#so if you're efficient you get paid less

[linguenuvolose]

might work 12 days in a row lmao <3 benone

[kichoukotori]

Several years ago I briefly worked in the warehouse of a nondescript extremely large e-commerce company. I had no other options for employment but desperately needed money. Turnover was like 150%. I worked from something like 7pm to 5am, my commute was 50 minutes each way and before I got paid I didn't even have the cash for enough gas to get home one night and had to bum $10 off of my kid sibling (this is all to give you an idea of my abysmal mental state while employed here.) You're not allowed to do anything besides your job, no music or anything and they track your movement on cameras so you can't even take a breather. The job is real monotonous, you get sent boxes of items of random sizes and you have to put the items into shelves of varying sizes and the shelves come to you, you don't walk to them. Because the company tracks the rate at which you put items on these shelves, many small items are desirable because you can put a lot of them in quickly. Everything about the place seems almost designed intentionally to break you mentally and turn you into a robot. So I'm about 6 or 7 hours into my shift, feeling on the verge of a mental collapse, and up comes a container with a bunch of small white boxes, bout half the size of a deck of cards. No labels. Great, I'm already happy about whatever these things are. So I go to scan them in, and it gives you the name of the item and a little picture. Sasuke Penis Costume. What? Sasuke Penis Costume. A picture of that red cloud robe from Naruto and one of the headbands with the metal plate on it. I'm thinking, there's no way. What is a penis costume? Am I hallucinating this? And there's so many of them, literally about a hundred, and I know I'm going to be spending at least an hour with Sasuke Penis Costume, there's so many and they're so small, I'm already excited about the potential efficiency of these, and then I see it's Sasuke Penis Costume? So the entire shift I'm like, trying to not put these things away too quick, because honestly I'm starting to build a kind of kinship with them. This is quite literally the most exciting thing to happen to me during my whole 2 week employment at the warehouse. I started to see Sasuke Penis Costume as a friend, some reminder of the outside world, a reminder of the humanity I was becoming so unfamiliar with, a reminder the world contained comedy, art, anime, and penis. I really couldn't tell you if I ended up putting all of them away, the last thing I remember is my desperate need to look these items up when I got home. I needed a link to send to my friends for when I told them this riveting story. I learned that the costume is called the Akatsuki cloak in my fervent search for the item, and wouldn't you know it, absolutely zero trace of these things exists online. Not on the e-commerce website, not on any specialized penis-costume websites (whose existence I was not privvy to prior to this incident) and no third-party retailer has these. Not even Google images will show me the hypothetical existence of Sasuke Penis Costume. Every few months I look it up, trying to find evidence that it can be bought, that any of this was ever real. My bond, my friendship, and dare I say even love for Sasuke Penis Costume feels as tangible as the boxes they came in, and yet the universe will give me no closure of their fate. Less and less frequently I search for them, each time becoming more and more discouraged that I will ever find them, but unlike their substance on this earth, one thing is inarguably certain. Sasuke Penis Costume exists to me, and it will live on firmly and resolutely within my memory and within my heart.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The super-rich got that way through monopolies

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

Just in time for Davos, here's 'Taken, not earned: How monopolists drive the world’s power and wealth divide," a report from a coalition of international tax justice and anti-corporate activist groups:

https://www.balancedeconomy.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Davos-Taken-not-Earned-full-Report-2024-FINAL.pdf

The rise of monopolies over the past 40 years came about as the result of specific, deliberate policy choices. As the report documents, the wealthiest people in America funneled a fortune into neutering antitrust enforcement, through the "consumer welfare" doctrine.

This is an economic theory that equates monopolies with efficiency: "If everyone is buying the same things from the same store, that tells you the store is doing something right, not something criminal." 40 years ago, and ever since, the wealthy have funded think-tanks, university programs and even "continuing education" programs for federal judges to push this line:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

They didn't do this for ideological reasons – they were chasing material goals. Monopolies produce vast profits, and those profits produce vast wealth. The rise and rise of the super rich cannot be decoupled from the rise and rise of monopolies.

If you're new to this, you might think that "monopoly" only refers to a sector in which there is only one seller. But that's not what economists mean when they talk about monopolies and monopolization: for them, a monopoly is a company with power. Economists who talk about monopolies mean companies that "can act independently without needing to consider the responses of competitors, customers, workers, or even governments."

One way to measure that power is through markups ("the difference between the selling price of goods or services and their cost"). Very large companies in concentrated industries have very high markups, and they're getting higher. From 2017-22, the 20 largest companies in the world had average markups of 50%. The 100 largest companies average 43%. The smallest half of companies get average markups of 25%.

Those markups rose steeply during the covid lockdowns – and so did the wealth of the billionaires who own them. Tech billionaires – Bezos, Brin and Page, Gates and Ballmer – all made their fortunes from monopolies. Warren Buffet is a proud monopolist who says "the single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power… if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business."

We are living in the age of the monopoly. In the 1930s, the top 0.1% of US companies accounted for less than half of America's GDP. Today, it's 90%. And it's accelerating, with global mergers climbing from 2,676 in 1985 to 62,000 in 2021.

Monopoly's cheerleaders claim that these numbers vindicate them. Monopolies are so efficient that everyone wants to create them. Those efficiencies can be seen in the markups monopolies can charge, and the profits they can make. If a monopoly has a 50% markup, that's just the "efficiency of scale."

But what is the actual shape of this "efficiency?" How is it manifest? The report's authors answer this with one word: power.

Monopolists have the power "to extract wealth from, to restrict the freedoms of, and to manipulate or steer the vastly larger numbers of losers." They establish themselves as gatekeepers and create chokepoints that they can use to raise prices paid by their customers and lower the payout to their suppliers:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

These chokepoints let monopolies usurp "one of the ultimate prerogatives of state power: taxation." Amazon sellers pay a 51% tax to sell on the platform. App Store suppliers pay a 30% tax on every dollar they make with their apps. That translates into higher costs. Consider a good that costs $10 to make: the bottom 50% of companies (by size) would charge $12.50 for that product on average. The largest companies would charge $15. Thus monopolies don't just make their owners richer – they make everyone else poorer, too.

This power to set prices is behind the greedflation (or, more politely, "seller's inflation"). The CEOs of the largest companies in the world keep getting on investor calls and bragging about this:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

The food system is incredibly monopolistic. The Cargill family own the largest commodity trader in the world, which is how they built up a family fortune worth $43b. Cargill is one of the "ABCD" companies ("Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus") that control the world's food supply, and they tripled their profits during the lockdown.

Monopolies gouge everyone – even governments. Pfizer charged the NHS £18-22/shot for vaccines that cost £5/shot to make. They took the British government for £2bn – that's enough to pay last year's pay hike for NHS nurses, six times over,

But monopolies also abuse their suppliers, especially their employees. All over the world, competition authorities are uncovering "wage fixing" and "no poaching" agreements among large firms, who collude to put a cap on what workers in their sector can earn. Unions report workers having their pay determined by algorithms. Bosses lock employees in with noncompetes and huge repayment bills for "training":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Monopolies corrupt our governments. Companies with huge markups can spend some of that money on lobbying. The 20 largest companies in the world spend more than €155m/year lobbying in the US and alone, not counting the money they spend on industry associations and other cutouts that lobby on their behalf. Big Tech leads the pack on lobbying, accounting for 82% of EU lobbying spending and 58% of US lobbying.

One key monopoly lobbying priority is blocking climate action, from Apple lobbying against right-to-repair, which creates vast mountains of e-waste, to energy monopolist lobbying against renewables. And energy companies are getting more monopolistic, with Exxonmobil spending $65b to buy Pioneer and Chevron spending $60b to buy Hess. Many of the world's richest people are fossil fuel monopolists, like Charles and Julia Koch, the 18th and 19th richest people on the Forbes list. They spend fortunes on climate denial.

When people talk about the climate impact of billionaires, they tend to focus on the carbon footprints of their mansions and private jets, but the true environmental cost of the ultra rich comes from the anti-renewables, pro-emissions lobbying they buy with their monopoly winnings.

The good news is that the tide is turning on monopolies. A coalition of "businesses, workers, farmers, consumers and other civil society groups" have created a "remarkably successful anti-monopoly movement." The past three years saw more regulatory action on corporate mergers, price-gouging, predatory pricing, labor abuses and other evils of monopoly than we got in the past 40 years.

The business press – cheerleaders for monopoly – keep running editorials claiming that enforcers like Lina Khan are getting nothing done. Sure, WSJ, Khan's getting nothing done – that's why you ran 80 editorial about her:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

(Khan's winning like crazy. Just last month she killed four megamergers:)

https://www.thesling.org/the-ftc-just-blocked-four-mergers-in-a-month-heres-how-its-latest-win-fits-into-the-broader-campaign-to-revive-antitrust/

The EU and UK are taking actions that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Canada is finally set to get a real competition law, with the Trudeau government promising to add an "abuse of dominance" rule to Canada's antitrust system.

Even more exciting are the moves in the global south. In South Africa, "competition law contains some of the most progressive ideas of all":

It actively seeks to create greater economic participation, particularly for ‘historically disadvantaged persons’ as part of its public interest considerations in merger decisions.

Balzac wrote, "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." Chances are, the rapsheet includes an antitrust violation. Getting rid of monopolies won't get rid of all the billionaires, but it'll certainly get rid of a hell of a lot of them.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/monopolies-produce-billionaires/#inequality-corruption-climate-poverty-sweatshops

[mooestriovermind]

I spent too long on this stupid meme

(this is a joke)

All you need is FICSIT® Corporation, engineer. Don't you want to be the most productive among your co-workers? Wouldn't it feel good to maximize efficiency in your local FICSIT® Brand factory? We know you won't cut corners, because you're a good employee, who cares about the company's bottom line. You know that maximizing our profits means you get more items in the AWESOME™ Shop, and that's all you want, right? You're more than happy to be paid in our company currency, FICSIT® coupons, so that you can trade them back at the AWESOME™ Shop and unlock more structures for your factory. Stay loyal to FICSIT® and we will stay loyal to you, as long as your work continues to be nothing less than satisfactory.

Keep it up, and remember- you are FICSIT® property, and here at FICSIT® we take very good care of our family.

[txttletale]

Hi! So, i'm going through Capital, great little obscure book sad that it never got any wide-reaching support (/s), have a couple questions so far though if you wouldn't mind giving some time to answer them:

What does Marx mean when he talks about 'unskilled labor' in relation to 'skilled labor'? Doesn't the vast majority of labor, even things like factory work, require training to do and especially to become good/efficient at? In the passage where he mentioned it he also mentions that (some, not all) unskilled labor, in sufficient quantities, can equal skilled labor but like. this doesn't really make any sense if its just, say, factory work vs idfk tailoring or something. So i'm a bit confused. Or is he talking about what i just mentioned where when you start out doing something you're unskilled but gradually become better at it as you do it more and more?

Who the hell is Ricardo?

factory work requires training to do, sure, but it's an order of magnitude less training than it took to learn to do those jobs before the introduction of the factories--on the level of, say, a few weeks (at absolute maximum) of training, done alongside actual work, before being fully able to work in a furniture factory, as opposed to the actual years of apprenticeship it historically took to become a carpenter. being unskilled doesn't mean that nobody can be good at a job, but it does mean, essentially, that you could grab any random person off the street and have them doing it within a week.

this distinction isn't there to be moralized about but to concretely analyze the different economic positions of these jobs--if your job is unskilled, you are going to be paid worse and have less secure employment, because you are easy to replace and the number of people looking to replace you are also competing against you to work for the lowest wages, driving your wages down. you're also paid less because the cost of reproducing your labour (the core determiner of the 'base price' of wages) is much lower. when an e.g. surgeon gets paid highly, their employer (whether the state or a capitalist) is essentially paying them more to retroactively pay for their extensive years of training.

this distinction is at its most clear when it comes to the concept of deskilling, which is crucial to marx's understanding of the industrial revolution -- with the introduction of machinery, years and years of learning how to do something by hand could be replaced with weeks of learning how to operate a machine. this deskilled huge sections of the economy and proletarianized the artisans and manufacturers who formerly did that work by making them dependent on the machines owned by factory workers. deskilling is the mechanism by which advancements in productive technology paradoxically make the jobs of those working in those fields more precarious and onerous even as the task itself becomes much easier, so it's pretty important to understand for an understanding of historical materialism.

david ricardo was a 19th century economist who advanced the ideas first laid forward by adam smith re: the labour theory of value and was the first to postulate (although without addressing the signficant political implications of this!) that real wages had an inverse relationship to real profits. marx draws heavily on his ideas but is also critical of them. capital is subtitled 'a critique of political economy' -- ricardo is a key figure in the field of political economy that he's critiquing.

[cherrychilli]

MDNI, NSFW, AFAB reader, divorced Dilf! Steve, Babysitter reader, oral sex(M), cum play, age gap (Steve is in his early 40's, reader is in her early 20's)

A/N: This takes place before the events of my first Dilf! Steve drabble. I'm also working on another drabble about the first time they did the deed so look out for that!)

You scrutinize your reflection in the bathroom mirror as you fix your hair and dab on a fresh coating of scented lip balm over your lips. You'd much prefer your signature shade of lipstick and an outfit different to the t-shirt and skirt combo that you're currently dressed in but this is the best you can afford to do without raising any suspicion. You needed to be careful. You didn't want to be made the subject of the latest small town scandal and you knew people would start to ask questions if they ever saw you getting all dolled up to babysit at Steve Harrington's house.

You saunter into his study once you're ready, closing the door gently behind you and turning the key for good measure. You find him at his desk where he's been for the past few hours, looking both pensive and deflated as he poured over paperwork. You'd been sneaking glances at him all day, growing resentful of the work that held his attention. That wasn't all. Feelings of sympathy tugged at you too. It was hard to ignore when seeing the stack of thick files piled next to him and the empty coffee mug with World's Best Dad blown up in big black lettering now cold and pushed aside after several refills. He looks up from the handful of important looking papers fanned across his desk when you enter, assessing you over the rim of his reading glasses. He notices how your skirt appears shorter now than it did earlier thanks to some intentional adjusting when you readied yourself in the guest bathroom.

He knows now. Steve looked forward to your "surprise visits" but he never failed to get the formalities out of the way first.

"The kids?", he asks, expression neutral.

"Asleep. Completely wiped out after playing with the Donovan boys", you inform him, leaning over his desk to let your cleavage show. He allows his gaze to fall to your chest now that the two of you are alone, something he tried very hard (and sometimes failed) to keep from doing when others were around, Not that anyone had noticed, thankfully.

"And Martha?"

The kids were one thing but Steve's housekeeper was the one who really kept you on your toes, unbeknownst even to her. There was always the chance she might notice a lingering look or subtle touch and realize something bigger was going on right under her own nose. She'd also have more credibility if she were to tell people that there was something going on between Mr. Harrington and the pretty babysitter nearly half his age. The kids on the other hand who although were the sweetest, were much less likely to be believed. They were still in that phase where they spouted the occasional harmless yet wildly imaginative lie in the hopes of impressing friends and grownups.

"Out shopping for tonight's dinner", you assured him with a coy smile.

You walk around the corner of his desk, hips swaying as he turns his chair to face you. Martha may be gone for now but she had proved she was worth the money she was paid. She was efficient, reliable and punctual above all else, meaning you wouldn't have as much time as you would have liked to be alone together. Foregoing any kind of buildup, you drop to your knees, hands reaching to toy with Steve's belt. "Wanna suck your cock, Mr. Harrington", you announced. It was blunt, you knew and gathering from his widened eyes you were certain he thought so too.

"Please, can I?", you begged, voice sticky like honey and dripping with urgency.

You can see the traces of fatigue starting to fade from his features as he cups your cheek with a large palm, thumb brushing over your bottom lip, all soft and plush from the balm. You're already undoing his belt, popping open the button on his pants and pulling at the zip. "You've been so tense lately" you cooed. "Working so hard. All those late nights", you reminded. "I Just want to help you unwind."

You reach inside to rub him over his boxers, parting your lips at the same time to lick at his thumb. "Shit", he hisses. He'd only fucked your mouth once before - and just barely because that tryst was cut short when Martha had come back home after forgetting her purse one night. You hid behind the kitchen island when you heard the front door open, crouched down by Steve's legs with your lips all puffy and slick with spit and precum. You cowered while he pretended to have come in for a glass of water as he so explained, or more so stammered, to Martha who hadn't asked because why would she? it was his house. What was so unusual about wanting a drink of water in your own house? She might have suspected something if she didn't already think you had been sent home for the day, not knowing that you were staying over after hours when she was off the clock and the kids had been put to bed. As she politely collected her purse and left for the second time the both of you agreed, no more fooling around unless it's behind locked doors.

His length was already growing stiff as he watched you on your knees, begging to have his cock in your mouth like some naughty fantasy come to life. Maybe you were right, he thought. Maybe he had been working too hard lately. Maybe he had been sifting through files and contracts for a few hours too long and the exhaustion had numbed him momentarily because why the hell hadn't he started unzipping his pants himself the moment you got on your knees for him?

"Fuck- alright", he relented, suddenly feeling more enlivened than he had been the entire day as he helped you to pull his boxers down. Your expression turns glassy as you stare at his cock when it bobs free, saliva pooling in your mouth. He was bigger than anyone you'd ever been with before and you found that you were still getting used to it. You wrap your fingers around his impressive girth as best you can and lap at the blurt of precum weeping from his tip, catching it on your tongue and sucking it into your mouth in a filthy display. "Jesus Christ" he groans, balls feeling tight at the sight of you like this. A distant cry from the reputable young woman people thought you to be. "Tell me how you like it", you request, breath fanning over his cock as you pant softly. "I wanna make you feel good, Mr. Harrington". He curses again under his breath because how can you look so sweet and sincere when you're begging for something as indecent as having your mouth full of him.

"Okay I-uh, I like it a little messy", he admits. "Can you spit on it? 'want you to get it really wet for me, sweetheart".

You do as he says, first spitting into your palm to wrap around him again and then leaning closer to dribble some spit onto his tip and rest of his shaft to help coat him.

"Little more- Yeah, just like that...start moving your hand, baby- squeeze it a little, okay?"

You pump him just as he instructed, only speeding up when he tells you to. It's still on the slower side - a steady, rhythmic schlick that fills your ears and makes your belly burn. You don't put your mouth on him. Not yet because he hasn't given you permission. You're trying to be obedient, not knowing that he's getting off on the desperate look on your face as your eyes flick back and forth from his erection and his face. You work yourself up even more at the taste the fruity balm when you bite your lip, wishing once again that you'd been able to dress up for him just so he could ruin your pretty lipstick till his cock bears messy traces of your favorite shade. You're growing more needy as you listen to all the noises spilling out of him, deep throaty groans and half restrained moans that have you rubbing your thighs together in search of some kind of friction. You don't want to divert from the way he's guiding you but you can't hold off wanting to taste him any longer. "Mr. Harrington, please, can I suck it? I want to feel it in my mouth again", you whimper meekly.

You've got his cock in your hand and you're the one begging? He chuckles softly at that. "Go ahead, get your pretty lips on me", he finally grants.

You're on him quick, popping his fat head in your mouth and wrapping your lips around it. You suck gently at first, hand still stroking his base and when you begin to bob your head you moan around him like you've been starved for this. "That's it, baby- shit keep going", he encourages you. You grow bolder when his hand weaves into your hair and you take him in further and further until you feel him bump the back of your throat. Tears gather in your eyes then as you choke, throat clamping around him when you gag, squeezing his cock. "Fuck", he tightens his grip on your hair. "Do that again", he watches you with half lidded eyes, tears spilling down your face as you struggle to take it.

You can feel the spit and precum seeping out of the corners of your mouth and trail down your chin. It's messy, just as he asked for and he praises you again and again. "You're doing so well, baby- making me feel so good", hips bucking up lightly into your mouth. Every time you pull off for air, spit and precum web from his throbbing length to your panting lips. You lick up the underside of his cock hungrily after you catch your breath, following the gentle curve of it, feeling the veins pulse and throb when your tongue glides over the sensitive skin. When you reach his ruddy tip again, you swirl your tongue around it, eyes never leaving his.

"Want your cum", you puff out desperately, voice hoarse from having having him fuck your throat. "Please?"

You see his expression shift and you're just about to ask him if he's close when he cuts you off with a curt command. "Get up".

You worry you've done something wrong until he's flipping you around and pressing you against his desk. He hastily pushes the fanned out papers to the side, letting them flutter and strew on the floor.

"Hands on the desk", he growls. You plant them there without question, whimpering when you feel him pull at your skirt. He holds the material up with one hand, yanking your soaked panties down your thighs with the other.

"M-Mr. Harrington?" you stutter, never finishing the question but he knows what you mean to ask. Are you going to fuck me?. You want him to. Desperately. But you know there's no time. Martha would be home any minute now and you couldn't risk having her wonder where you were. There'd be no way to hide what you'd been doing if she caught you sneaking out of Steve's study, looking like this.

"Not this time, sweetheart", he answers, kicking your legs apart as he strokes his cock between your thighs. "'Gonna give you what you asked for."

You gasp when you feel it, ropes of his cum catching on your inner thighs and the gusset of your panties. You quiver in place when he pulls your panties up, pressing his hot wet release right up against you. He fixes himself behind you as you process the mess between you legs, circling your hips experimentally so you can feel it spread between your folds.

"You've got an hour left, right?", he breaths low against your ear. You nod your head when your voice fails you, feeling spent. "You're going to wear these home today", he commands, his fingers snaking under your skirt to circle your clit over your soiled panties. "Want you to think of me while you drip", pressing a kiss against your tear stained cheek. "And tomorrow you're going to come in early so I can fuck you proper, understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Harrington", you manage to answer this time, tone taking on a pitiful whine.

"Good. Now go get cleaned up".

[queen-mihai]

I want flight attendants to be overpaid and relaxed. I want the job to be so efficient and well managed that it seems like they barely have to lift a finger.

Now before I continue, I'm gonna address the first argument that bigots are gonna claim I'm "not thinking about"

"Well if two flight attendants can take care of a flight while barely lifting a finger, surely the airline will just fire one of them. Don't you think one of them would just get fired?"

No. And imma tell you why.

Two attendants might be able to barely lift a finger on a normal day. But those same two are gonna have a HARD frickin time trying to keep up with 30 or more unruly passengers who are all panicking at the same time. You don't fire somebody who could help on a bad day based on how easy their job is on a good day. People who disagree with that statement have NO business holding a leadership position.

Back to people.

I want teachers overpaid and underworked. Teachers are some of the most creative people you'll ever meet. Now imagine all that brainpower and they're in a school that's actually well funded and they don't need to worry how to pay their MORTGAGE. Now you're talking a generation of people who are taught by teachers who can actually show how much passion they have for what they do.

I want people flipping burgers to be able to afford luxury living. A house, a car, a cottage with a little boat where they take vacations 5 weeks out of every year. That's a hard fucking job. Pay them.

I want the people who pave the roads to fly around the world, meeting people they may never have otherwise met. No matter what country from which they have origins.

I want people who clean toilets to dance with royalty and for that to be so common as to be boring.

I want race car drivers and race team owners to be members of the same clubs and relax at each other's houses during the off seasons.

I want every seat on every transport to feel like first class.

Exclusivity is bullshit. Nobody is gonna be a part of everything. I am excited to learn how to fly but less excited to dive in a cave. No individual person is going to be interested in everything and if you don't want to wait in a line, then maybe you should learn patience. And if your job is so demanding that waiting in line for an hour would RUIN YOUR LIFE, then maybe YOU NEED HELP TOO.

I want design engineers not to be overworked even if they're well paid.

I want managers to have good communication with their teams and easy work managing their part of the business.

I want executives to have access to the REAL numbers and for them to be able to make decisions that make sense for everybody instead of just shareholders.

I want more businesses to be employee owned, and for every decision maker to make decisions for the good of the people impacted by those decisions.

And I want anyone not willing to do so removed from power.

Each and every person alive can do *something* to help make all this a reality

[bloedewir]

Weekly delusional theory time yay 🥳

It's fun to think Solas is a tired mess of an elf who can't plan anything without screwing it all up. How can that weirdo possibly achieve his goal? More so, how did he even trapped elven gods?

By playing the game with well known rules. Like, idk, chess?

Look, the figures are different so as maybe the board but the rules are the same. And tactics. All he need is to be inconspicuous and discreet as always.

Distract the enemy, let them think they're winning, then strike.

It's already a proven strategy: take the unlucky one (Inquisitor/Rook), put them into the middle of worldwide catastrophe (Breach/Evanuris), step aside, offer your help, guide them wherever course you need, give them shelter (Skyhold/Lighthouse), look trustworthy, when all is over - say byebye and continue following your plan.

Yes there's still a few blind spots and something that can't be foreseed yet there's also a time to prepare yourself. Did Solas have a plan in case Inquisitor would've been failed? Presumably. If he has a plan in case Rook will fail? Presumably.

A part with Inquisitor' involving back in time was an improvisation but it paid off. Unintended risk it was however; not a comfort zone but odds depending play, like Wicked Grace. Quite efficient though. Why not try again but with some improvements?

Solas didn't know who Inquisitor is before the Conclave. Now (I'm like 78% sure) he knows who Rook is.

Varric chased Solas for some time and Solas was well aware of it. Varric didn't pick up Rook just before the beginning of the game. Their dialogue assumes they know each other (for some time, like weeks idk?). I bet Solas knew about "da4 protagonist", had time to look closer and fit Rook into his plans. That's why after all these years (10!) it was surprisingly easy to find him and even interrupt the ritual. Because it was intended.

(I won't be surprised if all this "ah help I trapped in the Fade" situation turns out to be a top tier wolf prank)

Right, but why make your life harder and involve a random mortal? As a wild guess: evanuris must be released to tear down the Veil. Seven gods, seven seals - get rid of them and follow your dream, destroy the Veil and restore your ✨perfect elvhen empire✨. Why risk and deal with two evanuris himself when you can move one of the pawns? Place your rivals against each other and look. Inquisitor won and proved mortals are not useless, so Rook can win too. And if Rook fails, you can intervene and finish the job.

I also think that's the reason why Inquisitor will be back. And I think Solas won't like it. Inquisitor is the one who can say, "What's going on here? Hey, I've seen it before. I know what you're up to". Without them Solas is quite comfortable with drawing a portrait of a tired lonely being who's easy to sympathize with. But a sudden Inquisitor's comeback can mess this up.

I'm not saying he doesn't deserve sympathy or he's a pure evil. He had enough time to turn his flaws and destructive feelings into useful tools. And if he uses his guilt/loneliness/despair when it's needed it doesn't make it a less real. The dude is complex like rocket science after all.

For now, as it seems to me, Solas intends to "replay" Inquisition because it went kinda well. Minimal risk as he may think. What the odds another mortal happened to be unique too? They doesn't even bear a ✨magnificent elvhen magic✨ mark! Poor bastard (affectionate), he doesn't even know what comes.. But I swear to gods, above and below, if he'll do that "what we had was real" thing again, I'll kill everyone in that game and then tear that freaking Veil down myself.

[tangyangie]

Hi :3 I read all your Karma head cannons and they are so cute. I was wondering how it would be with Karma and his S/O (enemies to lovers) becoming a couple?

— BLUE FLAMES !!

description: you and karma have been rivals since day one. how do you get together? how does he act?

notes: enemies to lovers. love it <3 fem-ish reader if you read in between the lines, but generally gender neutral.

wondering if i should make a fic out of this

you guys started out constantly furrowing your eyebrows at each other.

everything—anything the other person did was enough to make the other person angry.

you'd gotten a 100% on an exam? psh—that's simple. he could've done better.

he tried to kill korosensei? you could've easily done it in a better way. much more efficiently.

you guys definitely used to yell and scream at each other for the smallest things. karma's temper was bad enough, it was only worse that you were there to provoke him.

at one point, korosensei got so fed up with your bickering that he threw you both into a closet and locked the doors. he then screamed that he wasn't letting you out until you made up.

"if i open this door and you two aren't hugging it out, i'm gonna give you extra homework for the rest of the year!!"

with a scowl and a sigh, karma wrapped his arms around you and yelled at korosensei to open the door.

obviously, you couldn't let this opportunity to tease him just go by. he punched you after, but apologized (eventually)

over time, though, you got closer. korosensei was kind enough to try to help you both get past your differences.

it was definitely not easy.

he had to keep you from biting karma's head off, and simultaneously had to keep karma from tackling you.

but he got it done.

the event that tied everything together was a class-bonding sleepover.

you overheard the boys talking about something, and decided to listen in. you slipped next to the corner as you focused on karma's conversation.

"so, what do you think about y/n?"

"...why do you ask?" karma raises an eyebrow.

"well.. you're kinda always at their neck. but they're pretty cool, ya know?"

"..listen. i don't hate 'em.." karma says. "they just—annoy me a little. but.. yeah, i think they're cool. most of the time."

"...since when do you act so sentimental?"

you let a smirk slip onto your face as you strolled past the room, acting like you never heard the conversation. you made sure to make eye contact with karma, and he noticed.

he definitely noticed.

his face went red, and he turned away from the door. you definitely were going to tease him about that after this.

you and karma both began meeting up after school so that you could walk together.

because of korosensei mentioning how close you guys lived together. "you guys should totally walk home together!! you're basically neighbors."

karma always ended up having to buy you some food at a shop on the way home. you never paid him back.

the more activities you were forced to do together, the more you both got closer to one another.

you actually started hanging out together of your own free will?? how crazy is that??

eventually, your classmates pointed out that you don't attack each other at the first sign of weakness anymore.

karma dismissed the topic. but you heard him refer to you as his friend after these conversations, so that was a win for you.

and, as your friend, you got more karma privileges. for example...

you got to go over to his house without permission. you could stroll right in and he'd greet you as if you were family.

you were allowed to share his drinks. he's still teasing you, though. don't think you're ever escaping that.

"oh my god, was that an indirect kiss?"

you give him a gentle punch to the shoulder and laugh.

after some time, these jokes about indirect kisses became less of jokes and more of actively pining for each other.

"guys, it's not funny!! i think i'm actively falling for a psycho—"

but.. you're totally going to have to be the one to make the first move.

when it comes to relationships and romance, karma is all bark and no bite.

PLEASE do it quickly because he cannot handle the feels

'i just hated them two months ago. so, why do i feel so floaty around them?'

once you do confess, though, he swears that ten full size tress have been lifted off his shoulders.

but, he tries his best to look calm and cool as he reciprocates. (he fails. he's brighter than his hair.)

he teases you for the rest of the day, but gives you a quick kiss on your cheek to test the waters. he sees your reaction and takes note. you were caught off guard.

"i told you you'd love me eventually."

notes: enemies to lovers is so karma... it fits him sm </3 especially like specifically academic rivals..

but tysm for the request and again i'm so sorry for taking so long ☹️☹️ testing is coming up and i have a lot.. ap tests, early finals, blah blah blah

[yukkisagi]

ACT FOOL, ACT FOOL, ACT FOOL

in which nagi can't tell if you or the pocky stick in between you lip is more of a pain -fluff, not proofread heh, kinda ooc but whatever

it had a been a hot day and the last thing nagi wanted to do was play soccer - or anything for that matter, he could only dream of never needing to move again. as most of his classmates start filing out of the classroom, hes still sitting at his desk, hoping that reo doesn't show up anytime soon so he could enjoy the air conditioned classroom a little longer. just when he thought he was the only one left, he starts hearing snapping behind him, as if someone was breaking pencils one at time.

when he turns around, his eyes meet your figure, leaning back against your chair. one hand held your phone scrolling through tiktok and the other holding a snack, specifically a pocky stick.

as you're clearly in your own world, he finds himself disturbed by the way you eat your pocky, breaking the sticks into halves until it was too small to be broken instead of just chewing it down like most people. it's less efficient and is quite noisy. as he's navigating his initial distaste, a new thought enters his mind - if the pocky or your lips would be sweeter. the new debate sends his mind in whirl, using way to much of his brain power. he sighs and buries himself back into his arms, nose brushing the top of his desk as he's regretting the silly idea.

"oh! y/n! you're still here?"

both you and nagi dart your head at the familiar voice, both confused, nagi as to why reo is calling your name and not his, and you, unsure as to who could possibly be calling your name at this time.

"oh hi reo," you smiled back, pocky still in between your teeth. "i don't think i'll make it to the train station in this heat without mentally preparing myself."

"well, good thing you don't have to play soccer in this weather like this one," reo grins and he slams his arm around his best friend's shoulder. "are you ready my treasure?"

"still a wild concept" you snorted, and nagi doesn't miss snap that pocky makes when you bite into it again. "i can't believe you're still playing."

sure, nagi was talented, but he lacked drive, passion and any form of motivation. you question if he even finds it enjoyable, but at the same time, did any thing really give him joy?

the direct eye contact you make with him is brief. he sees the soft glint in your eyes, playful and inviting. he isn't someone who feels overwhelmed normally, but right now his chest slightly tightening at the locked gaze is definitely making him feel something. he can feel his own eyes reacting to yours, dilating at your amusement. before you can react, you're both quickly interrupted.

"just watch us!" reo grins with his other hand pumping into the air, cheeks squeezing against nagi's scrunched face. "the world cup is going to be ours!

reo has always been so head strong and as much it has always been something that you admired about, even if others though he was being absolutely ridiculous, it only confuses you more as to why he picked nagi.

you only chuckle as you break another pocky, making nagi wiggle his nose in confused irritation. why did it bother him so much? was it the way you basically caught the piece with only your tongue? maybe it was the way your lips pursed so neatly around it? or was it just the cracking sound it made?

"yea yea," you nonchalantly add, "looking forward to my all expense paid trip to the future world cup!"

and as you wave the pocky in their faces with the biggest brightest smile on your face, nagi swears he sees the same light that shines on his little cactus choki every morning. he can't help but stare.

but his lingering eyes go unnoticed as reo walks towards the door, taking a quick stop by your desk. he fishes for a few pocky sticks, thanking you for the preworkout treat.

"nagi! let's go before the team gets mad, but i guess no one gets mad at the star players huh?"

he shoves his bag over his shoulder, not caring about reo's constant gnawing of the sticks, even if he was eating it the "correct way."

as he's walking past you, he's unconsciously watching your lips again, the pocky being so distracting. your eyes shift between his and the pouch of sweets in your hand. puzzled, he pauses in front of you, wordlessly questioning your intentions with a tilt of his head.

"did you want a preworkout snack too?" you ask, pulling out a stick for him. your eyes lock again, as if your orbs somehow trapped him in is place.

"sure," he's always been frank with his words. with his hands comfortably shoved in his pockets, he tilts his flexible body sideways, eyelashes fluttering right in front of yours as he bites off the half piece of pocky stick right from your fingers. your ears ring with only the sound of your heart beat and the very clean and clear snap of the pocky.

your jaw can't help but drop a little, staring blankly as if he had just ripped the bag from your hands and threw the leftover sticks in your face. you can't tell if your in shock because of the proximity of his face or if your upset he took the best part of the pocky, leaving you with just the plain, non-chocolate coated cracker. but before you can even say anything, his back is already facing away from, meeting reo at the door.

"thanks." he doesn't fully face you, opting for a a slight look over his shoulder, only seeing the small glint in his eyes as he shifts his perfectly functioning hands onto the back of his neck. "see you later."

and as he and reo finally exit the room, all you could hear was your tiktok, unpaused and stuck on the same sound as you hide your flushed face in your fingers.

act fool, act fool, act fool.

bonus:

as reo is dragging him away, nagi cannot understand why he is still annoyed. he got the tempting snack and is nibbling it down the correct and most efficient way. he wonders if taking the stick directly from your soft lips instead of your hands would've satisfied his cravings instead.

[fractalkiss]

i'm curious how does one actually get into f1, particularly the fandom side of it. it all seems so interesting but i don't know how to take the plunge, is there a good beginner's guide re: rules/basic team lore or anything you'd recommend outside of race watching?

hi anon! for learning the rules, i think one of the easiest ways is to look up technical stuff and learn the sporting terms when watching the races. it sounds daunting but i only properly got into the sport by doing this (alongside my sibling who got invested first lol) and being tuned into a community to keep up through season happenings, which then kind of folded into the fandom experience. f1blr is where i hang out for fandom, but it's definitely not what makes the entire experience!

i think the best place to start would be to look at any team or drivers that you're intrigued about and start diving deeper from there. you'll find that a lot of the lore inter-connects through the years and by learning about one thing, you can pick up more about another driver/team/event etc. to help follow the sport i recommend:

the f1 official website and f1tv: everything from news, article writeups, interviews and race content is on their site, and you can keep up with the live race sessions through f1tv and even watch older races on the f1tv archive, though it is a paid subscription. the f1 website even has a glossary to refer to sporting terms and if you're interested in more, f1tv has analysis videos where they review key moments after the race sessions. if you're reluctant to pay for anything, there are sites that stream the live races for free lol and even more free and accessible media too below.

youtube channels: for actual motorsport lore and history, the only channel i recommend is CYMotorsport, who does highly digestible deep dive videos that run through past seasons, championships, rivalries, scandals etc in a way that isn't oversensationalized. this channel was literally my friend lol, i have spent many hours just watching their stuff and they even have a new to f1? playlist you can start with! chainbear was what i used to check out back then to get to know more about the technical stuff, useful for beginners!

news/communities: i usually check my news on the r/formula1 subreddit. like any other highly active sports community across platforms it's rife with discourse if you want to keep a pulse on all that. it's much easier to get my news from there in an efficient way (tumblr can be impossible for me to do this quickly) since the source under a reddit topic is usually linked in the post or in comments so you can see for yourself if something is coming from a credible and non-contentious source or not. because integrity in f1 journalism has always been terrible, just take most things with a grain of salt. the main publications like motorsport.com and autosport are okay. i also check twitter to see what journalists are saying although there's a lot of drivel and questionable he-said-she-said stuff that tends to get spread lol so honestly i really only check Chris Medland's tweets... the one guy i trust. i also subscribe to r/F1Technical, much less discourse since it's very sport and technical-focused for people who want genuine answers about anything asked.

documentaries: nflix's dts is fine for learning names and faces on a pretty surface level, and it was my introduction to the sport as a New Fan but not a necessary watch since it's more sensationalized. instead, you can watch documentaries centered around a driver; i watched one (1) season of fernando alonso's docu series for fun lol and schumacher's docu film. my little sibling and i like history a lot so we watched a life of speed: the juan manuel fangio story, an interesting watch about old motorsport - i haven't checked out other driver-focused docus besides these but you can pick up anything that interests you! but if i have to recommend one docu miniseries, it's "brawn: the impossible formula 1 story." don't be fooled and put off by keanu reeves being narrator skfskf the miniseries is an excellent mix imo of technical stuff explained coupled with really good storytelling featuring some of the most well-known names in the sport behind the teams.

i think once you start building grounds over time to get a basic grasp of how the sport works, everything else that comes with entering a fandom like meeting people will follow after pretty naturally :) it took me a while to do this and garner slow investment in a fave guy/team. i hope this is helpful, anon! i'd be happy to chat and answer more questions if you have them!

[seth-shitposts]

System ramblings below the cut ft the main trio

Sebastián💚 & Alice💖: *pokes at Lexie*

Lexie💙: *tired groaning muffled by a pillow*

Sebastián💚: buddy,, process your thoughts.

Alice💖: you've been warding this one off for like. Three weeks now.

Lexie💙: excuse me if I *still* haven't processed the last two existential crises I've had. I'm not ready to add a third onto that pile.

Alice💖: Yeah, so process it just a little. So it doesn't get thrown onto the unprocessed pile.

Sebastián💚: and you don't plan on touching either of the other two for awhile. Options are *low*

Lexie💙: uuuggggghhhhhhhhhhh.

Lexie💙: I think I might not be as male leaning gender identity wise as I thought. Or, at least, as I had been before I merged with Haimo sometime last year.

Seb💚&Alice💖: *nodding*

Lexie💙: I'm still not comfortable when strangers or people we aren't close to percieve me in a feminine way, and the masc perception is still a better lean in that aspect, but it's more of the enjoyment of masc/neutral than of man/male. I like to lean masc sometimes, but not be fully percieved as man. Bevause it's just as uncomfortable. And in that way, I do prefer to lean back towards feminine/neutral. I'm not quite comfortable with she/her, especially around strangers, unless they're queer or have a different understanding of gender culturally than how we grew up around. But I think I like being percieved as man even less.

Alice💖&Seb💚: *taking notes and making helpful color graphs*

Lexie💙: I'm still solidly gender in between, and I think I might have a Sapphic lean, but I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if I would classify for it.

Alice💖: well, from what you've described, you're a non man. And isn't that part of a basis of Sapphic? Non man & non man?

Lexie💙: I'm not sure. I don't really keep up with the community or the constantly shifting definitions. I can barely keep up with us and how each of us feel individually. And keeping up with myself is even harder.

Lexie💙: I wasn't even the one to realize when Shig and Haimo merged when Shig was healing himself.

Seb💚: don't be hard on yourself over that. It's for real a miracle that we can be aware of anything that goes on in this system. Since the way we found out was kind of by mistake. We don't have access to anything else. We've barely begun to make any type of progress in the like. What. Two and half to three years that we've been aware of the system?

Lexie💙: *tired muffled groan again* we don't have enough time for anything. We work seven days a week and most of our off hours are spent recovering so we don't burnout. But that doesn't leave us with much time to do the things we want to do, to fully & properly take care of ourselves, and to work on making progress on system things.

Lexie💙: and we've hanged the plans. Originally, we were just going to work these two jobs seven days a week until June and then get a different job in the town we're moving to with the friends once we get an apartment. But with what we're being paid, it would be more cost effective for us to keep the two jobs and get a vehicle that's more fuel efficient.

Lexie💙: but the prediction of us only being able to work the seven day week for six to seven months max is looking to ha e been correct. I can't tell if it's just the fact that we're on our cycle and have [undiagnosed] pcos or if burnout is just on the horizon, but I just hope whatever it is doesn't linger or weigh us down.

[agent-felix]

WELCOME!!!!!!

Welcome to my little corner of the universe!! Happy to have ya!!

My name is Felix! Short for Felixian, long for Ian. You can call me any of the three, but I'm most used to Felix. I'm a trans guy who uses he/they/it pronouns!!

My persona (and IEYTD fan character) is Agent Felix! He's an agent-in-training with no handler, and is mostly working at solving stuff without using technology. He used to work for Dr Zoraxis in that field, not really caring if he got paid or not since he was doing what he loved. Eventually, he turned to be a reformed villain after hearing about Agent Pheonix's work. He's pretty gullible, and could switch back to the evil side if persuaded enough, but since he constantly wears an agency t-shirt he'll stick with the agency for a long time. (The agency knew they could manipulate him into staying for that reason.) He doesn't have a handler- in fact, he's been mostly self-training since everyone's kinda scared of him. (He has REALLY sharp teeth and can't bite anyone because of that. He has bit people in the past out of reflexes. He's working on it :D ) He's startled really easily and can barely remember simple things- he jumps at any loud noise, forgets where he puts his shoes, etc., yet somehow he remembers where people leave their stuff and forget. He's really helpful like that. He's always loved helping people, good or bad. He doesn't have telekinesis... yet. He's trying to replicate the kinesium device implant so it can be used for new agency members like him. He's also trying to figure out a safer, less terrifying way for it to be implanted.

By the way, if Felix hugs you then you are special to him in some way!! He loves hugs but is generally touch-repulsed UNLESS he really wants to hug the person. So it's really rare for him to hug anyone. Congrats to anyone he's hugged already!

Agent Felix is basically just me as a goober agent!! So please be nice!! If you're mean, we'll probably take it as a joke or something-

Oh, and feel free to be weird around me! ...Not like. Sexual weird or anything- I'd like to keep this PG/PG-13 :'D (Horror stuff is accepted!! I love that stuff)

Fanart is also highly appreciated and encouraged!! You have no idea how much my day gets brightened up when I see that stuff. (It's like anti-depressants for me haha)

Asks are accepted!! You can ask about anything as long as it follows the rules!!

Rules:

-Nothing sexual (Flirting is ok but there's a good chance it'll fly right over my head)

-Nothing that is like. Super weird (simping is- well- I'm not sure?? I've never had it happen before so...)

-Be nice!! No bullying!!

-Don't be LGBT-phobic because I'm trans and bi + ace and so is Agent Felix!!

-Don't like.. ask for art because I'm very tentative about it and only doodle what I really want to doodle unless I get something in return (Art trades are okay sometimes!! Just ask!!)

Felix reference!!!

Please don't steal like actually I will start sobbing

If you need to contact me more efficiently my username on Discord is telekinesium !!

random Agent Felix facts under the cut hehe

-He's a teenager, but the agency has no idea. He was known by Zoraxis and his operatives as the Teen Prodigy. Sometimes used as a compliment, the rest of the time used as a spite name.

-Self-taught in everything he believes he needs to know- science, math, art, English and Spanish. Science includes all forms of science but mostly geology, technology and psychology. He loves researching mental disorders, for some reason. (Some of the things listed were taught by Zor himself.)

-He also loves playing piano! He overheard someone playing it when he was about six years old and managed to convince them into giving him lessons.

-He's very sensitive to sound so it's likely that if an alarm goes off he'll just be stuck there covering his ears.

-He loves singing, too! His voice is high-pitched and gives him disphoria pretty massively, so he sings to relieve it. (He loves his singing voice!)

-The Death Engine actually traumatized him. He refuses to talk about it :')

-He's very weather-sensitive. As soon as it gets colder than usual he'll be wearing clothes for winter while it's only fall. He'll keep that outfit for a few months then switch to something less heavy. Same for summer- as soon as it gets hot he'll be in short sleeves and shorts, maybe flip flops if it's 5⁰ above normal. Then he'll ease back into regular clothes.

-He's the reason why Dr Zor is evil

[mckitterick]

Changing headlight bulbs on a 2011-2019 Jaguar XJ

Jaguars have a reputation (from the bad old days) of being unreliable and difficult to repair. I'm here to tell you that conventional wisdom is wrong about the first part. But there's no reason it should be this difficult to change a lightbulb.

I mean, you have to completely remove the front fascia and bumper, and unfasten the wheelwell linings, to reach the bolts that hold the headlight assembly in place (circled in this photo after removal). And there's no way to access the sealed box where the headlight lives without removing the entire assembly.

But gosh did this need replacing - check out the difference between burned-out and new bulb.

The most challenging part is reaching behind the loosened wheelwell cover (with the grille, behind the headlight assembly power-supply) to remove some impossible-to-reach bolts without removing strips of skin (gloves are too bulky for the fiddly task).

Thar she blows: Success!

As big a job as this appears, the project only took about three hours (including studying a couple of how-to YouTube videos). Even so, that's about two and a half hours longer than it should take to change a lightbulb.

But it's worth it!

Not only is this the most beautiful and well-engineered vehicle I've ever driven, and an indescribable pleasure to be wrapped inside (can you say heated and cooled massaging seats and gorgeous burlwood all around?), its lightweight all-aluminum construction, 8-speed transmission, and direct-injection V-6 make it the most fuel-efficient, as well.

This is going to be our wedding and honeymoon trip carriage!

Perhaps the best part is that we got this delightful machine (used) for less than the original buyer paid in taxes. Ten years of depreciation and an unflattering reliability history from prior generations mean you can pick up one of these kitties for about the price of a Toyota of comparable age.

Would I recommend other non-rich folks get a modern Jaguar? Dealer prices for parts and labor make these best for do-it-yourselfers. I mean, three hours to change a lightbulb, amirite?

But if you're comfortable working on your own vehicle and have the tools to do the task (it requires some funky driver heads and a bendy ratchet), wholeheartedly yes! Replacement parts are no more expensive than for any other car if you order from Rock Auto or such.

Rich people shouldn't have all the fun.

[femmesandhoney]

Speaking of academics, genuinely Speaking, why are there less women in STEM in the west ?.

They don't need to be encouraged. There's nothing preventing them from pursuing these subjects especially in uni when you get to decide your major. I didn't feel any discouragement going into engineering. So I'm just curious here

You are not correct in the assumption that there is "nothing" preventing women from pursuing STEM degrees nor that women do not need encouragement to enter these fields. The article did an efficient job laying it out, but if you're not in the mood it's quite simple: American culture is misogynistic and it is systemically so. Everyone from your parents, your peers, your teachers, your community leaders, the things you see in media and read about, will implicitly and explicitly negate the idea of women going into STEM fields. It's gotten marginally better as our culture has recognized that, hey, maybe we should encourage and show little girls that they can be scientists and mathematicians too, but it's very difficult when so many people and institutions have these implicit biases in place. We're doing better, but it's not a surprise that many girls can not even picture a career in the STEM field, many do not think that's even an option, it's never crossed their minds even if they have an interest in the topic. We do not socialize our girls into these fields as strongly as we should be if we want to see any form of difference. By middle and high school, most women do not envision careers in STEM fields for many reasons, including teacher and parent biases that have pushed them away from STEM subjects, peers being unpleasant, and general insecurity girls begin to develop around science and math around this time.

Of course then comes the fact that these fields and majors are openly hostile towards women. A woman in my poli sci class spoke about how she feels very uncomfortable speaking out in her natural res classes because of the type of men and dominance of men in her major/classes. She said she felt a huge difference and weight off her shoulders coming into our female dominated class to discuss women in politics and be able to freely discuss the misogyny she has experienced by men in her classes and her field in general. This is a very common expectation women hold: the men in the STEM field are often misogynistic assholes. And women do not feel comfortable in their environments. This often will push women away from picking these majors or continuing them.

Not even the mention what comes post-graduation, the article discusses the slog of discrimination women both expect and frustratingly deal with when trying to make a name for themselves in the STEM field where they are 1) paid less than men with the same qualifications and 2) are not seen as qualified in general on the sheer basis of being a women. Implicit (and explicit, depending on the person and environment) biases are very strong in our cultural attitudes and beliefs about women and STEM. And women are not stupid, most do not wish to fight against that uphill battle when they see success elsewhere. I admire the women who are very passionate about their STEM career and fight tooth and nail against misogyny to continue with it, because it is very difficult being in an environment that is dominated by men who are hostile, sexist, and do not see you as deserving of your place in the field no matter what you do. I have a friend who graduated last year in chemical engineering. She had been passionate as hell about her career in chemical engineering since high school, and she was a very smart and charming women. She knew since high school that she was going to have to prove herself time and time again to the men around her both in college and post. She was a bit excited about it actually because she was very confident in her intelligence and rightfully so. She excelled in her degree of course, but she definitely had her challenges dealing with many men and certain professors. I'm very proud of her for sticking through the bullshit she dealt with at times, and I also would have understood if she had gotten burnt out from it all and changed majors. I'm glad you yourself anon felt no discouragement from engineering and had positive people around you in your life, but many women do not and have had very negative experiences that inform their decisions around STEM. I hope this answer and the article could help lightly explain it better, because not every women in America has had such positive experiences.

[chimchiri]

omg HII 2, 3, 8 & 9 and also how are you doing? :D

Ah, thank you Calisto! Doing great with bitten hands from the pup lmao. Hope you're doing great as well! <3

2. How long have you been drawing?

When I started to get interested in anime (my first anime was Dragonball Z). I only drew occasionally and only in 2007 (17yo) drew regularly - anime style of course. I even remember the very first 'serious' drawing. Unfortunately I don't have it, but at that time DBZ was so popular, there were stickers in gums. And I scaled one of Krillin up to A4, just copying it. I was so proud of it at that age (roughly... 14? 15?). I drew traditionally for very long until my brother gifted me his wacom tablet. It's super interesting to look back on how much I improved. There's still so much I see that could be better, but I also love seeing all the old art. (I even made a post about it)

3. How many classes have you taken?

Besides the mandatory school lessons - none. Sometimes I wonder if I should have, but I'm not really interested in classes. I think the only one I'd actually like to do is figure drawing. I just like to analyze my art and my own mood/interest at a time and then actively choose to work on something. I know it's probably not as efficient to improve like that and I could be further ahead if I took classes and structured it more, buuuuut moving over to the next question -

8. Do you draw professionally, or just for fun?

- I draw for myself. As in, I just love drawing and mainly do it for the fun. I am by no means a professional, but since I'm taking commissions more or less regularly and am getting paid for them, I'd say I'm semi-professional? I guess that depends on how you define 'professional' lmao. Since I didn't take classes I'm very, very hesitant to use that adjective on myself.

9. How much time do you spend drawing on an average day?

When I'm having a good run I draw after work for ca 2-2.5 hours on average. Maybe 5 out of 7 days? 4? On the weekend roughly 3-5 hours in total? Depends on my plans and at the moment I'm having a lot of them and can't get in as much art as I used to. I'm also getting back into running again which takes up some time, so I'd say 1-2 hours after work at the moment :( I'm looking forward when I can get in more again.