#conservatism in a disease

[netscapenavigator-official]

You gotta give conservatives credit, where credit it due:

The pregnancy-based, fearmongering, abstinence-only, sex ed I was put through in primary school sure did work. I'm now cruising through adulthood, and I have zero desire to have children ever.

Oh, and I also fuck men, now, just to make extra sure it doesn't happen. So...... congrats. This is the future you all sowed, and so you must reap it.

[nicole-ashwood]

I get people are (rightfully) mad about how Life is Strange is being handled, but could you seriously not use "brain damaged" as an insult towards writers you don't like? It's already hard enough for people who suffer from traumatic brain injuries to exist in fandom spaces. We don't need to continue with this ableist insult.

Fixed. Sorry. I grew up in the early 2000's in a Mormon household. Even though I am a transgender female AMAB lesbian who's family have cut her out, I still say and do things unconsciously. Still trying to break myself out of calling things retarded (it's still a valid english word that means stunted or restricted, I just find myself misusing it by accident/unconsciously). 🤷🏻‍♀️

[vilkalizer]

Who could have imagined!!!

I have no idea how trustworthy "the new republic" is but here are some nuggets i found skimming the actual document they're reporting on:

so you know, cool and normal and good stuff! (don't bother looking at the sources it's shit like heritage foundation lol)

So anyway i hope everyone reading this understands that the only thing that's going to keep these assholes from destroying the planet knowingly and on purpose is an actual revolution.

[scumgristle]

ProPublica and Documented obtained more than 14 hours of never-before-published videos from Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy, which are intended to train the next conservative administration's political appointees “to be ready on day one.”

Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy guide created by the Heritage Foundation for a future conservative presidential administration, has lost its director. In recent weeks, it faced scathing criticism from both Democratic groups and former President Donald Trump, whose campaign has tried to distance itself from the effort. But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy remains on track.

For transparency, we are publishing the videos as we obtained them.

The Heritage Foundation and most of the people who appear in the videos cited in our story did not respond to ProPublica’s repeated requests for comment. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said, “As our campaign leadership and President Trump have repeatedly stated, Agenda 47 is the only official policy agenda from our campaign.”

Read our full story at: https://propub.li/4cBfYcp

[aquietwhyme]

The comments on this post are wild. People saying that there are no better alternatives to a system where autocratic control of the majority of people's lives is held by a handful of unaccountable, unelected oligarchs who have 0 ethical obligation towards those whose lives they dominate.

People still parroting 1950's caricatures of Red scare communism as as though it reflects reality, when it takes exactly 4 minutes of Internet searching to realize how ridiculous that is. People whose response to a criticism of capitalism is to throw up their hands and say "it's better than the Nazis", as though the same couldn't be said for surviving torture versus being murdered, as if the only choices on the table are capitalism or Mussolini.

Totally fucking disconnected from reality.

And it really proves the case of the original post by Hampton Institute: being this credulous can be thought of as a mental illness brought on by capitalism, in the same way that zealous religious cult members are suffering from mental illness. Capitalism destroys our ability to see the world in any other way than it's own. It narrows our lives to the alienating status of sentient commodities, who exist for the privileged few to use up as they will.

I too, in my monumental ignorance of what capitalism actually is, used to defend the idea, used to talk about harnessing a dangerous animal to get work done as being the best relationship we should have with capitalism. And that was because I couldn't see another way to live, and I accepted many of the false arguments against socialism, communism and anarchy made by capitalists.

But capitalism isn't a dangerous beast to be hitched to a yoke and used to create prosperity. It is instead a continuation of feudalism, with new faces lording over the peasantry, and all power still concentrated into the hands of those who own. It's a cancer that promises eternal growth but delivers destruction, death, oppression, war, misery, and hunger in a world of abundance and beauty.

When you defend capitalism, you defend Scrooge before his Christmas miracle, you justify the starvation of hundreds of millions, the immiseration of billions, and you justify it by pointing to your microwave, your refrigerator, and your access to free pornography, ignoring that your access to even those things is precarious. When you defend capitalism, you defend illness.

So please, don't defend capitalism. You don't have to vilify capitalists, because they too are people who possess inherent dignity, but you should reject the nonsense that they are selling you.

[era-news]

Rand Paul Fast Facts | CNN Politics

CNN  —  Here’s a look at the life of Rand Paul, US senator from Kentucky. Birth date: January 7, 1963 Birth place: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Birth name: Randal Howard Paul Father: Ron Paul, former presidential candidate and retired US representative from Texas Mother: Carol (Wells) Paul Marriage: Kelley (Ashby) Paul Children: Robert, Duncan and William Education: Attended Baylor…

[dejablonde]

If you get rid the world of one disease what would it be?

Only one?

I'd probably have to pick one of the ones coming back thanks to anti-vaxxers like measles

[hungee-boy]

i feel like

when people say like you become more conservative as you get older is true for some folks yeah but i think for the majority its realizing your redneck neighbor with a trump flag isnt as big a leech on society as the landlord with a beto sign is

[rabidhiss]

[dykemind]

my other thought about left & right wing gayhating is that right wing gayhating gets you when you're a child under your parent's roof. & they fought gay marriage rights and pushed the idea that being gay is a deviance. This last one affects even people who were raised without religion in accepting, pro-gay households. It just gets into your psyche. Religion is a massive institution with powerful and deep roots worldwide and america is a culturally christian country. few countries aren't culturally abrahamic. But left-wing homophobia gets you when you think you've escaped. When you think conservative homophobes are "them" and now you're safe with "us". It is a perfect one-two punch, and by design it works best in tandem with severe religious upbringing. The person most vulnerable to gender ideology is the person who has escaped a religious cult upbringing. This is the person who most needs a safe haven and is least equipped to judge when she's found one. This is the person who is the most vulnerable to the guilt and mind control tactics. Left wing homophobia works best in tandem with right wing homophobia. It works best as the fire you jump into as soon as you've escaped the frying pan. It's the disease that's infected the place we built to be safe from homophobia and turned it into yet another minefield. It's the thing that takes our own people who should be our lovers and friends, the thing that makes out and proud gay people anti-gay. And because of this, spending time with a conservative stranger most likely won't affect you. Conservatism is primarily for controlling your family. If you're not one of theirs, they usually have nothing to say to you. But left-wing homophobia is for controlling your community. And when you spend time with a radical kweer, they will start trying to control you. If you are no longer part of a religious system or family, left-wing homophobia is the side of the pincer that's out to get YOU. As an individual, in one-on-one relationships, left wing homophobes are the ones who will grill you about your beliefs and punish you for disobedience. They are the ones who will constantly hound you and microaggress you and go after you. Bc as an out and proud gay person in gay spaces, you are in their territory.

[bogleech]

This is the ugliest bluntest response I've ever gotten from a right winger I poked at on here, but I have never once encountered a right winger who didn't obviously see the world this way. Every last one of them. Every last person who supports conservatism or U.S. republican thinking is like this, sometimes even without consciously realizing it themselves. Every single political and social policy they hold - their obsession with punishing crime, their disgust for food stamps and welfare, their outrage over "illegal immigration," glorification of military and police power, even their resistance to science and environmentalism - it absolutely all boils down to seeing some people as vermin who are attacking them by just existing or reproducing.

The very moment someone says they think trickle-down works or that homeless people are victims of their own laziness or anything that Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones would say, they're really just saying the same thing as this walking disease here; that they feel they're a part of a culture that's under attack at all times by all outsiders to that culture, that's truly all the right boils down to.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Prokop at Vox:

Former President Donald Trump has lately been trying to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming it was cooked up by the “severe right” and that he doesn’t know anything about it. But it turns out the severe right is coming from inside the house. Kevin Roberts, the self-proclaimed “head” of Project 2025, has a book coming out in September — and the book’s foreword is written by Trump’s vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, who lavishly praises its ideas. “Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism,” Vance writes, according to the book’s Amazon page. “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”

What ideas? Like Vance, Roberts is obsessed with the idea that the left controls major American institutions — he lists Ivy League colleges, the FBI, the New York Times, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Department of Education and even the Boy Scouts of America. The book argues that “conservatives need to burn down” these institutions if “we’re to preserve the American way of life.” (Vox has requested a copy of the book, but has not yet received one at the time of this writing.) Obviously, this poses a problem for Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the virally unpopular Project 2025 and its lengthy agenda for what he should do if he wins, which includes proposals to restrict abortion access and centralize executive power in the presidency.

And it’s one more indication that Trump’s pick of Vance might be politically problematic for him. Vance has a fascination with provocative and extreme far-right thinkers, and a history of praising their ideas. He is not a running mate tailored to win over swing voters who are concerned Trump might be too extreme — quite the opposite. The book was written and announced before Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate. But there’s some indication that people involved had some late second thoughts about it. It was originally announced as “Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America,” with a cover image showing a match over the word “Washington.”

More recently, though, the subtitle has been changed to “Taking Back Washington to Save America,” and the match has vanished from the cover.

[...]

Vance agrees quite a bit with Project 2025’s most extreme ideas

Project 2025 contains a multitude of proposals in its 922-page plan, not all of which J.D. Vance necessarily supports. But he’s on record backing ideas similar to those put forth in two of Project 2025’s most controversial issue areas. The first is abortion. Project 2025 lays out a sweeping agenda by which the next president could use federal power to prevent abortions, including using an old law called the Comstock Act to prosecute people who mail abortion pills, and working to prevent women from abortion-banning states from traveling out of state to get abortions.

Vance is on record supporting these ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists “who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.” In 2022, he said he was “sympathetic” to the idea that the federal government should stop efforts to help women traveling out of their states to get abortions. That year, he also said: “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.” At other points, Vance has struck a different tone. ““We have to accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans,” he said last December. And this month he said he supported a Supreme Court decision that allowed the abortion bill mifepristone to remain available. Here, Vance is trying to align with Trump, who — fearing political blowback — argues he merely wants abortion to be a state issue, despite his long alliance with the religious right. But Vance’s record implies his true agenda might be otherwise.

The second controversial area where Vance is sympatico with Project 2025 is centralizing presidential power over the executive branch. The project lays out various proposals to rein in what conservatives view as an out-of-control “deep state” bureaucracy — mainly, by firing far more career civil servants and installing far more political appointees throughout the government. Vance, as I wrote last week, has backed a maximalist version of this agenda. In 2021, Vance said that in Trump’s second term, Trump should “fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” The courts would try to stop this, Vance continued, and Trump should then “stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”

While Donald Trump is doing his darndest to supposedly run away from the highly unpopular Project 2025, his ticketmate J.D. Vance is making that proposition difficult to impossible.

See Also:

HuffPost: There’s Another Link Between Trump’s Campaign And Project 2025

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 21

1804 – Benjamin Disraeli (d.1881) was a British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat who twice served as Prime Minister. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Gladstone, and his one nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He is, as of 2015, the only British Prime Minister of Jewish birth. Disraeli was born in London. His father left Judaism after a dispute at his synagogue; young Benjamin became an Anglican at age 12.

Together with his sister's fiancé, William Meredith, Disraeli travelled widely in southern Europe and beyond in 1830–31. The trip was financed partly by a novel, The Young Duke, written by Disraeli in 1829–30. The tour was cut short suddenly by Meredith's death from smallpox in Cairo in July 1831. Despite this tragedy, and the need for treatment for a sexually transmitted disease on his return, Disraeli felt enriched by his experiences. He became aware of values that seemed denied to his insular countrymen. The journey encouraged his self-consciousness, his moral relativism, and his interest in Eastern racial and religious attitudes.

After several unsuccessful attempts in which his opposition accused Disraeli of practicing "Eastern love", i.e. homosexuality, Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837. When the Conservatives gained power in 1841, Disraeli was given no office by the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. In 1846, Peel split the party over his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, which imposed a tariff on imported grain. Disraeli clashed with Peel in the Commons. The Conservatives who split from Peel had few who were adept in Parliament, and Disraeli became a major figure in the party, though many in it did not favor him. When Lord Derby, the party leader, thrice formed governments in the 1850s and 1860s, Disraeli served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. He also forged a bitter rivalry with the Liberal Party’s William Gladstone.

Upon Derby's retirement in 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister briefly before losing that year's election. He returned to opposition, before leading the party to a majority in the 1874 election. He maintained a close friendship with Queen Victoria, who in 1876 created him Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraeli's second term was dominated by the Eastern Question—the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire and the desire of other European powers, such as Russia, to gain at its expense. Disraeli arranged for the British to purchase a major interest in the Suez Canal Company (in Ottoman-controlled Egypt). In 1878, faced with Russian victories against the Ottomans, he worked at the Congress of Berlin to obtain peace in the Balkans at terms favourable to Britain and unfavourable to Russia, its longstanding enemy. This diplomatic victory over Russia established Disraeli as one of Europe's leading statesmen.

World events thereafter moved against the Conservatives. Controversial wars in Afghanistan and South Africa undermined his public support. He angered British farmers by refusing to reinstitute the Corn Laws in response to poor harvests and cheap imported grain. With Gladstone conducting a massive speaking campaign, his Liberals bested Disraeli's Conservatives in the 1880 election. In his final months, Disraeli led the Conservatives in opposition. He had throughout his career written novels, beginning in 1826, and he published his last completed novel, Endymion, shortly before he died at the age of 76.

1944 – Michael Tilson Thomas, the American conductor, was born today. A conductor, pianist, composer and director of the San Francisco Symphony, Thomas has become in a relatively short time one of the most prominent American conductors of his generation. Perhaps most significantly, he is the first Gay conductor to achieve such prominence without masking or hiding his sexuality.

Tilson Thomas does not discuss his sexuality or his personal life with the public, but his dedication to creating and presenting music that explores the Gay experience confirms his importance as a Gay conductor.

Not only has he impressed audiences with his musical vision, talented conducting, and prolific number of recordings, but he has also used his position to commission works by Gay composers that use the medium of classical music to represent Gay life and Gay history.

To this end, he organized the American Mavericks music festival in San Francisco in June 2000. The festival highlighted the works of such composers as Lou Harrison, Lukas Foss, Earle Brown, Steve Reich, David Del Tredici, and Meredith Monk. Tilson Thomas has similarly pushed audiences to rethink the relationship between classical music and homosexuality by celebrating openly Gay composers such as Harrison and by commissioning works from Del Tredici and others that explicitly explore the experiences of Gay men and Lesbians. Although Gay men and Lesbians have long been present in the world of classical music, both as performers and as audience members, they have often remained invisible. Tilson Thomas has taken bold steps to change this.

In May 2001, Tilson Thomas conducted the premiere of Del Tredici's Gay Life, a series of pieces he commissioned that are based on poems by Allen Ginsberg, Thom Gunn, and Paul Monette. The work both explores the experiences of Gay men in America and also delves into the challenges that Gay men have faced in their struggle to survive the AIDS epidemic.

In addition, two of Tilson Thomas' own compositions have added to the small but growing classical music repertoire focused on Gay subjects. Three Poems by Walt Whitman, written for baritone and orchestra, and We Two Boys Together Clinging, for baritone and piano, use Whitman's poetry to explore intimacy between men.

1947 – Dr. Steven Watson, born on this date, is a cultural historian who is particularly interested in the dynamics of the twentieth century American avant-garde.

His 1991 book Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde was called "a chapter in our national biography" by Stefan Kanfer for the Los Angeles Times and "a marvelous group portrait of a band of cultural renegades" by Publishers Weekly. Watson has written five books about 20th century American avant-garde and counterculture movements, curated two exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery ("Group Portrait, The First American Avant-Garde" and "Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950's"), and served as consultant curator for the Whitney Museum exhibition "Beat Culture and the New America".

Watson grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota and graduated from Mound High School. He majored in English at Stanford University and participated in anti-Vietnam War protests, including a guerrilla theater piece called Alice in ROTC-Land, co-starring with Sigourney Weaver.

After graduation, he founded an alternative elementary school called KNOW School in Auburn, California. He studied psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received his Ph.D. in 1976, and he worked for nineteen years as the staff psychologist of the Putnam County Community Mental Health Clinic.

In 1976, Watson also began writing articles for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, Soho Weekly News, and Gaysweek. His work on gay culture included the first major article about Marsha P. Johnson, an early extended interview with Sylvia Rivera, and a book about the transgender figure, Minette. At the same time, he began writing books about key circles of the twentieth century.

He currently lives in New York City.

1958 – Andrew Lear is a Classicist and scholar of gender history and the history of sexuality. His research focuses on concepts of gender and sexuality in ancient Greek poetry and art. His book on male-male erotic scenes in ancient Athenian vase-painting Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods, was positively reviewed: it greatly expanded the number of known scenes and proposed a sophisticated framework for their interpretation.

He has written articles on topics including gender ideals in the work of Greek poets Anacreon and Theognis, as well as book reviews for Classical World. Lear is seen as an expert on the comparison between ancient and modern views and practices of gender and sexuality. His poems and translations have appeared in such journals as Persephone, the Southern Humanities Review, and Literary Imagination. He has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Pomona College, and NYU.

In addition to his academic career, Lear designs and leads educational tours on topics related to his research. In 2013, he founded Oscar Wilde Tours, the first tour company focused on LGBT history. Oscar Wilde Tours gives "gay secrets" museum tours that illuminate the history of homosexuality hidden in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and London's National Portrait Gallery. It also offers multi-day tours in Europe focused on gay history and art. Oscar Wilde Tours won the Travvy silver prize in 2016 for best LGBT tour operator.

In 2016, Lear expanded this line by founding Shady Ladies Tours, a tour company focused on women’s history. Their Shady Ladies tour of the Metropolitan Museum presents depictions of royal mistresses and courtesans in the collection, and the Nasty Women tour is about pathbreaking women from Pharaoh Hatshepsut to Gertrude Stein.

1965 – Andy Dick is an American comedian, actor, musician and television/film producer. He is best known as a comic but is also known for his eccentric and controversial behavior. His first regular television role was on the short-lived but influential Ben Stiller Show. In the mid-1990s, he had a long-running stint on NBC's NewsRadio and was a supporting character on Less than Perfect. He briefly had his own program, The Andy Dick Show on MTV, and he is also noted for his outlandish behavior from a number of Comedy Central Roasts. He also landed in 7th place on the 16th season of Dancing with the Stars.

Dick was born in Charleston, South Carolina and he was adopted at birth. Dick appeared in numerous theater productions during his high school years and was elected homecoming king his senior year in 1983. While in high school, Dick tended to use his name as a joke; and one day, he dressed in a homemade superhero costume and presented himself at school as "Super Dick". Dick graduated from Joliet West High School in 1984, and is a close friend of actor Anthony Rapp, whom he had known since childhood.After graduating from high school, Dick joined Chicago's Second City.

Dick was married to Ivone Kowalczyk from 1986 to 1990, with whom he has a son, Lucas (b. 1988). He also has a son and a daughter with Lena Sved.

!n 2005, Dick stirred controversy in Edmonton, Alberta, at Yuk Yuk's comedy club when he dropped his pants and exposed his genitals to the audience. Amid the uproar, he was ushered off the stage and the second night was cancelled.

In a 2006 interview with the Washington Post, he stated that he was bisexual.

On January 23, 2010, Dick was arrested about 4 a.m. at a bar in Huntington, West Virginia, on charges of sexual abuse after reportedly groping a bartender, and a male patron. He was released from jail after pleading not guilty and posting $60,000 bail. On June 29, 2011, Dick was formally indicted by a Cabell County Grand Jury for two counts of first degree sexual abuse. Dick pleaded not guilty during a formal arraignment in Cabell County Circuit Court in Huntington on July 29, 2011. After receiving the not guilty plea, the judge set a trial date of January 17, 2012. After several delays, on May 21, 2012, Dick was given a six-month pre-trial diversion. An assistant prosecutor has said that the agreement states if Dick stays out of legal trouble for six months, the criminal charges would be dismissed.In January 2012, the two alleged victims filed a civil suit against Dick for unspecified damages.

1969 – Jack Noseworthy Jr.  is an American actor, whose most visible movie roles were in Event Horizon, U-571, Barb Wire and Killing Kennedy.

He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and graduated from Lynn English High School in 1982 and attended Boston Conservatory, where he earned a BFA.

 He appeared in Bon Jovi's music video "Always", with Carla Gugino and Keri Russell. He co-starred with Meryl Streep in the Public Theater's 2006 production of Mother Courage and Her Children.

He starred in a short-lived MTV drama series, Dead at 21. In December 2005, he originated the role of Armand in the musical Lestat during its pre-Broadway run at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, but left the production during its first week of previews. He is also the only male actor to play Peter Pan on Broadway, in the revue Jerome Robbins' Broadway.

Noseworthy made his debut as a nightclub performer in September 2006 at the Metropolitan Room in New York City in "You Don't Know Jack!".

In 2013, Noseworthy played Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in Killing Kennedy, a made-for-television movie aired on National Geographic Channel.

In 2018, Noseworthy joined the Canadian production of Come from Away, in the role of Kevin T. and others.

Noseworthy has been in a relationship with Tony-winning choreographer Sergio Trujillo since 1990. They married in 2011. Noseworthy and Trujillo have a son born in 2018.

2007 – Nepal Supreme Court orders the end of anti-LGBTQ laws and creates new laws that safeguard LGBTQ people.

2009 – Mexico City legalises same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples (effective March 2010)

[a-mag-a-day]

The Sick Village is such a great episode. In addition to pulling no punches in complete horror, it's also a very powerful and poignant metaphor for societal issues. There are a few episodes in TMA where the horror is openly making a clear statement on social issues, and this is definitely one of them.

The way that the normalization of society is compared to an illness both gets across the pure terror of this sickness and makes a statement about the real world. Has anyone else thought of the way the "Capitalism is great!!! Ignore the problems!" idea as spreading like a disease? And the way the people who aren't infected are ridiculed and cast away is clearly a metaphor for real society, with a little bit of analysis. And how people discriminate and congregate based on the shape and color of their mold patches? Really hitting the nail there with racism and such discrimination.

That's not even touching on the beauty standards, self-consciousness, social McCarthyism, harmful conservatism, insidious traditions, and police systems, all of which are expressed through this terrifying figurative piece.

Often, TMA doesn't try to be super complex with societal themes, mainly just focusing on the horror as horror rather than a metaphor. But sometimes it really is clear that there's a statement to be made comparing the fear to real life, and it's great.

[blessed1neha]

Sun in the signs of the zodiac

Sun in the signs of the zodiac

Sun in Aries

Exaltation of the sun. If unafflicted in aries, the Sun in Aries can make someone highly energetic and brilliant. A fiery graha elevated in a fiery mobile sign bestows courage, pioneering traits, and an impetuous and quick-tempered personality. These people frequently exhibit idealistic attitudes, a propensity to exaggerate their abilities, a keen sense of responsibility, a militancy, a love of adventure, and a robust sense of self. A position like this might lead to resentment, pride, and conceit.

Sun in Taurus

The signs of Venus are antagonistic to the Sun since Venus is his enemy, and the Sun does not feel at home there. The Sun is influenced by the element of earth, which denotes practicality, tenacity, and stubbornness. Such a Sun bestows moderation, slowness, conservatism, worldly wisdom, excessive caution, a love of music and gorgeous clothing (under the influence of Venus), and intense possessive impulses (the second house in an abstract horoscope - money, property, resources). The heart and eyes could be having issues. Avoid becoming overly materialistic.

Sun in Gemini

Gemini is an unbiased sign for the Sun. modesty, shyness, and a propensity for thought. Typically, these individuals are endearing and inspire empathy in others. Sociability, a wandering mind, the capacity to multitask, erudition and more erudition, and literary genius. The dual air sign bestows a skill called adaptability to people and situations.

Sun in Cancer

The Sun is in the benevolent sign of Cancer. People in this position tend to be truthful, sensitive, emotional, attached to their homes and families, patronising, and caring. They enjoy being close to water. Their lives experience several ups and downs as a result of the Moon's cyclical nature. Cancer's movement fosters a passion for travel. They don't like to exert themselves too much, although they occasionally have a tendency to become lazy and passive. They also have weak egos (the Sun's fire is put out by water), simple minds, and a desire to help others. Due of their inconsistency in knowing when to speak the right thing and when to refrain, such persons can occasionally be harsh.

Sun in Leo

A claim to accomplishment and a prominent place in society is provided by this regal position. Luck, good health, conceit and self-centeredness, passion, and leadership abilities. These egotistical individuals have an extremely high opinion of themselves. Due to the fire element, Solar Lions are idealistic and dreamy, and they have a knack for making an impression on those around them. They seek a secure standing because they cannot endure to be submissive (fixed sign).

Sun in Virgo

The Sun is in a neutral sign. Earth's practicality, Mercury's intelligence, naveté, and shyness (the symbol of the sign is Virgo). A dependent posture from the other sex may result from such a position. Health is extremely precarious, although such individuals typically do well in hired positions (6th house in an abstract horoscope is the house of diseases and also service). Solar Virgos also have a natural tendency towards excitement and occasional anxiousness. When Virgo is in Lagna, rheumatism and divorce are brought on by this situation. Additionally, earth is associated with stubbornness.

Sun in Libra

Sun is affliction and debilitated and brings a lack of inner illumination, low self-esteem, Such a person may find it challenging to follow a spiritual path and may find it challenging to get up early. The ability to effectively use and apply other people's ideas, the capacity to consider and compare, sincerity, and civility are some of the benefits. There is a propensity for poor digestion, frequent migraines, bad eyesight, and heart problems. People with such a Sun are frequently prone to excessive alcohol consumption and licentiousness, are rather haughty and haughty, and have weakened immune systems. Such a Sun manifests a political interest and a taste for authority. Despite all the drawbacks, this position does not preclude someone from holding a leadership role; in fact, many leaders have a weak Sun in their natal chart.

Sun in Scorpio

Sun's friendly sign and here it becomes very stubborn, being overly emotional and reckless, being passive and lazy a lot of the time (the Sun is influenced by the elements of water), being unassuming and lacking in pride (also due to water). good skill with a weapon, in the operating room, or in the military. Curiosity, adventure, and a greater interest in the other sex.

Sun in Sagittarius

Sun's friendly sign hence the person can be full of Optimism, directness, straightforward, reliable,  openness, creative and ideal, sound health, and ambitious plans and aspirations for the future. successful in the legal or religious fields. They have a strong will, respectable character, independence, purpose, generosity, and a love of freedom. They also enjoy travelling.

Sun in Capricorn

The Sun's placed in enemy sign. The Sun's energy is in opposition to Saturn's energy. Practicality, self-interest, ability to plan ahead, sloth, the tendency to put things off until later, calm demeanour, propensity for melancholy. Shini, which means "slowly," is how they often work and advance in their careers, but when they are persistent and patient, they can occupy very high and permanent positions in society. The second part of life is when success typically occurs. They are frequently stingy and unyielding. They enjoy travelling (mobile sign).

Sun in Aquarius

The Sun's enemy sign. A person in this position will endure suffering because of others. Open-minded, eccentric, giving, abstaining from selfishness, devoted to friendships, losing father's possessions, susceptible to heart illness. This sign's symbol is one that never stops giving. People in this position are kind and work hard to better society. They also have a good education. They lack nefarious goals and a thirst for power. They do not have a tendency to look out for their personal wellbeing.

Sun in Pisces

Sun's friendly signal These individuals are intuitive and innately believe in higher powers. They daydream, inhabit their own world, and are frequently predisposed to substance usage. They are calm, affable, occasionally angry, know how to love, and are distinguished by shyness and ambivalence. The ability to sympathise, immaturity, and a propensity to take everything personally are all characteristics of the Sun in Pisces.

[georgefairbrother]

Areas that relied largely upon heavy industry, like the Northeast of England, were hit particularly hard by the Great Depression. On the southern bank of the River Tyne, Jarrow was just one of many industrial communities ravaged by unemployment, poverty, disease and starvation in the 1930s. Meanwhile, the National Coalition Government under Conservative Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, appeared to be looking the other way.

'One Nation' Conservatism had seen Baldwin steer the Tory ideology toward a much more compassionate, inclusive and interventionist position, at least in theory. Nineteenth Century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had contended that the divide between rich and poor had rendered Britain 'two nations', between which there was 'no intercourse and no sympathy'. 

In a speech in 1924, Baldwin said;

"…We stand for the union of those two nations of which Disraeli spoke two generations ago: union among our own people to make one nation of our own people at home which, if secured, nothing else matters in the world..."

According to Conservative Historian, Lord Alistair Lexden;

"…Tory policy was reshaped to advance the cause of 'One Nation'. Social reform became the Party’s dominant preoccupation for the first time in its history. The Conservative Party, Baldwin declared at the 1929 election, regards the prosperity of trade and industry, not as an end in itself, but as a means to improve the condition of the people…"

In 1986, a Jarrow resident during this period recalled to the BBC;

"…Pathetic. The Jarrow of those days was a filthy, dirty, fallen down consumptive area in which the infantile death rate was the highest in the country, and TB was a general condition…"

Jarrow Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson later wrote;

"…There was no work. No one had a job except a few railwaymen, officials, the workers in the co-operative stores, and a few workmen who went out of the town…The plain fact is that if people have to live and bear and bring up their children in bad houses on too little food, their resistance to disease is lowered and they die before they should…"

Palmer’s Shipyard, the principal source of employment since 1851, had closed down in 1934. Government unemployment benefits in those days lasted six months, after which responsibility was handed to the Unemployment Assistance Board, from which any tangible support was difficult to access and ultimately far from adequate. Eligibility was also subject to the controversial Means Test, first introduced in 1931. This meant that the combined wages and assets of all members of the household were taken into account when deciding whether or not individual unemployment relief should be forthcoming. In the context of the time, this was particularly humiliating for unemployed men who saw it as their duty to be the family provider.

Facing indifference from Westminster, the local Borough Council initiated a non-partisan campaign to try to bring employment, in the form of a new steelworks, back to the area. Two hundred unemployed men, selected from a pool of around 1400 volunteers, would march more than 280 miles to London to petition the government to establish new industries.

The marchers set off at 11 am on October 5th, 1936. As The Manchester Guardian reported, it wasn’t a hunger march, but a protest march. This was an important distinction in the context of the time, as the hunger march movement was seen as a communist initiative, one short step away from revolution, and a movement from which the mainstream Labour Party was keen to keep its distance. The Guardian also pointed out that at that time, less than 15% of the eligible Jarrow workforce was actually in work.

The Manchester Guardian;

"…There is no political aspect to this march. It is simply the town of Jarrow saying send us work. In the ranks of the marchers are Labour men, Liberals, Tories, and one or two Communists, but you cannot tell who's who..."

"...With the marchers goes, prominently carried, the Jarrow petition for work, a huge book with about 12,000 signatures, which Miss Ellen Wilkinson, MP for Jarrow, is to present at the bar of the House of Commons on November 4th..."

One marcher later recalled to the BBC, in 1977;

"…The spirit of the men was such that we were expecting something. We were expecting to prove to the capital, at that time, that here’s men from Jarrow. The spirit they had shown all the way down…Here we are, we want work and we are going to put our case that we must have work for the benefit of our wives and children…"

The marchers reached London by the end of October. A rally was held in Hyde Park, followed subsequently by the official presentation of the petition to Parliament by Ellen Wilkinson MP. The government remained unmoved, and there proved to be little or no immediate effect on economic or industrial policy. The men returned home by train, courtesy of donated tickets.

According to the UK National Archives;

"...To add insult to injury, the Unemployment Assistance Board officials in Jarrow docked the dole of the marchers because they had not been available for work. After the Jarrow March the Cabinet resolved to convince organisers that marches were unhelpful and caused unnecessary hardship to those taking part..."

Other reports suggest that the Cabinet's attitude was more about deterring any future protest marches, rather than concern for the marchers' welfare. Even the Labour Party itself was, at best, lukewarm in its support. Ellen Wilkinson had addressed their Edinburgh conference on the issue of Jarrow, but had found the agenda dominated by discussions of the Spanish Civil War and issues surrounding rearmament. There was even criticism of the idea of the march itself, and the physical burden it placed on unemployed and starving men.

Marcher Sam Rowland suggested that while the majority of politicians seemed unconcerned, public opinion was markedly different;

"…If the march achieved anything…it made the condition and lives of people a factor that should always be brought into consideration at the top level… and not left to work out their own salvation…"

The Guardian, BBC News and multiple other sources name the last surviving Jarrow Marcher as Con Shiels, who died in 2012, and who had felt that the march had made 'not one hap’orth of difference'.

For some additional context on this, @robbielewis has a fascinating article on Con Whalen, who passed away in 2003. He was the last surviving marcher who had completed the march in its entirety.

https://www.tumblr.com/robbielewis/716998502772785152/cornelius-whalen-the-last-jarrow-marcher?source=share

The next general election was held nearly a decade later, in 1945, as World War Two was coming to an end. Memories of the Depression era National Government and the desperate times of the interwar years would be a key factor in the landslide victory for the Labour Party.

References include BBC News, Liverpool Echo, Manchester Guardian archives, Spartacus Educational, Lord Lexden (Official Historian of the Conservative Party) (Website), BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives (Ellen Wilkinson), BBC Witness -The Great Depression and The Jarrow March, BBC History-Referencing Ellen Wilkinson’s The Town that was Murdered