ErsatzCoalButter

joined 3 days ago
[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 1 points 59 minutes ago

Oh okay I think we just disagree then.

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 1 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

I can see why you might read my post that way because what other context do you have. I don't belong to the "us" group you mentioned. I spent 2015-2022ish doing direct service activism and it cost me a great deal. Part of the reason I sound disillusioned is because the fascists directly attacked and destroyed much of my work as I was performing it (especially in 2018 2019 when they were a little better organized). I did literacy and library access work for the incarcerated, primarily. My work was primarily volunteer so it seriously hurt my family's economy, in addition to being undone in real time as paper bans and mail bans were put in place. People at the universities I "worked" for would provide verbal support, but that was all it ever amounted to.

Part of the reason I like Doctorow is because he gave a pretty accurate description of how literacy access within the prison system works in The Bezzle except for the part where he was using it to distribute LSD. That sounds cool but its largely based on a myth made up to protect prison employees who trade drugs inside.

You don’t even have to do anything and there are thousands of people out there trying to protect you from getting more fucked[...]

Don't go around telling them they don't have to "do anything" plz 😅

Not trying to call you out otherwise, how are you supposed to know

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 2 points 13 hours ago

Heyyyy you're right

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 1 points 13 hours ago

fantastic post, I wouldn't have considered that fan setting issue on Bazz...

wonder if one of the linux fans speed apps can replace that functionality to some extent

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 4 points 14 hours ago

Since all my local newspaper websites went pay-to-read, I walk two blocks to my local library and read the hard copies maybe once a week. There's only about one or three articles per week that aren't just USA Today internet drivel, so it's not like I'm sitting there for hours pouring through papers like a maniac, and how dare you picture me that way.

If you are a traveler, it is a good trick to pick up as many library cards as you can get your hands on. So many libraries are traveler friendly from old COVID policies and if you aren't working touristy towns, even pretty flimsy community connections can get you a card. "Oh I work for this practice in the community, can I-" and when your contract in that community ends, what, are you going to go turn in your library card? And let your community's ebook DRM go to waste? No 😜

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 3 points 14 hours ago

You know I think he actually uses the music producer example in his 2nd novel (The Bezzle).

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 2 points 15 hours ago (9 children)

Doctorow can write a great detective novel but he lives in absolute La La land. I'm glad he's open about the fact he's just distracting himself with this post, but the idea that these webs of laws or these models of "how things should work" mean anything tho the people with power are complete nonsense.

He has some understanding of that, I think? But like, buddy, your country just went full Nazi. You've been living in a total fantasy. You're not going to rethink the concept of fixers, get a grip.

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 9 points 15 hours ago

The people who tell you to be civil aren't going to help you on the line, generally. Unless its one of those fake protests like The March for Science.

Don't let people who aren't going to help you tell you how to behave.

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There are some things you can do that hurt America.

  1. Leave. You won't be welcome elsewhere unless you have roughly 125k saved, liquid cash. That may not matter based on where you are at on the ladder but it really wrecks my family. For example, if you're broke and unwelcome in the USA, maybe roll the dice? This is not legal advice. We're stuck by family and fake middle class assets. "Not welcome" means you cannot legally work elsewhere, you are subject to the USA. We live under feudalism internationally.
  2. Stop spending money. All USD money is Nazi money. The less you spend, the less the machine goes.
  3. Don't work for cops. As in outright refuse to do anything to help cops, ever.
  4. Donate to causes that actually erode US sovereignty like Indigenous legal defense funds, and leave your assets to the people your land was stolen from.

edit* This is all assuming you won't fight, because I was there in 22 and there wasn't a fight. That's when we lost our rights. So don't pretend like fighting is an option please, this isn't that kind of forum anyway.

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Don't let propagandists tell you that you have to survive a nazi regime

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Seeing as the US is a transcontinental slave empire, it does make sense that they wouldn't emphasize literacy among their populace.

 

Wikipedia TL;DR

Oil! is a novel by Upton Sinclair, first published in 1926–27 and told as a third-person narrative, with only the opening pages written in the first person. The book was written in the context of the Harding administration's Teapot Dome Scandal and takes place in Southern California. It is a social and political satire skewering the human foibles of all its characters.

The main character is James Arnold Ross Jr., nicknamed Bunny, son of an oil tycoon. Bunny's sympathetic feelings toward oilfield workers and socialists provoke arguments with his father throughout the story. The beginning of the novel served as a loose inspiration for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood.

My Take: Basically the TL;DR is that Oil companies have been buying politicians and stalling progress while their actions destroy the lives of untold masses forever. This book is like 100 years old, so that means it has been a big enough problem to write a whole pulpy novel about it for longer than any of us will ever live. Corporations are bad. Great characters and retro cultural obscura!

Linked below is an excellent copy by Standard Ebooks you can legally have for free if you also want to be mad about the oil industry and capitalism more broadly.

Oil! 🌋 Upton Sinclair

[–] ErsatzCoalButter@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

lmao, the article is about the UK

if you would like to criticize American education anyway, perhaps we could find a nice article about that subject together

*edit: here you are

**edit 2, i still don't want to talk about your teacher @Vodulas@beehaw.org 😜

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