#American stability

[quillsword]

America Will Survive: The Myth of American Polarization

Heck, it’ll even thrive. The Democrat Party, not so much. For the last several years there has been an incessant drumbeat of polarization. Turn on any outlet, major, minor or just some guy on YouTube and all you will hear is how polarized the US has become. The events of the last three weeks seem to seal the deal for many people. But it’s still not true. America remains as insanely centrist as…

[petewentzisblack1312]

white first worlders when the topic turns to climate change

[sombertide-0]

sphinx ConDes, save me

save me, sphinx ConDes

the sphinx obsession persists hehehehehe

[aheathen-conceivably]

Ok so I read the post on your thoughts on Gio and the American Dream and I hate to say it … as an immigrant, I understand him.

I also come from a culture where women tend to their male partner's needs and I don't believe he wants to turn Jo into a subservient wife. He fell in love with a lively, free, and wild Jo and loves that aspect of her.

At the end of the day she loves him too so why would she leave? I understand she doesn't like to be dependent of him but where else would she go? There are no parties or glamour, which was her whole thing, anymore. At least the farm offers stability in the economic crisis.

Point is, I understand Gio as an immigrant, but don't understand Jo as a woman.

BABES! We’ve got another one…

(As in me being touched and having no other means to say how much I love y’all takes other than to give them a standing ovation in GIF form).

But you know…there’s a whole lot to break down here, friend, especially about Jo. I think you know what that means! Under the cut we go….

First and foremost, I very much appreciate you saying you understand that aspect of Gio. I did in part write him as a commentary on the immigrant experience in America (filtered through his own personality/character of course), and so to know that is relatable means a lot to me. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell y’all his journey is far from over, and you can already see the cracks in his outlook beginning to form. Whenever Jo is depressed he says this quite vividly:

Because you are very, very correct. This isn’t about molding Jo into some subservient housewife, or even eroding those exact qualities that he loves in her. This is about Gio attempting to square what he’s been taught/believes will bring his life happiness and meaning with his own experience and emotions. It’s about the myth of the American dream and the perfect housewife and the very real struggle of those things existing as actual, lived realities.

Because at the root of it, Gio is amalgamating an understanding of his own family unit and what he knows he doesn’t want in this country. He has seen another methods of “making it” in America, and so he thinks if only he can make the “right” choices, he can avoid that, and become the respected and happy man that he wants to be.

Now onto Jo, boy oh boy, Jo….

I think one of the core misunderstandings here is that Jo wants stability. This is kind of the crux built into her desire for control and her never-ending failure to achieve it. She wants to control her surroundings, to make sure nothing and no one can hurt her, but she also wants to feel in a way that is hard to find in a stable, heavily domesticated life. On the flip side, despite whatever imaginary dream Gio has, he’s the same way. They both want a life filled with excitement and new experiences, new people and rushes of emotions. This is one of the ways they differ heavily from Antoine and Zelda.

Now on one level, this is simply the way Josephine is. She’s high energy, fun loving, and insatiable. But on a deeper level, this is tied into her experiences not only as a woman, but as a daughter. She has a brief moment of clarity in that last post where she realizes:

Now I have chosen not to go too in-depth on Josephine’s trauma, but you can see her lay out the course of events here and also her deep hesitation to any of it here. Josephine is still only a teenager in that second post. Her mother not only told her things like that (“this is the weight that prejudice and expectation have placed upon us”) but also “what do you want to be then? Some glorified maid to a man?” (Which, frankly, I can write another Ted Talk about the juxtaposition here, but I think ya'll can pull some threads).

So when you see Josephine’s struggle with control, this is heavily rooted in bodily autonomy. Now all things considered, Josephine has managed to make great strides toward reclaiming this and reasserting not only her sexuality, but also her sense of self in her body. Gio knows this. We see him recognize and respect it quite clearly in that last post. He’s been part of that process for her, and that only adds another element of love, trust, and safety between them.

But on a fundamental level, neither Gio nor Josephine has made the connection between that trauma, her own personality, and why she hates her life now so much:

Here’s the issue right now: Josephine doesn’t feel like she’s living her own life. We have seen how she would like to live in the 20s not just in the parties and glamour, but when she was managing bands. She wants to be fulfilled professionally, through helping people/places she believes in and bettering her own life by bettering theirs. That’s how she gets her joy, and that’s what she would chose to do if given the chance.

And right now, she does not feel like she gets to chose. You’re correct in that part of that is coming from the current economic situation. Again, she sees that herself here. She knows what demons are waiting outside her window, and how easily poverty can make them rearise. That only makes it worse. It doesn’t make the smell of bread (domestic security) any better or more comforting. It makes it bitter, because she didn’t chose it. She was backed into a corner by circumstance (and, as she can sense, by the choices men made for her without telling her), and now she feels like she can’t say no. That’s her ultimate trigger.

Now whether or not that loss of control is simply perceived, or should be offset by how “lucky” she is to be in a stable position in such precarious economic times, we might all have different options on. Even more, I’m sure each of us would answer differently for ourselves in that situation. I know I would. But for Josephine? Not only is this a life she will never find joy in, because even without her trauma, she is an ambitious, restless, and outgoing person with different goals for herself; but that added memory and pain makes her reaction to it all the more volatile.

Perhaps most importantly, Jo feels as though her life is being controlled again, whether by Gio, the reality of the world outside her window, or by her own guilt/love that makes her feel beholden to the people around her (just like it did to her mother). Because you’re right, she does love him. She wouldn’t leave because she doesn’t. If she leaves now, it would leave because she panicked, because she feels like she’s lost all the autonomy she worked so hard to regain and she’ll never feel the fulfillment she felt when she was successfully independent ever again. That’s the element I hope we can understand, even if it’s not what we would do.

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

In the country where your cousins live, the head of state of an ethnic minority has been assassinated and his people’s greatest assets stolen or destroyed. They are forced to beg your cousins for help, who refuse, and they fall to fighting and a pyrrhic victory.

They are exiled and seek asylum, coming through political turmoil in two separate and suffering hosts to your country. Do you a) offer them aid and unite against a common threat, or b) bar many entrance to your realm (the only politically stable area), restrict the places they’re allowed to go, and ban their native language?

Thingol wants to make Doriath great again.

[cator99]

I always get detained at da border because PROFUNC never ended but basically I'm like if a targeted individual didn't even care

[lyinginbedmon]

I once had someone try to say that a guy supporting sex workers was only doing it because he innately believed he deserved to have sexual access to women, and not only is that intensely backwards (if you want to ensure you retain that access, those people need to be as low and desperate as possible so they can't decline, not elevated to a state of equality with everyone else) but it completely skipped over why anyone stands with sex workers at all: The "There But For The Grace Of God" factor.

Yes there are people who go into the industry because they like it, but the majority are there because, like every other career, they need money to survive in Capitalism. And in the sex industry, it's frequently a desperate last option, due to a combination of social stigma and ease of access (ie. almost anyone can do it).

That desperate last option aspect means that you can be easily exploited, blackmailed, and abused with little recourse. Even in areas where sex work is legal, there's still the hurdle of getting over the stigma just to report such violations.

And it also means that if you criminalise it, you take away one of the most accessible sources of income in existence, which (somewhat ironically given the previous paragraph) will only ever harm some of the most vulnerable demographic groups of society.

Because when you have absolutely nothing else, when absolutely no-one will help you, sex work keeps food on the table. No-one benefits from a ban, except the people who want to hold power over those affected.

[deepseacityunderground]

beginning to see american "if you dont vote for the blue warmongerers then you are personally responsible for the red warmongerers getting into power"

[abstractscreach]

Love to help folks with dealing with the horrors, but unfortunately there are so many and I am now a crumpled piece of paper on the bedroom floor.

[ivygorgon]

An open letter to the U.S. Congress

Co-sponsor the American Stability Act to end income inequality!

624 so far! Help us get to 1,000 signers!

As your constituent, I am urging you to co-sponsor the American Stability Act (ASA). The American Stability Act is a bold, elegant solution to the threat posed by destabilizing levels of inequality.

The American Stability Act does the following:

-ELIMINATES FEDERAL TAXES for any taxpayer making less than the median cost of living for a single adult with no children (slightly above $40,000 a year);

-SHIFTS the responsibility for these revenues onto taxpayers making more than $1 million a year;

-REPLACES the ‘minimum’ wage with a new “Stability Wage,” which is set to the median cost of living in the US for a single adult with no children, and then indexes it to make that principle permanent.

We need bold, innovative reform. Lawmakers like you must structure a more stable, prosperous economy that will deliver the results we need for a strong nation.

▶ Created on October 28 by Jess Craven · 623 signers in the past 7 days

📱 Text SIGN PVBLPU to 50409

🤯 Liked it? Text FOLLOW JESSCRAVEN101 to 50409

[machinavocis]

behold, a rough approximation of my car if i plug all the specs of the one i bought into the hyundai website's car builder thing!

[thepastisalreadywritten]

American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) have super head stabilization skills, making it look locked in one position in the air.

This video shows the natural ability this bird has to stabilize its head. 🦅

📹: Paige Bucalo / pythonpaige

[feralthembo]

"im so sad i need to write a poem", "im experiencing childlike wonder!!! AAAAA", i need to take my fucking meds is what i need

[createacamillahect]

camilla hect and her elderly dog she loves and handles so gingerly. she beams around them

[mariacallous]

Oh it's all coming back, the memories and feelings of watching what was happening on January 6th, only it's more intense now with both the perspectives of the insurrections contrasted with the legislators and staff.

[seaglassdinosaur]

I want to discuss class as a theme in Nimona!