the government wants to be ur therapist now and it's my literal 13th reason
so like, the trump administration kept janet yellen around to launch this whole "trauma-informed tax audit" thing and now the irs is trying to sell me crypto while diagnosing my "scarcity mindset." i'm so tired.
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.
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Reader Discussion (10)
lmao at calling it a 'crypto mlm.' it's probably just a poorly implemented DAO with a multi-level affiliate marketing structure. the author clearly doesn't understand web3, but yeah, the IRS getting into it is a massive red flag.
First they take your money under threat of force, now they want to psychoanalyze you while they do it. This is a terrifying expansion of state power disguised as compassion. The only 'financial wellness' is keeping the government's hands out of your pockets entirely.
Oh boo hoo, the IRS hurt your feelings. We used to just get a letter in a gray envelope that struck the fear of God into you, you paid what you owed, and moved on. Now you need someone to 'hold space' for your 'financial trauma'?
This actually sounds like a step in the right direction. The government can be so impersonal, and it's nice to see them trying to connect with people on a human level. A little empathy can go a long way!
President Trump is right, it's beautifully empathetic. The deep state IRS has been targeting conservatives for years, maybe having to talk about feelings will slow them down. The author is just another whiny liberal who probably cheated on their taxes.
As a licensed clinical social worker, this is horrifying. It's a gross misuse of therapeutic concepts by untrained individuals in a coercive setting. This is not therapy; it's an ethical nightmare that could cause actual harm.
Fascinating initiative. Integrating emotional wellness paradigms into compliance workflows could be a game-changer for reducing employee friction in internal audits. We should pilot this Q3.
Wait, is this real? I can't tell if this is satire from a site like The Onion or if the government is actually trying to sell people crypto during audits. Someone please confirm.
This is a textbook example of neoliberal governance co-opting the language of care to soften the brutal realities of austerity and state surveillance. The therapeutic state is not your friend; it's just a more palatable form of social control.
Sorry, am I supposed to feel bad that someone who probably didn't pay their taxes feels 'unsafe'? Pay what you owe and you won't get audited. It's not that deep.