#on capitalism

[stargir1z]

Rules that break other rules: Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s ‘candy works’ and the logic of neoliberalism by Niko Vicario

[lesbianyarnkit]

i’ve meditated on this emergency, seen romance in all the small joys, existed as a form of protest

and still my heart it shatters

breaks

cuts itself on the pieces

the poets tell me to focus on the little things when this world is too brutal to bear

the calling birds, changing leaves, love i find myself surrounded by 

i wash my hair and go to farmers’ markets, hold my cats gently and sleep deeply

i even in my small ways labor to make this world a kinder place for us all 

and yet none of it soothes my shredded soul

i don’t want to settle for the small!!!

already lost so much, haven’t really lost much at all just yet

standing on the precipice of the void;

 

all of us

how can i possibly reckon with the world ending around me?

how am i meant to stay motivated when ‘brighter things are coming’ sounds like a cruel lie?

to live a good life in spite of the bad?

how am i meant to believe in that?

what kind of world is it when the reason you give me to try and stay alive is itself grounded in the horrors?

i watch the world grow hotter, crueler, more expensive every day

no one’s thriving, no one’s even really getting by 

the worst people in the world are the ones who run it 

i will probably never have children because how could i live with myself?

asking them into a world i can hardly convince myself to stay in

 

‘life goes on,’ they tell me. ‘you can’t live in fear all the time’ 

i am, of course, living proof that you can

a life with everything handed to me and still the horrors threaten to overwhelm

i’m sitting in a first class cabin and the seawater on this sinking ship is at my neck nonetheless

 

haven’t felt safe since 14 since lockdown in a high school classroom 

since i composed a text saying goodbye to my parents as the intruder alarm blared 

i haven’t felt safe since 18 watching the entire world give up on me 

watching this society shoot itself in the chest to spite its heart 

since 22 trying desperately to find anything to believe in

 

the trees are beautiful and it breaks my heart

the birds, too 

do the people who starve to death on the streets beneath them think so, too?

[maiathebee]

If our jobs do not contribute to the common good, we pray God for the grace to give them up.  Have they to do with shelter, food, and clothing?  Have they to do with the Works of Mercy? Everyone should be able to place his job in the category of the Works of Mercy. This would exclude jobs in advertising, which only increases people's useless desires, and in insurance companies and banks, which are known to exploit the poor of this country and others. Whatever has contributed to the misery and degradation of the poor may be considered a bad job and not to be worked at.

Dorothy Day

[sinigangsta-ao3]

potentially hot take but even if you’re selling your art (you know, because we live in a capitalist society and you need money to survive) and not just writing fic or creating fanart and sharing it for free, you don’t owe it to consumers to give them what they want.

you owe it to your art to create the art that you want.

the people who find your art (and want to read it / view it / buy it / consume it / whatever) have the responsibility to make the decision whether or not they want to read it / view it / buy it / consume it.

consumerist culture has really destroyed our collective understanding of the role art plays in our lives—and has bestowed heaps of entitlement onto consumers that i fear will stifle so many creative and necessary voices in future generations.

Don't you think you owe it to readers to give them what they want?

No? What an odd take. Read my fic or don't.

[darrylayo]

[animentality]

[guiltyidealist]

new favorite YouTube comment just dropped

[nando161mando]

[scretladyspider]

“If you have time to watch Netflix you have time for a side hustle” my side hustle is relaxing so that my body and brain can heal from by this nose-to-the-grindstone bullshit. I refuse to feel guilty for being a human with the need to relax sometimes. my side hustle is no.

[theconcealedweapon]

[ilona-mushroom]

Not socialist in a “I won’t have to work” type of way but socialist in a “I’ll still be working but I won’t be worried I won’t make the rent” type of way. In a “billions won’t be hoarded by one person” type of way. In a “janitors, fast-food workers, child care workers, preschool teachers, hotel clerks, personal care and home health aides, and grocery store cashiers, will live comfortably” type of way. In a “the sick and elderly will be cared for” type of way. In a “no child should work” type of way.

[stargir1z]

postmodernity, or the cultural logic of late capitalism by fredric jameson

[sailing-ever-west]

the trolley problem vs. systemic oppression: a comic.

[lilithism1848]

[prole-log]