This book speaks to it better than I can: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs/
Specifically take a look at
Chapter 3: Why Do Those in Bullshit Jobs Regularly Report Themselves Unhappy? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 1)
Agreed. They depressed me as a kid, and they depress me now. Absolutely exploiting the most impoverished among us. Vimes’ Boot Theory holds there IMHO: https://terrypratchett.com/explore-discworld/sam-vimes-boots-theory-of-socio-economic-unfairness/
If your eyeballs are missing, I can make an assumption that your vision isn’t great just by looking at you. That’s not a moral judgement.
Doesn’t mean blood tests are useless, and in fact it means we have some idea where to start investigating a potential health problem.
Yes, I agree that there’s bias against folks who are overweight, and also that there’s a range of risk associated with being overweight. It’s pretty clear, however, that obesity is a health concern that we should take seriously. If someone smokes five pack of cigs a day, I’m going to make an assumption about their lung health. There’s always outliers that live to 100 smoking and not doing exercise, but it would be a shit doctor if they didn’t tell folks not to follow their example.
You sure you aren’t a being a titanic jerk right now? Even your username might be evidence that you’re consumed by negativity, but that’s beside the point. Why would you assume they’re hallucinating that racism exists? Seriously: stop and ask yourself that question. Why side against this person who has done nothing but share their experiences?
I’m a white dude from the southeast and I have these stories: the only time I’ve gotten harassed by podunk shitheel cops is when I’m around Black and Latino friends, and when I had a truck with FIGHT RACISM written on the back. The only time I get followed around stores is with friends that just so happen to be darker than me - what a coincidence, eh? On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve had to put up with racist shit being shared with me out in the sticks from white folks who assumed I’m as racist as they are. Saying that folks are looking to be a victim makes you either complicit in or ignorant of racism that still exists in the here and now, and more than likely some of both.
TLDR: If you’re not a troll, then all I have to say is bless your heart. Look inward and try to improve yourself.
Not thought crimes. Marching in the streets with literal swastikas on flags. Their “set of certain beliefs” killed 17 million people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims) as part of their beliefs: and that’s without counting the deaths they caused by starting a war.
It’s not some clever gotcha to pretend this is a grey area. It’s not folks saying to go after GOP members, people in militias that are dogwhistling, or even the Proud Boys. It’s not folks that loudmouths on twitter are claiming are nazis. The issue here is literal fucking nazis. I actually have a PhD, and I consider it wise to chase literal goddamn nazis out of town with violence. Tolerating the most extreme intolerance is not a path toward a good future.
The solutions I’ve seen require a fundamental rethinking of the way housing works in the USA (and most places), where renting just turns into another way to build some amount of equity, and the property managers are under more democratic control. More of the process subsidized by the local government, in the same way that water treatment is.
Arguably it’s renting by another name, but the central point is to strip the profit motive out of it (some salaries are needed, but in a system with more regulatory oversight) and to allow the renter to get some financial benefit so they aren’t simply pissing money away.
Apologies in advance for that vague response: I’m not an economist or real estate expert, so I can’t back up that general idea with any kind of details or evidence it’s feasible.
True, but imagine if we gave everyone an automatic weapon and told people they need to be responsible for what they choose to shoot. True, but we probably shouldn’t have given out so many weapons.
It’s a terrible metaphor, but there’s an intersection between personal, collective, corporate, and technological responsibility that we need to consider, and it’s hard to articulate in a few sentences. IMHO we’re all in an ouroboros of thought and action, internally and externally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo&t=559s
There is a good visualization in this video (These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us by Not Just Bikes) at the timestamp I linked (roughly 9 minutes 19 seconds), cited from KidsAndCars.org
I must be ancient here, because nobody has claimed this is like September 1993 all over again…
I’d also humbly submit Sierra Ferrell: not exactly outlaw country, but definitely in the vein of old school country, and she has a voice that is absolutely hypnotizing.
One of her most popular songs that is about love with a healthy dose of morbidity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2W8kCk1qnU
An absolutely legendary display of what she’s capable of with her voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Aha_GwFt4
My apologies, since wells are hardly “free” to build and maintain I had assumed you were talking about collecting it directly via a harvesting system. I’ve used wells the majority of my life.
My general point is that wells or direct capture is not viable for dense urban areas, and while you’re saying it’s a choice, the majority of folks in the USA live in urban areas. Big urban centers aren’t going away any time soon, so we should consider how to meet people where they are, when possible. The larger point I wanted to make though is that we (at least in the USA, and all the Latin American nations I’ve lived in) have good public sanitation and water systems precisely because it’s seen as a right. And those systems aren’t cheap, but we do it. As I argue we should do more for re: housing.
That’s the crux of the biscuit: I just think more should be done to help people afford these basic necessities. I think we should (as a nation/planet) fundamentally rethink the way we approach housing, for the same reasons water and food are subsidized (and they should be further subsidized IMHO, but that’s another point entirely). I’m not going to claim I know the answers, or that it would be easy or cheap, but I think it’s something we should all try seriously to solve.
Hahaha awesome, do you get the majority of your clean water via collecting rain? Do you think it’s a viable source for folks living in dense metropolitan areas?
Water is tangible though. Clean, safe drinking water isn’t cheaply and widely available (in the USA, anyway) by accident: it’s a huge endeavor that requires tax money to maintain public infrastructure. See the ongoing crises in places with tainted water to see how challenging it is to maintain.
Housing is harder than water, but public water and sanitation systems are incredibly expensive, so I wonder what the comparison would be like against more public housing.
When I say I’m dying to see the new Godzilla movie again (it was excellent, by the way), I’m not literally dying.
That said, I honestly don’t know what the Obamas are doing, and they certainly don’t need me defending them. I wouldn’t rely on what makes it to wikipedia as a source of how much they’re trying to improve the world, though. Given the backlash she received for trying to reduce childhood obesity, and the backlash Barack received just for existing, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to donate/contribute with as little fanfare as possible to avoid further backlash. Just my opinion, though.
It’s difficult not to sound overly dramatic or hyperbolic about the situation but it really does feel like the US is uncomfortably close right now to a christofascist state.
To add to this: while it may sound hyperbolic to some folks, for plenty of us we’ve seen this brewing for decades. White evangelicals and right-wing politics unified in the 1980s in a way that was a clear danger to democracy, and they’ve only solidified their power since, given how mainstream their views are now.
IMHO Frank Zappa said it best in 1986: he got called out as being hyperbolic, but he clearly saw the writing on the wall. He’s of course not the most scholarly source, but damn it Jim I’m a biologist, not a historian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlePLLlfH4Q
Have you considered she may be empathetic to those who don’t have the money to easily move to any country on the planet? It’s a good thing to be concerned for the welfare of others IMHO.
Compromise time: he’s a (mostly) retired Batman, and we can have a younger actor as Batman Beyond?
I had an enormous reply essentially “yes-and’ing” your reply (I agree with it, but wanted to add a “but” in a few places), but…into the ether it went. I’ll listen to that podcast mini series.
One thing I wanted to add is that I grew up in Atlanta, so I agree that plenty of folks should leave NYC and LA. However, there’s plenty of folks there necessary for the city to function, and I think that legislation is probably the only viable way that things will change for them, since lower-income folks are just being squeezed from all directions, given how much of a commodity real estate has gotten since the last big housing bubble burst.
Again though, I’m not an economist, so my ideas are certainly not immediately viable, and I agree there’s little chance of “solving” most of this under the best of circumstances. I just think there’s too much greed, especially related to housing, that can be improved. We’re a rich enough nation that we can do better. Also I just wanted to be sure to give your nice comment a thoughtful reply, because the internet is too toxic in general, and we need to try to make it otherwise. Have a nice end of the year
Because plenty of folks would have a solid down payment, or better credit score, if rent wasn’t so damn high. Likewise affordable rent would make it easier for folks to move to places where they could get the type of stable job necessary for a mortgage, etc. It’s not the only reason folks don’t have the economic resources at hand, but it’s usually the biggest expense in ones budget, no?
Greedy landlords are the problem, imho, and unfortunately every landlord except exactly one I’ve rented from (out of about ten in total) have been greedy assholes.
As for a fix: housing is a right, imho. I’m not an economist so anything I offer will be full of holes, but some way of securing that people have stable, safe, comfortable housing is essential. Making sure people can’t exploit the need for shelter is a big component of whatever fix we need.
Yeah: go back to the nineties and the man arguably most responsible for the hyper-partisanship in modern politics was also a rep in Georgia…Newt Filthypigfucker Gingrich