#this is what they mean by alienation under capitalism right

[ooccoo]

A girl can take an excellent picture of her tits and have no one to share it with

[notsopersonalcharlie]

Don't Care, Belle

Biker!Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader fluff

Summary: Bucky is capital J-Jealous

Warnings: A guy being overly nice at a bar, drinking at 1pm, nothing else I can think of

Notes: Short little thing I thought of when i was visiting home and witnessing my sister's boyfriend be jealous lol. I just love jealous Bucky sorry not sorry. More Biker!Bucky here

“Oh hey sweetheart, you look lonely over here.” You looked up from where you were engrossed in the book you’d left behind the bar for days just like this, the crew was too busy to talk and the regulars weren’t your favorite. The man wasn’t a regular, not horrible looking and was dressed alright. You were confident he had stopped by because his car was in the shop. The demographic that frequented the bar that was not the vibe that this man was giving off.

“Oh you know, just waiting for my order,” you supplied with a polite smile. He had plopped himself onto the bar stool beside you and raised a two finger salute to Bruce, who was the daytime bartender.

“Waiting for your car?” he asked, “Nice girls like you don’t usually come around here.” Your eyes narrowed, an eyebrow going up.

“I’m a regular. And you? Waiting for your car? Since I haven’t seen you around.” Bruce came over, giving you a look that said ‘if this guy is bothering you I’ll toss him out’ and you knew he would. Bruce “The Hulk” Banner was not exactly known for his polite way of answering rude customers. You shook your head. No need to alienate a customer just because he got a little friendly at a bar.

“What can I get you, man?”

“Whatever IPA you have and whatever the lady is having I’ll put on my tab.” Bruce grinned at that and you were near protesting. You never paid for a thing at the Howling Commando, but you knew Bruce and you knew he was putting your lunch right on this guy’s tab.

“Sure thing.” Bruce turned away.

“Must just have not been around on the same days as you.” You glanced around the bar. It was pretty empty today, but it was still early. Your bosses had required you to use some of your PTO before they had to pay you out for it, and you were truly more than happy to oblige a staycation. After another glance around, Bruce still keeping an eye on you out of the corner of your eye, you decided it would be entirely harmless to engage in conversation.

“Not sure. I’m here every day. Basically. You here getting your car fixed?” You asked again. He gave you another sleazy smile, this one reminiscent of your male coworkers who thought they could get any more than a polite smile or handshake at a work happy hour.

“Waiting for my car yeah. Only place this convenient to get a decent bite and drink while waiting for them to get done.” As if on queue, Bruce slid over your usual burger and sweet tea, and then an IPA for the guy.

“Closed tab?” Bruce asked, putting his hand out for the card. The guy did a suggestive look over at you.

“You know? Keep it open.” You rolled your eyes at your sandwich, slightly regretting that you had begun a conversation with this man, and took a bite. Some of the tomato juice dripped down your chin and you snapped at Bruce to get his attention.

“You’re going to learn one of these days,” he sighed, tossing you a stack of napkins. You chewed and swallowed and then gave him a grin as he walked back over.

“You keep saying that, but I never do.”

“Good luck…” he looked at the tab as he slid it under a cup in front of the man, “Colin… you’re going to need it.” You took a sip of your sweet tea, you knew he didn’t mean good luck with you, or at least not the primary part.

“So you’re really a regular regular huh?” Colin was eyeing you with near a frown as he took the first sip of his beer. The clock behind the bar read a quarter past one.

“Yeah, lots of friends who work here. Just not usually in during the day. Sounds like you’ve been here before?” You took another bite before he could pivot the questioning back to you.

“Yeah, I’ve been before. They did a shit job though…” He started to ramble but you were quickly uninterested when the side door opened and a sweaty, grease stained Bucky Barnes walked in, squinting at a ticket.

“Paulson? Fucking Yelena and her handwriting. This is fuc-oh!” It was almost comedic to see Bucky go from a serious, frowning massive man to the grinning, golden retriever man he became when he looked at you. Bucky attention had turned squarely on you as he walked over, the ticket partially crumpling in his hand as he tried to wipe them off before he got over to you. The grease stains on some of your clothes were impossible to get out just from his grabby hands.

“Paulson, that’s me.” Both you and Bucky turned to Colin, as if he had just returned to existence. Bucky’s eyes narrowed, and you could see them flicker across the length of the empty bar then back to where Colin had seated himself beside you. He knew it had to be him that sat beside you because not two hours gone, Bucky had come in for some water and to smack a kiss to your lips right where you sat now.

All concern for grease stains went right out the window.

Bucky came up behind you, reaching over your shoulder to take a few fries off your plate, the hand with the crumpled ticket going around the other side to hand it to Colin, effectively entrapping you between his arms and away from the guy.

“Your car’s done. You can settle it up in the office.” Colin stared at Bucky, who after handing him the paper, wrapped his arm around you and pressed your back to his chest, chomping on fries and reaching for your sweet tea.

“Did they make your burger good?” Bucky asked, “The new cook got specific instructions.” You elbowed him lightly.

“I don’t need everyone thinking I’m a control freak.” Bucky laughed, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“They know I’m the control freak.”

“I guess… I guess I’ll go get my car then. Nice to meet you.” Colin left his mostly full IPA on the table and forgot to pay his tab, near running out the front door.

“What was that guys problem?” Bucky asked jokingly, spinning your stool so you were facing him. You wrinkled your nose.

“You’re stinky.”

“I don’t think you care,” Bucky rumbled, leaning down to press a long warm kiss to your lips.

“His problem was I was getting ready to deck him,” Bruce said, setting down a pint of Bucky’s favorite on a coaster beside your food. He whisked away Colin’s drink and wiped down the watermark.

“What did he do?”

“Nothing,” Bruce responded before disappearing back towards the kitchen. Bucky plopped onto the stool beside you and waited for you to respond.

“He was just trying to chat me up. That’s all.” Bucky sipped his drink before taking a massive bite out of your burger.

“Hey! That’s mine! Smaller bite!”

“I’m just taste testing the new cook.” You bickered over your lunch as the rest of the garage crew began to filter in, a few of the regulars making their way through the front as well.

“Heyo! I heard someone was trying to flirt with-“ Bucky hit Steve in the arm, but Sam had already heard it from where he was clocking in behind the bar.

“Is he dead?” he yelled. The group devolved into ways that Bucky could have murdered this man. All of you failed to notice Colin walking in the front door, where he paused and stared at the group of massive, tattooed bikers calling out forms of torture that could have been inflicted on him. Sam saw him first.

“Oh hey man, what can I get you?” Everyone turned toward him and Bucky got to his feet immediately, having been the only one who could have identified him.

“Just-“ the man’s voice came out high and you suppressed a grin, already feeling a little bad for him. He cleared his throat, face red.

“Just the tab I left.” There was a quiet murmur of “ooooos” as the group dispersed, keeping an eye on you and Bucky.

"Sorry," you started, but Bucky shifted around the side of the bar, picking up Colin's card where it was sitting by the register. Policy was 20% on any leftover cards and Bruce had already closed it out with your meal on there.

"Here. Get lost." Bucky's expression had gone dark.

"Buck, he didn't know."

"Don't care." Colin took a few steps back.

"Man, I wasn't looking for trouble. I didn't know she was your girl, she was talking to me too."

"Do. Not. Care." Colin fled under the close watch of the bikers.

"You didn't have to do that," you sighed, rolling your eyes at the men around you, "You're going to lose a customer."

"Don't care," Bucky muttered, back by your side, "You're mine, honey. Don't care what anyone else says."

"I am yours. He was just being nice." Sam had started the music for the night, and it whafted through the speakers.

"Dance with me, belle?" You laughed.

"When have I ever said no to that? In fact, kill me if I ever do because its an evil clone trying to take over my life." He laughed, the sound more than enough music to your ears for dancing. Bucky wrapped an arm around you and smacked a kiss to your lips, taking your hand and whisking you off to the dance floor.

[zvaigzdelasas]

"it was made by a person" does not absolve the image of sin, because by that logic every piece of ai art is ok actually. because obviously the ai could never just make art, the people using it to generate book covers so they don't have to pay an artist are actually typing in the description for what they want the ai to make. so it's ok !! a human told the ai to make that ❤❤❤❤

I mean. Other than the moralizing ("absolve of sin", "so it's ok!" etc)...Yes? Of course AI art is made by people?

Do you think AIs have agency or something? Do they find their own data and train themselves without a human telling it to? How does the AI pay for electricity?

If AIs have agency why can't they be Artists?

You're undermining your own position and actually fundamentally agreeing w the silicon valley tech bros lmao

If someone pays a human on Fiverr $5 to make a book cover in order to avoid paying someone a more reasonable price....thats basically the same moral situation right. If that guy on Fiverr is just choosing between 10 different templates he already has (and maybe copied from the internet!) and just changing the text on it, he is "typing what they want to make". What's the difference to paying someone $5 on Fiverr to generate a book cover for you using AI. Where's the moral difference, what does the tool have to do with anything.

AI doesn't have any agency, people do. AI is a tool. AI being used to lower prices is an economic choice made by humans.

A useful analytical framework to understand why this is the natural result of competition is actually Historical Materialism, which understands the social world as fundamentally existing of Humans, Human action, and Human relationships. Instead of trying to act like things like AI - spectral reflections of human labor - are "creatures" themselves, and tilting at windmills. Historical Materialism teaches not only why this happens, but how to overcome that process entirely.

In machinery, objectified labour materially confronts living labour as a ruling power and as an active subsumption of the latter under itself, not only by appropriating it, but in the real production process itself; [...]In machinery, objectified labour itself appears not only in the form of product or of the product employed as means of labour, but in the form of the force of production itself. The development of the means of labour into machinery is not an accidental moment of capital, but is rather the historical reshaping of the traditional, inherited means of labour into a form adequate to capital. The accumulation of knowledge and of skill, of the general productive forces of the social brain, is thus absorbed into capital, as opposed to labour, and hence appears as an attribute of capital, and more specifically of fixed capital, in so far as it enters into the production process as a means of production proper.[...]

In machinery, knowledge appears as alien, external to [the worker]; and living labour [as] subsumed under self-activating objectified labour. The worker appears as superfluous to the extent that his action is not determined by [capital's] requirements.[...]

Fixed capital, in its character as means of production, whose most adequate form [is] machinery, produces value, i.e. increases the value of the product, in only two respects: (1) in so far as it has value; ***i.e. is itself the product of labour, a certain quantity of labour in objectified form***; (2) in so far as it increases the relation of surplus labour to necessary labour, by enabling labour, through an increase of its productive power, to create a greater mass of the products required for the maintenance of living labour capacity in a shorter time. It is therefore a highly absurd bourgeois assertion that the worker shares with the capitalist, because the latter, with fixed capital (which is, as far as that goes, itself a product of labour, and of alien labour merely appropriated by capital) makes labour easier for him (rather, he robs it of all independence and attractive character, by means of the machine), or makes his labour shorter. Capital employs machinery, rather, only to the extent that it enables the worker to work a larger part of his time for capital, to relate to a larger part of his time as time which does not belong to him, to work longer for another. Through this process, the amount of labour necessary for the production of a given object is indeed reduced to a minimum, but only in order to realize a maximum of labour in the maximum number of such objects. The first aspect is important, because capital here -- quite unintentionally -- reduces human labour, expenditure of energy, to a minimum. This will redound to the benefit of emancipated labour, and is the condition of its emancipation.

Nature builds no machines, no locomotives, railways, electric telegraphs, self-acting mules etc. These are products of human industry; natural material transformed into organs of the human will over nature, or of human participation in nature. They are organs of the human brain, created by the human hand; the power of knowledge, objectified. The development of fixed capital indicates to what degree general social knowledge has become a direct force of production, and to what degree, hence, the conditions of the process of social life itself have come under the control of the general intellect and been transformed in accordance with it. To what degree the powers of social production have been produced, not only in the form of knowledge, but also as immediate organs of social practice, of the real life process.

Marx [PDF link]

[bioethicists]

hm i really hope that someone has said this better than me but the betterhelp ads (specifically the video ones, as the podcast ones tend to be less scripted) are such poignant examples of alienation + the role of 'go to therapy' in perpetuating that alienation. keep in mind that, if you personally found a therapist who is genuinely healing for you + that therapist happens to be through betterhelp- i'm genuinely happy for you + that experience does not invalidate anything i have to say below! (but jsyk they're trying to sell your shit to facebook lol)

starting strong w/ the fact that betterhelp is essentially the uber of therapy (aka using an independent contractor model which is harmful + predatory towards its providers), rushing in to fill the market on largely uninsured and/or uninformed ppl who want the ease of a concierge system without the cost + lacks a meaningful supervision system (which led to one gay man being recommended a conversion therapist when he asked for someone to help with his identity struggles, btw!). smarter people than me have written about the ways in which these trendy independent contractor apps strip people of labor rights, fail to provide adequate wages, + in the case of healthcare apps, increase digital surveillance + decrease accountability demanded from providers while exploiting the failure of the US healthcare system in order to churn a profit w/o actually creating sustainable, equitable change.

the betterhelp video ads all circle around a theme- a millennial starts talking about some form of emotional pain or worry, usually relatively standard existential worries ("do you ever think nothing has meaning?") or life worries ("i hate my job" "i think i'm gay"). their friends or the ppl around them respond blankly + coldly, looking at them like they're crazy. while i understand these ads are supposed to be tongue in cheek, they demonstrate the crushing reality of our alienation from one another- the solution to your friends responding to your evident pain with confusion + apathy is to confine that pain to a therapy session! nobody wants to hear your struggles or understands them- come generate profits for us by facetiming a newly graduated 24 year old who can barely make rent!

this theme fits well with what already put me off about betterhelp's marketing- their goal has never been to provide access to therapy for those who want it or to altruistically fill in some healthcare gap. their goal, bolstered by the rise in emotional suffering following, you know, the worldwide pandemic, is to generate + increase demand for therapy as a commodity. their earlier podcast ads focused on convincing others that therapy "isn't just for crazy ppl" + "everyone should be in therapy". regardless of if you personally agree with that statement, it should be evident that this is a blatant marketing tactic in which therapy is a commodity to be peddled, not an offer of support or healing. in fact, they're probably actively shying away from treating "crazy people", bcuz their flimsy support systems could not possibly handle an influx of ppl regularly in crisis or experiencing breaks with a common reality. their target audience is your average millennial under late capitalism + post COVID - anxious, lonely, vaguely depressed, unhappy with their jobs, worried + hopeless about their futures.

i'm not here to tell anyone not to get therapy. that's a personal decision + is none of my fucking business. it's about questioning the total alienation we feel from one another, such that pouring our heart our unexpectedly to a friend + being met with a blank stare is framed as "haha you need therapy" + not "it's crushing that this is how distant we are from one another". it's about a company noticing that (unfortunately very real) distance + fear of vulnerability + using that to direct our emotions into the confines of a business transaction under abusive labor conditions. it's about a world in which we are not engaging with one another emotionally (despite, or i guess bcuz of: widespread suffering, recent mass death, class warfare/untenable working conditions, increased pressure of fascist politics, generational trauma + abuse, etc etc). commodifying therapy isn't going to make that loneliness go away- it's going to normalize it.

[natalieh007]

Okay I am so into Camus and Sartre beef. So this is a little recap.

So Sartre was Marxist and Camus was not (he was in communist party but he got the fuck out as fast as he could). Also another problem Sartre believed that violence and wars could create greater good, on the other side Camus was all about a peace.

So they were friends (and rivals) for a while and then their different opinions started to show up. Then an argument broke out, but was initially confined to a relatively small group of mutual friends of the two of them. THEN Camus wrote a letter in which he wrote "hell is other people", it was kinda easy to imagine that he was referring to Sartre.

‘Absolute freedom is the right of the strongest to dominate,’ Camus wrote, while ‘absolute justice is achieved by the suppression of all contradiction: therefore it destroys freedom.’ The conflict between justice and freedom required constant re-balancing, political moderation, an acceptance and celebration of that which limits the most: our humanity. ‘To live and let live,’ he said, ‘in order to create what we are.’

That is what Camus wrote in The Rebel and Sartre was like “EWWWW” not very communist of Camus (as far as Sartre was concerned, he thought that it was possible to achieve perfect justice and freedom – that described the achievement of communism. Under capitalism, and in poverty, workers could not be free. Their options were unpalatable and inhumane: to work a pitiless and alienating job, or to die. But by removing the oppressors and broadly returning autonomy to the workers, communism allows each individual to live without material want, and therefore to choose how best they can realise themselves. This makes them free, and through this unbending equality, it is also just. THE PROBLEM is that, for Sartre and many others on the Left, communism required revolutionary violence to achieve because the existing order must be smashed.) And they were close friends at that time so instead of, I guess, TALK IT OUT like Sartre telling Camus „you know what ? I think the rebel was shit” and Camus being like „okay you epitome of hell” or just being like „we don’t have to agree on everything”, Les Temps Modernes – Sartre’s journal (it was edited by him) PUBLISHED LIKE FEW MOTHS AFTER THE LETTER a critical review of The Rebel - sold out three times over. And like it was year 1951 in which Sartre published just one work and it wasn’t successful BUT THE REWIEW FOR SURE WAS (Sartre’s diss track could be banger)

Anyways then Sartre wrote a public letter about Camus. He wrote that their friendship wasn’t easy but he’s gonna miss it AND THAT Camus is philosophically incapable ??

And that was a final straw so they never spoke to each other again.

BUT 15 years after Camus’s death Sartre was asked about their friendship AND Sartre said that Camus was probably his last good friend.

My conclusion is that if they were alive they would love mean girls (don’t ask me why.)

In case u didn’t read The Rebel or you don’t remember, in the book, Camus gave voice to a roughly drawn ‘philosophy of revolt’. This wasn’t a philosophical system per se, but an amalgamation of philosophical and political ideas: every human is free, but freedom itself is relative; one must embrace limits, moderation, ‘calculated risk’; absolutes are anti-human. Most of all, Camus condemned revolutionary violence. Violence might be used in extreme circumstances (he supported the French war effort, after all) but the use of revolutionary violence to nudge history in the direction you desire is utopian, absolutist, and a betrayal of yourself.)

[pandorahex]

The world is a scary place, isn't it?

You've been noticing it on the news. People going missing and showing up again days later with no memory of the time in between. Some were saying they were just depressed people having breakdowns and running away from their problems, others that aliens were involved! The official police story seemed to be some kind of drug craze, though the victims seemed to be denying that. But you thought nothing of it. The world is a scary place, after all. And you have so much to work on, after all.

Besides, victims was the wrong word really. When the people who vanished reappeared, their lives seemed to completely turn around. They were more confident, passionate, driven. They laughed more, the people around them couldn't help but notice how much happier they were. They spent a little bit too much time on their phones, but who doesn't these days, right? When people asked why, they'd just talk about how positive the support network the victims had formed was, how they were all building each other up.

Everything crashed to a halt when you got the call. They'd vanished, gone. Your crush, the person you spent so much time obsessing over and hoping would notice you back. Somebody had told the police you were close, they wanted to know if you knew anything? You mumbled out everything you could think of about when you last saw them, dimly aware that they might suspect you were involved, but too in shock to think about what that might mean. As you hang up the phone, there's a strange feeling in your chest. Fear, but also… excitement? A strange thrill.

And of course, like all the others, your crush came back. And just as you knew they would be, they were… different. They almost seemed taller, carrying themselves with a completely deserved confidence. But you, who knew them so well could see more than that. Their eyes, which you'd found yourself looking for any reason to lose yourself in. Such warm, caring eyes… but now? Sometimes you'd catch them staring at you, their eyes more like a lion watching a gazelle, waiting for its opening. Sometimes, you wouldn't catch them, but you knew their eyes were fixed on the back of your neck. Why did that excite you, rather than make you run for safety?

You were being paranoid. Just paranoia. Yeah.

But sometimes paranoia is justified. You knew that when your eyes snapped open in the middle of the night and you heard the spare key turning in the lock. There was only one person you'd given that key to. A desperate idea to get them to be more involved with you. Well, looks like it worked. The door to your bedroom opens and you can see them stood there, silhouette made all the more striking by the skintight black outfit clinging to every part of their body. But your gaze is drawn to the handcuffs dangling from one of their fingers.

"Are you going to come quietly, or do I have to use these? Maybe you'd be into that though… Oh, I'm so glad you get to meet Her!"

And you can really feel that capital letter. It burns in your mind somehow, you can feel their lips really make sure to pronounce it out. But overwhelming that feeling right now is the fear. It's just too much. You'll be embarrassed by this later, but you lunge towards them, trying to get past, to escape. In an instant, they had you against the floor, your wrists bound in those cuffs and a cloth coated in something intoxicating pressed against… your… mou-

Emptiness.

But with something more.

Blankness.

But with something more.

You stir. You feel cold, and you realise with a jolt that you're completely nude. The cold is only brought more into focus by the smooth, angled table your wrists and ankles are bound to with thick, metallic restraints. You're under a powerful, bright light but the rest of the room is almost pitch black. You can make out a large mirror on one wall, but nothing else.

No, something else. Someone else. A figure, stood on the edge of the circle of light. And through your hazy eyes, you see Her for the first time. And you realise with a shock of horror that you've just thought that capital letter. Why would you do that?

Why would you enjoy it so much?

Something in you struggles, a deep instinct from a prehistoric time. Fear courses through your body, you struggle uselessly against your restraints.

And She steps forward. Her body is perfect, but you see Her eyes most clearly. She opens Her mouth, Her lips so inviting, and She speaks:

"Mine."

And you don't hesitate for even a moment. Your will melts in an instant, your mind crumbles. She is your entire world, and everything falls into place for you. There is nothing you can't do, because She is burning in your mind. Her Words are the force behind your motivation, your love, your passion. With a moan from the deepest core of your very being, you answer:

"Yours!"

And She does exactly what you needed in that moment. She smiles.

Of course, you'll need a few more days to be perfect. To understand the sort of person to look out for. To understand what you really want. To share every hope and dream with Her.

And how much more achievable, exciting, incredible those hopes and dreams seem now. Knowing you'll be spending them at Her side.

The world is a pretty wonderful place, don't you think, My love?

[txttletale]

Hi Im a begginer marxist. I've read a few of his books and agree with his points, but there's something I don't quite understand yet as he hasn't addressed it all that much in the ones I've read so far which is: why do communists support wage equality? Although I definitely agree that every worker deserves the full product of ther labor, don't different jobs produce diferent amounts of value in the same period of time? And with supply and demand, wouldn't more necessary jobs still be paid more?

so the answer to this one is kinda just 'they don't, really'. communists are generally (in principle) opposed to the wage-form entirely. the marxist definition of a wage is 'the price of the commodity called labour-power'. that is:

Their commodity, labour-power, the workers exchange for the commodity of the capitalist, for money, and, moreover, this exchange takes place at a certain ratio. [...] The exchange value of a commodity estimated in money is called its price. Wages therefore are only a special name for the price of labour-power.

— Karl Marx, Wage Labour & Capital

alright, let's back up a bit. what does any of that mean? well, labour-power is a marxist concept that distinguishes 'labour' (that is, work, which is qualitative--work is done for a particular purpose, you labour to achieve something) vs. labour-power (that is, potential labour which is sold and therefore quantified--enumerated in hours or in finished products, the purpose of which is to receive compensation). unlike labour, labour-power is a commodity--which is to say, as well as a use value (it fulfils some kind of need or desire) it has an exchange value (it is exchanged for other commodities).

so 'wages' are the price of labour-power. what exists here to 'oppose', exactly? well, it's the very act of buying and selling labour-power, because labour-power is worth more than its price! that is, unlike every other sort of commodity, it is productive--when you purchase labour-power, that labour-power generates for you more value than you paid for it (e.g., when a starbucks barista is paid $10 an hour for a five-hour shift, they produce far more than $50 in profit by making and selling coffee). this is the fundamental economic engine of capitalist exploitation

however, the answer to this exploitation is not so much that 'workers deserve the full product of their labour', as you put it. one of the fundamental injustices of capitalism is that for the eight hours (or more!) of the day that one spends labouring, you have no control over your life or your work. you are selling this time of your life to somebody else--they have quite literally bought these hours from you. you are not spending them doing what you are doing, but spending them making money so that you can survive--you're alienated from the actual actions you take and product you produce, which become fungible and irrelevant.

in a communist (i.e. classless society), this sale of labour would no longer take place. you would not work to make money (that is, at a price, which is to say, for a wage)--your life would be your own and you would work to accomplish that which you are working towards. builders would not build houses so that they could get paid, but so that there would be houses for people to live in.

"alright, but that's pretty far-off, right?" yep! the abolition of the wage is not by any means a short-term or immediate goal. so do revolutionary socialist states in a transitional economy support total wage equality? nope. and it's not because of any bourgeois guff about some jobs being 'more important' than others--it's certainly not because of 'supply and demand', which is not a natural law but simply a law of the functioning of a labour market.

to understand why not every job would be compensated equally under socialism, let's take a look at how prices emerge. sure, every commodity's price is influenced by supply and demand. the more people are competing to buy it, the more necessary it is that each buyer outbids the others and so the higher the price. likewise, the more people are competing to sell it, the more necessary it is that each seller finds a means of of undercutting the other and so the lower the price.

but hold on--higher in relation to what? lower in relation to what? if supply & demand led to a potato costing $600, you'd probably say 'that's a fucking ridiculously high price for a potato'--but why? 'high' and 'low' are relative terms--supply and demand can drive prices 'up' or 'down' but they must be driven 'from' something. and that's simple--the basic price of a commodity is the cost of producing it. you expect a potato to be significantly less than $600 because it costs significantly less than that to grow one (1) potato.

what does that mean for wages (remember, they're just the price of labour-power)? the cost of producing labour-power (the potential to work) is, to be blunt, the cost of keeping the worker in question alive, able to have and raise children, and in a condition to work. now that last point is quite important--because there are some jobs that can be done by anybody with a warm body, and there are others that can only be done with years and years of training. you can get anyone off the street and get them to wait tables, even if they'll obviously not be as good as somebody who's done the job for a long time. you can't do the same with nuclear physicists or plumbers.

so--even in absence of the capitalist labour market (the competition betwen employers to buy labour and the competition between workers to sell it) the cost of producing labour-power is going to vary across jobs. it costs more to produce an hour of a doctor's labour than it does a waiter's, not because the doctor is more worthy or important a profession, but because that hour of labour is prefigured by years of medical school.

tldr: under communism, there will be no wages. under socialism, wages will vary according to their cost of production (and not according to prestige, or supply and demand) so long as some sort of exchange-economy is still maintained.

[determinate-negation]

Hey RE: astrology fascism

I'm really shocked to hear about this history, and now I'm feeling like an awful person for being interested in astrology. I genuinely didn't know about the history, I really didn't know that I was supporting fascism. How can I undo the damage I've done with my interest?

genuinely i mean no offense but i dont get why people think about things in these terms. i dont really know what you can do or undo that would have an impact. saying astrology is fascist is kind of a meme, adorno who is a notorious pessimist, wrote like all these essays tearing the LA times astrology section to shreds, its a sweeping statement but its not entirely wrong. the recourse to occultism, mysticism, and irrationalism is part of the dialectical process of capitalist development- industrialization, commodification of life, demystification, to use webers term. historically, its indicative of a contradiction between the development of modernity in europe and the dominance of enlightenment philosophy, positivism, and secularism with the real sense of alienation and proletarianization brought about by capitalism and the developing cultural industry. thus people seek mystical and esoteric solutions to a problem of psychological life under capitalism. it has particular historic connections to the radical right but im making a historical point not a moral verdict overall on anyone who engages. it will never disappear as long as capitalist alienation and exists and i think its especially indicative of pre-fascist elements in society but not directly correlative to someone being a fascist

[alpaca-clouds]

Why do "conservatives" love the middle ages so much?

Let me talk about this one topic regarding the middle ages and how they are portrayed in pop culture, but especially how a certain subset of people are very, very loud about it. And I with that I mean conservatives, or - let's be honest - right wingers.

We all know "sword guys", right? As someone, who was for a time part of the LARP scene, I knew actually several "sword guys". Like, nerds that collect sword replicas, at times even armor replica and then spend their weekends running around and playing "medieval knight".

In of itself this is not a problem. Everyone needs a hobby, right? But... I think that sword guys are actually a good window into what is happening the entire thing with the conservatives/right-wingers and the middle ages.

See, whenever anything medieval related is released anywhere - no matter whether it is pseudo-historic or outright fantasy - there is gonna be a wholeass army of nerds who will then come along and decry all sorts of stuff that they do not like as "ahistorical".

You know. Stuff like women getting shit done, or being in a position of power. Queer people existing. Or people of color doing the same: existing.

And yes, in fact there is a whole subset of "nerds", who are very vocal about what can only be described a "mythic past". As in, a past that has never existed. This is not really a new phenomena. This is something that mostly has its origin in 19th century Europe and it is called Medievalism.

I am not really interested in going into the origins of medievalism and how it is connected partly to the romantic movement. All you need to know is, that the Nazis were really, really into it - as were other fascist movements in medieval Europe.

There is a reason for this, of course. And this is linked to one of the cores of rightwing mythologies: A very toxic nostalgia and the idealization of that mythic past. Which is, ironically, also closely linked to capitalism.

Let me explain: A core part of both conservatism and ideas that are even further right are based on the idea that they want to either conserve a status quo - or more likely return to a past status-quo. And this is something that became more attractive specifically to a certain subsect of men under capitalism.

Under capitalism most people kinda feel alienated from their work and even society. Because most people feel like there is not much use in what they do and their work is not valued in all the important ways. And let me be clear: This is true. And this was true from the very beginning of capitalism. The working class is exploited, was exploited and always will be exploited.

This is also one of the core reasons for why right wing ideologies are so attractive to certain people is, that they give them an easy scapegoat in all the minorities they are blaming for... everything. "No, the problem that you are exploited is not capitalism, it is a Jewish conspiracy!" - "No, the reason you feel so alienated is not capitalism, it is 'the woke mob'." And so on.

And here is where medievalism comes in. Because it provides these people with a fantasy for them. A time where all was right (from their point of view) and where they would have been honored and could have been heroes. A time when they would have been knights and would have saved their distressed damsel. A time at which the gays were hung or burned, in which there was no feminism and of course Black people did not yet exist.

Of course, the reality is that in the medieval times they would not have been a heroic knight, but a peasant working on the field or - if lucky - maybe a tradesman. They might have been called in to fight, but it would have been a rather miserable and not at all heroic affair.

But they want that fantasy of that past in which all of the problems, they perceive in the present, have not existed. A past, in which they would have been seen as more valuable than capitalism sees them. In which they would have been honored just for being white guys.

This is a past, that never existed. But they want to believe in it - because right wing ideologies of course do not offer them any actual solutions for their problem. Because again: Their actual problem is capitalism, and right wing propaganda exists precisely to distract from this fact.

[radioactive-metal]

the Fold

ok last post for the day. Tonight’s topic: the Fold.

So we don’t know very much about it beyond:

Color doesn’t work in there

it causes psychosis and hallucinations

it lets you travel much faster than light speed.

so this is cool right? However, that’s all we know. Therefore, my theory is such:

The fold is a higher dimensional space.

due to this, light acts differently, I.E it can go faster, and given our eyes were designed for light to go at a reasonable Mach Jesus, it makes sense that in higher dimensions, given that light presumably goes Mach Jesus 2 electric boogaloo, our eyes don’t work as well.

therefore, the parts of our eyes that see color (called Cones) don’t work with higher dimensional light, because it have wavelengths in 4 dimensions, and so color doesn’t work as we would expect it to. Things still have color, but we can’t Perceive it.

given that the speed of light is different, and things can move in extra dimensions, this also means that electricity would probably do some really ****ed up things. Like giga wonk stuff, because electrons aren’t capped by stuff like “the speed of light” and “three dimensions”

therefore, maybe fold psychosis is induced by 3D neurochemistry having a violent and extreme reaction to electrons not working how they are supposed to.

this screws Everything (capital E everything) up. Synapses fire wrong, and places that require high volume transmission over (relatively) long distances (auditory, visual, and sensory cortexes) get really stuffed up.

this would cause the hallucinations and presumably, eventually psychosis, because ya know, the bits of your brain that connect to your body don’t work very well.

under 25’s aren’t as afflicted because their brains aren’t quite finished developing, and so can somewhat adapt to weird things happening. However it requires exposure, and so aurora trainees (and most school children) are exposed to some level of folding, to give them sea legs, for want of a better word.

but even under 25’s need breaks. My theory is because the brain expends a whole lot more energy just sending signals, because electrons fly off into extra dimensional space or shoot through the third dimension and screw with things, people in the fold basically experience the power draw of being awake at 150% speed, so for every minute of being alive, the body has to spend what would normally be 1.5 minutes of energy. This is why scar is compulsively snacking on the cookies on the Zero. Her body is basically burning 50% more calories than it should be, due to near constant exposure to the fold.

also it’s full of grandparent alien’s old dusty ass glassware. For some reason.

Also a ton of my reasoning here draws from the Three Body Problem series and that one really old story about the dimensions, shape world or shape land or something.

[lotus-tower]

it’s not that there aren’t very real challenges and difficulties that come with covid mitigation

but at the core of it even the measures that require no imagination would be highly effective in driving down transmission, which would in return make other activities that are more difficult to mitigate infection risk for less risky

like we’re sitting here pretending we don’t understand the concept of ventilation or filtration, or that the idea of staying home when sick is weird and alien, or that it’s inconceivable that putting something on your face that filters air will reduce sickness. and we’re pretending that it’s normal for people to get sick at the hospital because hospitals are overflowing and have so many outbreaks happen in them. we’re acting like doing things outdoors or opening the windows is a concept that has never been seen before.

there are many ways we could transform society into one that respects disabled people and that values health and well-being over profit, but that’s honestly not even on the table at the moment. what we’re talking about is rejecting the use of ordinary tools and technologies that have literally been used for decades. I’ve heard about teachers and healthcare workers who purposefully go out of their way to turn off air filters that have been bought for them. repeatedly, every day. I’ve watched a video where a farmer wore an N95 to clean the chicken coop due to particles, but took it off to go to the store.

what’s happening right now isn’t just “people did the calculation and decided money is more important than people’s lives” in a pure rational way. because that’s not how capitalism works anyway. we all know by now that happy workers are more productive, some companies saw good results when going remote for the first time under lockdown, etc. but the goal is to control workers as a class, and to preserve the status quo.

obviously, long covid will cost more to the economy than updating ventilation will. obviously, children who are sick all the time won’t perform as well at school. obviously, reducing infection would reduce the burden on collapsing hospitals. prevention is always cheaper than attempted treatment. but these facts don’t mean anything. people are ideologically committed to covid denialism to such a degree that it’s pushed them to do utterly absurd things. they’re overcorrecting like crazy in order to try to get to the 2019 “normal” state.

people are trying to gaslight us into believing that we were always sick all the time, that measles is a normal winter illness like the flu, that PPE measures were like this before the pandemic. scientific research and facts aren’t going to convince these people.

and it’s just ridiculous because the situation at hand is literally one where improving air quality, a multipurpose measure with no downsides whatsoever, is a no-go specifically because it could reduce covid, whether that’s the stated goal or not, and they balk at the idea of accidentally reducing covid transmission.

meanwhile, private bioscience firms are trying to invent ridiculously complex long covid treatments with hundreds of millions of funds from rich sponsors. and that’s okay, because that’s a Thing. rich genius saviors are always okay. but opening the windows for free? for prevention? to prevent getting the untreatable illness to begin with? that’s weird and unfathomable

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

hello! I really liked your character analysis, especially Hobie and the interactions with Diane (she´s very groovy and beautiful n.n) so, I wanted to ask you if you think Hobie could make good friends with someone with a symbiote and the symbiote itself, my spidersona (symbiotesona?) is one of those. I know there´s some story between Hobie and symbiotes in his universe but I couldn't find the comics where it is explained.

You're amazing and keep going!

Oh absolutely!

Especially for Hobie - He has a symbiote dog!

Hobie is accepting of everyone (he's the best I love him) even symbiotes!!

In his universe, V.E.N.O.M was used in his universe as a weapon for President Osborn's police force - but I think Hobie would see the underlying greed and cruelty of the cops as the problem, and not the symbiote.

If anything I think he'd really respect your sona -

Cause that takes a lot of mental fortitude, and moral and strength in general so he'd be like 'That's fucking metal.'

If there's side effects, or conflict between your sona and the symbiote - I think he'd always want to help, and would like, speak to them as separate people lol

He knows that sharing the same body doesn't make them the same person, and that your sona was full person before the symbiote, so he would see them as a Duo - like two partners in crime.

He'd be really careful about his music playing and volume cause he wouldn't want to hurt your sona, so he would always give a heads-up.

Diane would be SO interested - and she'd probably have to think about SO MUCH, get prepared for a lot of questions!

Diane is pretty clever - but a little naive, so she'd be solidly in the 'All Aliens Come in Peace.' Star Trek started in 1966 - so Diane basically grew up with it around.

A symbiote is something alien, so it can't be murderous and evil - even if it eats people. It's not from here!! Don't be mean to them!!!

If your symbiote eats people, or needs meat, Diane would..honestly not be that freaked out. She'd have to think about it.

"So, Do you eat people on your planet?"

"Well, I guess that's not too bad. I mean..some people have a pet pig, some people eat pig, some do both. So it's like..the same, right? Not that you see humans as pets, you know -"

If humans can not snap and eat their pets and stuff, maybe this symbiote knows food from friends like them! If anything, Diane would be upset if people rushed to judge your sona OR the symbiote.

Her defense : "They didn't ask to come to this planet!" or Hobie's favorite -

"Why are you shaming them! They're not the only immoral ones. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism!!"

Hobie knows she is just repeating something she heard him say one time - and that is NOT what that phrase means, but he thinks its funny, so he lets her say it.

The three (four - actually) could have so much fun!

Hobie would probably get them hearing protectors so they can hang out backstage without getting hurt.

And y'all can deck it out with cool stickers and punk marker graffiti!

And although beef and stuff probably doesn't compare, Diane would still try making stuff like beef tartare, koi soi, or other raw meat dishes, just to see if they like 'em!

She LOVES sushi, so sashimi is a must to try - She'd want everyone to feel included at the potluck - it's only right, nobody leaves hungry!!!!

[Also thank you so much for the sweet words!!! I know I take literally forever to go through my inbox (it takes me very very long and im gonna point at adhd) but these things really brighten my day and give me the inspiration to keep sharing. It means a lot, thank you!!]

[susandsnell]

What are your top five horror movies?

<3 thanks so much for sending this Mira! while some of my answers may appear a bit obvious in hindsight, narrowing it down to my top 5 was a lot more challenging than I thought!

Top Five Horror Movies!

Under the cut because I can be a wordy bastard!

5. Noroi: The Curse (2005), dir. Kōji Shiraishi: Ultimately, it came down to Noroi for me over Blair Witch because the mockumentary style lends it a lot more cohesion as a narrative and a very polished feel. Some cheesy effects notwithstanding, Noroi hits the platonic ideal of found footage in that it utilizes its multimedia elements and medium to craft a classic ghost story grounded and entrenched in modernity. I'm obsessed with the role of the archivist/the use of documentation in horror (as I've talked about many times, and as is the appeal of Dracula and countless other works), and that's on full display here with the pieces of the mystery coming together through reality television clips, talking head interviews, and a video-within-a-video archiving a ritual gone very wrong. The storytelling is methodical, spreading out the scares sparingly yet threading them together with such a crushing sense of dread. Like other works of Japanese horror, the thematic battle between the mythic and modernity, the consequences of modern alienation over the collective, and urbanization encroaching on the natural are at the forefront of the film, but the found footage conventions imbue it with such a subtlety you're too focused on the characters and their plight to even catch onto this on first viewing. (Should the spiritual be trifled with? Should the natural world give way to modern development? Should the outcast or the outstanding be made a spectacle of by those more integrated into society?) On that note, you grow an attachment to every single one of the characters and are right there with them trying to solve the mystery and hoping against hope they will prevail. And the atmosphere makes this one an absolute must for October watches; shades of analog horror used sparingly and delightfully, all the wanderings of Blair Witch, the supernatural desperation of Ringu/The Ring, and something that's just all its own. Some argue that found footage horror is stylistically limiting, but Noroi showcases what it can be at its best - that is, the bare-bones terror of stumbling on something horrific in broad daylight, and catching it on tape.

4. American Psycho (2000), dir. Mary Harron: The best horror comedy out there to date! This satirical send-up of yuppie culture and consumerism's lending itself to the desensitization and dehumanization of oneself and others in the quest for meaning in a society where it all comes down to capital is beloved with good reason. Genuinely hysterical kills and endlessly quotable scenes aside, the use of music in this piece is a masterstroke that many other films utilizing needle drops have only barely tried to imitate, and it remains one of the most effective presentations/deconstructions of misogyny put to film. Christian Bale is at his best here, leading a whole cast who's at the top of their game; each scare is played to perfection, and I even love the ambiguity of the controversial ending - it serves to drive home the futility and meaninglessness the whole film slowly but surely draws back the curtain on as the underbelly of the life of the hyper-successful during the era. The final conversation being about Reagan drives it all home in a way that plays as a bit on the nose today, but like with the more provocative or controversial moments, is so delightfully so you can't help but dance along to Huey Lewis. 3. The Fly (1986), dir. David Cronenberg: Cronenberg's masterpiece! A guttingly romantic Kafkaesque tale of illness horror, reflective of the time's anxieties around the AIDS crisis but also classic horror themes of scientific hubris and shades of Faust and of course, Cronenberg's preoccupation with abjection of the body, this film is truly one-of-a-kind. The fear of intimacy and fear of illness, the destruction of your lover (all contextualized with deeper tragedy by the era in which the film was made) are woven together so deftly in a film that uses classic B-movie conventions to strike upon deeper truths while also remaining hilariously funny. Cronenberg is by no means subtle, but in an age where every horror film feels the need to not only be About Something but announce it's About Something and hamfistedness is the name of the game, I really do appreciate the elegance in the commentary on gender politics, relying on symbolism and the characters' relationship dynamics to convey ideas of toxic masculinity and female autonomy and queerness and alienation. It's sexy, it's wrenchingly sad, it's the absolute best.

2. Hereditary (2018), dir. Ari Aster: Aster's nearly-instant popularity has lent all his films greater scrutiny, but this film blew me away the first time I saw it. Toni Colette gives a tour de force (and frankly, Oscar-snubbed) lead performance as a disturbed grieving mother seemingly unable to escape the patterns of fear and abuse that make the 'family curse' that is the subject of this film take on dimensions all its own. The portrayal of grief as horror is something that speaks to me very personally, and this gorgeously shot work presents this concept at its most poignant. Everyone and their mother (please imagine Toni Colette barking the word with pure venom) has talked about the end of the first act 'twist', but the execution rocked me to my core upon first viewing. I will never forget the way the pit of my stomach dropped out watching the lingering shot of Peter's empty, frozen face drag out for over a full minute. Gore and jumpscares abound as is an Ari Aster mainstay, but they're used effectively here; what takes centre stage is the characters and their relationships, performed to pitch perfection by every single actor. Alex Wolff deserves a particular shout-out, balancing teenage ne'er-do-well impassiveness with the warmth of a genuinely caring big brother until the great tragedy and the slow, encroaching terrors of its aftermath slowly but surely push him into a regressive, childlike state of terror. It's about grief, it's about the family curse and family secrets, it's about becoming your parent, your grandparent, your sibling, it's about mental illness (and how it's not taken seriously in women), but mostly it's about the joys of a nice family dinner.

1. Carrie (1976), dir. Brian de Palma: You all knew this one was coming, but I can never run out of good things to say about it. While there are perhaps films that boast greater spectacles, feats of special effects, tighter editing, more profound themes or more abstract/debatable symbolism, Brian de Palma's Carrie is the horror film I will always rank as my favourite. Stephen King's inverted Cinderella storyof the hellscape that is adolescence is granted operatic tragedy grandeur by a perfect cast, an unforgettable score, mind-blowing setpieces and imagery that I am happy to say will stay burned in my brain forever. The use of tension and buildup through the entire Prom sequence needs to be taught in schools, particularly with how it leaves you laughing one moment, moved to tears the next, then gripping the edge of your seat. Each scene is given either a dreamy or nightmarish tone that makes it instantly iconic. The sensuality of blossoming sexual awakening contrasted with the gutting mundane horrors of bullying and abuse played relentlessly set up perfectly for the tonal shifts later in the story between the romantic haze of prom and the hellscape made by Carrie's act of vengeance. The camp moments of the film heighten the jarring scares of the final act, and the forays into 70s teen comedy (yes, even with the goofy split-screens and fast-forwards) ground it in a relatability that makes it the horror classic. Every adaptational change from the book is either for the better for storytelling flow, or is at least impossible to imagine the film without. (As sad as I am that we don't get the book ending with this Carrie and Sue having their moment of connection, there's something so shatteringly tragic of Carrie in her final moments sheltering in the prayer closet that was her prison, clinging to the body of the mother who tormented her for comfort, and the cutting to the angry painted eyes of Saint Sebastian is an instantly unforgettable horror image). The denomination/sect of Christianity followed by the White family is unclear from the book, but the choice of de Palma to make them offshoot Catholics allows for so much integration of art history and its frightening images -- the use of the Last Supper behind Carrie and Margaret's dinner scene! don't know if it's the absolute first horror film to employ the Final Jumpscare, but certainly, it's one of the earliest and most memorable examples. Sissy Spacek in the titular role is an absolute revelation and maybe my favourite performance in all of horror media. Much has been said about her study of Catholic martyr art to end every scene in the pose of a person being stoned to death, but she runs the full gamut of emotion, of teenage suffering, of victimhood and villainy, and you are with her for the entire ride. The Catholic martyr art is apt, because her expressions evoke Falconetti as Joan of Arc, and Carrie is nothing if not a subverted Joan. Many say she's far too conventionally beautiful to play Carrie, and while it's true Hollywood is going to Hollywood, no actress has so successfully embodied the aching sweetness, the haunting disturbance, the yearning for love and the burning divine retribution that make her at once one of horror's most memorable monsters and one of its tragic heroines. Piper Laurie is terrifying and campy and hilarious as Margaret White, our villain for the evening, Nancy Allen is delightfully loathsome as Chris, Betty Buckley gives Ms. Collins some real good-natured toughness (questionable methods of handling teens notwithstanding), and Amy Irving lends Sue the exact groundedness and good intent you get from her book counterpart. Carrie has been the refuge for many a queer and/or outcast teenager, and it will likely remain that way for years to come. Thanks so much for this!!

[yonpote]

another thing is like... under capitalism, business success and wealth begin to alienate you from others who don't have that. and that alienation can feed into greed, like why not keep investing and making business deals and buying expensive stuff? and no one around is really going to call you out because they are either capitalist hacks or maybe people who once struggled who now rely on you.

so like, I don't inherently expect much from creators like dnp who come into money. even though they probably have more financial freedom than many other creators because of all the tours, books, games, etc (because they are good at business!)

so like, as their fans who ultimately are their consumers, I think it's good to call them out, especially because they have shown before that they have good intentions.

am I expecting much from them? no. wealth can be corrupting and speaking out comes with risk to business/career interests. but they have a special relationship with their audience, as we're mostly all fellow queer and neurodivergent people with similar interests. so we can provide feedback and be the ones to try to ground them and be like "hey that wasn't cool please do better." stopping engagement with them and their content entirely doesn't really do anything to help, unless they did something they needed to absolutely be deplatformed for. stopping engagement is a valid personal choice, but when I see stuff that begins to resemble like 'they aren't being activists right now time for everyone to unstan' I'm like... if that makes you feel better, fine, but I would rather parasocially / affectionately be like "hey I expect more from you!" in a way that is constructive. which is something I would want to do with my friends, but the difference is, if my friends didn't change or try to then I probably would distance myself from them. Whereas Dan and Phil are entertainers we don't now irl, we have a different relationship with them. but compared to many other creators, they really do tend to be more sensitive to their audience (which has helped their success).

but so this time the (mostly leftist) phannies calling them out actually got them to do a fundraiser so that's cool! even if it's because of the backlash like, that's what the point of backlash is! we should want people to change behavior. not to just abstractly punish them, for something they could be unlikely to do without pressure. though hopefully it will lead to less instances of having to pressure them.

idk this brings up interesting stuff about parasocial relationships, the transactions between creators and their audience, and capitalism. so of course I had to rant about it for a sec lol.

thats completely true! thank u for the rant lol but yeah i dont want to come across as being like, NEVER EXPECT ANYTHING FROM YOUR FAV CREATORS it was more like, with dnp specifically we know where their heart is i guess so it can be unnecessary to call for whatever. BUT you're absolutely right in that they probably wouldn't have done a charity stream were it not for pressure from fans. and maybe this is ME being parasocial but i'd like to think that this isn't for damage control or performativism (i mean it is a LITTLE cuz any publicity is a little bit abt looking good) but rather like, putting their money where their mouth is basically! and showing to their core audience like hey we care about this thing too and we fully hear you.

i was thinking about this General concept wrt dnp because i think there have been other moments where dnp were called out about something or criticized for like their more offensive humor and they stopped doing that and educated themselves which is better than most creators who put up fakeass apology videos. ive seen a lot of ppl say they want dan to talk about and apologize for his racist and sexist humor (and honestly only asking dan but not bringing up that phil also had his share of racist jokes) but it's like. at this point what further could he say? he's not a 21 year old shit head anymore (and yeah good for you for being a socially aware 21 y/o in 2024 but that offensive humor literally was just the culture of that time period) and they both have SHOWN that they have grown and even talked about it in like the pinof react video where they talked about "yeah we bullied kristen stewart a lot cuz it was just popular to make fun of her and justin bieber and that really sucks that we did that" like they have changed and shown change! they do not need to make a grand apology statement cuz like if you wanna talk performativism then lets talk about the fakeness of basically every apology video on the internet????

sorry thats unrelated to what u were talking abt but it just made me start thinking BUT YEAH THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOT TAKES!!!!

[noonaishere]

Music of the Heart [J.YH] - seventy-two | she’s a me

You walked into the studio.

“Sorry I’m late. My bus had a thing, and I had to wait for another one, and then there was traffic… What are you two doing?”

Hongjoong and Maddox were surrounded on all sides of the desk by papers.

“We got song submissions and we’re getting ready to listen. Put your stuff down.” Hongjoong said as he got the first cd ready.

You did as he said and pulled out a notebook, maybe you’d have something to make notes about.  Hongjoong put the cd in the computer and pressed Start.

“My name is Yujin. I’m sixteen. Um---”

She sounded so young. Hongjoong frowned and looked at the pile CDs. 

“How’d this get in here?” He asked as he flipped over the case it was in and looked at the back.

“What?” You asked.

“This is supposed to be song submissions from the producers we normally work with. This is from a bunch of kids in a band.”

“Maybe it was an accident?” Maddox offered.

Hongjoong shut it off.

“Wait--” You said.

He turned to you.

“Can we listen to it at least?”

He nodded and started it again.

“My name is Yujin. I’m sixteen. Um… I play bass… okay.” She laughed awkwardly. “Okay, I mean… I just started. But I’ve been practicing really hard and I’ve written a few songs with some friends of mine, and… if Wonderland is looking for a group of teenagers who want to speak their minds and make the world a better place through music… look no further. Are you ready guys?”

“Yeah!” Three other voices joined her.

“One! Two! One, two, three, four!” 

The drummer counted and they all started playing… reasonably well. It wasn’t stellar, you wouldn’t even call it great, but for a bunch of teenagers who hadn’t been playing that long, it was better than okay. The fact that they submitted an original song was what really wowed you; they seemed to understand how to structure a song already and the lyrics weren’t half bad. At the very least they weren’t hackneyed or cliché.

“What is this?” You asked.

“Let me check if they sent any notes or anything…” Hongjoong sorted through the papers on the desk as he looked for it. Maddox also looked and eventually found them, handing them to Hongjoong.

“It says… they’re a band of four called ONIIX? Two boys and two girls.” He read the notes for a moment before handing it to you. “Holy shit, read what she wrote.”

There was a huge paragraph about their concept: how the members were aliens and looking for galactic peace, but that they had been stranded on earth and there was something they had to fight which - really - was just a thinly veiled metaphor for capitalism.

You chuckled.“I get the distinct feeling one of them had to read Ayn Rand during English class at some point and hated it.”

“Why?”

You smiled. “Because who actually likes Ayn Rand?”

He tilted his head in agreement. “You’re not wrong.”

“I’m very right.” 

He chuckled.

You went back to reading the notes. You were pleasantly surprised at how creative someone as young as these kids could be. How creative any kid could be if they were allowed. Something in you was almost jealous; you wished you had the opportunity to make your own decisions about the world at their age. All you had really got as far at that time was, ‘Everything sucks and nothing matters’ but that was just because you were being ground down under your mother’s boot and were under parental house arrest for almost half a year until graduation. Even after that, you had a hard start to your adulthood because all you had was the money in your pocket, a suitcase half-filled with clothes, and your bass. You definitely empathized with their hatred of capitalism because of that.

And who wouldn’t want to make the world a better place?

“They listed a bunch of influences, look at the American bands they picked.” You handed it back to him.

He read: “Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Rage Against the Machine…”

“Oh, you like them,” Maddox pointed out.

He nodded. “The Cramps, Nirvana, Lunachicks, L7, Bikini Kill…”

“Quite the punk rock appetite.” You said.

He nodded.

“What they’ve submitted doesn’t sound explicitly punk though.”

He nodded again. “Much more rock, but not particularly indie or pop.”

You nodded. “I wonder if that’s a stylistic choice or just their lack of ability.”

He nodded as he looked at you.

You didn’t know what to do, so you nodded again.

Maddox laughed. “Are you two communicating?”

Hongjoong continued to look at you.

You looked at Maddox, who shrugged, and back to Hongjoong, who now had an eyebrow raised.

“What?”

“...Would you want to train a bassist?”

You laughed. He couldn’t be serious.

He continued to look at you passively. He was serious.

 “Would that mean a new job title as well?” You raised an eyebrow.

He smiled. “I think I can finagle another pay line.”

“Ha… You trying to make me indispensable or something?”

He smiled. “I think… if we have a bunch of ‘Fuck the System’ kids who want to make music because they love it… you should be the one to teach the one who plays the same instrument as you.”

“Oh… I’ve never taken classes. I don’t know if I could teach it.”

“I’ve never taken production classes and yet I’m teaching you music production.”

“...Oh.”

Hongjoong smiled.

You looked at all the papers all over the desk as you thought. Could you teach someone to play bass? You’d have to look up lessons online or something to see how other people did it. But also: ‘Should you teach someone?’ was maybe the better question.

“You don’t have to decide now,” Hongjoong said, your eyes snapping to him. “We have to listen to all of the song submissions anyway, but we’ll hold onto this on the side.”

You nodded as he put the CD and its paper in his drawer.

“I’ll ask you again in a week or so.”

You nodded again.

He nodded back at you.

Maddox looked between the two of you and narrowed his eyes. “Are you two sure you aren’t communicating?”

Both of you laughed. 

Hongjoong clapped his hands together. “Okay, let’s listen to the actual song submissions.”

*ᴵ’ᵛᵉ ʰᵉᵃʳᵈ ᵐᵒⁿᵏˢ ᶜᵒⁿˢᶦᵈᵉʳ ᶦᵗ ᵗʰᵉ “ᵐᵉᵈᶦᵗᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ˢᵗᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ”

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[qqueenofhades]

I do wish a lot of white leftists/communists, for all the time they spend condescending about people not agreeing with them or being far left enough, would take a moment and understand that they're alienating a lot of older POC/immigrants. My dad is from a country that embraced some socialist ideas and they quickly turned into a lot of issues the country still hasn't recovered from (I don't know if it's the result of those socialist ideas, but there is a very real fear regardless), and I imagine a lot of older people who have immigrated here from places like that feel similarly. It's really easy for people who've never had those experiences to look down upon the idea that Bernie or AOC could be radical in any way, but the combination of the way the GOP frames what they're doing and the refusal to compromise on language that feels extreme (but usually isn't, I know, this is just what I've been told by my dad and others who share his views), is a really dangerous one.

My dad found Bernie off-putting because of all the media stuff about how radical he was (which, again, he isn't to most leftists/communists/whatever, but the fact of the matter isn't really the point). Trying to push so far to the left, while may feel like common sense to them, really isn't the magical solution they think it is. Whether they agree with this older generation of immigrants or not, the fear these people have is very real, and I think the refusal to acknowledge it will hurt us significantly.

And it feels really harmful and racist for white young people who were born and raised in the US to look down on these people or call them bootlickers or neoliberals when they have reasonable doubts and trauma backing why idealistic futures of communism or socialism are terrifying.

I mean, yeah. That's pretty much exactly what I've been saying all along, in various posts/rants. Because young white leftist-identified Americans have no experience of living under old-school twentieth-century communism, it's a "grass must be greener on the other side" situation where they figure that it must obviously fix all the problems with late-stage capitalism and be a perfect desirable utopia. When people who actually lived through those regimes (or indeed, long-suffering local historians) try to tell them otherwise, they're scoffed off as being Insufficiently Committed To The Revolution and/or not understanding what it "really" means, all the while as they make absolutely no attempt to educate what they DO mean. Not least, one suspects, because they have absolutely no idea themselves, and because social media, with its insistence on totally binarized, black-and-white, us-or-them positions, is the absolute WORST forum for discussing complex issues or trying to introduce nuance.

As a result, of course it's racist, counterproductive, and totally inefficient in terms of actually building a workable, sustained, and implemented progressive movement. The young white American leftists want to lecture about their lofty moral ideas, but they refuse to take historical context, linguistic baggage, or differing perspectives into account. Obviously, yes, there is a country mile worth of difference between, say, Castro Cuba/the USSR in the 1960s and modern democratic socialist countries such as Scandinavia. But because the word "socialism" has been tainted with such bad historical influences, not just from right-wing fearmongers but from the actual survivors of those regimes, the modern left's insistence on using it without nuance, while scoffing off those who have valid reservations about it and making no attempt to educate or differentiate, is doing nothing but shooting themselves in the foot.

Bernie cratered in Florida because the conservative older Cuban expats wanted nothing to do with him, precisely because they were the ones who fled when Castro, also calling himself a socialist, came to power. Enough of that label stuck to also cause Biden to badly underperform even in traditional Democratic strongholds like Miami-Dade County (which is heavily Cuban Hispanic). I know it sounds mildly unbelievable, considering the full-speed-ahead crash into Fascist Hellhole Land, the Unhappiest Place on Earth, that Florida has recently taken under DeSantis, but Obama won Florida twice. There is, or at least there was, a Democratic constituency that can be mobilized to the point of allowing a Democratic candidate to win statewide. But they fucking loathe the label of socialism and they WILL NOT VOTE for anybody who identifies with it, even if it's not accurate to what they might be thinking. Because the Florida Democratic Party has been shoved so firmly into the lonely, lonely wilderness as DeSantis and his jackbooted thugs run rampant, it might be a long time until another Democrat wins statewide, but this was not impossible and it has happened before. If, you know, you actually work to reach the voters in terms that they understand and are willing to support, and not pretend SJW Pure Ideology that will get you Twitter cred points but nothing else.

Anyway, yes. As I've said before, these people manage the dual consciousness of blaming America for everything bad in the world, while simultaneously not believing that any perspectives, experiences, countries, or people outside America are valid, have any moral agency, or make choices that affect the overall state of things. It's an intensely hypocritical, twisted, navel-gazing stance that takes America as its only point of reference for anything and is sure as hell not going to help us get out of the mess that America has gotten into as an oftentimes-direct result. It is a cosplay ideology wherein they use the memes and the trappings and the exterior design and terminology of "Marxism-Leninism," refuse to learn why that is a terrible idea or why people don't like that, don't engage with history on any level, and then are somehow surprised when they fail and extremist-far right Republicans are emboldened as a result. Which, therefore, they then blame on the Democrats. It is a vicious cycle.