I’m a bit too poor for burrito taxis and pedicures in today’s economy, but just forgiving my student loans and giving my partner a job would be enough to totally turn things around for us. If we had that and health care I’d be grateful to pay in more.
If anything, the benefits of a less insanely unequal economy would be lower cost of living and higher wages for the middle class, which would allow me to pay more taxes, not less. Which is fine! Overall quality of life is my goal, not low taxes.
I was never really under the impression, as I moved left over the past couple decades, that the point of leftist politics was to eliminate or even particularly lower my taxes. Reducing inequality has a variety of social and economic upsides, but yeah, lower taxes was never going to be one.
like obviously it sucks to have people walking around saying the most deranged hateful ignorant shit and doing real harm with those words but I’d argue America in 2026 is the outcome of trying to fix what bigots say instead of what they believe
The right’s policies and positions all stem from a core belief that white people built and run the modern world because they are the superior people, it could only have been them, everyone knows it, and the left is made up of sore losers and bleeding hearts.
I honestly think “political correctness” did us all a huge disservice because all the right learned was that they’re not allowed to talk about the natural hierarchies but they all still believe in them. And they think we believe in them, too, we just want to cheat our way up.
I think about this clip on a near daily basis as I think it absolutely nails the core belief which distinguishes the left and the right: are all people created equal, or should the government get out of the way of some “natural hierarchies”?
youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8c8...
Both groups agree that history textbooks focus disproportionately on white people compared to the general population; the question is whether you believe that’s because of systemic racism, or because white people are disproportionately important and deserve to be focused on.
It’s the white supremacy underlying their whole ideology. They would argue that black and native people are not excluded from the study of history, because textbooks do not explicitly say it is their aim to focus white perspectives.
Knew Israel was about to have another convulsion of violence and had to get in on the action
I’m not pro-landlord by any means, just adding some nuance. It’s honestly part of why intentions don’t matter when it comes to this industry: landlords who are good people go bankrupt.
I know a couple landlords who were gutted but they were small - three or fewer properties, all SFH. All had to sell to larger conglomerates. An important aspect of “landlords didn’t suffer during COVID” is that while that’s true overall, it did drive significant consolidation.
Today in @rollingstone.com: a remarkable profile on the inhumane tactics of ICE in Minnesota’s suburbs — and the incredible ways Minnesotans in Shakopee (including DFL Rep. Brad Tabke) have stood up to protect our communities.
Full article here: archive.is/BBvVQ
Like, “his father abandoned him” isn’t a statement meant for anyone who genuinely cares about what happened here. It is for the people who don’t care, and don’t want to feel guilty about that. We need to respond with that in mind.
The frustrating thing is that for the people who want this to be justifiable, this will be enough. The few who watch this will hear this and “his father abandoned him” will resonate with their biases about Hispanic parents and transmute from just “a thing someone said” to the truth.
The irony of me, someone who grew up under a pile of red white and blue everything, feeling more antipathy for USA than my leftist girlfriend who grew up liberal is not lost on me
if you’re removing exhibits because “patriotism” but those exhibits are about true events in history, the conclusion I must draw is that you believe the nation as it actually existed is not worthy of my patriotism.
People I know who grew up liberal are now more patriotic than ex-conservatives because conservative patriotism is about faith and feeling and must be protected from anything that challenges or complicates those feelings or it’ll collapse into disillusioned resentment.
The bizarre thing about the conservative obsession with patriotism is that when I grew up a little and learned about all the lies and omissions I DID start to hate America a little bit. Because clearly they had to lie to make me love it!
I know this is a fairly minor thing but I was just reminded of someone being put in charge of our national museums, not because they know anything about history, but because they promised to make museums about having the right feelings
society was a mistake
Watch what’s happening in the background of Jason’s video. Does this look like some riot to you?
bsky.app/profile/jcha...
for every clearly evil email there a thousand that seem benign until you realize that maybe 80% of them are about the supply, demand, or logistics of running an international sex trafficking ring
I use present tense because while it may not be so smoothly handled there is absolutely no way that there aren’t still young women and girls being trafficked to the most rich and powerful men as we speak. It was a market with a niche left open and clearly millions to be made. Someone filled it.
You don’t need to read obscure codes or conspiracy theories into this. It is a business and you can see how it operates. The product it supplies is sex with vulnerable people who won’t say no to anything. The market it serves is anyone with money or power Epstein wanted.
The infrastructure was significant - he delegated a lot to his assistants and property managers, who absolutely all need to be questioned. He needed contacts for visas and passports as well as doctors, stylists, assistants, cleaners, cooks, and nannies who were competent and discrete.
And he got supply as we know primarily from coercing girls he’d already sucked in to bring others, but also through modeling agencies (and people posing as modeling agencies, I think) all over the world. Every continent except Antarctica.
He drummed up demand through invitations to big parties, invitations to private dinners, invitations to his private island - anything that would let him get powerful men alone with his girls.
He owned what sure seems like a brothel in NYC, separate from his personal mansion, where important men could come to stay (Ehud Barak, notably, stayed there constantly). The “hotel” would house girls there for months or years, where they were carefully surveilled and controlled.
Much of his life revolved around making sure that not only was he constantly surrounded by girls, but that anybody important staying at his properties was also supplied with companions of their preference. This occupied his daily activities far more than finance or science or whatever.
