datadruid.bsky.social
Any pronouns. Organize your workplace.
45 posts
31 followers
60 following
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I think about a quote from a Becky Chambers book a lot regarding this. People just "wanted everything to stop being so fucking hard." I feel like that sums up a lot of the behavior that leads to climate change, and I think acknowledging that can be part of the solution, too.
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I don't want to see a single person saying this was warranted by the carnage in Gaza, that this was for Palestinians.
I am a Palestinian person and I do not want senseless acts of terror committed in my name. I don't want Jewish organizations to need extra security because of fear of violence.
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The vast majority of Americans, rich and poor, identify as "middle class." Maybe it's time to admit it doesn't actually mean anything?
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Famously, teachers have tons of extra income they can invest to generate wealth. They definitely don't work well into their 70s and still substitute teach after that from time to time to make ends meet.
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The fact that you think that is something a teacher could just choose to do shows that you fundamentally do not understand what being a worker means. Not owning a means of production means that you do not have access to those opportunities.
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You are still using the term "working class" to mean "poor" 🥲 I give up
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Yes, individuals in a group can be different and have interests in common. Exactly. That's the whole point of working class mobilization. Thanks. Have a great day.
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No, someone who works their whole life is not owning class, they're working class. Being able to retire still requires decades of labor beforehand. It's about a relationship to the means of production.
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So is that really more useful than saying that everyone who does not own the means of production has some common interest? But sure, you can keep trying to come up with a definition of worker that is homogeneous in every social characteristic if that's how you want to spend your time.
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Relying on a pension does not mean you own the means of production, no
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The one fundamental commonality is their relationship to capital, but setting the aside, you keep bringing up education, race, and political beliefs. I'm genuinely curious: what level of education, race, and political views does a person need to have/be to be considered a worker, in your view?
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There is no such thing as a middle class if you are defining in it in a way that means "not working class." It does not belong in the same paradigm. You can say "middle class are people who make 50-70k and have a mortgage." Okay, fine. It doesn't make any sense to say those people aren't workers.
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Yes, all words and terms are invented by people in order to describe things. Yes, people understand that working class means people who work for a living, it's actually pretty self-explanatory without you having to have read anything in particular.
Marx was an economist, my friend.
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"working class" is not a personal identity you can decide whether or not you hold lol
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"you're approaching this tautologically rather than empirically" says the person who is deliberately misusing a term that was created to describe a specific condition. Words are tools. If you want to use them differently, that's fine, but don't expect other people to understand or agree with you.
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Now you're starting to understand where the actual complexity comes in, and it has nothing to do with a "middle class." The fact remains that teachers are workers. Working class does not mean poor.
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Middle class and working class don't belong in the same paradigm. That's the problem you're running into. Being "middle class" in a paradigm based on income doesn't mean that you're not working class. Your living is still based on selling your time every day.
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It's really pretty simple: if you make your living by working, you're working class. If you make your living by owning property, companies, investments, etc. you're owning class. A teacher can own a home (with a mortgage), but if they lose their job, the bank takes it back.
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Working class means that you need to sell your time and labor for a wage. If you make your living by working, not by owning stuff, then you're working class. "Middle class" is not a thing.
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If only there were some explanation for why people in academia might move politically... surely it's happening all on its own and not a response to anything else.
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But let's not pretend it's a binary of "we have free speech and China doesn't." People are detained, beaten, and arrested for speech in the US. People are unjustly imprisoned and treated discriminatorily by law enforcement constantly in the US. It's not as simple as you might like to think.
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You *probably* won't suffer any consequences from posting that. Most people who post, e.g., "death to America," do not suffer legal consequences. But some have! The chance is not zero. A lower probability of legal consequences for speech is better, sure. I won't argue with that.
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Basically, intentionally creating economic instability is actually a great strategy if your aim is to disenfranchise people and consolidate power.
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It's amazingly sad that some people think something cannot be both "grassroots" and "organized." They have no belief in the power of people working together. They do not even believe it's a thing that can happen.
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And yeah, the flags and the "deport Elon" signs are kind of cringe. But instead of sitting at home, watching the news and complaining, they're out on the 6th Saturday in a row in below freezing temperatures. It feels like new energy is being harnessed and it makes me hopeful! We will need all of us.
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You can't eat the right to food. You can't drink the right to clean water. The right to health care can't give you a flu shot or a cancer screening. You can have the right to an abortion and still be pregnant when you don't want to be. Don't confuse rights with justice.
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... because it's really funny (for everyone else) and embarrassing (for you) when you're convinced that a totally normal experience lots of people have and most people have at least heard about is "proof that demons are real"
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When you remove the labels and ask about issues, progressive ideas tend to poll very well among Americans. I'm not actually convinced that this means that a progressive would beat a right-wing populist in a general presidential election, though. But it's something.
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**this graph shows the relationship between anxiety and LGBT identity in three state policy environments in the US. 0 = supportive of gender-affirming care, 1 = neutral, and 3 = hostile to gender-affirming care. As you can see, a hostile policy environment has a deleterious impact on LGBT health.
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*the Cass report is a very poorly constructed review of research on gender-affirming care which recommends ceasing most gender-affirming care for people under 25. The NHS and both major UK political parties have agreed to follow this guidance.
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So like, he did say he *would* burn books, and I feel like that's the real story. But people saying that Republicans were burning "history books" or "books by Maya Angelou" were either creating or repeating a narrative spun out of almost nothing at all.