allan
This article on NEETs in America, I think, avoids a more obvious explanation https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/the-world-of-american-hikikomori.html
When large numbers of people with the means deliberately opt out of society, claiming they're all mentally ill is certainly one explanation...but they could also just have a point.
allan
This reminds me of the awkward history of run away settler women in the early British North American colonies.
Settler women taken in raids and subsequently "liberated" and returned frequently ran away back to the indigenous communities that had ostensibly been keeping them captive. It was a real problem.
It is often framed like they were all mentally ill, had Stockholm syndrome or something, but I think the better explanation is just that those British colonies sucked.
allan
In the context of NEETs, have we considered that our society just sucks? Maybe living very online and watching anime all day *is* the rational choice, supposing one has the support network to make it a reality.
Maybe the rest of us are the delusional ones. I mean it isn't *obvious* how working 40+ hours a week at a tedious bullshit job is anything other than a waste of one's life, let alone a path to some grander happiness or fulfillment.
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