#strikes and repression

[firstoccupier]

When the Workers Walk: A U.S. History of General Strikes—and What the World Can Learn From It

Across the globe, labor movements have defined political eras, toppled governments, and transformed working conditions. But in the United States—a nation often allergic to the word “strike”—general walkouts have been rare, explosive, and brutally suppressed. What follows is a history of how U.S. workers pushed back, what it cost them, and why these lessons matter far beyond American…

[milkbreadtoast]

choose your protag..... YOU COULD WRITE A SUPER LONG META ESSAY COMPARING/CONTRASTING THESE 2 BUT I WANTED TO MAKE A SHITPOST FORGIVE ME🤧✌️

[housemdork]

so. i know that fighting on the wilson defense squad is a little taboo around here...but i still want to share the germ of a thought that i've had, which i'll definitely expand on in the future.

does anyone hear me when i say that so much of wilson's work is silent and unseen?

i mean this, first, quite literally regarding his practice. it's a rarity, seeing wilson interact directly with his cancer patients without being called in for a consult. we hear about his patients all the time, just not often by name. but whether because we're in house's POV, or because the show aligns with house's belief that "cancer is boring," we don't see wilson practicing oncology that much in the grand scheme of things, even compared to the snippets of ER and surgery life that cameron and chase move on to, respectively.

house pokes fun at wilson's oncology all the time, and pretty definitively in 2x04 when he makes fun of medical specialists. to house, things are simpler for them; house views them as existing in a box, much smaller than his grand purview over things. wilson's work is relegated away from the main text of the show; he operates in isolation, which hurts in the long run.

wilson's own cancer experience is profoundly impacted by the pain of loss he's endured over the years, watching his patients die. he rattles off their names, their cancers, their ages, and the dates they died to house from memory. we never saw these patients. house probably never did, either, so we can only learn of this pain afterwards. we re-contextualize wilson's emotions and behavior after the fact.

finally, the work wilson puts into his friendship with house is often invisible. i won't ever paint wilson as the ideal friend - that would completely ruin any interpretation of his character - but i find it disingenuous to ignore the strain house puts on him, however self-inflicted. what starts out as trickles of jokes and subtle hints (the loans), evolves into the season 3 medical license debacle, which evolves into wilson's repeated responsibility for house's mental health (which isn't even mandated by house, but by those around wilson and house), which finally evolves into house attempting to control wilson's last wishes. repeatedly, wilson is nominated, especially by dr. nolan in season 6 and foreman in season 8, to be house's steward, and who else would do it, but him?

big example: we never see the decision for house to move into wilson's place, but all the energy in the world is put into wilson asking house to leave. it's first presented as a natural assumption, then a mortal sin.

unlike the other characters surrounding house, the origins of wilson and house are usually only hinted at. their history unfolds across the entire show, and that includes the good and the bad parts that are only heard about in passing and in retrospect. at the start of season 5, wilson, at his most honest, breaks the hardest news to house yet - that he's leaving PPTH because of him.

"i've enabled it for years. the games, the binges, the middle-of-the-night phone calls...if i've learned anything from amber, it's that i need to take care of myself."

again, we learn of this long-term pain afterwards, once house takes a beat to digest it. we re-contextualize wilson's emotions and behavior after the fact.

say what you like about what wilson asked house to do in 4x16 (it kills me, personally). i cannot completely fault wilson for telling house this ^. as much as house needs to change, wilson does, too. amber was right about that. we can gauge the strain that house has in his relationships based on how many work out long-term: one.

and later, funny as it is in the moment, wilson is the one to go to physically check in on house in 7x01 when it was VERY apparent that he should not have gone home alone (not to dismiss foreman's attempt in 6x22 to be there for him, though). house's fake voicemail message attests to this: "if this is wilson, i'm fine, not suicidal, not on drugs, coping very well with the loss of my last patient, so feel free to go about your day without worry."

i understand why he crawled through that window! after six seasons of this, i would have done the same!

i argue the same about house that i do about wilson - these 2, despite how messed up they are when it comes to human goodness and love - could not do what they do if they did not have the capacity to love. they're both rewarded in their own, twisted ways; house is gratified that, if nothing else, his brain sets him apart and preserves his sense of self, while wilson gets to feel loved in the way he can never quite fulfill elsewhere. does that cancel out the lives they save and soothe along the way?

all of this is to say that it's easy to brand wilson with a red "morally corrupt guy who pretends otherwise" stamp across his forehead because i think that's what house md tempts us to do by mandating how, when, and what we see of wilson's life. trust me - i'm trudging through season 2 right now and fast approaching his rendezvous with grace. but over time, i think the show invites us to treat him with sympathy and nuance in the same way it does house. if we penalize wilson too much for returning to house, and for needing his neediness, that may just imply that house doesn't deserve that sort of love. and we know that isn't the case.

isn't there more poetic irony than the oncologist getting cancer at hand? what about cancer as the silent-killer? what about cancer eating at every part of the body, slowly, over time? unseen and unheard?

[qoldenskies]

i feel like out of everyone april would be the worst with self-deprecating humor. the boys have self-esteem issues but they're literally all the types to play up confidence or double down instead of addressing them (raph the least, but he can be pretty stubborn at times), but april's momentum only takes her so far and she is pretty willing to admit defeat if her usual methods dont work. the speed at which she falls back into the idea that she cant do anything right,,, there's probably a point where she jokes about it before it even happens to prepare herself for disappointment, right?

[inkyrainstorms]

inky…

I’m sorry to say that I’ve got TGS brainrot.

it’s terminal.

this is what I think of Hyde:

The embodiment of passion

Does not wear a mask

It flares with the spark

Of a chemistry experiment 

That billows green smoke and burns everything around it 

But then… it fizzles out

A manic obsession that takes over at midnight

That seizes the brain and ignites a fire

Until it crashes, the passion dies,

And leaves you with nothing but destruction

Passion cannot keep itself in check

Hate spills over, anger oozes out, love explodes from containment

But love scares passion, 

Even though they are twins

Passion cannot keep itself in check

After all, he doesn’t know who he really is

The embodiment of passion

Says it will never hide 

But it’s in the name

it’s in his name OH MY GOSH KAYYY KAY POETRY FOR TGS WOOOOOOIOOOO

this is so cool i ducking love this

passion!!! passion out of check divorced from love, separated and split away from everything that made those feelings meaningful!!! hyde is a creature of passion without restraint, without reason. he doesn’t know why is he the way he is except for why Jekyll made him. he’s meant to be evil. he’s meant to be the darkest part of humanity

but there is love and hatred and anger and hyde is not an amalgamation of evil so much as he is every part of Jekyll that Jekyll repressed. to want to be free isn’t evil. it’s human.

aughhh okay now waxing my own poetry about Hyde, the living contradiction he is

[turnipoddity]

i need to know.. do you think lawrence is gay or bi

In my own personal headcanon he’s gay

[caliburn-not-calculator]

Uhhh some smutty detective au thoughts under the cut.

Even once they’re together and maybe somewhat intimate Maxim still get rather stressed about like, touching VR-LA too much or inappropriately or in some way damaging him even though he’s always gentle as he can be. Meanwhile VR-LA, who is ace and hence more or less doing this to indulge Maxim because he knows it’s important to him is like— please, just— it’s fine I promise you’re allowed to touch me back I know you want to

Anyway uhh, VR-LA guiding Maxim through being more dominate, gently directing him and reassuring him that yes this okay yes you can touch him like that and say those words and it isn’t a mortal sin if he leaves marks or makes him tear up a little, if something is bad VR-LA will say it clearly and Maxim can always check in if he’s worried

After getting over the initial cocktail of repression, internalised homophobia and nebulously religious guilt he finds he actually quite likes getting to look after VR-LA in this other way as well. Though he’s certainly not going to say no to being to one bossed around or kissed stupid or other thinged stupid. Meanwhile VR-LA who was relatively level headed and unaffected when being dominant is subjecting to receiving it for the first time in a long time and oop there goes all his braincells.

Maxim is not used to this version of VR-LA, he never realised it was so easy to shut him up and get him to listen. This is a game changer /silly

The other thought is just Maxim using his ‘bossy military medic who is done with this shit and needs people to follow god damn instructions’ on VR-LA and VR-LA just going… oh no… I sure hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me (it’s very different from MR-SN’s kind of authoritative and some how that’s worse)

[momentomori24]

A very "this is Wolfgang on the inside" ass skeet (to me)

[nowrots]

jordan is never allowed to crash out thank you very much

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Berta Joubert-Ceci

It has been more than a month since the General Central of Workers of Puerto Rico has been on strike against the Peruvian capitalist association Grupo Gloria, which manages the dairy processing company Suiza Dairy (SD) here. This is one of the three milk processing companies in this country that together represent one of the few remaining native food industries.

At the time of publication, it was reported that the PR Police’ Tactical Unit Force had arrested 16 protesters in front of the gates of the Suiza Dairy to make way for the strikebreakers.

[wulfhalls]

microdosing on killing myself by reading eruri fic exclusively for three days straight

[iowiymiw]

honestly part of the reason marial was probably being so mean to orlo in season one about his asexuality is because she thinks deep down everybody wants to fuck catherine secretly a tiny bit and its weird he’s not just open about it instead of talking about philosophers and boring stuff with her. ew

[good-beanswrites]

hiihiii i love the way u write shidou smmmm so if ur requests r still open id like something with shidou + lies <3

Hellooo thank you!! Shidou zoomed his way into my favorites and I really enjoy writing him, haha! Here's a bit of him hanging with the smoking group T1

The problem with lying, Shidou had found, is that you end up fooling everyone involved. If you spend time trying to deceive someone, the people close to you will also believe it. If you continue, it will affect all those in proximity. And, if you do it for long enough, you’ll start to deceive yourself. 

Shidou had certainly lost track of his lies for a while. Right before it had all come crashing down around him, he’d almost believed all the beautiful tales of hope and health he’d been spreading. He’d almost seen the world as the place he’d been describing. 

And then the truth hit him; it crushed him. Seeing all the blood on his hands, he’d tried to swear the whole thing off in what little time he had left in this life. But, like his other habits, it was a difficult one to break. 

He exhaled smoke into the room, listening to Mikoto go on about the busy days of his office job. Shidou was concerned how he still spoke about everything as if he’d be heading right back after all this. 

He wanted nothing more than to sit him down for an examination. There were several reasons he may not remember his crime -- it was most likely the emotional shock, but Shidou couldn’t rule out the possibility of a head injury, an illness, a seizure, a stroke, or even it being a side effect of whatever drugs Milgram must have given the prisoners when bringing them here. It took everything in him to let Mikoto be. After all, no one was going to request help from a “killer doctor,” and he didn’t have any of his usual equipment. 

So he just stood and smoked in silence. 

“What about you?” Kazui asked. “My line of work definitely stressed me out, too. But I don’t think I’ve seen you bat an eye at anything since coming here.” He nudged Shidou. “Are you just as cool under pressure as those movie doctors?”

Shidou’s lips angled to a smile. “I suppose so. Though, I believe they look calm because they’re meant to appear perfectly competent. I’m calm so that patients don’t realize I am imperfect.” 

Was that all he was, when he killed those people? Just ‘imperfect’?

Seeing the way Mikoto’s eyebrows shot up, he clarified, “I’m very competent, mind you. But no doctor is perfect. Many patients will panic if you show even the slightest sign of doubt.”

He teased, “so you just lie to everyone all day? Damn, remind me to watch out the next time I go in for a checkup.”

“No, it isn’t like that.” Wasn’t it? 

The other two continued the conversation, but Shidou grew quiet. Was that something else he’d started to believe? Another thing he’d convinced himself was normal when, in fact, it was very, very wrong?

“I get that. Confidence is really important when dealing with dangerous situations.”

“Heh, I’ve definitely put up a bit of an act around here for some of the younger prisoners. I think it’s been helping, they seem calmer from when this all started.”

That’s right -- his goal was always to help, to calm. He watched Mikoto rub his temple absently, and knew another headache was approaching and knew what to do for it. He’d helped Haruka get over a cold the past week. He and Kotoko had discussed nutrition tips the other day. He was still doing good. The smile that he put up for the others was still doing good. 

“Well, I’m glad we’ve got a professional around here.” Kazui gestured his cigarette to Shidou, snapping him away from his thoughts. “Nothing against the guard, but it’s nice to have someone like you who can help me look out for everyone.”

“Yeah, feel better about being here already!” Mikoto slung an arm around him. The boy's expression showed he was trying to appear in on some joke. “So, doc, you think that all of us are getting out of this crazy place in one piece?”

Shidou wanted to warn him the situation was more serious than he knew. Milgram was not a big joke. He was not a man to be trusted. He was not a man to be forgiven.

But old habits die hard. 

“Oh, I'm sure of it.”

[boogiewoogieweeb]

it's all fun and games typing up a silly, rickety little au idea in the tags of someone else's post and then suddenly you find yourself expanding on the world-building and plotting out interconnected stories for characters you swore would only make background appearances and your brain is On Fire with the need to write even when you know you can't commit to yet another doomed wip

[nando161mando]

The mindset in this op ed from Stanford before the graduate students go on strike is the exact reason they are striking

[astarionsunderwear]

thinking again about being doomed by the narrative and how being a woman in 19th century europe - especially one with a past, with insight and opinions, with psychological "issues" - is so very like being situated inside a narrative over which you have absolutely no control. and you can try to convince your sweet, gentle, naive husband - for whom the question, "who controls my life?" has never needed to be asked - that love does not conquer all, but you cannot make him listen to you. you can try and open up to another woman, ask her if she's ever felt as if she isn't "real", as if someone is playing out her life like her daughters play with their dolls. but other women, the ones with picture-perfect families and successful husbands and a staff of servants and no secret shame, can far more easily turn a blind eye to their suffering, to the fact that their lives are being written without their input. and you can spit in the face of your trauma and refuse its call, tell yourself that you are for the living, that you do belong to the world of domesticity, of motherhood, of painfully intricate social mores - but you cannot keep it from haunting you every moment you're alone; you cannot stop it from consuming you; you cannot stop it from destroying everything you love. and eventually you will realise that your story is a tragic one - that you do not belong to human kind, that you are not for the living - and that the only ending, for you, is to welcome death with open arms in the hopes that your sacrifice will save your loved ones; to let the world destroy you before you can destroy it. and that this, your demise, is the one real decision you have made in your life - the one action that you are permitted to take for yourself. and yet - and yet - your story was always a tragedy. it has been told many, many, many times before. the narrative was doomed from the start. for all your persistence there was never a version in which you triumphed. there was never a world - this world - in which you could exist. it was always going to end exactly where it began: with Death and the maiden locked in an eternal embrace. so how much choice did you have, really, even in this?