#anyone who can afford anything is a part of the class problem

[boreal-sea]

I studied American & British government and politics at a level, and the first thing we covered was electoral systems because they are so *so* awful.

The way I try and explain it to people who are struggling to understand FPTP is imagine a group of 10 people are deciding on a snack.

Your choices are:

Packet of ready salted crisps.

Packet of salt and vinegar crisps.

Packet of peanuts.

3 people pick ready salted crisps. 3 people pick salt and vinegar.

4 people pick the peanuts.

So 60% DONT pick peanuts, that's less than half. But EVERYONE gets peanuts. (And what if someone who voted crisps is allergic to peanuts? Tough. That's what everyone gets)

The electoral system is fucked. But if we replace the Dems with salt and vinegar, an Independent with ready salted, and Republicans with peanuts. It shows how Easy the Republicans can get a seat if you Don't vote blue.

I hope this helps people who struggle to get why not voting blue is a vote for the Republicans.

In my country (UK) the Conservatives (that's like your Republicans) don't have a majority of votes even though they have the majority of seats in Parliament.

(This doesn't take into account your absolutely fucked electoral college that doesn't make sense, sorry,,, I struggled to wrap my head around that)

Yeeeeaaaaah our electoral system is so, so fucked on LITERALLY every level, which is why it's so god damned important that we vote blue no matter who and that we don't do anything to damage people's willingness to vote blue. Republicans make sure the system is incredibly stacked against marginalized voters, because marginalized voters know that voting blue is the only way we get to cling to rights. We literally cannot afford to lose even a single blue vote.

On the bottom level, on the basis of the voters, Republicans use our system to fuck them over in many ways.

Restrictions against individual voters

Many states having difficult voter ID laws designed to prevent marginalized people from voting. These voting laws are implemented by Republicans. So there's a bunch of Democratic votes that never get cast.

Next, each state and city run by Republicans often do things like removing voting locations, making it harder for marginalized people to vote by making it harder for them to get to polling locations and making the lines in those locations longer. Marginalized people are often lower class, and it's almost impossible to get a whole day off to stand in line to vote, therefore, these people often have no choice: they can't risk their job to go vote. So there's more blue votes that never get cast.

Also, many of those states have restrictions on absentee voting, which could be a solution for folks who can't take time off to vote, but because absentee voting is made purposely difficult and confusing, it again restricts people from voting. More blue votes lost.

Those are just the harms done to individual voters by Republicans. We haven't even gotten to voting districts yet.

Voting Districts

So the way the electoral college works is that everyone's individual votes are first funneled up to voting districts, and then those districts are tallied to decide who won the state. The problem is, human beings draw those districts - and Republicans like to drawn them in very shitty ways that ensure marginalize people's votes don't count as much.

Look at this. That third diagram is what happens in states all across America. Anyone who thinks the USA works on a "one person, one vote" system is wrong. You do not directly vote - your vote is tallied as part of your district, and that total is what determines who wins the state.

And then you have what happens at the state level, because the system continues to fuck over voters.

The Electoral College

You thought it couldn't get worse? It gets worse. Each state has officials called "Electors", and they are the people who actually cast the true vote for president. Now, legally, in many states, these Electors are legally required to cast their vote for the candidate selected by the districts in the state, but in some states they technically could just vote for whoever they want. They don't, because they'd never win reelection, but still.

So, ok. How many Electors does each state get? Is it based off something logical, like population maybe? Kind of. Every state gets 1 for each Senator (so a total of 2) and then 1 for each congressional district - and the number of congressional districts a state gets is based off population.

This system, unfortunately, ends up giving more "weight" to voters from less populated states. Some people claim this is good, because it means those states will still have their opinions expressed in government. Other people note that land doesn't vote, and it's completely unfair a small number of voters get to basically override the choice of a majority of voters.

So, a candidate has to win 270 of these electoral votes to win the election. Notably, the electoral college results do not always match the "popular vote" - that's the 1:1 vote of the people. There have been several situations where the majority of individuals in the USA voted for candidate A, but because of how the electoral college works, candidate B won instead. The last two times this happened, it was Democrats who lost. Most recently, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over three million votes, but lost in the Electoral College, so we ended up with Trump.

Summary

If any of my followers are confused, I get it. But hopefully, you will also see now how incredibly stacked the system is against minority voters specifically because they're more likely to vote Democrat. Maybe now you will see that Republicans basically have to cheat at every stage of an election to win, and that if we actually had fair elections in this country based on 1:1 votes, Republicans couldn't win.

And maybe, hopefully, this will make it clear why it's so fucking dangerous to tell people to not vote for Biden. We are walking a razor thin wire across a chasm of jagged rocks, while Republicans laugh and throw fireballs at us. They don't want the system to change, because it benefits them! Every voter we successfully get to the polls is a win for us and a lose for them.

Please vote. Please vote blue. Please vote for election reform.

[thedrowsydoormouse]

Ok I don't know if I'm sleep deprived or if this actually makes sense but bear with me because I think I've figured out the backstory for Finetime! Spoilers for Dot and Bubble below the cut.

Ok so what do we KNOW about Finetime?

It's on a different planet than the Home World

It is literally in a bubble that is cut off from the outside world

Everyone there is between the ages of 17-27

It's filled with all the rich (racist) kids who could afford to go there

They "work" for two hours each day

The weather is controlled by a satelite

The home world was also overrun by the slugs

So what can we hypothesize from that information? (Side note, anything you are about to read that is racist, classist, or both are not my actual words but what I would assume someone from that society would think or say. I do not hold those beliefs and I do not wish to associate with anyone who does.)

The grown ups back on the Home World (an already racist, classist society) had already started to drive their Dots insane and they knew their days were numbered. So they gathered up a bunch of their "least valuable" (to them) citizens to Boldy Go and find a new planet that won't immediately kill them and build a new settlement, not really caring how many of them make it back, if any, because again, racist and classist.

While the new settlement is being discovered and built, the people back on the Home World got to work planning. They knew there would only be so many spots available in the new community (think like lifeboats on the Titanic) so the easiest way they could think to secure those spots is to have people pay for them and they needed to make sure every person going could fend for themself (more or less) and was within reproductive age, thus the 17-27 year age limit. But that creates a problem. If your entire population is made up of a bunch of rich 20 somethings who have no marketable skills, how will society continue to function? So they automate everything with computer programs and AI to handle the nitty gritty and the 2 hours of "work" are basically games that keep the AI running smoothly. Then construction of Finetime is complete, the "undesirables" leave the bubble and move out into the jungle (I'm assuming. We never really find out what happened to the people who built everything because the only person we meet who would know is Ricky and well ...........), the bubble is sterilized because poor people cooties, and the stage is set for our "adventure".

So off they go, a rocket full of Rich White kids who, if they were told they were going to be the last of their kind, they either weren't paying attention or didn't care. They assume it's going to be a long holiday and once they turn 27 they'll all head back to the Home World and back to Mummy and Daddy. So they continue on, business as usual. They play their little games for two hours every day to maintain the status quo then spend the rest of their time living like rich kids on vacation. All the while their Dots are plotting to wipe out all of them the same way they started (and eventually finished) back on the Home World because nothing has fundamentally changed. The problem is the computers that run everything need above a certain population to continue functioning normally, so the first few slug victims (#allhailthegloriousslugs) didn't really make that much of a difference. But as more and more of them get eaten, the computers start to struggle to keep up and things start to go a bit haywire, like the weather satellites having issues (I know that was a real world issue and not meant to be part of the plot but it works so well in my backstory theory that I'm going with it).

TLDR: a bunch of rich, racist assholes did what rich, racist assholes do and basically destroyed their planet, used a bunch of working class people and people of color to find and build a new society on a new planet, sent their obnoxious, self absorbed trust fund babies to go live in that society, and the the completely expected thing happens when the problems continue in the new community because nothing about the society itself fundamentally changed. Any of the people who managed to escape Finetime who also manage to not drown when the boat their on inevitably runs aground (because they can't even walk without arrows, no way in hell they'll know how to drive a boat) are either going to starve to death or have to contend with countless wild animals and potentially even the people who built the bubble city in the first place. Not a single person on that boat will live longer than a week.

[intheholler]

So I'm not from Appalachia but I have family roots there and have always felt a certain call to the region. I want to move there but I wonder if there's an ethical way to do that. I grew up and still am working class, I'm not looking to displace anyone or change anything. But I worry that people moving in are going to be part of the problem, instead of being able to become part of the community like I want. Do you have any thoughts on that?

firstly, i really, really appreciate that this is something you're thinking about. it's incredibly considerate of you, because gentrification is absolutely an issue here.

short answer: you're fine.

long answer:

you're fine. being in the working class and moving to a smaller mountain town, supporting local businesses and thereby the local economy, and quietly engaging with the locals and their culture in the way you would anywhere else you move... that isn't the issue. to me, that's just a sign of a healthy and welcoming community.

it would be harmful if you went full snowbird--that is to say, if you came here with a lot of money and bought out properties for the house you only visit in the summer, displacing folks and not contributing at all to the community (staring aggressively at you, yuppie ass asheville [yes i'm so bitter)]

or, in a more permanent sense: if you ignored mountain cultures/ways of life and moved here just bc you wanted the pretty mountains as the backdrop for your now-overpriced apartment but wanted to change everything else that makes it what it is.

your situation isn't the same as these people who want to disfigure it and make it feel like the rest of the nation--introducing ritzy businesses no one can afford to patron, driving up prices, buying out all of the single family homes so no existing locals can afford to stay there--basically the "i can fix him" mentality if "he" was a holler.

as for me, i've never been upset when people move in because the ones i know have done it for the right reasons. they've always been welcomed with open arms by my friends and family. it actually makes me happy, personally.

i don't speak for all of appalachia obviously, but that's my two cents! i have a headache so i hope it was coherent. if not, just revisit the short answer <3

[diy-fire-water-pups]

(( I feel the need to come here now and ask some people to be more considerate. ))

(( I created this blog for fun on my SPARE time, which is little to none because I need to worry about getting money constantly so I can eat. Not to make it everyone's problem but I literally haven't eaten anything today yet and it's currently 6:30 PM as I'm publishing this post right now. There is food at home but it's just one option, which I'm so tired of eating it constantly for being one of the cheapest things to buy, it doesn't satisfy me anymore and we're just halfway through the month. I don't have any source of secure income and I got four other mouths to feed ASIDE OF MY OWN. I am constantly overworked with my underpaid part time job as English teacher because neither my father or younger brother can help me checking these homeworks or exams, they don't know English language like I do, and I still need to balance that with drawing for commissions, which are the only way I got to get money during the month. My father is too old to get hired for anything. My brother is still finishing college, if only that shit would end their strike to continue classes so he can graduate still this year and look for a proper job, which will also probably take some time, it's not easy to get a job here.

And it takes a lot of time for me to draw and answer the asks in this blog, usually over 1 hour and half, up to two hours or even longer when there's all three pups + something else they're doing or for the background - that is, if I work on it non-stop, because I usually draw a sketch, it sits there for a few days, until I stop again to clean it up and draw the lineart, then wait a few more days until I go and color it to finish and publish the answered ask. I have some drafts with a doodled answer waiting for a week or even two, still waiting for me to finish the art and post them. I'm having fun with these on my own time.

WITH ALL THAT SAID, I cannot afford Magic!Anons that demand for specific amounts of asks to be worked on, no matter how many. You gotta understand it: If I would start the M!A effect tomorrow, the first ask with that effect would show up like, one whole week AFTER or so. It just does NOT work here. Besides, I have some stories going on in the blog, like this entire thing about Marshall's incoming deafness, which took me what, let me see... Two weeks and half since I replied the first Anon who started it and it's still not done completely yet. I still got another interesting story to start and entertain you all with it, this other one has been waiting sitting in this blog's drafts for literally ONE MONTH now. I'm not gonna interrupt them with side effects.

If you want to dare my pups to do something funny or silly, that's cool! But it'll go for only your dare ask and that's it. I'm not gonna disturb other asks or RPs. Magic!Anons are to be fun and short and sadly I do not have the time to have anything going on for too long like that, not when it's something that changes appearances, or whatever like that.

I am not mad, or angry. I'm just asking for consideration. I am an exhausted and probably currently underweight old artist who just wants to have fun and have some food to go by every day. I'm not a tireless art machine. I'm doing this for fun, every day I wake up I'm glad to have started this askblog and see how much you guys enjoy it and enjoy my portrayal of these pups we love so much, it always makes me smile and feel like I can do some more and keep going, despite all things being against me. But sometimes I need to be firm and say no as well. I have my limits.

Thank you if you read this far. And please, don't ask who was it or what happened, I don't want anyone going after who tried to push this specific M!A here. They're a very nice person who just happened to insist on something I said no before, and I do not condone people attacking others on someone else's behalf, as much as your intention is to defend someone, that's just shitty attitude!

Let's go back to this blog's usual business, shall we? Though now I gotta get back to checking those exams answers, Idk if I'll get time to draw any other reply for tonight, maybe past midnight. I still need to stop and get up to go eat, ugh. ))

[ifjgh]

Last of the guys, here's my sweet lad from Hawaii, Keo Hale.

Here's some basic info! <3

Goes By: Keo Nicknames: Tech Guy, Teddy Bear DOB: Jun. 5th, 1955 Age: 22 (Summer B-Day, so he stays the same throughout the story) Gender: Male, but closeted questioning (He/Him/They/Them) Sexuality: Bi/Pan Ethnicity: Hawaiian, Vietnamese Occupation: Student (Electrical Engineering Major), Possible side-job, Campus Technical Wizard Socioeconomic Status: Middle Class, family was wealthy enough to afford a home computer and some gaming consoles that Keo always tinkered with Place of Birth: Honolulu, Hawaii Family: Father (Vietnamese Refugee) and Mother (Native Hawaiian), slightly spoiled their son Height: 6'4“ Weight: 222 lbs. Disabilities: None (?), possibly Autistic (Computers and Stuffed Animals could qualify as his special interests) Fashion Style: Nerd/Casual/Warm Weather Coordination (or lack thereof): He doesn't have the best coordination for sports (Manzo tried to get him on the Team, but it was too much for him), but he very delicate and gentle (working with motherboards and things, he kinda has to be) Personality Type/Trait: Virtuoso - Bold, Practical, Experimental, Master of various Tools Introvert/Extrovert: Introvert for the most part, prefers to work in small groups with trusted people, or alone (Attilio and Shelby are the only ones who can get him to go to parties and things) Intelligence: Excels with anything tech related, but has a hard time with Social Ques, Book-Smart over all else Self-Esteem: Below Average, he's got a lot of stuff to figure out about himself, and doesn't fully know how to approach it or if anyone else would be accepting of him Hobbies: Tinkering with any and all Tech (computers, gaming consoles, and the PA System that one time…), Adding to His Teddy Bear Collection, Learning about Music (he's not big into it, but he's interested in it) Skills/Talents: Tech Wizard (Can fix anything Tech related, no matter what happened to it, just give him a day or two), Compassion, Generosity, Second Strongest out of the Main 8 (but he rarely applies it to anything) Loves: Teddy Bears and Soft things, Tech, Problem solving, Puzzles, Helping People Phobias/Fears: That he may come off as Selfish or cold like Syd when he's actually just Shy, Being taken Advantage of without knowing until it's too late, Fire, People making fun of his interests Angered By: Difficult Tech Problems, Bullies Pet Peeves: People moving his stuff (it may LOOK like a mess, but he has a SYSTEM he swears), People talking over him (He's a quiet talker, so when it does happen it's usually on accident), Being late to things Obsessed With: Tech and Figuring out how things work, Teddy Bears, Making People Happy Bad habits: Chews his nails, tends to get lost in focus when he's working and just won't respond to anything, Messy (It's a SYSTEM), backs down easily Desires: To help others, and to always be there for anyone who needs him, Probably to start his own Tech company too Flaws: Will overwork himself to get stuff done, rarely ever takes breaks (Attilio's slowly getting him addicted to coffee) Secrets: Tries to keep his Teddy Bear Collection a Secret, but pretty much everyone knows (Thanks, Shelby). How much he misses home. The ways he wants to present himself v.s. the way he does present himself, mostly out of fear for not being accepted, he'll {REDACTED}, but even then he worries someone will say something about it. Regrets: Not being able to stand up for people when they need it (mostly when Syd bullies Attilio), Not being faster at fixing things, Not being brave enough to {REDACTED}. Accomplishments: Found a fatal flaw in one of the computers he tinkered with, and reaching out to the company to let them know how to fix it and them actually using his method. Said company agreed to pay for his Collage Scholarship as a thank you. Languages Known: fluent in 'Ōlelo Hawai'i, Vietnamese, and English, knows a decent amount of Italian (from being best buds with Attilio), some Afrikaans slang (from hanging out with Shelby), and some creative English insults (from being roommates with Syd)

(Things are subject to change the more I get things fine tuned, I've also kept some things secret for the time being. - Crow <3)

Bonus! Basic Profile Sheet, for funsies! X

[whimsical-sonic]

uhh hewwo i have written about 1,000 words for something involving sting. i don't usually write! but i did my best to try and capture my little guys

@sonic-oc-showdown

this is the scene where vi hires sting, as i mentioned here

Sting leaned his elbow against the table, scanning the crowds for anyone that looked out of place. He wasn’t quite sure who, or what, he was looking for. The message he received was short, simple, to the point. They gave a time, a place, but managed to neglect giving him a general description of who was meeting him. It wasn’t a big deal, no, but it was common courtesy. He’d prefer to not mistake a passerby for his potential client again, thank you very much.

He popped a curly fry into his mouth. He tried to avoid anything vague, any potential offers that withheld detail, but he had to admit: he was getting desperate. Living on fast food wasn’t ideal, but not being able to afford his classes? That was worse.

His tail knocked against the chair behind him, rattling it. Luckily for him, no one was occupying it. He really didn’t need to deal with anyone else today.

Just then, something caught his eye. Someone was navigating through the mass of people across the street, heading his with some type of determination. He squinted, trying to make out as much detail of this stranger as he could.

The character approaching him reminded him of moss, both in color and in how vaguely noticeable they were. They blended with the crowd well enough to almost fade in, but there was something about them that set them just apart. Maybe it was the way they were tapping their fingers together, glancing around before locking eyes with him. The way they hurried across the street, awkwardly halting to look both ways before carrying on. He couldn’t tell if they were in a rush or simply unfamiliar with city life. Maybe both.

“Sorry sorry, I know I’m a little late.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to be.”

“Hm? Oh, good, yeah.” They gently placed their duffel bag on the table and sat down, adjusting their glasses. “Introductions, uh, my name is Violet, but colleagues call me Vi. And, well, I know who you are, so I don’t suppose you need to tell me who you are. Unless you wanted to, of course.” Sting dipped a fry into his shake, staring at them. “Right, uh—” Vi cleared their throat, “the reason I contacted you. Probably wanna get into that right away, I didn’t give too much detail in the thing, the-the letter. Card. Envelope. That.” Surprisingly not the most awkward start to a potential job he’s had, but definitely pretty up there.

“Most potential employers do give a vague description.”

“Yes, there’s a, uh, reason why I left that out.” Sting raised a brow as the cat—caracal?—leaned forward. “It is of utmost importance that what we’re requesting of you stays quiet. No one else can know.”

Ah.

Vi continued. “Do I have your word? That what I talk about here stays between us? Even if you refuse the offer?” He shrugged.

“Sure.”

“My boss has been working on a research project for a long time, and has been getting closer to reaching a breakthrough. However, we’ve run into some...issues, small things that halt progress. Lack of specialized equipment and an inability to acquire a specific sort of intel.”

“That doesn’t sound small.”

“In the grand scheme of things it’s pretty small. Maybe not small small, but...” they waggled their hands, gesturing the approximate size of small they were referring to. “Getting the appropriate equipment wouldn’t be a problem if this research weren’t top secret; my boss doesn’t want to risk the possibility of any purchases being traced or linked or anything along those lines. What we’d require from you is for you to...acquire this equipment through specific means.”

“So...stealing, you’re asking me to steal.”

“I suppose that’s one way you could put it but yes. That’s part of it.” Stealing wasn’t so bad. He’s shoplifted a stick of gum and a pack of batteries before, he had experience in this. “The other part requires gathering intel on chaos energy.” That’s different.

“What sort of intel?”

“Any sort, really. Frequencies, wavelengths, power gauges, types, anything and everything. We do have readings, but—” they paused as someone walked by, eyes wide. Once the passerby was gone, they lowered their voice. “What we have isn’t enough for the scale of our research. We need information from someone, somewhere, who has more experience in this field.”

“Anyone particular in mind?” They nodded.

“The same person you’re going to collect equipment from. Dr. Eggman.” Sting nodded slowly, eating another fry as he mulled this information over. Eggman...he’s busted up badniks before, but has never outright fought the mad scientist. The closest he’s ever come to directly going against him was the Resistance’s effort to reclaim the islands all those months ago. To sneak into his bases, steal his likely well-used tech, scour through whatever databases he could gain access to...it was certainly more than he was expecting. Maybe more than he could... Sting glanced at the duffel on the table, studying it for a few moments before returning to meet Vi’s rather intense expression.

“On the matter of payment...how much is your boss offering?”

Vi rubbed their hands together before reaching over to the bag, looking around before zipping it open. Sting leaned forward, nudging the bag open to see what was inside. His eyes widened.

“If you agree, that is an upfront payment. Think of it as entering a contract with none of the paperwork. By accepting this, you agree to be on standby, to answer when we call upon your services, to carry out our requests without question. The, uh, payment after—there is a set amount that will be paid to you after finishing a request. An additional bonus will be sent depending on the value of whatever you give to us.” He re-zipped the bag.

“Count me in.”

Vi looked as though they were about to collapse in relief. Sting wasn’t sure why. Who would turn down that? There was so much he wasn’t going to have to worry about financially so long as this agreement was in effect.

“Alright, cool cool,” Vi clapped their hands, rubbing them together. “I’ll, uh, leave that with you. We’ll send you our general location soon, along with the first request. Just be sure to keep an eye out for that.” They paused. “Can I take a fry? Or few. For the road.” Sting pushed the basket towards them. “Thanks.” Without another word, they scooped up the basket and hurried off, swerving around someone before disappearing behind the corner.

Sting rose to his feet, staring at the duffel for a few seconds before slinging it over his shoulder. He pat it twice, feeling how the fabric crinkled at his touch. It was real. He was half-expecting it to be a prank, a scam, some false offer, but no. It was real. Awkward, but real.

All he could hope for now was for that cat to learn how to be more discreet.

~ End ~

if you've read this whole thing, i don't have much else to say asides from thank you! it's very appreciated ;y;

if you're interested in learning more about sting, check out his socs2 tag here!

round 4 is almost over! if you haven't voted yet, please consider tossing a vote his way here!

[salty-professor]

My eyes are up here

There has been a lot of talk recently at my university about adding a dress code. Keep in mind I work at a university, for adults, not a prep-school on the CW network. Still, apparently, the president, who always wears an ill-fitting suit, wishes we all took after him and “dressed the part.” I don’t know what part it is, but if it means swamp ass and pit stains in early September or late April when the buildings start to cook and the AC doesn’t work, then I guess I don’t want to look that part at all.

I’ve worked at this particular school for 12 years now and at no point have I ever seen any of my colleagues wear anything that was untoward. There was one guy who wore nothing but sweat pants and a sweatshirt for about a year, but that said more about his state of mind than his fashion sense. After he ended his toxic relationship, he started wearing jeans and button-down shirts again. In retrospect, it was a call for help. Sorry man. I thought you wanted to be with that person. Glad you didn’t though. She is awful.

Even if we were paid enough that we could all afford brand new suits and fancy pants, which we are not, none of it matters. We were not hired because of how we looked, we were hired because of what is in your heads AND most importantly, how well we help our students get that information in their heads. It doesn’t matter how we dress.

What matters is our creativity, our ingenuity, our mastery of the material, our ability to make something boring fun or to make something challenging, if not easy, easy enough to understand. What we say matters. What we do matters. What we look like, simply does not. Our clothes can, and should represent who we are. I’m a jeans and t-shirt guy. There are likely suit and tie people and tie-dyed dress people and wearing what makes us comfortable, affords us a level of comfort that passes on to the students. You know, the people who matter here.

Honestly, for the most part, we don’t pay any attention to what anyone at work with is wearing. I mean, the year of sweat pants thing was noticeable because it was different. If he showed up on day one dressed that way, we wouldn't have cared. Unless someone shows up dressed like a furry, no one should really pay it any mind. Although, that would be fucking amazing if someone started to teach dressed as a racoon. That would make people come to class, on time, and excited to learn about physics.

Really, though, and let’s be honest, this isn’t about men. It all comes down to the fact that the president is uncomfortable with the bodies of the women on campus. He didn’t care about sweatpants McGee nor would he care if I showed up in parachute pants and did a whole dance routine a ’la M.C. Hammer. This is not about the way we all look. It is about the way women look. It is my contention that his old white man conservative repression stresses him out when a woman shows some ankle, so a bra strap makes him have a fit. He says he doesn’t think “jeans are professional” but what he means is, “I can see a bit of your bare lower back above the waist of your jeans and that make want to leer.”

Dude. Get over yourself. You are not a hormonal 12-year-old. The Mike Pencification of women’s bodies has to stop. If you seriously can’t handle seeing an armpit, then maybe you shouldn't be in charge of higher education. People are not dressed a certain way for you. It isn't about you.

You don't seem to have any problem with the women on the volleyball team wearing skintight pants that are affectionately known as bun huggers. If you want to worry about a dress code maybe fix that one. Maybe get them in regular shorts and have them wear their underwear underneath their uniform.

Could it be you don't care about that because you actually love seeing those women's bodies are on display? Could it be that you don't see them as scholars and athletes but you see them as entertainment? The difference between them and the woman in the Math department with thigh high boots and a short skirt is that you can't openly ogle her without being called a creep but you can stare for hours at the women jumping up and down in tight shirts and pants.

Seriously. Ug. Grow up dude. Grow the fuck up.

[t0kidal]

The Alef: Part 7 (Start of the Harvest Festival)

How you survived Opera's training, you weren't sure. Between his training, your school work, and honing your own bloodline ability, you felt like hell.

But you were determined to make it through three days and score in the top three, maintain your place in class 1-A alongside your friends, and show that even Alefs deserve more respect than what's handed to them. To change the school little by little to suit your needs.

And despite trying your damndest to go to sleep, sleep would not come. You arrived fashionably late, prominent eyebags casting a dark aura across your face, which, coupled with an aggressive perma-snarl, deterred many from speaking to you.

Save for a special two.

"Y-Y/n-chan!? What happened to you?!"

The sudden appearance startled you and you whipped around, teeth bared, and a growl ripping through your throat. 'Ah... shit'

"O-oh... it's just you, Balam-kun. I'm sorry, I didn't sleep well, too charged, I'm gonna do my best!"

"A-ah, is that the case, well then... I wish you the best of luck!"

It's probably because you were feeling extra loopy, but you couldn't help it and just swept the little guy off his feet in a hug. "You too, Balam-kun!"

"Tch, if you two are done with your display, focus up."

Ah... there's Mr. Special #2, "Naberius-kun. I'll see you out there then." You present, a challenge.

He smirks in return, "Heh, I won't lose to you."

With that, you're called to the gates.

3...

2...

1...

And they're off! Like wild dogs at the sound of the hunter's call, the harvest festival begins NOW.

< >

Immediately, you mute yourself, opting for a stealthier approach in order to secure independent points. Flocks of birds? Take out the fattest. Herd of some other monster? Snatch the oldest. You can't afford to get into prolonged battles with beasts in their prime, so you pick and choose your battles wisely, stopping so often by the clerks' tables, some are able to recognize you.

Part of this strategy was bred from the training you got from Opera, who tried his best to assist you by simulating fights of prime monsters and yourself.

Safe to say, you got your ass handed to you almost every time. But aside from a beat down, if you ever did come across a monster you couldn't take head on.

You learned how to turn the tides in your own favor.

A large pink spotted black jaguar, it's pelt, it's fangs, it's claws, everything about it was considered delectable, differing in flavor intensity, but it's main trait was that it was sweeter than any sugar found in a plant or otherwise cultivated.

And it was staring you right in the face.

You had to snag it before anyone else could.

Immediately, you silence the zone around you so that others wouldn't be attracted. Then, you launched your attack... by running away.

All part of the plan, don't worry. You lure it over to the base of a cliffside, where you had set up a trap in the form of a rock fall, intending to crush the beast.

It continues like this for most of your encounters.

You set up a trap, you separate and lure what you couldn't kill to the trap, and you secure victory after victory.

The only problem was to find a proper balance to maintain energy for the next couple of days, whilst increasing your lead. But, it was still easier than large groups that teamed up to risk more against larger prey.

Running around the way you were, you had to stop by the reporting tent frequently to ease your load. This often left what you couldn't carry vulnerable to other students.

In one instance, you encountered a larger group of students, but unlike that time in the Etho's Batra, you don't have Balam or Naberius to help you.

So what do you do? What can you do?

You wait and you scheme...

The next morning marked the start of day two, and arguments in addition to screams of rage can be heard.

Things like "YOU GREEDY PRICK! DID YOU ALREADY SUBMIT THOSE POINTS!?" to be more specific.

No, none of them did anything wrong, but the conflict between group members led to fights and fights led to disqualification.

Yes, you were mostly responsible... how they reacted to the loss was their own fault though, but by all means... keep swinging. (Not to mention, in-fighting made it so much easier to squirrel away more for yourself).

Honestly, they really shouldn't be so mean to each other in the first place.

[may--all-your--bacon--burn]

some kids don't have the poster board, construction paper, or markers at home. some kids have bed stains and moldy bread. some kids have even less than that.

some kids have snacks, food, and basic good nutrition. some kids don't even know what "homelessness" is until they are teens. some kids get locked in their room and told be silent and to not come out if they want to live. some kids choose what they do and are empowered and supported to do it, even if that is just bike riding to a friend's house or watching a TV show after homework is done.

some kids aren't lazy, some kids don't do the homework because from the moment they get home to the moment they are sent to bed - they are running from their hateful father or consoling a traumatized, crying, mother - with no clue why everybody is so angry and violent here and not at school.

some kids come to school with incredibly detailed, homemade diaramas because their parents made sure they had supplies, helped them, or even did the hard parts of the project. some kids tested best in the class on content covered in the class but failed the class because their dad destroyed their projects or their mom cried and screamed when the kid asked if they afford to go buy school supplies so the kid just stopped asking.

some kids walk around hungry, sad, and tired. And teachers who are already responsible for so much, couldn't possible know when or why their students are failing.

still.

If you're a teacher:

I was the silent kid, the one in the back who paid attention, didn't talk, and never raised my hand. I consistently tested highest in the class on anything covered in the class. However, I was considered a problem student because I consistently got zeros on projects and homework.

Teachers who provided scissors, magazines, glue, and gave in class time to accomplish school tasks - you gave me hope and a lifeline.

Teachers who kept tampons, pads, and pain killers in their classrooms (regardless of their gender) for students like me, who's parents couldn't be bothered? You saved me my ONLY pair of jeans (my ratty, 3 year old, hand me down from my older sister jeans). Thank you, with every fiber of my being, thank you. Blood stains are particularly tough on old fabric.

Teachers who kept snacks and things around for students they knew weren't getting enough at home - you have saved lives and gave kids like me some ability to grow and learn and make it through the worst times of neglect.

You do so so much already and I know how much more doing these things must've cost you.

Trust me, every kid like me rested more easy the moment a teacher said in time class was going to be given for homework. I remember visibly relaxing when a project was assigned and the teacher was providing glue sticks, scissors, construction paper, newspapers, magazines, markers - everything we would need to get it done. This was so rare and it meant so much to be in at least one situation where I wasn't set up for failure.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The kindness of intentional teachers kept me alive, in so many ways. Thank you.

Along the way it occured to only a small handful of people to roll up my long sleeves and check my arms for bruises. It didn't occur to anybody that the reason I didn't like running in P.E. was because my shoes were 2-3 sizes too small and it hurt to walk, let alone do sports. Nobody thought to ask why I didn't do the outside work - i just got labelled a problem and then quit trying to ask for help or understanding - it just was what it was.

And to the school nurse at my high school who finally figured it all out and helped me me get out - I owe you my life - truly.

It's true, that quote we all hear at some point in our lives,"you can't know what anybody else is going through"

Please, try not to assume what anyone is going through or why they're doing something - ask questions, and if nothing else - try to be kind if you can. Especially, when it comes to kids. We all only know what we know, and none of choose to be born.

[mithliya]

Hi Mena. This is gonna be long. I'm an 18 year old girl and it's been a year since I'm utterly unable to study. I've dedicated my childhood and most of my teen years to studying mostly, to the point where I barely leave the house for any other reason than to go to class and school. My elementary school was especially vicious even though there was no need for me to spend most of my childhood studying to the point where my homework wouldn't end even at night. I was insanely stressed because the amount of homework they gave us was so much that I'd call my friend 6, and yes 6 times a day to make sure I haven't missed any homework. Teachers at elementary would usually take advantage of the quiet students' lack of self confidence and unconditional politeness to be absolutely vile to me and quiet students like me. They'd legit passive aggressively or aggressively lecture me for an hour for something I had no part in and was done by my other, more confident and vocal classmates who'd clap back at the teacher if lectured. Once one of them beat me and my friend up for using the restroom at the same time. No we didn't goof around. We just used the restroom and came back...and she gave us the permission for it!! Students were vicious to each other and even more vicious to me as I couldn't stand up for myself. That's my fault, but anyways. I do not know if I should blame the teachers, but some of them visibly self harmed in our presence and now that I'm older, I realize they had sadistic tendencies too. But I don't think that's their fault. I hope they're doing better now.

Fast forward to high school, the homework was still too much, still had shitty classmates, but at least they didn't attempt to murder me twice. But teachers were excellent! They didn't try to bond with us or have heart to heart talk with us about anything. Didn't try to act like we're their children. Didn't pretend to care about us. Didn't do "tough love" or whatever the fuck that means; they just didn't let anyone disrespect them and that's it. Didn't act like they owed us anything other than teaching. Didnt try to teach about morality or religion. They'd teach, help us with our academic problems, and then just leave. It might sound bad, but I don't care. I loved my teachers for being teachers, for being good at their jobs, not more or less. I'm still in contact with some of them and they are absolutely awesome. I told about my experiences in elementary school to my classmates and they told me to stop midway because it upset them. That was when I understood what I experienced wasn't normal.

In Corona, our online education was basically torture as it lagged 13 times per session, so I had to study on my own. Now the school is finished. I haven't had legitimate education for I suppose two years now, and I'm actually privileged to not be one of the girls in villages who can't and couldn't afford the technology to be connected to the exams at the very least, and had to give up on education. My heart absolutely goes for them, but I'm powerless.

But still. I'm struggling, and I'm tired of hiding it. Being a student was most of my identity. It was and is more important to me than being the daughter of my family, or being a sister to my little sibling. That was my most important identity. Please tell me how I can go back to studying the way I did? Im overwhelmed by bad memories when I try to study and I struggle to breath. I can't stand the sight of books anymore, and I'm being shamed and called lazy for it. I can't enjoy the subjects I used to enjoy. I didn't sacrifice everything that I did to be a jobless woman who will have to rely on a culum who will legally have the right to my body and more than half of my life choices under the law. Actually, my father, despite being very misogynistic on a lot of instances, cared about me enough to have a heart to heart with me and tell me what's up, instead of trying to marry me off and tell me it's safe to rely on men. He was honest with me, he told me as it is, and his biggest fear is me relying on my potential SO, and I'm privileged for it.

Now...how do I get back to studying? Do you have any suggestions? I can't bring up my issues anymore because it's used against me to justify barring women from education, while boys can unashamedly drone about their struggles with school.

your reaction to studying honestly sounds a lot like your former experiences with education deeply traumatised you. bad associations, what sounds like panic attacks, being flooded with negative memories… that’s either trauma or anxiety rooted in trauma. if seeking a therapist to help break these associations and instead associate positive things with studying is not a possibility for you, then i guess you’d have to break that association yourself. the way i’d suggest doing that is to break it down to very small steps. if you can’t stand the smell of books, would you be able to stand the smell of certain books or some papers or sth else? or perhaps have books around you (the kind u can smell) & do something positive & that u enjoy while smelling the scent of the books. this’ll at least help you not associate the smell of books with something deeply negative. the same can be said for other aspects, like if studying itself is automatically associated with negative memories for u is it possible to perhaps break down studying into very small sections, ensure you do it in a happy + safe environment and reward yourself before, after, & in between the study session? while doing these things, it also helps to write yourself notes about how it felt, if negative think of how you could think of the situation differently or feel better about the situation. if positive, make note of that too bc it’s good to show urself that its nothing too bad nor out of reach. basically i’m suggesting that u try to condition urself into associating studying with positive things rather than the very negative experiences you’ve had. it’s hard to do it on ur own, but it’s possible. trying to be consistent with this pattern and with the positive things you make the situation better with can help. besides that, practicing mindfulness around it can help. for example just dedicating some time to focusing on a book (look at it, hear the sounds it produces when u flip it and such, smell it, feel it… can’t taste it for obv reasons). while that sounds boring & dumb it can perhaps make u also associate book smells less with negative things.

those are the tips i’ve got off the top of my head but honestly it’s probably easier to find a therapist who perhaps specialises in therapy against phobias (such as exposure therapy) bc they generally can figure out how to break it down into smaller steps (better than i can at least dhdhshs). if thats possible id advise that above u trying to do it alone (requires a lot of discipline which i personally do not have & strength too). idk if that helps and i cant think of any other tips so if anyone has better advice.. pls feel free to help here 😭

[sowingseedsandshootinghoops]

The Worshipping of Success

Note on the text: I used John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent as published in 1961 by the Viking Press

Readers seeking to identify the fictional people and places here described would do better to inspect their own communities and search their hearts, for this book is about a large part of America today (dedication page).

Steinbeck is my personal favorite American author, and what I loved most about this book is the way in he dissects the American attitude towards success.

Strength and success- they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn’t seem to be: the only punishment is for failure. In effect, no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught (186).

Americans worship at the altar of success. We pray the prayer of “the American Dream” and crafted the mythology of America being a place where anyone can achieve anything in service of this god. We praise people (athletes, singers, etc) for being successful regardless of what they are successful for or how they achieved that success. Not only do we want to be successful ourselves, but we want others to see us as such. It’s the 20th (and 21st) century version of “the ends justify the means”. So long as you are successful, especially financially, nothing else really matters. Or do we still have values we, as Americans, want to stick to regardless of how “successful” it turns out to be? That is the question that Steinbeck is interested in exploring here.

Ethan is a lowly store clerk in a general store when we first meet him. He is a solidly middle class man who earns on honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work. It isn’t glamorous but he is able to afford to feed his family and is, by all accounts, a really good, honest, and virtuous man. In fact, most of us would be proud to be the kind of person that Ethan is. Yet neither his wife, Mary, nor his two children, Allen and Mary-Ellen, seem to be particularly proud of their dad’s moral character. They are more interested in his ability to help them keep face with the neighbors. “It wouldn’t be so bad if you were a lawyer or in a bank or [something] like that” Allen says when Ethan asks him about why other kid’s tease him. Mary is also so desperate for her husband to “be somebody” that she gets her fortune read at the beginning of the book and repeats what the fortune teller all throughout the book: “you are going to be a big shot, did you know? Everything you touch will turn to gold- a leader of men” (17). It’s not enough that he be a good man who can offer them a comfortable, middle class life. They want him to be something more.

Ethan himself also struggles with that question. He’s not sure if it’s enough for him to just be a simple, good man, who just goes to work in a grocery store and goes home: “would my ancestors be proud to know that they produced a goddamn grocery clerk in a goddamn wap store in a town they used to own?” (2).

No where is this worship of “success at all costs” seen more clearly than in Allen’s essay writing contest. Allen has competed in, and won, a national essay competition on “why do you love America?” However everyone soon discovers that he plagiarized the essay and he is disqualified from the competition. When Ethan confronts him about it, Allen says

who cares? Everybody does it. It’s the way the cookie crumbles. . . . Don’t you read the papers? Everybody right up to the top- just read the papers. You get to feeling holy, just read the papers. . . . I’m not going to take the rap for everybody. I don’t care about anything” (277).

Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t I is essentially his response. He doesn’t think that there’s anything really wrong with what he did. It was all about getting first place and the problem is not that he cheated but that he got caught.

Now in the middle of this truthful, if somewhat cynical, critique of America, comes the character of Alfio Marullo, the Italian owner of the grocery store that Ethan works in, and an underhanded, sneaky, defense of idealism. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Early on in the story, Ethan refused a bribe from a competing store to sell out his boss. When Mr Marullo finds out he says that Ethan is a “good fella” and gives some money and gifts (including some expensive Easter eggs) as a reward and later decides to sell him the store when he goes back to Italy (96). Now Mr Marullo is just as corrupt and cynical and anyone else here (in fact it’s heavily implied that he came to America illegally). He is looking for his piece of the American Dream and he doesn’t particularly care how he gets it. More than that, he doesn’t even seem to particularly like Ethan. Every time they talk, Mr Marullo always speaks to him in a gruff and dismissive way. Even after he finds out how much of a “good fella” Ethan is. So everyone is surprised when he decides to sell Ethan the store, including Ethan. So when Ethan asks another character, Richard Walder, why he thinks Mr Marullo would treat him that way and give him the store anyways, he’s surprised to hear Richard tell him that he suspects Mr. Marullo was trying to figure what was Ethan’s “racquet, and he discovered that your racquet was honesty. . . [and] he [probably wanted] to make you [into] in a kind of monument to something he believed in once” (227). Despite Mr Marullo’s cynicism and seemingly Machiavellian drive for success, he actually believes in the importance of being a good and honest person. The reason he pays and rewards Ethan for being a good man is that he thinks it will inspire Ethan to continue being a good person. He wants Ethan to be a good AND successful person.

We do something similar with our heroes. It’s not enough that our heroes be successful at doing what they do, we need them to be moral too. It’s not enough that Abraham Lincoln be a great president, he has to be the most honest too. It’s not enough for George Washington to be a successful general who helps found a country- he has to be “unable to tell a lie”. Because despite our cynicism and obsession with success at all costs, we are always a highly idealistic nation. Somehow, deep inside, as much as we want to be seen as successful, we also want to be seen as moral. It’s an interesting dichotomy. Despite all our efforts it seems like we can just give up the fight for morality. How does the saying go?: “You are obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it”.

Which is what Ethan realizes at the very end of the book. By the end of the book he has become so disillusioned by the sheer volume of immorality that surrounds him that he has resolved to kill himself. But as he reaches into his pocket to get his knife he accidentally grabs a little token, what he calls a talisman, that his daughter Mary-Ellen gave him. In that moment he is reminded of all the good people that he has known who have managed to do some good despite all of the evil in the world, and how it’s every individual’s responsibility to keep fighting the good fight and encourage each other to keep doing the same no matter what:

Marullo’s light still burned, and Old Cap’n’s light, and Aunt Deborah’s light. It isn’t true that there is a community of light, a bonfire of the world. Everyone carries his own, his lonely one. . . . I had to get back- had to return the talisman to its new owner [i.e. his daughter] [or] else another light might go out (280-281).

It was his responsibility not just to keep on shining, just as others before him had done, but to pass it forward by encouraging his daughter to keep doing the same.

We do value success highly in our society and Steinbeck is right in critiquing us the way he does. But he’s also right in reminding us that morality still matters and that we would be remiss to forget that. That, in the end, the ends might not justify the means as much as we would like it to.

[cuntkinghorr]

I have experienced several bouts of homelessness since I was a teenager....

and maybe it's because I'm a girl or maybe people think me a nice person or maybe I know the right people or God knows why, because I don't mean this to have been everyone's experience and it's not something I'm terribly familiar with (hard drug use that is, alcohol yes), but I could always get drugs for free when home deprived. Like always. Including alcohol and even legitimate scripts. Even and maybe especially as a teenager. And that's the worst part of it all.

Of course you want you do drugs. Your life sucks. Does it go well? No, not usually. But it's due to factors that almost displace the drug use issue. Rare is the person with a perfect life (with no: inner, familial, health, marginalization, racism, systemic abuse, home life, social, sexual/gender, unbearable stress/life purpose, existensial, community/school ostricism issues) that just happens to have fallen deeply into drugs. So rare I don't know of a single instance. Not personally at least.

And as everyone knows, most hard street drugs, unmonitored scripts and alcohol use exacerbate any issue at all. But the vast majority of people can cope, hide it, manage their lives, get away with it and stave off homelessness.

I know of several people that did heroine and meth and other hard drugs for decades and live/lived a "normal", some even familial, life and never got arrested or incarcerated or lost a job or anything of the sort.

Some people belong to entire families of addicts who cycle in and out of jail instead of bougey ass rehabs and house arrest or nonarrest at all due primarily to their lack of privilege and wealth, class status, and based more on bigotry and societal structures and not the merit of punsihment at all, whatsoever.

Do you think they arrest a lot of cartel, mafia, organized crime syndicate, white collar, corporate fraud, environmental negligence, government corruption people? No, they don't actually. These people get tons of passes and do so much more overall harm to society than any homeless people ever could.

And let's not forget that there are clean homeless people that do not commit any crimes at all. I know a handful of truly nice people that for various reasons choose a different lifestyle that doesn't include a permanent address, soft bed or easy bathroom access. And a few others that were thrown into it out of need to leave a horrible situation immediately and nowhere to go but the streets. Also remember in the US we have a lot of medical bankruptcy and lack of affordable housing.

So before anyone goes accusing homeless of being horrible people. Why not go meet some? Volunteer at a soup kitchen, senior center, children's youth home, homeless shelter, etc. Before judging you should get a well rounded idea of who the people you're judging are, and the difficulties of their life. And your one or two familial or known people with this problem is not a general consensus of any kind.

I always say that I don't care to pass judgement on people because it's not my job. And I definitely would never, ever, ever want that job... no matter the pay or benefits. Because you'd have to know all about their life to be able to pass judgement and the little I know about people's lives who have been homeless.... a lot of it is heartbreaking and really fucking sucks smelly shitballs. Why would I want to see loads of shitty tragedies or worse..... paths they didn't have to take or were sabbotaged and waylaid with by truly evil entities/systems/people/circumstances?

Sure most evil in the world is pure selfishness and some is mental health issues, but the rich and powerful and educated don't hold the key to virtuosity. They can just pay, bribe or schmooze their way out of shit because that's what upper eschelon people do. They rarely pay for their societal sins and vices. Everyone else does. That's the only trickle down scheme I see them ever truly do well.

And the problems homeless have didn't just spring up out of the morning dew. Most people have trauma, negligence, abuse, violence, disorders, parasites (literally intestinal and brain worms which are very common worldwide and throughout other animal kingdoms actually but can and will get worse when one slums it a lot, be that alleys, porn stores, dirty bathrooms, unsanitary food service, hookers/promiscuity, needle sharing, and not doing whole body cleanses and not washing hands after pooping or staying away from poop laden areas. Why do you think farmers and vets deworm animals. For the insurance scam?) along with many other systemic issues that most society/government/ religions/media/educational institutions, etc do very little to truly help with.

Leaving humans with humanities issues to fix for themselves individually, which is the most assine cruelty of this shitty world. As if anyone actually could do that? Its a bandaid on an avalanche.

It's almost as if the people lording over us are all dumb as fucking doornobs and just running around a dark room blindly bumping into each other and all the furniture until it's time to go home and then wake-up and do it all over again. It is as if they dont actively and purposely make or keep these societal structures absolutely abysmally horrible and then laugh at everyone's stupidity at playing along with the depravity.

We have so many systems and structural societal paradigms that instill inequality very much on purpose. Be it bigotry, racism, fascism, hatred in general, classism, elitism, sexism, agism, on and on and on and on. We are made and expected to judge and hate each other and punish and berate and violate and repudiate and isolate and desecrate and punish and be utterly fucking vicious to each other because obviously the world stops spinning on the correct axis, I guess, if we don't.

People are so stupid, narrow minded, elitist, judgemental and fucking egotistical.

But go ahead and act like nothing I said pertains to you fucktoids. You dumb imbeciles.

I am still tolerating you all. But some of you may not be able to say the same about me. I can pretend a lot better than most of you, fortunately. Maybe because deep down I'm not the depraved, raging, maniacal, vengeful, blood lusting person I portray myself to be here.

This is just me venting. This is me spouting off because I hate this world now. And I'm trying to find myself, my purpose and a single reason to live besides my children because this world doesn't hold any allure for me anymore. I hate almost everything and everyone in it.

So there is no luck with that necessary endeavor yet. But I'll get there, hopefully. As long as I wake up each day I will keep trying to find a reason to give a fuck in this shitty, brutalistic, inhumane planet and its dumb, selfish, useless inhabitants. Meanwhile you're all stuck with this bitter version of me. Welcome to my hell.

If you don't like it. Look away. Ignore me. Get a life. Fuck off. Go be nice to your children, or dog or something. Get off my back. I have enough vermin surrounding me.

And maybe... I don't know, consider being part of the solution instead of bitching about shit you don't really know much about..... you putrid, hypocritical, entitled, dumbass fuckheads.

Source

Source

[simivalleyelectrician]

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[thatblondeperson]

I don’t want to sound snippy but just as a reality check I just want to put foreword the like…. I’m trying to say this neutrally but “less than 7k to my name” doesn’t hit the way maybe you think it does? Having 1k in rainy day funds puts you in the American minority (44%) I’m not saying you shouldn’t have it or that your life or circumstances are not tough I just think human people generally assume everyone has similar circumstances unless it’s directly stated otherwise. Like I do it, I really think it’s human nature to do so. I don’t think your comment was additive to the conversation. I think everything you said was implied in OP’s description of the thing they found annoying, they KNOW all that, maybe even feel it too, and still feel a bit bitter because they don’t even have the chance

Truly, and I need you to understand this, it depends on what state you live in.

I live in California, the second most expensive state in the country. I make HALF of what is considered a comfortable wage in this state based on average cost of living, and my wages are still above minimum wage. It's suggested that Californians should make $34-$35/hour in order to live comfortably. Living wage is at half that which I think says a lot about why our state's homelessness population is so high...

The average cost of an apartment in my city is $2,100/month.

In California, having less than 7k means I am in a constant anxiety ridden state of financial uncertainty. I am one accident, one bad month, one bad diagnosis away from homelessness at all times. That "less than 7k" isn't going up very fast, it is crawling slowly and the day I hit 10k, whenever tf that is, I think I might actually cry.

But also like, hypotheticals. Let's say I had diabetes. Insulin WITH health insurance is still what, over $300? This can also change state to state, but that's a 30 day supply. 7k ÷ 12 = 583.

So 7k alone, would pay for just 13 months of insulin and after that, what? Because we're forgetting that housing costs, groceries, amenities, gas, whatever else is getting factored in, so it's not even 13 months. And am I bringing in enough to put enough BACK into my account so I'm never without some manner of money? Who knows. But health insurance isn't helping enough for me to feel extremely privileged in that scenario.

OP is considering that everyone with health benefits has some sort of privilege that exempts them from being allowed to complain about going to the doctor at all, and I merely shared my experience, but there are other people in the replies making extremely valid other counterarguments. There are a million reasons why people can/want to complain about going to the doctor, health insurance or not. There is a bit of privilege that comes with being able to have a job that has health insurance, or to be able to afford it separately from your job, I'm not knocking that on its own. But, to try to police that because you're a bit annoyed because you think that automatically determines another person's LEVEL of privilege is honestly such a narrow take.

Fat people may hate being told that all their health issues are just because they're fat.

POC may hate being overlooked because doctors don't always consider how ailments may look/manifest differently for them.

People with trauma/sensory issues/touch aversion/etc, may hate being poked and prodded at.

Women may hate being told that their symptoms are all in their head.

Trans people may hate being deadnaned or treated with awkwardness or hostility.

Poor people who have insurance, yes that's a thing, may hate the worry of how much of a dent this will make in their bank account.

People with anxiety or phobias may hate certain procedures because of the way it can heighten their other mental health issues and cause them to panic.

A person with multiple jobs may hate having to try to work their entire schedule around an appointment.

People with chronic conditions or disabilities may hate the frequency with which they have to go to the hospital.

Or, someone could just complain because they hate going to the hospital. Insurance or not, that's a pretty standard thing that people may hate.

If OP is upset, they should be upset about the systems in place that make you, me, or anyone pay crazy amounts for healthcare. No one should have to think twice about their bank account before going to the hospital. But health insurance is not the sutures OP thinks it is. At best, it's a Hello Kitty bandage for some, maybe a nicer bandage for others depending on their state's cost of living.

Maybe in another state, 7k is a crazy high amount, and right now, it gets me from point A to point B marginally fine with room for me to have fun. But that could change very drastically any day, and I know that. You telling me that 7k is some amount I shouldn't be worried about, isn't the hot take YOU think it is.

But sorry, I'll try to be less fabulously wealthy on main.

[myhoneststudyblr]

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

[transcript under the cut]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Active Revision Techniques

How To Do Uni Readings

How to Revise BIG Subjects

Non-Stop Studying

The Problem

You find a comfortable spot to study and refuse to move ever again. You don’t even think about taking a break—that would be a waste of time and your due date is super close so you can't afford to do that

The Solution

Whether you’re doing this because you think it’s efficient or because you left everything until the last minute, you’re not going to learn much. Our brains need rest time to process information. Planning ahead is the key here. Instead of focusing only on your deadlines, work backwards and figure out when you need to start working on a project. Take into account how long each part of the work will take you. You’ll feel less overwhelmed and more able to actually learn the material, as opposed to just cramming. If you’re really in a pinch (hey, it happens to everyone), try out the pomodoro method: 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off, with a longer break every 4 circuits. It holds off exhaustion and keeps you feeling refreshed over long periods of heavy work!

Over Highlighting

The Problem

You try to study by reading the textbook, but somehow end up highlighting everything and remembering nothing.

The Solution

Turns out, passively re-reading a textbook is pretty useless. Just because you’re holding a highlighter doesn’t mean you’re actually engaging with the material. Learn how to read actively by taking notes as you read, which will force you to decide what parts of the reading are worth remembering. Come up with practice questions or make flashcards. The more of the 5 senses you use in your studying, the more likely you are to remember the information. If your exam includes an essay portion, think about what kinds of themes your professor might ask about and make some possible outlines. Even if your practice questions don’t actually show up on the exam, you’ll be in the right headspace!

Multitasking 

The Problem

You are studying at the same time that you are watching the newest show on Netflix, texting a friend about what happened last Tuesday and cooking a three-course meal.

The Solution

People are actually really bad at multitasking. While we think we’re focusing on 2 things at once, we’re actually switching between 2 tasks very rapidly, meaning that our brains never have time to fully adjust to working on either one. Unfortunately, the only way around this one is to plan ahead (weird how that keeps cropping up). Make a study schedule ahead of time and figure out which days you’ll devote to which subjects. You’ll be able to process the material more efficiently than you would if your attention was split between tasks, and ultimately you’ll have more confidence in what you’ve learned.

Solo Studying 

The Problem

You only ever study in solitude and refuse to ask anyone else for help.

The Solution

Studying on your own is fine (sometimes even preferable), but having people you can bounce ideas off of can be insanely helpful (even over Zoom!). Convince a friend or family member to let you “teach” them the material—the gaps in your understanding will become more obvious when you try to explain a topic to an uninformed party. If you have no one available, you could even teach to a pet or toy. Most importantly, take advantage of your professors or teachers and contact them if you’re confused about something. You won’t regret it.

Studying Chronologically

The Problem

You sit down to revise for an exam and you look through all of the notes from your class in chronological order.

The Solution

In addition to being a very passive study strategy, it also puts you at risk of running out of time to review the material you learnt most recently, which is often emphasised more heavily on the final exam and can also be some of the most difficult concepts to master – especially for classes like math and languages that increase in difficulty throughout the semester. You will also probably be reviewing information you already know. Instead of studying in chronological order, try studying in priority order, spending the majority of your time on the information that will be most important for you to know for the test.

Memorising, Rather Than Understanding 

The Problem

You know that you need to know facts in an exam so you study by trying to memorise all of the facts from a class, rather than truly understanding the underlying concepts. 

The Solution

Memorising can work well in some classes, especially in earlier stages of school, but it often backfires in more advanced classes. If you’ve memorised a definition but don’t really understand what it means, then as soon as the information is presented in a slightly different format, or you’re asked to apply it to a new type of problem, you will have no idea how to proceed. Rather than memorising the information from your classes, use study strategies that encourage you to understand it. Explaining ideas out loud in your own words, or teaching them to someone else, are great examples of study strategies that promote understanding.

Not Practicing How You’ll Be Tested

The Problem

You have a study method that you use for all of your exams no matter the subject or the format of the exam. 

The Solution

It’s great to have a study method that supports your revision but often they can be limited to specific skills. For example, flashcards might be a great strategy for a test that is mostly multiple-choice and matching questions, but they might be less useful for essays. If you want to be prepared for your exams, you need to make sure that the way you are studying for your test is similar to how you will actually be tested on the material. The best way to do this is by doing practice questions. Numerous studies have shown that students who test themselves on the material they are learning remember the information better than students who do not take practice tests. Practice testing also helps you avoid “illusions of competence”: situations in which you think you know the information better than you do. 

Not Using Active Revision Techniques

The Problem

You study by re-reading over your notes or perhaps rewriting them. 

The Solution

Unfortunately, this approach to studying is not very effective, in large part because it is extremely passive. Students who use this approach will readily admit that they can read over a page of notes and not remember what they have just read! If you don’t remember it right after you’ve read it, how could you possibly hope to answer questions about it on the test? Choosing more active study strategies that require you to engage with the material will enable you to learn the material more effectively and efficiently. This includes: mindmaps, flashcards, past papers, study groups, and many more.

[restinan]

So. The way that this works in an actually functional housing market is that the fact that you can build housing and then rent it out means that people with lots of money sometimes do that. In fact, people are sufficiently keen to do that that they will sometimes do that at one step removed and buy the housing to rent out from the first person. The end result of this is that there’s more housing, and that’s the case market wide, so it actually gets cheaper. Right now, outside of Basically Just Japan there’s nowhere in the world where the market’s functional enough for that. At best one area builds more housing and people move there and the price of housing goes down a bit but not really enough to be felt. 

The unfortunate thing is that all the obvious ways to solve this problem besides making it legal to just build more housing don’t actually solve the problem, and usually make it worse. Rent control means the thing where new housing gets built because people expect to profit off it stops working, and less or no new housing gets built. And then the non rent controlled housing goes through the roof, and if it's all rent controlled then there just literally isn't enough for everyone to so much as have a private bedroom. Declaring that nobody should have to live in small houses or apartments or go without a window in their bedroom just ends up meaning that the apartments that the most impoverished could actually afford are illegal to build. Then of course there’s the nightmare that is zoning laws in Canada and the United States, effectively making anything but More Suburban Hellsprawl literally illegal to build.

I mean, that guy up above is a piece of shit, destroying things like that out of Pure Spite is just shitty and doesn’t make things better for anyone, including the person doing the destroying. But Actually Functional Laws make him an asset to the quest of getting everybody affordably housed, because he makes money off if it. And because he’s such a bastard, he’s entirely focused on making money, which means that he’ll behave exactly the way we want him to. You see, in an Actually Functional Housing Market, if he tried to raise his prices too much, or keep them high while other people are building a bunch of housing an undercutting him so they get the tenants instead, he just gets fucking priced out of the market.

But that requires we try to actually solve the problem, instead of letting ourselves get so focused on outrage and hate that we don’t bother to check what actually works to do so. Focusing on hurting the people we hate just results in unsolved problems, at the end of the day.

“Just appropriate the housing” is not a class of strategy with a good track record. First off, that leads to the people who used to build the housing not doing so, since they know it’s just going to get appropriated. Which means you need the government to do it. And, like, this is part of a general class of solution that has a terrible track record. In fact, literally every time a country has tried “just appropriate the Things, and if that stops people from making them make them make them,” it has turned out poorly. That solution class empirically doesn’t work. Our options are try it for the fiftieth time and hope it doesn’t go the way it went literally every other time, or else try the method that all the theory says should work and that also we’ve literally watched work in Japan of all places. Like- right now I could rent a small apartment in the outskirts of Tokyo for cheaper than I could rent a room in a medium sized city in Canada. Because they actually build housing.