No stake in the outcome

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I relate to this so much.

I do, too. But Carlin forgets something, or never knew, and possibly didn't ask himself: why is religion there at all? - The neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky considers it nature's anti-depressant. Carlin has had a nice career being angry, he has a nice house, wealth, probably family, I don't know. Saying he has no stake in the outcome is... Possibly right. In the long run, we're all dead. - I mean, the absurdity of it all has been noted before, and the existialists posed this in all seriousness: the first question you have to answer is why not just kill yourself?
I guess if you have money and the feeling of having a place - if not in the universe, at least in your home - you don't wonder about that so much.

I recognize that other people get their hope from religion, political parties, social causes, etc. I wouldn't try to take that away from them. Where I draw the line is when they say, “And that's where your hope has to come from, too.”

Carlin and other comedians like him have been a huge influence on me, partly because their main goal is to make me laugh, but then I also see some wisdom in what they say. Recently, I've watched some late night comedians who seem like they're trying to be serious political commentators with some jokes sprinkled in, and thus, I can't take them seriously.

I've never been good at caring about things that I'm “supposed to” and I often care very deeply about things that most people don't. I wonder how much control we have over what we do and don't care about. When I'm in a bad mood and I get kind of down on humanity, I don't even do that for the “correct” reasons, like war or climate change. No, for me, it's because I was out in public and some random stranger got furiously angry at me out of nowhere, or other reasons like that.

I also sometimes wonder if people who are invested in “the outcome” and all of that actually do care more than me, or if they just say they do because it's more socially acceptable. Or possibly a little of both.

Here's another quote from Carlin that I agree with: