>>520544612
The anger, violence, and shut-in behavior didn't happen all at once. It was a slow degradation that occurred over the course of over a decade. I wouldn't have become friends with him if he had started off that way.
He trained with Union Pacific for 14-weeks, but they never contacted him with a permanent job offer. He couldn't fit in with the blue-collar culture, unsurprisingly. After that, the only work he did was canvassing. It was seasonal work where he'd work for a company that would contract itself out to different political candidates. He canvassed for Donald Trump for 3 months in 2024. He deluded himself a little during that stint, since he genuinely thought his job prospects would pick up in 2025.
I feel sad for his death, but also anger. There were so many points in his life where he could have tried to make positive changes in his life, but he didn't. It's much easier to wallow in hopelessness, while feeling superior to whatever niche subculture he was raging about that week.