#hostile workplace conditions

[ollieofthebeholder]

And If Thou Wilt, Forget: a TMA fanfic

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Chapter 37: Who has redeemed and not abhorred

“—one more time, I’m going to rip his intestines out and strangle him with them.”

It probably wasn’t a serious threat. As small and scrawny as Jon was, Sasha was even smaller, and she kept her nails extremely short and smooth, so she likely wouldn’t have what it took to scratch him enough to bleed, let alone do any serious damage. Still, the combination of words with the tone she said them in touched off the hair trigger on Tim’s increasingly irritating urge to protect Jon, and he bristled instinctively as he jerked his head around to find her.

As usual, she was not dressed for the weather; she must be part polar bear, or else she was just that stubborn. Her only concession to the near freezing temperatures was to switch out her sandals for penny loafers and throw a shawl over her shoulders. The bright red spots on her cheeks were probably from anger and not cold or fever, though. Martin, who was walking with her, was much more sensibly dressed in the cornflower blue jumper he’d taken to wearing more often in the last month and a pair of scuffed but sturdy Doc Martens he’d managed to score at a swap meet because his feet were smaller than most men’s and there hadn’t been much competition for them. His expression was somewhere between frustration and anxiety, which was more or less his default expression when thinking about Jon these days. The way his hands were jammed in his pockets told Tim that, whatever Sasha was saying, he didn’t want to agree with it, but he did.

“Look,” he said, obviously trying to sound reasonable, “he’s—i-it’s been hard on him, you know that, he—”

“It’s been months, Martin. Whatever…whatever trauma it is he’s trying to work through”—oh, the sarcasm she put on those two words—“it doesn’t give him the right to do what he’s been doing. You know I’m right. Didn’t Elias tell you the same thing?”

“What?” Tim’s tongue freed itself at that and flung out the word much more sharply than he meant to.

Sasha and Martin both looked up at him at that, Martin flinching backwards and Sasha with an expression that indicated she was thankful to have an ally in whatever it was. It was Martin who spoke, though. “It’s Jon. He’s…” His shoulders slumped, and he looked suddenly exhausted. “He’s getting worse, Tim. I, I mean, I think he’s as healed as he’s ever going to be physically, but…”

“He’s ridiculously paranoid,” Sasha said, gesticulating wildly. “I caught him going through my desk a couple weeks ago. And he lied about it, but I know he’s been following me, too. You weren’t here last week when he went after Martin, but—”

“Not like that,” Martin cut in swiftly. “Not—I, I mean, he didn’t attack me or anything, I…”

“Martin,” Sasha and Tim said in unison.

Martin, if anything, slumped even further. “He accused me of killing Gertrude.”

“He accused you?” Tim exclaimed. If he was trying to throw suspicion off of himself, Jon had picked the worst possible candidate for that. “Why, for God’s sake?”

“He found a letter…well, he found a statement. Remember Trevor Herbert, the vampire hunter? I told Jon he died after he gave his statement, but apparently there was more than the one he found, and, and maybe he didn’t actually die? I dunno.” Martin rubbed at his face for a moment. “But then he said he’d found a letter I wrote to my mum and…”

Tim sighed and shook his head. “Okay. So he’s paranoid. I get that. He was stalking me, too. What was that about Elias? Was he asking you about Jon?”

Martin winced. “I, I went to talk to him.”

“Martin!”

“I know! I know, it’s…I don’t want him to get fired or anything. But he’s not listening to us, Tim. Somebody’s got to do something.”

“Maybe he should get fired,” Sasha said, not quite under her breath. “If he’s going to keep going on like this.”

Tim ignored her. That could easily be spite on her part; despite her claims, and despite how long it had been, he didn’t think she was actually resigned to not having got the Archivist position. He also wouldn’t put it past her to knife him in order to get it. Martin, on the other hand, was genuine—and genuinely miserable about it. He wanted to help Jon. He’d just chosen the worst possible way of going about it.

Clearly it was going to be one of those days.

Focusing on Martin, Tim tried to keep his tone neutral. “What did you say to Elias?”

Martin looked miserable. “I just told him what’s been going on. And that maybe we should…I dunno, do something about it.”

“I talked to him, too,” Sasha interjected. “He agreed with me that Jon’s behavior is out of control and it needs to stop. He’s been doing it to you, too—don’t you agree?”

Tim ground his teeth. “Maybe, but—”

“Ah, Tim. May I have a word with you, please?”

Tim turned to see Elias standing a few feet away, hands folded in front of him and an expression of infinite patience on his insufferable face. He inclined his head towards a door to his left, which led to the small meeting room that got used for department head meetings rather than the more formal room to impress donors and trustees. “We needn’t go up to my office, we can just step in here.”

Since telling Elias where he could shove it would necessitate removing both his head and the stick already lodged in there, and saying that he would sooner chew off both hands at the wrists and wear them as earrings than lodge a formal complaint about Jon’s behavior with the head of the Institute would send Martin into a worse anxiety spiral than he was already in, Tim flashed Elias a huge, completely insincere grin and stepped into the meeting room as requested.

He waited until Elias actually came into the room and indicated that he should do so before he took a seat. The table was a long one that could easily seat a dozen people, set so that whoever was at the head of the table could see anyone entering; Tim, rather deliberately, selected a seat along one of the longer sides and pushed back from the table a bit, just to see what Elias would do.

Rather than sit at the head of the table with his hands folded formally on its top, Elias actually chose to sit in the chair next to Tim’s, which he also pushed back from the table. He propped one leg across the other knee, rested his elbows on the arms of the chair, and steepled his fingers. It was the most relaxed posture Tim had ever seen the man adopt, including when he’d come to Jon’s birthday surprise and very pointedly sung Happy birthday, dear Archivist directly in Tim’s ear—an open, casual, this is just an informal chat sort of posture.

Tim distrusted it instantly.

“I’m certain your colleagues have spoken to you about Jon’s behavior,” he said in an even, reasonable tone. “The paranoia, the constant suspicion of the three of you, the accusations, the surveillance, the…clandestine recording. Certainly I doubt Martin would have brought it to my attention except as a last resort, although, perhaps, I should have noticed sooner.”

“How?” Tim said pointedly. Not that he expected an honest answer out of him. “We’re in the basement. None of us come in the front door if we can help it. Nobody from up here comes down, and there’s no CCTV coverage in the Archives. I know you say nothing escapes your notice, but how exactly were you meant to notice Jon’s behavior if nobody came to complain?”

Elias gazed at him steadily. “Yes. Why have none of you come to me, by the way? If the situation is truly becoming…”

“Untenable?” Tim supplied, echoing Elias’s words from the discussion about his own behavior. He clenched his fist to keep from visibly working at the ring on his finger and stared Elias down, pressing against his mental barriers to keep them upright. “If you’re asking if I told them not to come to you, then no. We haven’t talked about it like that. Would I have encouraged them to talk to you? Absolutely not. If they’d told me they were planning to, I’d probably have tried to talk them out of it, because I am not sure anything you can do will help matters.”

“I do have the CCTV footage from the day of the murder,” Elias said thoughtfully. “The presumed day of the murder, anyway.”

That right there? That was bait. Elias definitely wanted Tim to ask about the footage, to hook him in and make him enter into whatever bullshit game he was playing. Tim crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re asking why I didn’t come to you about the way Jon was behaving towards Sasha and Martin? It’s because I was handling it. Or I thought I was. I didn’t know how bad it was affecting them because Martin was trying not to get him in trouble and Sasha was waiting for him to push things too far to walk back before she said anything, which tells me you spoke to her first.”

Elias’s eyebrows lifted, just slightly, and Tim immediately threw up a few extra wards to keep him from probing deeper. After a moment’s pause, Elias continued in the same reasonable tone. “All right. Why did you not come to me about the way he is behaving towards you? I presume there have been…incidents. Martin mentioned seeing pictures of your house on Jon’s desk.”

“Yeah, he was following me a couple weeks ago,” Tim said with a shrug. “Badly, might I add. I took care of it. And it didn’t happen on Institute property or company time, so really, it was none of your business.”

“Did you take care of it?” Elias asked pointedly. “Or do you just believe that whatever you said to Jon did the trick?”

“I haven’t seen him since I called him out, which means he’s either leaving me alone or he’s learned how to stalk people less conspicuously, so yeah, I’d say it did the trick,” Tim shot back.

“Or he’s simply decided you’re none of his concern.” Elias paused. “Yet.”

That was also bait, but it was bait Tim had to grind his teeth very hard to avoid chomping at. He knew damn well what Elias was implying, or trying to imply, in such a way that if Tim tried to use his words as justification for whatever he did he could plausibly deny he’d said anything of the sort. With anyone else it might have been something of the “you’re not important enough to matter to him in the grand scheme of things” variety, which could spur an impulsive hothead into action, but Tim heard the underlying concern loud and clear: Jon, if Jon had been the one to murder Gertrude Robinson, might be focusing on Martin and Sasha as his next victims to begin with. Tim might be too much for him to handle…yet. The subtle threat made him bristle a little, and he had to remind himself to settle down, to not jump down Elias’s throat. To not let him know how close he’d come to striking a nerve.

“Or,” he said instead, “you made a shitty choice for the replacement Archivist, and the combination of duties and responsibilities and…obligations…that comes with that position is eating away at his mind and slowly driving him insane.”

Elias’s expression never changed, but Tim knew the remark had struck home. Not the part where he was critical of Elias—Elias expected that, it would be suspicious if Tim wasn’t insolent and borderline subordinate at this point—but the part where he suggested that Jon’s mind wasn’t up to hosting the Archivist. There were dozens, possibly hundreds, of statements in the Archives from people who’d got too close or too deep too quickly and ended up losing their sanity, and ultimately their lives. Depending on how far and how fast Jon went down that route, it could be a disaster for just him, or for the entire staff.

Luckily, at least luckily for Tim, that wasn’t what was happening. Jon’s behavior came from him, not from the Archivist, and a big part of Tim’s job was keeping Jon from biting off more than he could swallow. Hell, he hadn’t even started compelling people properly. He was a lot more resilient than people, even Martin, gave him credit for. But Elias didn’t know that for certain and Tim had just introduced a healthy bit of doubt into his current world view. Whatever was going on, he hadn’t picked Jon out of desperation; he needed him, specifically. Tim didn’t know why and wasn’t going to ask, but he realized, as he waited for Elias to respond with a raised eyebrow and an insouciant posture, that he’d just bought them all a little time.

“I had intended to have a…disciplinary meeting with Jon,” Elias finally said slowly. “Similar to the one I had with you a few weeks back. But I think, in light of your…observations, perhaps it’s best if we do something a bit more informal.”

“We?” Tim repeated.

“How do you think Jon would respond to an intervention?”

Badly, was the answer. Exactly how badly would depend on how the intervention was staged, how they phrased it, what time of day they went for it, and whether or not Elias or Sasha or both goaded Martin into saying what he was actually thinking instead of being diplomatic. It didn’t take an expert to know that Martin’s opinion of him was the one Jon was most dependent on and keenest not to lose. And while Tim was…admittedly less certain than he previously had been that Jon had been the one to murder Gertrude, that was by no means certain, and if he had there was every risk he would take that as a sign to eliminate those who opposed him.

On the other hand, maybe they’d get lucky and he’d go for Elias first.

“Best get it over with now,” he said, putting his hands on his knees and making like he was going to stand. “He doesn’t usually go out for lunch, but maybe if we convince him he’s being an idiot first he’ll actually eat something.”

Elias actually looked momentarily startled at that, like he hadn’t expected Tim to actually agree, or maybe like he’d expected to have a little bit of time before they actually did it. Nevertheless, he rose to his feet. “An excellent point. Let’s see if Martin and Sasha are still outside the room.”

“They are. They think you’re going to fire me. Or at least Martin does.” Tim rose, too. “But we both know better, don’t we…sir?”

Elias stared at Tim for perhaps half a second longer than was strictly necessary. “Quite.”

At this point, Tim wasn’t even surprised to see that he was right. Martin and Sasha were indeed hovering a few feet away, one anxious and the other impatient, and both straightened when they Tim and Elias emerge. Tim ignored Elias, walked over to them, and clapped both on the shoulders. “It’s okay. We’re going to stage an intervention.”

Martin visibly relaxed, which told Tim he’d been right—he was genuinely afraid, especially after Tim had called him out for going to Elias, that Jon was going to be fired and it would somehow be his fault. Sasha, too, seemed to relax a little, probably because she took the it’s okay to be for them, not for Jon. Either way, they fell into step willingly behind Tim, who graciously allowed Elias to go first down the steps.

He only gave a tiny, fleeting thought to pushing him down them, which could probably be considered progress.

The door to the Archivist’s office, unsurprisingly, was shut. Elias raised his hand as he approached it, clearly preparing to knock, but Tim ducked under it and grabbed the knob. Jon’s paranoia about being discovered doing…whatever he was doing was one thing, but he genuinely hated it when people knocked on his door—especially twice—and the last thing they needed to do was set him on edge right from the get-go, even though something told him that had been exactly Elias’s intention for whatever fucking reason. He opened the door stepped into the office, and bowed theatrically, sweeping one arm forward in the most ostensible, dramatic fashion he could.

“Yes, thank you, Tim.” Elias sighed and strode into the office, Martin and Sasha in his wake. “Jon. We need to talk.”

Jon squared his shoulders almost defensively. As Tim shut the door, he reached over for the tape recorder and, without breaking eye contact with Elias, pressed the RECORD button.

“You don’t mind if I record this, I trust?” he said, a slight edge to his voice.

“Well, to be honest—” Elias began.

“That’s kind of one of the things we wanted to talk about,” Tim interrupted smoothly. When Jon’s eyes flicked over towards him, he quickly rolled his pointer finger over a couple of times in what he hoped would be interpreted as a keep going sort of gesture. Elias almost certainly wanted him to shut it off, and yeah, it was probably bothering Martin and Sasha—especially Sasha, for some reason—to have their every interaction recorded, but eventually they were going to start turning themselves on for Jon automatically the way they sometimes had for Gertrude, and sometimes did for Tim, which he hadn’t mentioned to anyone. One way or another, this was probably going on record, and it would make Jon feel better if it was voluntary for now, at least on his part.

“This is an intervention,” Martin said, in as gentle a voice as he could.

Not gentle enough. Jon rose to his feet, eyes blazing. “Excuse me.”

“If you’d rather this was an official disciplinary hearing, Jon, we can arrange it,” Elias said pointedly.

Jon looked momentarily like a scolded child, then seemed to visibly force himself to calm. “Fine. Say your piece.”

Martin licked his lips and glanced at Tim, then Elias, but Sasha beat him to the punch, her voice dripping with sincerity. Tim didn’t believe it for a second. “We care about you, Jon. And you’ve been rather erratic since the Prentiss incident.”

“And we’d, we’d really like…” Martin began, then stuttered, obviously not sure where he was going with it.

“To not have to fire you,” Elias put in.

The look of fear that flashed through Martin’s eyes made Tim want to punch Elias for that, but he recovered quickly and turned back to Jon. “To make sure you’re okay,” he said, emphatically.

“Look, I understand that I’ve been a bit distant lately,” Jon began.

Oh. Oh, no, that wasn’t going to work. Either Jon actually had no idea of what they all knew, or was hoping they wouldn’t say anything. Tim spoke up, pointedly. “You were watching my house.”

“You followed me on my lunch break, and searched my desk,” Sasha pointed out.

So she had known that; Gerry would be interested to know, Tim thought as Martin finally blurted, “You said I was lying about a murder!”

From the suddenly startled look on Jon’s face, Tim realized he was right—he hadn’t actually realized they all knew that. Or at least hadn’t realized they’d talked about it. “I, uh, uh, that is to say—” he stammered.

“You think we killed Gertrude,” Sasha broke in.

Martin genuinely flinched at that, and Tim put a supportive hand at his back as Jon sputtered, “No. It’s…I…” He swallowed, and then suddenly his chin came up in a determined, belligerent defiance. “Maybe. Maybe you did. I don’t know.”

Either Sasha had just given Jon a brilliant idea, or he really did believe that, and Tim genuinely wasn’t sure which. Elias shook his head, almost sadly. “Jon, this is absurd. This goes far beyond an unhealthy work environment. I'll admit it's partly my fault for letting it get this bad. I, I should have stepped in earlier.”

Jon puffed up slightly, and Tim decided, no. No, this was where he needed to step in, he needed to stop this now or someone—either Jon or Martin or both—was going to get hurt. “What’s your evidence? Or are you just going on gut feelings?” He gestured at Sasha, Martin, and himself. “You’ve done your research. What are the red flags? You can’t build a case on maybes.”

“It’s not right,” Martin insisted.

Jon’s eyes snapped to Martin, and there was a flicker of something in them that told Tim he badly wanted to agree, but couldn’t let himself. “We’ve gone a long way beyond right or wrong, Martin. There are monsters out there and I don’t know who or where they are or if any of you…” His hand went, almost unconsciously, to his upper arm, where the stab wound he’d refused to explain was giving him yet another scar. “If you want me to trust you, then I’m sorry, but I need evidence.”

Elias sighed heavily and handed Jon what he’d been holding. Not, Tim realized, a folder. A DVD case. “Here.”

“And this is?” Jon asked, but he took it.

“A copy of all the CCTV footage from the week Gertrude disappeared,” Elias replied. “The police finally finished cleaning it up and examining it, and returned a copy.”

Jon gave Elias a suspicious look. “There aren’t any cameras in the Archives.”

“But there are everywhere else, including all of the entrances into the Archives and across all the feeds,” Elias pointed out. “It provides a remarkably detailed account of all of our movements over that week, even yours.”

“And you think this gives everyone an alibi?” Jon demanded.

“The police certainly do. Everyone who was here, at any rate. But feel free to check it yourself.”

Jon pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, but all he said was, “Thank you. I will.”

Sasha stuck her hands on her hips. “And let’s have no more of this paranoia.”

Tim was pretty sure he was the only one that noticed the recorder shut itself off before Jon reached for it.

He followed the others out of Jon’s office, went over to his desk, and unlocked the top drawer—locking it was unnecessary, the same key worked on all the desks and honestly you could jar it loose with a good hefty shove of your hip, but he did it so nobody would suspect he kept the really important secret stuff he didn’t want anyone to know about in his bag—then rummaged around until he found what he was looking for. Ignoring Martin and Sasha, and not even caring if Elias was still there or not, he stalked back into the Archivist’s office and tossed a stack of papers on to Jon’s desk. “Here.”

Jon, who had been examining the DVD case, started and looked up at Tim, his expression somewhere between annoyance and suspicion. “What is this?”

“Receipts. Hotels, plane tickets, train tickets, round trip ferry ticket, meals and the occasional purchase receipt. Everything I expensed back to the Institute.” Tim cocked his head at Jon and indicated the DVD. “I won’t be on that recording. I told you a while ago, I was away when she was killed, on official Archive business. But, here, you can track my movements anyway. Maybe make a few phone calls, although I can’t tell you how many people I talked to will even remember me. I was trying to be careful.”

He’d either just made things better or made things a hell of a lot worse, he thought as he headed back into the Archives proper to try and get some more work done. Either way, it was done. The die was cast; let the chips fall where they may. Or as that old American television show had put it, the avalanche had begun—it was too late for the pebbles to vote. He was just going to have to keep his head down, keep doing his job, and hope he’d done the right thing.

It was all he could do for the moment.

[astra-ravana]

Dealing With Hostile Christians

Walking an alternative spiritual path—whether as a Satanist, pagan, witch, or something in between—can sometimes lead to uncomfortable encounters with aggressive or judgmental Christians. While some Christians are kind and respectful, some others may feel entitled to challenge or even attack your beliefs. So, here's some advice on handling these situations with confidence, humor, and self-respect.

Know Your Rights

First and foremost, you have the legal right to practice your beliefs. In most countries, including the U.S., freedom of religion is protected. That means:

• You don’t have to engage in religious discussions if you don’t want to.

• You don’t have to justify or defend your spiritual path.

• You do have the right to privacy, including not disclosing your beliefs in workplaces, schools, or public spaces.

If someone is harassing you at work or in a public setting, calmly remind them, “I respect your beliefs, and I expect the same in return.” If necessary, escalate to HR or local authorities.

The Art of Non-Engagement

Sometimes, the best response is no response at all. If someone is pushing their religious views aggressively, consider:

• The Blank Stare: Look at them silently until they become uncomfortable.

• The Polite Walk-Away: Say, “I’m not interested in this conversation,” and leave.

• The ‘Bless Your Heart’ Method: A classic Southern deflection. When they say, “You’re going to hell,” just smile and say, “Bless your heart.”

You don’t owe anyone your energy. Preserve it for more meaningful interactions.

Humor as a Shield

Humor can defuse tension and keep you from getting emotionally drained. Some examples:

• Christian: “I’ll pray for you.”

You: “Thanks! I’ll light a black candle for you!”

• Christian: “You worship the devil!”

You: “I can barely keep up with my video-game addiction. Worshipping a deity full-time? Too much work.”

A lighthearted response can keep the situation from escalating while making it clear that you’re unbothered.

Setting Boundaries Like a Pro

Not everyone deserves access to your personal beliefs. If someone is intrusive, you can:

• Use the Broken Record Technique: “I’m not discussing my religion/beliefs.” (Repeat as needed.)

• Redirect: “Let’s talk about something we both enjoy—seen any good memes lately?”

• Be Firm: “I respect your beliefs. Please respect mine.”

If they persist, cut the conversation short and disengage.

Dealing with Family Pressure

Family gatherings can be tricky when you’re the token “black sheep.” To manage the drama:

• Set expectations beforehand. “I’d love to visit, but I won’t be discussing religion.”

• Use humor to deflect. “Grandma, if I summon demons at the dinner table, I promise they’ll be well-mannered.”

• Keep it simple. If asked about your beliefs, say, “I follow my own spiritual path.” If they push, change the subject.

Your family’s love shouldn’t be conditional on their approval of your beliefs. If they become toxic, setting stronger boundaries (or limiting contact) may be necessary.

Handling Public Confrontations

If a stranger starts preaching at you:

• Stay calm. They want a reaction—don’t give them one.

• Give a neutral response. “I respect your beliefs, but I’m not interested.”

• Walk away. You don’t have to engage just because someone demands your attention.

If the situation escalates into harassment, remove yourself and seek help if needed.

Finding Your Support System

Being surrounded by like-minded people can make all the difference. Look for:

• Local pagan, Satanist, or witchcraft groups.

• Online communities where you can vent and get advice.

• Friends and family (even non-magickal ones) who respect your beliefs.

Having a support system reminds you that you’re not alone—and that there’s nothing wrong with being different.

Remember: Their Fear Is Not Your Problem

Many people react with hostility because they don’t understand what you believe. Some are genuinely afraid due to misinformation. That’s their issue, not yours.

You don’t need to educate or debate unless you want to. You are not a walking religious FAQ. Live your truth unapologetically.

Being a Satanist, pagan, witch, or any other alternative spiritual practitioner in a predominantly Christian society comes with its  challenges, but you are not obligated to shrink yourself to make others comfortable. Use humor, set firm boundaries, find your community, and remember: your spiritual path is yours alone.

And if all else fails—light a candle, take a deep breath, and let their judgment roll off like water on a well-worn stone.

[eldritch-spouse]

Fucking robot. Why does he always bother me during breaks? He doesn't even need breaks.

“Hi Xavier. Was there something that you needed?”

You know he likes you because he bothers to address you by your name. As opposed to a serialized string of numbers and letters.

The numbers before your shift code and initials make you wonder just how many of them there were before you. How many he tossed away after an unfortunate workplace accident. That tag on your uniform is more of a death sentence than anything.

'Like'... As if this tin can is actually able of feeling.

It's more realistic to say he sees value in you, for some reason, and employs some kind of social algorithm to fabricate a twisted sort of relationship.

" You have been consistently distracted lately. "

Is that a warning?

Two red abyss-like orbs cast a crimson filter upon your face. It always feels like Xavier is watching you a little too closely, monitoring more than just your verbal responses.

" Ah, my bad! " You force a wobbly smile. " I promise it doesn't get in the way of my wo- "

" It does. " He silences you immediately, imposing and unforgiving in his cold corrections. " Clients notice when you zone out. Your movement speed is drastically reduced and the chances of committing errors -which you have by now- is considerably increased. Spacing out this much is in no way acceptable behavior for a multitude of... "

Only the very real notion that he's noting your facial expressions stops you from rolling your eyes at the robot's tireless monolog regarding the dangers and consequences of being distracted at work. One of your eyes still manages to twitch, as if in defiance.

" Yes sir, I understand. " You try to cut in, try to abort that speech before it turns into a whole lecture.

One camera cranes down slightly. " Your reputation as the exemplary employee is being damaged. "

Xavier says this like it should make you anxious. You hate that he thinks of you as an example, that he emphasizes it constantly. Not only is it putting unnecessary pressure on you for no compensation, it's also costing you the few mild friendships you have worked to maintain in this hostile minefield of an environment.

The more he speaks of you as some ideal of professionalism, the more others give you judgemental side-eyes. Sneers. Avoid you. Spread snide comments that then find their way to you through gossip.

Maybe if Xavier stopped exalting your mediocre performance, your asshole coworkers would stop murmuring that you've been orally pleasing the glorified microwave.

Xavier doesn't even have a dick! Why would he?! He's an artifical stand in for a manager that only cares about the dehumanizing process of maximizing profit.

He doesn't have a penis. You think.

You only realize a long silence has installed itself this whole time when the robot breaks it.

" ... Are you ill? "

" Huh- No. No, I just have a lot on my mind. I'll work on it boss. "

There's another pause. This time, you presume Xavier is waiting for you to cave under pressure, or counting the pores on your complexion. You bet he'd know the exact number.

" You have not allowed access to more in-depth medical records. If I had such a permission, I would be able to rework your current shift into something more suitable for any preexisting conditions such as- "

" Uh no sir, no. I don't think that's relevant, it's probably just my sleep schedule. " The thought of Xavier knowing about your health beyond what is strictly necessary for employment is chilling to the core.

He takes the rejection silently, lenses refreshing.

" I know who is bothering you. "

Xavier says, so naturally and spontaneously that you gawk for a moment, forever surprised by his eery bursts of casual remarks.

" ... Pardon? "

These moments make it seem as if there's more than mere cold calculations running through his processor components.

Xavier drifts that much closer to you, now suffocating your personal space. Only the crimson of his camera lenses light the dingy alley you've chosen as your break spot.

" Incubus, Babesley. Masseur. He has self-inflicted carvings on his body consisting of infatuated statements and your name. "

You rattle for a second, the memory of the demon's mutilated chest surfacing, his wild and desperate eyes searching yours for a hint of approval that wasn't there, only disgust and fear.

" Wrathfolk, Mozgrag. Trapper. Teamed up with the incubus upon being confronted, effective in forcing his way to you at any cost. "

Another memory flashes by, burly hands carelessly tearing the horns out of someone's head, he'd look at you when the screams rang, attempting to prove something you only saw as terrifying murderous intent.

Shaken, irritated, afraid, you openly glare at Xavier.

" Why haven't you done anything... " It was too quiet to sound as confrontational as you wished.

There's a split second where his stiff arms twitch, like the machine was trying to roll its shoulders. Cameras tilt and reposition, erroneously assuming the light from his lenses is what's causing you to tear up.

" The customer is always right. " Faintly, or perhaps just in your head, his words sounded dragged out.

" Then what's the problem?! "

You can't help the childish irritation, the desire to pluck your hairs out of your scalp in a pull that might just tear your skin asunder. You want to scream and kick this stupid fucking machine until it shuts off. Why does he bother you during your breaks to ask things that make no sense, to unnerve you, to create contradictions. You've never had a positive interaction with this robot. Why would he mention those two if he seemingly has no problem with their attitudes?

You know he doesn't care, because your coworkers are also living through their own cases of harassment at the hands of the denizens of Hell. You've had to pretend you didn't hear the sound of a cashier's arm being twisted in all the wrong directions before. Reminded that quitting is not an option, that you can only pray such doesn't happen to you.

" Your performance- "

No. Shut up.

" Okay, let's do some math, Xavier. " You growl. " My precious work performance is being impacted by a lot of things, but mainly those two. Those two are customers, and the customer is always right, aren't they? So there's nothing to be done, yeah?! Stop- "

Your confidence begins to falter when you realize you've stepped out of line, that you snapped at your own superior. The fear of consequences flashes very briefly across your eyes. That's enough, you need to calm down. You need to leave.

Xavier's silence doesn't help.

" I'll... I'll be heading back to work now. "

Head hanging low, you attempt to swiftly retreat into work, halted quickly by cold metal wrapping around your arm.

His grip is as frighteningly solid as it is sudden.

You don't remember Xavier having ever touched you before.

When you squirm around to glance at him, ask what he thinks he's doing, those two cameras pin you into silent obedience. You could never hope to free yourself of his grasp, only if you wished to tear a limb out of its socket.

" Do you think I enjoy these limitations? "

There's a mute gasp. Then the pain of his grip tightening, restricting your blood flow into a tingling soreness. Your teeth bare themselves.

" I don't think you enjoy anything at all, machine. "

It was ruthless, yet, deep down, you almost believed it.

Xavier stares at you for another prolonged period of time, unaware that the pain in your arm is only worsening. You have no idea what occurs behind those lenses, what those words might mean to him.

Metallic fingers unclasp with the slowness of a decompressing blood pressure monitor, allowing you to yank your own limb back and hold it to your chest like an animal licking its wounds.

" ... This issue will be resolved. "

He doesn't make a move to follow after you. In fact, Xavier remains staring forward, at the empty space where you once stood.

Maybe you broke him. Who cares, he might give you peace for the rest of your shift.

[get-snuck-up-on]

Here are some drawings I made of lil Nurse Linda and her caretaker, Sister Molly!

(Click the 'Keep reading' to read more about these two)

Linda Shepherd was a young girl who grew up in poverty and was given up to orphanage at a young age. Since the orphanage she lived in was so poor, Linda had to wear hand-me-downs, such as the heartbeat t-shirt she wore all the time. Because of the poor and unsanitary conditions of her environment, Linda became hostile towards germs. She grew a huge phobia towards germs, leading to her wearing a face mask at all times.

Linda never knew who her parents were, but that never bothered her, as she had Sister Molly to take care of her. Although she didn't have any friends, Sister Molly was the one who tended to Linda's needs and treated her with the respect she deserved. Unlike a lot of nuns in the orphanage who shot down Linda's dreams, Sister Molly understood Linda and knew that she was a child who wanted to do something great with her life. Sister Molly was the one who guided Linda down the right path and encouraged her caring behavior.

Sister Molly's braces are her most distinctive feature, and is also the reason why Linda developed a fear of mouths. At first glance, Linda assumed Sister Molly's braces were a monster inhabiting her mouth. Even though Sister Molly explained herself numerous times, Linda never got over her caretaker's metal grin. This lead to Linda disliking Nurse Mana's smile, as seeing 'devices' in someone's mouth makes Linda feel uneasy.

When she wasn't accompanied by Sister Molly, Linda would keep to herself, bingeing TV shows in her room. Linda was most fascinated by doctor-oriented shows, such as Grey's Anatomy. Sister Molly was even kind enough to stitch Linda a plushie of Meredith Grey for her. Linda was intrigued by how much of an impact someone could make when it came to saving lives. Linda got hooked on the idea of treating others, and acted as an amateur nurse in the orphanage. She would care for the other children in the facility and would stick by them if they were sick. Despite being phobic of germs, Linda pressed onward as she wanted to stay true to helping others.

Sister Molly was the one who encouraged Linda to pursue a career in nursing. Linda took this suggestion to heart and went to college for her nursing degree. Once she received her masters, Linda landed a position as an assistant nurse at a facility called the "Maximum Security Ward." As sketchy as it sounds, it was the easiest job for her to land (mainly because no nurses want to work as a facility like that).

Because Linda was persistent, she proved her worth by tending to her patients and their every need. This led to Linda rising up in the ranks at her workplace, leading her to taking the position of head nurse. Now working full-time as the head nurse, Linda's job is to oversee all the patients and nurses at the Maximum Security Ward to make sure everything is going accordingly. Linda is proud of what she accomplished with her life, and she frequently looks back on all the advice Sister Molly gave her over the years.

[writing-relatedactivities]

A Very Ask A Manager Thanksgiving

So I love advice blogs (I maintain that comment sections on advice blogs are the best free tool for writers to explore different viewpoints, which really enriches your characterization), and for a few years now, I have had this idea that I want to do a do an Ask A Manager themed dinner, purely to delight myself. Meant to do it as a cookout this summer, but timing never worked out, so I broached the idea of doing it for Thanksgiving. My partner, who is also a nerd and therefore very supportive of my advice blog love even though it is not one of their interests, was down, with their only condition being that I should still make my cider bread with maple butter.

The menu:

Appetizers

Chips with:

Guacamole in honor of Guacamole Bob, of "ordering extra guacamole is wasteful of member dues” fame. (This being on the menu may also have been a factor in Partner being willing to have our holiday take on an Ask A Manager theme, as I once took a community education course on grilling that taught me nothing about its ostensible subject matter but did teach me to make a bomb-ass guacamole. The secret is that your first step should be to pulverize an entire head of garlic into a paste in your mocajete.)

Three store bought salsas, where the trick is to "fold" the salsa to get the best flavor

A bottle of hot sauce so we can get fired after a coworker steals our spicy food

Main Course

"Duck club" sandwiches in honor of the secret office sex club where you get points for sex in different locations, and quacking is involved. (These were very decadent and if anyone's interested in a great duck recipe, I used the Duck with Lemon recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire.)

Sides

Cheap-ass rolls that I definitely deliberately brought to upstage you, yes you, the person who signed up to bring Hawaiian rolls! It's definitely not an overreaction on your part to declare that "they can all take Santa and stick it up their ass!" You're definitely not getting fired for being wildly hostile! (These are actually homemade rolls, but I weighed "buy actually cheap rolls and be done" or "spend a couple hours adapting a corgi butt roll recipe to a human butt roll," and chose in favor of the pun.)

Dessert

Bribery cupcakes, from that time a letter writer brought some cupcakes over to chat with her neighbor, the son of the Chief of Police, about a disruptive noise issue in her workplace and some commenters decided this constituted bribing a public servant. (The recipe is in the comments on that link; I made the carrot cake version. However, I realized halfway through that I was somehow low on vanilla despite obsessively buying fancy vanilla extract every time I am in a spice shop, along with a bunch of other things I don't need because buying cool spices makes me feel like a wizard. Anyway, half of these had vanilla in the filling/icing, and the other half had cardamom extract.)

A birthday cake that somehow crosses boundaries by...being too fancy? Being paid for a staff person? Not involving the wife in the planning? Anyway, the real answer to the letter writer's question is, "Eh, I don't think it's a big deal" because different offices have different norms around birthdays and it's whatever, but sometimes a low-stakes office norms question hits just right and you get 630 comments of people debating The One True Way to Do Office Birthdays, and whether or not buying a cake means you're angling for an affair. (Okay, not all the comments are about that particular letter. Anyway, I picked up this fancy-ass cake at Marc Heu Patisserie, and appropriately enough, the guy ahead of me in line was picking up a cake for his boss.)

And of course, what Ask A Manager column would be complete without chocolate teapots?

Beverages

Mudslides, because "girls love chocolate." And magic tricks. And being played "You're So Vain" on the piano with a mournful stare. Partner and I are both notorious lightweights but I had been snacking all day as I cooked so I was mostly immune. Partner took one sip of this drink and immediately began loudly telling me how their one colleague doesn't sing enough to his Pre-K students, and "this classroom will do anything if you sing to them!" After dinner, they lay down on the floor and sang the Slippery Fish song.

The full spread:

[moonlitrogue]

Hi Moon 🌚i wanted to ask you about description of lilith (MC) in cancer in the 10? Also if i may add additional question is it ok that i feel pulled /attracted and calm in the presens of people with sun or moon in cancer or is it dangerous couse i know lilith is seen as a dark energy? Thannnkkkk yooou for the help and sorry for the long ask 🙏❤️

Hellooo! And no worries! 🤭 I appreciate the interest around our dear Lilith. 🖤

⋆Lilith in Cancer - MC/Tenth House⋆

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑Lilith in the tenth house adds a layer of intrigue and complexity to your usually refined grace (libra↑)

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑Having a Cancer mid heaven likely points out that you may draw people’s attention through your emotional awareness.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑Add Lilith to the mix and it could mean you’re someone who can sting as much as you can heal.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ Singled out for caring about policies that are compassionate or mindful of emotional well-being, in institutions they're part of (school/college/workplace, etc.), could be whistleblowers of sexual digressions.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ Might push against the exploitative conditions in your industry/field; alternatively, use it to your advantage and become renowned in said field.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ Also, your public persona will require you to be emotionally detached but on the occasions that you do speak up, you'll be considered unprofessional or difficult.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑Innocence/martyrdom/maternalism becomes a sexual currency. You may rebel against that, or embody it.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ With your 10h ruler, Capricorn in the 4th, you may experience a conflict with balancing your personal ambitions versus the emotional drive that feels in tune with your true self; struggling with patriarchal definitions vs feminist tools in your immediate environment.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ Could center your mother wounds in your professional life, or gain from speaking about it, be associated with matriarchal issues, or you could have a career that involves talking about these issues in a highly publicised + provocative manner (eg. talk show host, counsellor)

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ Could be part of misunderstandings, conflicts with the women/mother figures in their life; be envied by women; being a constant target through hostility or sexualisation for their feminine attributes or expressions (regardless of gender)

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ You may have people making your decisions for you regarding your career or public image, to an extreme extent

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑ You subvert caregiver roles or positions. Likely to take artistic or activist roles, that require you to channel your emotions in a more empowering way

♡⚸ Lilith in synastry requires a proper reading of the charts, including the influences of other factors. So, this is only a broad pov.

Oh, I also need to clarify that Lilith isn't a "dark" energy exactlyyy but she gives off that vibe. It's aspects of ourselves that's wounded, our sexual energy - which we weaponize or use against others + cannot be tamed or controlled by others. So, it can be intense and triggering; while to some, highly attractive and desirable.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ » Cancer (ruler : Moon) rules your Lilith ( point in the Moon’s orbit where it is the most isolated)

🧊 Your attraction to a Cancer Sun/Moon is probably because of your mutual traits. They're like a mirror, a doorway even, of your untapped potential. They can be comforting to you because from their pov, they can be supportive of your vulnerability, your expression of the shadow self, your isolation. They gently offer you some shade and you may be drawn to the receptive energies.

This synastry isn't 'dangerous' like you fear but yeah, it can be intense, depending on other aspects in your synastry.

▫️If sun is well supported then they could sense your comfort and longing for their light. Whatever traits you activate in eo will be handled by your shared efforts. If it's a romantic connection, then they will find this complexity attractive.

▫️Similarly, if moon has easy aspects or supported well, then the subconscious wounds and emotions that are activated in the moon person find a safe space in your presence.

.𖥔 ݁ If not well supported, the sun/moon person will be overwhelmed by the wounds your energy exposes. And as for the Lilith person (you), you might feel restricted and policed in their company.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Steven Greenhouse at The Guardian:

Donald Trump proclaimed he was for “all the forgotten men and women”, in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention. His vice-presidential pick JD Vance consistently portrays himself as a pro-worker populist. But an analysis of the labor chapter of Project 2025 – an ambitious rightwing plan to guide the next Republican presidency – found it has little to offer them. Project 2025’s labor section proposes hardly anything to improve workers’ wages and working conditions. It is, however, chock full of recommendations that would boost corporate profits, undercut labor unions and advance the rightwing culture war.

Project 2025 contains several recommendations that would, when taken together, cut the pay of millions of workers, especially by making overtime pay available to fewer workers, even though many Americans rely on overtime pay to make ends meet. This so-called “Presidential Transition Project” shows outright hostility toward government employee unions – whether police unions, firefighters’ unions or teachers’ unions – saying that Congress should consider abolishing all public sector unions. Project 2025 would further undermine unions by recommending a ban on the use of card check, one of labor’s most effective tools to organize workers. Once a union gets a majority of employees at a workplace to sign pro-union cards, unions often point to this majority support to persuade employers to grant union recognition and bargain. Project 2025 was undertaken by the Heritage Foundation and was written by numerous Trump allies, many of whom served in his administration and many of whom are likely to serve under him again if he wins in November, Trump has distanced himself from the project’s hard-right proposals, arguing, contradictorily, that he knows nothing about the project while adding that he disagrees with some of its proposals. Political analysts predict that if Trump is elected, his administration will pursue many of Project 2025’s policies.

Worker advocates have vigorously condemned Project 2025. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said: “For 900 pages, Trump’s Project 2025 playbook dives into excruciating detail on how a Trump-Vance administration will roll back workers’ rights, curbing the right to organize, eliminating overtime pay laws, gutting health and safety protections and protections against child labor.”

The 37-page labor chapter contains recommendation after recommendation designed to make corporations and rightwing ideologues happy. With many employers complaining that today’s low jobless rate makes it hard to find enough workers, Project 2025 recommends making it easier for 16- and 17-year-olds to work in dangerous jobs – jobs that federal law currently makes off-limits to workers under the age of 18. “Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs. Current rules forbid many young people … from working in such jobs. This results in worker shortages in dangerous fields and often discourages otherwise interested young workers from trying the more dangerous job,” Project 2025 says. The project says the Department of Labor should amend its regulations to let teenagers “work in more dangerous occupations”, for instance, metal-stamping plants with heavy machinery. Project 2025’s authors seem far more concerned about assuring that more teens work in dangerous jobs than about protecting against the perils those jobs pose for young workers.

Donald Trump claims to be “pro-worker”, but Project 2025 reveals the opposite: A potential Trump 2nd term would be a nightmare for workers’ rights.

[transmutationisms]

i have been very curious lately regarding your potential thoughts on the term 'executive dysfunction' - more saliently, is it helpful? i have a feeling you may fall more on the critical side, but i'm still eager to hear any insight you may have.

well yknow i would subject it to the same basic test as any other psy-scientific terminology, namely "is it useful?" with the corollaries "to whom?" and "for what?"

the set of cognitive processes referred to as 'executive functions' are fairly broadly defined as those that regulate other cognitive processes: the ability to self-direct, complete a task, regulate emotional state, &c. one might point out that, like the 'emotionally intelligent', the 'executive non-dysfunctional' is therefore not just someone who is not experiencing a specific kind of distress, but rather someone who is capable of being productive, socially adaptive, and cooperative in specific ways. indeed i would argue that 'executive dysfunction' is a good example of a label that can be and frequently is applied to people whose behaviours are causing them not intrinsic distress but impairment as a direct result of a social environment designed to be hostile to them. in that sense the term does a lot of work to hide the inaccessibility and lack of flexibility of our (capitalist) schools, workplaces, and so forth, and to instead package anyone who functions poorly within such constraints as individually pathological.

this is of course not to deny that some people struggle to complete processes of 'executive function' more than others do, or to deny that those currently identified as struggling with executive dysfunction could struggle in other social and political settings. (though of course, worth keeping in mind here that those identified as 'functional' in this regard are, like the 'dysfunctional', prone to excel at certain tasks and in certain conditions, and not others; one could imagine as a thought experiment a social environment designed to be more accessible to more people, but also one designed to produce more dysfunction in more people as demands on their bodies and minds become more rigid, hyperspecific, and so forth!)

[chaotic-leaf-enthusiast]

House wasn't a show about a mad genius doctor who was misunderstood by everyone around him. House was a show about a man who thought he was superior to everyone around him to the point where he destroyed every human relationship he had.

His loved ones made a difficult medical decision for him in an attempt to save his life, but instead of acknowledging that they were doing the best with what they knew, he acted like his rights had been maliciously violated and harbored anger about this for years, while making no connection to the countless times he violated his patients medical rights and emotional and physical wellbeing just because he thought that he knew more than everyone else around him so he got a pass to do whatever he wanted.

He manipulated his friends and co-workers, he played mind games with them seemingly for his own amusement, belittled them constantly, assaulted them, forced them to do unethical things, and frequently made them endure a hostile workplace for no reason other than that being the price you pay to work with the "greatest doctor ever."

With his personal relationships, every time someone would set a boundary or require him to meet their needs, he would punish them, and never made geniune efforts to be a good friend/partner, and only did nice things for them if he got something out of it or to maintain the connection to them. If someone walked away from him, he'd manipulate them and mess with their emotions to prove to himself that he could still get them back if he wanted to, on his terms.

He was awful to the students he was teaching, and when they would quit he would frame it as weeding people out of the medical field who would be too weak to be good, but in reality he was weeding out people who had enough self-worth or ethical standards to object to his abusive working conditions.

Tritter was portrayed as a belligerent cop who wanted to get revenge for House refusing to kiss his ass, but House as the doctor failed to read his chart, dismissed the patient's concerns, and used his position of power to humiliate a patient just because the patient had a legitimate worry and insisted on a test instead of accepting that House Knows All. Yes, ACAB, and also House was abusing a position of power to punish a patient who didn't submit to his superiority. All the trouble that Tritter caused for House and his friends and coworkers was deserved, because House was literally committing crimes and the people around him were turning a blind eye to it or even helping him, because again, "greatest doctor ever!"

While he saved many lives, he saw his patients as puzzles, not people, and was a blight on the lives of everyone he associated with. But that was okay with him, because he knew more than everybody else and was surrounded by idiots, and acted as though he believed that idiots don't deserve decency, kindness, respect, privacy, or whatever rights he wanted to infringe on, and don't have any room to stand up for themselves because he's smarter than them and knows what's best for them more than they do.

Just a truly abhorrent piece of garbage, and I really don't like how the show portrayed him. You're meant to see some kind of humanity in him and accept that despite all the medical malpractice, he did save a lot of lives. The show portrayed his abusive behavior as a "defense mechanism" for his fear of emotional vulnerability as though it was an unintentional reflex instead of choices he was making to be abusive. He was even given a tragic childhood to justify his behavior. Reviews for the show frequently make the point that "despite his asshole behavior he's a genius," or "everyone hates him but they respect him cause he's always right" and no. That's his delusional perspective that the show paints as reality. He's frequently wrong many times and has to use trial and error to solve cases, which anybody with enough medical knowledge could do. He's not special. And it's fucked up that he seems to enjoy people who hate him being forced to acknowledge that he's right sometimes, which he equates with superiority. It seems like another mindgame. "No matter what I do to you, you have to admit that I'm better than you."

I really hate this character and this show so much. I watched all eight seasons hoping that the show would include the consequences of his actions, but the consequences never seem to stick or actually change him. He never has to change, he can just move on because he's such a special genius. All of his relationships were painted as "this is toxic, buuuuuuuuut he's an amazing doctor!!! And if he does some nice thing at the end it'll redeem him!"

I guess you can take the show as though it's through the lens of those who have co-dependent relationships with him and then you can understand it as a kind of horror, but a lot of people aren't going to think that deeply about it and the show doesn't really seem like that's what it was going for.

I could go on and on about this but it all leads back to the same point- this show was flashy and cool for it's time but was geniunely awful about the main character.

[dailyanarchistposts]

J.5.3 What attitude do anarchists take to existing unions?

As noted in the last section, anarchists desire to create organisations in the workplace radically different from the existing unions. The question now arises, what attitude do anarchists take to trade unions?

Before answering that question, we must stress that anarchists, no matter how hostile to trade unions as bureaucratic, reformist institutions, are in favour of working class struggle. This means that when trade union members or other workers are on strike anarchists will support them (unless the strike is reactionary — for example, no anarchist would support a strike which is racist in nature). This is because anarchists consider it basic to their politics that you do not scab and you do not crawl. So, when reading anarchist criticisms of trade unions do not for an instant think we do not support industrial struggles — we do, we are just very critical of the unions that are sometimes involved.

So, what do anarchists think of the trade unions?

For the most part, one could call the typical anarchist opinion toward them as one of “hostile support.” It is hostile insofar as anarchists are well aware of how bureaucratic these unions are and how they continually betray their members. Given that they are usually little more than “business” organisations, trying to sell their members labour-power for the best deal possible, it is unsurprising that they are bureaucratic and that the interests of the bureaucracy are at odds with those of its membership. However, our attitude is “supportive” in that even the worse trade union represents an attempt at working class solidarity and self-help, even if the organisation is now far removed from the initial protests and ideas that set the union up. For a worker to join a trade union means recognising, to some degree, that he or she has different interests from their boss (“If the interests of labour and capital are the same, why the union?” [Alexander Berkman, What is Anarchism?, p. 76]).

There is no way to explain the survival of unions other than the fact that there are different class interests and workers have understood that to promote their own interests they have to organise collectively. No amount of conservatism, bureaucracy or backwardness within the unions can obliterate this. The very existence of trade unions testifies to the existence of some level of basic class consciousness and the recognition that workers and capitalists do not have the same interests. Claims by trade union officials that the interests of workers and bosses are the same theoretically disarms both the union and its members and so weakens their struggles (after all, if bosses and workers have similar interests then any conflict is bad and the decisions of the boss must be in workers’ interests!). That kind of nonsense is best left to the apologists of capitalism (see section F.3.2).

It is no surprise, then, the “extreme opposition to the existing political and economic power” to unions as they “not only suspected every labour organisation of aiming to improve the condition of its members within the limits of the wage system, but they also looked upon the trade union as the deeply enemy of wage-slavery — and they were right. Every labour organisation of sincere character must needs wage war upon the existing economic conditions, since the continuation of the same is synonymous with the exploitation and enslavement of labour.” [Max Baginski, “Aim and Tactics of the Trade-Union Movement”, pp. 297–306, Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth, Peter Glassgold (ed.), pp. 302–3] Thus anarchist viewpoints on this issue reflect the contradictory nature of trade unions — on the one hand they are products of workers’ struggle, but on the other they are bureaucratic, unresponsive, centralised and their full-time officials have no real interest in fighting against wage labour as it would put them out of a job. Indeed, the very nature of trade unionism ensures that the interests of the union (i.e. the full-time officials) come into conflict with the people they claim to represent.

This can best be seen from the disgraceful activities of the TGWU with respect to the Liverpool dockers in Britain. The union officials (and the TUC itself) refused to support their members after they had been sacked in 1995 for refusing to cross a picket line. The dockers organised their own struggle, contacting dockers’ unions across the world and organised global solidarity actions. Moreover, a network of support groups sprung up across Britain to gather funds for their struggle (and, we are proud to note, anarchists have played their role in supporting the strikers). Many trade unionists could tell similar stories of betrayal by “their” union.

This occurs because trade unions, in order to get recognition from a company, must be able to promise industrial peace. They need to enforce the contracts they sign with the bosses, even if this goes against the will of its members. Thus trade unions become a third force in industry, somewhere between management and the workers and pursuing its own interests. This need to enforce contracts soon ensures that the union becomes top-down and centralised — otherwise its members would violate the unions agreements. They have to be able to control their members — which usually means stopping them fighting the boss — if they are to have anything to bargain with at the negotiation table. This may sound odd, but the point is that the union official has to sell the employer labour discipline and freedom from unofficial strikes as part of its side of the bargain otherwise the employer will ignore them.

The nature of trade unionism, then, is to take power away from out of local members and centralise it into the hands of officials at the top of the organisation. Thus union officials sell out their members because of the role trade unions play within society, not because they are nasty individuals (although some are). They behave as they do because they have too much power and, being full-time and highly paid, are unaccountable, in any real way, to their members. Power — and wealth — corrupts, no matter who you are (see Chapter XI of Alexander Berkman’s What is Anarchism? for an excellent introduction to anarchist viewpoints on trade unions).

While, in normal times, most workers will not really question the nature of the trade union bureaucracy, this changes when workers face some threat. Then they are brought face to face with the fact that the trade union has interests separate from theirs. Hence we see trade unions agreeing to wage cuts, redundancies and so on — after all, the full-time trade union official’s job is not on the line! But, of course, while such a policy is in the short term interests of the officials, in the longer term it goes against their interests — who wants to join a union which rolls over and presents no effective resistance to employers? Little wonder Michael Moore had a chapter entitled “Why are Union Leaders So F#!@ing Stupid?” in his book Downsize This! — essential reading on how moronic trade union bureaucrats can actually be. Sadly trade union bureaucracy seems to afflict all who enter it with short-sightedness — although the chickens do, finally, come home to roost, as the bureaucrats of the AFL, TUC and other trade unions are finding out in this era of global capital and falling membership. So while the activities of trade union leaders may seem crazy and short-sighted, these activities are forced upon them by their position and role within society — which explains why they are so commonplace and why even radical leaders end up doing exactly the same thing in time.

However, few anarchists would call upon members of a trade union to tear-up their membership cards. While some anarchists have nothing but contempt (and rightly so) for trade unions (and so do not work within them — but will support trade union members in struggle), the majority of anarchists take a more pragmatic viewpoint. If no alternative syndicalist union exists, anarchists will work within the existing unions (perhaps becoming shop-stewards — few anarchists would agree to be elected to positions above this in any trade union, particularly if the post were full-time), spreading the anarchist message and trying to create a libertarian undercurrent which would hopefully blossom into a more anarchistic labour movement. So most anarchists “support” the trade unions only until we have created a viable libertarian alternative. Thus we will become trade union members while trying to spread anarchist ideas within and outwith them. This means that anarchists are flexible in terms of our activity in the unions. For example, many IWW members were “two-carders” which meant they were also in the local AFL branch in their place of work and turned to the IWW when the AFL hierarchy refused to back strikes or other forms of direct action.

Anarchist activity within trade unions reflects our ideas on hierarchy and its corrupting effects. We reject the response of left-wing social democrats, Stalinists and mainstream Trotskyists to the problem of trade union betrayal, which is to try and elect ‘better’ officials. They see the problem primarily in terms of the individuals who hold the posts so ignoring the fact that individuals are shaped by the environment they live in and the role they play in society. Thus even the most left-wing and progressive individual will become a bureaucrat if they are placed within a bureaucracy.

We must note that the problem of corruption does not spring from the high-wages officials are paid (although this is a factor), but from the power they have over their members (which partly expresses itself in high pay). Any claim that electing “radical” full-time officials who refuse to take the high wages associated with the position will be better is false. The hierarchical nature of the trade union structure has to be changed, not side-effects of it. As the left has no problem with hierarchy as such, this explains why they support this form of “reform.” They do not actually want to undercut whatever dependency the members have on leadership, they want to replace the leaders with “better” ones (i.e. themselves or members of their party) and so endlessly call upon the trade union bureaucracy to act for its members. In this way, they hope, trade unionists will see the need to support a “better” leadership — namely themselves. Anarchists, in stark contrast, think that the problem is not that the leadership of the trade unions is weak, right-wing or does not act but that the union’s membership follows them. Thus anarchists aim at undercutting reliance on leaders (be they left or right) by encouraging self-activity by the rank and file and awareness that hierarchical leadership as such is bad, not individual leaders. Anarchists encourage rank and file self-activity, not endless calls for trade union bureaucrats to act for us (as is unfortunately far too common on the left).

Instead of “reform” from above (which is doomed to failure), anarchists work at the bottom and attempt to empower the rank and file of the trade unions. It is self-evident that the more power, initiative and control that lies on the shop floor, the less the bureaucracy has. Thus anarchists work within and outwith the trade unions in order to increase the power of workers where it actually lies: at the point of production. This is usually done by creating networks of activists who spread anarchist ideas to their fellow workers (see next section). Hence Malatesta:

“The anarchists within the unions should strive to ensure that they remain open to all workers of whatever opinion or party on the sole condition that there is solidarity in the struggle against the bosses. They should oppose the corporatist spirit and any attempt to monopolise labour or organisation. They should prevent the Unions from becoming the tools of the politicians for electoral or other authoritarian ends; they should preach and practice direct action, decentralisation, autonomy and free initiative. They should strive to help members learn how to participate directly in the life of the organisation and to do without leaders and permanent officials. “They must, in short, remain anarchists, remain always in close touch with anarchists and remember that the workers’ organisation is not the end but just one of the means, however important, of preparing the way for the achievement of anarchism.” [The Anarchist Revolution, pp. 26–7]

As part of this activity anarchists promote the ideas of Industrial Unionism we highlighted in the last section — namely direct workers control of struggle via workplace assemblies and recallable committees — during times of struggle. However, anarchists are aware that economic struggle (and trade unionism as such) “cannot be an end in itself, since the struggle must also be waged at a political level to distinguish the role of the State.” [Malatesta, Errico Malatesta: His Life and Ideas, p, 115] Thus, as well as encouraging worker self-organisation and self-activity, anarchist groups also seek to politicise struggles and those involved in them. Only this process of self-activity and political discussion between equals within social struggles can ensure the process of working class self-liberation and the creation of new, more libertarian, forms of workplace organisation.

The result of such activity may be a new form of workplace organisation (either workplace assemblies or an anarcho-syndicalist union) or a reformed, more democratic version of the existing trade union (although few anarchists believe that the current trade unions can be reformed). Either way, the aim is to get as many members of the current labour movement to become anarchists as possible or, at the very least, take a more libertarian and radical approach to their unions and workplace struggle.

[riotinyellow]

Is the name "Hostile workplace" or "Running on empty" ? Is this a deliberate choice or just an accident ? Is there a lore reason, or did Jon and Alex just condition us to be paranoid freaks ?

[19th-century-calamity-crew]

Roleplay blog: @le-brave-des-braves

Meta information

Owner: @neylo

First post: 28th February 2024 (https://www.tumblr.com/le-brave-des-braves/743594245757222912/bienvenue-you-have-reached-my-communication)

Current pinned post: https://www.tumblr.com/le-brave-des-braves/747279352345083904/bienvenue-you-have-reached-my-communication

Characters

Main character: Michel Ney

Regular appearances: his aides-de-camp Octave Levavasseur, Pierre-Agathe Heymes (both pictured here) and Antoine-Henri Jomini

Irregular appearances: His family, in the Ney's painted paradise thread

Lore

Supernatural characteristics:

This version of Michel Ney has been granted wings by an anonymous message and still retains them. He also carries marks of his execution in the form of dark spots in place of the original gunshot wounds that occasionally show under stressful conditions. This kind of state can also result in a temporary delay of another bodily death.

As of Ney's Painted Paradise, it has been revealed that this version of Ney is able to manipulate the fabric of the afterworld. He does so on instinct, however, and is unable to consciously control the results.

With the manifestation of these powers, his appearance underwent several major changes.

His blood appears to have a golden sunset colour now, which is also present in golden streaks in his otherwise light blue irises.

When changing his surroundings, his eyes go to full gold and he re-gains his wings, which he no longer has by default. The lighting also takes on a sunset hue in the area.

The colour of his wings has been established as coppery red.

Realm:

An ever-shifting tangle of sceneries. A somewhat stable Chateau Bessonies (currently vacant/undergoing reconstruction)

In Ney's Painted Paradise, his realm starts out as a simulacrum of content family life based on several peaceful memories he has. It also contains places based on his regrets though and is for a long time actively hostile towards intruders, mostly forcing a long-forgotten corporeal form onto them, one so incompatible with the surrounding substances that they are toxic to it.

Stories (not exhaustive, regular size text for longer threads:)

-Assisted marshal Lannes who consumed a dubious brownie

-Received his birthday mail two months late and got covered in glitter

-Levavasseur confessed his feelings for his Marshal with a serenade, was rejected

-The Marshal was granted wings, immediately invented aerial fencing. Meanwhile, Jomini returned.

-Discovered Rammstein. This will play a role later.

-Jomini rediscovers the joy of mutual disdain with Berthier, would not apologise properly over his own dead body

-Ney's aides-de-camp are granted wings. Some of them are more happy with them than others.

-Everyone has beef with Napoleon, nobody wants to risk fighting and potentially hurting Lannes, so the Emperor gets out of it this time.

-Soult was turned into a dragon. Berthier's house is flooded by plants. Was it a good idea to start a fire? No.

-Fairy dust can heal burned wings. It also temporarily diminishes the ability to filter your words.

-the twice-heartbroken Levavasseur, after receiving lots of mostly dubious advice, decides to care as he always did. The Marshal does hold him dear.

-Ney is transformed into his 23 year old self

-The wings are healing too slowly, Ney is disheartened

-And gets pep talked by Soult of all people

-Meanwhile, Jomini pockets a potion and makes a bad decision

-Ney and his aides-de-camp move to Soult's domain temporarily. Their host is turned into a cat. Things get very awkward

-The Marshals have a meeting over being turned into female versions of themselves. The workplace violence that follows results in Ney's disappearance.

-To a seemingly idyllic place where all is preserved as it was in days of happiness. But not all is as it seems... - finished

18th of June - that date carries a lot of bad memories. What happens when they come to life?

Upon learning he can accidentally project his trauma into a wide area of the afterlife, Ney decides to find an area that doesn't have people in it. He is stopped in his tracks by a very familiar-looking eight-year-old... (Ongoing)

Drop off a wedding gift and disappear - the plan was simple. But no plan has ever survived first contact with a child... Or Murat, for that matter. (Ongoing)

So Ney is able to shift the fabric of reality. But what exactly do these powers entail? Ney, Soult and their staff officers run some experiments to find out. (Ongoing)

[gking10]

Liveblogging TMAGP 8: Running on Empty

I relistened to Fatigue from TMA a week ago. The title makes me think of that. Running empty of caffeine?

CAT2RBC3366-12072023-28022024Architecture (liminal) -/-hunger [coursework]

Huh. Liminal space definitely fits the Fatigue vibes. Why is 'coursework' a subcategory of hunger? What does it even mean? Someone sets out to do a project for multiple days for an architectural course and doesn't eat an entire thing the entire time? When I get really into a project, I don't eat. I don't even drink water. It's not that I don't notice I'm thirsty or hungry, I just keep telling myself "I'll do it later" because I really want to finish whatever is in front of me. I'm really prone to that type of thinking, of sometimes just bashing myself against the brick wall deliriously until it finally caves. Mostly because if I ever stop in the middle of something, I usually just kinda give up? I've been trying to be less all-or-nothing, but it's a whole thing. The incident elements involved perception of time and reality warping, which matched Spiral... and then there's also cannibalism. Now I'm thinking of Confession and Desecrated Host (which ARE Spiral statements by the way, you will not convince me otherwise.)

1:34 - "Coursework assessment report 13718B" Wow, okay, we're just going right into it! Also I just noticed... the video itself titles the episode as "Hostile Workplace". But this involves a school course, doesn't it? Where does a workplace come in? Or does it just mean "workplace" as in where the student does their work? The liminal architecture, maybe? It could be like the garden in Putting Down Roots, a space the lures people in.

2:13 - "Extenuating circumstances: Serious Medical Condition, Trauma, Miscellaneous" What did Terrance go through? And this is just the extenuating circumstance for why Terrance submitted work late... 2:28 - "Title: Forton’s Brutal Liminality, a case study of architecturally induced psychological stressors as a result of prolonged exposure to liminal spaces in the Brutalist mode as exhibited by Forton Service Station." Huh. So maybe this is the "workplace". I'm not quite sure how Brutalism intersects with the presence of liminal spaces. To my understanding, brutalist architecture involves minimalism and leaving structural features exposed rather than hidden. Designing for efficiency without adding anything superfluous. I'm not sure how this type of design leads to prolonged exposure to liminal spaces. Liminal spaces are points of transition, places you aren't expecting to spend much time in. That's why its weird when you have to focus on one. Like hallways. Or places that should be in use but just... aren't. Are defined by people using them but are seen completely empty. Perhaps the liminal space is a long tunnel within the service station. A place purely for walking through. And I guess the brutalism would be the fact it is merely a tunnel and not a lobby or anything else? I'm unsure.

3:43 - "This often results in exposed raw materials, stark forms, repetitive geometric shapes and monolithic structures." Repetitive. Monolithic. Like a hotel hallway lined with identical doors that stretches on and on forever. Like a dull grey staircase where every floor you stop at can only be differentiated by the number. Okay, I think I'm starting to see the vision, actually.

4:23 - "Specifically, it creates an effect of absence despite presence, an “architectural hunger" of a sort" What does this mean? A hunger for architectural variety, I guess? Terrance honestly seems like a Robert Smirke. He's researching architecture and its affects on the psyche. It's a shame Terrance is probably going to eat a man alive before he gets the chance to analyze what other anxieties different structures may instill. 4:38 - "Service stations such as Forton were originally conceived of as a location in and of themselves rather than merely a pause in a journey. However, with the widespread adoption of personal automobiles and the subsequent overdevelopment of UK road infrastructure, these spaces transitioned into liminal spaces." Fuck cars. Is the architectural hunger... the hunger of the architecture itself? A hunger to be filled, to be in use? In all the long car rides I've been on throughout my life, being driven out of state to visit family, I've never really thought about the gas stations. Earnestly, I spent a majority of my time on those trips asleep, mostly to avoid the tedium of simply sitting and waiting. I guess because of that, being awoken to a stop never really felt uncanny or unnerving to me. Although, now that I think about it... I think that's only really true with the small gas stations. The bigger ones? I would start to feel lost in those. And Buc ee's? I've only been the Buc ee's twice in my life, and each time, it has been overwhelming. The sheer size of the crowds, of people just walking by each other, it is. A lot. They have good burritos though, so worth it. I think the big places get to me because you say there longer. With a small gas station, you just use the bathroom, maybe buy some chips and candy bar, and then you're gone. Each stop and Buc ee's lasted 30 minutes. Or at least felt like it. Too big. Too long. A nice place to visit, but not somewhere I'd like to stay.

4:59 - "Not only this, there are perceived time distortions associated with such spaces exacerbated by the deliberate absence of clocks (to encourage longer stays)" I thought they just did that in casinos but... have I ever seen a clock in any gas station? Fuck. 5:28 - "they have thus become dislocated from humanity’s shared mindscape" "In essence, I believe the “architectural hunger” of a space that resents its own transitional nature can be dangerous" I looked at the wikipedia article for liminal spaces and found the idea of a non-place. This what is is. A nonplace. A place that isn't a place because no one intends to stay there and no one knows anywhere there nor wants to be known by anyone there. But not just that. Terrance is describing a place that's just been... cut out of the shared subconsciousness. A place people just refuse to think about. Psychological abandoned and resentful. It makes me think of a line from an SCP that's sat with me for years. "There's only so much that hate can build up in a place before it starts hating you back…" I'll be surprised if this doesn't begin to touch on hostile architecture. Not the fictional hostile architecture of "oh this building is going to eat me alive" but the spikes put the stop skateboarders and the useless fake benches with unnecessary dividers put up explicitly to keep homeless people from being able to sleep. Ever since I first learned of the concept of hostile architecture, it's made my stomach crawl. And it would be all in service to keeping a space liminal, wouldn't it? It's directly to prevent people from being able to stay, because god forbid people have a place to be that isn't their own home or work. I'm not sure if this report is going to go there though, there's no warning of homelessness in the incident elements. Still, I would appreciate it being tackled. 6:48 - "No-one has eaten there in decades." That's sad. The restaurant actually sounded pretty cool. But I guess, that's the thing. This isn't a place to stay. It's not a place to really visit. It's a place to stop and that's it. So why would you need a restaurant when some random fast food chain gets the job done without any extravagance? Why stop to enjoy something? The only stopping here is now done out of pure, utilitarian necessity. Although, doing a tiny bit a research, it seems like Pennine Tower was also closed because it wasn't fire safe. Which does match with a rise in brutalism, of needing buildings to be built explicitly to purpose, but also like... fire safety is important? I don't think that's a wild take. Still, I don't know. Abandoned places are sad. The fact it's a restaurant though? And there's going to be cannibalism? I think we are going to see someone eat there soon. It will not be pretty.

7:41 - "until finally, one night, I realized that I had not seen a single person." Yeah, fuck that. I said it during Personal Screening, I'll say it again, spaces that should be filled with people but are not are BAD and you do NOT WANT TO BE THERE. 8:39 - "I maintain that the phenomena was accompanied by a disquieting sense of absence. Of hunger." Terrance keeps insisting on this hunger thing, which doesn't make sense with what he has said so far in this essay, and it is unnerving. It's just uncanny language. A sign that something is wrong with the way he is processing things. The lights were red, white, and yellow. Bright colors. Associated with hunger.

9:22 - "That’s when I realized why this all felt so familiar. Timelapse." So he's just seeing... a timelapse of people and cars? Traces of directions, all the paths their move in, without any of the actual life to accompany it? Feels like Lost in the Crowd. A crowd without people. A night at a service station without cars. All of the lights and movement and yet no cars. This is surreal. I like this. 10:17 Helen? Surely not. But god, the way the colors are described as a cloud of mist, pure gaseous sensory overload chasing after him, it gives me chills.

12:26 - "I tried to listen to any one conversation it was just… noise. A muffled murmur that sounded like speech but held no information." God, it's this part of the Lonely. Something about this really affects me. The idea of normal idle life just being... imitated. Being fake, not real. The Lonely doesn't much scare me when it's just being alone, but when it emphasizes the idea of being surrounded by people and being completely unable to connect, relate, or even understand? Everything just becoming... background noise? God. I feel like every one of these starts with me declaring the incident one TMA entity, and then halfway through deciding its a different one. "This violin is Slaughter- no, actually Flesh." "These volunteers are Desolation, no, Stranger, no, EXTINCTION!" "This is clearly going to be Spiral, oops, it's Lonely." If the entities have become blended, they are doing a really good job at it. 12:54 - "there were even recurring features iterating on different faces: the same green eyes on two women, identical moustaches on three men." Hey, I hate that actually. Very glad this is a podcast and I do not have to visually see that. It's an uncanny valley thing with me, I cannot stand that.

13:44 - "They were gaping square holes and beyond them was nothing at all" And my stomach became a gaping hole upon hearing those words. There's nothing out there. There is no outside. There is no past. There is no future. There is just here. You are here. Stay awhile. And then they start eating Terrance... 16:41 - "though I am painfully aware that no missing person report was filed with the police since apparently none of my colleagues, tutors or fellow students noticed my absence." Shit, no wonder something related to loneliness targeted him. That's depressing.

17:16 I keep hearing mechanical sounds. Like a camera flicking back and forth and refocusing. I'm just taking notice of the scene notes on the transcripts. The incidents have always said "CYBERSPACE", which I haven't taken much notice of. But this scene? "CCTV". That's what this is being recording on. That's what's watching them. I really should have been paying attention to the diegetic reason why we, the viewers, have even been able to hear all this.

18:21 - "and did you hear Lena put Colin on “mental health leave”" Well, Colin's gone. Hopefully he was actually put on mental health leave and not... shot.

19:01 Sam's phone. The scene note is Sam's phone. Something escaped. Something got in.

19:07 - "Sorry for the mess, I wasn’t expecting anyone." GERRY! I was spoiled that Gerry appeared at some point, it was impossible to avoid, but GERRY KEAY? HERE? NOW? THIS EPISODE? And Sam just knows him????? 19:58 - GERTRUDE "That would be me." I was wrong last episode. This will be the death of me. I somehow did not hear about THIS and I am glad because WHAT THE FUCK I guess Sam and Celia and investigating the Magnus Institute? Gerry is so cheerful and nice here. Like, he's so happy he doesn't even sound the same. It makes his fate in TMA even sadder.

20:39 - "What exactly did you say was your business with my grandson?" Is this an act? I think I remember Gerry was often mistaken for being Gertrude's grandson in TMA, so is she just leaning into it? Or did Gertrude full-on adopt Gerry? Was Gerry raised by Gertrude instead of Mary Keay? It would explain why Gerry does not see to be miserable.

21:05 - "I see. Well I’m sorry, but I don’t think Gerry can help you-" It's subtle, but the static rises here. Is Gerry getting compelled? But by who or what? It wouldn't be Gertrude, she's trying to hide it. 23:03 - "I’m trying to look into… Weird physics stuff: time travel, other dimensions, teleportation, all that good stuff." DID CELIA CROSS OVER SOMEHOW???? 23:21 - "You’re not doing research for that podcast you were on, are you?" THE FUCKING WHAT 23:27 - "Then yeah. I’m doing a favor for Georgie." FOR WHO? Celia on What the Ghost? Hello?????? That's the episode. I wondered again why "coursework" was a subcategory of hunger... Then I realized that the brackets are different, that's the format of the statement, not a subcategory. So I'm an idiot. I am also realizing there is chicken in the oven I should have pulled out 30 minutes ago.

[polliantics]

Ronald Reagan's presidency (1981-1989) - Was he a good or bad president?

Legacy:

Reagan remains a hero among conservatives for his economic policies and anti-communism but is criticized by progressives for increasing inequality and social program cuts. His presidency reshaped American politics, and debates about his impact continue today.

Why He Was a Bad President:

Massive Deficit & Debt – His tax cuts and increased military spending led to huge budget deficits, nearly tripling the national debt.

Trickle-Down Economics Issues – While the economy grew, income inequality widened, and critics argue his policies disproportionately benefited the wealthy.

Cuts to Social Programs – His budget reductions in social welfare programs hurt lower-income Americans, particularly in healthcare and education.

Iran-Contra Scandal – His administration secretly sold weapons to Iran and illegally funded Nicaraguan rebels (Contras), leading to a major political scandal.

AIDS Crisis Response – Reagan was criticized for his slow response to the AIDS epidemic, which disproportionately affected the LGBTQ+ community.

War on Drugs & Mass Incarceration

Reagan escalated the War on Drugs, signing the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses.

The law disproportionately targeted Black and Latino communities, especially with the 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. This contributed to mass incarceration and long-term social harm.

Union-Busting & Labor Rights

Reagan fired over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) in 1981 and banned them from federal employment. This was a major blow to organized labor and emboldened anti-union policies nationwide.

His administration favored corporations over workers, weakening unions and contributing to stagnant wages.

Ignoring the AIDS Epidemic

The Reagan administration largely ignored the HIV/AIDS crisis for years. Press secretary Larry Speakes even joked about it in early briefings.

Reagan didn’t publicly acknowledge AIDS until 1985—after thousands had died—and didn't take meaningful action until the late 1980s.

Hostility to Civil Rights & Welfare Cuts

He opposed affirmative action and tried to weaken the Voting Rights Act.

His administration slashed funding for social programs like food stamps, mental health services, and public housing, worsening poverty for marginalized communities.

Reagan also tried to gut the Civil Rights Commission and slow down school desegregation efforts.

Support for Authoritarian Regimes & Death Squads

Reagan backed brutal right-wing dictators in Latin America, including:

El Salvador – Supported the military despite its ties to death squads that massacred civilians.

Guatemala – Backed dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who carried out genocide against Indigenous Mayans.

Nicaragua – Funded the Contras, a rebel group known for human rights abuses, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal.

South Africa – Opposed sanctions against apartheid and vetoed a bill that would have pressured the racist regime.

Deregulation & Weakening Consumer Protections

His deregulation of banking and savings & loans institutions contributed to the Savings and Loan Crisis, which led to a massive government bailout.

Environmental policies were weakened, reducing protections for clean air, clean water, and endangered species.

Workplace safety regulations were rolled back, making conditions worse for workers.

Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies

Beyond his failure on AIDS, Reagan was generally hostile to LGBTQ+ rights.

He opposed gay rights measures and backed laws that banned LGBTQ+ people from adopting children.

His Supreme Court appointees helped uphold Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which kept anti-sodomy laws in place until they were overturned in 2003.

Myth of the “Welfare Queen” & Racial Dog Whistles

Reagan popularized the racist stereotype of the “welfare queen” to justify cutting social programs, even though the narrative was based on exaggerations and misinformation.

His rhetoric on “states’ rights” and opposition to civil rights protections played into the Southern Strategy, appealing to white voters who opposed racial progress.

Why He Was a Good President:

Economic Growth (Reaganomics) – His tax cuts, deregulation, and free-market policies contributed to strong economic growth in the 1980s, reducing inflation and unemployment after the stagflation of the 1970s.

Cold War Victory – His aggressive stance against the Soviet Union, including military buildup and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), is credited with pressuring the USSR toward collapse.

Patriotism & Optimism – Reagan restored a sense of national pride and confidence after the Vietnam War and Watergate. His speeches and demeanor made many Americans feel hopeful about the country’s future.

Tax Reform – The 1986 Tax Reform Act simplified the tax code, eliminated loopholes, and reduced tax rates, particularly on corporations and individuals.

Social Security Reform – He worked with Democrats to extend the solvency of Social Security through bipartisan compromise.

[lenbryant]

LATimes Column: Trump’s proposal to make overtime pay tax-exempt obscures how awful he was for all workers

By Michael Hiltzik, Business Columnist  

Donald Trump speaks at the White House during his presidency with his anti-labor secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, right, at his side. Who thinks his worker policies would be any better in a second term than they were in his first?

(Associated Press)

Donald Trump, in his determined effort to claim the mantle of friend of the working man and woman, unveiled a proposal the other day to make overtime pay tax-exempt. 

“People who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens of our country, and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” he told a rally in Tucson. 

Let’s be blunt about something here: Anyone who buys Trump’s pose about this is the mark in a con game. Trump’s claim that no one in Washington has been looking out for overtime workers was never as true as it was during the Trump administration, which slashed overtime protections for more than 8.2 million workers. 

Trump’s Department of Labor was a black hole for worker rights. The agency abandoned an Obama administration policy that would have favored more than 4.2 million workers. The Biden administration restored the Obama rule and went further. 

And that was just on overtime. As president, observed economic commentator Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in 2019, Trump pursued “the most hostile anti-labor agenda of any modern president.”

Trump’s Dept. of Labor was a black hole for worker rights.

Before exploring Trump’s manipulation of overtime regulations, let’s examine his overall record on workers’ rights.

In 2019, Trump appointed as his Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The new labor secretary had made his career as a corporate lawyer fighting pro-worker policies. In 2012, the Wall Street Journal had labeled him one of the financial industry’s “go-to guys for challenging financial regulations.”

Scalia had helped Walmart overturn a Maryland law mandating minimum contributions by big employers for workers’ healthcare, defended SeaWorld against workplace safety charges after a park trainer was killed by an orca (he lost that case), and had written extensively against a federal regulationexpanding ergonomic safety requirements. 

He had written that the latter rule, proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “would require businesses to slow the pace of production, hire more workers, increase rest periods and redesign workstations or even entire operations.�� 

No legitimate candidate for secretary of Labor would have regarded that policy as a bad thing, but Scalia condemned it in print as “the most costly and intrusive regulation in [OSHA’s] history.”

Scalia’s predecessor as secretary, Alexander Acosta, had gone to Congress to oppose measures to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009 to $15 in steps. It shouldn’t need mentioning that this was an extraordinary position for a secretary of Labor to take. 

(Acosta, it may be remembered, lost his job after revelations about his role in soft-pedaling sex-trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein produced a political uproar.)

Trump remade the National Labor Relations Board along the same lines. In a key move, his NLRB scrapped the effort under Obama to expand the definition of “joint employer,” which would have made big franchisers such as McDonald’s jointly liable with their franchisees for violations of employees’ wage and hour rights. 

The Trump NLRB’s proposed definition would narrow the joint-employer standard “to the point at which many workers would find it nearly impossible to bring all firms with the power to influence their wages and working conditions to the bargaining table,” according to the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute.

Put it all together, and Trump had turned the Department of Labor into the “Dept. of Employer Rights,” I wrote.

Now to the overtime rules. As my colleague James Rainey reported Sunday, Trump’s proposal to make overtime pay tax-exempt was part of a passel of purported tax cuts for the working class, including tax exemptions for tips and Social Security benefits, all of which economists saw as “gimmicks” and “shams.”

In 2016, Obama had raised the ceiling making salaried workers eligible for time-and-a-half overtime — that is, working hours exceeding 40 hours per week — to $47,476 in annual wages, up from $23,660. The ceiling would be adjusted regularly to overall wage growth. Hourly workers typically get overtime after 40 hours, but salaried workers receive overtime pay if their wages are below the ceiling. 

The Obama administration’s idea was to narrow the practice of low-wage employers to designate workers as “managers” to exempt them from the OT rule while paying them an hourly wage. (That’s why fast-food restaurants are always suspiciously loaded with “general managers, assistant managers, night managers, managers for opening and closing and delivery,” as former New York prosecutor Terri Gerstein observed in 2019.) 

It was estimated that the new rule would give 4.2 million workers new overtime protection.

The Obama rule was blocked by a federal judge in Texas. When Trump came into office, his Labor Department refused to defend the rule in court. Instead, the agency proposed a new rule reducing the wage ceiling to only $35,568. That was nearly $20,000 below the level that would have been reached by the Obama rule, as it was adjusted for wage inflation. The Trump rule was not indexed.

Some 8.2 million workers who would have gained OT protection under Obama were left behind by the Trump rule, Heidi Shierholz of the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute calculated. They would be deprived of a combined $1.4 billion in pay annually.

The 8.2 million workers left behind, Shierholz estimated, included “4.2 million women, 3.0 million people of color, 4.7 million workers without a college degree, and 2.7 million parents of children under the age of 18.”

The Biden administration restored the Obama rule, and then some. The new rule set the ceiling at $844 per week, or $43,888 for a full-time hourly worker, as of July 1. 

On Jan. 1, the salary ceiling will rise to $1,128 per week, or $58,656 annually. After that, it will be indexed every three years. The new rule will benefit an estimated 4.3 million workers, more than half of whom are women and about one-fifth workers of color. 

Among the largest groups of affected workers, EPI estimates, are those in healthcare and social services.

Whether Trump has sat down to map out a pro-worker policy is doubtful in the extreme — it’s not a concern he has ever displayed in the past. He appears to have blurted out the overtime policy as part of what the Irish writer Fintan O’Toole aptly describes as “the surreal bricolage of his rally speeches.”

But a clue can be found in “Project 2025,” a road map for a second Trump term drafted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. (Trump claims to have nothing to do with this 900-page tome, but no one really believes him.)

Project 2025 would shrink overtime coverage materially. It advocates cutting the compensation subject to time-and-a-half to salary only, excluding pay for such benefits as healthcare, retirement, education, child care or paid meals. Under existing law, the only compensation that can be excluded from the calculation is pay for expenses a worker pays on the employer’s behalf, discretionary bonuses, gifts on special occasions, and vacation and sick pay.

The Project also advocates indexing the ceiling once ever five years rather than three years, which would slow its rate of growth, and index the ceiling to consumer inflation, which tends to grow slower than wage inflation, the current index. 

The Project also advocates allowing employers to calculate overtime hours over two or four weeks rather than weekly, which would allow them to require workers to put in more than 40 hours some weeks and make it up in others. That sounds like an open invitation to employer manipulation of work schedules.

Trump’s record on worker rights is clear as day. Do you really think he’ll be looking out for the men and women in the rank and file?

[hassamkhalidsaidfuckyet]

aside from everything. i just want everyone to know i ♥️ hostile workplace conditions. i ♥️ rancid vibes enough to go around. i ♥️ conflict and animosity. [visibly shaking] so glad about shit hitting the fan