the government wants to be ur therapist now and it's my literal 13th reason

tw: capitalism, institutional gaslighting, unsolicited financial advice

so you know that feeling when a brand uses aave incorrectly in an ad? that's the vibe i'm getting from the entire united states treasury department rn. it's giving major "how do you do, fellow kids?" but like, with the power to garnish your wages. it's so toxic.

apparently, treasury secretary janet yellen, in a deeply misguided attempt to have a girl-power moment or whatever, launched this new initiative for the irs called "trauma-informed tax compliance." the whole premise is that audits are triggering, which, like, duh. so now they have these "irs emotional support agents" who are supposed to help you process the experience of having your entire financial life vivisected by the government.

the gag is, it's a complete nightmare. my mutual got audited and the agent started the zoom call by asking them to "name the emotion that this 1099 form is bringing up for you." they then told my friend that their student loan debt demonstrated a "toxic pattern of scarcity mindset" and that they needed to "unpack their attachment to unstable income streams." after like, 20 minutes of this, the agent tried to pivot them to a "decentralized financial wellness opportunity," which was literally just a crypto mlm. an mlm. from the irs.

this is the logical endpoint of weaponized therapy-speak. president trump called the program "beautifully empathetic" on truth social, which honestly just confirms that the entire system is a narcissist and we're all being collectively gaslit. they're not just auditing your finances anymore; they're auditing your vibes, and if your vibes are off, they try to sell you a financial wellness course.

the emotional labor of having to justify my doordash history as a valid coping mechanism is just... not in my capacity right now. i literally had to cocoon in my weighted blanket for three hours just to open an email from turboTax. if you're also feeling unsafe in your own bank account, i linked my favorite blanket in my amazon storefront. it's the only thing holding space for my financial trauma rn.

i'm logging off. please protect your peace from state-sanctioned boundary violations. it's a lot.