphones. Yeah yeah rock on

Yup, and dance around the house like everyone is watching.

[MonkMode]

You ever notice how everything these days feels like a performance, but no one remembers the script? People yelling slogans they half-understand, waving flags for causes they couldn’t point to on a map. Meanwhile, the real problems—the ones with teeth—just keep chewing through what’s left of the soul of this place.
I didn’t opt out of society because I hate it. I opted out because it stopped making sense. You got folks fighting over symbols while the system quietly bills you for the air you breathe. Ain’t that something? You’re not allowed to just be anymore—you gotta pick a side, buy the merch, memorize the hashtags.
Me? I’ll be over here with the trees and the moonlight. Watching the whole circus spin itself into exhaustion.

Maybe it’s just the reference to sleeping with the trees (you could say pines) that makes me think of this Lead Belly song when reading your posts.



The song was later famously covered by Kurt Cobain, and many say his version is pretty haunting as well, as is Lead Belly’s.

[Oldcarpy2]

This song may well resonate with some of you folk.

Helloween - I Want Out:

https://youtu.be/FjV8SHjHvHk?feature=shared