hello upper middle class northern usamerican tumblr user. i want to play a game. you will notice that you are in a super america convenience store in rural kentucky - you have three minutes to purchase a snack and drink of your choice and make normal small talk with the cashier. however, if you use the word "cryptid" or generally make reference to appalachia and its inhabitants as "wild", uncivilized, or lacking restraint around alcoholic beverages during your time here, i will personally tie you to the chassis of a four wheeler and tip it into the river. live or die. make your choice

obsessed with how we discovered that i have mysterious wide spread arthritis and symptoms of an autoimmune disease and my neuro referred me to a rheumatology clinic for further testing/treatment/a formal diagnosis and they are refusing to see me because I have fibromyalgia, aka pain for no reason. probably because they are nervous about pain management due to harsh opioid policies! we love it! incredible stuff! god forbid I get treatment and pain management! yesterday I realized after 20 minutes that a crying melt down gets nothing done, and no one was going to fix this for me. so i fixed it and found another rheum! who is booked out until july! whatever! I’ve had pain my whole life, another few months will not kill me! i have shit to do! 

clean bathroom

clean kitchen

trash

recycling

laundry! 1, 2, 3

morning walk

walk thru

meal planning prep!

lunch walk - park?

finish/polish 1st draft of PP story

logic puzzle - 1 hour w/ notes

stretch: start A short story

Taylor Kitsch Says Signing onto ‘Painkiller’ with Pete Berg Was a ‘No-Brainer’

The Friday Night Lights alum digs deep to play a man addicted to opioids in the new limited series.

For Taylor Kitsch, joining the cast of the scripted limited series Painkiller was a “no-brainer” for several personal reasons. One, it was another chance to collaborate with showrunner Pete Berg, who worked with Kitsch on his breakout role as Tim Riggins in the 2006 football drama Friday Night Lights.

“He’s like an older brother to me,” Kitsch said of Berg on the set of Painkiller in early 2022, prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. “We’ve been through a lot, and when I got this call, it was quite simple, to be honest.” After Friday Night Lights, Kitsch and Berg teamed up on the 2012 blockbuster Battleship and again on 2013’s Lone Survivor. “You already have that trust,” said Kitsch, “and the shorthand is really important as well.”

That trust was necessary in grappling with the heavy subject matter of Painkiller, a fictionalized retelling of some of the origins of the opioid epidemic that is believed to have caused over 300,000 American overdose deaths over the last two decades. The six-episode series hones in on an ensemble of characters to tell a broader story: Richard Sackler (Matthew Broderick), the billionaire senior executive at Purdue Pharma who pushes the wide distribution of opiates for profit; Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba), an investigator at the US Attorney’s office who chases down answers about OxyContin; Shannon Schaeffer (West Duchovny), a recent college grad who’s recruited to Purdue to sell the drugs directly to doctors; and Glen Kryger (Kitsch), a mechanic who, after getting injured on the job, is prescribed OxyContin, which traps him in a vicious cycle of addiction.

Although Glen is a wholly fictional character, he’s the series’ main face of OxyContin’s devastating effects — another reason why Kitsch felt a personal responsibility in portraying Glen’s struggle. Kitsch has watched people close to him fight addiction. “Man, it’s pretty close to me, this thing,” he said. “Unfortunately, I think we’re all one degree away from someone who’s an addict.”

Authentically capturing Glen’s attempts at detoxing as he hides the seriousness of his addiction from his wife Lily (Carolina Bartczak) and stepson Tyler (Jack Mulhern) required some creative risk-taking from both Kitsch and Berg. Berg’s directing style, which Kitsch knows well, is dynamic and at times improvisational to keep the performances raw and real. “Sometimes he tries to get you out of your own head or your own way,” said Kitsch. “You don’t get faulted for mistakes — he just pushes you left or right. He keeps the set very alive and you move quick.”

The conversation about the opioid epidemic is far from over, as everyone involved in Painkiller understands, and Kitsch hopes his portrayal of Glen helps continue the conversation and remove some of the stigma and shame about addiction. “I’m very lucky to have served a lot of true stories and heavy things,” said Kitsch. “And this is right up there for me in the sense of purpose, of why I get to do what I do.”

Painkiller is now streaming on Netflix.

I have a question regarding your “all drug use is the same” post: obviously I agree that there’s no moral superiority to using prescription drugs over “illegal” drugs, but is your position that there is no practical health difference between using a metered and monitored amount of a regulated medication and using a recreational amount of an unregulated substance? It just seems to me that people who are dependent on amphetamines or opioids in order to be able to function should be encouraged to seek out medical diagnoses that would enable them to access drugs from more reliable suppliers and with the support of a physician who can monitor for negative side effects, rather than being told “it makes no difference at all where and how you get and use your drugs”

Both prescription and non-prescription drug use can be extremely dangerous (I’ve nearly died due to incorrect dosing by physicians on four separate occasions, and I have lost far too many friends to overdose) and it’s really important for people to be as careful as they can be!!! The reason that’s “nearly died” rather than “did die” is only because I was being monitored closely enough that when my organs started to shut down, a doctor was paying attention and could adjust my medication appropriately, and I know I’m not the only person in that position.

My position is and always has been for all drugs to be available under an informed consent model. The patient determines what they need with the aid of a doctor, but they are the authority on their own experience. It's guided, liberatory decision making with clarity on what they are taking and what it will do. This is all outlined in my essay from a few months ago:

which you can read here:

Saying there's no moral difference between vyvanse and heroin is not at all a prescriptive statement about how people should access drugs, and i dont know why people are assuming that it is. This always happens when I say a thing is morally neutral. People always try to read a moral recommendation into it. Really shows how much our discourse is poisoned by puritanism and a lack of trust in individual autonomy i think. Saying something isnt evil is enough for people to claim youre saying people should do it. bizarre to me.

also, please rethink the assumption that because a drug was given by a doctor it is safe and was prescribed with the patient's best interests in mind. Access medication through the healthcare system as it currently stands isn't safe either. The opioid epidemic and the stories of thousands of psychiatric survivors is a testament to that.

for any sci-fi/dystopia writers out there (or any other writer who has reason to include a fictional prescription/pharmaceutical drug in their story) who care vaguely about certain degrees of realism:

There are actually perfectly understandable legal reasons that pharmaceutical drugs have such weird names, both for generic and brand names. It’s not just random. This post for now is only about generic names but if people show any degree of interest I might make a followup with information about brand names.

First, generic names are made to be the same worldwide so people traveling to other countries can still ask doctors for prescriptions. Generic drugs also have to have a two-syllable prefix (which helps with identification) and a suffix that indicates how the drug functions. For instance, “-cycline” (ie doxycycline) indicates that something is an antibiotic, and “-etine” (ie fluoxetine) indicates that something is an SSRI. Here is a list of pharmaceutical suffixes and their meanings. The prefix of a drug’s generic name also can’t contain letters in the English alphabet that aren’t used in many other languages, like Y (except I think when it’s used for a more common vowel sound), H, J, K, or W.

The name of the drug also can’t be considered marketing. This is my biggest pet peeve in fiction when authors are trying to semi-realistically depict the pharmaceutical industry and if I’m being honest it’s the reason I bothered making this post at all. Companies can’t even name their drug something that’s an ANAGRAM of a marketing claim. They submit three potential drug names to the USAN, an association of pharmacists, doctors, and related regulatory professionals, and the USAN will run all possible anagrams of the name as part of their decision-making process. If they think a drug name sounds too much like marketing, they simply don’t allow it and send back a list they create of 3 names to choose from.

Companies cannot name a drug “Joy” (looking at you, resident evil netflix adaptation) or “Phalanx” from world war Z. It’s heavy-handed and shows a lack of research in what are sometimes otherwise well-researched media. Pharmaceutical companies can cause devastating damage with legally-named drugs. If you wanted to make a movie about a fictionalized version of the opioid epidemic, you would look stupid if you named the oxycodone analogue something like “painkill” or “insta-relief.” It can take away from the weight of the story in a subtle but notable way. It’s a small factor, but I know there are writers out there who really care about things like this and might not realize they have no idea why pharmaceuticals get named the way they do. If you’re trying to write something that depicts pharmaceutical drugs at all and you don’t want to beat your audience over the head with what you’re trying to say, don’t name your fictional drug something dumb.

The drug thing and diary farming

ohohoh so i'm not as seasoned in the area of crystal meth; I think Gus knows enough about that if we're talking about Gus Fring. I am more knowledgeable in the field of opioids because it's more of a problem where I live and it's a pretty old phenomenon. So not considering the United States, you can trace a lot of mass opium addiction to the appropriately-named Opium Wars that took place mainly between China and the UK. This was because the UK wanted to trade large amounts of tea from China but there were generally conflicts with that cause y'know, imperialism rightfully leaves a bitter taste in some people's mouths. So this ended in a sketchy deal where opium instead ended up being smuggled to China, getting a lot of people hooked. So began a mass addiction to opiates. Another thing that I can trace to modern opioid addiction in the US is OxyContin. This common prescription painkiller was first advertised as a "non-addictive" alternative to many painkillers. Spoiler alert - this was incorrect information and a lot of people, especially people from rural areas, got addicted real fast. This led to an uptick in heroin use as well, I believe. Looking into the cocaine/crack epidemics on another note; cocaine was used a lot by the Hollywood elite/generally rich white people leading up to the 1980s. That is, powder cocaine. When crack was introduced, it was a basic alternative to cocaine that allowed for it to be smoked/shot up meaning quicker and stronger absorption into the blood stream, if that makes sense. This was actually a lot more accessible and affordable. It made its way into the poorer regions of the United States, specifically Black communities, very very quickly because of this. This was essentially because of the US's involvement with Latin American countries that supplied the stuff - the CIA was involved with coups in that area that supported these sketchy groups opposed to democratic uprisings in Latin America. The US disliked this democracy because it meant that theses countries were getting more stable, self-sufficient and independent from countries like the United States that had power in the form of companies based there that could do essentially whatever the hell they liked. The CIA allowed for these anti-democratic groups to funnel their cocaine up into the United States and created a racial disparity. Oh boy. How surprising and uncharacteristic of the CIA (sarcasm). It goes deeper than that but I'll stop there. NOW. On a lighter note - DAIRY FARMING :)))

I am a dairy farmer right now! I milka the cows and all that good stuff. that entails a LOT but I'm going to stick to what I really focus on in the job.

-Milking cows. It's pretty robotic but I enjoy it. We use machines so I don't milk by hand unless I need to test a cow - basically what you do is you sanitize each teat with an iodine-based solution, wipe that off after a couple of seconds, and put on the machine. Once they're all done, you check to see if their udder is firm (which could indicate the presence of a disease like mastitis or that the cow isn't milked all the way) and if they're good, you put another solution on their teats (post-dip. The first solution is called pre-dip). Voila! You've milked a cow, my friend. And what you do to one, you must do to the next two hundred we have coming in.

-DISEASE. very feared amongst farmers. Sanitation is sososososo important and a huge part of the job is washing the parlor (the room where we milk), the equipment, and cleaning the housing area for the animals. These things shit. A lot. it's messy.

-Crop work. My beloved. Love of my life. Everyone loves operating machinery. tractors are cool. Hay season makes me so sentimental it's insane. Been doing that shit since I was five years old. You lug around dry grass all day in the hot sun and it's amazing beyond words.

-Finally, my coworkers. I won't talk too much about them because they're real people who probably would be uncomfortable with getting posted about on tumblr, but they're crazy. You either work with teenage boys or really old guys. I'm the sole female worker right now and it's something to witness for sure.

Sorry for the long post. Hope this answers your questions, Gus!

didn't really get a chance to digest yesterday's most important problem because something terrifying happened to me, so i just kind of want to make my yearly post about suicide

in the case of my beloved friend who passed, Nathan had granted himself mercy because the US government's healthcare system failed him. he was in an inhumane amount of pain from his ehlers danlos syndrome / slipping ribs and they refused to help him relieve it due to the opioid epidemic. so he took everything he had to stop feeling that way. that's what happened to Nathan. that's what happened to the kindest person i've ever known.

but i also want to sort of make something clear

no matter how much you hate yourself, no matter how much you think nobody will miss you, your death will ripple across the earth and hurt people you do not even know. because you WILL hurt people. you will devastate people you love. and they will crumble, and people who love them will see them crumble and crumble beside them. people who have never contemplated death will hear you died and feel that icy cold dread for the first time.

death, in my opinion, is an all encompassing sadness that doesn't ever heal, even when it feels like it's over. i'm still waiting to see Nathan's name in the voice call again, and when i join he'll sound so surprisingly happy to see me just like he always did. because he had so much love despite himself. and this joke of a two years will be over. i wish so badly it was over. and i knew this man for not even a year. i've known him dead longer than i knew him alive.

if you think that doesn't apply to you, you're wrong. and if you don't understand, you don't know death, and you shouldn't toy with things so permanent. don't feel guilty for your grief, but know you have a purpose and that purpose is to be loved and love in return.

Jack Donoghue, the opioid epidemic merch hoodie, and Salem

Jack is cool because of what he brings to the situation. The situation isn’t cool. It’s cool because jack is there. Jack sets the tone he does not let the tone dictate how he is received. He has a romantic mid-west America sensibility. Humble. Disappearing to become a heroin addict ploughing the fields of Alaska like a gold-rush miner in the 1800s. Always in a BPD codep relationship but he remains the Elvis of his life. The captain of his ship. Enough self hating insecurity that we relate to him yet enough mastery over his exterior material conditions that we are in awe. The shame never takes him under the way it would us. He is a god amongst men because shame would kill us mortals yet he takes his shame and turns it into capital through the commerce possible from fine art. Everyone else tries to be Salem but only Salem is Salem. Everyone else should try being themselves. He dated lana because they are both magicians. Liam wanted to be Jack. Every boy wants to be jack. If I saw a person in a Salem t-shirt I would make sure not to talk to them. I think identifying with Salem is for losers only. But I can’t deny the appeal of jack. And of Salem! 

Daisies boyfriend wore a black hoodie it said “I survived the opioid crisis” and I wanted it even though they are the most loser couple of insecure losers on earth. Australia’s prom king and queen if the high school was Insecure High. And it really makes you think, huh, it must be true… money doesn’t make you happy. I didn’t know who made this hoodie - for days I was thinking about it. It was like a sigil. Charged with subcultural power. Then I googled it and saw it was Salem merch... Of course! Salem merch is cringe by nature because when you signal the code that your into Salem you also signal that your a desperate creton lazy death lover with no creativity. Like every art gallery in Melbourne named after death. But this hoodie got me. Death has built in sex appeal that’s why I think it’s lazy. I wish Salem made pro-life merch but they wouldn’t, couldn’t, and won’t. Because then they wouldn’t be Salem. I come for the death and stay for the sex. Jack is the Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive” song, walking down the street in spring using your denim cock crotch as a compass. Jacks cock = true north. He is magnetic because he is a child looking for a whore and/or a mother and won’t break out of himself to become sovereign (ie to become a magician) and we identify, the magnetism is that he is us but he looks, sounds, and seems cool doing it, so we idolise. We want to feel okay. We also can’t break out to become sovereign selves, we want company. But jack is accidentally a magician and I can’t figure out why. He is a martyr in that he becomes magician so we don’t have to and we praise him for it. (Idk how u become a magician without becoming a magician????) He is America. He is a poet. He is a beat poet. He is a dumb hunk. Drunk. Drug addict. Sex addict. Bpd pest. Annoying regressed pitbull. The archetype of the Casanova, Eros, Mars the planet named after the Roman god of war. He signals an authenticity that hipsters feed off but being death obsessed isn’t authentic it’s fake and a cover and fear centric and our authentic core is always life obsessed. My magic coach max says life and death are the same thing. Idk I just know Jack is a loser because death is pathetic but I also know that he gets me everytime and we love him because we want to love the fearful parts of us too and in jack we see the dualism of fear and the things we do to camouflage it that to dumb people appears as fears opposite. We want to empower the parts of us that are scared and weak and lying to cover themselves over as strong (see: in Melbourne - indifferent, apathetic, amoral, apolitical). So we love jack. Scum John Travolta. A boobytrap. Salem is for the codependent. Salem is loaded, charged, cool. 

I watched a fan made documentary on YouTube about Jack and spent the next 12 hours totally desperate to relapse. Every product we want has a secret promise it will make us feel safer. No one wants to die and to change is to die and to be attracted to darkness is liking this sensation you get when you think you are changing because you are dying because you like darkness, and how happy it lets you feel making believe like you're changing when your actually not. Surrounded by darkness my loser XXXXXXXXX thinks he is so cool because he loves death but he doesn’t change he is stuck because he thinks the attraction to death is death (he's not brave enough to die). The final thing out of Pandora’s box was hope and it was the cruellest of all because it kept people exactly as they were. Unchanging. We are such liars. Salem hoodie losers declare themselves as liars. Looking beyond death is life, like in Zazen setting up seated meditation and staring through the hoodie. Refracted out on the other side is the understanding that there is a quality within you that is dependent on external validation for your sense of mysticism, and this is of a low vibrational frequency and probably blocking you from real divine union, being yourself, knowing your purpose and carrying it out.

I wish they didn’t have the opioid brands on the back it makes it uncool, glib and heavy handed. It’s cheap like loser graphic design not fine art and you could find anything that looks like that at Savers or someone in Brunswick yuck. The front is kind of dope in that it’s a public service announcement and mysterious and doesn’t technically have to be true. Then the brands on the back is this energetic doubling down but it’s confused and Vibrationally comes off as not mysterious. Too “of the world”. Plus can you imagine all the losers behind you as you walk being intrigued or scared while reading the branding on your back it’s kind of beyond ugly thing to force to happen in the environment in fact I would go as far as to call the graphic element on the back of the hoodie environmental rape. 

It seems like no matter what he has friends and some what accepts himself. If it was one of us who ended up picking olives in willunga, South Australia, or being a cleaner on a FIFO offshore oil refinery, or in the mines of deep Queensland I doubt we would remain cool and desirable, it is the perserverance of Jack’s essense despite the material conditions that we admire. It’s like he is in the olympics of remaining cool despite what is happening around him. I would kill myself if I ended up childless and living in the fleurieu peninsula alas I am sober and Jack copes by smoking, driving a ute, staying reflexive to trends, and contributing to the zietgiest with markers reminding us of his virility via Instagram posts. I’m torn, it’s not king behaviour. I stan a drop-out, jack hangs-in. 

One day zac described to me that Ed Sheeran was famous because he distilled the essense of England into a man and that is what was being celebrated. England championing the spirit of “England”. The schizophrenia of it was enticing, I don’t know if it checks out. I think we just want to be carried off to sleep, our consciousness blunted. Nothing toooo much but enough of enough to think we’re being satisfied. A Course In Miracles says nothing of this world could be satisfying. I think jack represents the edge of an edge most hipsters are happy to occasionally occupy or aim for. If Jack actually was a frontier explorer we wouldn’t know or see him because he wouldn’t be so representable and locatable. (I wonder if that’s truly true?)

I like jack because he shows me beauty in hopelessness. Where jack is is ok not because it is ok but because jack is there. This is a representation of presence-creation. If I am ok then I can be present. At the end of it all we love hope. The art is dark but it represents making the most of nothing and that is hopeful. Jack is a magician because he is an alchemiser. 

I still think wearing Salem merch shows yourself to be retarded it’s the same as saying I am four years old but I can’t deny that the graphic design of the Salem font is an effective sigil. I respect the mastery of magic in this regard. Salem tea towels would be cool. “I survived the opiod epidemic” on a teatowel would have such a different register vibrationally than a black hoodie. I guess I’m missing the point again people want death not life from salem and tea towels are too life coded. I wonder if there is a way for salem to have less loser attracting merch? 

I know they have such bad porn star sex. I actually feel so sad writing that, I look into their eyes above and see broken 4 year olds crying out for affection and security. They could perfectly heal together, two of the same wounds. My heart breaks to think of both of them stuck on the same merry-go-round from hell.

The way you've phrased your opinions on sex work and abortion gives me a pretty good idea of what the answer to these questions are going to be, but hell, why not: how do you want to see men held accountable for their part in pregnancy? How much are you willing to see your taxes go up to cover the cost of programs that provide ANY mental/emotional/medical/financial support women with unwanted pregnancies need? Do you support the creation of easier, faster processes for parents to give up their parental rights to unwanted children of any age? And how do you reconcile adoption as a solution to unwanted pregnancy with the well-documented reality that the foster care system is overburdened, that the overwhelming majority of Americans don't WANT to adopt (and those that do statistically avoid infants of the races most impacted by lack of access to abortion), and that and kids in the foster care system can be subject to neglect and/or physical and sexual abuse from their caregivers, plus lasting psychological trauma from the insecurity and uncertainty of life as a foster child?

In order:

Completely.

A lot.

Giving up a child of any age is kind of whack, but we have lots of safe haven laws.

Foster care and adoption procedures and industries need to be reformed, but this is not something pro-choicers have tackled either.

There are so many parents who want to adopt that there are not enough children that can be placed. This is somewhat of a warning sign, as it can lead to unscrupulous adoption scams or even trafficking. On the other hand, it can mean that adoption agencies can be more thorough and careful about selecting the right families.

Foster care is important in my area, which has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic, which is the leading reason why a child might be placed into foster care. There have been great results at increasing foster families through recruitment drives as part of a collaboration with governments, nonprofits and churches. The people in my life who have stepped up to meet this need inspire me more than I can say.

There is a difference between recognizing that we need interventions to help alleviate trauma that happens to someone through no fault of their own and wiping our hands and saying, "Actually, these children are better off dead and will never grow into anything of worth and will never value themselves." I just really cannot even wrap my mind around it, if I'm being honest.

We cannot eliminate suffering by eliminating life, unless we're all ready to pack it up when Hale-Bopp comes around again. I believe we have an obligation to reject misanthropic worldviews like that.

Did you know that in the U.S. only 37% of adopted children are white? Seems like those who adopt want to provide homes for children of all kinds, so we cannot pretend there is a great disparity among racial groups, while abortion clinics have historically attempted to target those communities specifically.

I like talking through these issues because it helps me think and refines my focuses. But I also think it's quite ludicrous to say that pro-lifers have not been doing this work and thinking about these issues for a long time and that they must shoulder the full responsibility of creating a perfect world. If the early pro-choice battle cry of "safe, legal, and rare" were true, perhaps many of these issues would have been tackled earlier, as both sides attempted to eliminate the "need" for abortion? Maybe Planned Parenthood would offer a little something to support ... parenthood? Or maybe we have let ourselves get a bit sidetracked, and the myopic focus on abortion from pro-choice advocates has left pro-lifers to try to pick up the pieces?

EORH’s Elerick: ‘Industry’s Opioid Experience Now Protects People’

He was a young man and a brand new pharmacist working at a CVS when his mentor warned him about a trend in prescriptions he noticed. Opioids. People were dying and addiction was skyrocketing. Pill mills were counterfeiting opiates like OxyContin, methadone, and Vicodin at a rapid pace, pain centers serving those suffering chronic pain were ultra-active, and the supply always was meeting the demand. “When I first experienced opioids, I was a staff pharmacist in Pennsylvania, and the man I worked for told me when he started noticing that something was wrong. He told me the amount (of opiates) being prescribed was really bad,” recalled Zack Elerick, pharmacy director at East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry. “Now that the facts from a lot of the court cases are coming out, we know much more about what was taking place. “As I’ve progressed in my career and now in this director’s role, I have more responsibilities to make sure I’m helping to control the amount of opioids I see prescribed, and that’s why I put some rules in place in the hospital to help with that limitation,” he explained. “No one wants to feel pain and we understand that. BUt no one wants to get addicted either." Zack Elerick has been the director of pharmacy at East Ohio Regional Hospital since the Martins Ferry medical center reopened just over three years ago. Elerick, who was a staff pharmacist at the Ohio Valley Medical Center in September 2019 when it closed, also has managed the Hometown Pharmacy at EORH since the medical center’s reopening three years ago. “And there are policies in place at the retail pharmacy, too, that really help with limiting opioid abuse and potential abuse,” he said. “Plus, the rules and laws that have been put into place have really helped pharmacists police it because a doctor is limited on how much they can prescribe when a patient is discharged. “The whole industry has evolved since the issues with opioids were exposed and the industry’s opioid experience now protects people.” The drug epidemic in the United States unfortunately remains active, and last week alone in the Wheeling area, “bad batch” warnings were distributed by public safety agencies three times in one week for heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. “We have seen the opiate problem spread with heroin abuse instead of the prescription pills because heroin is cheaper and easier to get these days. Add the fentanyl, and that’s why we’ve had so many overdoses,” the pharmacist said. “That’s why I believe educating the public about Narcan is so important right now. “Narcan is very available because of the overdoses and the amount of deaths we’ve seen in the valley,” Elerick insisted. “We’re to the point now that if you don’t know someone who has been impacted by all of this, you might be the only one in the room because it’s been so widespread. Narcan has saved so many lives.” The Hometown Pharmacy is located near the main entrance to East Ohio Regional Hospital on South 4th Street in Martins Ferry. Down the Street The Hometown Pharmacy is so local it operates a walk-up window. The drugstore is open from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday. Delivery service is available, and most insurances are accepted. “The best part,” said Elerick, “is that you’re going to know the person behind the counter because we have a small crew that works here and we take what we do seriously. “We did start delivering and we have a few customers on that weekly list right now and we’re hoping it will grow. Right now, we’re limiting it to three days per week, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,” he outlined. “And we’ve established a 10-to-15-mile radius for those deliveries.” There are additional items available for sale at the Hometown Pharmacy, including shampoos, aspirin and Ibuprofen, paper towels, and several other household needs. The Hometown Pharmacy does sell many toiletry items inside the retail shop. “By having those other items on our shelves, we’re just trying to make it as convenient as we can for the folks who come in for their prescriptions each month,” the pharmacy director said. “And we have sales on certain items from time to time, and we do advertise those specials on our Facebook page. “It’s just part of that personal touch we offer,” Elerick said. “And that’s why we hope people realize they can transfer their prescriptions to us just by asking their doctors to send them to us instead of to another pharmacy.” Maybe his most important duty while operating the retail shop and the medications for the patients in all departments at EORH is monitoring the ever-changing pharmaceutical industry as it pertains to medication availability, the cost, and which drugs are permissible under individual insurance coverages. “The pharmaceutical industry is constantly changing and so are the reimbursement rates from insurance companies,” he said. “Those rates are shrinking more and more for hospitals and retail pharmacies. So, it really affects everyone. But there are some cases where we actually lose money on prescriptions. That’s the sad reality of the pharmacy industry right now. “I do love the job and everything that goes with it because in this position you’re able to have a positive impact on the patients you’re helping to take care of. There’s a lot that takes place behind the scenes,” Elerick said. “We have a great team here at East Ohio and it’s been great to watch it grow.” Read the full article

Week 7 - Artist - Nan Goldin & Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer. She is mostly known for capturing celebrity portraits within an intimate setting, along with poses. Her work captures a lot of personality and also reflects so much about intimacy. She is very well-known being a part of Rolling Stone, then Vanity Fair and sometimes Vogue. She is the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which is very amazing. Her at work seems so simple, yet do detailed. She did dab a little in the painting industry, but loved photography. She likes to make sure her photos fully grasp the loving spirit and brightness of a person. She ranges in her photos by shooting people's nudes, them in gowns, or in paint. Her makes sure that her lighting is also dramatic.

Nan Goldin is an American photographer and activist. She is also likes to capture intimate photos. She also ranges within what she likes to capture, from the LGBT subcultures, to the opioid epidemic. Having a very rough childhood, she found love with a camera. She first started off by focusing on capturing the moments of people she loved. She also saw that the camera is a great way to reach into the political world. She uses her photographs to capture a lot of important ideas. She uses her photographs to also show her own transition within life and the work she has done while traveling. Within her work, you will also see a lot of it being presented as slideshows. The themes that we see from her is love, gender, domesticity, and sexuality.

This photograph is from Nan Goldin. This photo looks like its capturing a stressful day for a couple. From here we can see love and loss. From the guy doing drugs, we can see that he may be lost and maybe just drained. The girl looking over at him has passionate love for the man, but seems to wonder what he is doing with himself. It is a favorite because I feel like I have been stuck in a position where I really wonder about my days. They can be so long and dreadful, that you just want to let go and relax. I personally don't do drugs, but I feel like I can understand this guy's feelings. I also feel like the girl loving this boy is me because sometimes i just mesmerize over my boyfriend. I like to look at him and think about life.

This photograph by Annie Leibovitz shows great intimacy. I really like how it captures a man vulnerable and loving someone in a full passionate form. It is very uncommon to see a man wrapped around a lady because we usually depict it to be the other way around. When looking at this we can see how he hold her and kisses her in full loving force. It is a favorite to me because it makes me feel like a man doesn't always have to be seen as strong. I love seeing men show so much love and compassion for their significant other, and not pretending like it is unmanly. I want to feel like the girl because I want a man to feel like it is okay to be all lovey dovey. I want the guy to feel safe with me and not just the other way around.

I wouldn't say one is more authentic or honest because they both capture raw moments. These moments define the intimacy brought into the photo and really capture a true scene. I do not think it matters because they are also creative in their own way. They each know how to speak to a person and really grab someone's attention. Even though they show different pieces, they both represent love and passion. They both speak for the same crowd in my opinion.

I would personally choose Annie Leibovitz because I like the way she uses her lighting. I think she knows how to really focus on one part she wants you to. I think she could really capture all my features. I think Nan Goldin can as well, I just would feel like Annie knows how to understand what I want from a picture. Her work gave me great vibes and every single photo I saw from her really made me interested. It was from her that I struggled with choosing a favorite.

Charter schools are money laundries

Critiques of charter schools usually focus on poor quality education (disproportionately affecting racialized and poor people) and dangerous ideology (the movement is funded by billionaire dilettantes and religious maniacs), and with good reason!

Charters hand public funds to private institutions with minimal oversight. Public money should not go to schools that endorse slavery and indigenous genocide, nor schools that deny evolution and claim humans and dinosaurs co-existed.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180604002542/http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-voucher-school-curriculum-20180503-story.html

Charter students know they’re getting substandard educations — that’s why the 2019 valedictorians for Detroit’s Universal Academy used their speech to denounce the school, its curriculum and administrators.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2019/06/10/salutatorians-criticize-charter-school-graduation/1381474001/b

The more we learn about charters, the worse the situation gets. Take New Orleans, where, post-Katrina, the Republican statehouse and wealthy dilettante “philanthropists” eliminated all public education in favor of charter schools.

https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_0c5918cc-058d-11ea-aa21-d78ab966b579.html

A decade later, the state education regulator gave half these schools “D” or “F” grades.

No wonder that charter teachers joined LA public school teachers on their Red For Ed pickets in 2019:

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-lausd-strike-accelerated-school-20190114-story.html

Charter schools pitch themselves as grassroots phenomena, made possible thanks to the passion of parents seeking quality educations for their kids. The reality is that the movement is funded and promoted through a corrupt network of ultra-wealthy ideologues.

The Kochs and the Waltons (Walmart) have secretly funneled vast fortunes into disinformation campaigns aimed at demonizing teachers’ unions:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/12/teacher-strikes-rightwing-secret-strategy-revealed

They were joined by the likes of Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos, a fundamentalist who makes no secret of her view that charters can remove the barrier between church and state and institute publicly funded Christian indoctrination in schools:

https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/02/politics/eli-broad-letter-betsy-devos/index.html

Destroying public education is the sport of kings. Bill Gates blew $775m on a failed charter experiment whose subjects were children who got no say in the matter:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-06-27/here-s-how-not-to-improve-public-schools

Gates has solid teammates in his anti-public-education crusade. I mean, who can say no to Mark Zuckerberg?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/technology/silicon-valley-kansas-schools.html

Misery loves company, which is why the Sacklers — mass-murdering architects of the opioid epidemic — sunk so much blood money into the charter project (incredibly, this “philanthropy” is supposed to improve their reputation):

https://web.archive.org/web/20171113043810/https://www.alternet.org/education/notorious-family-contributing-opioid-crisis-and-funding-charter-schools/

But a critique of charters that starts with poor outcomes and ends with ideological billionaires misses the third leg of this stool: money-laundering and financial fraud.

Admittedly some of that has been in plain sight for years. Remember when an LA school board exec plead guilty to felony finance fraud and conspiracy for his role in the charter-backed takeover of the board?

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-ref-rodriguez-resigns-20180722-story.html#

But “Chartered For Profit,” a report from Network for Public Education is by far the most comprehensive look at the means by which billions are transferred from public school districts to profiteers, at the expense of kids in both the charter and public system.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Chartered-for-Profit.pdf

In an interview with Jacobin’s Meagan Day, NPE’s executive director Carol Burris discusses the blockbuster report, which is so damning that it prompted a bill in Congress that bans funding to charters that are managed by for-profit contractors.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/charter-schools-for-profit-nonprofit-taxpayer-public-money-oversight-education-salaries-real-estate-burris-interview

Burris explains that even though nearly all charters are nonprofits (except in AZ), there’s a widespread practice of contracting with for-profit corporations to “manage” these schools; the for-profits are often owned by the schools founders or their relatives.

Others are nationwide chains that offer comprehensive management services — “comprehensive” in the sense of steering schools to procure materials, services and supplies from affiliates that overcharge and kick-back to the management companies.

From substandard, overpriced cafeteria fare; to janky, nonfunctional ed-tech; to unqualified, underpaid teachers, these for-profit entities figure out how to minimize costs, maximize profits, and disguise poor student outcomes so they can keep doing it.

They deploy opaque corporate structures to give the appearance of a thriving ecosystem of suppliers — meanwhile, the largest chain, Academica, consists of 56 companies at one address, more than 70 at another, and a network of real-estate, holding and finance companies.

Real estate plays a major role in charter profiteering. Profiteers scoop up tax-advantaged funding and subsidized loans to buy buildings, leased at inflated rates to charters, with the tax-payer paying their mortgage.

When the mortgage is paid, more tax dollars are used to buy the school at inflated prices.

But it’s even more profitable to run a “virtual school” where you can deliver canned lectures and fake attendance records and pocket vast sums in public money.

For-profits are also loan-sharks. They offer credit to the nonprofit charters so they can afford the inflated prices for educational “services,” charging high interest rates that ensure they get an additional rake off of every public dollar the charter receives.

NPE’s “Another Day Another Charter Scandal” page is a good look at the tip of the corruption iceberg — the crimes that get caught, from fake invoices to outright embezzlement. Charter execs use the school’s credit card to pay for fancy dinners even trips to Disney World.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/another-day-another-charter-scandal/

Charters shouldn’t exist, period. But if they must exist, then the loophole that allows for-profits to run the notionally nonprofit charter sector must be closed.

Meanwhile, if you want a look at education “reform” that works, check out Andrea Gabor’s 2018 “After the Education Wars,” and learn how eliminating hierarchy, funding the arts, offering good wages and good training to teachers transform schools.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/millionaire-driven-education-reform-has-failed-heres-what-works

The formula is rather simple, really: “a respect for democratic processes and participatory improvement, a high regard for teachers, clear strategies with buy-in from all stake-holders, and accountability frameworks that include room to innovate.”

“Robust leadership and strong teacher voice. Their success underscores the importance of equitable funding and suggests that problems like income inequality are far more detrimental to education that the usual suspects, like bad teachers.”

Things I've learned driving around the country for work:

-Cracker barrels are always crowded. This is because they're great.

-Even if you're driving 10 mph over the speed limit in the right lane there will still be that one clown riding your ass. He likely has a punisher sticker on his rear window.

-that kind of dumpy guy you see in a white pickup and high vis clothing probably has a bigger part in making sure society properly functions than any politician.

- there are phrases that sound sweet and pleasant but are absolutely an insult. Bless your heart.

- every once in a while you'll drive through a dead town. Once there were thriving local businesses here. Somebody's hopes and dreams died here. Try not to think about it too hard or you'll get really sad

- You have not seen how bad roadkill can get until you've driven through a rural road in Appalachia.

- Opioids are a serious epidemic in this country

- this Jesus fella is still pretty popular, especially down south

- There are still stretches of this country where there is simply... nothing. No gas stations. No homes. Maybe farmland. It's eerie, especially at night

- that small restaurant you can barely see from the highway may have the best food you've ever tasted. It may also give you food poisoning. This is one of life's greatest gambles

- rest stops are a blessing and should be used whenever you need a break. They're also the best place to see dogs.

- everyone in this country, regardless of race religion or political affiliation, is just trying to make their way. Nobody really knows what they're meant to do. Everybody has dreams of what they want to do. This makes folks afraid, and people cope with this fear in different ways

- Hampton inns are overpriced.

August colorful column: AUgust special - The World Needs Your Highly Niche AU

During August, here in Wolfstar in Color we decided to celebrate AUgust - or, the existence of Alternative Universes in fandom. Because of this, we invited @fforsythiaaa​ to talk a bit about AUs from a literary point of view - and let me tell you, folks, we are beyond amazed and inspired by her words.

So we invite you to read the column that follows. If you want to know who @fforsythiaaa​ is, here’s a primer from herself: “I post about wolfstar, fanfiction as an art and experience, and whatever words, fanart, thoughts, tips, or anecdotes that I can't let go unshared.”

Read under the cut for the full column!

The World Needs Your Highly Niche AU

@fforsythiaaa​

I don’t remember when I found out that fanfiction came in AU flavor, but looking back, that was definitely the moment I fell head over heels for the fandom. Reading wolfstar come together, fall apart, orbit around each other, or weather the storm in a thousand different settings is amazing. It’s romantic to think that they would find each other no matter which plane of reality they’re on, and it’s satisfying to see their core traits manifested in so many different contexts. And considering JKR’s harmful views and actions, as well as how her views make it into the text, I’m finding myself much less inclined to interact with fics that are even canon-divergent. 

That said, there’s one thing that gets me so, so excited, and that’s when I see someone refer to a fic as a “highly niche” or “weirdly specific” AU. Stories that are specific to time, place, culture or identity are my favorite kind. It’s Remus and Sirius as scientists doing fieldwork together in a fellowship program in the mountains! It’s Remus and Sirius as communist organizers in 1920s Chile! It’s Remus and Sirius in a rural town impacted by the opioid epidemic! It’s Remus and Sirius as an architect and a contractor at odds on a very important and difficult project! (I made that one up, but if you write it, please, please tag me.) You’re telling me I get to read about these two starcrossed idiots and learn stuff at the same time? Count me in.

“But no one will want to read this,” the author will post. “It’s too specific, no one will be able to relate, and people won’t be interested in this kind of premise.” 

To which I say, unequivocally, I WANT TO READ YOUR HIGHLY NICHE AU. And what’s more, I think your highly niche AU is going to make the fandom a better place.

Let me start by saying that I completely understand why you think no one would be interested. People like stories that they can relate to; fewer people can relate to a very specific setting; therefore, fewer people would like a very specific story. Right?

The main problem with this logic is the assumption that people can only relate to stories that they have some prior experience with. With every story, the reader is learning about the time period, the place, the norms and rules and societies, and the characters. As readers, this learning is what makes reading fun, and as wolfstar fans, learning about these characters is the reason we read fic in the first place. So my logical conclusion is that the more we get to learn about Remus and Sirius and the world they inhabit, the more we enjoy reading. And in a highly niche au, there’s a lot of learning to do.

Full disclosure, I did not make this idea up. There was one post that made me think of Viktor Shklovsky, a literary critic who coined the term “defamiliarization.” They wrote something like: “I’m worried that all the details would be distracting for the reader and interrupt the story.” Shklovsky basically says that that’s the whole point. 

For extra credit, you can certainly read “Art as Technique” in its entirety, but I’ll dig up my literature degree and give you the gist. When you think you know something, you don’t really see it or perceive it. Think about a stretch of sidewalk you walk on every day. How much time do you spend noticing weeds growing up through the pavement, or where the concrete was repaired with a different material, and how much time do you spend just walking to work? Your brain skips right over the details to be more efficient. Art is meant to make us perceive the world instead of skip right to knowing it; it’s meant to make us notice those weeds and that concrete. Shklovsky says that the technique of art is to make objects unfamiliar so it takes us longer to perceive, to understand. In poetry, each unfamiliar word or detail is a rock in the path that makes us walk more slowly and look more carefully at a road we thought we knew. 

In your super specific AU, that niche setting that your readers aren’t familiar with is part of what makes reading enjoyable. You’re making us walk more slowly through Remus and Sirius’s story so we can perceive their character and conflict differently; that gives us more time to enjoy the story. You’re making us think differently about what the human experience can look like. 

That’s where I start making my argument that branching out from coffee shop and college AUs (which I also love dearly) is a positive step for the whole fandom. We know that representation of people outside the dominant culture is really, really beneficial (that’s another post, and also the whole point of Wolfstar In Color; if you want some Cliff notes to share with the class, check the classic Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie TED talk). When we’re in the habit of hearing lots of different stories instead of only one, we’re in the habit of being curious about each other; it’s much easier to build compassion, understanding, and solidarity when we genuinely want to know more about other people. 

But my push for highly niche AUs is not about filling AO3 with a thousand million stories that perfectly represent the lived experience of every individual reader (unless…?). It’s more about filling the fandom with enough different types of stories that people start thinking, “you know what? If their story belongs here, so does mine.” 

That’s how we make this space feel safe enough for people to participate, whether as writers, readers, or tumblr posters. It’s a much more effective way of demonstrating that the fandom values diverse voices than just saying platitudes about how everyone’s voices matter. Sometimes your existence is radical enough. We need it, and we want to hear about it.

So the next time you think about writing “literally no one asked for this highly niche au,” come back to this post and think again. I’m asking for you to give me an opportunity to learn new things. I’m asking for you to add one more reason for a budding author to think that maybe their fic belongs here, too, and maybe their experiences are more valuable than they thought. I’m asking for you to give me an opportunity to discover new facets of human experience with this painfully tragic and romantic pair as my companions. Here it is: I’m asking.

Little Bit Better Than I Used To Be - Backstage (6)

Catch up: Chapter 1 (Starry Eyes) || Chapter 2 (Save Our Souls) || Chapter 3 (Dancing On Glass) || Chapter 4 (Merry-Go-Round) || Backstage (1) || Backstage (2) || Chapter 5 (Danger) || Backstage (3) || Chapter 6A (Love Walked In) || Chapter 6B (Without You) || Backstage (4) || Chapter 7 (Stick To Your Guns) || Chapter 8 (Time For Change) || Backstage (5) || Chapter 9 (Take Me To The Top) |I| Also posted at AO3

--

Many of you have written such kind words about this story. That means more to me than you'll ever know.

I'm so glad to shine a light on the really, really hard work that people do to claw their way out of addiction. Addicts - of all kinds - are all around us. They're the people we work with, and the people we bump into in apartment building hallways, and the people we stand in line behind at the grocery store. Everyday people, like you and me, who are really struggling to do the right thing.

It's a sad reality that the addiction statistics continue to go in one direction - up.

But the more we talk about it - the more support we provide to the people in our lives who really need that support - the more we can solve this issue. Not talking about it, will only exacerbate the problem.

Nikki Sixx said it best, in an op-ed about the opioid epidemic that he published in the Los Angeles Times a few years ago:

Addiction cannot be solved behind closed doors. It’s a sickness, a systemic failure and a societal problem. Individuals are responsible for their own recovery, but too often, we struggle and suffer — as we sin — in secrecy and silence. Secrecy and silence do not lead to solutions.

So I am speaking out. And so should you. Because another 142 people are going to die today.

---

Here's an incredibly inspiring message that Nikki posted on his Instagram this summer, celebrating 20 years of sobriety:

Some people will try an kick you in the nuts, steal your money ,stab you in the back, guaranteed to let you down, sabotage yer life, not believe in you and gossip that you’ll never make a day without drugs or alcohol. And do you know what you’re gonna do? YOU’RE GONNA STAY SOBER ONE DAY AT A TIME. You are the miracle, the one that breaks the addiction chain, the one who is a living amens. The one who has altered your family history. You will live in gratitude for those that never thought you’d stay sober or make it out alive BECAUSE THEY MADE YOU STRONGER and you know how to forgive assholes. And when you see people who are still suffering / treading water or gasping for air, be sure to throw them a life vest. Because we give back now to those that are still afflicted and hope they too pass it on.#SobrietyRocks #20Years ♥️

Black Lives Matter, amirite?

I'm near-certain that the only possible context for your sardonic response is a post I made yesterday about wanting to get my mom out of the dangerous neighborhood she's in because I'm terrified she's gonna be a victim of violent crime, and instead of quickly contradicting your implied assumptions and calling you a racist and a troll, I'm gonna use your question as my framing to talk about some issues I don't see people discussing often enough on here. I've been meaning to write a long-form political post for a while, and your response has given me an excuse to finally do so. I write about and study these topics academically in the social sciences + public policy studies and want to share some of what I've learned, in case you or anyone reading is interested.

As for racial stereotypes regarding crime in Chicago (the city where my mom and I are from), some high-crime neighborhoods in Chicago have a notable, historical racial component thanks to generational disadvantages imposed by a housing policy known as 'redlining' from the 1930s to the 1960s: as a quick summary, this was a primarily racially discriminatory practice that essentially prevented majority-black families from moving out of the inner city by designating them as too high of an investment risk for banks to provide home loans, which really started devastating majority-black communities once deindustrialization hit and factory jobs left -- leading to a rapid increase in poverty and loss of most employment opportunities within those communities. (Here's some links on this phenomenon: history of redlining in Chicago, effects still felt today in communities historically affected by redlining, and a research journal examining how practices like redlining isolate these neighborhoods from the rest of the city and create essentially a bubble of violent crime).

However, despite your implicit assumptions, that's not the case in the neighborhood my mom and I are from. In this case, both the victims and perpetrators of crime are from all backgrounds: black, brown, and white. Why? Because our neighborhood, like many in Chicago and across America, has been heavily affected by the Opioid Epidemic. The real criminals, systemically speaking, are predatory and negligent pharmaceutical corporations.

While the running narrative and assumption is that the Opioid Epidemic is really only a problem in majority-white, poor rural communities, it isn't (and side note: if your activism neglects or shuns poor rural and urban whites, you don't really give a shit about actual social justice, please clout-chase elsewhere). The Opioid Epidemic's effects are way more far-reaching than people might realize and has absolutely decimated poor and working-class communities all throughout the country, inside and outside of cities; the residual effects of the policy failure known as "the War on Drugs" (which in practice was more of a "war on the poor, black, and brown") has absolutely served to exacerbate these issues, but is also entwined with government lenience on corporate crimes, corporate lobbying for deregulation policies, lack of access to information resources and infrastructure for public healthcare in both rural and inner-city areas, the stigmatization of addiction and mental illness, the Global Economic Recession of 2008 and its effects on employment, deindustrialization and economic globalization's twin impact on the loss of American manufacturing jobs, etc that has lead to a social, economic, and cultural epidemic of nationwide despair that has yet to be addressed with substantive national policy in a holistic manner. (Here's some links: a research article that I think is one of the best overviews of the Opioid Epidemic's causes and impacts, a research article that details how pharmaceutical companies dodge litigation and includes the results of court cases and how paltry the consequences were compared to the devastation their drugs, negligence, and profit-seeking cause, a manuscript on research and policy aimed at combating the epidemic and how it affects socioeconomically depressed groups such as incarcerated people, veterans, and rural communities, and a well-sourced article that is admittedly politically biased towards my view that single-payer healthcare is the only substantive policy solution for the Opioid Epidemic and widespread health issues in general).

Pretty much everyone knows at least a few people who are addicted, or who overdosed, or were killed by drug-related violent crime in areas like this. That's messed up, and because it's ultimately perpetuated by corporations and its impact is greatly exacerbated by class, I don't expect this administration or rich neolibs on Twitter moralizing for social capital to do much of anything substantial or give a single genuine call to action on it. This opens up a whole conversation about how social justice has been co-opted by wealthy interests who have eclipsed class issues with weaponized identity politics -- before anyone gets angry, identity politics are still worth addressing especially as they intersect with class issues, but sufficiently analyzing this topic in a critical manner easily warrants its own separate post. (Nonetheless, here are some links on how easily social justice narratives can be manipulated by those with wealth and influence to ultimately perpetuate inequality and retain the economic status quo: - an excerpt from Manufacturing Consent that describes this phenomenon, which has existed long before the advent of social media, an article with a link to a great report about how social media politics are not representative of the majority of Americans' views [crucial if you care about effectively communicating your goals and motivating people to help your cause; also surprisingly, the linked report illustrates that most Americans in the real actual world are more tolerant than given credit for, and their issues with social justice stem from how activists - primarily those based in social media - approach political discourse], and a fantastic article about how neoliberalism's hyperindividualist fracturing of identity has negatively impacted substantive progress).

So, all in all, I see the damage done by the influx of opioids in my old neighborhood and the violence it precipitates due to a lack of proper rehabilitative and medical infrastructure for poor and working-class people. People with addictions are treated like criminals and thrown in my county's overfilled prisons. It pisses me off that this isn't addressed enough, because it's an absolute outrage, and exposes how these systems would rather let our classes kill each other or die before holding pharmaceutical corporations properly responsible and instituting universal healthcare for poor and working-class people.

I hope to see a call in the near future for more cohesive discourse and activism that isn't harmfully devoted to the atomization of identity and that isn't dictated by academics in the Humanities, wealthy influencers, establishment politicians, celebrities, or Extremely Online activist personalities -- all who are out of touch with real-life people, the issues they face, and how they speak about and view them through their own lens. Because if you want meaningful progress, ignoring or paying mere lip service to class/economic issues -- and their impact on sociocultural issues -- will ensure you never actually get progress as long as you willfully look the other way.