This week’s NEET Spotlight is on 21 year old Umaru Squid from New York. Naturally, I hang out on the /r/NEET subreddit which is where I stumbled upon a user called RedOtakuNeet promoting his YouTube channel, subreddit, twitter, and blog. Sadly most people on /r/NEET are all doom and gloom, which is why RedOtakuNeet’s posts caught my eye. He’s not like that. He doesn’t claim to be super-positive or even particularly proud, but simply not feeling sorry for himself is rare enough these days that I felt compelled to ask for an interview.

NEETpride: What do you consider yourself? Activist? Artist? Video creator? Writer? You seem to wear a lot of hats. What is your main “hat” so to speak?

Umaru Squid: I don’t know, I’m just a Neet. I don’t really care much about terms or labels.

I guess I should have expected that. What does being a NEET mean to you?

Well, from my experience, there are many different types of Neets and Neet subcultures. I’m part of the Otaku Neets but there a bunch of different communities/groups/types of Neets. Obviously being a Neet means you’re not a wageslave or student but I also see it as a mindset. True Neets seem to be able to tell when someone is a normalfag just by listening to them talk or act. Instincts or something kek. Many types of Neets overlap though. I will send an image as an example.

Interesting, can you elaborate on how you define these different subgroups?

The Black Pill group I was referring to was about Gunjy, a Neet but I will send link to another image as reference. The Trans Nazi group was a Discord server I used to be in for keks. They are very weird deviants and not all are Neets but most are. The server/group/community (they expanded to Twitter) has two owners and one of them is a Neet. Will show image reference for them too. They are very weird and fetishized Nazis lmao. As for Gunjy’s Black Pill server, they are just very defeatist, depressed, weak-minded Neets. The Incel Neets are well, incels. Otaku Neets are into anime culture and Hikikomori Neets just never leave their rooms.

I noticed you like to type “Neet” instead of “NEET”. Is there a particular reason for that?

Neet just looks better I guess.

I’ve received criticism for coining the meme “part-time NEETs” to refer to part-time wageslaves who spend all their time looking at their phones or students who still live with their parents and don’t take their studies seriously. Do you think this is not enough gatekeeping or too much?

There are many grey areas and complications but I try not to overthink these things. Nothing makes sense anyway lmao. I’m still friends with people who aren’t “true Neets” but have the mindset of one who hates wageslaving/school so we get along. I prefer Neets and Hikikomoris because they tend to be very interesting, unique individuals as a result of them going to the extreme and being part of these fringe groups.

Among your hikikomori and NEET friends, do they keep busy creating stuff like you, and if so, what do they do?

I do have Hikikomori and Neet friends who do their own stuff. My friend Hiki is a depressed Hikikomori Neet like most Neets you see in the Neet subreddit but what makes him different is that he has “fighter spirit”. He holds strong to his beliefs regarding Neet life. He hates wageslavery and school. Even if he gets mocked or attacked, he holds strong to his beliefs which I admire. He’s a very depressed Neet but still very different from the average one you see in the Neet subreddit. Hiki has a YouTube channel where he uploads Hikikomori/Neet videos and a Hikikomori blog.

As for another friend, Gunjy, he was a massive cunt; a hypocritical Neet who sat on his ass all day crying about his “shitty Neet life” while telling other Neets to get a job which was very annoying. However, he one day messaged me saying that he changed and wants to be friends. He can still be dumb or a cunt sometimes but it seems that he might be changing more and trying to be a better person. Anyway, Gunjy manages his own Black Pill Discord server, has a YouTube channel, and he is infamous on 4chan’s /r9k/ board. He also makes manga parodies which is pretty cool.

But yeah, we don’t do all this stuff for money or anything. Being bored makes us feel worse so we constantly have to distract ourselves with many things whether it be watching anime or making something. Money would be nice but it’s not something we care much about. Money is good for survival. Life is pointless and meaningless, we are just bored and constantly distracting ourselves and running away from boredom.

It’s the nature of humanity and the curse of intelligence to constantly seek ways to alleviate boredom. Well anyway, how did you start down the path of the NEET?

I dropped out of college like 2 years ago. I was extremely depressed and just obsessively watching anime, which kind of turned me on to Neet culture. This inspired me to start experimenting with a lot of different stuff and becoming more social online, eventually making new online friends. All this because I was bored and trying to find stimulation/entertainment.

I saw you have 2K subscribers on your YouTube channel. That’s not nothing. How did you get that many subs?

I had some dumb drama and shit with 4chan’s /r9k/, /b/, Reddit, YouTubers, etc a while back. I ended up deleting most of my old videos but the drama resulted in many subs. Nobody seemed to stick around though which is just sad.

You mentioned that you started experimenting with different stuff as you grew more comfortable with NEETlife. Such as what?

I tried programming, making video games, learning and making stuff but always got bored fast. Rarely anything ever sticks though.

What do you think about the proven link between unemployment and mental health issues?

Well for one, I’m a simple guy so everything I do is to not be bored because boredom is painful. I don’t really know much about some problems. I mean, I don’t know how to answer questions like “what is the link between unemployment and mental health issues”. Ultimately I’m just constantly trying to distract myself.

Anime certainly is good for that. I had a similar path to you in that I felt like a failure at first, watched anime, and got inspired to do stuff. Why do you think NEETs have such a connection with anime? Sure, there is the blatant demographic targeting in some cases but the vast majority of anime that NEETs watch isn’t specifically about NEETs or escapism.

From my experience, I grew obsessed with anime cause there’s infinite anime to watch out there for free on streaming websites, but mostly cause anime is just really good.

Well, I think that’s about all I’d like to talk about. Before I go, any anime recommendations for this season?

Not particularly. I watch any anime I guess. If it’s boring or becomes boring later on, I just drop it and move on to the next anime that I find. I mainly use KissAnime. Oh, definitely check out Ika-musume AKA Squid Girl!