#Capital Research

[vtm-world]

Our Ongoing Anti-American Revolution!

Yes, ladies and Gentlemen it is a cabal of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and its Islamic Jihadist proxies all working diligently to destroy our United States of America. I have long tried to explain this to my readers on this blog. President Trump and his administration are doing their best to disrupt and weaken this ongoing insurrection aided, abetted, and accelerated by our own massively…

[shannonpurdyjones]

One side effect of my research for this novel being steeped heavily in textile history is my swelling disgust with modern fabrics.

Firstly they're so thin? Like most things you see in Old Navy or even department stores might as well be tissue paper?? Even some branded sports t-shirts I've bought in recent years (that are supposed to be 'official apparel' and allegedly decent quality) are definitely not going to hold up more than a year or two without getting little holes from wear.

This side of even two hundred years ago fabrics were made to be used for YEARS, and that's with wearing them way more often because you only owned like three sets of clothes. They were thick and well made and most importantly made to LAST. And they were gorgeous?? Some of the weaves were so fine and the drape so buttery we still don't entirely know how these people managed to make them BY HAND. Not to mention intricate patterning and details that turned even some simple garments into freaking ART.

I know this is not news, the fast fashion phenomenon is well documented. Reading so much about the amazing fabrics we used to create and how we cherished and valued them, though, is making it hard not to mourn what we lost to mass production and capitalism. Not just the quality of the clothing and fabrics themselves, but the generations of knowledge and techniques that are just gone. It makes me what to cry.

I need to get a sewing machine.

[politijohn]

Source

Source

[whatbigotspost]

That baby naming job post has got me remembering…the answer to “how can you make a living doing THAT??” is almost always:

“… there’s this whole subculture of people who are obsessed with things that would be considered ‘luxury brands.’ They believe prestige is purchased. They actually have the belief fully throughout their worldview so strongly, that if something is more expensive, it must be worth it. It must be better. This is most often true because they are (if not ultra wealthy) at least the landlord class and/or the kind of people who have money to burn and are trying to figure out ways to spend it. It is an unshakable principle to them if something has a giant price tag on it, it is something that you should want because it is better and ‘for you’ because it’s special because it’s for the people who have money.”

They love a “boutique” or “bespoke” illusion. Anything to feel like The Normies can’t also have this. And the saddest thing is that there is a whole other subculture of people under the “I am a Luxury Brand Person” umbrella who don’t even have the money who just go into debt trying to keep up the appearances of this kind of lifestyle because they want to be luxury people that badly. And luxury brands and niche services like life coaching or naming your kid or getting your kid into The Best School DEPEND on exploiting these people for profit by dangling the tantalizing concept of “it’s special and expensiveeeeee” to said socio-economic social climbers who think spending money they don’t have will ultimately result in having said money.

And it doesn’t, actually.

Anyway, happy labor day and as always: solidarity forever. The landlord class and the ultra wealthy don’t give a fuck about us and the best we can do is take full big “that’s so goddamn stupid” shits on anything they tell us special. Liiike….

Your cyber truck is a hideous abomination.

Your gentrifier white gray and beige house is exchangeable with any other and it made me puke anyway.

That Burberry is just plaid you idiots.

The local gym or a casual walk is just as effective for getting adequate exercise as your personal trainer.

Your life coach is a snake oil salesman.

A target tote is cuter than your birkin bag.

That lululemons gonna be see through as hell on your ass when your bend over at your thin white lady only yoga class.

$400 Prada sunglasses still break if you sit on them just like the free pair from your eye doctor.

You never needed a smart fridge, you colossal fool.

You look like a fucking clown in those balenciaga shoes.

The emperor has no goddamn clothes.

[lavyyulu]

Don't go to Rakua, kids. You might end up severely disabled, alone and miserable

[angelgoeslewd]

nasty.

🔮 summary: aphelios, alune, ezreal, and kayn all have their favorite parts about getting down and dirty with you.

⚠️ warnings: 18+ content, Minors DNI!, explicit descriptions of sexual acts, GN!Reader

aphelios: noisy. he wants to hear you whimper. he wants to hear your moans. whatever broken sentences you manage to get out. the slap of his balls on your ass, the wet slurp of the slick between you two as he thrusts his cock into you. you having him fucking into you harder if you yell his name like his bandmates aren’t just down the hall. hearing your voice is what drives him. his senses may be dulled to due to side affects of the surgeries he’s had, but his hearing is sharp and practiced, it has to be, as an instrumentalist for a band hitting the charts every other week. any sort of noises you make during sex is overwhelmingly euphoric to him and can bring him to the edge in 5 seconds flat.

alune: the warmth of your sex on her hand. the way you press kisses into her arm as you fuck. your bruising grip on her thigh as you eat her out, paired with those sharp nips heightens her senses. it makes everything so wonderfully blissful, almost bathing her vision in white hot pleasure. alune is all about touch. there’s a lot she’s neglected and gave up in looking out for her twin brother, pleasurable touches being one of these. she’s always placing your hand somewhere on her body. her tits, her stomach, her thighs. she loves being touched by you. loves feeling every single nerve alight by your hand. loves exploring what feels good, what pleasurable pain you can bring to her.

ezreal: another one who loves noises, but rather than making it into a sort of artistic expression, ezreal likes it sloppy. he likes fucking you until you’re so dumb that you can’t even properly say his name. he presses into you so deep it’s like the circuits in your brain shut off and you’re basically just yammering incomplete words as he leans into your chest, fully sheathed inside of you. he doesn’t really care about being heard or even if someone walked in to tell the two of you to shut up, but definitely videotapes your cute little reaction. he’s definitely somewhat shameless in his sexual expression and definitely acts up in public.

kayn: oh, there’s so much i could say about this man. just like any scorpio, the man embodies the word sex. there’s not a thing about it that turns him off and if there’s one word i would use to describe kayn, it would be kinky. there’s nothing he won’t try, very little that he would say no too. in fact, he says he finds normal sex somewhat boring, and is always looking for something to peek his interest. but that’s not entirely true. for kayn, finding someone he loves having just plain sex with is interesting in itself, as he’s seen and experience so much. if he is willing to just have sex without any games or bells and whistles with you, he’s madly in love. he’s keeping you forever.

[thatdiabolicalfeminist]

I do actually think that people should learn what "no ethical consumption under capitalism" really means before they just thoughtlessly repeat it whenever they don't want to even think about the harm caused by some item's production.

Like look it up!! Pick a random product that's a staple of your life and find out who is exploited and what environmental harm is done by its sourcing and processing and distribution. Find out the real, human and environmental cost of something that feels necessary to you.

Then look up the alternatives. Try to find a version that doesn't harm people or the environment. Struggle with the way corporations work hard to keep these harms secret and realize most of what we actually know is only public because activist groups raised the alarm.

Pick another item. And another. Let it really, really sink in what it means that you cannot live under capitalism without being complicit in harm. That "no ethical consumption" is not just a catchphrase to get out of caring.

And now think about how you could contribute, in however small a way, to protecting the people and environments that get destroyed for the products you rely on.

[chrollohearttags]

maybe one day I’ll be a writing blog again and not just a digital diary of my jumbled emotions. Apologies to all of you who followed me for the degenerate fics and got my complaining instead lmao.

[puckpocketed]

Maybe, if you're with a group of friends who'll never be together again, all your lights will shine at the same time and you'll know, and then you can hold each other and whisper, "This was so good. Oh my God, this was so good."

Quotes: Meet the trio of linemates leading a fantastic USNTDP class into Nashville // Ryan Dixon || Familiar Line Will Lead Team USA in World Juniors // Russ Cohen || Meet the All-Star Freshmen that Could Boost Boston College Men’s Hockey to a Huge Year // Steven Principi || U-18 Worlds: USA’s Top Line a Match Made in Heaven // Tony Ferrari || Anticipatory Grief // Marissa Conrad || The Three Musketeers // Alexandre Dumas || The Light That Shines When Things End // Iain S. Thomas.

Headlines: x // x // x // x //

Photos: Rena Laverty || Richard T Gagnon via Getty Images || x // x // x //

Special thanks to @oensible my avocado dip my watermelon dish soap my vinyl sticker collection for the Iain S. Thomas quote <3

[selamat-linting]

> looking for a new novel with imperialism as one of its themes

> ask book review if the novel is about imperialism in the marxist sense or in the general expansionist sense

> she doesnt understand

> pull out illustrated diagram and imf policy book explaining how imperialism functions and how it benefits imperial core citizens in real life

> she laughs and say "its a good book sir"

> its general expansionist imperialism

[r0tt3n-soul]

DDR (german democratic republic) pros and cons because I'm bored

Pros:

employment for all

womans rights way earlier than in the BRD (women in leading positions and traditionally male jobs, legal abortions, finances without being dependant on husband etc.)

good daycare system

good health system

food/housing for everyone

no class system

everyone had access to education

Cons:

not allowed to say anything against the state/system

not allowed to travel outside of the DDR and a few selected countries

not allowed to go to western germany

spies from the StaSi (state safety) could be everywhere (even your own husband/wife)

couldn't always chose your job yourself

late on trends/it took a long time to get the car you bought (sometimes even 10 years or more)

[making-your-fave-in-fr]

Hi, can you make Anders from Dragon Age 2? :3

I made Anders from Dragon Age 2 in Flight Rising!

M Guardian (Unusual Fire eyes) Cream/Iridescent | Sunshine/Saturn | Dirt/Underbelly

Orange Tabby, Brown Wooly Coat, Mage's Walnut Overcoat, Mage's Walnut Socks, Well-to-do Sable Spats, Forest Rogue Vest, Forest Rogue Bracers, Tanned Rogue Trousers

Bonus: The reference image I chose has two different outfits, as you can see. If the original gets two outfits, then the FR version gets em, too!

M Guardian (Unusual Fire eyes) Cream/Iridescent | Sunshine/Saturn | Dirt/Underbelly

Orange Tabby, Black Wooly Coat, Mage's Midnight Overcoat, Mage's Midnight Socks, Well-to-do Sable Spats, Forest Rogue Vest, Forest Rogue Bracers, Tanned Rogue Trousers

[thatonesociologystudent]

Notes on consumerism and "ethical" consumption, by a sociology student (in no particular order)

not every product marketed as sustainable or moral actually is, there’s greenwashing, and a lot of things that are an improvement on one front have a negative impact on another: Fake leather is made of plastic, has a significantly shorter lifetime and ends up on landfills and significantly harming the environment. Things such as vegan product substitutes can be extremely helpful but if you’re not buying locally and being conscious of what you consume, not only is the environmental impact still immense but it likely originates in the exploitation of poorer countries

"Moral consumerism" isn’t accessible to all. You may lack the funds to buy locally, have a chronic illness, disability, mental illness… that makes it difficult for you to eat certain foods, to diy, or that causes you to lack the immense energy it takes to properly research and engage in the subject matter. You may lack impulse control due to adhd, bipolar disorder…. Or you may live somewhere where sustainable produce isn’t easily available 

It is okay to spend money on things that improve your life, even in trying to fight capitalism you still need to make sure you’re healthy and surrounded by things that bring you joy, just focus on consuming as little as possible, buying long lasting and if possible more sustainably sourced items, diy-ing things if you can.

Be conscious of your choices. It took until a few days ago for me to realize that yeah, hair dye is also a very chemical consumable that I don’t actually need, but keep buying. If you need dyed hair to feel confident in yourself, if it brings you significant joy, go ahead. But to me, it’s not something I really need, and I’ve decided it’s not worth buying again, even though I’ve had my hair partially dyed for the biggest part of the last three or so years. (And if, in the future, I notice my mental health or self confidence suffering from this choice, I may change my mind again)

Don’t get down on yourself if you mess up. We all give in to impulses, it’s okay if that happens even if you don’t have an illness that makes it extra difficult. Being human doesn’t make you a terrible person

These are just my own opinions. I’m not an expert, just a random person on the internet. If you can, do your own research, figure out your own thoughts and convictions. And take care of yourself! 

[alpaca-clouds]

Doing Science in a Solarpunk Future

Yesterday I talked a bit about the ethics of animal testing (just to reiterate: Yes, if it is for medical use, I think it just cannot be circumvented, unless you want people to die of all sorts of preventable and treatable issues). But today I want to talk about science in broader way - and what is going wrong in it right now.

Everyone who follows me who themseves is working in academia knows this, but a lot of other people don't: science is having quite a lot of issues right now. Has been having them for years and years for that matter.

Depending on the country you live in, there are a couple of different approaches to doing science. The most traditional one is obviously doing it at an university or a similar institute for science and learning. However, you can also do science for companies, and you obviously can do science under government contracts (which usually is a nice way of saying: You are doing science for military use). Mind you, university science in some countries get treated as government work - at least if it is a public university. Germany, where I live, thankfully has a provision in our laws about this (basically, the military cannot use any scientific things unless the scientist explicitly allows for it), but other countries don't.

Which brings me to the general problem. You might have heard of it: Science is kinda underfunded. Because for years and years the governments generally have reduced the budgets of universities. This hits the humanities even harder, but the MINT faculties also tend to be hit with budget cuts every so often - while the same time more and more stuff needs to be done by more bureaucratic means. As David Graeber writes in his book Bullshit Jobs: Scientists and teachers are forced to become more and more "box tickers" (so people who do government assigned documentation work, not because it is acutlaly needed, but because it is ordered).

And while we are on it: If you have not tenure (meaning: if you are not a professor), you will be paid shit either way. Which kinda sucks, because it makes fucking as hell sure that only people from rich families - or who have a rich spouse - can afford to do this.

Just as an example: I will start working for my university in a couple months. How ever, the university uses the same contracts for everyone. And those have not changed in a couple of years. Inflation happened. Right now doing the job parttime will not allow me to make enough money to pay for my bare necessities. It will not be enough to pay rent, insurance, and food. Because it is just so low. (About 950€ a month.) This works for folks who have other means of money or family who pays for stuff - but not for an orphan like me.

And while I obviously will start as "student assistent", even other folks - like PhD candidates and stuff - will get paid fairly poorly for the work they do and how important that work is to keep the university running.

Even once you have your masters or even your PhD. If you do not have tenure, universities will pay you worth - especially in MINT - than any other job you could take with that degree. Basically, they are building on the entire idea that the honor of doing science is enough payment. Just that honor does not pay bills.

But lets talk about science itself. Though the problem kinda is still the same: money and bureacracy.

I am not going to argue, that there should be some hurdles for science to make sure that the sciene done ideally is ethical and such. Absolutely. No argument from me. However, right now there is a ton of unnecessary hurdles to try and do a project. And often enough, even if you are at a university, the budget the university has for a single project, will not be enough to pay the scientists and their assistants and whatever material might be needed for it. So a lot of scientists will have to ask at other places for funding. At times you can get funds from groups that just help science for science's sake - but often this means either companies (who will then make money with anything you come up with) or government (who, if your country allows for it, might use anything in the military).

Which also brings us to the problems between MINT and humanities. While this is from Utah, there was this wonderful poster, that I feel sums it up really well:

Mind you, from my experience so far, there are quite a lot of scientists, who would like to have someone from humanities on certain projects. But those are usually not within the budget. And while all in all a lot of folks in science are screaming for more interdisciplinary research... Getting the university to finance that is often a fucking nightmare. Partly, because the different faculties basically get budgeted differently. So if you work together with 5 faculties, how might they ever budget that?

Of course, if you get to do research these days also will largely depend on three things:

Are you already a very well known scientist in your field, who might even have won some accolades? Great, you might go ahead with your project.

Otherwise: Will there be a way to monetize this science later on? If so, well, we will certainly find some way to do this.

Finally: Will it be something super prestigeous which will enhance the name of the university and get you published in one of those very fancy science journals? If so: Amazing, this will work too. But don't you dare to find out that the thing you theorized does not work. Journals do not like "we tried this, and it did not work, because..." papers.

I think you can see the issues coming up, here, right?

In recent years there are again and again scandals of "scientist X faked their results" or "actually everyone at university Y faked their results". And this tends to be bound to the last point.

See, right now, if you get to keep your academic job is largely dependend on whether you publish a lot of papers - ideally in some well known magazine. If you are in natural science, you totally want to get something published in NATURE or SCIENCE. And if you do medicine, you should at some point publish something in the New England Journal of Medicine. You know, to enhance the reputation of the university, who kindly is paying you a bad salary (as long as you do not have tenure).

To make simple: this does not work, and it creates the wrong incentives.

Mind you, most people who are in science right now do indeed do what they do, because they want to do something for science and humanity. They love what they do.

But of course it does not need to be that way.

Which is where we get to the Solarpunk aspect of this all. Because yeah, it is easy to imagine how it could work a whole lot better.

Technically this would already start if we just had a system that took care of everyone's basic needs and a bit extra. Be it because we had communism, or because we had something like UBI. (Reminder: Yes, I am a communist, but I will take UBI over nothing, thank you very much.) In this case, at least the problem of scientists not making enough money to take care of their family would just go away. Because the families would be taken care of.

We also need just more options with folks from different disciplines to work together. We know for a fact, that the best results will happen, if diverse disciplines cooperate, because it creates a mix of ideas that will work a whole lot better for everyone, than just the same nerds with the same focus sitting together.

But of course: While man-hours are the biggest money-sink in a lot of research, we also need a better way to finance equipment. Both those kinda of equipment we already technically have as a society - and those that people want to get to work (I don't know, stuff like CERN, which was obviously a massively expensive project to be built). Because those projects might be needed to push science ahead.

Most people who work at universities indeed do it right now, beause they care about whatever they do. (Let's face it, a lot of folks are undiagnosed in terms of one flavor of one neurodivergency or another.) But this should not mean that they have to do the work in a way that endangers them in terms of allowing their families to thrive or basically forbid them of taking care of their pensions.

And of course... the bureaucracy. It needs to go. Do not make researchers fill out weekly forms for some bullshit that nobody will look at at any point.

I think we could be a lot further in certain areas of research. This goes for humanities either way (the stuff we could have found and researched in history - if you guys only knew how MANY UNTRANSLATED MANUSCRIPTS THERE ARE), but it goes for science, too. Chances are, we could have come with certain solutions to serve environmentalism and such, if folks could just do the research they actually wanted.

[mywordstovictor]

Maybe the reason people have this idea that if we didn’t have capitalism people wouldn’t do anything might because they’ve never had a break long enough to get past the exhaustion crash phase.

Two weeks off is barely recovery time after six months of accumulated work strain. You get two miracle months off you’re going to spend that time repairing the damage who-knows-how-long making Excel spreadsheets to the death did to you. Your productivity or lack therof the first time you actually get a holiday break is not representative of what you’re capable of or what you’d spend the rest of your life doing if you didn’t have to go to work 40+ hours a week. That isn’t people are lazy so we have to threaten to withhold essential survival needs so they get off their asses. That’s our brains and bodies insisting that we don’t spend energy resources they’ve learned are hard to come by on anything other than survival.

Imagine where we’d be species if everyone working minimum wage suddenly had the time to study renewable energy sources or write their novel or feed their communities with the green thumb they haven’t gotten to use since that summer when they spent a bunch of time their aunt who had a yard. What if you were sick you were seen by a nurse who was allowed to do their job in a way that made sense and also they typically got enough sleep, had time for hobbies and wasn’t also looking after twenty other people? What if kids went to school with teachers who didn’t spend every evening and weekend marking and planning without compensation and students didn’t have hours of homework because their teachers had the time and resources to teach what they had to in class? What if you had energy leftover for your passion projects?

"But who would make your clothes?"… People who like making clothes? They just wouldn’t work so much they have repetitive strain injuries before they hit their thirties. Or I dunno you could learn a new skill because you’d actually have time for that. People sew and crochet and garden and learn stuff for fun all the time. People like doing the work you don’t think anyone would do if they weren’t scared they’d die if they stopped so much that they do it at the after a day of doing work they’re scared they’ll die if they stop. You ever look around and notice that people just casually do the base labour societies are built on as their hobby? Humans are really well adapted to surviving as a species, believe it or not. Almost like we built a really complicated system to make doing the things we’d already be doing really miserable so a few people could profit. Almost like humans don’t need to be exploited into doing the things humans do. Almost like cutting down a tree to make it grow.

Basically, no one of us are ever at our best the day after a twelve hour shift so when we don’t accomplish much that day that isn’t an accurate representation of what we’re capable of. We overthrow the capitalist regime, we take some time to rest and do the bare minimum, then when we’ve all got it in our heads that taking a nap doesn’t make us worthless we do whatever it is that brings us and our communities value.