ravenkings

[ravenkings]

is it just me or is there always some liberal or leftist white dude with an inexplicable boner over john fetterman

[ravenkings]

Bernie is wrong. He has always been wrong and is still wrong. The flaw in his theory is what he deems the “wealthy elite” versus what everyday Americans consider them to be. Voters don’t see all billionaires as the elites. They see college-educated liberals on the coasts, some of whom are billionaires, as elites.

Bernie-style populism didn’t land because billionaires figured out long ago they could undermine it by being socially right-wing, and the working class would forgive their wealth and privilege. That’s why this same demographic is willing to make it rain for grifters like Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson. That’s why they worship the wealthiest man on the planet like a God and consider him some real-life Tony Stark. People dismissed Donald Trump as a shameless attention-hungry New York oligarch until he called Mexicans rapists. Then he shot up to the top of the GOP primary polls. The working class didn’t think much of Elon Musk until he said “pronouns suck.” Then he became their hero. A scion of working-class Pennsylvania lost his US Senate seat last week to a hedge fund manager from Connecticut. West Virginia elected their richest man to the Senate after electing him governor – as a Democrat and later a Republican. Ohio tossed out their longtime Democratic senator, known for his strong support of labor rights, for – literally, no joke – a used-car salesman.

You can’t tell me the working class in America thinks being a billionaire alone is what makes one a “wealthy elite.” There are significant factors at play here Bernie is either oblivious to or purposely ignorant of.

In college, a professor once told me that Communism never succeeded in the United States because we are too religious and proud as a country. Religion, traditions, and culture were never widely discredited the way they were in Europe and Asia, where the clergy and nobility kept the bourgeoisie in figurative chains for centuries. The relative ease of social mobility made America unique compared to its Western counterparts. Historically, American progressivism has been focused on expanding social mobility – initially limited to only white men – to identity groups who had been denied it at the start: blacks, women, and immigrants. We have done it, with various amounts of success. While it may seem counterintuitive, Americans pride themselves in being the nation that pioneered the idea that wealth and status can be achieved through ingenuity and hard work and not just based on a lucky roll of the genetic dice, as it was in the Old World. It doesn’t mean we don’t have generational wealth in our country; we do, but since it isn’t the sole way to achieve wealth and power, we don’t care nearly as much about destroying all of it. Further, we will happily endorse it if the oligarchs and the aristocrats vow to promote and protect the social values we care about and the social hierarchy that benefits us.

It’s one of the reasons I believe Bernie could never beat Trump. If you ask working-class people what they want: an anti-immigrant, anti-intellectual billionaire or a Vermont socialist backed by kids from Harvard and UC Berkeley who hate our traditions and customs, the working class will always back the billionaire.

–Nick Rafter, "Bernie Sanders Can Take a Seat"

[ravenkings]

one thing that richard nixon has going for him is that he's one of the few people in history whose name is an instant punchline no matter the context

[ravenkings]

Christian Bale at the premiere of Velvet Goldmine (1998)

[ravenkings]

witnessing discourse about sex and feminism on twitter is like

[ravenkings]

I Touch Myself - Divinyls (RIP: Chrissy Amphlett)

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Hugo Weaving

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LOCK THE GAETZ

[ravenkings]

"when i was your age, netflix came to our house in the mail" never gets old. they don't believe you, because they can't, because they cannot conceive the apparatus by which this would be true. but it is true. they mailed me season 1 of the sopranos with stamps. with fucking stamps man

[ravenkings]

hi freaks

as a few of you know i have recently been Going Through It mental-health wise, have hit the wall of all walls, and was rejected from yet ANOTHER research study because i didn't quite meet the criteria. i do have an appointment next week with a well-regarded ketamine psychotherapy clinic who takes my insurance for the therapy part, but the ketamine costs have to come out of pocket. it's going to be... expensive. i think around $200-$400 per session and they recommend 3-6 sessions. i'm already making a bunch of alterations to my lifestyle (canceled all unnecessary subscriptions, changed plans so i'm no longer traveling next year even though my burnout and lack of time off is one of the drivers in why my mental health has gotten so bad, cutting meat out of my diet again) but between this and some other medical issues i've put off dealing with for money reasons, i am basically not able to pay for most of this. mind you i have tried literally everything and this is a last-ditch, hail mary type effort. i hope it works. but i can't freaking afford it.

i hate this! it sucks! i work for a nonprofit and i do literally raise money for very meaningful humanitarian causes all day (which is good for children living in war zones but not so much for my financial stability) and i hate to ask, because my problems seem so minor in comparison. but because when i was going through my extremely acute crisis a couple weeks ago, a handful of people said they would potentially contribute if i did put out the ask, i would honestly love it if y'all could maybe pitch in now. like, literally any amount of money would help. if you can't, that's totally fine, but i would really love to maybe end this year on a higher note than it started and maybe not want to kill myself by new year's eve? that would be really sick. but again, no pressure. it's fine. i'm just very scared about being able to pay for this and also pay my rent and other bills and stuff. so that would be amazing. if you like the content i post at all and would like to maybe see more of it at a higher quality when my brain is not completely falling apart, it would be so nice. anyway. thank you. i may reblog this a bunch more times but it's only because like i really want to be able to do this (and not be left on the hook for a cancellation fee that's going to be like half of what it cost in the first place anyway).

anyway. thank you?

[ravenkings]

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“ perverts “ — filet crochet by me

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These Women Rockers From Botswana Are Defying The Country’s Patriarchal Society

[ravenkings]

Penny Bird Boutique