Is the US a dystopia?

We will have to just agree to disagree here. Her disgraceful comments about radical anarchist tactics in 2011 and the general tenor of her observations and ideological positions is loathsome liberal pablum, imho, and friends and I regularly discuss whether she is a psy-op.

I will concede that I don't know her work well enough, and this thread is the first criticism of it I have encountered.

I mean is there any word that won't be placed after "radical" in the popular political thought arena? I've honestly seen it creeping into food discourse. If you type it into a book store website you'll find about a hundred results.

radical hemorrhoids

https://www.domusweb.it/en/news/2012/05/15/radical-sitting.html

https://www.domusweb.it/en/news/2012/05/15/radical-shitting.html

I will concede that I don't know her work well enough, and this thread is the first criticism of it I have encountered.

This was inarticulate: What I meant is that I have always had generally positive feelings about Solnit based on the little of her work that I have read, and what I've gleaned about her reputation; I hadn't realized she was someone who was critically maligned. I have learned something from this thread and will make sure to be distrustful of her work in the future.

I feel I've only seen criticisms in the last couple of years really. Fairly wide range of them also, by which I mean not a united voice perhaps.

I'm immune to optimism/pessimism stuff. I now live in a newly red county where a majority of the Hispanic minorities voted for fascism. All I've ever known is work. So what I've always taken out of the MLK arc-of-the-universe stuff is "We bend it, it doesn't happen by itself." The second part is white lib nimby shit.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

i wouldn't say i'm immune to optimism/pessimism. i like to think i'm jaded, but it's a shell, really, and i'm just as easily shocked as anyone. shocked by myself, more than anything.

it was just yesterday that it hit me what "deportation" is, in the fascist mind, a euphemism for. how the hell can i make sense of that? how can i make sense of democracy knowing that a not-insignificant percentage of people would willingly vote for their own extermination? i know that one can be blind to one's own personal self-interest, but there is something shocking about that, even though i've personally been there myself, even though i've wished, at one time or another, for omnicide.

a great deal of my light reading is about atrocities. i call it light reading because it's mostly popular history - _when paris went dark_, _bloodlands_, etc. but i do read it critically. i was reading the chapter about the city of paris' role in the holocaust, some of the things rosbottom says. i read him as being implicitly critical of how _positive_ and _upbeat_ a lot of the jewish writing of that time is, some suggestion that they were deluding themselves. and then, at the same time, there are offhand mentions of the tremendous spike in suicides. nobody ever looks at the people who killed themselves as being a symptom. neither the ones who killed themselves in 1940 or the ones who killed themselves in 1980, the ones who "survived". i have a hard time thinking of something like that as being the sort of thing one "survives". one lives through it and one is changed by it, and if one is lucky, one doesn't live long enough to see one's children do the exact same shit to other people that was done to them.

maybe it's "pessimistic" for me to believe, as i do, that the only thing that stands in between a lot of people and, well, being genocided, is donald trump's own total incompetence. i'd really like to believe that "humanity" wouldn't let that happen. people here? people here would oppose it, just as many in paris opposed it, just as many fought hard for the humanity and dignity of the people they knew. do any of us have the power to prevent the people in power doing something like what was done at the Vel' d'Hiv'? not really, no. it wasn't the germans out there on the streets conducting that roundup. it was the french police.

as much as i would like to... exculpate the 50% of voters who did this, as much i know that whatever happens, they will _out of necessity_ one day be forgiven... they don't deserve it. what they've done is clear to many of us. everyone of these people, along with the washington post refusing to endorse a candidate, disney refusing to broadcast an already-completed episode of a kids show on the grounds that it stands up for trans rights...

if you asked me a year ago, i would've said that america is unquestionably a dystopia. today, well, i don't know what the word "dystopia" is supposed to mean. we live at the whims of genocidaires, now more than ever.

and i'm isolated. i'm isolated and precarious and afraid. everyone i know is isolated and precarious and afraid. and i fucking hate it. i don't know how much time i have left. i want at least to be able to fucking enjoy the time i have. and i'm not, not really.

"I think what I object to is the implication that people who are optimistic (and who may at times feel disillusioned because of their optimism) are necessarily stupid."

Is your optimism "warranted" after the worst people win elections, after seeing the near extinction of a people, after climate catastrophes. All made by us.

I wouldn't say that I *am* optimistic. I struggle with feelings of despair. I do hold out some hope (which is different from optimism) that some things can be overcome, that all is not lost, etc., because I am not one to give up so easily, and because I need to hold onto that belief to live in this world. Not everyone does, I realize. But this relates to differences in temperament rather than intellect.

Hope is essential, even when all hope is lost.

The problem is more about where to place this hope, and that is where I think there's prob some pretty huge differences between ilxors.

The only hope, I think, we find is in ourselves, then we direct that hope towards activists and politicians who most align with it a small victory at a time.

That is absolutely bizarre because check out her published article on the day of the election.

https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-we-the-people-can-make-a-better-future-for-all🕸/

Such a weird series of thoughts, but most especially the idea that we should celebrate (far) right wing people voting based on their ideals because the American dream or something.

Things are changing. Last week, President Biden went to the Gila Reservation in Arizona to apologize for the Indian boarding schools and other genocidal acts toward Native Americans. He said in a tweet:

saw on bsky articulated v well this AM or yesterday that Trumpers are a cult and you can't argue with a cult

Alfred otm

i'm hopeful (or dumb) enough to be unconvinced that a Harris win would not have been the best outcome

-not

one thing i know i am, is tired

I've honestly seen it creeping into food discourse.

I know this probably isn't what you meant but unfortunately it is somewhat radical, apparently, to believe that all people should have food to eat, live indoors, etc.

Interesting re Solnit. I also had a positive impression of her work, mostly A Paradise Built in Hell which I've heard the most about and have been meaning to read at some point.

yeah I'd thought about trying to get her to write something about the topic of that book for the nonprofit magazine I work for.

saw on bsky articulated v well this AM or yesterday that Trumpers are a cult and you can't argue with a cult

― a (waterface)

it's really important for me to... i have strong beliefs on what's effective and what's not when responding to trump voters and it's not really a theoretical consideration for me. it's not within my power to affect trump voters' behavior. what's in my power is to try and influence people who _know_ trump voters. i'm really aware of how limited that power is, though. i'm really aware that ultimately, people make their own decisions, and ultimately, i _trust_ people to make decisions for themselves, even if i don't agree with those decisions.

there's this lady i know and i just want to scream at her "STOP TALKING TO YOUR SHITTY, ABUSIVE PARENTS". i truly believe that she would be so much better off as a person if she would just stop talking to them. and the people around her say the same, her wife says the same, her friends say the same. one day she might. i really do believe that. she was thinking about it recently, and me, and everyone else around her said "Yes, this is a good idea," and, you know, she still wants them to _understand_. she believes that if she says the right things, in the right way, that they'll _understand_ and stop doing the things that they're doing. it's a hard thing to accept, that one's parents can value what people say on the tv, on facebook, more than they value their own daughter. that's just how it is, though, with a lot of people. one's parents, one's spouse, whoever... however they _feel_ about that person, they treat that person like shit.

that sucks, but i've seen lots of people cape for their abusers. _i_ caped for _my_ abuser. i know firsthand just how fucking hard it is to leave. not just before, but _after_. the cost of leaving someone you don't just love, but _depend_ on. when le guin talks about omelas... maybe she's talking about a political construct, or maybe she's talking about our siblings, our parents, our spouses. to me there's no difference. if someone is hurting me or people i care about, and i can't convince them to stop by any other means, i have to walk away.

i don't think the decisions we have to face are any different, any easier, than the choices trump voters have made and continue to make. i do look at trump voting, at conservatism, through the lens of abuse, and abuse, to me, is a cycle. making a better world, climbing out of this hell we're in, to me, the first step is breaking the cycle. is being willing to step away from people who aren't acting in our best interest, no matter what they say. for trump voters, that means stepping away from trump, from all his works, from his empty promises. for others, that means... stepping away from, or otherwise working to protect ourselves from, the actions of the people in our lives who voted for trump. this isn't something we all have equal opportunities to do. i'm privileged to be able to have done it to the extent that i have, and in no way do i ever wish to put a burden or expectation on other people to behave a certain way for _my_ benefit. desire, yes. obligation, no.

-

the second, harder part, the part i struggle with, is _not_ leaving. is remaining in community with other people, is learning to trust other people. to be able to discern when i am the one who needs to change, who needs to listen. to do the work to walk away from my own ignorance, bigotry, prejudice. to own my own shit. to take personal responsibility for my life without shame, and to seek out people who _won't_ shame me or hold me accountable for _their_ lives, _their_ actions. because there are _lots_ of people like that in this world. there are lots of people here like that.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a62875397/homelessness-in-america/

Yeah, I was just coming here to post that Esquire story. Holy shit.

Just the constant hassling by cops.

The constant “can you give us your number?” When they have nothing to give in return.

i am from that town. i know (and worked) with patrick in the early 2000s. it is all true. ask me anything.

i had to stop reading when he was writing about his teeth :(

i don't have any questions, i can see how this could happen to a person

There is only one reason I can think of that he would want my phone number, which is so that the police could install some kind of stalkerware on my phone, to track me. <from article

to my understanding, cops can try for a warrant and go for gps triangulation location or possibly monitoring your calls.

but how do they install stalkerware with just your number? can they get the mobile networks to obtain access to your phone this way?

yes

and they do and you know because?

nm i can google that shit.

maria was using an old notebook that had notes from one of rufus's high school classes in it from years ago.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:r4et2mvg2jffgfu53sxve6u3/bafkreigjc4onerkaohp7c4ztcunrnp7o2uanllfh6zrdymqdkpiwu5hwpe@jpeg

awwww

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2024/11/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures

“Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Won’t Pay for the Complete Duration of Anesthesia for Patients’ Surgical Procedures”

yes that is the headline

looks like I'll need to squirrel away some anesthesia rainy day funds, maybe a jar of change

great faux song titles

I was really afraid of hippies in 1973. I knew this country was going to hell. Nobody would listen to me!

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/468182819_10162470324927137_2084447692360822410_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9eae26&_nc_ohc=2D3YGaOIOSoQ7kNvgFNjBVv&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=A6RIzemsz0BhqiBBpTvAzo5&oh=00_AYCC_JblrZ1t38-GeGOb3-bYQ5vjZDEHB-4FlFye_vHOaA&oe=67565A97

...in 1973. I knew this country was going to hell. Nobody would listen to me!

We should have listened. 1973 was the year Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize!

Hey, you know what's fun? Changing your car battery when it's 25 degrees outside. On a related note, car batteries are $200 now.

Oh fuck my scooter wouldn't start even with a jumpstart power bank and I might need a new battery. :/

25 still pretty warm

you should be like my neighbor and wait to do any work on your car, e.g. changing a tire, until well after midnight, when it's totally dark (but remember to keep your sunglasses on top of your head) and everybody on the block is trying to sleep, being sure to scream at your friend rather than talk because that's the white trash way. and also even when it gets down to 8 degrees, only ever wear a hoodie because wearing a jacket or gloves would probably make you look like a pussy

in conclusion, is the US a dystopia? yes

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2024/11/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures🕸

i have no idea how insurance industry executives don't eat it more often. most of them have personal security in the hundreds of thousands range, per year. but there are so many people who have been completely fucked over by insurance, for no reason, just so that the insurance company can make more money. they should build giant moats and fortresses around the people who willingly participate in that, it's fucking evil

...then again, i thought eventually there'd be retribution against covid deniers by the conservative families who got fucked over by that, but instead, any traces of cognitive dissonance among the conservative families was quickly reconciled by the collective amnesia and relentless peer pressure to stfu and kiss the ass of the abusers

Apparently United Healthcare's official response has been... to pull down the page on their website with their top executives' names and photos.

they should build giant moats and fortresses

a form of insurance, if you will

the people who build the moats should work with the government to make sure that the total cost of the moat is no more than 33-45% of the insurance executive's monthly salary

Just reading 50 jokes about this CEO shooting rn