#Having a gender? in THIS economy??? don't be ridiculous

[catullansparrowlet]

I was on the road for about six hours yesterday for what should have been a three hour trip, with some serious issues underneath the hood of my car and the beginning of a shift my boss refused to give to someone else to keep me on edge. So when I arrived about an hour and a half late to said shift I was exhausted from the long drive and windswept and out of breath from the frantic bike ride from the parking lot in a nearby village to my workplace is the city centre, which turned out to be the ideal combination to deal with a coworker's first attempt at misgendering me: while I was rushing to get the close back on schedule, he approached me and asked me if, considering he "only ever sees a she" when looking at me, the rumours were right and I "call [my]self a he". I was so out of sorts that I just looked at him blankly from my position restocking the bar for about twenty seconds before saying that I don't, but the state does. What I meant to say was that I don't call myself by any third person pronouns, because I'm not in the habit of talking about myself in that way. He/him is solely for others to use. That might be a little too vague for my A2-level Dutch colleague to grasp easily after a horribly busy and understaffed shift, however, so I decided against saying that... After a good ten hours of sleep, however, I'm not sure whether my answer of "Well, the state considers and calls me a he" was that much better.

Ah, well, it doesn't really matter as long as he calls me a dude to my face. I'm not quite dumb enough to think the others respect my identity when they're talking their mix of Iranian/Afghan dialects at work- as my name does stand out amid their language, and apparently the information on my identity was shared internally by the one colleague who asked me when it was just us two on shift, so all I'm asking from them is just to attempt to be civil to my face. Idc about their personal opinions.

[silversurealisims]

silversurealiSIMS Downloads

Check out my Patreon for easier download links, so you don't have to go to SimFileShare and download from there! It's fully free with no early access!

My Mission

The Sims 4 is expensive, ridiculously so. It’s $1,300 and counting to buy all the packs. My response can be summed up in 3 words: “in this economy?!?”

I’m focusing on Base Game compatible content that’s accessible for free to everyone playing on PC/Mac and limited pack content, including downloadable Sims that are also available on the gallery and on my Patreon and upcoming custom styled looks for CAS.

Sims 4 BG #LovestruckSingles Townies

Current Count: 10 female. 10 male. 4 nonbinary.

I'm making a series of BG compatible townies with a mini story for direction intended for use as singles, whether that be with or without Lovestruck.

You can find them in the Gallery (GalleryID: silversurealisim), my #lovestrucksingles tag, or listed by name and gender below. Each Sim has a full preview of outfits, traits, and mini story.

Female: Amy Chen + Camilla Rivera + Selina Lorenz

Male: Owen Brewer + Jacob Hunt

Nonbinary: Bailey Norwood + Harley Gaines

Sims 4 Base Game Builds + Save File

I'm working on an up to date Base Game friendly save file for Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, and Newcrest and sharing individual builds as well!

You can find the individual builds in my Gallery (GalleryID: silversurealisim) or my #silversurealisms builds tag.

Sims 4 Custom Styled Looks

My Custom Styled Looks tag

Female Young Adult + Female Teen

What are custom styled looks?

Styled looks are a section in Create A Sim (CAS) that allow you to choose a look for your Sim containing the same items in different color swatches. As you can see, the EA default styled looks are...interesting.

The styled looks that appear when you're dressing up your Sim are sorted by gender and age group -- for example, you wouldn't see the same custom styled looks for an elder female and teen male.

I'm creating these custom looks primarily in the base game because the base game is now free, so anyone can play it, and other Simmers have created a lot of content I love to use in my game.

Why would you want my new custom styled looks in your game? It's very easy to dress up townies or other Sims in reasonable outfits when you don't feel like spending 20 minutes in CAS!

I would like to thank MizoreYukii for the tutorial that allowed me to learn how to make the custom styled looks myself, and I highly suggest downloading her EA default styled looks hider.

Sims 4 CAS hiders

Base Game (updated through Cozy Celebrations update)

Werewolves

Crystal Creations

I will not be doing a Lovestruck CAS hider set until the pack goes on sale because I don't feel like it offers an expansion pack's worth of content.

Life & Death has enough content to be worth an expansion pack, but I'm newly divorced and unfortunately on a much tighter budget now.

GalleryID: silversurealisim

[resurgentclass-stardestroyer]

hello hi!! omg I just discovered your blog and I can't believe that I hadn't really known about it before?? I think maybe I had seen some of your posts but like hadn't gone to the source?? (ngl I've been here for a couple years and I'm still not great at using tumblr lmao 😅) ANYWAY I am so glad that I finally did bc holy shit your blog is amazing!!!!!!

I'm honestly just starting to scroll though, but it's so fantastic how much canon material you've archived from various sources! I'm always looking for new Hux-adjacent material and you have so much here I'm in awe! (also I've always liked Mitaka too but I think I'm now discovering a serious interest in him bc of the stuff you've posted about him!)

I've been a Hux girlie (gender neutral) since I saw tlj in theaters and tbh he's my og Special Little Guy. even when I rotate through other interests, I come back around to him, and it's so cool to see that there's other folks still out there who also like the character since it feels like a bit of the fandom has kind of faded (which I totally get)

um anyway sorry for this long and rambling message 😅 I just wanted to let you know how cool your blog is and that I'll probably be liking and reblogging a bunch of stuff in the next couple days so I deeply apologize if I spam your notifs (and if you would prefer I don't do that also just let me know!)

thank you so much for all the info and headcanons and meta and everything that you've brought together here! ☺️💕

(oh and this is @charlottesbookclub lol I just can't send asks from there bc it's not my main so if you see that account interacting that's me lol)

🥹 this is nicest thing you could possibly ever say to me

I'm so happy someone else is getting enjoyment out of the stuff I post! I have a mission to bring these snippets of canon out into the open because I think there's so much to Hux's character that isn't present/obvious in the movies, and thus a majority of it will be missed by casual fans. There's many moving parts to Hux's life that get glanced over but are so integral to him — Sloane, Brendol, Armitage's childhood, the Empire, the rise and fall of the First Order, the state of the Galaxy's economy, politics, technology...

I want everyone to see that Hux isn't just the 'haha funny evil hotheaded military man' that the movies present, but a wonderfully deep, tragic character as a whole — even with all the flaws of sequel-trilogy writing. And that's why we love him.

And I'm only barely just started. My "to-read" list is a bit ridiculous and I'm a chronically slow reader. My dream is to one day somehow have some sort of comprehensive post of all of Hux's core traits and history, but that's far off....

No problem with like/reblog spamming 😊

[textualviolence]

tbh even the feminist commentary COULD have been good. The concept of using dolls to talk about societal norms & ideological forces could actually work incredibly well, but the movie only treats them as people in those moments. Like they're dolls when it comes to haha funny jokes but otherwise it seems to not sink in that those are ideas in plastic form and therefore not actual people who can genuinely experience oppression & deal it out in the way that we do.

Like. The patriarchy isn't "'men are better & their interests are more important & more valid", thats only a consequence of the patriarchy. The central & most stable ideological center of the patriarchy is heteronormativity, which is very much always already the central proposition of barbieland. The extremely sharp unbreakable divide between men & women, the highly sexualized yet completely sexless perfectly gendered bodies, the monogamous heterosexual relationships that are again, sexless, based not on any kind of pleasure or eroticism but on following preordained scripts & reaffirming identities. The entire simulacrum of traditional american society all the way down to a suburb & malibu beach, all completely detached from any kind of material reality. This could be a great setting for talking about ideology & sexism!!! But it fails & does the opposite and actually obscures ideology and sexism in the process.

Like. okay. moment that made me bite my hands in frustration at the sheer lack of awareness was when barbie first comes to the real world w ken, she gets catcalled by construction workers & answers "hey. i think you all should know i don't have a vagina. And he doesn't have a penis! we literally don't have genitals" and i was like please say moreeeeee think about it for just a second think about what that meannnnns. But no it was just a joke about how as kids we all thought it was weird they didn't have genitals. Ha-ha. How can you not DO anything with that in your commentary on feminism just think for just a little bit it could be so interesting. Barbie is a woman! Not a single person ever denies this but she doesn't have genitals or even a human body. Isn't it so absolutely clear when you put it like that the way that women are ideas and human bodies exist separately from those ideas?? How barbie is in some way the perfect woman specifically because she doesn't have a body?? That the body is an object upon which the idea of gender is (always uncomfortably) projected? You don't even need to say it! More focus on barbie's lack of genitals yet developing cellulite wouldve allowed those questions to emerge.

The "patriarchy" that ken brings back to barbieland after seeing the real world isn't actual patriarchy. I think thats really the most damaging part of the movie which is completely misleading the audience as to what patriarchy actually is, which is a system of political organisation supported & maintained by economic incentives. Theres no economy in barbieland. No food no shelter no people who need to be kept alive. Theres no fight for ressources, no geopolitical neighbors to contend with. All that Ken brings back is the ideological narrative of "patriarchy" which was already the one barbieland operated under. The barbies don't actually hold any positions of power, because theres nothing to have political power over. President barbie isn't president of anything, she's a barbie with a special sash that says president on it. Literary nobel prize winner barbie hasn't actually written a book. Its just what it says on her boxes. There are no factual accomplishment the titles refer to, they're ideas. The idea of a woman writing a book, the idea of a woman being president. Letting aside that women do and have done these things in the past and the patriarchy is still here alive and well, the further notion of the "idea" of a woman holding a position of power being antithetical to patriarchy is just ridiculous. Its an imaginary world in which women have all the titles and accolades traditionally awarded to men. What does that do materially for the condition of women everywhere. The barbies are all accomplished and amazing and smart (or so it says on the box) and the kens are all bland hot idiots. There are no material conditions in barbieland that led to this. The barbies are not collectively empowered to do this. They are held up as a collection of amazing individuals supposedly who reached their achievements not out of any sort of societal change but because they all happen to be individually exceptional. Where's the feminism in that? Work harder and be more amazing and you too can be president Barbie. Barbie is a women's utopia because all the individual women are exceptionally accomplished and intelligent(not in any concrete way, which is a way that still requires specific material conditions to result in any kind of concrete achievement, just essentially, ontologically exceptional and amazing), and all the individual men are mediocre and stupid. No societal change has been made. No political difference at all. This is the neoliberal dream of progressive liberation

[gypsi-kat01]

I'm old enough to remember this. 😢

A lot of things happened. Nixon. Oil embargoes in the 1970s. Reagan. Looking up "oil embargo", I found an article that describes pretty well how some things that happened in the past are still affecting us today. It's a little shocking as I had forgotten some of this stuff. I was only a child at the time much of it happened. It's worth the read:

Before the Civil Rights Movement in the early-mid 1960s, I believe that the majority of people (at least in the U.S., I can't speak for other parts of the world) would have considered themselves to be "Middle Class", with a smaller percentage of the populace falling statistically into "financially less well off/poor/struggling/destitute", an even smaller percentage considered "Upper Class" (usually doctors, lawyers, etc.), and a very tiny percentage in the "Very Rich/Ridiculously Wealthy" financial category. Many government policies in the 50s and 60s had been focused on lifting people out of poverty (that was the whole point of Social Security) because people with more financial security spent money and kept the economy going.

At some point (I'm not an economist or history professor so I'm NOT going to try to pin down an exact date) this focus changed. Instead of laws being passed to help the majority of people do better financially, laws started being passed that prioritized the needs/desires of corporations and their owners. Admittedly, this was never NOT a thing, but the point is, there had been more or less of a balance between the two, at least for several decades. But that centerpoint began to shift, and when Reagan was elected President the balance began to shift dramatically.

Gradually, the focus became seeing just how much profit could be squeezed out of products, and the consumers who bought those products. The cost of everything began to rise, but wages for the average employee did not, or did not rise at the same rate. When I graduated from High School, someone who worked at a factory could still afford to buy a (smaller) new car/truck, have a decent apartment, afford to eat out at restaurants, go see movies, and have money left over for clothes, savings, etc. This was with one job, and not necessarily even a High School diploma. Most jobs still had decent medical insurance and retirement plans. A few years later this all began to change...

This is already much longer than I meant to write, so stopping for now. Maybe will write more later, but it's depressing, and can't go back and change anything. Just, don't ignore what is happening in government and politics, it WILL affect you eventually, even if you think that it isn't right now. Pay attention. Vote. Volunteer. Help other people whenever you can, but don't forget about yourself. You deserve your own help, too. If enough of us keep trying, maybe we can eventually shift that centerpoint back to a more fair balance. Try not to give up, even if you have to take a break. Or breaks. Breathe. Keep breathing. I'm so glad that I discovered Tumblr, and I love you guys (gender neutral usage of the word "guys"). ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[liminal-librarian]

Abstract: This generation's gender issues is not caused by social contagion or whatever, but by the economy.

I had this epiphany while reading this beautiful bit of stochastic poetry:

There is an theory, which I don't quite understand, don't know the details about, and do not espouse, but am vaguely aware of: that 'woman' either the word or the modern concept was invented by a white man (psychologist moon lighting as an anthropologist, I think? feel free to correct me) to explain how western society was more advanced than native cultures all around the world, as an excuse to keep colonizing, and to colonize in increasingly destructive ways.

And his evidence that western cultures were 'more developed' than other cultures was that western cultures had a wider divergence between male and female behavior and dress. (I have not read the original, maybe he had a point within the framework he had and the evidence he had access to, IDK.)

I always found this hypothetical colonizer's theory hilariously bad because, so far as I know, it was not western women who abandoned the male norms of dress and behavior, but western men who collectively started dressing in pants (previously only used in cavalry uniforms).

And then later again it was men who abandoned the fashion treadmill (for uniformly dark suits with only a tie for colour), as a point of solidarity and egalitarianism, to save themselves and each other the ridiculous cost of a new wardrobe at the whims of the clothiers pushing a new colour and a new cut every decade and then every year, and where does it end?

(We can and should also opt out of buying a new phone every year, but I digress.)

All that being said, all the evidence I've reviewed points to: men and women are more alike than different in every measurable way except maybe neuroticism, (<ridiculous aside>You can tell it the big five was made by men, otherwise neuroticism would have a more positive sounding label</ridiculous aside>).

For most every other trait, the average score of either gender is within the first standard deviation of the other gender. We are more alike than we are different.

Yes, the averages for each gender are different in the expected directions, but anyone who reasons from the average when they could be reasoning from the entire bell curve is shirking and going to end up with a very wrong answer roughly a quarter of the time or some such. BECAUSE, The average score of each gender is within the first standard deviation of the other gender's scores. We are more alike than we are different.

Men have a higher variance in most traits, (a less tall / less clumped bell curve), any trait where you say "Oh, the male average is farther left than the female average," (or farther right, same difference) Yes, that may be true, but at the extremes, you will almost always find, the last sample of the male bell curve reaches far past the female bell curve in the other direction as well. Any trait you say "Men are better at this, on average," I answer, "Yes, but the person worst at that is also a man." Any trait you say, "Men are worse at this trait, on average." again I answer, "Yes, but the person best at that is probably also a man."

We are more alike than we are different. And the weirdest outlier in almost every direction is a man, (except old age?)

All that being said, one of the ways that we are noticeably different, is that if we have the option to specialize, excess resources to attend college, or whatever, there is significant evidence that women have a fractional preference to prioritize vocations with more interpersonal interaction, and men to prioritize vocations with more systems interaction. and again fractially within each field and sub-field, there is likely to be a measurable divergence between specializations chosen by each gender.

Notice I said, when excess resources are available. The more excess resources are available the wider the gender gap in specialization/employment.

But what happens when there is an crisis? The traditional idiom is "When the going gets tough the tough get going," in my experience: Everyone who can, pitches in and does what's needed, men take on nurturing roles, women pick up guns, whatever is needed, for as long as it is needed, then return to whatever was normal before, or whatever they prefer now having explored more options. Whatever, that's fine.

What happens when college gets too expensive for the average student? What happens when jobs that pay a livable wage get scarce? A week ago I would have answered/predicted: "Everyone takes whatever job they can get regardless of their internal preferences."

But what if there's more to it than that? What if the economic down turn lasts longer than that? What if there's a pandemic and there is no public audience for which to practice displaying your gender?

What if the answer is Occupy Wall Street? What if the answer is Unionize? What if the answer is, (in response to being kept out of jobs that we personally are suited for,) both men and women saying, "I am non-binary, do not judge me and make assumptions about what I am capable of based on your preconception of my gender, I can do the job, let me do it, I can handle the task, let me handle it, my gender doesn't matter, gender is a luxury of the wealthy, and the west is no longer wealthy."

Or at least, some of us are not wealthy enough to afford gratuitous displays of gender.

A luxury that cannot be afforded is a decadence.

(Obviously the ideal solution is shrinking the insane wealth gap, but that is not within my ability to affect, my own behavior is within my ability to affect.)

Maybe today I can afford it, but maybe if by neglecting public display of my gender I can leave room for anyone not currently so well off to save money or time by skimping on displaying their own.

Maybe tomorrow you will be more well off, but I will be the one who cannot afford the makeover or the muscle car.

Maybe we can all be a little more merciful, build in a little more margin into the system of what is acceptable.

Maybe buying more rainbows is not the answer, maybe buying less makeup and leather jackets is the answer.

It's a completely different, much more uncomfortable interpretation of my normal prayer, and I will need to meditate on it for a few weeks to decide whether I can even live by it.

Please don't take this essay as a tract about giving up that which brings you joy, there is little enough joy in the world please don't give up any more than you must, regardless of whether that joy fits in the category of "gender euphoria" or even "vicarious gender euphoria?"

Please do take this as an invitation to experiment with letting go of 'displays of gender' that you find burdensome. Some things become more joyful when they are 'freely chosen' or 'saved for special occasions.'

If you employ others, please do take this as an invitation to hire with more of an eye towards key skills and less of an eye towards gender stereotypes.

If you hear anyone talk about the social contagion theory of non-binary trendiness, consider this an invitation to say, "isn't the idiom, 'two heads are better than one'? Have you considered the possibility that all these girls choosing to be non-binary at the same time is evidence that they are correct, is your paradigm flexible enough to comprehend what that would mean it it did happen to be true?"

(Feel free to use the notes to fill me in on where my data is wrong or my reasoning lacking. or open a dialog with others about the ideas here. Try to keep it polite. I feel like there are probably places where my language is ridiculously more offensive than I mean it to be, but I didn't manage to find them on two edit passes, so, yeah, feel free to help me with those also.)

I apologize for not having a bibliography.

"Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, etc."

[thedreadvampy]

New year!

2022 continued the pattern set since 2016 of the world getting precipitously worse at the same time my personal life gets vastly better. World's on fire, economy fucked, Tories killing thousands through poverty and austerity, whatever the fuck is going on with the UK government trying to shut down the gender recognition reform bill and having successfully shut down Indyref2 in the courts, winter of discontent 2.0, etc etc. several of my loved ones are dealing with long term medical issues that aren't getting treated because the NHS is straight up in shreds, and people around me are very very stressed.

But like. In 2022 I've settled into a job I like (and which pays me Disposable Income Money), I've started a really positive new relationship, I'm no longer in any long distance things since Kofi moved up at the end of 2021. I am feeling more like. Baseline secure in my life than I ever have really, I'm getting to a place where I have friends I know I can trust, I have relationships I know I can communicate in, I have bad days for sure but I don't have the constant low level panic and misery that I'm used to 24/7.

I'm not doing new years resolutions, I usually don't, but my 2023 hopes are:

I hope this year brings less misery than the last few for the world (unlikely) and, if things continue to worsen, I hope strikes and protests continue to build

I hope that before my boss goes on mat leave in spring we will have got enough interest in the union for me to hand over the work I'm doing in it and move up to management without it losing momentum

I hope PT helps me keep building strength and I keep enjoying it

I hope I will be a good friend to my friends and a good partner to my partners

I hope I will make the time to go and see friends and family I've not visited in too long (Sam, Sian, Courtney, Ray, Sally)

I hope I'll continue the ridiculously positive personal trajectory I'm on in terms of healing and happiness

I turn 30 this year as well so you know. Gonna try and make it a good one.

[balkanradfem]

Is there a space to put the embarrassment at not knowing all of this sooner? I am very young and I still cringe remembering how misogynistic I was before. I feel like I wasted so many years hating being female, hating women because I was too alive to fit inside some concept of ribbons and nails. Thank you for creating female-centred "femininity" if that is the right word (I think Twitter is right about using "-coded"). That "female-centred femininity" should be part of outreach.

Okay so the first part of this ask I understand, and the second half completely lost me and I have no idea what's going on in there, I am having some suspicions so I will address it as if my suspicions are correct, but if I'm wrong and understood this incorrectly, my bad.

I relate to your embarrassment anon! I too, have said horrible things I regret, not knowing better, being in a society that taught us these things as if they're the norm, as if putting women down was a regular activity we should all participate in. I remember laughing at disgusting jokes because I thought we were supposed to dismiss the misogyny and take it for granted that it's okay to make such jokes. I don't feel embarrassed about it anymore, I'm angry. I was taught since I was a child to turn against my own, to put my own kind down, to laugh at jokes that dismissed my own humanity, to look at other women as less than they really are. It was a crime against me to groom me like that, to normalize that insane hatred of my own, in my own language and actions, it is not something I did to myself, it's not something i knowingly and intentionally participated in, it was stolen from me.

I think we should celebrate when we realize we don't have to exist within any kind of gender norm, and that we can look whatever we want to look like, and be whatever we want to be like, and it doesn't take away a thing from our value.

Okay so the second part confused me, because you mention femininity, but that word means nothing to me, femininity is merely a performance, the definition we use here is 'male fantasy'. Nobody is naturally 'feminine', it's just a set of expectations and appearances that are forced on us, it's what we fight against.

'Female-centered-femininity' sounds like a ridiculous concept to me, why would we preform male fantasies for other women?

I wonder if you maybe conflated my posts about nature, growing food, creating baskets, furniture, learning about herbs wild plants and medicine and trees, with some kind of reductive concept like 'these are actions expected of women to do for m*n in a patriarchal society, so this is femininity', because that's not it. We're learning how to live from nature and create things in order to start a revolution against m*n, in order to no longer need their society or their resources for survival. It's an act of defiance, a fight to save the planet from what males are doing to it, to revitalize nature and to live in a way that doesn't require any male presence, or any male influence.

A lot of what women do in society, such as building community, having incredibly creative and artistic hobbies, growing food, creating resources, caring for each other, learning about nature, is reduced to 'silly women stuff' and put in same category as makeup and shopping, but these are actually incredibly powerful tools of creation that keep the society going. Where would we all be if our mothers didn't invent thousand things we needed in order to grow up. Where would we be if they weren't incredible masters of creation and care who brought us up. I don't ever want to reduce all that to femininity or some kind of silly thing women do, this is life, this is creation, this is what kept the planet going while males were out there building machines that created damage to the planet, started wars that destroyed lives, created economy that makes sure only they are paid for their work, which is redundant and damaging, while we do life-sustaining, extremely necessary and useful actions, which are taken for granted and ignored.

People have told me a few times that my posts remind them of their childhood, because they remember picking fruit and vegetables, making jams and canning, or learning about plants from their mothers, during their childhood, and these are incredibly happy, nostalgic memories, that don't come as often. Why is that? Because as soon as we grow, we enter the patriarchal system in which we're not longer supposed to pick berries or make jams or grow food, we're told to become a part of capitalistic machine or there's no space for us to exist anymore. This is something that is taken from us, our bond with nature, our ability to thrive and enjoy life while picking nature's fruit and our own knowledge to save it, to create food security. I'm finding my way back to this, and I see the future in it. Rejecting the security of male systems is powerful, and it brings us back to the basics of life that we can enjoy in, the diversity of activities, the closeness to nature, the opportunities to work together, share, tell stories, interact in ways that don't warrant competition, but togetherness.

I went a bit off topic, but I wanted a chance to talk about this, and I hope you're not offended I don't like the words you've been taught to use, I don't think it's your fault at all, anon, I think we were all very much cheated with the words like femininity.

[contemplatingoutlander]

Yet opposing an actual regime that suppresses individual freedom and opposes a free market economy is different from the way many Republicans use these terms now —- to falsely claim Marxists are U.S. society's ruling class. “Bluntly, there is no empirical ground beneath the Republican claim that Marxists rule the big institutions of American society,” Mirrlees said. Other Republicans, from DeSantis to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have used another term, “cultural Marxism,” to characterize fights for gender or racial equity that they argue are “woke” and threaten a traditional American way of life. Cruz used it in the title of his book. Though the term has become popular among mainstream Republicans, it has a darker past. Experts say the concept of “cultural Marxism” posing a threat was historically spread by antisemitic and white supremacist groups. For most voters who hear candidates say someone is communist or Marxist, the true meaning may matter less than the negative associations with the terms, said James Gardner, a University at Buffalo law professor who focuses on election law. “The tactic seems to be to pick an adjective that most people think describes something bad and try to associate it with the person you are denigrating,” he said. Still, while railing against communists and Marxists may be effective at animating voters who form the Republican base, it may not be an effective strategy in next year's general election, Israel said. That's because it doesn't as easily sway moderate and independent voters who don't see evidence that ties Democrats to those ideologies. “Moderate voters may succumb to the Republican argument that Democrats are for more spending, but they’re not going to fall for the argument that Democrats are Marxists,” Israel said. “The Republicans are overplaying their hand.”

It is patently ridiculous to call the centrist Biden a "communist" or a "Marxist."

What is sad is that the Republicans are exploiting fears of both Latin American and Asian immigrants who have left real communist or socialist countries.

Lashing out after his arraignment on federal charges last week, Donald Trump took aim at President Joe Biden and Democrats with language that seemed to evoke another era: He was being persecuted, he said, by “Marxists” and “communists.”

Trump has used the labels since he first appeared on the political scene, but it lately has become an omnipresent attack line that also has been deployed by other Republicans. The rhetoric is both inaccurate and potentially dangerous because it attempts to demonize an entire party with a description that has long been associated with America's enemies.

[the-chessboard-is-personal]

Very tiredly made pinned post bc I'm always tired.

hi, I'm Knight and this is my personal blog. they/he. Yes Knight is my irl name. 20, aroace, either enby or a guy idk gender is complicated

Cadanain or however you spell it. uh. 🇨🇦 <- from there

ask game

neocitities site for "ethical"/with permission AI training: https://chessboards-ethical-images.neocities.org (wip, submissions are open so DM me!)

DNI: basic dni (link) + zionists, car enthusiasts (I don't hate you I hate cars), NFTbros, people who are violently on either side of the AI art debate*

Not extensive but generally if you're a bigot, support bigots or are hateful in general fuck off

*my opinion on AI art is that it seriously, SERIOUSLY needs more regulations, but if I wake up feeling like more shit than I usually feel like I shouldn't be ridiculed and hated by everyone on this damn planet if I occasionally want to pop over to Craiyon and have it generate some art of weird looking dice to cheer myself up. fyi. and stop arguing about whether it's art or not the semantics aren't important!! also. ffs. when an untrained downloadable model and a website where images are given out with permission to be used for AI is made, THEN I'll join the argument about "stealing". so PLEASE, let people download untrained models! actually y'know what? Y'KNOW WHAT? THAT'S IT. I'M MAKING A NEOCITIES SITE. FUCK IT. WHO FUCKING CARES IM TAKING PHOTOS OF THINGS MYSELF.

not sorry for the rant. I'm so fucking tired. be the change you want to see.

And ChatGPT is a wonderful Goomba Name Generator. bite me. /ref

Fandoms I'm in: chess, animation vs., inanimate insanity, bfdi, steven universe, magic the gathering, smg4, baba is you, murder drones, d&d, owl house, tadc, minecraft, hermitcraft, life series, lifesteal smp, mario (mostly for smm2 and b3313), gravity falls, fnaf (kinda), doom (.......kind of. yes it is because of myhouse.wad), dsmp (but I'm kinda drifting away from that one)

ramble about the bold/orange ones to me‼️‼️‼️

Fandoms im Looking at, but unsure of: the magnus archives, the stanley parable, other object shows

Random shit about me and tags i tag under cut

Don't spoil House of Leaves for me, I'm gonna read it soon maybe (<- liar)

I watched all of soul eater and then proceeded to forget everything that happened because I'm stupid

For personal reasons relating to Words (derogatory), do not talk to me about outer space or organizations capable of going on strike

do not ask me about No Context Nope Not Giving Any. I will dodge the question.

First ever Chessboard Moment: chess.jpg

tags:

#vent for venting

#grasping at straws for reaching out (e.g "help me with a project please?") Wait when did I make this tag also what does it rnean

#the fuck up won't shut up! for just talking about stuff

#nobody cares huh for stuff I'm actually proud of

#another ruined canvas for art, although most of that will go on @chess-is-art

#look! a blunder! for plugging stuff i have on other sites

#I'm not funny for stuff i add onto when reblogging

#chessboard? sleeping? in this economy? dreams tag

#sticks and stones can break my bones but Words Can Fucking Kill Me for specific vents hold on what the fuck is this tag

#negative iq takes for theories

#cringe comp for videos

#dumb writing for fics

#chessboard saying dumb shit for when I talk to people

#do you want bad or terrible? Polls

#shitty sleep september Have you seen an entire two* month's worth of nightmares in a row? WOULD YOU LIKE TO??

*it happened twice

#knight and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad pun for puns. yes commas can go in tags. no I will not say how

I tag triggers as #tw [thing] (without the brackets when actual thing is involved) current triggers are #tw sui mention but i might forget to use it once in a while so uhh just block #vent sorry

I also tag discourse when I go into it

projects will be tagged as #project: [name]. "Project:" will not be part of the name by default

I don't tag mcyt posts as #minecraft and you shouldn't either! It is #mcyt and the mcyt applicable!

Uh I'll think of more if I need to

[ahhvernin]

In case anyone forgot. It was still hard to get a job as a woman single or not, because many employers were afraid of them getting pregnant and considering them a drain on resources, when the opposite is true.

Now with this new supreme court ruling....it's going to be even harder for women to get job and potentially keep their jobs.

Tell me how that is helpful to an economy? Tell me, men are going to enjoy being the single stream household income for a family in a tiny ass apartment that cost more than a mortgage.

In this economy, a group of 3 working roommates can barely make rent. Now we gotta juggle forced pregnancy and forced Parenthood?

And if you're saying oh no it's illegal to discriminate...let me tell you something. I started working at 14. I've had a total of 5 different jobs as a student and 8 jobs between the sciences and education after college. 10 of those jobs slipped in a question of "do you have a family? Are planning on having a family? Do you have a boyfriend? Are you single? Oh your moving here by yourself, no boyfriend or husband? Are you married? Are you sure you don't have or plan on having any other family obligations?"

The law says you can't discriminate, but employers still do. Many still favor a white, male sounding name on an application.

I have a very gender neutral name. I've purposefully not added my pronouns to applications because most will assume I'm male and sometimes say Mister... And I won't correct them until the in-person interview. I've overheard a receptionist say "your interview is a woman???? Yeah I checked her ID it's her.". And then tell me that the position was filled even after 3 hours of driving to get there. I've been also been told all sorts of "difficult tasks" that might be "hard to manage" during an interview.

Most men would never have to justify if they can handle a job because it's "difficult". Most men will not have to prepare a a ridiculous answer somewhere along the lines of "I cleared an entire abandoned farm field of an invasive tree with non electric handtools, a pickup truck with a team of 2 other women within a summer." Just to prove you can do the manual or mental labor of a job. Most men won't have to worry about if they will get the job single or married. In fact both are welcomed with men, but unwelcomed for women.

I grew up fighting for a place in higher education and workplace and I'll keep fighting for me, for others and all the younger gens who are not "white male" applicants. Why? Because unlike what a certain group of people love to say, we actually do want to work, own property, own businesses, have a savings, have investments and a retirement. We want equal pay, equal recognition, and unisex individual and family benefits for the work we provide.

[an-ambivalent]

Just my two cents on the whole gidle thing, yeahh, I see where you're coming from. That's p much what just turns me off a bit frm really stanning them and stuff, esp after an apparent incident where one of them did sumn really offensive to sea/malays idk, i can't rmb so I might be wrong. For Henna, I don't really have a problem w it, probably because I'm raised in a multinational country, and sometimes for school festivals, we have ppl (usually malays/indians) set up a henna booth. The ethnic +

cont./ hip thing is kinda racist tho. SK may have a booming economy, but you can’t ignore the fact that they still have underlying sexist and racist problems. That’s the thing for a lot of Asian countries anyways, sadly… Compared to western countries that are progressing socially, Asian countries collectively need to get rid of their sexist and racist ideals like the whole “men are more important” and “white skin is beautiful ” thing…

+ I wholly agree with the fact that these monoracial countries often have a lot of negative stereotypes on other cultures/races. SK beauty brands still only have like 2-3 shades of light foundation, the older gen have a prejudice against darker skinned people, media still whitewashes idols and celebs like they’re paper and even more instances.

—-

Henna booths are set up to celebrate the culture, to introduce and expose a part of our culture and share it with others; the meaning behind its purpose is significant. However, using it as fashion statement in video that is not relevant to the culture, I don’t like it. As a brown girl, there are times when you are victim to people’s jeers a lot, and off handed remarks that are insulting. Some girls in my high school were making fun of my friends and I for our culture but then go around put henna on their hands when they have no respect for our culture. That’s why I consider it culture appropriation. By no means I don’t mind someone wearing henna, clothes, and other things of my culture but not just for the sake of fashion because those are our traditions, especially if someone doesn’t respect it. 

And you’re completely right. It’s shameful how for men, simply for their gender, are treated so much better in so many parts of Asia because society in many parts is very conservative and women are so oppressed. The white skin thing is ridiculous too. All they do in India with face wash ads is emphasize how it will whiten your skin in 2 weeks. Its gross because that sort of thing is detrimental for those who are dark skinned. It makes me so uncomfortable when my aunty says “I wish I was paler like you, I hate my skin” like?? white washing, and this paler skin beauty standards are big yikes. 

[arothin]

because it isnt. or it doesnt have it be.

It is. both of those are incredibly skilled jobs, and id even say theres a barrier to entry working with cows bc they can kick and kick hard.

The difference between farming and "picking apples and milking cows" is that farming as part of the modern economy is about productivity, just like everything else in the economy. and just like everything else in capitalism, it milks everything and everyone in it for everything they have or can borrow.

Its not even that this is an idealized past. The medieval peasant worked literally less than half as much as we do, and we certainly produce more than twice the medieval peasant.

The Adam Smith Institute (you know, the guy that wrote the book almost every economy on earth is based on?) wrote an article arguing against that idea here

and second paragraph in, how long does the ASI say a peasant might have worked? 182.5 days at the least. Certainly a far cry from 150, and much closer to the 260 days of work (52 weeks a year, 5 days a week) minimums faced by 1 in 4 americans.

Was being a medieval peasant easy? lord no. Is being here today better than being back then? there isnt an easy way to say no.

Apple picking and milking cows are skilled labour that does require work. Apple picking and milking cows is also symbolic of a previous time when life wasnt dictated by pushing yourself to exhaustion day in and day out.

Is thinking that apple picking, and milking cows arent work, and thinking that and restrictive gender roles are good, is any of that realistic, healthy, good? no. But you arent going to get them to change their mind about the words they use if you ridicule them for expressing what they feel in a poorly thought out manner.

the repackaging of old misogynistic ideas that younger generations think they’ve outgrown into buzzword-filled tik toks and tweets that will be pushed towards young impressionable people is extremely dangerous. But also extremely funny like you can’t get this anywhere else

[dunnystuff]

Another Sunday Edition

Hi to all -

Job Losses

This is an odd one. With tens of thousands of employers begging for people to work, you might think this is a workers market. But, reality is that the number of people in the workforce is declining, at quite an astounding rate. Nationwide, the number of people who quit their jobs in the last couple of months totals nearly 3% of the workforce. If that continued for a year, we would really have a hard time getting anything done. My own state of Georgia was leading the pack in numbers of people quitting. A few other states, mostly in the southeast, are also high on that list.

Part of the reason is that unemployment pays better than many jobs, and does not involve actually having to get up and go to work. Another reason is the push to fire anyone who does not want the vax. That is about to seriously affect law enforcement, health care, transportation and other key industries. Of course, that is the real reason behind all this bullying. It is not about health care, but to destroy the economy so that a socialist government can replace our current system. Don't take my word for it, just listen to Biden and his team. They have clearly stated that the pandemic is a perfect excuse to 'redesign our economic system'. Which just happens to dovetail nicely with all those 'conspiracy theories' about The Great Reset and a New World Order.

Evergrande

This is the Chinese real estate company that was facing default just a couple of weeks ago. They are such a huge company that if they went into default, it might trigger a collapse of the Chinese economy.

Well, they just made their debt payment, and delayed this disaster for a short time. They owe about $300 billion, and the income from their properties is not enough to keep up payments. Do you see the irony here? This is a communist society. In theory, the state owns everything, and there is no such thing as debt, or capitalism. Yet, here is a massive company, desperately needing capital, to pay for its investments. Hello - is that not what capitalism is all about? Investors borrow money to create new enterprises, and if they make good choices, they get a good return on those investments and can pay their bills, and have a little left over to make other investments. Where is all that FREE STUFF that communism promised?

Well, Evergrande seems to have 'kicked the can down the road', a very capitalist idea, and hope they can stir up enough new business to recover. China is experiencing a 'housing bubble', much like the one that crashed our economy in 2008. One of the few things that citizens there can buy and own is real estate, so speculation is rampant, and people are buying up property as fast as they can. Let's see if China can avoid what happened here.

Putin

Even he has looked at our current culture and says it is ridiculous. Being 'woke', and using cancel culture to change speech and actions just does not work, and is harmful to the nation, he says. None of this matters to the left. Their religion does not allow them to be wrong, ever, about anything.

Netflix

Employees there worship at the altar of 'woke' also, and they are still very angry at Dave Chappelle for daring to suggest that gender is a physical reality. They held a big protest at the Netflix HQ, demanding that Dave be cancelled. Why, we just cannot allow anyone to question our ideas, lest we be forced to 'fact check' them, and see if they are actually correct, or even workable. Did you see that photo of employees standing around outside the building? Not sure if this was the Netflix crew, but it looked like a drag queen festival, heavy on the Gothic look.

Looks like our society may be headed for a divorce between the usual culture, and the 'woke' culture. 'Irreconcilable differences."

Migrants

The first wave of those 60,000 migrants, many from Haiti, made it to Mexico. Police tried to set up barriers to block their march, but the crowds were so large they bulldozed right past the police. This is not encouraging. It also shows that the mob is well organized, led and financed. Wouldn't it be interesting to see who is paying for all this? My guess is that it will include 'the usual suspects' who have been behind every riot and protest since Occupy.

Chris Wallace

He said that Jen Psaki is 'one of the best spokespersons ever'. People on the right were astounded. She is such a liar, and dances the Potomac Two Step like Fred Astaire. Never answers a question, just changes the subject. People on the left cheered - Jen really knows how to handle those rubes who dare disagree with Biden and team.

AOC

Looks like I confused a few people with an offhand remark about AOC. She came from nothing, literally, to being a very rich and powerful and influential person in the left DC crowd. When she was first elected, she was working as a bartender. Apathy was so bad in her district that she won - after having only 15,000 votes cast for her. That is not a lead over her opponents, that is the total number of votes. She talks like a teenager, 'like, I mean, you know...' She immediately hired her boyfriend to be a senior staffer, then denied it, and got caught. Yes, friends, she learned early on that 'there is gold in them thar districts' and helped herself to as much as she could stuff in her pockets. The Green New Deal, according to her own staff, never had anything to do with the environment, but was a ploy to gain political power. After all, what would she know about the climate? How many false prophets have said 'the end is near', only to be proven wrong? We are less than a decade away from AOC's own prophecy that the world would end in 12 years, unless we tax you to death first. And, yet, she has a massive following, and the whole democrat party joins her voice in proclaiming that only they can save the world, and only by crushing everyone else and taking all their money. Stay tuned, there may be a comet for them to ride coming our way.

Rich

[rainbowsky]

Yeah, it's clear they are going to continue to push their aggressively heterosexual, aggressively hyper-masculinized agenda.

It seems like such a short-sighted approach. Not only were BL stories making incredible cultural inroads into international audiences and converting a lot of Western anti-China viewers into people who have taken an interest in Chinese culture, Chinese language in Chinese media - something the Chinese government could only dream of prior to The Untamed and Word of Honor - these types of stories are very popular with audiences in China and represent a lot of revenue sources and jobs being eliminated at a time when the economy is in rough shape.

Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of all of this is that these are romance stories aimed primarily at straight women, at a time when they are trying to get women to marry and have children. These thugs don't seem to understand that women dreaming of romance works in their favour in that respect. They are too blinded by bigotry, testosterone and backward gender role bullshit to see that everything that they are doing is shooting themselves in the foot.

I really recommend this article if you want to get a very interesting perspective from Chinese writer living in Beijing. She has some excellent insights on all of this that I wholeheartedly agree with. The article is behind a paywall. Disable JavaScript to access the full text.

It's sad that we are unlikely to see any improvement in this situation anytime soon, but there's nothing to be done about it. 😔

2022 National Radio and Television Work Conference will be held. Yang Shuo, secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau, said at the meeting that the Beijing Bureau had done a good job of "combined punches" in comprehensive governance of cultural and entertainment networks in terms of network governance. We will stop idol-cultivating online TV dramas and “Danchang” theme internet TV dramas in an all-round way, and earnestly carry out special investigations in the fields of internet TV dramas, short videos, and live broadcasts, and strive to create a clear and healthy online cultural space in the capital.

me: ohhhhh. well then. 💀

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