#anyway fuck the uk benefits system

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

never will i not be angry about the "universal credit" that our benefits system got reformed into. fucking cap on savings and they are all interlinked?? piss off. why the fuck am i nostalgic for the dole my parents were on in the fucking 80s. at least you could fucking get housing benefits under age 25 or whatever it is now back then. job centers just as fucking grim tho- some things never change

[secretagentsagainstwhatever]

Fuck first past the post. All my homies hate first past the post

[butimnotseventeen]

.

[queer-adhd]

Hey Dave, it's A from over @evilbeepthemeep

What are your opinions on duloxetine. I've just had a bad time with them and honestly need a lil advice on how to tell my gp to suck it after trying to up my dose while already dealing with so many side effects. Literally it started to fuck my system up after years being on them

Anyway sorry for the ramble, I'm exhausted as all hell and my brain is mush

Honestly, I can't say much about SNRIs as I've never taken one and they seem to be less common as a front line medication in the UK. I'd mostly be interested in what you're taking it for, and whether you've tried similar alternatives. If it's depression or anxiety related, I wouldn't really expect this to be a front line therapy - if it's to do with chronic pain, I'd expect due diligence to be done on whether alternative pain medications are effective before resorting to something like this. If you could let me know a little more about your medical history and what's already been tried then I might be able to help more with talking points.

EDIT: also worth knowing what the side effects are, how long you've been taking them, and any conditions or medications which might contribute to those side effects (and whether you're experiencing enough benefit from duloxetine to consider alternatives for those other meds, or if the benefit has been minimal).

[tottwriter]

So I'm disabled, right? We all know this. Anyway, what THAT means is that I get welfare to help me, you know...live.

And, in its great wisdom, the UK in recent years decided that, instead of having heaps of different forms of government welfare which all need to be applied for and often overlap/interact in the function they serve, it would be much more sensible to have ONE welfare payment, and just give people different amounts depending on which components they qualify for. They called this "Universal Credit".

Now, I have to say. In principle? This is a good idea! But despite the similarity in name, you should 100% NOT confuse it with the concept of a Universal Basic Income (which is a Very Good Idea, fucking hell can we not just do that instead??), because let me tell you. Universal it fucking ain't.

I'm going through the process of "migrating" to the new system at the moment, and in reading up on the thing, man. It's so fucked up.

First of all, you cannot apply if you have more than £16,000 in savings. Which...okay. I could kinda see the logic in that. But that's a point against "Universal" already, right? And before you say "Oh but Tott, 'Universal' in this context obviously means that it's the one-and-only benefit, right?" - Well, no. There are actually other benefits which it doesn't replace, such as Child Benefit and PIP (A disability thing, if you don't know, don't ask. It's too fucking depressing).

Secondly. Savings in the bank are counted against you, right? And if you have any more than £6k in the bank, you have your monthly payments docked by a percentage of your savings until you fall below the threshold again. But if you own a house, equity held in property is not counted against you. You're potentially free to claim the full amount.

And this is just...it's so fucked up, right? If you own your house, that's fine! You won't be penalised for needing the UC payments to live - which is because half of the benefits being merged into it used to be paid out to working families, to cover how appallingly low our wages are. It would have been an economic apocalypse to count equity. Half the country would have been homeless overnight.

Meanwhile, those who are renting are just...fucked. You can't save up money for a mortgage deposit, even though you could claim UC to cover a mortgage, because you'd have to save more for the deposit than the threshold allows. Any time you save, you'll just have your income docked. So you're trapped in rental accommodation unless you get a windfall, or somehow start earning enough that you don't need the UC. And in the UK, most jobs don't pay a living wage, so most families do need UC. That's why they called it "Universal Credit" instead of "Universal Welfare", by the way. They had to make it sound good to all the Conservatives who are scared of "welfare" even though most of them rely on it too.

So just. Yeah. I'm really angry right now at how entirely fucked up this "benefit" is (In the UK, people use the word "benefits" synonymously with "welfare", which is ironic given they're among the least generous in the entire developed world), but obviously I can't do anything about it because hey. I should just be grateful, right? I live off benefits, woo, what a life! Clearly I have it easy!

Yeah. No home security, and if I balance the books and start to save money, despite the pittance which is my lot, my reward is that they fucking penalise me for it. And yes, this is an old Tory policy which has been carried over into the new Labour government, but I hardly think it's a top priority for anyone to change.

There's a saying among disability campaigners: The cruelty is the point. Shit like this just reminds me how true it really is.

[animanightmate]

Legions of Doom

Yeah, so my country’s leaders have decided to double-down on the anti-immigration rhetoric that they shamefully manipulated then rode to get them into power. You know, because that worked so well for Brexit. Let’s keep pushing that classic. One of the first things our newish PM, Rishi Sunak (note: a son of immigrants), did was to announce that they were going to be cracking down on the “small boats” - i.e. the ones that desperate people use to reach these shores. Pretty despicable, right? Don’t worry, our “anti-woke” Tory Party in charge has barely got started.

You may already have heard about the plan headed up by Suella Braverman (another child of immigrants), UK Home Secretary (reinstated after being fired for being a security risk) to deport “illegal immigrants” to Rwanda, an expensive (and apparently illegal) notion that hasn’t really got off the ground yet, and you might be thinking: there’s no lower they can sink. Hold onto your life jackets.

The Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick, decided that the lobbies of the children's asylum centres were too welcoming, with their colourful, cheerful murals of famous cartoon characters, so ordered the walls to be painted grey; like a dull, battleship grey.

Then it was revealed that the asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants who were currently being housed in hotels (rather than, you know, having their applications to live here properly processed so they could earn money, house themselves, and contribute to society) were costing us too much money. So, you’re going to process them? Oh, no, you’re going to put them on a barge.

But not just any barge… the Bibby Stockholm is special. It’s been the place to house folk temporarily for a few decades now, in various parts of Europe, including homeless folk and asylum seekers in Germany and the Netherlands, plus oil rig and off-shore windfarm construction workers, and is currently moored off the Dorset Coast in the south of England. It’s designed to house about 200 people. It’s been retrofitted to fit 500. Yes, you read that right. And not by enlarging so much as putting bunk-beds in. I’m sure that won’t make anyone feel like they’re being housed in a floating prison… It’s got, you know, a multi-faith prayer room and a gym and catering and medical facilities. And inhabitants will get day release. And 24 hour security.

So it’s safe, right? It’s got extra fire escapes now and… no? No. It’s been assessed and there are some severe worries about how fire safe it is (when professionals start using the term “death trap”, it does tend to make one think, you know?), and how 500 people in there are likely to not be able to get out in case of a fire. Also that any outbreak of disease is likely to spread like wildfire. Ironically. But it’s not like you’re going to put people at risk like that, huh? Oh, and there’s a lot of standing water in the system because it’s not been inhabited or sorted out for a good long while, so you’re going to check for things like mould and legionella bacteria, right?

Wait, you’ve asked for legionella tests but you’re going to start putting people on the thing anyway, before the results come in? That’s… bold.

And… wait, you’ve now put a man on board who has tuberculosis? And you’re threatening people who don’t comply with being put on board that they’ll get no benefits? Even though they’ve been advised that they’re allowed to refuse to go, legally? But the Tory Deputy Chairman went on record to tell people who didn’t want to go that they could, and I quote, “Fuck off back to France.” So that's okay then. Problem solved.

And now you’ve found legionella in the water on the barge. Oh, three days ago? Uh, haha, that seems odd. So… you’re evacuating, right? Well, look; there’s a bar you’ve finally managed to clear. It’s somewhere in Hades, but sure… Have a gold star.

I’m sure there’s something I’ve missed, but that’s the crux of it. I’m not saying, you know, death camps, but, if anything, I might well be saying… death camps…

Oh, and then there’s the whole thing with the hotels where over 100 asylum seekers who are unaccompanied children have been kidnapped in the last year. Nothing to see here. Our coasts and waterways are filling with raw sewage, but everything’s fine. All part of the plan.

[nothing0fnothing]

Around age twelve my behaviour started to reflect the environment I was living in. I was angry, I'd lose control of my temper, I'd break my own belongings in a rage, I'd cry uncontrollably, I'd have meltdowns in public. If my parents hit me, I'd hit back. If kids hit me, I wouldn't stop hitting back till someone bigger than me forced me to. Yanno, all pretty indicative behaviour changes of an aggressive, volatile, abuse home life.

My parents didn't think so though. Initially they feigned concern, telling me that at long last they'd finally recognised my long declining mental health, and wanted to get me help. I sobbed in my mother's arms when she told me that she knew I didn't like being like this, and finally she would allow me to speak to a therapist, we just had to go to the doctor first.

Only, when we got there it wasn't discussions that lead to being put into youth therapy or counselling. It was blood tests and urinalysis. I was talked over and portrayed as mentally incapable, using words like "delayed" and "behind" to describe how I interacted with my peers. The conversation moved into being about testoseterone levels and about putting me onto sedative drugs if my blood work came back normal. I remember sitting there, listening to her lie, refusing to step out when the doctor asked for a moment alone with me, and feeling a rock sink into the pit of my stomach, realising I'd made a mistake to trust her with this.

This wasn't about getting me the help I needed and deserved, this was about weaponising the UKs free healthcare system against me as punishment for stepping out of line, for making her look bad, and for making the mistake of asking for her help.

When I asked for an explaination of what exactly the fuck that was all about, my mum explained that actually she thinks I "might have" PCOS, a metabolic disorder that causes irregular periods, and this would explain the rage and the self harm and suicidality. I said I thought I was going to get therapy, she said we needed to "rule out" hormonal imbalance before she'd look into it. I said I didn't want her help any more, she put her foot down and insisted I have my blood tested if I wanted to live "under her roof."

In the days leading up to the blood exam, my mum had lots of calm, quiet sit down talks with me about PCOS, some of it was half true and the rest of it was bullshit designed to scare me into doing the test. She said if if went untreated I'd never have children, that I'd be fat and ugly, with greasy skin and upper lip hair after puberty, that I'd get ovarian cancer and die at 25.

I let her take me to the appointment and I simply refused consent for the blood draw. There's nothing she could do, in the UK minors have to give medical consent to treatment, there was no way the doctor was going to draw blood from an unconsenting patient.

My mum made a big show of power, and marched me right back to the front desk for another blood test appointment. The days went by, everyone treating me like shit as normal, till the day of my redo appointment drew in. It was at 1.45pm but she kept me off school anyway, probably worried I would simply refuse to leave class when I was called out to attend. She marched me down to the GP. This time bringing her bully of a husband with her to my appointment.

I waited quietly in the waiting room and went inside when called to, my mums husband making a big show of grabbing my arm, as if I was under the delusion that I needed to run away to get the outcome that benefitted me here. The doctor sat and spoke down to me like I was a small child, explaining that she needed to draw blood to make me feel better, and that though it might be a "bit of an ouchie" I'd feel good in the long term.

I thanked her for her explanation and told her I was unwilling to do a blood draw today. At that, my parents, who were stood behind me as we had this conversation, jumped onto me. My mother knelt onto my feet, pinning me to the floor, and grabbed my face, forcing me to look at her. Her husband wrestled my arm down onto the doctors desk and held it down at my wrist and forearm.

Obviously the atmosphere in the room changed immediately. I was shrill, screaming and hysterical fighting to get them off of me but they were two grown, violent adults, and I was a thirteen year old girl. I was pinned and wasn't getting away, terrified. My step dad was coming in with measured rage, intentionally jabbing his fingers into the pressure points in my hand and wrist and slamming my arm down as pulled away, leaving bruises. My mum took on her "pity me" persona, pleading with the horrified phlebotomist to jab me now, while I was struggling and screaming, as if she was was doing her a favour by holding me still for her. I was screaming over her that I didn't consent, that I didn't want it. In the moment I felt violated, and was terrified that the doctor would draw my blood without my consent while I was restrained, but obviously the doctor didn't do it bc why the fuck would she?

Now I'm an adult I'm genuinely baffled they thought that shit would work. Like they planned ahead and really thought they'd got me, that the rules about patient consent they learnt about last time would just fly out the window because what? They managed the difficult feat of physically overpowering a tween?

[thessalian]

This is coming from a viable candidate for the Tory leadership. I mean, some of this shit...

"People who hate Israel keep coming here!" Well ... maybe that's because they're fleeing from the country that Israel is currently genociding?!? I'd be a bit pissed off too! She is literally talking about an immigration policy that "will take into account the fact that not all people will abandon their ethnic hostilities at the border".

"Our country is not a dormitory for people to come here and make money," she says. So if that's the case, why are you treating the people who were actually born here like they're only here to eat, sleep, and make money for the ultra-rich? FUCK OFF.

"Those we chose to welcome, we expect to share our values--" I didn't have a choice, bitch. I was moved here when I was a teen and technically still part of the parental luggage, and now I can't afford to leave, I don't share your values, because your values are bigoted, cruel, and overall horrific! But you won't deport me because I'm fucking white. It's a privilege I can't give away, and I hate it, because ... look, there are people out there who "contribute" way more than I do. I don't pay rent and work part-time, so while I don't take anything in benefits, I do contribute less in taxes. They're happy to keep me because of my skin colour while someone who needs to live somewhere that isn't being literally blown up is getting crammed into a fucking camp while they decide how to send them almost anywhere else could be out here contributing to this country socially and economically.

The Tories are made of boomerang bigot, and ... honestly, the political situation in this country terrifies me. Labour is literally no different than the Tories they replaced, which is pissing everybody off. Meanwhile, the Tories are going further and further right, and in a political system that might as well be two-party, that leaves us with two choices next election:

What we had before, but more painful because the few hopes we managed to cling to when Labour came to power keep getting shattered time and time again; or

Literal. Fucking. Nazis.

And given how personal betrayal feels ... gods help me, it's probably going to end up the literal fucking Nazis in five years.

I know that noplace is perfect, but more and more I think of Canada as home, in an "aching to go back there because I'm scared of what the country I've spent most of my life in has become" sort of way. But that takes money I don't have, so I get to just ... be scared. Not for myself - or not just for myself, anyway. Just because I don't know how to cope when I'm surrounded by this much hate and bile and lack of feeling. I keep wondering whether humanity as a species is like the people I know, or like the people I hear most about because anger generates engagement. Whether it's people who outright hate, or people who don't technically hate but don't care as long as they're not affected ... there's too many people who just don't care.

So ... yeah. This is what it's like here.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Been down a bit of a(nother) rabbit hole, one that is, at the moment, distracting me from being furious about things, but specifically, being furious about other people being too conciliatory and being fine with things and expecting me to be fine with things and what happened to the righteous anger that fuelled us so much in our youth? And sure it's great that you're more successful now and have to go off and mingle on big international trips with those people who have been ruining lives of people I love for most of my life, and you can smile and be respectful and diplomatic and we'll get more done by understanding that sometimes we have to work with people we don't like, but actually as much as I joke about my petty grudges it's not just petty and it's not just a joke, I hated these things for good reasons and I hate the idea that in our thirties we're supposed to just mature into thinking it's all fucking fine and get over our history. At what age does anger become an immature thing? I know I make a lot of jokes about how I was an angry rebellious loose cannon teenager, but I was in fact a teenager who'd been abused by adults in authority and failed by a system that should have protected myself and the people I loved from it, and I dedicated my adult life to trying to create a better place than that, and yeah sometimes make jokes about how the other guys suck, but that doesn't mean it really was just a silly teenage rivalry that I should mature out of now and be fine working in a terrible system and go back to get emotionally invested in more young people just to watch them get abused by the same system because we're all mature enough to work within it now, and sin of vagueposting on social media isn't so bad if you do it somewhere that you're anonymous and none of the people involved could possibly see it, right? Because I know it's a sin but I've been furious all day and needed to vent.

Anyway. Anyway. I might have been looking for someone to be angry for me in my music collection today, and I may not have found any about my specific situation (not a lot of crossover with the arts there), but I did enjoy realizing I have two songs in a very specific niche: musician who has toured with comedians and hangs out with comedians so much that they're sort of an honourary comedian, may in fact have even done some comedy, wrote a song about the 2015 UK general election to express fury about the results, but not just general fury at Tory politicians, specific frustration with the people who could have stopped it but failed to care enough to do so. Quite specific type of song.

Anyway, this rabbit hole also brought me to a Facebook livestream that Gavin Osborn did in 2021, and listening to an hour of Gavin playing gentle guitar songs is definitely a good way to calm down a bit if you're furious about things. He did some chat between the songs with the guy who organized it, and I cut out this clip where he explains the origins of his inclusion in the Chocolate Milk Gang, a story I knew but it's always fun to hear again. And they talk for a while about how great Isy Suttie is.

[nightfallsupon]

The crazy things is, these people, this system of "mental health" are the ones that are keeping me unwell. They are keeping me, and keeping my body in a state of terror, they are gaslighting me as to what is reality, the truth that has been done to me, and disbelieving my pain, and the things that have happened to me. I am, and have been surrounded by a family that abused me, where they have been given a voice and control over me by this system while taking my own voice and power away from me, along with people within a system that continued to abuse me. Like fuck, I am ever going to heal when they are holding me in this state of unrest, or terror, of shame, indignity, and degradation by discrediting me. They torture me with needles, prisons, and unjust court appearances where they tell themselves what they do is just, that I am receiving a fair "trial" (that is what it is after all - a trial of mental competence that the doctors and judges decide upon each time), and control over my body, along with, robbing me of my basic human rights and freedom.

Any intelligent person could see that they are surrounding me in disaster, and nightmares, and pain, and torture, and cruelty, and this is the true reason and cause of my health suffering. When I am in a loving, and safe environment, surrounded by people that love and care for me, and who don't abuse and torture me, I will be able to heal from this, and I will be absolutely able to exist without all these painful lows and drugs in my life forced upon me by these people who are causing me to suffer.

I am not safe, I live in a constant state of fear, I live on the absolute edge - with what they will do to me next, and what they do to me each month - sticking needles into my body, and forcing me to their court appearances where each time they have already made up their mind to keep me controlled, drugged, and examined, and the regular psychiatrist visits, where they gorge and revisit my pain, but do and say nothing to help me cope with it, and offer me other forms of potent poisons just like the one they have drugged me with for an entire decade, under the guise of, oh this one may not have such bad side effects of weight, oh but it could likely come with the side effect of akathisia - a side effect I have experienced before, an internal restless feeling that feels like torture. God I would so loove for these doctors and nurses to be injected with the drugs that have given me, so they can feel the pain they have given me for years and years and years. They fucking deserve it for what they've done to us.

Anyway, to summarise, living under constant threat has serious health consequences - both physical and mental. "Fear is a feature of nearly all clinical mental health problems and is a root cause of some of the most common ones. As well as anxiety disorders themselves, fear is strongly associated with depression, psychosis, and attempting suicide in the past year. Fear is also strongly linked to poor physical health." - This quote infact comes from the UK mental health website. Ironic. If you don't believe they are creating an extreme state of fear within their "patients" by drugging our bodies with sharp stabby things, scouring our minds for any small weaknesses, or basically anything that makes us the slightest bit different to "normal people" to be thereon used against us (what is normal??), and keeping us under the threat of imprisonment if we do anything wrong, or even dare to say no to the poisonous drugs they force upon us, then well, I don't know what to tell you because you are a fool.

Mental Health NZ has set up a cycle of fear and control that is feeding into the very thing they are trying to control - illness, and health problems. The way they negatively treat us, and abuse their power over us, the very nature of the imbalance of power within THEIR system, is causing us to be sick. They are keeping us sick, because it benefits them to keep us this way. They get to control us, and it is very profitable for them to "treat us" or in other words drug everybody but not cure us. If the system is profitable because people stay sick, and are continuing to take their "medications" then the powers that be continue to make money off of the backs of the people the broke. If they began to treat people with respect, and care, listening to them, believing them, and didn't abuse them, then we would see people getting better, and staying better. Which would also mean, the system wouldn't be able to employ and pay so many people to keep us sick. It would basically mean, the system was not profitable. And for any system like this to work, it must be profitable for the people that work within it, and the even higher domain of people who earn billions of dollars for consistently peddling drugs to people, and NOT healing them.

They can't heal us, because then, they'd be out of a job, and their delusions could no longer be justified. Yes, they are delusional, to believe their inhumanity and abuse is helping us in ANY shape or form. I want to die because of what they have done to me, and I know, I am not alone in this feeling.

[burning-bubble-tea]

WHATABOUTISM MAKES ME WANT TO FUCKING SCREAM.

We all want the same thing, but we cannot avoid hypocrisy!!!

I’m haven’t even watched any uk drag race 4 with cheddar gorgeous but them denying an award because they do not like the sponsors does not mean we then have to point out how the worker with an airline company to reduce their carbon emissions. Like yeah, flying no matter what is going to be a huge polluter but YOUR MISSING THE FUCKING POINT.

At a certain point you can whataboutism about so many fucking things that the only “morally” correct thing to do under this philosophy is NOTHING. Do we all wanna become Chidi anagonye from the good place and be so morally paralyzed that we do nothing and then die by having an air conditioner fall on our heads???? (Stupid example but whatever).

Cheddar took a stand and the whataboutism is so stupid because you have to fucking realize that the commenter and cheddar want the same fucking thing. Except one person also wants to shit on their allies for not being morally perfect in their eyes.

LIKE WHERE IS THE FUCKING COMPASSION?!!

Cheddar may be a celebrity and has benefitted from things that was at the expense of others but guess what SO HAS EVERYONE ELSE. So we can either critique each other into immobilizing circular discourse or have CARE AND COMPASSION and understand that we should be mad at the FUCKING BILLIONARES AND THOSE WHO PERPETUATE A BROKEN SYSTEMS and not a DRAG ARTIST for refusing to accept an award when it’s sponsored by colonialist companies.

RADICAL LOVE YALL. I LOVE YOU HUMAN. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU CARE BUT FUCKING HAVE MORE COMPASSION ITS OK YOU MADE A MISTAKE NEXT TIME DO NOT LEAVE A FUCKING COMMENT.

Just be like “oh I’m happy they did that but I disagree with how they worked with an airline and got money from them, anyways at least we both are queers for the environment”.

[cantquitu]

Don’t get me started on Brexit. I had a really interesting business going - it wouldn’t have lasted the pandemic anyway, but more to the point it’s not worth reviving because Brexit has made everything pointlessly dull in my happy and productive little corner of the business world. There must be hundreds of thousands of people like me, keeping ourselves employed and out of the benefits system, and now just kind of quietly buggered. So boring but their ideology is more important than the citizens.

Oh man :( I'm so sorry to hear that. I've heard so many of those stories. They've fucked the population.

I was out with some friends on Wednesday, one of them is a painter and she used to sell her paintings mainly in the UK. But now with all the Brexit fuckery it's not feasible; it's far too expensive for British customers. So she had to make the call not to make them available in the UK.

On the flip side, our other friend was visiting from London and her partner is also an artist. He's relatively successful (as in, he can just about make a living), but the majority of his buyers are in Europe, and now with shipping and customs his work is unaffordable. He's fucked!

That's a minor example; they'll both get through. But so many people won't :(

[nordic-language-love]

One of my original 2020 goals for Norwegian was to write 5000 words of fiction in Norwegian.

After writing nearly 1000 words yesterday alone, I’m proud to say I have achieved this goal!

[osmiabee]

I really want to make a coherent post about the intersections of colonialism, global warming, poverty, and church community vs government responsibility and how that restricts both societal and individual movement against homophobia in previously colonised countries but I’ve never actually written anything coherent in my life.

Anyway my white friend compared camel trekking to slavery the other day so that was cool I guess.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

In fact, I think right now is exactly the time to address the cost of living crisis we have in the UK.

To start, the biggest expenditure most people have is housing. Once upon a time, your average working class family could be housed in a decent, comfortable council house- often with a nice garden and good amenities. Rents were low, tenancies were long term and secure. Because of the existence of council houses, private rents were a lot lower. This meant becoming a “buy-to-let” landlord was not a very attractive prospect. If you bought a house, it was usually somewhere to live, not an investment.

Of course, Thatcher wrecked all of that with the “right to buy”. She sold off council stock excessively cheaply to their tenants, which seems like a nice move, but it meant that the next generation had to buy a home or rent privately. Over the next 3 decades, house prices have sky rocketed. Lots of people can no longer afford to buy, so they have to rent privately. Houses have become investments for landlords, locking many ordinary people out of the housing market.

And that’s ignoring the boom in second homes, and buying places to rent out as holiday lets via air bnb, and the houses that litterally stand empty in London and are bought just to watch them increase in price.

So, anyway, housing costs are fucking insane.

After housing, you have your bills- electric, gas, water, etc. Utilities used to be nationalised. Now they have to make a profit for shareholders, as well as providing a service. Thus, prices increase. And you’ve got to pay for your phone and internet, too.

And then there’s food. Comparably, in theory, food is cheaper than it was 3-4 decades ago, but the problem is a lack of time. When you’re working full time and so is your partner and you have kids, you don’t have the time to cook from scratch. So people buy convenience foods, which are more expensive. And of course, there is the point that everyone in the chain of food production, again, needs to make a profit.

And of course, you have to get to work- again, public transport used to be nationalised and subsidised. Now, you have private companies running the system inefficiently, and again, they need to make a profit, so ticket prices go up. And anything that doesn’t make an easy profit is shut down- which means more people left without access to public transport, which means more households need to run a car- which is a huge expense.

You’ve probably got some debt, too, from when you were a student or in your first job, and you couldn’t afford everything you needed. So that’s another thing you have to pay for out of you wages. You might have had to buy things on finance, because you couldn’t afford to pay outright.

Meanwhile, wages have been suppressed for years via the use of apprenticeships, working tax credit and all the rest of it. So, a family often needs two working adults to survive. And that creates a vicious cycle.

My point is, it doesn’t have to be this way. We could create a society with a low cost of living, where people only worked as much as was necessary (i.e. not a 40 hour week just because), where people could actually spend time with their families.

If we stopped letting things be run for the benefit of shareholders, and instead let them be run by the people for the people. If we distributed housing fairly, instead of allowing a small class of people to hoard it. If we ensured everyone could have the resources they needed to survive and thrive...

Anyway, the point is that if we had a fairer, more equitable society, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in right now.

[titleknown]

...Never let it be said I’m unwilling to admit when I’m wrong, because while my views of “A lot of Europeans are wildly insensitive about the US’ problems RE: Mutual Aid” still stand, I made the statement that “even with those horribly inhumane cuts [the UK’s system was] still better than what we have here.“

And a friend called me out on that, mentioning how "disabled people are dying in the UK because the government found them "fit to work" maybe don't write novels deriding UK leftists without a basic understanding of what they operate under”

And, looking it up... yeah she was right, I was wrong. Because, even beyond that horror, holy fucking shit how does the UK disability benefits system end up giving out even less than ours?!

Like, what?!

Like... to explain where I was coming from, I was thinking of that one Shaun tweet about electoralism around last years election (I forget which one it was) and also another person, who when I was panicking over voting suppression basically glibly responded "Well, it's not like the US is a real democracy anyway"

And it seems like a lot of anti-electoralism stuff comes from over there, when like, from what I've seen over in the states mutual aid is a thing most people I know who are struggling do not truly have access to. So I'm really sick of people basically saying, "Hey, the thing you're hoping will help is bad and will not save you, just rely on this thing that's never helped you ever!"

But... as that friend said, “In general, I assume that UK leftists are anti electoral because their electoral system keeps screwing them over.” And she’s probably right.

It seems like I exhibited some of that same dismissiveness I was criticizing too. And I apologize for that.