#highe paying jobs in germany

[aryann33]

High-paying jobs in Germany often require advanced degrees (such as a master's or PhD) in fields like engineering or finance, coupled with strong technical skills and proficiency in German or English.

[hayat93838]

Get Started Now Part-Time JOB

JOB LINK

[akizambie]

Great, apparently I'm getting kicked out my parents house because I've been jobless past 2-3 weeks. I've been applying to everything I can, signed up to several job agencies, going to a specifc jobs opening evening thing on Tuesday, lit doing all I fucking can, ik several other people struggling to find shit too, it's not me, it's just hard to get something right now, but according to my parents I'm doing absolutely nothing to find out and driving then crazy.

[movetogermanywithease]

High Paying Jobs in Germany

Looking for high-paying jobs in Germany? Check out our list which will help you to decide which industry you should focus on for doing jobs. Read full blog!

[mariacallous]

In 2024, wealth concentration rose to an all-time high. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List, not only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are also richer than ever, with an aggregate worth of $14.2 trillion. This is a trend that looks set to continue unabated. A recent report from the financial data company Altrata estimated that about 1.2 million individuals who are worth more than $5 million will pass on a collective wealth of almost $31 trillion over the next decade.

Discontentment and concern over the consequences of extreme wealth in our society is growing. Senator Bernie Sanders, for instance, stated that the “obscene level of income and wealth inequality in America is a profoundly moral issue.” In a joint op-ed for CNN in 2023, Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee and Disney heiress Abigail Disney wrote that “extreme wealth inequality is a threat to our economy and democracy.” In 2024, when the board of Tesla put to vote a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk, some major shareholders voted against it, declaring that such a compensation level was “absurd” and “ridiculous.”

In 2025, the fight against rising wealth inequality will be high on the political agenda. In July 2024, the G20—the world’s 20 biggest economies—agreed to work on a proposal by Brazil to introduce a new global “billionaire tax” that would levy a 2 percent tax on assets worth more than $1 billion. This would raise an estimated $250 billion a year. While this specific proposal was not endorsed in the Rio declaration, the G20 countries agreed that the super rich should be taxed more.

Progressive politicians won’t be the only ones trying to address this problem. In 2025, millionaires themselves will increasingly mobilize and put pressure on political leaders. One such movement is Patriotic Millionaires, a nonpartisan group of multimillionaires who are already publicly campaigning and privately lobbying the American Congress for a guaranteed living wage for all, a fair tax system, and the protection of equal representation. “Millionaires and large corporations—who have benefited most from our country’s assets—should pay a larger percentage of the tab for running the country,” reads their value statement. Members include Abigail Disney, former BlackRock executive Morris Pearl, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig, screenwriter Norman Lear, and investor Lawrence Benenson.

Another example is TaxMeNow, a lobby group founded in 2021 by young multimillionaires in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland which also advocates for higher wealth taxation. Its most famous member is the 32-year old Marlene Engelhorn, descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of German pharma giant BASF. She recently set up a council made up of 50 randomly selected Austrian citizens to decide what should happen to her €25 million inheritance. “I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it,” she said in a statement. “If politicians don’t do their job and redistribute, then I have to redistribute my wealth myself.”

Earlier this year, Patriotic Millionaires, TaxMeNow, Oxfam, and another activist group called Millionaires For Humanity formed a coalition called Proud to Pay More, and addressed a letter to global leaders during the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Signed by hundreds of high-net-worth individuals—including heiress Valerie Rockefeller, actor Simon Pegg, and filmmaker Richard Curtis—the letter stated: “We all know that ‘trickle down economics’ has not translated into reality. Instead it has given us stagnating wages, crumbling infrastructure, failing public services, and destabilized the very institution of democracy.” It concluded: “We ask you to take this necessary and inevitable step before it’s too late. Make your countries proud. Tax extreme wealth.” In 2025, thanks to the nascent movement of activist millionaires, these calls will grow even louder.

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Education

I'm always asked what sort of education different people recieve throughout different historical eras and since I'm heading back to college soon, I thought it was high time I made this guide.

Disparity

Education is viewed as a right by many but for some and thoughout history it was a privilege. For the wealthy and those of high status, education can be easily accessed. They can afford to tailor an education to fit their needs, they can hire tutors, and they can afford tuitions to top schools. For the poor, education was a luxury. However this doesn't mean that it was available. Some communities would fund a school or send their children to a local teacher - usually they had to pay a daily fee or at least bring kindling for the heating. Many poorer children also worked so they could not attend school consistently or were pulled out very early into their education. However, some poorer students could gain access to high level education if they were extremely bright or caught the attention of a wealthy benefactor who could fund their education.

Education as a Weapon

Education could also be banned for certain groups in society. It could be illegal to fund schools or host gatherings for students of a certain background, race, religion or gender. Education against the law could be punished by imprisonment, exile or execution. This is a measure usually taken by oppressive governments in order to follow a moral code or restrict the betterment of a certain group. An example would be the Irish Catholics under the Penal Laws.

On the otherhand, there is education that is influenced by the state to inject certain values, moralities and Opinions into a population. This is the intense restriction of reading material, removal of books that contest the teachings of the government or the kidnap of children from their culture, in order to forcibly educated them in alignment to their beliefs. An example would be the residental schools of North America and Canada and the AHS schools of Nazi Germany.

Content

As above, content of what children learn usually falls into a certain category. This is also true for the education offered to the wealthy and the poor. The poor would be offered a basic education, learning literacy and arithmetic, usually with an expectation that the children would not go on to any jobs that needs a broader education. Any higher education would be hard to obtain because of cost and the discriminatory view of the enrollment panels. The wealthy would have access to an array of different subjects including: The arts (drawing, music, painting, poetry, dancing), sports (riding, martial skills, rowing, hunting), arithmetic, geography, languages, geography and history. While progression to higher education will still be difficult, any affluent families are legacies of prestigious colleges or can make a donation to grease a few palms. These schools would be where the wealthy make lifelong connections and get springboarded toward opportunities.

Private Tutoring

Whilst some affluent, aristocratic and Royal families send their children to schools, private tutoring in the home was a popular choice. Children would be educated at home but tutors who either lived in the home or come to the house. The children would be educated alongside siblings or the children of courtiers or neighbours. Private tutoring sessions would often be the only education for upper class women recieved, taught by governesses and tutors.

Premises and Equipment

As mentioned above, wealthy and aristocratic families would usually attend established schools or attend school at home. They would be provided any equipment they needed. If they attend school, they would often wear a uniform. Some schools had multiple variations of the uniform for different activities. Many of the schools attended would be boarding schools. Boarding schools offered education to those who boarded and day students, however day students were often looked down upon as lesser than.

Poorer schools would be relient on donations and fees paid by students. As mentioned above, there may be a building reserved for classes - sometimes an designated schoolhouse or a teacher's home or a public building such as a gathering house or sometimes even outside - hedge schools. Equipment would be provided by the school. Uniforms at poorer schools were not a thing but students were expected to show up neat and tidy.

Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment at schools was the go to punishment for students. Teachers had free rein to strike children for mistakes and bad behaviour. Punishments include insolation, physical stress positions such as standing on a chair all day, getting objects thrown at them, being slapped on the back of the legs with a cane, being rapped on the palms or knuckles with a crop or ruler. Students may also be humiliated by teachers through the use of dunce hats, encouraging other children to bully them or by the use of verbal abuse. Corporal punishment did extend to all classes except for royal children since that was either taken by proxy by whipping boys or left up to parents.

[gremlinmodetweeker]

König's Little Quirks (Pt. 1)

I was just chilling in my room when I got to thinking about some weird little things that König probably does, or just little traits about him. I think he is a bit of a cryptid of a human being but I love him dearly, so he's some cute little facts about König.

Visuals from this post

A few little fun facts about König

He speaks multiple languages

German, English, French, are pretty expected of him, but he’s also picked up a bit of Hungarian and Korean. Hungarian because of the shared border with Hungary, and Korean because drunk Horangi is determined to train König to be an actually adequately socialized human being and that starts with learning Korean apparently

König does not like being mistaken for being German. Part of this is just generally how Austrians aren’t too fond of Germans, but mostly it’s because König doesn’t like how people just can’t tell the difference and mix up the stereotypes

He also does have a bone to pick with Germany because during the German occupation of Austria, his grandfather had to leave the military and take a low-paying job in his home village

König is surprisingly conscious of his health, despite what he eats. He’ll go out of his way to eat healthy when he can, but when he gets too hungry he’s pretty quick to turn to binging

A part of why König is so concerned is that he was a chubby kid and a lot of people made fun of him for his size, so he’s always tried to focus on keeping himself in shape so he will never have to face those comments again

That said, König has a soft spot for sweets. A part of the reason he lives such an active lifestyle is so he can excuse eating more sweets

König’s favourite exercise is hiking, or if he gets a chance, mountain-climbing. He loves a full body exercise that keeps him fully occupied. He used to climb trees when he was a teenager (he learned fat kids aren’t supposed to climb trees, but a lanky teen isn’t such a problem apparently)

He has a strange habit of being in places he’s not supposed to be. It’s incredibly hard to find him because you just have no clue where he’ll be. He’s been found hanging upside down from tree branches before, or up in the rafters of a ceiling. He’s like a cat in how he crams himself into places he Should Not Fit

Speaking of cats, König loves cats. He’s a huge cat person. He has a slight fear of dogs after dealing with dogs in the military, so he’s a major cat person

What he likes more than cats are lizards. König’s dream pet is a monitor lizard. Either that or a massive tegu. He really likes giant lizards. He likes how friendly and quiet they are, and he likes the idea of walking a lizard down the street.

König doesn’t like aquariums. Not because he doesn’t like how they look, he can appreciate a beautiful aquarium, but simply because he finds the sound of a running filter drives him nuts

König is very fussy about noises in his home. He hates anything droning or high-pitched, and you could probably set off his PTSD with a loud sudden noise, so he tries to keep certain sounds to a minimum. He can tolerate the hum of a fridge, but he notably avoids vacuuming and turning on the AC in the house. He will turn on a fan or open a window before he considers using AC.

[marimayscarlett]

Rammstein in German media

I occasionally mention on here how challenging it can be to be a Rammstein fan in Germany, not least because of the media, which often treats the band poorly and dismissively. Today, I have a small example to illustrate this 📰

Alex Markusch, a guitar maker, gave an interview about his general work and cooperation with Richard a while ago - @franwikema thankfully posted this here. 🎸

In this interview, he said the following:

And Richard is someone who is very driven in the technical field. He's detail-obsessed. Collaboration isn't easy because the standards are incredibly high, and the technology is very complex. It's not Richard who makes it complicated, but rather the demands themselves. The challenge lies in having a lot of intricate technology that must be functional in the rough environment of live performances. When you look at a Rammstein stage show or even their open-air festivals, the equipment simply has to work. [...] It's definitely a challenge, but of course, it's also a lot of fun. Sometimes you're racking your brain, trying to find a solution, and then the guitarist says, "There has to be a way to make this work." And you're sitting there thinking, "Yes, but how? That's not even my job." My job is to make sure everything functions in the end. And it's always rewarding when Richard comes back and says, "Yeah, that was great!" Or when the guitar tech, Lutz, points out, "That wasn't quite right, we need to take another look at it today."

The Berliner Zeitung published the following headline following the article:

"Rammstein guitar maker from Friedrichshain: ‘It’s not an easy collaboration.’"

Since the article itself is behind a paywall (here is an accessible link), the content isn’t open for people who don't pay for this newspaper. This means the average reader who stumbles across the headline will likely think: 'Oh, Rammstein is causing trouble again, as always. Didn't expect anything else.'

The text, however, clarifies that the collaboration is not difficult because of Richard himself, and the article is actually quite short. It’s obvious that a single sentence from the interview was intentionally cherry-picked and phrased in a way that could easily be misunderstood. Then, the article is hidden behind a paywall, and voilà – another piece of media content that casts Rammstein in a negative light.

This is most likely not interesting for everyone, but serves as a little example for anyone wondering how the band is portrayed in the media here.

[probablyasocialecologist]

One man’s drudgery was another man’s stability. With some justification, Erich Honecker looked with pride at the changes in living standards that had been achieved under his leadership. Despite continuous problems with supplies and being behind technological standards in the West, the GDR felt like a stable country with comparatively high living standards. By design, there was full employment and the subsidized rents, food, cultural offerings and childcare meant that there were few existential concerns. At a time when West Germany was grappling with around 8 per cent unemployment and job security was a worry to many of those who did have work, East German families never really had to fear a sudden loss of income or not being able to pay the rent. By 1987, over half of all households had a car and all had at least one washing machine, fridge and TV. Products that were difficult to get hold of through regular routes were often obtained with the help of Western relatives who ordered them directly through Genex catalogues or provided the currency for a trip to the Intershop. Friends and family in the right places could also help. All in all, the economic shortcomings of the GDR in the mid-1980s, while reaching crisis level behind the scenes, appeared to many East Germans as nuisances rather than existential threats to their way of life. This lack of existential concerns coupled with a solid life–work balance meant that East Germans had a fair amount of money and time on their hands without having to worry too much about having to make the most of it. As a result, they spent a lot more time socializing and enjoying leisure pursuits. Clubhouses, allotment gardens, restaurants, communal barbecue pits and party rooms in apartment blocks were popular retreats where friends, colleagues and neighbours would meet to relax. Accordingly, alcohol consumption in the GDR skyrocketed. By 1988, the average East German drank 142 litres of beer a year and 16.1 litres of hard liquor, twice as much as their West German neighbours and enough to make VEB Nordbrand the largest Schnapps producer in Europe. The American academic Thomas Kochan has argued that this is not due to a need to escape the dreary realities of the GDR, as has often been claimed, but rather to the ‘existential carefreeness’ experienced by ‘a low-competition collective society’. Most East Germans drank not to forget their worries but rather because they had too little to worry about.

Katja Hoyer, Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990

[girlactionfigure]

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who put his family and career at risk by issuing thousands of hand-written transit visas to Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.

Chiune was born to a middle class family in Mino, Japan on the first day of the 20th century – 1/1/00. In elementary and high school he was a top student, and his father wanted him to become a doctor. Chiune’s own dream was to enter the foreign service, and he deliberately failed the medical school entrance exam by writing only his name on the test. Instead Chiune attended Waseda University and majored in English. He also joined a Christian fraternity to practice his English.

In 1919, Chiune passed the Foreign Ministry Scholarship exam, and served in the Japanese Imperial Army as a 2nd Lieutenant stationed in Korea. He resigned his commission in 1922 and trained for the Foreign Ministry, learning Russian and German in addition to English. He aced the qualifying exam and was sent to work in the foreign office in Harbin, China.

Chiune’s strong moral compass led him to resign his post as Deputy Foreign Minister in Manchuria because of rising Japanese violence against the Chinese (just two years later was the horrific Rape of Nanking by the Japanese Imperial Army.) Chiune returned to Japan, where he married Yukiko Kikuchi. They later had four sons.

Next Chiune went to Helsinki, Finland, where he worked as a translator for the Japanese delegation. In 1939, Chiune became vice-consul of the Japanese embassy in Kauna, Lithuania. Part of his job was to find out if Germany planned to attack the Soviet Union, and to relay any information about this to his bosses in Berlin and Tokyo.

In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania. At that time, approximately 1/3 of Lithuanians were Jewish, many of them Torah scholars. The USSR viciously persecuted Jews, especially religious ones, and the Jews of Lithuania were desperate to escape the country – especially because Nazi Germany was occupying more and more of Eastern Europe and would soon be in Lithuania. Hundreds of them, mostly Orthodox, visited the Japanese consulate to beg for exit visas to Japan. The official Japanese policy was that candidates for visas must go through elaborate bureaucratic procedures and pay significant sums of money. Chiune contacted his superiors at the Japanese Foreign minister to ask if the rules could be relaxed to help Jewish refugees. His request was denied, as were his next two requests.

Chiune could have thrown up his hands and told the Jews there was nothing he could do for them, but instead, as he did in China, he was governed by his strong sense of right and wrong, rather than soulless bureaucrats. He ignored his orders and started issuing ten-day visas for Jews to travel through Japan on their way to safe havens like Shanghai, China, where 20,000 Jews rode out the war safely.

As word got out about the Japanese visas, Jews from all over Lithuania as well as Poland began to swarm Chiune’s office. He simply wouldn’t say no to anybody, and spent 18-20 hours a day (!) painstakingly writing visas by hand. He created a month’s supply of visas every single day from August to early September 1940, providing an escape route for thousands of Jews. On September 4, the Japanese consulate in Kauna was closed and Chiune had to leave the country. He was determined to create as many transit visas as possible, and continued doing so up until the last minute. At Kanuas Railway Station, a crowd of Jews gathered to say goodbye. Right before boarding the train, Chiune bowed deeply and cried out, “Please forgive me! I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best!” Someone in the crowd shouted, “Sugihara! We’ll never forget you! I’ll surely see you again!”

Chiune was reassigned to East Prussia, then Prague, and then Bucharest, Romania. When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1944, Chiune and his family were imprisoned in a POW camp for a year and a half. Finally they were released in 1946 and returned to Japan, but the foreign office had heard about his unauthorized visas, and he was forced to resign. At about this time, the Sugihara’s youngest son died of leukemia at age seven.

Unemployable in Japan, Chiune made use of his excellent Russian language skills and spent the next 16 years working in the Soviet Union while his wife and sons stayed in Japan. Chiune’s exceptional heroism was unknown for many years, until 1968, when he was contacted by Yehoshua Nishri, an attache working at the Israeli consulate in Tokyo. Nishri spent his youth in Poland, and heard stories of the legendary Japanese hero. Nishri made it his mission to publicize Chiune’s heroic acts, and the next year, 1969, Chiune traveled to Israel as an honored guest of the Israeli government. Jews he’d saved lobbied for him to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem, and in 1984 he received the honor. At that time he was too sick to travel, so his wife and son Nobuki accepted the award on his behalf.

Chiune was asked why he risked everything to help thousands of strangers. He answered, “You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes. Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent. People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives… The spirit of humanity, philanthropy… neighborly friendship… with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation – and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.”

Chiune Sugihara died in Japan on July 31, 1986. Despite being a hero in Israel, and among Jews worldwide, he was completely unknown in his own country. Even his own children didn’t know what he had done. A huge delegation from around the world attended Chiune’s funeral, and only then did he become known in Japan.

Chiune received many awards and accolades, most of them posthumous. Among them are Sugihara Streets in Vilna, Lithuania, and Jaffa and Netanya in Israel. There is a Sugihara House Museum in Kaunas, and a park in Vilna where 200 trees were planted on his 100th birthday. There is a life-sized statue of him in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, featuring a plaque with a quotation from the Talmud, “He who saves one life, saves an entire world.” In 1998, Chiune’s widow Yukiko traveled to Israel and was warmly received by survivors who’d been saved by her husband. There is a Sugihara park in Jerusalem, and he was featured on an Israeli postage stamp in 1998. The Lithuanian government declared 2020 “The Year of Chiune Sugihara.” He has been the subject of multiple works of art, including books, films and a play.

It’s estimated that over 100,000 people are alive today because of the brave actions of Chiune Sugihara.

[bi-lavelent]

Lone wolf (Quinn fabray x fem-reader)

Warning: fluff, bullying, angst

My family was an immigrant family from Italy. My sister and me were the only American citizen in my family. We were also the only two who could speak English fluently. My dad was on a work visa from Germany and my mom was on a work visa from Italy.

I had always made it through school without being noticed. All I wanted to do was make it through the four years of high school. Living in Lima, Ohio is never easy. Especially when I didn’t have any friends. My home life wasn’t easy my family struggled a lot with money. We would live paycheck to paycheck. My mom had issues with what my father said was shopping. But it was really an addiction to drugs and drinking. I tried to never be a burden to anyone. I just tried making it out of high school which was never gonna happen I had several failed classes that I needed to catch up on and pass. I didn’t know if I would be making it out of fucking Lima Ohio. I didn’t even know if I wanted to graduate. There’s several jobs that don’t need me to graduate or my dad’s boss had dropped out of high school and made himself a million dollar business.

On the other hand my sister was a Cheerio. She was popular. She was dating a football player Matt Rutherford. She was friends with the unholy trinity although she was a year younger than them. They accepted her and treated her like a little sister. Her and Matt met last year when he was a freshman and she was an 8th grader. She was at cheerleading camp and performed at one of the games. She seemed to be the perfect kid straight A’s and just all together Straight. Unlike me who was a raging Lesbian loner with tattoos and piercings.

It was the first day of my senior year. As I got dressed in a leather crop top, a leather skirt and a heavy leather jacket. I ran across the hallway to wake up my sister. I sat on her bed and shook her.

“Hope! It’s time to wake up.” I told her

“Ugh… do I have too.” She pleaded

“Yes, come on we both are in the only two years of highschool that are good.” I replied “we have to leave in 30 minutes. I’m gonna run down the street to the convenient store and grab us some breakfast. Well you put your make up on.”

I ran down to the convenient store and picked us both up some donuts and got us some milk (choose whatever milk you like or change it if your lactose intolerant) I got myself a strawberry banana milk and my sister some chocolate. I went up to the counter to pay. I headed back to the car and went back home to grab my sister. She was already outside waiting for me. As I drove her to school we sang along to the radio. We had a twenty minute drive to school so we sang everything from AC/DCs Thunderstruck to Bon Jovi’s You give love a bad name. But as soon as we arrived at school she had me drop her off a block away so that she would not be seen with me. I drove into the senior lot almost hitting a couple of Jocks throwing kids into a dumpster.

I kept my head down all day like usual. Until I got cornered in the library by my Spanish teacher after school well I was studying. Well I was actually waiting for my sister. I was excepting that he wanted to talk to me about Spanish. But instead he showed me a video of me in middle school singing in my choir. He asked me if I would join his stupid glee club. I said no of course. Why would I join a stupid club let alone the glee club. I was walking out the school when I saw some kids in the choir room singing and what apparently they think is dancing. I stopped and stood there for a second before a girl with a really big smile waved at me. God I hated happy people I walked away and got in my car and drove a block away to pick my sister up.

“How was cheer practice?” I asked her

“Don’t talk to me. I don’t talk to losers like you.” She told me

“Okay, Lupa.” I said

“Verliererin”she said

(Translate) Lupa: Bitch (Italian)

Verliererin: Loser (German)

I got home and went to bed. There was no point in staying up the only thing that it would lead to is me getting yelled at but of course I still got yelled out.

Our mother came storming into my room at 1:00am screaming at me. “ (Nessuno ti amerà mai né si prenderà cura di te. Sei una puttana e una stronza, sei fortunato che lascio vivere a casa mia anche un frocio come te. So solo che sei facile da battere.) Nobody will ever love you or care about you. You’re a whore and a cunt you’re lucky I’m even letting a fag like you live in my home. I just know that you’re easy to beat.”

As she left my bedroom I heard her go upstairs and go to her room. I went upstairs and went out to my car I just went for a drive to see how far I could get. I didn’t stop driving til I got tired. At that point I had Passed the border I wasn’t sure what direction I was going in. But I had hit Michigan at some point a couple hours ago. It was way past the start of school but I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t get what my mom said out of my head. It hurt so much I knew that she didn’t like me but I did not think that she would say it to my face. I got a text from Matt saying that he had brought my sister to school.

I had stayed away for a couple days staying at a hotel. Well I was staying there one day I was exploring and I discovered that there was a good lesbian bar that was near by the hotel. I didn’t drink much but I met some people that were like me and it felt good for the first time in along time.

When I came back I drove into the senior lot I didn’t attend much of my classes I attended my history class and spent the rest of the time in the only place that I never get interrupted the auditorium. I don’t why but it was always the place that I felt the safest. I looked up when I heard talking I saw those group of kids from the choir room a football player. I think his name was Fish I have no clue I wasn’t paying attention when Matt introduced them to me and my sister. When they started singing I heard the happiness in their voice. It sounded like the really wanted to be there. I looked up to see Mr. Schue standing next to me also watching them. He said some shit I guess he was gonna leave (which wouldn’t be the worse thing) I don’t even think he knows Spanish.

Why was I so happy in that moment. Maybe it was cause I was seeing a group of kids who the world hadn’t damaged yet. Just having fun maybe I realized …

[infamousbrad]

You Need to Stop Kidding Yourself about Why They Hate Democrats

Long ago, Chicago labor attorney Thomas Geoghegan spent months at time, over about a decade, studying the German economy for a good book that came out in 2010 called Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? And I've spent all morning trying to find a quote that apparently isn't in the book, it must have been from an interview during his book tour. Here's the relevant passage in the book, with my emphasis added.

At the SPD headquarters, I met people on the left, the best and brightest, who can at least think in this framework. They grasp what their job is: to protect the way of life of a largely high school-educated middle class. That way of life is what constitutes the crown jewels. The protection of the crown jewels is a fiduciary responsibility. I hate to say so, but Democrats and Kennedy School-types (with honorable exceptions)—certainly Democratic politicians—really do not think seriously about how, in a practical way, to raise the standard of living of the non- college grad population, who happen to be, well, 73 percent of the adult population.

During an interview about this passage (that I apparently can't find) I remember him being asked about this, and as best as I can reconstruct it, he said that the SPD campaign organizer who pointed this out to him also said that once the OPEC crisis and resulting global recession back in the 1970s was over, the US decided to try to monopolize all the college-educated, high-wage jobs in the world, and to push every future head-of-household in America to get at least a bachelor's degree.

And the German said to him that nobody anywhere else in the world thought we could get our college graduate rate as high as we now have. But at the same time, the German government and its private sector as well set out to try to monopolize all of the skilled labor jobs in the world, because those jobs can, if that's who's available, be done by people with a high school education and a little bit of manufacturing experience.

In the 1992 Democratic Party primary, Bill Clinton, spokesman for the Democratic Leadership Council (or as my side of the party called them, the "Democrats for the Leisure Class") were explicit that they were literally throwing away any interest in supporting a living wage or any other protections for people with a high school diploma or less. They unashamedly said there was no future there, the real future was in the college-educated outer-ring suburbs.

So, he said, yes, life in America for college-educated whites is wonderful compared to most of the world, but that left him with two questions for this American labor attorney:

Do you have any plan for ever making it possible for any young man without a college degree to ever be able to afford to have a family? And ...

If not? Why do they let you get away with that?

Yesterday, Geoghegan's question was answered. They aren't going to let us get away with that. Not any more. Even if Trump is lying about his tariffs bringing back the working-class jobs, even if he also has no plans for those jobs paying a living wage, he says he hates the global trade in manufacturing with companies in China and Mexico that don't even allow private-sector independent unions.

As could have been entirely safely predicted, hell, as Eric Hoffer predicted way the hell back in the late 40s when he wrote The True Believer about the foot-soldiers for the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Klan in America, and the Nazis in Germany, there is nothing more dangerous than telling lots of young men from the dominant ethnic group in your country that they will never be able to afford to have a family. And now the chickens have come home to roost.

[fanficfish]

explaining Hetalia character badly: highschool edition

Honestly this is prob just gonna be "if Hetlaia was MHA" but bigger and mixed with some American archtypes lol....just imagine they're in some weird highschool anime!

this is the same format as my Family Reunion explaining post. i'm just make this a tag.

again- ALL HEADCANON CRACK! FOR FUN! :D

also not affiliated with W Academy!

Germany: Class Prez. Who you watched struggle with the milk carton from the cafeteria. And the vending machine dispenser.

N. Italy: The class idiot. Every good class has one, you don't know how they're here but OH GOSH WHEN DID HE LEARN TO USE A SCYTHE LIKE THAT-

S. Italy: The one in the back of the class that gets surprisingly decent grades but also has a potty mouth. You know who I'm talking about.

America: Thinks he's the main character.

Canada: Knows he's not the main character.

Estonia: Is the main character and doesn't realize it until he realizes he's in a love triangle, keeps adopting random animals off the street, has an archnemesis that actively tries to murder him, and somehow survives things he definitely shouldn't have survived.

Lithuania: The one with the highest GPA but everyone thought he was a delinquent.

Latvia: The one with the second-highest GPA that everyone knows is a delinquent. Mostly because he was selling test answers out of the janitor's closet.

Russia: The school bully every good school has.

Belarus: The popular girl every school has that can't decide if she likes the "main character" or not.

China: The guy that acts like he's actually 70 and not 17.

Japan: The quiet kid that knows everyone's dark secrets.

France: Of course he's the obligatory French dude in the Japanese anime. Actually what's up with that? Seriously, all the big amines have either a French guy or a super short person (the best ones have both)....

Lichenstein: She's the short one.

Switzerland: Aaaaaand there's the one in the corrner of the cafeteria scheming how to make the most out of the Job Fair.

Austria: That one weird kid that's got a full ride to Juliard and is the reason why your underfunded school has a MUSIC ROOM, HUH-

England: The guy that somehow got himself class monitor, and does a mostly decent job. Unless you ask him about That Clique.

The Clique: aka, the jocks who miiiight also bully the class monitor by flaunting popularity points a little. Just a little. -Denmark: Clique ringleader, acts friendly with everyone so he's popular but you KNOW you're not getting in on the real action unless he invites you to one of his legendary house parties.

-Norway: Clique leader's second in command who's some introvert the clique leader got attached to. Y'know, as extroverts are required to do. Usually has his face in his phone.

-Finland: Popular on his own, the one person in the clique who doesn't understand that in a clique you generally don't socialize outside the clique. Is the reason the main character gets character development through a house party halfway through the series.

-Sweden: That one jock in the group who looks like a jock, talks like a jock, sometimes acts like a jock, but has the highest GPA out of all of the jocks. He's the one that knows Genovia's official fruit but not the name of the fictional kingdom, if you've seen the meme.

-Iceland: Someone's brother who got absorbed into the clique.

Hungary: The girl campaigning that everyone should do the same kind of pushups, that girls can compete with guys and making presentations on the gender gaps in atheltics. Ofc she's the jock that falls in love with the nerd (Austria).

Ukraine: Bakes everyone treats

Netherlands: Bakes everyone treats but makes everyone pay for them

Luxenberg: Your obligatory rich kid., riding to school in Gucci glasses, a Mercedez-Benz, and a jacket with a high-end brand splashed across the pocket. Also has the latest iPhone.

Belgium: Student council rep, joined fifty clubs.

Greece: He shows up, but usually late, with Starbucks, and sleeps through class.

Romania: He shows up every other day, and bribes the class monitor to mark him present. Does show up for Halloween though.

Bulgaria: You show up?

Spain: Complains about the cafeteria food to anyone who will listen.

Australia: Resident jock #1

Cameron: Resident jock #2

Cuba: Resident jock #3

Portugal: Don't mind him he's in a goth phase. The skulls lining his locker will pass. Probably.

Seychelles: The one that secretly brought all the girls flowers from the fundraiser during Valentine's Week despite not knowing what the fundraiser was for.

Poland: The one on the student council who is the reason everyone is wearing couple outfits for School Spirit Week and the theatre club is doing Legally Blonde.

India: The guy who everyone asks to copy his homework because he sure isn't the most popular but damn does he actually know what's going on.

Turkey: The guy that tried to punch a guy, got punched, then turned around and punched the other guy's bullies. Basically he's That Kid That Got Detention For Trying To Be Helpful, though he did start the fight sooooooo

Egypt: Recorded the fight. For historic purposes of course.

idk i ran out of ideas i'm gonna sleep and fix this if i remember who i was gonna put where lol

[dustedmagazine]

Mope Grooves — Box of Dark Roses (12XU)

Box of Dark Roses presents the final 27 songs written, arranged and recorded by trans activist and musician stevie (Pohlman), a massive two-LP set that showcases her DIY art, passionate engagement and close links to other trans advocates, poets and revolutionaries.

Mope Grooves emerged in Portland, Oregon in the late teens, with a brash but vulnerable guitar rock sound and a message, from the beginning, about gender identity, inclusion and mental health. Their early albums, Joy and Vanished from 2017 and 2018 respectively, bristled with punk energy, with shouted anthems and loose-slung, infectious melodies. Dusted’s Jason Gioncontere called Desire, the band’s fourth album, “their most cohesive set yet,” late in 2019. And Portland’s Ben Parrish who caught them early and fell hard, wrote of an early show, “And Mope Grooves—Pohlman’s band—broke my brain. Imagine if somebody ran records by The Raincoats, The Clean, Beat Happening, Tyvek, and Marine Girls through a wood chipper and glued the pieces into a new super-record.”

Musically, Box of Dark Roses is more keyboard- and synthesizer-based than Mope Grooves’ earlier album, an uneasy sweetness percolating in its gentle melodies. The soft pretty songs are, in some ways, the most disturbing. “Forever Is a Long Time” pits tootling organ riffs against a sing-song melody, but sharpens the edge with rattling, off-kilter drumming. “Aileen” floats hauntingly graceful vocals over space-video-game pinging and rushing drums. “They’ll tell you you’re a criminal for paying them back in kind, but in the dark, in the wild, in the heart of the night, it is right to fight,” sings band member Lee. It’s a bracing sentiment in a song dedicated to Aileen Wuornos, a sex worker from Florida who killed seven of her clients, purportedly in self-defense. And “I’m Tired All the Time,” with its music box chimes, spiraling fiddle and slapping, just-behind-the-beat percussion, is a lullaby or a suicide note, depending on how you hear it.

Politics turn more explicit in the tracks with extensive spoken word incorporated. Marilyn Buck, the poet and May 19 Communist organization revolutionary best known for freeing Assata Shakur from the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey, speaks on a handful of cuts, including the opener “Controlled Burn” and “Here Comes the Moon.” The song “Continuity and Intensity,” tells the story of the Black Liberation Army’s Kuwasi Balagoon, who, when put on trial, declared, “We have a right to resist, to expropriate money and arms, to kill the enemy of our people, to bomb, and do whatever else aids us in winning, and we will win. The foundation of the revolution must rest on the bones of the oppressors.” The song “Dora” recites a detailed account of gender oppression in Weimar, Germany and the suppression of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Research.  The ratio of polemic to hook is pretty high on these tracks, but these were issues that mattered to stevie, and, as such, they belong here.

Box of Dark Roses was made near the end of stevie’s life (she killed herself in 2024), after a long struggle against gender dysphoria, physical and mental health issues, poverty and sporadic homelessness. In a lengthy, revealing essay included as liner notes, she writes, “I funded the recording process and the deposit on my surgeries by submitting my body to hyper-exploitation. I worked vanilla jobs 40-70 hours a week most of the time before relying increasingly on the informal economy. I was frequently in severe pain and losing work from chronic disabling illnesses that are aggravated by intense labor.”

And yet, though her suffering was real, she never lost sight of how much worse off others could be, particularly black and brown trans people. Before her death she stipulated that all profits from Box of Dark Roses should go to “gender marginalized survivors incarcerated as punishment for defending themselves, either directly to their fundraisers/commissary funds or thru the Survived and Punished NY mutual aid fund.”   This is a difficult, important record, a whole different experience from Mope Grooves’ earlier lo-fi garage albums, but well worth making time for.

Jennifer Kelly

[alpaca-clouds]

How Highschool Fails The Youth

It is funny. While the middle and high school systems differ greatly around the world, the content... does not do this so much. Sure, American high schools look very, very different from those in Germany for example - or from the schools in Japan - but in general the schools are actually quite comparable.

I talked a bit yesterday after being asked on why the German school system is failing due to the school segmentation. Which is not that much a problem in other countries. But highschool mostly fails the teenagers visiting it due to several reasons.

Again, I will not go into grading. Grading does not work, it never has, it is not fair, it also says nothing about the abilities of a student. If you want to know more about it, I once more will link to Zoe Bee's great video on the topic.

But the general problem with school at this level is quite related to the problems starting in primary school. Often kids starting with age 11, 12, or 13 start going to school for six to eight hours a day, at times being expected to additionally do homework after that, leaving them with 10 hour school days. Which is more than even an adult is supposed to work. And they are still kids, especially during the middle school phase. They need to go outside, need to move about and actually socialize a lot more than they get to do with the school around them.

Also it needs to be said that the school system as it is right now - with kids being forced into this schematic of a very strict lesson and class plan also does not work well with how young people actually learn.

And there is obviously the problem that all around the world classes especially at this age are much too large, often 30-40 students per class at least in cities. Which does not at all allow for any individuality in the way kids learn and kids are taught.

Also, all around the world, often enough the public schools suffer from bad funding. This is often connected to the large class sizes that are a result from a lack of room and especially a lack of teachers. And mind you: Teachers are one of the jobs that technically we could have a lot more off. Because it is one of the things that a lot of people would enjoy doing. But... not as is stands right now, when teachers are underpaid and overworked. We could have enough teachers, if only we were willing to actually pay them properly.

I personally do very much believe in the concept that over here gets called "Laboratory Schools". This involves the students having a lot more say in what they learn in what order, choosing their classes for themselves and then learning in groups of about 10 to 15 students. While they are still required to learn certain things until they finish school, if a student decided they first wanna do math, they theoretically have the ability to just work through the ENTIRE math curriculum in one year.

Within the anarchist and solarpunk community I saw a lot of arguments that actually schools themselves should be completely abolished and that kids all should be homeschooled, because schools always involve hierarcheis and such.

Buuuut... I do not agree with that. Because not everyone has the ability to homeschool kids. And I also do believe that folks should have some basic knowledge that they are required to have. And that does not work if you completely abolish schools. Also I do think that schools in theory could be very valuable in terms of socializing and learning to cooperate. It is just that the way it is implemented right now... it does not work.

[local-arsonists]

OH BOY HERE WE GO- a lineup of the TF2 OC team that's been living in my head for some while. no it's not all of them and it's likely that these designs are going to change, except for maybe the medic, engineer, spy and sniper designs. I'm putting my infodumping about them under the cut because why not. I'm going left to right in explaining them :)

So, starting off with Heavy. His real name is Alejandro, and he's the oldest of the mercenaries as he's 48. Before joining this merc crew, he was a part of the Italian Mafia. It took quite a bit of bribing for him to properly accept being hired by Grey Mann. (Yes I know that Grey already hired the classic mercs in the comics but like shhhh this is before all that)

Next is Medic. His name is Josef and he's 39 years old. He was in his teen years through WWII in Germany. With his family being Jewish, he and his family had to hide out. Eventually, Josef found himself as the sole survivor of his family. Now, he is determined to be able to help people all he can, because as a kid he felt like he could do nothing to help his family's situation.

Then there is Engineer. His name is Leo and he's about 30-32 years old. He's the younger brother of Dell Conagher. He took after his brother in a way, especially in his interest in all things mechanical. However, he didn't pursue that path at first, rather preferring to work on his farm. However, he was drawn away from that life into mercenary work by Grey Mann, who promised high pay for him.

The Scout. His name is Elijah and he's about 23-27. He realized just before being hired by Grey Mann that he was a trans man. Of course, his mother wasn't too happy about not being able to have a daughter (Elijah is an only child) to teach her ways. But, she was still mostly accepting. Elijah was easily hired because of two things: one, the high pay, and two, he just needed to get away from his home town.

There is the Spy. Their name is Aleksei, and they're 43. They have no relation to Scout whatsoever. They reign from Russia. They are quite the mysterious person, never telling anyone of their past. All that is know about them is that they accepted the job offer as quickly as they could have.

Next is the demolition expert, Demolass! Her name is Bonnie and she's about 38 years old. She wasn't fully aware of which Scottish clan she came from, but no worries! She was completely content living up in the Scottish Highlands and blowing stuff up with her dad. Before she had even realized she transfem, Bonnie had already learned how to use a sword. The one that she carries is the one her mother forged her, and she takes good care of it.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Sniper. His name is Mitchell and he's almost 30 years old. He's a reclusive man, preferring to hide out in tall places and forests. It took Grey Mann a long time to be able to find Mitchell. However, when he was found, he was in the Redwood forests of California. Obviously, he wasn't too happy about his peace and quiet being disrupted. However, he was consoled by the promise of money. It did still take him a while to be convinced.

Obviously, this isn't the entire team (still missing Pyro and Soldier) but I'm still working on finalizing them. That's all for my insane ramblings about these blorbos that live rent free in my head thanks for coming to my TED Talk.