My family has not long moved where we have started from scratch making new friends. It's kinda semi rural with the friendliness of a typical country town. I'm talking about saying hi to strangers that walk past, that kinda stuff. Having spent most of my life in big cities it's quite refreshing, and I think it's a good environment for the kids to grow up in.
So we were lucky enough to have been invited to a friends house to spend Xmas lunch with them and another family. We'd only met once but since we didn't really have anything else on we took him up on the offer. I kinda took a back seat and let my wife (who's a social butterfly) handle all the organizing. Luckily they had discussed it a little before hand as we found out they had already bought our kids presents! I was quite surprised since we'd just met, so we had some last minute shopping to do.
Not to draw out this story too long I'll get to my point. It's been quite some time that I've bought gifts, drinks and chocolate for an occasion like this. To me the "normie" mindset is something along the lines of that you want to make a good impression or you want a create a closer connection with new friends. For that to happen you need to buy "stuff" to give to each other so that you're perceived as a nice person. That might be a little cynical as I know most don't think too much about it. They just do what other also do.
However, at the risk of sounding like a "$%&*%$" the way I see it is that our families get poorer, unhealthier and dumber while Kmart/Target/Walmart make money from it. The worst is that we seem to be happy about it and are reaffirmed as being a great friend!
The force is strong with this one..... You get pulled right into the game and before you can think it's your turn to play along. The escape is to be isolated, but no one wants that for their family.
Having an online community like SN satisfies a piece of the pie for me, but nothing beats that IRL connection.
If Bitcoin can fix one thing it's definitely consumerism. Although we all had a good time at the party I'm going to keep working on our new friends for a Xmas not too far from now that we'll be celebrating humbly, healthily and have more sats too!
Happy Xmas!