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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months

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Fighting junk fees is "woke"

“Populism” isn’t intrinsically left or right. The distinction between the two is often obscured by jargon, but there’s a simple litmus test (courtesy of Steven Brust): “ask what’s more important: human rights, or property rights. If they say ‘property rights are human rights,’ they’re on the right.”

Which is to say, both the left and the right can be populist, but the populist left seeks to improve peoples’ lives, no matter what that takes, while the populist right is only willing to make the world better when that doesn’t interfere with the interests of property owners.

This is how you get the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire equating publicly produced, free insulin with forcing enslaved Black people to pick cotton in the fields:

https://newrepublic.com/post/174485/libertarian-party-suggests-former-black-lawmaker-pick-crops-free

For right populists, the property rights of pharma giants are human rights, so anything that interferes with those rights is equivalent to any other human rights violation.

This is not only wrong, but it’s also a huge vulnerability in the right populist mindset. It’s a button that, when pushed, produces a reliable and reflexive outrage.

This is essential for the creation, maintenance and expansion of plutocracy. In a plutocracy, a small minority owns most of the property (we live in a plutocracy). By definition, plutocracy isn’t popular, since it’s a system that benefits a small minority at everyone else’s expense. In its natural state, plutocracy is only popular with its winners, and not the vast majority of losers it creates.

So plutocrats need to find ways to get turkeys to vote for Christmas. One important trick is to convince us all that the system is fair, guided by an invisible hand that performs mystic passes over our heads at birth and locates the very best of us and elevates us to the apex of the social pyramid.

But there’s a problem with this: plutocracy is self-sustaining. The story that we’re all just “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” who can rise to the top with hard work and smarts falls flat in the face of the reality that nearly everyone at the top was born there. If the system selects rulers based on merit, and if everyone the system selects was born rich, then the rich must have some genetic trait that makes them destined to rule.

This is why plutocracy always turns into aristocracy: the idea that some people are suited to rule because they have “good blood.” Eugenics is, above all, a way to excuse inequality. Fitness to rule is determined primarily by whose orifice you emerge from, and only secondarily by any obvious competence or skill.

So right wing footsoldiers are mired in a terrible and shameful swamp of self-loathing. By definition, their lack of wealth and power is their own fault, and not merely their fault, but the fault of their genes. Being on the bottom is proof that you deserve to be there. Your failure to rise proves that you don’t deserve to rise.

No wonder the right is so irony-poisoned. Remember 2020, when gun-nuts got “revenge” on gun safety scolds by photographing themselves pointing loaded guns at their own penises? The participants insisted that they were just trolling, and they were…by pointing loaded guns at their dicks:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/28/holographic-nano-layer-catalyser/#musketfuckers

Plutocrats understand that there are limits to irony, and that at a certain point, irony poisoning becomes so acute that your rank-and-file literally start blowing their balls off. To relieve the pressure, plutes scapegoat other people based on their gender, sexual orientation, race, or nationality.

This provides an important resolution to the cognitive dissonance of meritocracy. The reason you’re doing so badly isn’t that you lack merit, it’s that affirmative action has elevated unworthy people to the positions that you deserve. You are a temporarily embarrassed millionaire — but the riches you deserve have been snaffled up by welfare queens and DEI consultants.

Cruelty isn’t the point of culture war bullshit: the point is power. Cruelty is merely the tactic:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/09/turkeys-voting-for-christmas/#culture-wars

Culture war bullshit is a very reliable way to get turkeys to vote for Christmas. Take the campaign against junk fees, which have ticketmastered every part of your life with “fees” for things like “paying your rent by check” and “not paying your rent by check”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/30/military-industrial-park-service/#booz-allen

There is no broad constituency for junk fees. Scam artists (including scam artists in the C-suites of Fortune 100 companies) love them, sure, but junk fees make everyone else furious.

What’s a plutocrat to do? Well, it turns out that culture war bullshit can make right wingers point (metaphorical) guns at their own junk — all plutocrats need to do is put the word out that getting rid of junk fees is “woke” and low-information right-wing thumbsuckers will demand the right to be charged junk fees.

Here’s an example: one especially pernicious form of junk fee is the “swipe fees” that credit-card companies charge merchants. In an increasingly cashless age, these companies — dominated by the Visa/Mastercard duopoly — have figured out how to scrape 3–5% out of every single retail transaction in the entire fucking economy.

Every merchant you patronize has to charge more — or reduce quality, or both — in order to pay this Danegeld to two of the largest, most profitable companies in the world. Visa/Mastercard have hiked their fees by 40 percent since the pandemic’s start. Forty. Fucking. Percent. Tell me again how greedflation isn’t real?

A bipartisan legislative coalition, led by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) have proposed the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), which will force competition into credit-card routing, putting pressure on the Visa/Mastercard duopoly:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1838/text?s=1&r=3

This should be a no-brainer, but plute spin-doctors have plenty of no-brains to fill up with culture war bullshit. Writing in The American Prospect, Luke Goldstein unpacks an astroturf campaign to save the endangered swipe fee from woke competition advocates:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-08-04-wall-street-culture-war-swipe-fee-reform/

Now, this campaign isn’t particularly sophisticated. It goes like this: Target is a big business that runs a lot of transactions through Visa/Mastercard, so it stands to benefit from competition in payment routing. And Target did a mean woke by selling Pride merch, which makes them groomers. So by fighting swipe fees, Congress is giving woke groomers a government bailout!

It’s literally that stupid. It’s being pushed by a dark money group based in Kansas, which is targeting Senator Marshall’s constituents with mailers that warns voters they’ll “lose their credit card points” because he’s thrown his lot in with “liberal politicians”:

https://punchbowl.news/caf-marshall-mailer-kansas/

The fliers also warn that competition could result in “your financial data could be processed by partners of the Chinese Communist Party” (the bill bans foreign companies from routing transactions, and bans China UnionPay by name).

The fliers are anonymous. The only ghoul shameless enough to put his name on the campaign is Grover Norquist, whose Americans for Tax Reform tells its Christmas-voting-turkeys to “side with consumers, not woke retailers.”

The dark money org pushing this line have placed op-eds in newspapers across red states, comparing transaction routing competition to your kids’ data being snaffled up by Tiktok:

https://www.theflstandard.com/senators-rubio-and-scott-must-protect-the-personal-financial-data-of-floridians/

This nonsense was peddled by League of Southeastern Credit Unions president Samantha Beeler, whose org has spent $20,000 fighting the CCCA, claiming that a “cheaper” system would be “less secure”:

https://disclosurespreview.house.gov/ld/ldxmlrelease/2023/Q2/301493985.xml

But that’s small potatoes. Millions are being spent, right now, lobbying against CCCA — $5m from the American Bankers’ Association, $2m from the Credit Union National Association, another $400k from Mastercard.

For these rentiers, corrupting our government with millions is a stellar bargain if it lets them continue to collect rent every time we spend money. And millions of people who’ll end up paying that will demand the right to do so, provided they’re told that they’re fighting “woke capitalism” and China.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

[Image ID: A mechanical credit card imprinter (AKA 'zipzap') emblazoned with a US flag Punisher logo. It is imprinting a blank credit-card slip with a red Visa card bearing the GOP logo. It sits on a weathered wooden plank table, stained a dark brown.]

#pluralistic #finance #junk fees #ripoffs #turkeys voting for christmas #culture war bullshit #useful idiots #visa #mastercard #swipe fees

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natjennie · 4 months

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"thomas got no character development" maybe. or maybe the moral of his story is that it's irresponsible and unhealthy to attempt to completely deprive yourself of your feelings and much more productive to accept them as part of yourself and move on with your life from there. trying to go cold turkey on alison and then randomly picking another person to have a crush on only for it not to work is something we've seen thomas do before, which for some reason people decide to see as boring repetition rather than consistent characterization. but after that. did you miss the part where he stopped talking when she walked away, realized along with everyone else when fanny said "we're as bad as betty" and voted to go through with the proposal for alison to leave? did you miss the part where he happily waved her and her living family goodbye? did you miss the part where alison, old and gray, came back and mirthfully said "thomas, you flatter me" like. his passion for people and obsession with the idea of love wasn't gonna just go away. but he's learning to treat her with more respect, he didn't throw a tantrum or follow her around or go drown himself in the lake. just because he's not a completely different character doesn't mean there wasn't growth. watch season 1 episode 2 thomas say "divorce him, kill yourself, marry me" and then watch the christmas special again and tell me there was no development. come on now.

#like his 'its you that i love' was completely neutral. he's not making demands he's not badmouthing mike #he knows she is happy with mike and mia and will never feel the same way he does #that doesnt make him love her any less #can you not imagine having an unreciprocated crush?#his infatuation with her has gotten WAYYY less intense and way less overbearing #he's learning to live with his feelings and love her platonically as well #just because he still feels things very passionately doesnt mean he hasn't grown #anyway his short-lived intense fixations on people is like. a trademark of his character.#did you not watch the thomas thorne affair #anyway whatever #i think people need to take a step back and think about time scale before they complain about lack of growth #thomas has been dead for 300 years.#he's not gonna become an entirely different person in 5.#like 5 years SOUNDS like a long time to us. living people.#but you have to remember that it is a FRACTION of their time #bbc ghosts #ghosts spoilers

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fallofcorruptbritain · 8 months

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While we have the rich 'King Charles' and his class of parasites in Britain, the ordinary citizen can't even afford to pay the rent anymore.

Profiteering landlords are now raising the rent every time there is an increase in the bank rate... which could be several times a year, instead of an annual rent rise... in a rental market that already makes it hard to afford even a basic roof over your head.

Britain is a corrupt tax shelter for wealthy fatcats, thanks to the Tory (Conservative) Party government since 2010.

Thirteen years of austerity, Brexit, a cost of living crisis, sewage in our rivers and seashores, an underfunded healthcare system, no affordable dentists, no affordable homes, lousy pay... but plenty of tax cuts for the rich Tory cronies, knighthoods and lordships for their pals and donors, and fat paychecks for Tory MPs from their 2nd jobs as 'consultants' to wealthy corporations.

And yet people voted them in...

How stupid can the British people be? Like turkeys voting for Christmas.

#britain #inequality #rich v poor #landlords #cost of living #uk #housing #property #tenants #uk politics

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 month

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By: Richard Dawkins

Published: Mar 22, 2024

I want to make a three-way distinction. You can be a Cultural Christian, a Political Christian, a Believing Christian, or any combination of the three. People may disagree about which of these constitutes being “A Christian”. For me it has to be Believing Chistian.

I am a Cultural Christian, specifically a Cultural Anglican. I was educated in Christian schools. The history of my people is heavily influenced by Christian tradition. I like singing Christmas Carols, and am deeply moved by the sacred music of Bach and Handel. My head is full of Biblical phrases and quotations. And hymn tunes, which I regularly play by ear on my electronic clarinet.

I think Ayaan Hirsi-Ali (who is one of my favourite people in the world) is a Political Christian. She was brought up in the culture of Islam and is well aware of the horrors that that religion is still visiting on Muslims around the world, especially women. She sees Christianity as a relatively benign competitor, worth supporting as a bulwark against Islam. Just as most of us support a political party without agreeing with all its policies, because we prefer it to the alternative, a Political Christian may support Christianity without being a Believing Christian, because it’s better than the main alternative. Ayaan is a Cultural Muslim, and it is this that has driven her to be a Political Christian.

Believing Christians believe that there is a supernatural creator at the base of the universe called God. They believe a First Century Jew called Jesus is the son of God. They believe Jesus’s mother was a virgin when she gave birth to him. They believe that Jesus came alive again three days after he died. They believe that we ourselves have an immortal soul which survives our bodily death. They believe that God listens to our prayers. I strongly suspect hat Ayaan doesn’t believe any of these things. She is not a Believing Christian.

In my language, that means she is not a Christian at all. Others may include Cultural Christian in their definition of Christian, in which case I am a Christian. Indeed, Ayaan herself is reported to have called me one of the most Christian people she knows. But by the same token, the implication would be that she is a Muslim because she is a Cultural Muslim. And she certainly would not call herself a Muslim.

So, Ayaan is a Political Christian but she is no more a Believing Christian than I am. Her example leads me to consider my own position. Am I a Political Christian? I am in no doubt that Christianity is morally superior to Islam. Just look at the regions of the world with an explicitly Islamic government, or where Islam is the dominant political influence: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Somalia, Northern Nigeria, Brunei, Turkey (betraying the admirable secularism of its post-Ottoman foundation) Saudi Arabia and many other countries of the Arab world. Laws vary, but recurrent patterns include mistreatment of women as second class citizens, persecution of gays, forced marriage, violent intolerance of what is considered blasphemous, anti-Jewish prejudice going so far as to laud Hitler, draconian punishment for apostasy, and for adultery which is often deemed to include simply talking to a member of the opposite sex other than a spouse or relative. Christianity has its bad points, and in earlier centuries it has been as bad as Islam. But today there’s no contest. When it comes to evil, Islam wins hands down, by a huge margin. No other religion comes close.

If I were American I would vote Democrat because, in spite of their idiotic stance on the male/female distinction, they are hugely preferable to the Republican alternative. Similarly, if I were forced to vote for either Christianity or Islam as alternative influences on the world, I would unhesitatingly vote Christian. If that make me a Political Christian, so be it. I am perhaps as much of a Political Christian as Ayaan is. But does that make either of us a Christian?

In my language, certainly not. For me, as a scientist, truth or falsehood of beliefs is what really defines a word like Christian or Muslim. If you are going to call somebody a Christian without qualification, I think it’s a confusion of language to mean anything less than a Believing Christian. You are at liberty to dissent from that definition. But let us at least be clear what definition we are using. If Ayaan says she’s a Christian and I say she’s not, we are really not disagreeing. We are defining our terms differently. She uses “Christian” to include “Political Christian” for herself and “Cultural Christian” for me. I don’t think you can be a real Christian if you don’t believe the fundmental tenets of Christianity.

The only disagreement is a semantic one. I am a Cultural Christian but not a Believing Christian, which, in my language means I am not a Christian. You, Ayaan, are a Political Christian, which in your language, but not mine, makes you a Christian. But we are neither of us Believing Christian. And this, in my language but not yours, makes neither of us Christians. So, dear Ayaan, let’s not agree to differ. Let’s agree that we don’t really differ.

Dissident Dialogues

I’m happy to say I’ll be having a public conversation with Ayaan Hirsi-Ali at the inaugural Dissident Dialogues. Obviously her announcement that she has become Christian will be a major part of the discussion. The conference will be in New York, May 3rd & 4th. Distinguished speakers include Steven Pinker, John McWhorter, Kathleen Stock, Alex O’Connor, and many other leading thinkers.

#Richard Dawkins #Ayaan Hirsi Ali #christianity #islam #political christianity #cultural christianity #believing christianity #religion #supernatural #religion is a mental illness

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azspot · 3 months

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The main purpose of the culture war isn't immiserating marginalized people – that's its effect, but its purpose is to distract low-information turkeys (working people) so they'll vote for Christmas (the ongoing seizure of power by American oligarchs). For the funders of conservative movement politics, the cruelty isn't the point, it's merely the tactic.

Cory Doctorow

#culturewar

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tracidant · 2 years

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https://www.soundspheremag.com/blog/comics/cartoon-network-to-produce-merry-little-batman-starring-damian-wayne/

I'm thinking...

Robin: Home Alone (2022)

"The Gotham rogues pick the wrong house to rob this Christmas."

- Filmed on location at stately Wayne Manor, New Jersey.

Rated R for language, violence, blood, maiming, slicing, pinning the Joker to a wall by stabbing him with a fireplace poker, wrapping Penguin up in blinking Christmas lights and locking him in a closet, hog-tying Riddler with wrapping ribbon and placing him under the tree with a bow on his head, and knocking Two-Face out with a 20lb frozen Christmas turkey.

(No animals or children were harmed in the making of this film, but some adult villains totally got their butts kicked.)

Reviews -

Jason Todd 👍👍 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Poker 1, Joker 0. Masterpiece!"

Dick Grayson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"You did so good, Little D! But maybe a little less violence next time, ok?"

Tim Drake 👎👎

"Did the bloodiest scenes really have to happen in MY BEDROOM? REALLY? I'm rooting for Two-Face next time, you little 🤬🤬🤬🤬!"

Alfred Pennyworth ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Excellent acting, but I must agree with Master Dick about the levels of violence. Do you realize who has to clean all that blood?"

Stephanie Brown 👍👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Penguin and the blinking lights were THE BEST! He was all 'Waugh, Waugh, you can't do this to me kid,' but the kid totally did. I laughed so hard I pulled a muscle!"

Cassandra Cain 👍👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🤣🤣🤣🥰🥰🥰😍 😍😍🤭🤭🤭🥳🥳🥳👏👏👏💪💪💪❤👶🥷🦇

Duke Thomas ⭐⭐⭐

"It was ok, I guess, but with the Christmas turkey in GCPD's evidence room, we had to all share Damian's tofurkey, and that stuff is disgusting."

Bruce Wayne ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"I have detailed files on all members of the Oscar's voting group." #prouddad #Oscardad

Jon Kent ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"My parents wouldn't let me see this movie, but I just know Damian was awesome. I did see a few clips on DCU-Tube, and I taught him that hog-tying move!"

#damian wayne #robin #damian's christmas movie #Merry Little Batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #duke thomas #alfred pennyworth #happy but dysfunctional batfam #batfamily #batkids

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rscroogedraws · 5 months

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General Update

I'm in the process of moving and dealing with other stuff.

So, I'm sorry for everyone waiting but the November Patreon rewards will show up next week. This month's rewards are going to be:

-Zoe and her mother giving Lady Gobbler a pet turkey.

-Alejandro meeting Heather's parents.

Once those are done, the rewards for December will be whatever fun Christmas-related works I get out and votes will return in January. Otherwise, I'm focusing on getting more comic pages up next month.

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sunnydaleherald · 4 months

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, December 16th

CORDELIA: You don't eat food. ANGEL: Oh, I can. It doesn't keep me alive, but, you know, sometimes I get a hankering. CORDELIA: You had a hankering for turkey, ham and roast beef sandwiches? ANGEL: (points to one) You missed the vegetarian. CORDELIA: Soup and salad, too? What is going on here? ANGEL: (quietly) I forgot what you liked. CORDELIA: Why didn't you ask me? ANGEL: Well, you said, why is everyone asking you if they can get you anything, and-and I didn't wanna *do* that... CORDELIA: So you did this - instead. ANGEL: (quietly) Yup. CORDELIA: I love you.

~~Dead End~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

12 Days of Christmas 2023 #6: Again This Year by apachefirecat (Spike/Buffy, Dawn, Ensemble, PG-13/T)

Untitled by Tasha Stark (Buffy, Supernatural crossover, not rated)

The Merry Month of Magnus Presents... An Unexpected Visit by JSBirsa (Buffy/Spike, PG)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Keeping Up With the Scoobies, Chapter 25 (complete!) by Takara_Phoenix (Buffy/Spike, Ensemble, T)

Days of Future Past, Chapter 35 (complete!) by a2zmom (Buffy/Angel, M)

Fuel’s Aflame, Chapter 17 by wickedrum (Buffy/Spike, not rated)

Buffyverse Flashfic, Chapter 12 by NotASlayer (Buffy/Anya, T)

Hope is the thing with feathers, Chapter 5 by wildflowerr_wildfire (Buffy/Spike, not rated)

Advent Calendiles, Chapter 16 by HAL1500 (Giles/Jenny, G)

Swimming Against the Current, Chapter 8 by dwinchester (Gage, Ensemble, T)

Out of Africa, Chapter 1 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, T)

From Apocalypse and Motherhood, Chapter 1 by bangelus9, MIA_SAN_MIA (Buffy/Angel, G)

Multiversal Adventure, Chapter 41 by aTasteofDarkness (Dirk_Grey) (multiple female characters/OC, E)

Vampire Whxre, Chapter 4 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

As You Wish, Chapter 5 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Out of Africa, Chapter 2 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, PG)

You Kiss Me, Chapter 1 by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

What the Drabble? Chapter 54 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, R)

A Very Summers Winter, Chapter 16 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Spuffy's Little Helper, Chapter 16 by Alyot (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Last Hurrah, Chapter 1 by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, R)

Side Effects, Chapters 3-7 (complete!) by by hulettwyo (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: queer little Jewish witch in her tartan skirt by tiredtiresias (Willow, worksafe)

Artwork: Spike by odd-critter (worksafe)

Fanvid: Buffy & Dawn Full Of Grace by Angelus_clips

[Reviews & Recaps]

Honestly how I feel about BTVS ep 3x10 Amends by juanabaloo

Video: The Season Buffy Became Great [Season 2] by Andrea Lopez

Podcast: Slayers a Buffy-verse Story Review by Gamster's World

Video: English 203: Defining Horror - Video Essay by SadieJamesMagdaline

[Community Announcements]

Fic superlatives voting by Revamped I Will Remember You Marathon

[Fandom Discussions]

Where the Wild Things Are has to be thee most insane episode premise by fox-toothed

Bangel and Xanya parallels by oveliagirlhaditright

two women casting a spell together by three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat

Buffy Rewatch Discussion Thread #1 continued by multiple posters

Comical Quotes by Moptop

Sadie Hawkins by November

The Body by theturquoisecat

What's your favourite musical score piece from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel? by writeitregreddit

ANGEL one part that made me almost just stop.watching by Nonnarules58

was buffy supposed to have an orgasm in the scene where angel drinks her blood? by SafiraAshai

Which scenes make you cry and why? by Simple-Formal-8588

For those of you who aren't techno pagans, here are some helpful computer terms by V48runner

Fantasy Draft: the perfect Buffy season by anthonyjad

Unanswered Questions? by Inevitable_Force320

Angel gets a lot of hate by Extra_Honeydew4661

Do you think Buffy was falling for Spike in S6? by aeryn1227

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #angel the series #ats

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dalle2 · 1 year

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“A turkey votes for Christmas”

Sharing is caring!

Substack: dalle.substack.com

Twitter: @Dalle2AI

The heading of this post was used to generate the image, src

#art #dalle2 #dall e #ai artwork #ai art #aiart #generative art #ai image #digital art #dalle mini #ai #dall e ai #dallemini #generative ai #ai generated #generated artwork

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yesterdayiwrote · 1 year

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Saw that tweet about F1 in Miami and it’s such a good point.

I genuinely am scared at what will happen in the UK to women’s and LGBQT+ rights. Let’s face it, trans rights fall and rise with cis women’s rights. UK will restrict a******* access soon and I am petrified for women in my country.

I’ve always found that where the US goes, the UK starts lurching in the same direction 6-18 months later and it’s not by accident because the right wing lobby groups pushing these things over there have a disturbing amount of sway and financial interest within the Conservative party. The only saving Grace for the UK right now is that the election may come around before they have a chance to really enforce some of these wildly restrictive plans they’re touting. The downside is Kier Starmer has started to become wildly ineffective at pushing back in favour of trying to entice the right wing to vote for him.

I’m genuinely scared of where the UK is heading and the hideous state of the discourse going on here right now. I’m a cis woman who doesn’t fit into the stereotypical vision of femininity that Terfs seem to hold and it scares me hearing how they talk and I can only imagine how terrifying and heartbreaking it must be for trans women to have to put up with it day in day out, on top of the other endless slurs people throw their way. The thing I’m most scared about is these Transphobes are so caught up in their blind hatred that they can’t see how they’re cosying up with people that are actively trying to strip away their rights and the rights of women under the guise of ‘protecting women’. We’re going to end up with the inevitable turkeys voting for Christmas scenario, just like we did with Brexit.

Trans women are women, and seeking to harm them only serves to further harm cis women.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 10 months

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During the Obama years, some of the Republican Party’s leading finance wing bosses started playing with fire. The Koch Brothers poured a fortune into the creation of the Tea Party, a hardline group that made it clear that the would rather lose elections than lose the culture war. They primaried career GOP politicians and replaced them with swivel-eyed loons (and normie politicians who were willing to vote like swivel-eyed loons).

These hardliners changed the conservative coalition’s balance of power. By making it clear that they would rather see Democrats in office than Republicans who reneged on their culture war promises, they put the fear of (an evangelical) God into their leaders.The Tea Party marked a turning point for the US conservative movement and then conservative movements around the world.

Hardline conservative policies — total abortion bans, groomer panics, institutionalized racism, historical revisionism, support for white nationalist — are not popular.

Ideas like universal medical care, expanded transit, humane immigration policies and infrastructure spending enjoy commanding majority support among both Republicans and Democrats.But the hardliners threw the steering-wheel out the window. They’ve made it clear to GOP party bosses that they would rather lose elections than lose the culture war.

- The Right's Hardliners Would Rather Lose Elections Than Culture Wars: and the finance wing knows it

#elections #leftism #swivel-eyed loons #republican party #gop #tories #two-party system #first past the post #turkeys voting for christmas #evangelicals #conservatavism #politics

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ashleyinwondrland · 2 years

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Chetney, I mean Chutney wanting to usurp Santa is brilliant. I vote for him as new Santa

Julie’s character Ellory says Santa is her divine presence, is she like a cleric and Santa is her patron? Does that make Santa a god?

Talisen’s character feels like a precursor to Ashton

Nutmeg, Ashley’s, having worked in the Macys in New York City is brilliant. I can see how that would make you hate Christmas

Sam being a Jewish elf is amazing

I also never realized how much I wanted Marisha and Matt role playing together, I’m excited to see more of that in one shots, have they ever had a rp romance? Idk why I want to see a married couple flirt again but I do

Also did they have to do a licensing agreement for this episode? Like they went to the forest of trees with a shamrock, a turkey, a pumpkin and all that. Plus the font for night before critmas is pretty much nightmare before Christmas

#critical role #the night before critmas

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ausetkmt · 1 year

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Have we decided what the problem with Thanksgiving is going to be this year?

We could start with the base-level perennials — the godawful travel, the risk to one’s diet, the cousin who is loudly certain that someone has slipped gluten into the gluten-free stuffing. There’s typically a grievance against the potatoes: the format, mashed or casserole, whether or not to marshmallow, why is there never enough. Someone has canceled at the last minute; someone nobody invited shows up anyway. At least one child refuses to sit at the kiddie table, the teenagers refuse to put their phones down at whichever table, an uncle insists on watching the football game at the table. The table itself looks nothing like tables on Instagram.

But in recent years, we’ve had particular reason to squabble over the holiday.

For four unforgiving years, from 2016 to 2020, the problem was breaking bread with your political nemeses. Advice columns bristled with agita. How do you handle your Trump-loving father-in-law or the out-of-towners who show up in MAGA gear? “No baseball caps at the table” was USA Today’s Rule No. 7 for avoiding political food fights in 2019. In some other neck of the woods, aggrieved citizens despaired about their Occupy nephew storming in unshaven from his sophomore year at some college “back East.”

No sooner was Trump voted out than we had a new thing — the threat of death — to antagonize the proceedings. With the government urging Americans to stay home, Thanksgiving 2020 was a potential superspreader event extraordinaire — and one reserved exclusively for family members. Were you inviting that great-aunt because you enjoyed her company or because you wanted her dead? Into 2021, the challenge persisted as the vaccinated squared off against the anti-vaxxers, with divided families worried about the full immunological spectrum of their extended entourage.

Also last year and just in time for its 400th anniversary — though one could hardly suggest the issue was new — some raised the pesky question of Thanksgiving’s celebration of genocide. This forced people intent on their pumpkin pie to confront the fact that Thanksgiving is, at root, a commemoration of conquest and subjugation. It is, after all, a day that the United American Indians of New England observe as a day of mourning. The original Native American “helpers,” the Wampanoags, have expressed regret for helping the Pilgrims out in the first place.

Or maybe it all just makes you angry and resentful! What has happened to your cherished American tradition, you wonder? Must everything be problematic?

Nearly every holiday — with the possible exception of April Fools’ Day, but just you wait — has become some kind of political football. The Republican right has been catastrophizing about an alleged war on Christmas for over a decade, though nobody has alerted the pharmacy chains whose aisles are already laden with red-and-green candy. Meanwhile, one poorly chosen wig on Halloween, fraught with potential cultural offenses, can result in social disaster. Please, let it not be your kid who winds up the wrong kind of Disney character! Also in autumn, Diwali, a major occasion for Indians at home and abroad, has lately become a huge celebration across America. But who, some wonder, is allowed to put on a sari?

Ye olden holidays, they are a-changin’. For the past two years, President Biden has issued a proclamation naming the second Monday in October, also known as Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples Day in order to “celebrate indigenous history and our new beginning together, honoring Native Americans for shaping the contours of this country since time immemorial.” The obvious question there is, what took so long?

So let’s consider the nominees for this year’s chief Thanksgiving gripe: We could make a big deal out of the turkey shortage, for example. Both bird and side dishes have gotten notably more expensive, and with an impending recession, now really isn’t the time. After a summer of exorbitant and overbooked flights that got canceled just as its passengers straggled out of security, travel this year looks to be particularly crowded and unpleasant. And there’s always contagion to fall back upon. With Covid, R.S.V. and the flu all going around, a full-fledged gathering should provide ample opportunity to spread ill health.

But would it be a problem to suggest that maybe Thanksgiving not be a problem this year?

Boiled down to its essentials, Thanksgiving is a holiday about shared gratitude. We could just think about the “thanks” in Thanksgiving for a change. That gratitude may have originally been intended toward God and those Native Americans who helped the newly arrived colonists survive — and for whom atonement may have been more appropriate. But even for us secular humanists, Thanksgiving offers a moment to appreciate whatever good this year wrought, even if by accident or chance.

I can think of a few things to feel thankful for. As vexing as this country can be, the midterms ended with a semblance of democracy still intact. The Democrats retained the Senate, striking a necessary blow against insanity. And while Sarah Huckabee Sanders was somehow considered a suitable person to run an entire state, Wes Moore, the accomplished author of five books and a promising leader, was elected to lead another. Elon Musk has sent Twitter twisting and shrieking toward the hellish oblivion where it belongs. Every year, more people seem to recognize the wisdom of spatchcocking their turkeys. And the Little Pie Company, whose sour cream apple walnut pie I’ve been worshiping since high school, now ships nationwide. If nothing else, for many Americans, it’s a four-day weekend. I’ll spend mine grateful for any leftovers.

#settlers #colonializing murder and genocide #Native Americans Matter #Is There a Problem With Thanksgiving?#unthankful for your lies and genocide #more white lies #white hate #white historical forgetfulness

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