#that’s how you survive this capitalist country

[imightbeobsessedwithsocks]

Bare with me as I go on about my current hyperfixation Phineas and Ferb!

Okay so I love the idea that both the boys are time lords. That’s it

Also Doof and Perry are obviously besties. He helps him with his evil plans, borrows his shit at 3am, goes to space and Doof looks so happy to see him there! He’s probably been up there awhile and then his bestie shows up in the last place he thought possible and he looks so comforted in the moment. When Doof is having a day off he says Perry is welcome to stay there and relax.

The boys routinely create big contraptions and host large events with thousands of people. There’s no way most of the trízate area doesn’t know who they are. Which makes it 100x funnier that their parents don’t know and 1000x funnier Candace can’t bust them 😂

Perry is the most accurate adult ever?? Boss calls all hours of the night- on days off- on vacation. No leave days are approved. Even when he’s sick he goes in, gets called in for stupiddddd Shit.

Candace, I would go crazy too if I could never find any evidence of what I see is happening plainly before me. It happens now to me and I drive myself insane wondering if it’s real 😂 also she is a great example of an anxious woman in a relationship and Jeremy is a great example of a chill man in one.

Also I love that they have Ferb as a character. He chooses to stay quiet and talks when he’s around people he loves. And everyone accepts that he just doesn’t always like to talk. He’s not shamed or pressured to socialize he’s just him and they love him. In mind mind he is an Autistic and he has a great group of people around him.

ISABELLA AND THE FIRESIDE GIRLS!?!? I’m assuming the fireside girls program is like Girl Scouts and Isabella regularly says stuff like “girls turn to the page about (insert outrageous thing to be prepared for) in your fireside girls handbook” like those things are taught all over the country?

The tri-state area is just used to weird stuff falling out of the sky and there’s never any damage lol they’re like yay! A golf course! Yay! Steak! Yay! Like do these people really just accept this? Nobody wonders or looks for the source? And rn the answer is yes because real people do that too.

Also hate the episode they actually get busted in. Like if I found out my kids were really doing that I’d see if they want to be enrolled in a better school or college or help them cultivate their talent because shit they’re advanced. And they literally told them every day that’s what they were doing. And they were so encouraging and excited for them and with them and suddenly when they find out it’s real they get mad? Maybe watch your kids and trust the people you leave in charge. Pay attention to the news magazines and what’s actually going on around you… I’m disappointed in his parents

[theculturedmarxist]

In 2020, Robert Kuciemba, a woodworker in San Francisco was infected with covid by a co-worker after his Nevada-based Victory Woodworks transferred a number of sick workers to the San Francisco site for a few months. 

Through the proceedings of the case it turns out that the employer knew some employees might be sick but they transferred them anyway and ignored a San Francisco ordinance in place at the time to quarantine suspected covid cases.

Kuciemba was subsequently infected and he then infected his wife, who ended up in ICU on a ventilator.

The California Supreme Court just ruled against Kuciemba on the basis that a victory, while, in the court's words, "morally" the right thing to do, would create "dire financial consequences for employers" and cause a "dramatic expansion of liability" to stop the spread of covid.

There’s a few stunning details to note in this case. First, the court agreed that there is no doubt the company had ignored the San Francisco health ordinance. In other words, they accepted the company had broken the law. And then concluded “yeah, but, capitalism.”

Secondly, the case was so obviously important to the struggle between capitalism and mass infection that the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying organisation got involved and helped the company with its defence. Remember, this is a tiny company in a niche industry. The involvement of the biggest business lobbyists in the country tells us a lot about the importance of the principle they knew was at stake.

Thirdly, the defence of the company is very telling. They said “There is simply no limit to how wide the net will be cast: the wife who claims her husband caught COVID-19 from the supermarket checker, the husband who claims his wife caught it while visiting an elder care home." 

Well, exactly. Capitalism couldn’t survive if employers were liable for covid infections contracted in the workplace, and the ripple effect of those infections. And they know it. 

This case is something of a covid smoking gun, revealing what we always suspected but had never seen confirmed in so many words: the public health imperative of controlling a pandemic virus by making employers liable for some of that control is, and always must be, secondary to capitalist profit. 

This ruling is also saying out loud what has been obvious to anyone paying attention for the last two years: employers don’t have a responsibility to keep your family safe from covid. You have that responsibility. And if you give a family member covid that you caught at work and they get sick or die – even if it was a result of law-breaking by your employer – that’s on you buddy.

It is the same old capitalist story: the shunting of responsibility for ills that should be shared across society, including employers in that society, onto individuals.

This ruling essentially helps codify workplace mass infection and justifies it as necessary for the smooth functioning of capitalism.

This is not new. This is where the ‘just a cold’ and the ‘mild' narrative came from. It came from doctors and healthcare experts whose first loyalty was to capitalism. Not to public health. To money, not to lives. Abetted by media who uncritically platformed them.

While this ruling tells us little that we couldn’t already see from the public policy approach of the last two years, it is revealing (and to some extent validating) to see it confirmed by the highest law of the land in the United States. 

[read-marx-and-lenin]

Did you heard Kim jung-un speech to the military?

All blame for the tensions in Korea lies entirely on the shoulders of the ROK and the US. Yoon has taken a hard-line anti-DPRK stance and has continued the submission of the ROK to US imperialist interests while firmly refusing to break from the reactionary trend in the ROK whose vision for the reunification of Korea mirrors the reunification of Germany: a bourgeois-led imposition of neoliberal economic reform, the auctioning off of state property to the highest bidder, and the subsequent impoverishment and imperial domination of the northern half of the country.

The DPRK has only responded in kind to the attitudes expressed by the ROK and the US. As Kim mentions in his speech, the DPRK is preparing for war on its own soil. That is not to say it is unwilling or incapable of fighting the war elsewhere, but rather that if open war comes once again to the Korean peninsula, it will come because the imperialist forces bring it upon the DPRK, and not the other way around. The DPRK is not preparing to invade, they are preparing to be invaded. Why shouldn't they be, seeing how averse to diplomacy and negotiation the ROK and the US have been in the whole affair?

The US only wants one thing: the dismantling of the DPRK and the dissolution of the Worker's Party of Korea. The ROK is in full agreement with this position. They share the firm belief that communism should not be allowed to exist and that it should be stamped out wherever possible. This is the position of all bourgeois nations, but it especially pointed with regards to the DPRK, which has been horribly maligned ever since it managed to hold its own against the terroristic carpet bombing of the United States, and further isolated as it has managed to survive the collapse of the Soviet Union and major hardships that resulted from it without ever once budging on its anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist position. The only comparable country in that regard is Cuba, and they don't have half their nation occupied by a belligerent puppet government.

If the US wants to make any attempt at even feigning interest in preserving peace in Korea, they must put forward at the outset and without conditions the promise of military withdrawal from South Korea. So long as the US maintains its occupation of the South, there is no reason for the DPRK to have any interest whatsoever in diplomatic negotiations. So long as the US continues to demand full compliance from the DPRK without any concessions of its own, there is no reason for the DPRK to comply.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Degrowth basics

"The word degrowth stands for a family of political-economic approaches that, in the face of today’s accelerating planetary ecological crisis, reject unlimited, exponential economic growth as the definition of human progress."

What is Degrowth? | Caracol DSA

Why degrowth is the only responsible way forward | OpenDemocracy

Degrowth and MMT: A thought experiment

We Need A Fair Way To End Infinite Growth | Current Affairs

Degrowth: A Call for Radical Abundance | Common Dreams

Can degrowth save us and the planet? | Nottingham Trent

Defending limits is not Malthusian | Undisciplined Environments

Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth? | New Yorker

The Urgent Case for Shrinking the Economy | The New Republic

Giving Up on Economic Growth Could Make Us Cooler and Happier | The New Republic

A guide to degrowth: The movement prioritizing wellbeing in a bid to avoid climate cataclysm | CNBC

What is ‘degrowth’ and how can it fight climate change? | Popular Science

Enough for Everyone | Yes! Magazine

Toward a Post-Capitalist Future: On the Growth of “Degrowth” | Lit Hub

All we are saying is give degrowth a chance | The RSA

A pathway out of environmental collapse | newsroom

On Technology and Degrowth | Monthly Review

What is degrowth (and more importantly, what is it not)? | META

Green growth

"There is no empirical evidence that absolute decoupling from resource use can be achieved on a global scale against a background of continued economic growth."

Is Green Growth Possible? | Jason Hickel & Giorgos Kallis

The Myth of America’s Green Growth | Foreign Policy

The decoupling delusion: rethinking growth and sustainability | The Conversation

Is green growth happening? | Uneven Earth

Green Growth | Uneven Earth

The Delusion of Infinite Economic Growth | Scientific American

Degrowth is not austerity – it is actually just the opposite | Al Jazeera

A response to Paul Krugman: Growth is not as green as you might think | Timothée Parrique

Deceitful Decoupling: Misconceptions of a Persistent Myth | Alevgul H. Sorman

Degrowth isn’t the same as a recession – it’s an alternative to growing the economy forever | The Conversation

Degrowth and the left

"In the middle of an ecological emergency, should we be producing sport utility vehicles and mansions? Should we be diverting energy to support the obscene consumption and accumulation of the ruling class?"

The Left should embrace degrowth | New Internationalist

Ecosocialism is the Horizon, Degrowth is the Way | The Trouble

Degrowth: Socialism without Growth | Brave New Europe

Toward an Ecosocialist Degrowth: From the Materially Inevitable to the Socially Desirable | Monthly Review

For an Ecosocialist Degrowth | Monthly Review

Degrowth and Revolutionary Organizing | Rosa Luxemburg NYC

The necessity of ecosocialist degrowth | Rupture

Degrowth is Anti-Capitalist | Protean Mag

Degrowth Communism | PPPR (Part one | Part two | Part three)

Economic Planning and Degrowth: How Socialism Survives the 21st Century | New Socialist

Degrowth and the South

"Southern countries should be free to organize their resources and labor around meeting human needs rather than around servicing Northern growth."

Who is afraid of degrowth? A Global South economic perspective | IBON Foundation

The anti-colonial politics of degrowth | Jason Hickel

Unlearning: From Degrowth to Decolonization | Rosa Luxemburg NYC

Degrowth requires the Global South to default on its foreign debts | Resilience

Journals/Reports

Degrowth: a theory of radical abundance | Jason Hickel

A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights

What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification | Jason Hickel

Providing decent living with minimum energy: A global scenario | Global Environmental Change

Urgent need for post-growth climate mitigation scenarios | Nature Energy

Degrowth and critical agrarian studies | Julien-François Gerber

Decoupling debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability | European Environmental Bureau

Incrementum ad Absurdum: Global Growth, Inequality and Poverty Eradication in a Carbon-Constrained World | David Woodward

Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help | Nature

A New Political Economy for a Healthy Planet | Jason Hickel

Planning beyond growth. The case for economic democracy within limits

Millionaire spending incompatible with 1.5 °C ambitions | Cleaner Production Letters

Is green growth happening? An empirical analysis of achieved versus Paris-compliant CO2–GDP decoupling in high-income countries | The Lancet

Books

Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide | Pluto Press

A People's Green New Deal | Max Ajl

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World | Jason Hickel

Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job | Verso Books

The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism | Verso Books

The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism | Verso Books

Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism | Kohei Saito

Degrowth & Strategy: how to bring about social-ecological transformation

27 Essays and Thoughts on Degrowth | Giorgos Kallis

Videos

Yes To Limits To Growth! | The Other School

How Degrowth Can Save the World | Andrewism

How We End Consumerism | Our Changing Climate

Demystifying Degrowth | Rosa Luxemburg NYC

Degrowth is not Austerity | John the Duncan

Degrowth and Ecosocialism | Planet: Critical

Degrowth in 7 minutes: Fighting for climate by living better | Think That Through

The Future is Degrowth (w/ Aaron Vansintjan) || SRSLY WRONG

"Degrowth means power to the working class!"with Jason Hickel | GND Media

Others

degrowth.info

Degrowth Journal

Doughnut Economics

[hadesoftheladies]

too many people view (uncritically, esp when it comes to feminism) separatism as this isolating, individualistic thing where people who don't want to participate just pack their bags and move to a far off country. that isn't what it is at all.

separatism is about re-centering the individuals of a certain community so as to strengthen the community. so that a community focuses its energy and resources on itself rather than on outsiders. it is, quite literally, about building and expanding community. it's not merely about escaping men or banning men, it is about relying on women, building a community of women, centering women, making it so that women are not dependent on men because women got them. you see how that's qualitatively different right?

like it's not so much about cutting off your father or brothers, but about spending deliberately more time fortifying your relationships with other women in your life. whether helping them out financially, donating books, giving advice, buying their stuff, giving energy.

when it comes to revolution of any kind, they die quickly without a strong sense and presence of community.

one of the biggest wrenches patriarchy has thrown into women's liberation is poisoning female community. consciousness-raising is difficult because every new generation of women is cut off from the one preceding it. younger girls are taught to resent women and view women with suspicion. they are male-centric in that they believe males will protect, love, provide for and cherish them only to have a rude awakening sooner or later.

bridging that disconnect is going to take practicing varying degrees of separatism. for sharing of knowledge between women and girls is hampered by male presence. you've all seen this happen. when a man or boy enters the picture, conversation between women is crippled. we start censoring ourselves.

censorship is a huge issue feminists face at every turn, and it's worse because we experience this censorship not just via government or public forums where men are in charge, but in our interpersonal relationships. and not just in our interpersonal relationships, but by our own selves. only female community brings out the honesty in us and gives us the courage to speak out and think freely. we all know this.

separatism is not only imperative to women's health, it is imperative to consciousness raising. it's not about living in a male free utopia but about centering women in all things so that women's community is strengthened and prepared to take on their oppressors and patriarchal society (and so that it survives retaliations). girls don't need to be totally isolated from males. they need to have predominantly female (not feminine) influence in their lives. they need to be in a place where they do not depend on males or cater to them. they need to be female-centric. learning female-philosophy and perpetuating authentic female culture.

that's separatism.

and the good news is that feminists are not the first oppressed group to employ separatism. black liberation movements employ this as well and are strengthened when they do. it's how they won some of their most vicious battles. lgb communities also utilize(d) separatism and it strengthened their communities. they had to de-center the narratives of their oppressors and rely on each other instead of begging their oppressors for scraps. they won because they gave themselves to each other as a community.

separatism works. over and over again. liberation takes time, but it has always needed separatism.

i just keep thinking about how communities can disrupt and change society, y'know? like how even in the throes of capitalistic/imperialist/white supremacist greed, small communities find a way to take care of each other financially and physically. culture predates economy, even while economy can beget culture or poison it. i love how small communities can just say "fuck you" to the presiding ruler and create within themselves micro-economies to keep each other alive. economy is just, after all, a social agreement/condition.

women are the ones who will liberate women. keep investing in that and it'll pay off.

[jadedbirch]

Well, I've seen the thing! Don't worry, I didn't pay for it. But if anyone is interested, here are my (extremely deep) thoughts about Formed Police Unit.

This is a movie that once again proves that China is incapable of subtlety when it comes to propaganda and self-promotion. Taking place in the fictitious country of "Santa Leonne", where the hard working salt-mining Proletariat has been oppressed by the two-headed monster of White Colonialism and Capitalist Greed leading to bloody uprisings, our Heroes arrive literally blazing the slogan CHINA IS HERE FOR PEACE. And it only gets sillier from here. At one point, a member of the FPU even says "Every life is equal and justice knows no borders!"

#AllLivesMatter? Sign me the fuck up 😂

I'm not going to talk about the "plot," instead I'm going to talk about how many times stuff happens to Wang Yibo's character, Yang Zhen.

(Spoilers under the cut)

1. He uses his helmet to cover a BOMB and when it blows up in his face says "I'm fine."

2. Then the vehicle he's in gets blown up and flips in the air

3. Then he gets shot

4. And blown up again

5. And then he drowns a little, but don't worry, he's still fine!

6. And then he gets a little bit tortured by some Evil Whitey.

Have I mentioned all of this happens in a typhoon?

Anyways, he obviously survives all of this because China Never Surrenders, and because his boyfriend Captain loves comrades him very much. In fact, their chemistry is so transcendent that the power of their gay love Chinese Bravery stops a sniper from fulfilling his mission of shooting the hostages they've been protecting. Long story short, Justice Knows No Borders, and therefore the good people of Santa Leonne prevail and are never bothered by evil Westerners meddling with their land ever again, or so we are left to presume.

But look, I'm sure you already know that Wang Yibo has intense chemistry with all his male costars. What I was NOT expecting was that the infamous and horrible blackface scene was COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. They could've left it on the cutting room floor, along with poor Zhang Zehan's footage, and nothing about the plot would have been affected. It's really fucking pathetic that they chose to risk international goodwill for a 30 second nothing-burger 🤦🏻‍♀️. Get your shit together, China.

Was this movie worth watching? Honestly? Not really. But it helped to watch it with some like-minded Yibo fans who contributed much to my enjoyment with their own delightful shit talk 😂♥️.

I now leave you with this final look at the lovers comrades. Aren't they just 😍😍😍?

[tamamita]

I'm all for self defense, for economic defense, for defense of human rights against the state, but if we, after a proletariat revolution, go on a massive killing spree, that's where this ends for me. Spilling blood is not good, ever, it always takes a massive mental and physical toll, and there are ways to redistribute wealth without murder.

The Reign of Terror ultimately led to the rise of Napoleon. The Great Leap Forward seriously hindered Mao's progress. Stalin purged so many people that minority countries like Lithuania were decreased in population for several decades.

I don't want to live in a world where I die just because my parents are mom and pop landlords who can never get their two tenants to pay their rent. If that makes me not a real communist, then fine. I'm just a disabled chick with no money who wants to live, and thinks you're being overly simplistic.

All of the arguments and criticism of various leaderships is for you to have, that's fine, but I do not agree with some of the sentiment given the historical facts behind various socialist nations and their success only to be undermined by a certain foreign actor, such as Cuba, Chile, Afghanistan and etc.

Either way, the fact that you believe people should be exploited to keep you alive gives a far more fascinating perspective on how exactly borgeoisie society works that your parents would have to exploit and blackmail people (who themselves are trying to survive) in order provide and sustain for you. There's something deeply wrong with such a political-economic system that allows for you to not receive the proper welfare and accommedation that every human should be entitled to. Once again, I am pointing to the free market, private property and its liabilities under a capitalist empire, because you're in this situation for a reason. Look at Cuba, a communist country, with one of the world's greatest universal healthcare systems with a track record for how it accommodates its disabled population

[demial4]

Someone's Thoughtful Take on Cosmo Canyon

from Here

"Note Ive never played the OG. I know of the OG so I can’t really make a comparison aside from what others have said and what I’ve seen in love playthroughs and commentaries.

Personally, I like the remake’s take. 

Let’s look at the game’s themes. Ff7 at the core isn’t about magic swords and defeating Sauron, it’s about economic ideas, imperialism, corporatism, selfishness, and honesty. 

 In canon, Shinra has waged war on the world. And has more or less won. Shinra dictates what people should buy and believe, it is capitalist in the worst sense. Shinra has separated people from the environment through building cities and creating a society based on material wealth and fame (recall how cloud and tifa’s village was excluded from shinra’s economy and only knew of the world via shinra’s propaganda). 

So what would people in reality most likely be? They’d be tourists and certainly the areas affected by Shinra realize they need to survive…by being tourist sites. 

In the OG Wutai did do that which is why yuffie rebelled. The remake seems to indicate that happened to wutai as in canon. 

There are questions of how countries/people affected by imperialism adapt, and becoming a part of the free market by advertising “happiness, freedom etc” could be one of them.

In the real world, we do have “spiritual retreats” and “gurus (looking at you Beatles and that guru from India)” for wealthy, bored folks. So the game is taking this fakeness, this desire to get quick answers without really becoming a true rebel, and showing it in the game.

Yuffie, being one who comes from a semi-nation that has been brutalized and humiliated by Shinra, is skeptical of the cosmo canyon. And why shouldn’t she be? Her nation has suffered many deaths, and the loss of their tradition slowly, yet these guys are sitting around “meditating” only to go home the next day to their peaceful lives? They can go home safely but everyday her people lose more and more of themselves. Plus she isn’t sure they are correct about the afterlife-I mean they don’t have good evidence so why should she believe them? She has lost people and she has never seen them again. It’s a very mature take on the world for a young teen like yuffie.

When tifa ends up trying to tell people about what she actually experienced in the life force, no one from the cosmo canyon aside from Guggenheimer (who initially dismisses her) tries to delve more into what she is talking about. 

Tifa is talking to people who can’t or won’t understand what she is warning about because they haven’t had the life experiences she has and I suspect the genuine desire to help the world change. 

Later on, in golden saucer, Tifa confesses to cloud that she feels so helpless when she sees how no one in the golden saucer is reacting to the new war on wutai."

from Here

[jeharrison]

What's happening with writers & the #WGA strike is a reflection of what's happening across all industries - CEOs and shareholders sucking the life out of people who make their products/provide their services for them.

This capitalist model of greed and excessive wealth for the sake of status and classism, the dehumanizing of lower class and now also middle class workers is a modern day crisis and a disaster that effects everyone.

More and more, every day people are struggling to simply survive. To eat. To keep their lights on and heaters running. And this isn't happening in some other country, its happening in your neighborhood, its happening to your next door neighbor.

So maybe TV writing seems like a trivial career and a lot of people are thinking "why should I care? Those writers probably don't know what its like to work two or three jobs and still not be able to pay their bills."

But this, like the arts often do, is a reflection of a wider societal problem. Because AI could be taking over your job next. The CEOs and shareholders at the top of whatever company you work for are sitting in their offices right now trying to figure out how to squeeze more work out of fewer employees and pay them even less than they already earn.

All so their company can boast a bigger billion dollar profit than they did last year, so the CEO can pay themselves a bonus on top of their $50 million pay check, so the shareholders who contribute next to nothing in running the company and producing the products can line their already bulging pockets.

So you've gotta ask yourself, what the hell is the point? Why are you working fourteen hour days and skipping meals and being chased by creditors for bills you can't pay? You want the answer? You just need to look up the cooperate ladder.

I'm just hoping that one day soon, we're all going to realize there's more of us than there is of them. And if we want our dignity back, if we want to be able to pay our bills and feed our kids, then its time the money starts flowing back the other way.

[sreegs]

‼️READING COMPREHENSION WARNING‼️

Read and comprehend the topic of this post above the "read more" link before attempting to respond. This is your only warning. Violators will be mocked and blocked.

A GUIDE TO TIPPING IN AMERICA FOR TOURISTS AND VISITORS

AND ASSHOLES WHO SOMEHOW LIVED HERE THIS LONG WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THIS

This post is going to cover tipping people in restaurants/eateries and private transportation. Tipping can also apply to many, many other service industries including but not limited to: movers, handypeople, mechanics, etc. Since this is meant to be brief and focused on info relevant to visitors and tourists, I won't discuss that here.

You're tipping 20% minimum on your food and public/private taxi rides (including lyft, uber, etc). Include this in your budget calculations for engaging with these services.

I was going to jokingly just end the post here but let me explain. Minimum wage laws in the US allow employers to pay their employees UNDER FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE if they're in an industry that receives tips on the regular. Taxi drivers are self-employed and have to pay for the costs of the lease on their vehicle, gas, and give a cut to their garage or ride service provider.

Therefore, capitalists have shifted the cost of paying a living wage to these people on to the consumer rather than the employer. No amount of arguments against tipping culture is going to magically fix this overnight. That's the long game and we're trying to abolish this shit. Therefore, you are tipping 20% minimum. Today.

Even if you did not like the food.

Even if the food was cold.

Even if the server didn't seem cheery and smiley.

Even if the taxi wasn't as fast as you wanted it.

Even if the taxi smelled a little funny or the driver didn't talk the amount you like.

If you did not suffer immediate physical harm or harassment or discrimination at the hands of the service person who provided you the service, full tip. Five stars if you have to rate them in an app. Perfect marks.

Does the above statement seem strange to you? It shouldn't, because remember: capitalists have forced you to cover the full cost of the service. THIS IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE SERVICE WORKER.

Cash is King

Tip in cash if you have it. Credit card companies can't take a chunk out of cash tips. And if someone who works a low-paying job can grab a bit of cash under the table, away from the eyes of the IRS, then they will do more economic good with that money than the tax cut that goes to pay for bombing other countries.

How do I figure out a 20% tip?

Easy. Look at the total (THE TOTAL, WITH TAX YOU FUCKING CHEAPSKATE). Double it, then divide by 10 (move the decimal place one over to the left). Round up the remainder to the nearest dollar. That's going to be at least 20%.

What about counter workers?

There is some confusion on how to tip people who work at a counter in cafes and fast food establishments. Because they are not considered tipped employees and they get minimum wage.

The rule is, if during your transaction the POS (point of sale) register asks you to add a tip, you add a 20% tip. If you see a tip jar, you tip. If neither of these things happen, you don't tip

What about food delivery?

20% minimum tip. You called/ordered via an app, and magically food showed up. In any weather. 20% tip.

Bonus Holiday section:

Let's say you're visiting America during the peak American holidays when it's either a common "dining out" holiday or a holiday where you usually spend time at home with family. This includes, in chronological order:

Valentines Day, Fourth of July Weekend (the whole weekend), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve and Day.

You tip even more on those days. 30% minimum. I've tipped 100% on meals and rides on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Because those people are taking the time out of spending the day with friends and family, what everyone else is doing, to make sure they have enough money to pay bills and survive in America. And no you fucking bigot, you don't get to eye up the server and figure out if they celebrate Christmas or not.

FAQ:

I can't afford a 20% tip. How do I pay for this?

You can't afford the full service or experience. You don't buy it. Next question.

Where I come from, we don't tip that much/not at all. Why do I have to do this?

You're in America now. You have to do this. Please, feel free to engage the worker in a spirited debate about tipping culture if you feel like you need more info. I'm sure you'll learn something new.

I have a tipping system. You see, first I start at 10% and for every...

Your system is bad and you're a cheapskate. 20% minimum.

Hey wait a minute, I'm an American and I have strict rules about who I tip and how much. And 20% is too high! What are you talking about?

Every decent human being quietly judges you for being an asshole. You are disliked by the people around you who tip like normal people. You are not going to become rich some day because you saved $5 on a tip. Own up and tip.

I ate at an expensive restaurant. Surely I don't have to tip 20% on a bill like this, do I?

Yes you do.

Holy shit. I'm going to follow this guide but wow. Do you Americans really live like this?

Oh buddy wait till you encounter states that don't list the tax on the price tag.

OH MY GOD TUMBLR KEEPS BREAKING THIS POST. ANYTHING BELOW THIS GIF GETS FUCKED PLEASE TRY TO BEAR WITH ME

[barbwritesstuff]

If vampires are a metaphor for capitalist greed do you think werewolves could be a metaphor for unions? Werewolves do poorly on their own because they have no protection from the moon/hunters/other supernaturals, much like workers on their own are powerless to stand up to the ruling class that takes advantage of them. So they band together, all “the lone wolf dies but the pack survives” style. In this way they are strong enough to take down the strongest of evil corporations vampires.

I mean, sure. They're steeped in themes about togetherness and collectivism. I started writing Blood Moon because I was lonely (I'd moved to a new country just before a pandemic and hadn't been able to make friends). So the fact that the werewolves are a big, close group of people who all love and support each other through hardship is VERY baked into the story.

Also, the werewolves are all working class (because I have beef with the sexy rich person trope, especially as it always appears in paranormal romance). The pack is made up of low income workers and unemployed people. The Alpha was a janitor. They moved into the city for a better shot at finding work/a better future for the kids. And that, I think, makes them more interesting and relatable.

I know a lot of people disagree and prefer escapism in their fantasy, and that's totally fine. I'm not here to shit on your 'fae royalty/vampire billionaires/werewolf clan that owns half of scotland fav'. I just wanted to write characters that felt more real to me, and I've never earnt the 'medium income' in my country.

When I decided to make vampires the baddies in Blood Moon, I created them to be in spiritual and theological opposition to the werewolves. While the werewolves are collective, the vampires are individualistic. While the werewolves focus on love and family, the vampires are all about power, hunger, and consumption. While the wolves are working class the vampires are lords.

Werewolves in this world are all about: chaos, change, togetherness, love, and how being with people who get you can keep yourself from plunging into rage and madness.

The vampires are: power, hunger, stagnation, individualism, structure, order, and coming out on top, no matter what.

[sunder-the-gold]

I hope you don't mind if other people get to observe your arguments, @kemlo. Rather than me leaving them confined to my post about the absurdity of the Labor Theory of Value and how it makes the Communist Utopia impossible.

As a fair warning, I become increasingly sarcastic and critical as this goes on.

It's not that I want to be mean to you personally. I'm tagging you because otherwise I'd be criticizing your ideas behind your back. I'd rather you have the warning that you might want to defend them. But anyway...

By their own words, Kemlo believes:

The State is the violent law-enforcement mechanism of the government

Communists should take over the government so that they can use The State to destroy their enemies, because when they don't it means the liberals will instead control the government and use The State to destroy the communists. (Therefore, liberals and communists are caught in an all-out war to control the institutions, and since basic survival is on the line presumably every tactic is justified, no matter how low.)

Once all of the enemies of communism ('capitalists', 'liberals', and potentially others) are destroyed, the communists will keep control of the government and abolish The State and live in a utopian condition of perfect peace and harmony where no one else will ever decide to disagree with them ever again, no matter how bad things get.

This utopia isn't a utopia BECAUSE Marx was anti-utopian, and this ideal state of existence isn't idealism because Marx was anti-idealist. (This logic isn't circular because it isn't circular or else it would be circular logic, which it cannot be.)

Everyone who becomes unhappy under the communist regime isn't unhappy because they're hungry, or because the regime is enriching itself at the expense of the the people... no, anyone who criticizes the regime for any reason is a 'liberal' and therefore an enemy of the state. Because if they weren't an enemy of the state, they wouldn't be unhappy no matter how bad their life gets, because in the utopian not-utopia of true communism, it is impossible that the government is anything but perfect and blameless or that the people might not have enough to eat.

No thought is given to foreign adversaries or why a government might need a violent law-enforcement mechanism to protect against such. Or else communists don't want to admit that as long as they can claim there is a foreign adversary, they don't ever have to justify keeping the violent law-enforcement of The State, which is convenient since it means the communists can rely on The State to keep hammering down all of these liberals who keep appearing among the people for some reason. Perhaps all of the liberals are secretly foreign agents from countries that living in terror of the mighty power of a nation which cannot afford to feed its own people.

Also:

As yet, I received no answer to this puzzle.

Again, there's this idealistic, utopian assumption that once all of the capitalists and liberals are 'eliminated', there's no more need for the violent law-enforcement of The State.

Except as established, liberals just magically keep popping up even though they're not supposed to.

Whelp, I guess as long as they keep popping up, we have to keep The State around to keep killing them!

But the end-goal is totally not a utopian ideal, because that would mean this is a Sisyphean Task where we never stop killing people who disagree with us!

[this-is-a-podcast-fanblog]

american suburbia is a lie and so is american urbanism now that we live in a capitalist post-dystopia

because walkability is probably never going to be achieved in our lifetimes. Does anyone else ever just sit and think about this? I grew up as a kid in the suburbs and now live as an adult in the city. Yes, I know there's privilege within both of these living situations, but I also think that American "Exceptionalism" is not anything of the sort and should be criticized when most suburbs have no good public transport or even things to do. How is a person supposed to be enriched in a social way, to have fun with their friends, to build community?

Just imagine what a walkable community could look like. Within five to ten minutes of you, you have the essentials for living and some enjoyable things too. A grocery store. A cafe A daycare. A school. A gas station. A park with a playground. A library. Then imagine that within twenty minutes, you have your workplace, you have a place to go shopping, a good restaurant, a town hall, a community college, a couple of bars. Within half an hour's travel time by public transport, there are things that are less essential for survival, but still important for recreation and cultural enrichment: there's a museum, a strip club, a spot to go hiking, a fancy restaurant, a sports facility, a live theatre venue. If you travel out an hour or so away there are other towns to visit, cities nearby that you can venture into on the weekends, and the highway is very short.

These things are much more achievable in the city, but are so corporate that it can't even foster community. Your local cafe is a Starbucks, your local restaurant is a Chili's, and even the arts centers are privatized. We don't live in communities, we live in Walmart parking lots. We live in Disney World. America is not a real country.

[thelongestrose]

I wrote this up for my website, but I'd like to crosspost it to Tumblr. Some thoughts on the election, what we should do now, and reasons to hope for the future.

The Work Continues

“Rabbi Tarfon said: The day is short, and the work is plentiful; the laborers are lazy, and the reward is great, and the Master of the house is insistent. He used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.” (Pirkei Avot 2:15-16)

The situation looks bad right now. The results are in, and former president Donald Trump has won the 2024 US election against Kamala Harris. The Republican party also won control of the Senate and looks likely to win control of the House. Donald Trump has promised to ramp up deportations, curtail civil rights, and dismantle key infrastructures. Nobody yet knows what exactly the future holds, but it is likely to be chaotic. But the one thing we cannot lose in these trying times is hope.

We are all afraid. We fear the rise of the far right; the erosion of civil rights and liberties for women, queer people, POC, disabled people, and especially where those identites intersect; the loss of abortion rights and bodily autonomy more broadly; expansion of the genocide in Palestine; and an uncertain future where the right appears increasingly unwilling to give up power peacefully. We fear the expansion of fascism and unmanaged decline. The power aligned against us is considerable, and may seem insurmountable. The world, however, is unlikely to give us the luxury of ending and life, as it must, will go on. What then are we in the core of the empire to do?

We must start by examining context. The problems we face tomorrow did not start yesterday. The fight for civil rights has been a constant struggle and under acute threat for years, the right to bodily autonomy has been being eroded ever since Dobbs and the rise of trans healthcare bans over the past few years, the genocide in Palestine has been going on for over a year in its current form and for over 75 years overall, and the far-right has been an ever-present problem in the US since long before even the first Trump presidency. The capitalist system we oppose has a 250-year long history; the colonal and imperial doctrines underlying it stretch back 500 years. The problems we face today are much the same problems we faced yesterday, they did not start with Trump and they will not end with Trump.

The work continues, as it always has and always will; the only thing that is different today is the context and urgency of the work. This should give us hope – our fight is rooted in a long history of struggle and our work is rooted in a long tradition carrying on far before us. We have the great privilege and responsibility to learn from those who have been in the fight for far longer than we have been, especially our Black and Indigenous comrades who will bear and always have borne the brunt of fascism in this country, as well as our comrades in colonized nations around the world. As a friend of mine said, “We may live in unprecedented times, but we are not the first to face unprecedented times. Many have survived horrific governments in the past, including in this country.” Survival is both possible and necessary, as we are not at liberty to neglect the work.

Neither is it our duty to finish it; there is a lot of work to do and there will undoubtedly be even more to do in the future. Trying to shoulder the weight of the world on our shoulders leads to burnout and activist burnout serves only our enemies. We must, at the end of the day, survive; working to death is firmly in the realm of the capitalists. This goes double for those of us who are disabled, and previous burnout is a disability in and of itself. Balance will be particularly important as crisis becomes an increasingly normal part of life.

How do we balance the great work with our own survival? I must confess, I was not paying attention to the election results on the fifth or sixth as I was in a lot of pain from an ear infection at the time and that took priority whether I wanted it to or not. On the sixth, I had a friend take me to the ER, and as it got worse she briefly froze up, unsure exactly how to help or what to do. Talking about the election results shortly after, she commented, “But maybe I should focus on solving the problems in front of me.” (And we did, the ER didn’t find anything more serious than a middle ear infection and I’m more or less fine now.) What a wonderful way to look at the situation!

Solve the problems in front of us, and the answers to the big questions will become clear. Do you have a friend or two in need right now? Or a community member? Then you have a problem in front of you; figure out a way to solve it. Is there a trans person in need of healthcare, a disabled person in need of medicine or mobility aids, a houseless person in need of food, a person in need of an abortion, a Palestinian in need of support? Then solve that problem. If you can’t solve the problem, try to link them up with someone who can. Get together with your friends to solve bigger problems. Even better, work with existing organizations already fighting the problem. If there’s more than one problem, pick one and solve it and move on to the next. Learn to recognize and fight the racism, colonialism, misogyny, transphobia, ableism, and every other form of bigotry both overt and covert in yourself and your community while you do it. Nobody knows what tomorrow’s problems will be, but if we solve the problems of today we will be in that much of a better place to solve the problems of tomorrow.

One person solving a problem is a good start. A dozen people solving a problem is mutual aid. A hundred or a thousand people working together to solve the community’s problems is anarchism, and it’s growing every day. The big problem of today is that bourgeois politics and the state have failed us; the solution is to build dual power – to build a community where we don’t have to rely on them because we know we’ll take care of each other. The other problem of the day is, as it was before, stopping the genocide in Gaza, and we should all be thinking of ways to materially support Palestinians and disrupt the US war machine while solving the other problems in front of us. A better world is both possible and necessary.

The world did not end in 2017 and it will not end in 2025, and until it does end we must all carry on as if it will not. The work continues today as it did yesterday and as it will tomorrow. We cannot and will not abandon it. Despair and hopelessness are tools of the enemy. We know that a better world is possible to achieve and by working together, we will slowly bring it into being. There are reasons to hope for the future and today, I do have hope that not only will we all be okay but that we can improve things for ourselves and our marginalized and colonized comrades. And I have faith that someday, that hope will be strong enough to take down the empire that oppresses us all.

https://roseiverse.com/hall/blog/the-work-continues/

[rockofeye]

the hell is going on with these folks (and the cat accusation is downright insane): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvZTr3F_YZI

This is purposefully targeted hate speech and propaganda, and it is not new to the US political field. This is part of the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and the same statements have historically been said about folks immigrating for Asian countries, from the Middle East, and even folks coming from Central and South America. I hope it's no longer a common thing said, but there were racist 'jokes' when I was young that if you went to a Chinese restaurant, you were getting cat for dinner.

These are tactics attempting to demonize an extremely vulnerable and marginalized community in the same manner that Jews and other 'undesirable' groups were demonized at the end of the Weimar Republic as the Third Reich rose in Germany. This is a tool of a political party that is trying to seize power by fearmongering, which requires a scapegoat to be successful. Recently arrived Haitians are that scapegoat, and it's dangerous.

That video is really sad, and it's a masterclass in how racism is both a class issue and is used as a tool to divide. The statements about how recently arrived folks supposedly get so much money for the government, but we can't...this is manipulating working class, blue collar workers, and folks living at or under the poverty line, and it is exactly the tactics used in the building of race and racism that the United States was founded on. Instead of white folks who fall into working class, blue collar, or poverty categories realizing that the government is the problem in that basic needs of every day persons are absolutely ignored under our so-called democracy, they are being told that it is the people who are leaving a literal war zone to try and stay alive who are the problem. At base, racism is capitalist divide-and-conquer; if working class/blue collar/poverty level white folks united with Black folks, immigrants, and those seeking asylum, this country would be on it's knees...but instead, capitalism has manipulated vulnerable citizens to believe that outsiders are the problem with claims that are absolutely out of hand

Some of this is lack of education and critical thinking skills; basic research can show people that what people claim as fact is not at all true. People who are arriving from the border or arriving via the Biden parole program are in the United States legally but honestly...who fucking cares? It is a factual inaccuracy to believe that individuals who are not citizens and/or have not passed the 5 year mark if they are legal permanent residents have access to federal benefits earmarked for citizens or folks with sufficient residency. They do not qualify for SNAP, most Medicaid, social security, federal financial aid, and on and on. When they work, they pay taxes but they do not reap the benefits--there are no tax refunds and they do not benefit from social security, which means even if they work for 30 years in the US on a work permit, they can never access social security retirement benefits.

The rest is political strategy, wag-the-dog style. This bluster distracts from the fact that the Republican candidate is a fucking lunatic who cannot string together a single coherent thought and who is able to be provoked to anger with a single side eye. This is a distraction to remove pressure and attention.

Moreover, if it was true that recently arrived Haitians were left to steal domestic pets or wild living birds to survive, the shame is on our hands, as US citizens, for allowing people to starve when there is so much food available. How would a country with one of the highest GDPs allow people fleeing terror to be reduced to stealing pets to eat? That would be disgusting and a terrible indictment of who we are as a country, not that many of us don't already see it.

The other statements about Haitians being filthy etc are just poorly informed or purposefully aimed to be harmful. Anyone who has lived with or around Haitians in any significant way knows how a Haitian home is kept. Anyone who has spent any significant time with Haitians understands how, even if someone is living in poverty with nothing, there is still pride in themselves and how they live...and that is a huge reason, all other things aside, why folks are not out stealing Fluffy to have dinner. Those things are without pride, and folks would rather starve.

There is also the purposeful misunderstanding of how immigrants acclimate to a new place. Folks coming here from the border or via the Biden program are on pins and needles because they know their situation is wobbly, and they are smart. No one is going to be knowingly acting in a way that is going to upset where they live or who they live around, and Haitian culture contains nothing that would be super out of the ordinary in the US.

I am glad the reporter spoke to local Haitians and made the effort to get accurate translations of what folks were saying. How some questions were answered gives a clear picture to folks who know that they know they are under a microscope, both in the US and with the situation in Haiti; did you catch how, when questioned about gangs and violence, the one guy knew nothing about nobody? That's not accidental.

This will also target Vodou and Haitian vodouizan as well. I have already seen commentary on social media about how Haitians who are eating all these animals--dogs, cats, ducks, rats, etc--and doing 'rituals' with the remains. This is a dangerous and slippery slope, particularly if the party supporting these statements retakes the White House.

So...pay attention. This is a masterclass in the deployment of classism and racism to create distractions ahead of an election that feels very important to many people. Don't let them control your attention.

[lonelylonelyghost]

Re-watch of The Spirealm. Episode 4

It's been long overdue

Forget the giant wolves, human-eating monsters and bloody coffins, the most unrealistic part of this world are parents who admit that they wronged their children.

:(

aaaaaaa

A monster strangled me and my hot mysterious friend with her hair for a bit and then let us go because we have a shared abandonment trauma. Nothing much really

What I find absolutely hysterical is the fact that they don't actually say "America", because the country's official name in Mandarin is

美国 (Měi​guó) but they say 漂亮国 (piào​liang​guó) instead.

The first character in 美国 - Měi, means "pretty". So, the literal meaning of the country's name is "a beautiful country".

The first two characters in the name that they drop in the drama

漂亮国 - piào​liang, also means "pretty, beautiful" (there are some differences in the meaning of course, but my Mandarin is unfortunately rudimentary, so I don't really know). Which means that the second name's meaning is also "a beautiful country".

So, technically they don't name the USA as the evil capitalist country that destroys the pure intentions of poor Chinese game-makers with their violence and greed, but because the literal meaning of the characters is practically the same, they are also not-not saying that.

But also, I might be completely wrong. Maybe they use the other name in more colloquial settings or something. If someone has a better understanding of the language, please correct me.

If the latter's the case, then my unhinged cackling every time I heard it said in the drama was completely out of place, but at least I got my dose of serotonin at the time.

Even if you escape the World of Doors, that doesn't mean that you're free from occasional jump-scares. Though this particular horror is not too bad

Qianli my boi o(TヘTo)

I love you with all my heart, but with your driving style I don't think I'll ever be able to survive in one car with you for more than a minute

No notes. Just me, melting on the floor from the gentle and careful wound-tending

I don't know when the drama was shot, but if it was before the fall of twitter, then there were definitely prophets in the team. They even got Musk's loser personality correct

"You have one night to consider it. Give me an answer tomorrow."

"I can answer you now. I refuse."

Oooh, how the turn will tables...

Not his heartbroken little expression!

Arguably one of the cruelest parts of the drama - the delayed second death, about which I've already yelled

Well, hello Fitcher's Bird Door!

Can't wait for the cake, oh my...

Hello, Zhu Meng

Guys, guys. Focus on the case, please

The vibes are✨vibing✨