#the fucking propaganda capitalists tell each other

[palmtreepalmtree]

I keep getting recommended some version of the same article praising Charlie Munger for having lived in the same house for 70 years, and quoting him as warning against buying mansions when you get successful and the effect that doing so would have on your kids to grow up in privilege and further advising against buying multiple homes.

And I was pretty certain he lived in Los Angeles, so I was immediately skeptical that he was living in some fucking modest home in Northridge for 70 years. A little bit of googling and I found an article that refers to his home in the 'Greater Wilshire' neighborhood.

...pretty sure that's just Hancock Park. Riiiiiight next to a country club and Larchmont Village and the Mayor's Mansion.

I assure you, his children did not have the misapprehension that they were anything other than loaded.

[onsomekindofstartrek]

There's another post going around about how many innocent people would be hurt in your typical conception of a violent leftist revolution. And that's great! It's entirely true that a little interruption of our infrastructure would immediately be fatal for a lot of vulnerable people that we have a duty to. The idea that a lot of leftists have in their head of revolutionary politics is idiotic. It's literally based on Stalinist propaganda of how righteous the fucking October Revolution (and the Cuban Revolution) were.

But I feel like every time I see a version of that post, the conclusion is "therefore we should all do hyper-incremental socdem politics and hope the capitalists don't kill us all before we achieve our utopia that way."

And look, that is on the face of it less violent. I understand why the more left-leaning kind of liberal champions that model.

But it's... like, you understand that there are actual anarchist academics who have written whole bodies of work on how we ought to change society, and it doesn't fit either the "bloody all-out revolution" model or the "let's just try to vote a socdem into office in a country where that's literally inconceivable" model.

Almost all educated and intelligent leftists I know are anarcho-syndicalists. The idea is this: we aim to unionize every single workplace. We fight for the power of labor by any means available to us, from strikes to sit-ins, malicious compliance, civil disobedience, and, yes, defending ourselves and each other violently from cops, strikebreakers and scabs when it becomes necessary. We aim to make organized labor so much of a force in society that not only will the owning class be brought to the table to negotiate with us, the governments of the world will have to come to the table.

And when we've achieved that dual power, we improve the world any way we can, but we damn sure hold onto that power and make sure that we're not only preserving the infrastructure that keeps society alive, but that we are synonymous with that infrastructure.

The state will lose its sheen of benevolence when the world sees who really protects the life-saving infrastructures of the world. It is important that we never be seen as threatening those infrastructures, but instead fight in every way we can to improve them and make them more accessible and equitable. When the boss tells us to raise prices, we should have union people in every position that would be necessary for that order to be carried out, and simply not do it. They can't fire everyone.

And little by little the old state will be seen as the parasite it is, and wither away and die in a world where it is no longer necessary.

This follows in a perfect logical chain if you don't view the infrastructure of the modern world as something the bourgeoisie and the state have graciously provided to us, but as something that workers built and workers maintain, often at personal risk and with great personal sacrifice.

We already have the power, because we do all the work and make up the vast majority of humanity. We don't have to violently seize power in an apocalyptic war in the streets, we just have to learn to exercise the power we have.

And frankly, it does piss me off when I can agree with the first nine-tenths of a post about the popular conception of revolution, and then the last tenth is "therefore we should be very passive and let the capitalists have their way or actually we're the real monsters."

[qprsmackdown]

c!Quackcicle Propaganda

*Note: c!Quackcicle is referred to on the official bracket post as "Slimecicle." However, we here at the qpr smackdown have elected to nerf slimecicle by giving him a partner, as we fear Slimecicle by himself is too powerful. Thank you*

c!Slime is like a 1000 year old slime who poorly disguised himself as human and c!Quackity is a ruthless capitalist leader of not!Las Vegas who taught him how to be human like if that’s not peak dynamics I don’t know what is. c!Quackity is a manipulative shit and he helped c!Slime for his own good initially but eventually grew close enough to him to basically make him his second in command, and c!Slime did sorta throw him from a building for the manipulation stuff but they were meant to reconcile before the fucking mess of a finale ruined everything. They’re super close and c!Quackity literally mourned his death by trying to clone him thousands of times if there’s any more QPR coded characters I don’t know who.

I didn't watch much of slime but by gods are they made for each other and the angst that Q never really knew what he had

they are BESTIES!!!! they wear MATCHING SUITS!!!! their relationship was born from cruel manipulation and despite all the ways cq has hurt charlie they love each other so much; charlie’s the only person cq can openly and whole heartedly love and cq is the only person that has ever loved charlie. but charlie doesn’t know about the ways of humanity and the twisted reality of who quackity is and when he finds out he HATES him, and he tells quackity to his face that “the same human ruined our lives. because you are not a good person”. and quackity wakes up and realizes all the errors of his ways and he CHANGES!!!! and they make up and become friends again and charlie helps quackity run the casino!!!! (the last part was taken from the 2022 wine stream, it was never shown on screen ;w;) and even when q vowed that one should never trust anyone and never make attatchments he broke his own rules and put his trust in charlie, became painfully attatched because quackity found peace and solace in charlie! they love each other so so so much and should win this tournament forever

[isa-ghost]

Good afternoon, I have some anti capitalist propaganda for everyone.

I recently got a new boss. He sucks ass for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to:

Owing at least 3 of my coworkers money for multiple weeks; he owes one $2500+ and another $500+. He keeps saying he'll pay them [insert day] and then doesn't. He has actively refused to pay the one he owes $2500+, even telling her "you make too much," when he made her district manager of all 3 of our stores because he can't take any responsibility for himself.

He requires prepay for a service. Aka you are paying upfront when it's not guaranteed your product (dry cleaning) will come back cleaned right, unruined, or unlost.

He put a fee on our credit card machine so he doesn't have to worry about it with his taxes. He took down the sign he put up to notify customers of said fee, and told us not to tell customers, aka he doesn't want us telling customers we're charging them more than we're saying, and to lie to them. He claimed two weeks ago he'd remove this fee and hasn't.

He said he won't be paying us overtime or sick days. Not paying us overtime is illegal in our state. And dare I mention he said something about making the full time employees (ie: my mother) work 66 hours a week?

He only wants us to have $40 in singles at the end and beginning of each day. Aka we have no change ever for many of our customers who pay in cash, which forces them to use their card on the machine with a fee. When we run low on singles, he makes us walk across our mall's parking lot to the bank where ""he has one million dollars in an account"" to get singles. Yesterday he made me do this in a blizzard and negative temperatures, and the bank was closed because of the Midwest's current deadly weather. So I did it for nothing. When I called and informed him, he said he would come bring me singles to my store. 15 minutes later he called again and said he wouldn't make it because of the snow. I had to ask for exact change or force them to use the machine with a fee.

One morning he straight up forgot to give me any cash at all and took 2 hours to make a 15 minute drive from the main store to my store to give me said cash.

Another time he was supposed to come to my location to collect the day's money. Again, 15 minute drive. He never showed up. Then returned to the main store 5 minutes before it was supposed to close. We have no fucking idea where he was that whole time.

His changes have chased away regular customers who have been coming to us 20+/30+/50+ years. And other less long-time regulars too. We told him all 3 stores are getting several complaints DAILY and being told by SEVERAL customers that they're not coming to our cleaners anymore. He quite literally told me to my face "oh well."

He ignores any and all feedback employees and customers alike give him. He blatantly ignored me to my face twice. Related, he can't get it through his thick fucking head that we're a business in the suburbs, not the city, so things don't work the same as his shitty cleaners in Chicago.

We're a small mom and pop business who's been struggling since the pandemic. This is part of why my previous absolute saint of a boss sold the 3 stores to this douchebag. This ignorant moron said we'd probably lose 10% of our business and "it'd be fine," when we're struggling as it is.

We have 9 employees for 3 stores. He tried to make my coworker he dumped all responsibility on fire 5 of us (rather than doing it himself), including the one that trained her for the job years ago. He called all of us replaceable, even the one he dumped all responsibility on. He also took down all Help Wanted signs and said we definitely have enough staff.

We've caught him in MULTIPLE lies ranging from white lies about his personal life to MAJOR lies about our business and how he wants us to run the stores. We've also witnessed him lie to customers.

He doesn't communicate at all, he's told all 3 stores 3 separate things. There's no reasoning for this, all 3 stores do the same shit. All 3 stores have always done everything the same way before now. He just literally doesn't communicate properly. He changed store hours, and was shocked to find that my store didn't change them weeks later. We didn't change them because he didn't tell us to, he didn't tell us when the change was supposed to go into effect.

He's impossible to contact. If you call and he doesn't answer, his voicemail box is full. He doesn't call back. If you don't have his cell number to text him, you're screwed. There's no guarantee he'll answer texts either.

He's trying to change our entire system that keeps track of customers and implement a text system that will tell the customer their cleaning is done. I told him many customers we get are elderly people who don't text and don't even have smartphones and can't get that notification. He said he didn't care, and that they'd just have to remember their cleaning or forget it. Might I mention that after 60 days or more, he plans on selling the clothes on eBay?

He has a fake service dog (he told my coworker himself) that he brings to our main store every day and forces my coworker to babysit while she does her work. Work that you can't do and watch a dog at the same time. This is the one he owes $2500+ to btw.

That coworker looked up his full legal name (which she has access to since she had all his responsibilities dumped on her, including his personal emails) and found an article that strongly suggests he has a criminal history, if it's definitely him and a credible source. The kicker is, he has a very unique non-White name that we'd be very shocked to hear more than one person has. I can't confirm if the article is legit even so, because I obviously don't have his legal name. But she sent me a screenshot of the article and the crime was gun related. My coworker also saw emails of his that she, a recovering addict, is confident are drug dealing related.

The heat in my specific store hasn't worked properly in months. My previous boss was too tight on money to fix it. He was literally maintaining just enough to pay all employees and the essentials for the stores. He cared way more about us than money.

And the heat not working is what brings me to my real post, despite those reasons being more than enough to birth a new anti capitalist. Here's my REAL post:

So that deadly Midwestern weather right now? -20°F to -70°F in some parts? For my non-Americans, that's -20°C to -56°C. Without "RealFeel"/Wind Chill included. Those are daytime temperatures, not how cold it gets at night.

It was snowing SIDEWAYS almost the entire day yesterday, and he didn't close the stores. I had to work. My car is small and light, it slides and gets stuck super easily. Our roads are not plowed right now. I'm relying on the grooves from traffic to avoid driving in snow that'll get me stuck. I have to drive 20mph at the fastest on roads where the limit is 40-45mph.

Today it's-3°F (-19°C). For the high. RealFeel/Wind Chill is -27°F (-32°C). There are wind gusts up to 55mph. Visibility on the road is almost nonexistent, snow is blowing everywhere in massive walls across the streets, which still aren't properly plowed.

He still had my mom work today from 7am to 3pm, in our store that has no working heating. The inside of our store has been about 50°F (10°C) at the warmest all day. We're relying on two small and unhelpful space heaters, one at the front of the store and one at the back, to keep any form of heat in the store, which is all immediately sucked out the second our door opens for even a second. He also had the audacity to ask my mom to walk across the parking lot in this weather, to the bank as soon as they opened (which isn't even open) to get singles again, rather than bringing them despite there no longer being any snow preventing him from coming in his big ass definitely snow-safe truck.

It's still so cold in this store that my mom and I have our coats, hats, gloves and scarves on. I'm currently wearing 4 layers, a scarf and gloves sitting literally inches from one of our space heaters to keep myself warm. We have had maybe 5 customers since 7am. It's now 4pm.

Normally I would be working until 6pm today. At 6pm, it will be -6°F (-21°C), RealFeel/Wind Chill -40°F (-40°C according to my converter. It's so fucking cold our temperatures are syncing). My mom called our boss to see if we can close early, even mentioning that we've had no business today to try and persuade him further. He said we can. At 4:30pm, which was 2 hours from when she called him.

He's so greedy, he'd rather leave us in these conditions for a little longer despite there being 0 benefit to anyone rather than just sensibly closing right then and there. I've been here an hour and we've had no customers. At 4:30pm, it'll be dark outside on top of the already poor visibility outside, on top of rush-hour traffic, on top of roads in garbage condition.

He's quite literally choosing profit he's not going to make over my and my mom's lives, because if the worst happens as we're driving in those conditions, with the car that slides and gets stuck easily that I mentioned before, we could die if we crash or slide off the road.

Fuck capitalism, eat the fucking rich.

[fishmech]

middle class has never meant "able to live 3 months comfortably without a paying job" in history. whoever told you that was way richer than they thought they were or stumbled on some manner of windfall they were able to hold onto.

that is the kind of thing that rich people who think they are just regular middle class people tell each other as if its sound financial advice to not blow all of their half a million dollar a year upper management pay at a large corporation. it's the same as stuff like "don't pay more than 25%/30%/whatever of your income on rent" is for advice - it's a budgeting tip that has only ever applied to the wealthy so they don't get carried away and continue getting richer.

and it's easy to get tricked into thinking whats shown in media and such as "middle class living" through the decades is accurate, just as it's easy to be mislead into thinking that kind of financial advice actually applies below the rich - but that's because rich people are in charge of setting the terms on all that shit. if you little shits ever sat down and actually studied the real conditions of middle class life through history you'd frankly be shocked, given how these posts are written lol.

you also need to keep the poisoning from certain european antique class systems out of your view. like yeah very wealthy merchants and doctors formed the middle class of like 1700s london, but that was in a class structure where the brokest nobleman still had more rights and clout in society just because his great-great-uncle sucked off the king once. in those types of systems the middle class sure always had more money than the working classes and all but they also were defined on their upper hand by not having enough blood relation to the random jackasses that became royalty and nobility.

in most current day countries that whole upper layer got removed from societal class structure and as such the upper reaches of the former middle class are now just straight up the upper class. even where abominations like monarchy still exist the insistence on that upper edge of the middle class of pretending like they have something in common with regular people is just a show, a front.

when you try to talk shit like "oh the middle class lifestyle is unobtainable now" you reveal a fixation on myths of what it ever was in the first place. like if you had 2 cars in lets say 1952 america? you were probably above middle class! it was still rather uncommon to afford that! the general public having a whole car per family was still very new after world war ii! vacation times and days off were honestly not very different from now, certainly there's been no reduction in required time off by law. middle class people didn't really have personal retirement savings, you were relying on a company to do that for you for the most part. owning a house was actually still fairly uncommon, a whole lot more people then were renting homes than they are now. and those houses were smaller if they had houses! and a lot of those houses were very poorly built and incidentally wildly energy inefficient. the cars sucked and broke frequently. the appliances sucked and broke frequently. you don't see that shit in TV or from rosy eyed stories of the good ol days from old people but it was the truth. the supposed glory days of the middle class american were full of fucking polluted skies and water and poison being sprayed in the air by passing trucks on purpose and everyone just saying oh yeah man this is fine this is normal.

you have bought into colossal amounts of capitalist propaganda about past conditions and think the disconnect is that it was true at some point and no longer is. instead of that it was always fake! fucking grow up!

Ive noticed recently that my generation has... no concept of what the various economic classes actually are anymore. I talk to my friends and they genuinely say things like "at least i can afford a middle class lifestyle with this job because i dont need a roommate for my one bedroom apartment" and its like... oughh

You guys, middle class doesnt mean "a stable enough rented roof over your head," it means "a house you bought, a nice car or two, the ability to support a family, and take days off and vacations every year with income to spare for retirement savings and rainy days." If all you have is a rented apartment without a roommate and a used car, you're lower class. That's lower class.

And i cant help but wonder if this is why you get kids on tumblr lumping in doctors and actors into their "eat the rich" rhetoric: economic amnesia has blinded you to what the class divides actually are. The real middle class lifestyle has become so unattainable within a system that relies upon its existence that theyve convinced you that those who can still reach it are the elites while your extreme couponing to afford your groceries is the new normal.

[areyouafraid]

im really gonna crack up man like im really gonna lose my shit one of these days.

ive sent application after application to all these different dumps for the last 3 months and none of them have come back. none of them pay more than maybe 15 an hour at best. and this fucking freelance thing i just tried to look into to at least supplement me with a form of income while i look for a job is a total shitshoot its garbage i flat out dont even know if i can do it. im 19 right now im lucky im not like fucking paying rent or anything. but i sure will have to eventually! it's bad enough i feel like a fuckup who can't keep a job after i got fired from my last dump but like. only so much time

virtually all of my family and friends age 20 - 30 live in fucking dumpy little tenement apartments and those are the ones who can even get places of their own. dont know if i even know anyone who makes more than like maybe 30K a year. and i think we're still the lucky ones. my parents got a 3 bedroom house back in 2001 and i live with them. but i cant live here forever, like financially socially emotionally thats just not... feasible for me. i think they said a little over 11% of americans live under the poverty line? and then there's a study that says america has the worst poverty rate out of 26 "developed" nations. this country is a fucking sick little joke. an empire built off of genocide that brutalizes the rest of the world while its citizens rot in the streets. a twisting labyrinth of dead-end jobs and unwalkable cities with nothing to do but toil and die. what is new york city if not a giant factory town? and this does not even cover one one-eighth of what is wrong with this stupid shitshow of a country

and whatever i know i should just be grateful for what i have (what do i have?) and i know it's a common sentiment among poor / impoverished people to be like well you just need to hustle harder well this is just how it is etc etc but like just what an absurd fucking way to think like you guys are fucking high. people shouldn't live like this. people can't live like this. it's not sustainable. it's not realistic. we have to have a right to shelter and food and literally at the bare minimum to fucking survive like... i mean for fuck's sake there are wild dogs who live in tiny rock dens smeared with their own shit and blood who still have a better quality of life than human beings in our beautiful utopian capitalist society. at least ants and wolves look out for each other. what happens when you fall sick or become homeless in america? what happens if you don't have enough money in america?

with every new day i feel more and more like anything resembling a fulfilling life is just not possible here. i don't know where else i would go. i know travel is expensive. idk i just like. i know this is my home and it does feel like a cop-out but i can't live like this. nobody can live like this. fuuuuck this. honest to christ even if north korea was actually one quarter as bad as US propaganda says it is that would be better than this. at least under the Cold Cruel Hand of Communism i'd have something to fall back on. i'd be insured and have a place to live. what do we have in capitalist america? a weak nod of acknowledgement? and you know what my least favorite part of "patriotic" american bullshit is? if this is really the "best country on earth" we might as well just start organizing mass suicides.

and now with senile old fuck biden regurgitating israeli propaganda and encouraging the senseless murder of palestinians i just think. and this is the guy democrats wanted. this is the guy that republicans were shitting themselves over telling themselves he'd turn america communist or whatever. god if youre still even taking calls from this fucking tragedy of a planet i hope some sort of incurable and highly infectious plague breaks out inside the white house and all of those stupid fucks end up with abscesses forming inside their brains. it might not fix anything but it'd take some of those perverted vultures off the face of the earth so it'd be a nice pick-me-up at least. UGHHHHHHHHHH

[makel-grax]

Do you picture this cabal of capitalists with hunched shoulders and hooked noses, rubbing their hands together in glee?

Ehhh???? Wtf no???

Why the hunched shoulders and crooked noses, we're not talking about fantasy witches here, and it's not like all of them are Argentinian / Turkish.

Nah okay I'll stop feigning ignorance: I do know that such an image is (for reasons I genuinely don't know and will google soon), a weird antisemitic whistle, and so I want to tell you what I (and probably a lot more leftists) actually picture when talking about the "elite cabal" (not even sure cabal is the right word):

100+ white men going about their daily business trying as hard as possible to consolidate power for themselves, sometimes gathering in groups of 2~3 to play golf with like 6 bodyguards each while nonchalantly mentioning that it is annoying they can't just enslave people, and that X and Y (human rights) laws are annoying them.

Edit: also, after googling cabal the definition seems to be that of an explicitly made organization with the purpose of conspiring and scheming... Those do exist, but cooperation between powerful entities is so hard that they can't really do complex stuff, as an example the oil trust fucks up their cooperation all the damn time when one country over/undersells for their own gain, and I'm pretty sure that the big tech agglomerates are in some sort of agreement, but considering how half assed their stuff with launching AIs into the market is currently being, I highly doubt they have made any solid "cabal" between the different investors/CEOs/etc there.

So yeah, the idea of there being a "singular, fixed, elite cabal" is not quite right.

Edit 2: A quick internet search says that the picture of Jew folks with a hunchback and weird noses is directly Nazi propaganda, pretty much nonexistent before them... So yeah, that's annoying, and it wasn't exactly right to call it a dog whistle because of how ingrained in pop culture it got; a better term would be stereotype.

Speaking about which, with Judaism being a more community and family centered religion that is seen across the entire world, I can't really "picture" Judaic folks as anything at all - after all people across the world can look wildly different from each other. This is to say, the way a stereotype ever caught on is pretty fucked up in of itself.

[apocalypse-shuffle]

HOBIE BROWN | SPIDER-PUNK (atsv)

✎ᝰ — — —

“Brand New Metal” (Hobie Brown & Fem!Reader)

| Hobie helps you pierce your nose.

| SFW, piercing description, needles

| Featuring almost the entirety of my own piercing experience. (Pic source: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) movie)

| 900+ words

“Wait!”

You pull away for what feels like the hundredth time in five minutes and Hobie’s hand moves outta the way even faster, barely a blur of movement before it’s back within his bubble of space.

“C’mon, Mama, I can’t do this if you keep jumpin’ away from me.”

You shift in place where your butt is planted beside the hard water stained sink. Shoulders dropping you rub your hands down your face.

“I know that,” you grumble.

Problem was, knowing barely qualified as a quarter of the issue, and whoever said knowing was half the battle clearly hadn’t been staring down the point of the thickest needle you’d ever seen in person.

You wave your hand to the metal rod with a grimace. “But look at the size of that thing, Hobes. That’s gotta be overkill.”

Hobie’s accent seems to get thicker as he hits you with a deadpan tone, full brows shading his eyes.

“This’s a twenty gauge needle. I’ve seen you ’old your guts inside you and still make time to bash in some fascists, this’s nothin’.”

In response you flip him off but Hobie - perfectly unfazed - only starts twirling the needle around two latex glad fingers.

His own piercings - of which there were plenty - glint off of the dim yellow lighting of his bathroom like a taunt. Or at least it feels like that to you.

“Look, I already told you piercings ain’t some crucial part of the scene, Mama. You don’t have ta do any of this. It’s all just boxes and labels, the lot of it,” Hobie points the blunt side of the needle at you. “And you know I hate labels.”

“Yeah, Hobes, the whole of Camden knows. Besides, I want it cause I think it looks nice not cause of capitalism’s agenda to make us buy shit instead of looking at whatever human right of the day they’re doing away with,” you shrug and Hobie’s mouth twists to the side for a second before he’s shrugging too.

“Great. Point’s been made then. Pick a struggle.”

“Fuck your struggle,” you frown. “It’ll hurt.”

“Hn,” he scoffs and shakes his head. He’s giving you this narrow look like he’d let you keep this back and forth up for the rest of the day without any complaints though. “Fake ones exist for a reason.”

“Fake ones won’t give me the satisfaction of a real piercing though.”

“The lie that we need to feel pain in order to be worthy of livin’ is also capitalistic propaganda, Luv.”

Now it’s your turn to give him a look; face dropping and one brow rising.

Hobie chuckles.

“Fine.” He grins, sharp. “We both know I know exactly what it is you’re sayin’. I just can’t tell if being an accomplice to yer masochism is fair to me.”

“You wouldn’t deny a woman her creative outlet, would you?”

“S’pose not,” Hobie agrees, taking another alcohol swab and disinfecting the needle again for extra measure.

He eyes you up and down and you smile, fluttering your lashes at him and kicking your heels into his cabinet doors. You needed Hobie to be the one to do this. For one, because you were not going to be able to do this yourself, and for two, because he was really the only person you trusted to puncture a literal hole in your body.

You take a deep breath, now if only you could chill the hell out.

Hobie shakes his head, wicks flopping around and knocking into each other languidly.

“Yer one ‘elluva reluctant participant to this for someone agreein’ they’re a masochist,” he nods to the needle while brandishing it like a knife. He knows you're full of shit, but he’s not about to make your decision for you. “You gotta stop flinching every time light just glints off the needle if you really want this.”

You lock eyes with him, sitting up to your full height and trying not to back away from the metal rod. “Maybe I’m just waiting for the adrenaline rush to kick in.”

“Pretty sure that happens after the pain, yeh?

A huff and your fingers curl over the edge of the counter and squeeze.

“Just…get it over with, Hobie.” You take a deep breath. “Please?”

“Alright alright, don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Hobie eases a hand around your jaw and raises the needle. “You know I’ve got you. Now keep still.”

Another deep breath from you and Hobie meets your eye for a second time.

“On three,” he grunts. With your head in his grasp you can’t physically nod so you use your eyes to convey your agreement.

Hobie takes a breath to start the countdown and you inhale with him. You’ve gotten your ears pierced before, you could do this. It was fine. Plus you’ll have a few seconds to prep yourself before he gets to number three. You got this. You both exhale.

“Three,” he states.

Without a second to spare the needle pierces through the squishy cartilage of your nose and your breath catches in your throat. Instantly tears well in your eyes and your face heats up something fierce - like somebody’s holding a blow dryer on the highest setting up to it with zero mercy. Your joints pop, grasp on the counter growing tighter in your attempt to keep yourself from jerking out of Hobie’s hold. The sheer need to not garner an actual injury from the metal is almost solely what keeps you in place.

This wasn’t like an ear piercing at fucking all. Fuck this septum piercing and fuck Hobie too. What the fuck?

“Ow! You motherfucker!”

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed!! I only wrote his accent clearly some of the time; you’ll have to forgive me. I was confusing my damn self, okay? I did my best.

Also what I said about how adrenaline works isn’t really correct so don’t take that as gospel.

Edit: Had this labeled gn!reader on accident at first y’all, that’s my bad. Sorry for any confusion.

btw: if you’d like to leave a comment I’d very much appreciate it. this is a sideblog tho so I won’t respond.

[moondonky]

Just started

I can explain the division.. I know satan,i know the shit he does. I know manipulation.... I know causes of suffering... as a real person, u won't hear anyone else say it... unlike them I can break spells bitches.. let's talk about racism.. how I break shit down is common ground... everyone can agree it existed,, everyone can agree most people are not racist, if u went by definition, I could say nobody likes each other and they have reasons but it's not actually rasism, in many ways its preference and many ways how well people get along with each other, difficulty levels,,, but racism existed, people have changed, its way in the past at this point people are smarter, and those who still are are like half a percent of the people and they make no difference,, they keep it a secret because it comes off stupid.... we can all agree systemic racism existed,,, they were tools and loopholes, one sided benifits and double standards..put in place to keep it alive as I like to say... but it's dead,, but tools are still there... but there not in the hands of racists... there in the hands of rich people and cooperation, they were always a tool of control,, and now they use them on everyone because it makes them alot of fucking money, why everyone feels so preyed on, and abused,, it is being used by capitalists and bankers , and corrupt politicians and enforced and protected by lobbyists... and if u say anything, the conversation will be pulled into division of whether someone's rasist,, which is ridiculous and can be argued,, and that's all a distraction from tools of systemic racism turned to tools of oppression,, rich and poor that's real division, that's why they attack the middle, to secure that system that only benifits them, that infighting is promoted it's propaganda, not actually racism, its divide and conqour, why those globalist who are the rich people will just call u racist, it' is a tactic of distraction, it's an illusion and they know that.. so long as ur focus is not on them.. everyone should want to get rid of those tools and not defending them for them... its hurting all of us.. they do not care what color or political party u are... its always about fucking money,,, people need to realize that.. every fucking thing that every person fucking complains about not matter there opinion,, every problem and dysfunction... is because of money,,, people need to stop being naive and stupid..

Rasism is like fear... u know who's actually afraid rn.. those fucking globalist zealots,, they are afraid of everyone find out all shit they do, how they manipulate and abuse everyone , how there system actually functions,, and they are in a panick rush to move all the control in a new one before everyone gets smart and tells them to fuk off... they are running out of time and I love it.. I love watching cuz I know they fail in the end.. there plans don't even make sense.. there kinda stupid, and I don't believe anyone is actually stupid, there just in denial or sum shit, desperate, it's like they got tricked by the fucking devil

Effin millenial, y not... there's nothing actually wrong with capitalism. When it's regulated and kept in check, not ran by psycos kinda like now.. there will always b money, it a handy tool.. Satan is the root of all evil.. that fucking fool

[cerastes]

Whats wrong with Near Light?

It is completely clueless as to what its own point is.

"Maria Nearl" made an excellent job of portraying the capitalist bloodsport known as "the Kazimierz Major" as a soulless venture meant to sell dreams and deliver bloodshed, propaganda, and ad revenue instead. It is impeccable in its themes, to the point that Blemishine is in fact told that she is expecting far too much, by EVERYONE else, when she says she'll compete in the Major for the sake of House Nearl having a Knight Primus. Her closest associates end up supporting her not because they truly believe she's right, they support her because they literally don't want her to end up dead. Zofia, Vogelweide, Kowal and Marcin know there's no actual stopping Maria once she sets up her mind on something, so they choose to train her not so she can win, but so she can survive at all in something she's woefully unqualified for. There's absolutely no glory to be made. This is a vie for survival first and foremost.

Near Light then completely disregards all of this and makes Margaret Nearl, a character I really like, into a generic fantasy hero that Must Fight To Achieve Things. It takes the very grounded "meaningless fight for something" from the first event, which is completely in line with old knightly literature, and turns it into a shonen, which I found pretty, well, insulting. Victory equals successful ideals now, because she's Margaret "Kirito SAO" Nearl, so if she does it, it's Fine now. It spins everything into seemingly being honorable knightly duels (but we're the good ones), while giving a horribly passive centrist narrative to what was purely a criticism of late stage capitalism in the prior event. Margaret wants to change things systematically from within.. Which is just a load of hog-fucking-wash when we already established from moment one that the system is in itself flawed, corrupt, and a cesspit of maggots trying to eat each other. It makes you wonder if it was the same writer that wrote both events, because it sure as shit doesn't seem so, and if it was, did they get into NFTs in the meantime or subscribe to Infowars or Andrew Tate or whatever equivalent there is mainland China or something? It went from a clearly muddied look at a system that is inherently flawed into "Actually, if we win enough fights... We can begin the Change Everything castbar, it's pretty simple, actually".

And I bring up those particular shitstains because Margaret Nearl, VERY uncharacteristically, pulls off a "no handouts, let them pull themselves up by their bootstrings" in the event: She refuses to go rescue Pinus Sylvestris because "they can't be saved by those who already have true conviction, they must do it themselves"... Actually what the fuck? You see in Chapter 0, 1 and 7 of the main story that Nearl will go out of her way, risk her very own flesh, to rescue those who are hopeless because that's what she believes in, that's why she's admired, because she'll fucking pull through in these situations... And then she says this shit in Near Light? AND THEN, as if that wasn't enough, smashing a fucking broken thermometer over a salted wound, it is then stated in god damn Operators Files that she did rescue Pinus Sylvestris off-screen anyways, because whoever was responsible for "writing" this, and I'm being fucking magnanimously generous with that word, couldn't just have their cake, but also had to devour it wholesale in one single bite? Get the fuck out.

On screen: Yeah, they gotta earn their lives. [Some fakedeep shit about needing to be devoted enough to their own cause and beliefs] Off screen: Oh I saved them anyways lol, I need to Look Cool.

It's not good writing, g, I'll tell you that fucking much, and it makes me upset because it's a character I like in a setting I love.

Of course I'm not going to like if they Kiritofy a character they had consistently written real damn well prior to an event meant to star her.

It makes me mad because the ultimate resolution of it all is a very cowardly "I Will Now Improve Things From Within" yeah okay and Suzaku was right in Code Geass too, right? Jesus fucking christ, man.

Bottom line, it all feels like they set up something incredible in Maria Nearl, right up until the very end, when Fan Favorite comes out of fucking nowhere to save the day, and then her event contradicts the key tenets of her character thus far to boot.

So you'll have to forgive me but my opinion on Near Light is not particularly positive because it became a "Wow look at how COOL this character is!" kinda shonen shitshow when we had a very "The system is inherently wrong, the solution is not at all simple" sort of seinen narrative going on. It should be telling when Mlynar embodies a more scathingly apt take on the sides Maria herself did not cover in her event towards the narrative than whatever the hell they decided to tarnish Margaret with. It's like the Twilight of Wolumonde writer handled Maria Nearl until the end and then they put the Sword Art Online writer on for Near Light.

It's not because I dislike Margaret Nearl that I feel this way. It's because I like her and they did her dirty. But sure, wau cool horse dom wife mommy or whatever.

[wibble-wobbegong]

Calling byler just a ship with "two white gay boys" while shipping m*leven is so funny to me like 😭 acting like mike and El aren't both pasty as rice LMFAO

people think using race specificity will get them brownie points when race isn’t a part of the conversation at all when it comes to byler lmao. they are two white boys but they aren’t a “two attractive white guys who looked at each other once” ship. they get shipped because they’ve got depth and WILL IS LITERALLY IN LOVE WITH MIKE but people will try and dumb that down to their physical features to make it a conversation about the minority Olympics

those are the same bitches who will be shocked when you tell them about lucas experiencing the highest rate of non-supernatural violence of the kids except for like. El. or when you point out that erica being used as a symbol of capitalism and patriotism is fucked up on so many levels and, unless she grows from that, it’s a pretty solid piece of propaganda (along with all the other pro-capitalist pro-america messages). god forbid you mention billy. god forbid.

[pyrrhus-the-world-fire]

God to be charitable is difficult … to this author. I find this article to be very superficial, droll, and uninteresting. Maybe partly because they throw around AMAB and AFAB interchangeably with men and women. Impossible to tell if they think this makes them woker or they think they’re actually distinguishing between these categories when really they just want to refer to the same regressive social categories we’ve always had. And partly because I’m unimpressed by the false dichotomies and slopshod analysis of western traditional conservatism particularly in the past 100 years and their frankly pathetic attempt at a disclaimer about how this only applies to the west.

I mean. I have never heard of “the village” being used in such purely conservative terms before but sake of argument right - concede that. WOW what an annoying false dichotomy to have out of the gate on the capabilities of society to work as support for individuals.

Yes people are made to work constantly and be too tired to protest vote or fight back (by design). Yes female labor is unpaid or underpaid and overlooked (be design). Yes this regressive system would be perpetrated in the future if conservatives had their way - but this isn’t because collectivism or social reliance is somehow bad?!? Like the incredibly broad idea of everyone needs a little help sometimes being reduced to “your crazy neighbor Dave down the street now tells you how to parent your kids”, is so stupidly uncharitable I’d think either Cooper or another Christian wrote this. Wait a second…

Yup looked at this accompanying literature. WOW defending corporate pride because of traditional conservative backlash. Be even more regressive why don’t you. Blue fucking MAGA.

Anyway wow I wish I had a wife. Not actually but it’s time to bring back Judy Brady into reading circles. I wish it was possible to teach someone how to have an imagination but so far —- impossible! Nvm I need to engage with the incredibly narrow pointless scope of the article.

Ok last thing mad self has to say. This author assumes so much about generational value judgements on the capitalist American imperial core it would be impossible to refute every nonsensical line after the other here other than it feels like nothing short of complete ignorance of every radical and collective social movement of the last three hundred years could excuse this association of all possible pleas for social levity as belonging solely in the realm of traditionalist rosewashing and not at all a call for a better equitable and fairer world that IS possible. Perhaps we have fallen that low for propaganda but we shouldn’t be arguing we should continue to be that way!?! You definitely shouldn’t be arguing AGAINST ANY collective change because it COULD be bad??? Throwing the baby bath water out - or really arguing that the US is bad because FDR created social security and government programs to stop unemployment . YES, the U.S., FDR, and government unemployment programs are all bad. But they aren’t bad in principle just the practice - and the purpose behind it to eliminate community and socialist organizing that could resolve the contradiction of material conditions within the U.S. And this is the radical direct actionist talking so if I’m saying if the reformist doesn’t know how reform works, that’s fucking sad. Arguing “the village” is an inherently regressive social archetype founded solely on the unpaid labor of women and then providing nothing except the most plausibly deniable end warning statement about how this would be different in a less individualistic culture. But ignores the assumption the individualistic culture IS THE FUCKING PROBLEM. Human society was not meant to work this way and the fact that people need to each be their own individuals is not negated by the fact that we all also need non-TRANSACTIONAL help and can find that shared community if we spread this idea enough. People are fundamentally capable of change and being good and I won’t believe otherwise.

Sometimes I think the real reason I hate this country is I truly don’t share any core values with anyone here. If you think your sole purpose to work 9-5 maybe a few hours less with healthcare and insurance, have and support a family, enjoy life and die…

Like I know it’s tiring but that’s the point. If we’re all tired someone has to start first because the system isn’t going to change until we change it. I’ll do it all day. I have my Wellbutrin now I’ll be first. Give me every other Friday and I’ll find a way to contribute to society non-monetarily. I just need to stop hating individual people but I think as a concept other people are great.

That’s not bad in itself but presented as the only core desires it’s limited and unflattering and I find THAT most sad thing about the imperial core. I find myself thinking this way too sometimes but it’s not just my mental illness - we are programmed to be this way. The ultimate astroturf, longcon, immovable propaganda, is despite all evidence to the contrary those of us who live in America believe nothing in the world is truly ever more possible or more probable than a life of capitalist wealth accumulation and career development.

I haven’t read an article that’s made me that angry in a while. But if we are all struggling we better have charity towards our faults and where we fall short in the day to day of helping each other. And watching for where our biases and past experience are unfair in how we divide our work. I won’t be charitable towards dumb arguments that waste my time by arguing people shouldn’t be kind because social obligation in so many stupid words. At least dumb conservatives are dumb in a way that doesn’t and never will require any mental engagement at all. Libertarians and Democrat stans though. Designed to worded well enough you almost have to believe there could be an argument if you looked. That’s enough internet for me now.

[bloodbenderz]

humaniterations (dot) net/2014/10/13/an-anarchist-perspective-on-the-red-lotus/ this article from oct 2014 is very dense — truly, a lot to unpack here, but I feel like you would find this piece interesting. I would love it if you shared your thoughts on the points that stood out to you, whether you agree or disagree. you obv don’t have to respond to it tho, but I’m sending it as an ask jic you feel like penning (and sharing) a magnificent essay, as is your wont 💕

article

i know this took me forever 2 answer SORRY but i just checked off all the things on my to do list for the first time in days today so. Essay incoming ladies!

ok im SO glad u sent me this bc it’s so so good. it’s a genuinely thoughtful criticism of the politics in legend of korra (altho i think its sometimes a little mean to korra unnecessarily like there’s no reason to call her a “petulant brat” or say that she throws tantrums but i do understand their point about her being an immature and reactionary hero, which i’ll get back to) and i think the author has a good balance between acknowledging like Yeah the lok writers were american liberals and wrote their show accordingly and Also writing a thorough analysis of lok’s politics that felt relevant and interesting without throwing their hands up and saying this is all useless liberal bullshit (which i will admit that i tend to do).

this article essentially argues that the red lotus antagonists of s3 were right. And that’s not an uncommon opinion i think but this gives it serious weight. Like, everything that zaheer’s gang did was, in context, fully understandable. of course the red lotus would be invested in making sure that the physically and spiritually and politically most powerful person in the world ISNT raised by world leaders and a secret society of elites that’s completely unaccountable to the people! of course the red lotus wants to bring down tyrannical governments and allow communities to form and self govern organically! and the writers dismiss all of that out of hand by 1. consistently framing the red lotus as insane and murderous (korra never actually gives zaheer’s ideas a chance or truly considers integrating them into her own approach) 2. representing the death of the earth queen as not just something that’s not necessarily popular (what was with mako’s bootlicker grandma, i’d love to know) but as something that causes unbelievable violence and chaos in ba sing se (which, like, a lot of history and research will tell you that people in disasters tend towards prosocial behaviors). so the way the story frames each of these characters and ideologies is fascinating because like. if you wanted to write season 3 of legend of korra with zaheer as the protagonist and korra as the antagonist, you wouldn’t actually have to change the sequence of events at all, really. these writers in particular and liberal writers in general LOVE writing morally-gray-but-ultimately-sympathetic characters (like, almost EVERY SINGLE fire nation character in the first series, who were full on violent colonizers but all to a degree were rehabilitated in the eyes of the viewer) but instead of framing the red lotus as good people who are devoted to justice and freedom and sometimes behave cruelly to get where theyre trying to go, they frame them as psychopaths and murderers who have good intentions don’t really understand how to make the world a better place.

and the interesting thing about all this, about the fact that the red lotus acted in most cases exactly as it should have in context and the only reason its relegated to villain status is bc the show is written by liberals, is that the red lotus actually points out really glaring sociopolitical issues in universe! like, watching the show, u think well why the fuck HASN’T korra done anything about the earth queen oppressing her subjects? why DOESN’T korra do anything about the worse than useless republic president? why the hell are so many people living in poverty while our mains live cushy well fed lives? how come earth kingdom land only seems to belong to various monarchs and settler colonists, instead of the people who are actually indigenous to it? the show does not want to answer these questions, because american liberal capitalism literally survives on the reality of oppressive governments and worse than useless presidents and people living in poverty while the middle/upper class eats and indigenous land being stolen. if the show were to answer these questions honestly, the answer would be that the status quo in real life (and the one on the show that mirrors real life) Has To Change.

So they avoid answering these questions honestly in order for the thesis statement to be that the status quo is good. and the only way for the show to escape answering these questions is for them to individualize all these broad social problems down into Good people and Bad people. so while we have obvious bad ones like the earth queen we also have all these capitalists and monarchs and politicians who are actually very nice and lovely people who would never hurt anyone! which is just such an absurd take and it’s liberal propaganda at its best. holding a position of incredible political/economic power in an unjust society is inherently unethical and maintaining that position of power requires violence against the people you have power over. which is literally social justice 101. but there’s literally no normal, average, not-politically-powerful person on the show. so when leftist anarchism is presented and says that destroying systems that enforce extreme power differentials is the only way to bring peace and freedom to all, the show has already set us up to think, hey, fuck you, top cop lin beifong and ford motor ceo asami sato are good people and good people like them exist! and all we have to do to move forward and progress as a society is to make sure we have enough good individuals in enough powerful positions (like zuko as the fire lord ending the war, or wu as the earth king ending the monarchy)! which is of course complete fiction. liberal reform doesn’t work. but by pretending that it could work by saying that the SYSTEM isnt rotten it’s just that the people running it suck and we just need to replace those people, it automatically delegitimizes any radical movements that actually seek to change things.

and that’s the most interesting thing about this article to me is that it posits that the avatar...might actually be a negative presence in the world. the avatar is the exact same thing: it’s a position of immense political and physical power bestowed completely randomly, and depending on the moral character and various actions of who fills that position at any given time, millions of people will or won’t suffer. like kyoshi, who created the fascist dai li, like roku, who refused to remove a genocidal dictator from power, like aang, who facilitated the establishment of a settler colonial state on earth kingdom land. like korra! she’s an incredibly immature avatar and a generally reactionary lead. i’ve talked about this at length before but she never actually gets in touch with the needs of the people. she’s constantly running in elite circles, exposed only to the needs and squabbles of the upper class! how the hell is she supposed to understand the complexities of oppression and privilege when she was raised by a chess club with inordinate amounts of power and associates almost exclusively with politicians and billionaires?? from day 1 we see that she tends to see things in very black and white ways which is FINE if you’re a privileged 17 yr old girl seeing the world for the first time but NOT FINE if you’re the single most powerful person in the world! Yeah, korra thinks the world is probably mostly fine and just needs a little whipping into shape every couple years, because all she has ever known is a mostly fine world! in s1 when mako mentions that he as a homeless impoverished teenager worked for a gang (which is. Not weird. Impoverished people of every background are ALWAYS more likely to resort to socially unacceptable ways of making money) korra is like “you guys are criminals?????!!!!!” she was raised in perfect luxury by a conservative institution and just never developed beyond that. So sure, if the red lotus raised her anarchist, probably a lot would’ve been different/better, but....they didn’t. and korra ended up being a reactionary and conservative avatar who protected monarchs and colonialist politicians. The avatar as a position is completely subject to the whims of whoever is currently the avatar. and not only does that suck for everyone who is not the avatar, not only is it totally unfair to whatever kid who grows up knowing the fate of the world is squarely on their shoulders, but it as a concept is a highly individualist product of the authors’ own western liberal ideas of progress! the idea that one good leader can fix the world (or should even try) based on their own inherent superiority to everyone else is unbelievably flawed and ignores the fact that all real progress is brought about as a result of COMMUNITY work, as a result of normal people working for themselves and their neighbors!

the broader analysis of bending was really interesting to me too, but im honestly not sure i Totally agree with it. the article pretty much accepts the show’s assertion that bending is a privilege (and frankly backs it up much better than the original show did, but whatever), and i don’t think that’s NECESSARILY untrue since it is, like, a physical advantage (the author compares it to, for example, the fact that some people are born athletically gifted and others are born with extreme physical limitations), but i DO think that it discounts the in universe racialization of bending. in any sequel to atla that made sense, bending as a race making fact would have been explored ALONGSIDE the physical advantages it bestows on people. colonialism and its aftermath is generally ignored in this article which is its major weakness i think, especially in conjunction with bending. you can bring up the ideas the author did about individual vs community oriented progress in the avatar universe while safely ignoring the colonialism, but you can’t not bring up race and colonialism when you discuss bending. especially once you get to thinking about how water/earth/airbenders were imprisoned and killed specifically because bending was a physical advantage, and that physical advantage was something that would have given colonized populations a means of resistance and that the fire nation wanted to keep to itself.

i think that’s the best lens thru which to analyze bending tbh! like in the avatar universe bending is a tool that different ethnic groups tend to use in different ways. at its best, bending actually doesn’t represent social power differences (despite representing a physical power difference) because it’s used to represent/maintain community solidarity. like, take the water tribe. katara being the last waterbender, in some way, makes her the last of a part of swt CULTURE. the implication is that when there were a lot of waterbenders in the south, they dedicated their talents to building community and helping their neighbors, because this was something incredibly culturally important and important to the water tribe as a community. the swt as a COLLECTIVE values bending for what it can do for the entire tribe, which counts for basically every other talent a person can have (strength, creativity, etc). the fire nation, by contrast, distorts the community value of bending by racializing it: anyone who bends an element that isn’t fire is inherently NOT fire nation (and therefore inherently inferior) and, because of the physical power that bending confers, anyone who bends an element that isn’t fire is a threat to fire nation hegemony. and in THAT framework of bending, it’s something that intrinsically assigns worth and reifies race in a way that’s conveniently beneficial to the oppressor.

it IS worth talking about how using Element as a way to categorize people reifies nations, borders, and race in a way that is VERY characteristic of white american liberals. i tried to be conscious of that (and the way that elements/bending can act in DIFFERENT ways, depending on cultural context) but i think it’s pretty clear that the writers did intend for element to unequivocally signify nation (and, by extension, race), which is part of why they screwed up mixed families so bad in lok. when they’ve locked themselves into this idea that element=nation=race, they end up with sets of siblings like mako and bolin or kya tenzin and bumi, who all “take” after only one parent based on the element that they bend. which is just completely stupid but very indicative of how the writers actually INTENDED element/bending to be a race making process. and its both fucked up and interesting that the writers display the same framework of race analysis that the canonical antagonists of atla do.

anyway that’s a few thoughts! thank u again for sending the article i really loved it and i had a lot of fun writing this <3

[ablednt]

No but the nuclear family model is so dystopian when you think about it.

Your born into a family and cannot leave them for at minimum 18 years. Nothing is done to assure your parents can emotionally or financially provide for you. You cannot do anything without their permission, they are encouraged and allowed to control every aspect of your life and your identity.

If you're in a (Christian) traditional home you have a dad who can if he wants be a tyrant and take out all his problems on you. He's supposed to be emotionless and he's Not Your Friend. You're supposed to treat him like you'll treat your bosses in the future even though you're a child without the mental capacity for those levels of maturity cause did I mention all of this is a trial run of unethical capitalist models?

Moving on! Your mom has unbelievable amounts of trauma because she's the subordinate in this relationship and expected to do everything whether or not she thinks she's empowered by this or not is irrelevant. As her child you're the only thing she's ever had power over in her life... if you're lucky she tries her best to actually recognize your autonomy and realize she's not playing dolls anymore. A lot of people aren't lucky! She's expected to do whatever your dad wants but she can take all of this out at you and/or make you take care of her to make up for the affection she's not getting now and because she was told having children would fix her childhood trauma and so good luck being a therapist as a child without pay or training.

Most likely you attend school on top of this to hear colonialist propaganda and prepare to work far too many hours for far too little pay you're punished for the slightest mistep, your peers all take out their problems on each other, etc. Your parents are expected to punish you for struggling in school even though schools do very little to actually teach you so you eventually give up unless you happen to be naturally good at studying. Everyone in your life is so angry at you all the time.

The media is consistently sending messages that you're either a cute object with no real features other than obedience or a raging monster who's disgusting and needy with no in between. You're taught to apologize and beg for forgiveness for crying, to know how much money your parents have before you can do basic maths so you don't bother them by asking for too many things (marketers advertize things to you instead of your parents because they know you have no idea how money works and are easily hyped up by things. If your parents scream at or hit you for this it's not their problem.) Doctors and psychiatrists all tell your parents not to listen when you're in mental or physical distress and you're mocked by adults for being suicidal or self harming. If your parents are especially "worried" they'll scream at you until you break and act like they fixed everything or they'll lock you up in a glorified prison where you will be traumatized into submission using physical force and drugs under the guise of "treatment"

And even then you're probably luckier than the kids who either lost their parents or were taken away from them probably not because of the actual abuse that may or may not have occurred and more likely because more middle class white couples want more kids in their home for aesthetics so the government wants their money. They suffer all the same things but at the hands of the state and they're stigmatized because why not! Most people subconsciously think they're broken, because they're vulnerable and no other reasons. Maybe your parents say at least you're not one of them, maybe sometimes you think you'd be better off that way but logic wins out and you know better. No system exists that will actually help children, because they're seen as a nonhuman class and are always at someone's mercy. In fact animals are more protected than you!

If your parents want they can find ways to monetize you and make money, both legally and illegally. No one cares and no one talks about it. You're now being treated like cattle but it's fine try not to think about it.

Then after everything, after 18 years where you're not seen as human, you're immediately expected to become an adult and keep up with them. Maybe you still live with your parents. Maybe they kick you out because they can do that too now. You desperately try to find ways to help the children in your life, or any children at all, without feeding into the system that dehumanizes them. Meanwhile people a few years older than you start to forget the past, forget the way they were treated or how it felt. They start to say children are the problem actually for being needy and messy and annoying. Some of them start having kids.

You sit helplessly with all of this and realize that you're unable to change a goddamn thing.

Obviously not everyone lives in a nuclear family or experiences this and not all parents are like this but that's the way society is setup to operate, that's the system that we've all normalized and take for granted as an unquestionable foundation of human societ and it's fucking horrifying.

[flying-elliska]

So i started binge-watching Superstore (currently in s4) and !!! i love it. it feels a lot like Parks and Rec except in a store, and more anti-capitalist.

first of all, i love Jonah so much. Not only is he very cute, he's also very relatable with his whole educated under-achiever, idealistic, well meaning but pretentious and frequently annoying thing, but in the end strives to be a kind person and an amazing friend. I love that he frequently comes over as an idiot trying to be super-woke (and the show generously makes fun of him for that) but he doesn't stop, and he also frequently really helps and inspires the people around him. I love Amy - America Ferrera has such a likeable vibe - she feels so real in all her glorious messiness. As the most reasonable, responsible person in a group of people who are all at least slightly insane she could easily be boring but her deadpan humor and chaotic streak make her so funny to watch instead and her 'perpetually done with this shit' expressions are gold. I love it when female characters who have been assigned the 'mom role' get to break out of that and explore who they are.

And those two as a couple are one of my new faves on TV. It's a slow burn, which I live for - it starts with a workplace rivalry where they're constantly roasting and pranking each other but you slowly start to see that they just really enjoy spending time together, getting up to all sorts of shenanigans and becoming partners-in-mischief - this is just too fucking rare in stories ! She grounds him and gets him out of his head, he is so supportive of her in small and big ways, encouraging her to take time for herself when nobody else does. They lean on each other when life throws all sorts of shit at them and make routine fun for each other, they immediately reach out to each other whenever there's trouble...i find that amazingly romantic, really. Like it doesn't really matter where you are or what you're doing as long as you're doing it with the right person. Goals. You see why they're in love like, a season before they realize it themselves, this is show over tell in a nutshell.

The politics of the show are also amazing. The tone is generally fun and trashy but it never misses an occasion to show how deeply shitty capitalism is, especially in the US - touching on stuff like anti-union politics in corporations, shitty healthcare, lack of maternity leave, ageism, etc... So the contrast between the zany shenanigans and the very dark/absurd undertone is amazing, just like the contrast between the corporate propaganda and how awfully the company treats its employees - it feels so real and refreshing and important. Like you have those people who are exploited by the company they work for in ways that create real suffering, but they're also fully rounded characters with complex lives and they manage to have fun and care for each other regardless of how they're not even treated like human beings - it all feels very humanizing. It's a rare narrative about working class jobs, I feel it's either 'ha hah look at those losers stuck in shitty jobs' or misery porn or inspirational bullshit about 'the grind'. This strikes a great balance of like, the conditions of these jobs are horrible, yes, (because of capitalism) but at the same time there is nothing wrong with being proud of doing a job that is essential for the daily lives of so many people, and it's worth telling stories about. The fact that it's a comedy allows them to go over some real insane shit and at first you're laughing and then later you're like 'oh my god this is so incredibly fucked up' and it's a great storytelling dynamic. It manages to combine light and dark humor in a great way.

My main criticism (i have to have one lol) is that some of the secondary plot-lines are frequently hit-or-miss, a bit blah or cringe-worthy or boring ; they rely too much on gross out humor for my taste (the boob cheese ??? whyyyyy) and some of the secondary characters are kind of annoying at times, even though they all have their moments of being awesome too. So I found myself skipping some bits (maybe it's also because I'm binge-watching and it can get a bit repetitive).

But yeah overall I'm really digging it and I feel this is going to end up being a new comfort-watch favorite.

[sleepyowlet]

Internalised Misogyny, Puritan Think, and Leftism

Guys, we need to have a talk. Brainvomit time! 

I've noticed a pattern going on, and a couple of days ago I was hit with that particular turd myself, so I finally sat down and wrote this thing. This goes out to my US American comrades in particular and everyone else it applies to. 

A few bullet points about myself so you'll understand my perspective here:

I'm turning 40 next year and I read Marx when most of you were still filling diapers.

I spent my formative years in a socialist country (the GDR) - proper socialism, not social democracy like the Nordic countries

I've always been a communist, I've never been anything else - I only added anarchism to my personal flavour a couple of years ago.

As such I have an outside perspective on capitalist propaganda

I grew up in a secular state that banned religion to the fringes and tried to get rid of cultural Christianity as much as possible. 

I love that you're coming to join our ranks. I'm fucking proud of you for shaking off the brainwashing you endured at school and at home to realise that humanity has to come together and get shit done. That you too came to the conclusion that everyone on this planet has the right to a peaceful, prosperous life in dignity. I'm absolutely ecstatic that there's more and more of you by the minute. 

But there are a couple of things you really, really need to leave by the door. This is not an attack, I'm just trying to show you something. 

Better informed people than me have already written about racism and antisemitism in leftist circles, about queerphobia and ableism. These are important aspects, but not what I want to talk about today. 

Today our topics are (internalised) misogyny and puritanism think. 

Y'all really need to stop judging people by what kind of fictional content they like. And you need to stop ridiculing and harassing women for completely harmless things like shipping. You call women Nazis and Fascism worshippers because they think that two particular fictional characters in a completely fictional universe should kiss, maybe. You say things like "X-shippers can't have good opinions". 

Tell me, do you take your male comrades to task like that? Do you shame them for loving games like Rome: Total War or Warhammer 40k? Games where you usually play as the imperialist/fascist regime? Do you dismiss any and all of their opinions once they admit they think character X in fandom Y is hot? Do you scrutinise their reading habits and their fandom posts? 

Spoiler: No, no you don't. And you shouldn't. 

So why do it when it's women? Why do it at all? 

You can dislike fictional things. Hell, you can even hate fictional things. There's fictional things I hate. But I don't go and judge people for liking those things. Because when it comes down to it, what they like is completely irrelevant and none of my fucking business. 

You let go of certain aspects of the brainwashing you got as kids, but some things just stick better than others. You got rid of the contents, but the framework of puritan imperialism is still stuck in your heads. You were taught in your youth that the thought of a crime is just as bad as actually committing it - so it follows that liking something in fiction means you approve of it in reality. 

That's bullshit. Full stop, throw the anchor, do not continue on that course. It's false, a fallacy, just plain not true. There's multiple psychological studies on that topic, mental exploration of dark things in fiction is good, actually, and makes it less likely we'd do those things in real life. Repressing shit? Now that's where the dog is buried. 

Another holdover of that kind of thinking is that women are somehow more at risk, and that depicting sexual deviancy is somehow more dangerous and insidious than graphic violence. So you'll accept that two characters or sides in a fictional story murder each other in various gruesome ways, but woe betide someone suggests they should kiss and make up. Basically, you might wanna do some soul-searching as to why you have deep, visceral, negative gut reactions to some things. Why do you flinch more if you read "fucking" and not so much when reading "kill"? 

Why do you get so angry at women for expressing sexual thoughts and desires, for exploring those in fiction? Harming exactly zero real people? Why do you use those proclivities, be they kink, shipping, or exophilia, to delegitimise and dismiss their thoughts on completely unrelated topics? 

You also hold your particular value system as superior to the value systems of other cultures. Newsflash, folks: Morality is not a nature constant like terminal velocity or light speed. It's subjective, and it's different from culture to culture, and you have no right to impose yours on others. You have no right to shit all over other people's value systems, blithely ignoring cultural and historical contexts that brought those about. 

Your visceral disdain for certain fictional things and the people enjoying them is just a mere symptom of something much, much worse. You are still caught in the mindset that made the Salem Witch Trials possible. You still adhere to the thought patterns that led to the rise of the Nazi regime. Someone once taught you, "This is bad, evil, and wrongsick." And you never questioned. You never inspected those beliefs for validity. I see you parroting whatever progressivism you hear, from "this ship is abuse" to "queer is a slur". And you don't think, you don't question. 

You need to start doing that.