On Sex & Gender Relations

Good day, World.

We live in a country where everything has been sexed up in order to pull money out of us. For men, they use beautiful women and body parts to advertise everything from sports and cars to food and hygiene items. These things are spun as badges of success or attractiveness, items that will definitely impress a woman enough to make her at least want to sleep with you. Meanwhile, women's sexuality is used to manipulate them into spending money in order to either appeal to us or at the very least to "feel more confident" and conventionally attractive. Either way, the ultimate goal of these advertisers is to play on people's emotional immaturity, personal insecurities, and hormones in order to pump more money out of our wallets and back upstream.

Unfortunately, the transactional nature of the society we live in has scaled this idea into the meta, as both capitalism and religion have created artificial barriers to sex. Instead of two responsible people who are attracted to each other feeling as if they can pursue having relations immediately, now they have to consider the following in no particular order:

1.) Whether their chosen invisible friend approves of their choice or not;

2.) The state of their physical health/sexual safety;

3.) Whether or not they can impress or even hold the attention of the other with their physical items/residence;

4.) The potential financial fallout of negative consequences in the future.

All of these aspects involve finances in a way, as even religion has tithing and offering giving to the church. Health care is directly connected to your bank account, possessions are by nature capitalistic, and the ramifications of undesired outcomes on one's money cannot be overstated. This means that sex in our society is tied very purposely to money, with the most obvious  consequence of that being the existence of prostitution. If these barriers didn't exist, would there be a need for it, or would people who normally would be separated by these things be allowed to interact with each other freely? This is tangential conjecture, but a point to consider.

While all these considerations are being made by people who want to have sex with each other, the animal urges to orgasm and feel the endorphins created by it rages underneath for many. This seething sexual tension is the motivating factor these companies have seized upon to take your money from you, as we are all humans with the desire to feel good. This is why Ashley Madison exists, ads on porn encourage you to cheat, and pop music and media push the narrative of "side chicks" and "other men." Irresponsibility breeds more money being spent in this deluded society, so why not support the artist that makes people spend more?

However, this overarching structure leaves men with the feeling that they are worthless and will never have sex with anyone unless they are rich or conform to a narrow standard. It makes women seem to only want men for their money or the appearance of such, and as men are generally bad at listening to women, they accept that as a talking point. Indeed, these power structures will additionally elevate women who reinforce this idea of patriarchal wealth equalling sexual value, as well, while they reject all but the safest forms of female rebellion and freedom. The safest forms (gay-inclusive pop music, films with female protagonists, female characters in kids shows etc.) are monetized beyond moral value, making them almost hypocritical when you see the environment that produced them. Yes, the idea that men are not valued and attracted to based solely upon their financial worth is quite feminist and anti-capitalist, as if you invert the thought it becomes "Just because you're rich doesn't make you a man worthy of giving my body to."

So what happens when a system convinces you women will never fuck you unless you fill a long, difficult checklist? What about when you are in the process of filling out said list, but she doesn't want to anyway? Well, if you managed to ignore the entire wall of shit that is the Capitalist Sex Manifesto, you would remember that women are people, not NPCs with a dialogue tree that will lead to sex if you hit the right button combos. Women's health issues, individual desires, and opinions on what constitutes being "sexy" are all factors in how things go. Unfortunately, it is easier when slighted to recede into the arms of someone who will reinforce your ideas rather than challenge them. This is how the so-called "manosphere" began to form, with the bad actors and spouters of quasi-scientific malarkey primed to swoop in and take advantage of emotionally unintelligent men. This creates an anger based solely upon the perception that women are guilty of withholding something they deserve, as they have gone down the checklist they created with little input from women and found themselves without a partner. 

"It's women's fault that I'm not in a relationship."

"Women have all the power when it comes to sex."

"Immigrant men should be ejected, but immigrant women should have one year to get with a white incel to keep their citizenship."

These are paraphrasings of clips I've heard online just this past week.

Remove your need for sex from women's responsibility. Your lack of orgasms is absolutely your fault, and it has nothing to do with your checklist. You have a hand, right? Use it to masturbate instead of writing hate messages about how your wife won't fuck you to your friends. Jerk off instead of posting memes about how dumb women are or pictures of other women in bikinis. Then maybe you can calmly sit down with a woman you're intimate with (or trying to be) and talk about it instead of the hormones hijacking your brain before you speak. Maybe it has nothing to do with physical attraction or even you at all. This open hostility towards women because all of the ones men are attracted to don't have a magnetic pussy that draws just their individual penis into it has to stop immediately. 

--------

Just here. Nowhere else.

-∅

P.S.A.

The wealthy never forgot that money is merely a physical stand in for ownership of property. Ultimately, collateral is the end goal, which is why if an economy collapses the wealthy continue to be so until the people physically remove the material wealth from the former social elite. Unfortunately, they have convinced us, the people, that possessing the means to having collateral is the end game. With this, the aristocracy can then withhold and trickle out the finances themselves to the slave class while simultaneously bleeding us of whatever we can hold onto. Again, fees, fines, exorbitant prices, and taxes drain the currency from us, leaving us wanting for the money itself.

However, there is another way to being able to gain some shreds of independence from this slavery. In short, finding a way to own things will free you from traps that the wealthy set to drain us. No, the hyper rich do not need any more cash in their coiffeurs, but they do need you to not have enough to truly own anything. The rampant waste that we see every day in retail stores, restaurants, and government spending is proof enough of that. No, it is the position of ownership, of being the one who doles out the money or receives the rent, that is the true seat of power. Any way we can take that authority away from someone else and return it to the individual is a step toward personal freedom.

This is why the elite fight so hard to maintain the thin veneer of erudition and significance their branding has created for them in a system designed fundamentally around building and maintaining façades. After all, if most people don't need new cars, then what is the actual value of your automotive company? If people are growing their own vegetables, why do they need a grocery store that wastes out produce by the metric ton? You can only artificially inflate your worth so much before faith in your brand starts to fall away. They push their way into everything, making us need them for transportation, food, shelter, etc. and insisting and encroaching upon more of every aspect of our lives every day. However, we can pull back and away from this tactic with some effort, time, and focus. People who don't need whatever you're trying to sell them are unable to be controlled and can focus on what they want to do with themselves. 

Unfortunately, it's the want that they use to manipulate the rest of our money out of us. Good marketing is a bitch, isn't it? Separate and serious the fuck up. Now's not the time for leisure. Cut their funds, devalue their businesses by saying no and becoming more self-reliant. Your goal should be to own whatever you have so you are not paying some jackass sitting on a yacht somewhere just to exist. If you have good credit, get land. If you have bad credit, buy a used car and learn to fix it yourself. Don't leave your current apartment for a bigger one, downsize until you can get a mobile home, fix it, and move in. Learn the right ways to buy used and secondhand (NOT THRIFT!) as much as practical so as to keep the money cycling amongst the people. Purchase tools and learn how to use them so you don't end up paying crooked middlemen that would overcharge and take advantage of you. All of these things involve investing in yourself rather than someone else, and that is another truth of ownership: knowledge and stewardship go hand and hand. 

Remember: Being scared of doing different things will hinder you from seeing new possibilities and keeps feeding into the loop that the wealthy have set to trap us in. Retain your funds with the express purpose of investing in your own freedom, and learn to identify when someone parading around as a "service" is really part of a network of parasites that have convinced you that they're necessary. You don't want more money, really, because money is just a vehicle to get you what you want in life. Simple analogy - Fishermen fish for fish using a boat. Having a boat isn't the fisherman's goal, but a necessity to get himself his fish. Remember to separate those two things and adjust accordingly.

-∅

Trump's Liberation Day in the United States

 Good day, World.

So, here we are post-Liberation Day here in the United States. The Drumpf-in-Chief used ChatGPT to make a tariff policy that is currently tanking the world economy. This inept crone managed the destabilization of the entire stock market with a few pen strokes and within three months of being seated upon what is now the gilded toilet throne of his reign. Meanwhile, the richest man in the world sharpens his claws upon the rest of us, prying regulatory agencies and public services that our taxes pay for away from those who need it most in order to fund contracts his companies has with the government. Lower level politicians are falling in line in record numbers in order to not be leveled by the steam train of bullshit that they have unleashed, contorting themselves into rails and timbers instead of being tied to the tracks. Banks and private firms are seizing property however they can in order to maintain a monopoly over the only true power there is: land ownership. The Apocalypse is upon us and the wall of fire is sweeping through.

What is the end game of the elite? Zero sum victory, aristocracy, and freedom from real consequences. They are weak as individuals and need their egos coddled, since most were born with advantage and protection from any semblance of the world we live in, so a major component of their existence is framed upon maintaining that separation. Paradoxically, these ego concerns also involve keeping the appearance of general benevolence to the public from behind this shroud, as the need to be liked seems to also be a common thread. "Don't eat that rich guy/lady specifically" is the general theme they shoot for, similar to the "not all men" or "I'm a nice guy" people do. 

So what do we do? Break the images of those people. The more we do to expose how horrific some of these businesses, politicians, and "leaders" actually are, the better decisions we can make as a collective regarding how society should be ran and by whom. Learn about the companies and policies tied to these civic leaders and bourgeoisie and divest, depose, and disavow all those who would harm you. Keep your money, vote them out, and assassinate their character with the stray bullets of truth and horror they left lying around after their own crimes.

Secondly, get hard assets however you can and store them. The opposition's goal is to rob and fleece everyone for every dollar we have via fees, tariffs, taxes, and ridiculous markups. They desire total ownership and dominion over all physical property, leaving us to use whatever survival money we have to lease or subscribe for the use of the items we are no longer allowed to have outright. The last thing they want is for you to be in control of anything, so they appeal to laziness and your ego in order to manipulate your buying patterns. Instead of, say, leasing a car, one could buy a used car and learn to fix it so you don't pay some faceless company an extra $10,000 over the already hyper-inflated sticker price over the course of 5 years. That's your car now, not some dealer that can come take it if you miss a payment. 

Fight them with your mind. The more you look at how you are being taken advantage of, the more you can take steps to stay viable versus a society that has been manipulated to take everything from you. For example: Eliminate middlemen as much as you can in every area of your life, thus learning new skills and becoming more self-reliant. Do you need new clothes, but have very low funds? Learn how to thrift shop and sew instead of buying from Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc. Is there a repair you need to make in your apartment so that your landlord doesn't steal your $2000 security deposit for a $150 fix? Watch a video and do it yourself. Are you losing money with your heating bill? Learn how to temporarily insulate your house in the winter to help save money instead of hemorrhaging free cash to the power or oil company. On a micro level: Are you spending too much money on takeout? Teach yourself to cook quick things instead of feeding DoorDash and UberEats 33% of your order price for literally no reason.

You are not too stupid, too weak, or too inept to learn something new, and whatever it is that you do learn will help in the future. Every dollar you wring away from the hands of the rich is the beginning of a safety net for yourself, and knowing who to keep your money away from helps devalue your enemy. Their goal is your money. Keep it.

-∅

What is DEI?

Good day, World.

Now that the powers that be in the United States government are excoriating and purging anything from its existence that involves what they deem as "DEI woke programming," it is important in this moment to define what exactly they mean by this. See, unlike the surprised millions that have begun to cry out in protest since the plans have begun being executed, I see that the Orange Emperor and his flying monkeys have been telling everyone the entire time this would happen. Trump and his ilk played upon your own fears and prejudices in order to fleece you, specifically by never defining what the full scope of DEI implied so that you would never consider being a part of the out group. Having always been a member of one of the oldest minorites, however, I knew what was to come. 

One must keep in mind the basic messaging behind leftists versus most of every other political group. In general terms, the Left proclaims they desire things to be more simple for everyone, with assistance for previously ignored or disenfranchised groups like the disabled, minorities that have endured hardships over generations, social outcasts, etc. Meanwhile, the Right says these problems aren't real because acknowledging the fucked up things they or their families had to do to get rich and powerful might make them feel bad or something. What's the point of power if there's no slaves to lord over? 

"Unchecked Capitalism: It Works For Me!"™️

The problem with the poor, stupid Redhats is that they never noticed the terminology used. See, when you roll back the tape on human rights in America, you may notice that there are a lot of groups that have been given basic rights and benefits over time. Women, children, ethnic and social minorities, the disabled, the elderly, the poor and homeless, and others have been given things in order to acknowledge the inequalities and failures of the present system to adequately care for its citizens. These, my friends, are all considered groups that could be lumped into DEI. People in the center of the country are ballasted by federally redistributed funds from states full of "coastal elites," and now those funds are being taken away, now the pale center of the country feels the sinking realization that perhaps they were not fully informed on who these DEIggers were.

See, they took the implication game, used it to play against your racism, and then played you. Yes, there are token gestures of casual racism happening, as the mass removal of anything that could even be construed as beige happens throughout government buildings and websites, but really we're all DEIggers now. 

So, what's to be done? Opposite motion. Does someone who voted for your annihilation tell you to endorse something or someone? Do the opposite. Find an alternative. Research what brands your politicians are tied to and sever yours to them. Stay out of jail and sabotage their pockets, as money is all they care about. Pool resources with large groups, then move to Red states en masse and terraform the voting structures of places, colonizing and gentrifying like the rich do to us. Don't spend any money and hold your income. In the end, doing what you are directed to do always suits someone else's plan. Make one.

-∅

On Anger

 Just had an observation. Some people use anger like a costume, a blustering external display in order to retain control, instill fear, or otherwise manipulate the perception of onlookers. They like to whip frenzies, speak whichever dog whistle phrases are most effective at sparking more in others, and generally speak in flat, opaque terms. The simplest solution to whichever problem their non-diagnosed brains find most pressing is always best to these people, and usually said answer ends with some out group reaping the net negatives of whatever broad problem they complain most about. It is a mask, and whether they genuinely understand what they are doing or not depends upon their level of intelligence.

Some people hold anger like lava in their bellies, vomiting forth from their esophagus with very little control as to its direction once it begins to flow. It is a constantly roiling, almost alive thing that hisses and snaps at the slightest provocation, but does not erupt without prior warning. Even while the surface may seem solid, the slag that forms atop the pool is merely a thin illusion that is still hundreds of degrees to the touch. Contained by one's own guts, it burns them and anyone they come in contact with if too many stimuli shake them. They just want peace, but the world will not let it come.

When these two meet, we find ourselves in the situations that we are in today. The world is being run by a bunch of blusterers who have systems full of sociopaths murdering us every day in myriad ways. Wars waged by inaccurate and soulless AI, destitute people left to the wolves as government services get cut, government tariffs stealing more money out of everyone's pockets as we all struggle to figure out what is next...we are the lava swallowers. We eat the fire we are given and try to survive on it, but we are left with the anger of the struggle. It is a slow thing, a digested anger that we believe we have processed, but have not. 

Our anger is meeting the bluster of several empty, costumed bullies and making their façades collapse. They are sociopaths underneath and we see it. Keep fighting. Control the lava flow as best you can. Keep it legal, keep it decentralized, keep going.

-∅

On Race Relations and The Far Right

Good day, World.

So, a lot of Right-leaning whites rely heavily upon stereotypes in their thinking regarding black individuals because they refuse to engage with an individual they already think themselves better than. Instead of seeing us as a person, then, they view every black person as a walking embodiment of every negative stereotype they're ever heard, a monolithic, slightly sexy, threatening presence that is here to steal their women, lie to their family, and kill them. No matter what we wear, how we act, or how qualified we are, we are the liberal scum, the oldest thorn in the side of the Republican dream for existing in their spaces. 

Unfortunately, they are unable to see past a manufactured veil of negativity pushed by the racist elites that magnifies our negative aspects and purposely obfuscates our positive ones. I still remember making a semi-serious video a long time ago about how to interact with black people. I just said that you should deal with us as individuals, not whatever preconceived notions you have, just like every other person you know. Now, none of my content has a lot of reach, so I was not expecting anything from, well, anyone. Soon after, however, I got an angry comment from a user. After clicking their profile, I saw that they literally made a response video of the most racist stereotypes I could ever hear. "Black people WILL steal from you" and stuff like that. I couldn't even ask to be judged as a human, not a stereotype without some destitute, brainwashed white bigot getting so angered by it that he needed to make a response video. Ridiculously good programming.

Most whites seem to be able to push past the hatred and see that it is a ruse, but these extremists that have steered our country toward ruin and division also happen to be the oligarchs and aristocrats that truly turn the wheels behind the scenes. Even those who do make it through the fog are still left with lasting perceptions and leftover prejudices that I have been told to my face were things they had to work through. I sincerely hope that more can fight past it and realize that we are all in this together, and with the current state of the country, we need it now more than ever.

How? Engage with people you don't know. Is a racial, ethnic, or minority group being demonized in the media? Talk with those willing to talk with you, as not every person is willing to engage with someone they may perceive as a threat. The key difference between the fears of the negatively stereotyped minority and those who spin the prevailing narrative is that the out group exists within a society that collectively decided unless said culture fit a very narrow set of arbitrarily shifting standards that they should not exist. This is the height of hypocrisy, as they consistently strip and assimilate any unique aspect of any culture they find entertaining or attractive.

Have a basic conversation. Talk and listen. Everyone can use this simple advice these days, as understanding leads to progress and willful ignorance plays neatly into the plans of the fascists and out-of-touch billionaires that would use you. 

Twitter is dead. All transmissions through here.

-∅

Reasons Whites Use To Justify Using the N-Word

In life, I have found myself involved in situations where whites have felt the need to use the word "nigger" around or toward me. Due to the fact that I am a black male of some size that has several non-typically ascribed interests and hobbies, this is not an uncommon occurrence for me. Here are some of the justifications I have heard from people over the years for using offensive speech whilst being righteously indignant regarding my discomfort with it.

"You were acting like one." Okay. So, what exactly does that entail? Why is it that when we agree, I'm just a dude, but when we don't, I'm that?

"You made me mad." Variant of the first one. Why does anger equal "Well, now I get to be racist!" to you? I've never once thought to be racist toward you during the whole argument.

"I didn't call YOU one." This comes with being considered "one of the good ones" in their area/vicinity. Being racist towards other black people around me isn't winning you points in the Friend category, and seeing you lapse into that as soon as you dislike someone is very telling.

"It just means ignorant." Why do you think it means that? Really think about it, don't skip the mental exercise. You may need it if you don't get it.

"You guys say it all the time!" First, way to assume every single black person in America and abroad is exactly the same in how we feel about that word. Secondly, do I speak like that naturally? Have you ever known me to casually say it, or do I do it purely for comedic effect every time?

"It's just a word." Direct translation: "I'm going to purposely say offensive shit. It's not my fault you're hurt by my actions. I'm a social parasite."

The Gay Agenda

Good day, World. So, to those who think the "liberal media" is pushing the "gay agenda," get this: 

For a very long time in American media, being anything but a straight white male was seen as terrible. Black men were all criminals, black women were all hoes, Hispanics and Asian women were all exotic and dangerous, and Asian men were all nerds. This was the media you came up on, with white straight men being the only protagonists that could be cool, roughneck bad boys that get all the girls. Now, slowly over time, we've seen the inclusiveness of different races and genders as main characters, and only recently have we been seeing black main characters in popular  movies that aren't either blaxploitation or specifically "black folk" movies, as the works of directors like Spike Lee and John Singleton are commonly seen.

So, you can understand as both a member of the black community and the LGBT community how much it bothers me to hear about "the gay agenda" being "forced" on American society. I've watched gay and gay-presenting characters be used as comedy fodder my whole life. The LGBT community as portrayed by Hollywood up until like the past decade has been absolutely shit on, and that's the reason you think people are forcing some sort of gay social construct upon you. Having a well-fleshed out character that isn't straight is not forcing an agenda. Having a main character explore their sexuality is not forcing an agenda. We've been here this whole time, doing your special effects makeup, designing your outfits, choreographing those dances on those music videos, acting straight on your screens while languishing in the closet. Now that we're writing the stories, though, it's "an agenda," even though secretly we've been writing them this entire time. We weren't allowed to state some things openly without fear of everything from violence to exile, and even in 2004 when I was a teen, I was not allowed to bring home a white girlfriend. Imagine the backlash I would have received if they knew I wasn't straight.

The LGBT community is full of creative, wonderful people and has stories to tell. You weren't whining about that lesbian porn you Googled, nor did you feel bad about laughing at how "over the top" the one gay character was in your favorite show. Now that the protagonists are starting to be queer, continue watching them with similar interest. Hell, the Greek gods that everyone remixes into "new" characters were all pretty bi, if you look at them deeply enough. 

In short, get over yourselves. We're not doing this for you. We're doing it because it's nice to finally have similar outlets to express ourselves that the straights have had for generations. If you're going to stop watching something, loudly announcing it to everyone you know and every other stranger you don't only makes you look like a prick.

Priorities.

 Good day, World.

     Yesterday, I was able to be there for someone I loved in a time of tragedy. While I will not share details of what happened, I will say that it would shake the foundations of any person's family if it had occurred to them. The thing that made it more tragic is that it happened while this person was visiting me, meaning the rare moment they had time for respite from their already difficult life situation, said peace was destroyed by fate.  This situation was altogether horrifying, and my heart is broken on behalf of this person.

     However, I cannot linger upon it, as the same fate that brought this tragedy also taught me a valuable lesson. See, I would not have been there to support this person if I hadn't decided that their company was more important than finances in that moment. That morning, I was scheduled to be at work roughly an hour before the news broke. The night before, I had been pondering whether or not I wanted to continue working for someone who A.) attempted to emotionally manipulate me in order to make me feel bad about requesting time off, B.) had casually mentioned "high school hotties" living at one of his properties, and C.) I'd heard rattling on about Biden conspiracy theories and the murder of America by the Democrats. This was a cash paying job, and I was being considered for payroll at the time. Finally, after getting some counsel from my father, I'd decided twenty minutes before I was due to leave that no, I didn't wish to do that anymore. So, I prioritized my relationship with my friend over the hundred or so dollars that I would have received working that day, therefore making myself available when they needed my support. Else-wise, I would have been at work at the time the event transpired, having to either leave and hear more condemnation from the boss or not being permitted to leave at all, forcing me to hear their crying over the phone instead of on my shoulder.

     See, the super rich want you to constantly think that money is the ultimate goal. They do everything they can to manipulate you into a manic state, inflating prices while minimizing their workforce's hours so that your struggle to survive is at maximum profitability for them. They tease us with sales, deals, and promotions, the hyper-inflated costs temporarily knocked down to only three times what they paid for it instead of five while calling the fleecing "a deal." Recent times have shown that the rich do not like it when the proletariat plays the same games that they do with the nation's economy, therefore showing that yes, they do see us as mere pawns in their game. "Work forty hours a week, then give it all to us," the mouths chant, our blood dripping from their jaws. "Costs go up, 'it's the market,'" they say, red marker hovering over the price sheets as they look balefully to their not-quite-full safe of billions. The creatures have determined that if they make jobs never pay enough and goods too expensive, they can keep profiting off of us on both ends.

     However, more important than any of those things is being there for each other's needs. See, if humans were able to push past financial gain as their main objective, those who have convinced us to look no further would have a much more difficult time retaining their status and coffers. Every time there is a movement that is not framed around attaining money, it is demonized. From the LGBT Civil Rights Movement to the Black Panther Party, women's reproductive rights marches and protests about school shootings, every movement that involves unifying people and is not focused on a product or money is cut down by pundits, politicians, and news companies. The rich do not want the people's needs met, as when you have a contented society, the desire to purchase frivolities in order to cure the hole one feels in themselves diminishes. Why do you think the term "retail therapy" became a thing? It is obvious that the terminology comes from the concept of "buying things makes you feel good," and if that isn't the slogan for capitalism as a whole, I don't know what marketing is.

     In addition, the demonization of even the concept of unifying has begun from the pundits, with calls from the Left for unity and solidarity being called "hollow" and "lies." A very long time ago, I wrote that unification is a dangerous thing for those in power, that it behooves them to keep the people at each other's necks while they line their pockets and bolster their levels of influence on the world stage. On a financial level, the businesses do the same, making it taboo to discuss how much you're being paid, breaking up hours and scheduling in order to avoid paying overtime, fighting unions at every level they can manage to, ascribing a ridiculous level of importance to minutiae like uniforms, and inducing a class system within every single job. Now, your co-worker with different responsibilities and more experience is your "manager" or “supervisor,” if you wear the wrong color tie or shoes you get financially penalized, and Peggy Sue feels like she’s a better person than you because she’s wearing a badge with some words on it. 

Keep the people divided in any way they can. This is the will of the powerful.

     In spite of all this, it was more important for me to be with my friend than outside moving bricks. See, the rich have the convenience of having time to commune with each other. While we break our spines bowing to the schedules, routines, prices, and sacrifices that the elite have made for us, they gallivant about on their own time. That same boss that was guilting me about wanting a day off had told me earlier on that there may be days we don’t have work because he and his wife have been looking for an RV. The same person who was telling me that I needed to be a “man of my word” a few days before told me he’d randomly cancel work due to his affinity for a pleasure vehicle. The rich expect the poor to constantly labor to fill their pockets, and when that doesn’t happen, we are all “lazy and entitled.” Again, I have found myself working alone, attempting to create my own power base independently of these terrible people so that one day I may be one of the few counterexamples to this toxicity.   

     This independence from their grasp is the last thing that they want from us. To give oneself time to think past the programming is to liberate oneself from a single level of this hell they have created for us. Upward mobility is not given, but fought for, and the more of us that can buck the grind, the more of us that can take the time to change this world. We need time to be able to care about ourselves and others.

Warning 2021

 Good day, World.

     Just today, I read several posts on social media that depicted a Republican backlash to the current waves of reform that have been occurring across both the internet and the country. Many on the Right are now decrying censorship, their figureheads and rantings removed not only from power but from their usual sounding boards. Even their alternative social media platform has been extinguished for the present, and it seems that the most extreme elements of their cadre are being muzzled on more conventional ones. In non-digital life, the terrorists that attacked the Capitol are being routed by the FBI, aided greatly by the general populous' willingness to surrender insurrectionists to the Federal government. I've seen cries of leftist treachery, accusations of deep state machinations to enslave the public, and even Holocaust comparisons at their most hyperbolic. There was a festering pustule that has just been excised from America's body, and it seems that the Republicans are the flesh that was most closely affected. Now, they are irritated, weeping blood, and looking for someone to blame for the problems that they created, be it man, woman, Devil, or Ruth Bader-Ginsberg in her coffin.

     There is a humor to all of this. The same party of people who rail against things like hip hop, rock and roll, witchcraft, marijuana, same sex marriage, saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," raising the minimum wage, abortions, and anything else that may offend the Fox News crowd...are mad about censorship. These are the same people who bought and burned piles of Eminem CDs in protest, the same ones who constantly talk about boycotting any company that shows the thinnest amount of support to the LGBT community. These people tell others every day that certain demographics shouldn't exist or aren't real, that their fellow Americans are hellbent on destroying the country, or that minority concerns are invalid or wouldn't exist if said minorities were more obedient. To hear them whining like the snowflakes that they are when they practically invented cancel culture is a bittersweet irony. Remember the Moral Majority?

      So, what do we do here on the Left? It seems that the Redcaps are attempting to reconstitute themselves into a separate political party: the MAGA Party. You can imagine that this would be a place for Trump and his family to always have some sort of political relevance, using the party to install leaders on lower levels of government in cities where Trumpism still runs rampant. The fact that they would not be a part of our unofficial two party system would help cut the legs off of their abilities on a broad scale, but I expect to see MAGA towns popping up throughout the Midwest, South, and high North. The one thing the Right has over the Left most often is their ability to strategize and manipulate the playing field. What can the liberals do in order to negate the inherent power of these Trumpublicans?

     The answer lies directly in flipping local municipalities to Blue. See, as we witness the logjam that is the Senatorial and Congressional process on various issues, we are beginning to see the importance of the individual roles of Senators and Congressmen. Mitch McConnell has made certain things an utter nightmare for the entirety of the country, singlehandedly blocking a direct vote by the Senate to dole out much needed bailout money whilst apparently forgetting who pays for his salary and health benefits.  Well, there are a lot of local level officials that hold significant amounts of power over other key decisions and issues. Many individuals run completely unopposed in those places, complacency placating them into a feeling of security in their position. For example, the self-styled, self-titled "anarchist She-male" Aria DiMezzo ran unopposed as a Republican for Cheshire County, NH sheriff, winning the primary and getting over seven thousand votes compared to the incumbent's twenty seven thousand. While she lost, that was quite a voting bloc, and perhaps in the future she may actually be elected in some capacity. These are the moves the Left needs to continue making in order to attain more power, to find holes and penetrate them in order to crack the foundations of the establishment. The more Blue the leadership of a city, town, municipality, or organization is, the more likely it is that the "liberal agenda" can be forwarded to higher echelons of power. 

      There will be a war coming, but it will be an internal cold war. Towns where Trumpism runs roughshod will deepen in their resolve, and if Trump himself gets either impeached so that he cannot run again or is imprisoned, those towns will be powder kegs. Expect some sort of quasi-secession in a rural area, a bandying together of some rich Right Wing Trumpist, preppers, private military contractors, and gun "enthusiasts" declaring some sort of free state. Now, no one will attack that place due to the amount of rich white males and guns on the property, the Right will make comparisons to the autonomous zones that the Left has established, and eventually a secessionist army will develop calling itself a "millitia." The very key difference between the autonomous zones and this new thing is that this will be a white supremacist training/breeding ground fed by a lot of alt-Right money and nutjobs. These predictions are based upon activities I have seen extremists perform in the past, and one cannot call the Redcaps anything but that given that they have now tipped their own hand.

Do not misunderstand me. This is a direct comparison to Nazism. They are that dangerous, and I am worried for the safety of my family. Liberals and centrists, it is your job to combat these people as they appear in your spheres of government. Research ballot measures that appear in your state, county, and local levels to be sure that the far Right's agendas do not silently take over. Check the histories of the people writing the bills, politicians, and judges in your area so you know where their values lie rather than just listening to slogans. Hold local officials and police accountable for their negative actions. Remember, every politician will pretend to want the best for you in order to get into power, but not every politician has the best interest of the people at heart. 

 

On Civil Unrest in America

 Good day, World.

    Well. Here we are, folks. The Redcaps have shown their true colors, their failed coup the result of years of incendiary thoughts. They have been emboldened by watching protesters who rage against injustice, perverting the passion into the violence they've wished to engender this entire time. They hate that Obama's right hand man has been reinstalled, their love for the new Mussolini trumping their desire to be decent human beings tenfold. Trump has become exactly what he's been striving to be all this time: the next charisma vacuum to the alt-Right. The next great dictator is strutting his stuff, and all the king's horses and all the king's men have rolled out the carpet for Drumphy again.

     The telltale signs are more subtle, but this is a precarious position we have been put in. For example, when the National Guard was called in to dispatch the traitors who were actively attempting to subvert the processes of our government within the nation's capital, the Guard refused. Local authorities simply escorted the vast majority off the property, with very few casualties and far less force than, say, your average Black Lives Matter protest. Actual traitors were seen taking photos with the local police forces, the silent show of solidarity between the two factions saying more than any words could elaborate. Oddly enough, when angry white people show up with guns, no one seems to escalate like they do with minorities and protesters, as in 2016 with the Bundy armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. In short, when the white majority erupts into violence and barbarism over trivialities, it's not taken as seriously as non-violent people who wish to hold the government and society accountable for the injustices they perpetrate towards minorities. 

     And I do say trivialities with the entire weight of the word. When Trump won, the Left was told to hold their tongues by the Right, to "shut up and accept" that Agent Orange had been victorious. On the whole, the Left did just that, a smattering of "Not My President" bumper stickers and snarky late night comedy bits being the entirety of the protest made. However, now that Biden won, the Right's vitriol has boiled over and spilled into the halls of our government. The Confederate flag was flown in the Capitol that was built by the slaves who would fear it if they could see the future. Between the legislators who sided with him, the lies dripping from his mind through his clumsy thumbs, and the cacophony of Redcaps that clamor for him, we have seen the rise of a new terrorist group driven to madness. An election only establishes a figurehead, and so they commit treason over a fairly minor event. The Senate and Congress are the real decision makers, as seen while Obama was in office and had the vast majority of his moves deadlocked.

     The future holds some worry for me, as I am tracking a pattern and do not like it. For example, a lot of people do not realize that Hitler was elected to power at first. He was made  chancellor of Germany in January of 1933, then used the laws to maneuver himself into a dictator after a long history of using his charisma to appeal to the public. He used fear tactics and racist rhetoric to convince people that foreigners were the center of all of Germany's problems, spinning quasi-logic from drug addled mental episodes and vomiting it at a populace looking for answers. He took over the news media, creating an entire wing of the government in order to create and test propaganda in order to spark loyalty in his subjects. The people, desperate and angry, clung to this in spite of all logic, with 77,000 German citizens dying over the course of his reign due to dissent from this barbarism and millions more directly as a result. Meanwhile, the Nazi officers in their Hugo Boss uniforms stood neatly by, the mass genocide they helped orchestrate a daily chore for them, a simple meal on a plate.  

     Now, here we are in 2021. A fascist has been elected to power, his followers rabidly in support of him despite himself. The man himself has made overtures to other dictators, the oil barons of the Middle East, and white supremacist factions domestically. We have had our Beer Hall Putsch, the failed coup d'etat of a couple days ago serving as a preamble to what is certainly going to lead to worse things. Hate crimes against minorities have increased under his regime, the backlash to LGBT and racial groups asking for respect and fair treatment resulting in shootings, murders, and outright terrorism against said groups by the Redcaps. The people have clung to his words in a time of economic uncertainty and racial tension, and South and Central American immigrants looking for asylum have become the people in cages that the Jews and other minorities were in Germany. Let us not also forget the eternal war of the disenfranchised, the steady vacuuming up of minorities by the criminal justice system in order to fill private prisons and give businesses a cheap labor force. Trump holds rallies where he lies and whips crowds into a frenzy, allegedly studying from the actual speeches of Mussolini in his spare time to prepare. He has expressed great interest in changing laws in order to extend his reign since the very beginning of his tenure, and has managed to secure several news channels in order to spout his and others' far-Right propaganda as truth, not opinion. Independently, his followers mobilize and commit violence in his name, spewing poison and demonizing the victims as they make life more unbearable for those who think differently. 

The uniform has changed, but the ideals remain. 

     

     Reader, I will reveal something to you about myself (if you have not already gathered): I am a minority. I actively fear for my safety as I have heard awful things said directly to me about my specific minority, as well as having heard candid recordings from those who are exposed to this vitriol but have no other recourse but to expose it to the public. I fear for the future, the safety of myself and my family, and the direction this country is headed in. As a child, I saw the destruction of the Twin Towers, having lived within an hour of New York City by train and having relatives who lived in the area. The sight of the pillars of smoke billowing upward through my father's car window as we drove through the Meadowlands was sobering, and I would not have been anywhere near as politically minded if that hadn't happened during my formative years as a preteen. Now that I am in my thirties, I have watched the country fall from grace on the world stage, slowly descending into chaos as greed and racism drive this place into a more divided state than I have ever seen. I fear for the future, and I am too poor to either distance myself from it or leave here during this civil unrest. 

Either we fight this timeline or we die. We cannot lose ourselves to this. 

Escapism

 Good day, World.

     One of the greatest financial establishments in the modern world is the industry of escapism. While this multifaceted economic concept has several methods of implementation, they all strive to achieve the same purpose: make huge profits off of distracting the public from reality. From this, we see the film industry, record labels, vacation package companies, technology conglomerates, international sports leagues, alcohol producers, and various other industries built with this singular purpose. Of course, there are sections of many of these same sectors of business that attempt to augment rather than distort or obfuscate, but oftentimes these comparably small endeavors are either corrupted or altogether subsumed by larger companies that utilize them for their own purposes. In short, escaping reality is big money and has been for a very long time. 

     The main selling point of these commodities is to distract from the crushing grip of a nigh-feudal level of living that many of those same industries help to create. Nestle pumps water out of areas that need it desperately, ruining ecosystems and causing droughts to water tables around the world while selling "Pure Life" water. Chocolatiers use child slaves to gather their cocoa beans in desperate countries, marketing the fruit of their labor as things like "bliss" and "heaven" while putting actual children through hell. Workers in third world countries manufacture promotional materials for multi-million dollar movies, flights of fancy and spectacle insultingly thrust into their faces as the whip cracks behind them to work faster and do more. Even the companies that Americans work for market their products as silver bullets toward happiness, their own workers tired and struggling as the price of existence is steadily inflated to a staggering amount above what the average American can make. If the people were allowed to think instead of the constant push to consume, they would be too angry to continue making money off of, after all. Wear this brand, eat from this restaurant, drive this car, and listen to this artist. Happiness comes from never thinking and always doing.

     Unfortunately, this formula seems to work for many, choosing to immerse themselves in whatever fiction they deem appropriate rather than learn of anything past what they are told to. People erupt into violent conflict over sports teams that know nothing of their lives, and even scripted contests like the WWE have caused fanatics to riot. Followers get genuinely upset over changes in writing styles, film adaptations, and fictional characters, their emotional investment wasted on something that is not real and has no actual effect on them. Listeners become bitterly embroiled in the lives of the artists they listen to rather than taking their music at face value, and some artists have lost their lives behind the misplaced emotional turmoil of a crazed fan. There is no logic to what people find themselves passionate about, but when said passion is directed at something completely meaningless, it has been co-opted by some corporation in order to profit. 

     While I know time is meaningless, in this new year I am asking those reading to consider that. There are so many exciting events happening, so many people with real, inspiring stories to learn about, and so many new advancements pushing forward that can be paid attention to. Do not waste your emotions on fiction, as we need more people who deeply care about real life in order to help progress ourselves to a better future. Fiction is made to sedate and distract, to rob us of our emotions in order to manipulate our money out of our hands. It's like cartoons from the 80's and 90's: created with the specific purpose of selling toys. The cartoons were simply an advertisement that they knew would end up causing the children to essentially annoy the money out of their parents' pockets. 

Well, we're all adults now.

Frustration.

Hello, World.

     Today has been...difficult for me. Normally, I write musings regarding current events, societal trends, etc. However, today I feel the need to vent my personal frustrations. I hope you do not mind if I speak frankly and unfiltered, though I'd hope by now those of you who do read my ramblings know that is the case in most instances. I will not go into specifics, as I am still fairly private in my dealings (unless either you've traced together the different facets that amalgamate my identity or I have brought you here directly), but I will instead generalize the issues I face.

     The greed of the upper echelons of society have driven the economy into a dizzying spiral of artificially inflated costs. In order to exist in this world of modern peasantry and fiefdoms, we the majority are subject to either mass indignity or outright slavery in order to survive. Jobs that require constant movement, harassing the customers for up-sales, working in boiling heat or extreme cold, or the constant Damocles' sword of deadlines and timers are worth much more monetarily than the business owners are willing to pay. It is this very reasoning said higher ups attempt to cut the cost of labor razor thin, selling your body for two to five times what they pay you to the customer and reaping the benefits of your skills, abilities, or mere presence there. This is atop the doubling or tripling the cost of whatever item is being purchased or used, depending upon the situation. I understand the concept of overhead and profit margins, but truthfully, the gap between inflation and wages has slowly been widening since the Eighties, if not before. Now, said gap is exponentially larger than it has been ever before, and no amount of "overtime" or "extra shifts" is going to fix this problem.

     Thankfully, there are some institutions that assist in times of exceptional crisis, but it seems that every day pundits and politicians scream for their repeal. "Do not feed the lazy," they cry, ignoring that several large scale inquiries into fraud in these systems led to a near nil result. "The virus only culls the elderly," they cry aloud, while two hundred seventy five thousand individuals die on this land's soil. "The doctors and media inflated the numbers to get more funding," they insist, clutching desperately at their six hundred eighty six billion dollar military purse. Businesses defy shut down orders because asking them not to host crowds of people during a pandemic surge is "tyrannical." This inability to focus on anything but money drives us all to madness, and all because those at the top of the pyramid want every single dime.

     The struggle for existence is only a struggle when there are predators looking to eat you every day. Yes, there are packs and groups that temporarily give shelter from the biting winds of capitalism, and cooperation between like-minded parties is a rare boon that passes once objectives diverge. Still, I see the eyes watching me, their icy claws raking at my pockets and my sanity. Advertising rapes my eyes and ears, leaving me staring blankly at a screen as my thoughts ebb and I try to recall what I was trying to originally search for. Earlier today, a police officer arrived to speak to one of my neighbors. I hid inside my residence until he left simply because I did not want him to take any interest in me whatsoever. 

Do not see me. Do not kill me. I know you can.

     Some say fear is an emotion that one should not indulge in, that it is weak and renders one useless. I say that any person that has lived through real trauma, tragedy, or loss has every reason to accept the fact they feel it. In our own way, we have all had to live through situations that we were afraid past all comprehension while still handling said instances. Fear itself does not inhibit our strength as a person, but rather it shows that we are mentally fighting not to fail. Those who have accepted defeat are not afraid, just as those who know that victory is certain do not feel nervous. The fact that we fear for what the future holds means that we are uncertain, but we do not wish for a negative outcome. 

     Fear makes me focus, as it is my natural state to hyper-focus as it is. People say in tense situations or catastrophes that I react very well, but the main reason is that I am so focused on fixing the problem that I seem calm. They aren't there when the seizures take me at night because my mind is overloaded. They aren't there when I wake up screaming or when the crying hurts my chest. All they see is the rest, what I allow them to see. When I drink a liter of homemade absinthe in a few days, they see that. When I come out at eight am to smoke my first blunt of the day, they see that. They don't see that I've been awake since four am staring into a screen or the void looking for a solution to whatever issues I can address at the time. They don't hear the screaming I hear in my mind every morning, the whip cracking again and again to get more accomplished. 

I am spent. Good night, World.

The Western Cult(ure) Machine

 Good day, World.

     One of the fundamental facets of Western civilization is ravenous, unchecked capitalism. Every major company in the US seems to lobby for less restrictions and oversight so that their companies can get away with an increasing amount of injustices towards their workers, the environment, and even their consumers. Politicians, ever in bed with these industries, receive money to roll back any regulations regarding the planet or their workers that do get put into place, with some directly benefiting from doing so in their own private businesses. Even the prison industrial complex directly feeds into this capitalist agenda, using prisoners as slaves for companies to contract out and make even more profit by cutting their labor costs. Businesses fight to keep minimum wage at poverty level in whatever states they operate in, with the ones that successfully attain higher mandatory pay being slandered by politicians and pundits as liberal trash states that should be seen as outliers, not examples. In all, Western "civilization" prioritizes the rich and their brands as more important than people, with even the government slashing at social programs while simultaneously bolstering their own pockets and their precious military machine. 

     The entrenchment of belief in the almighty dollar over everything is further sewn into the fabric of our existence by the ruling class. Constantly the rich chase us for our funds, minimizing our pay on one end while maximizing cost on the other. Rent continues to spiral upwards in any place there is work to be had, hyperinflating the cost of living just because the landowner knows they can get away with it. Landlords charge triple the rent just to get into a place, referring to "refundable security deposits" while finding every excuse not to pay them back when the time comes. Meanwhile, managers and owners of companies are finding ways to pay their workers less every day, cycling schedules to avoid paying overtime, offering pittances to make them thousands of dollars every day, and holding back checks for up to 3 weeks at the beginning just to be sure you're desperate enough continue working for next to nothing. As a working class person, this was my reality every day for a very long time, and for most it will be for the rest of their lives. 

      Another one of the side effects of being crammed into this system is that it grants you no time to think, your mind constantly flooded with the objectives of your master, the Corporation. When you do have time off, the only things you think of are either escaping the mental space your job puts you in or the indignities and crushing weight of the job you will be returning to. The concept of hating Mondays and loving Fridays is rooted in a culture based around working menial jobs that traditionally only give weekends off. People tend to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms for said jobs, with the most common blue collar drug being alcohol and the whole culture revolving around "heading to the bar" after work is done just to cope with the stress of working. Even the depression, stress, and anger of the working man is monetized, with alcohol, cigarette, and porn companies pandering to the proletariat in order to be their comfort. "Drink, smoke, masturbate! Dull the pain! Do anything but think of a way out of this!"

     The curators of Western culture do not want the people to be independent. Yes, companies and politicians bandy around the words "freedom," "independence," and the like, but these are token gestures to convince you that their pathway is the only way to achieve said freedom. Meanwhile, everything  in America is hyperregulated, taxed, numbered, under surveillance, tracked, and accounted for, with any real attempts by the people to be free shut down or ostracized by the same culture that claims to be the only one worth believing in. Are you making money without reporting every cent to the government? Jail for you. Did you build something on your own land without telling them? Either be fined or tear it down. Did you get into a fistfight because someone wronged you? To jail you go. Are you a minority with a firearm that dared use it in self-defense? Say goodbye to your weapon and your life. Their version of what it means to be free is simply having the freedom to give them all of your money in one way or another, and the rich will have it no matter what.

     I am a working class person, but I am committed to removing my cog from the machine. I am still young in a sense, as I have more than half of my life ahead of me statistically, so I have time to continue working toward my newest goal. You see, I have found one honest way to work within the confines of the structure we have been born into while still making money. Not everyone has this option, but because of certain life decisions I have made, I am figuring how to escape the tyranny of this cycle. Simply put, I work for myself now, and while the safety of a regular paycheck is not guaranteed as working for a company is, the freedom regarding my daily time that I now possess allows me to figure out what my next step should be. Does this make me guilty of being a cog still? Yes, but I spin more freely than I did when I was just someone working for someone else, giving all my time and effort to a company that believes I only deserve $12-15/hr. while someone else who does less work than I rakes in thousands of dollars a day behind my efforts. Now, at least, I can set my price as opposed to being auctioned off like the slaves they want us all to be.

Have a good day, World.

Hello Again.

 Good day again, World.

It's been a very long time since I've written here. In the meantime, I have gone out into America, my desire to learn and adapt without being crushed by the heel of modern society leading me on a great journey. I have experimented with making videos, creating music, and finding a career that did not leave me feeling empty and worthless inside. After several attempts to "fit in" with groups of people claiming to be there for my benefit, I have found none who mean what they say they do. The amount of friends I have has dwindled to single digits as I gradually uncover more about myself, and the desire to interact with others has similarly eroded away. 

     Additionally, the social, political, and economic climates have drastically shifted during my absence from this medium. Where there once was a shred of dignity and bipartisan effort is now cult-like worship and the purposeful erosion of faith in our political systems. Dictatorial leaders spout tripe and lies to the people, stoking fears while hiding the true depths of their disservice to those who they claim to protect. Indeed, the hypocrisy of these leaders is so self-evident that they need to go on the offensive just to hide it. Blame the media, blame the protesters, blame the people, blame the Democrats, blame everyone but yourself. Now, we are in a post-truth society, one that does not accept facts as valid and prefers to eat its own insanity over provable, correct statistics and figures. The news has become as it was in Orwell's 1984, where truths are overwritten by narratives, then turned back on once a new one is drafted by the powers that be.   

     Financial independence is becoming more difficult to attain every day. Landlords are artifically inflating their prices all over the country, charging more money to the poor and bad of credit than those who already have money and can easily afford said prices. There is a country-wide gentrification happening, and nowhere that one can reasonably afford to live has any infrastructure that works for the working man. The reason behind this is simple: greed. Those who already have land and property wish the rest of us to be slaves, using all of our time and money to feed their ever-expanding maws and stomachs. To those who say capitalism is the only working system, I say you're wrong. This is the end result of capitalism: all money consolidated to the top of the pyramid, leaving the bottom with just enough not to riot and kill the rich a la the French Revolution. The short plan: 1.) keep feeding the military so that if the people revolt, they can be dealt with using excessive force. 2.) overregulate every single aspect of people's lives so that we can take more money from them arbitrarily. 3.) Don't tax the rich; that's what the poor are for. Instead, actively demonize the poor, take away the programs we have supporting them, then tell them they're just not trying hard enough.  4.) Enslave every poor person and minority we can get our hands on through the prison system, then put them to work for free. We need to reestablish a slave class so we can really make a profit. 5.) Distract the people with baubles, widgets, chemicals, and circuses so that they do not realize that we are taking everything from them. 

     This constant grind has tired and frustrated me to no end. Before the sun rises, I am awake, my mind screaming with rage and looking for some sort of answer to my plight. How do I get out of my situation? What path is there to take? I have begun working for myself so I at least have some time to think rather than constantly being on someone else's clock. Even there, those who oppose me bury my ads under a bevy of theirs, using their financial strength to flood the pages with ads and push mine under. Do the rich never feel as if they are rich enough? Do they all feel as if their coiffers will never be full, or are they simply ensuring that to be the case by expanding them? How can a family of three or four need a ten bedroom mansion with a ballroom and seventeen cars? It is madness that those who already have to excess would feel the need to steal the pennies out of my pockets. Yet somehow, they do, with fees, taxes, hyper-inflating prices, and beating us to near death with their strength. 

     In short, I am broken. The world has gone mad, and I have witnessed it. While I know the only way is forward, I also have no idea what forward means in the modern day. Occupy Wall Street crashed and burned, and now QAnon has taken its place with their conspiracy theories and white supremacist overtones. Nazis have re-surged into the public eye under the guise of "Proud Boys" and Trump supporters, waving rebel flags and attacking people for thinking differently than them. When you point out these things to most, they claim you're overreacting or that "the left wing media told you that." You show people videos of horrendous things perpetrated by their cohorts, they say "Well, it was just that one guy/group" without bothering to acknowledge the poison that has affected everyone in the group. Truth is becoming irrelevant, and lies are spouted with smiles. The rich are eating us at an accelerated pace, and the words "independence" and "freedom" are now code words for the rich Right doing whatever they want to whomever they wish. 

America has been falling for a long time now, and I am here to witness it crash. 

I have been known by many names, but now, I am simply Null. The other names have left, for the other emotions have, as well. Hollow. Empty. Null. 

Good day. 

 

Thoughts: Amateur Porn

     For years, people have decried the porn industry for a variety of reasons. While the arguments against it are myriad, the arguments boil down to three major statements: 1.) Porn exploits women, 2.) porn dehumanizes sex, or 3.) porn is immoral and damaging to relationships. Now, female exploitation is not an argument that any logical person could argue against when it comes to the major porn industry, as it is pretty much legalized pimping. The same could be said for the argument of the dehumanization of sex, seeing as more and more men seem to be retreating from the exercise of even attempting to get to know women for that purpose (much less pursuing a "relationship") and going straight to the computer or phone for that gratification. As to the third, I make no comment, but I do understand where those people may be coming from.

     However, I believe that there is one growing exception to any outcry that may have been raised in the previous paragraph: amateur porn. Pornographic material that was made specifically for the enjoyment of the exercise, not with the initial intent of having one person or company make hundreds of thousands of dollars off of a group of people's performances. Many performers are solo women with webcams, cell phones, or digital cameras that just wanted to make something for either themselves or the rest of the world to see. Perhaps they get off on the idea that someone out there is watching their erotic offering, appreciating their body and thinking wholly of them. I've communicated with a lot of women who make these videos, and when I ask them why they do these videos, their responses have been something to the effect of  "Because I like knowing that I'm making someone cum. It gets me off." If that's not the ultimate expression of female power, I don't know what is. 

Amateur pornography is also empowering because it doesn't require the performer to have a "porn body." You don't need to have abs, tanned, smooth skin, Botox, a tummy tuck, a boob job, ass implants, a huge cock, a face lift, anal bleaching, or any of the things that the industry requires its workers to have. It is a celebration of the body as it is, hair, cellulite, wrinkles, and all. It also allows people of all genders, orientations, ages, and fetishes to have something to fap to, which is something that I appreciate. 

     Amateur porn also allows people that may feel marginalized to show their sexual side to an increasingly more accepting public, regardless of casting couch requirements or popular conceptions of what is sexy. So if one day, you want to watch the hirsute girl with the wolf ears, paws, and tail butt plug fuck herself with a dragon shaped dildo that shoots cum-colored lube, you can go see that. If you want to then go watch a MTF transgender get her cock sucked by an FTM transgender before the FTM fucks the MTF with a strap-on, then that's there too. Why do those videos exist? Because the people who made them saw fit to say, "Hello, Internet! I want you to have this!" It did not happen because some person in a tall leather chair in a three piece suit said, "Hmm...the algorithm says that this kind of niche will make me the most money. Tell the models to start making this!"

     Even more interesting is the fact that a good portion of it is made specifically with another person in mind. I have seen countless videos that were made for one person, but shared by both parties involved because they both thought it was something beautiful enough to share. I've seen captions like "Hubby and I..." or "My wife decided that she wanted us to..." all over the internet. Many times, I've seen live webcams with couples who'd decided to broadcast themselves together in order to either make money together or just because they liked showing off for other people. If you peruse Tumblr long enough, you'll find people of all shapes, sizes, and genders posting pics of their naked bodies in erotic acts for both their significant others and for whoever stumbles into their page to see. 

     The reason why amateur porn is both so accessible and gaining steam these days is because of how easy the Internet has made it to share files. Sure, most sites that offer extensive collections of amateur porn are big, corporate run entities, but here's the beautiful thing: somehow, they manage to offer enough content that you can watch as many videos as you want for absolutely free. Taking the YouTube model, they've enabled ads everywhere, but if you're good, you can avoid all of them and never have to worry about viruses or anything like that. It's all there, freely offered, freely displayed, and freely watched. 

     See, that's the beauty of the thing: amateur porn is made just because whoever wanted to make it decided to share it with the world. It's an expression of human eroticism, and while there are still some sub-genres that I have issue with (voyeur, candid upskirts, etc.), it is far less exploitative than industrial porn. So if you do watch porn, watch amateur. It's genuine, and in a world full of falsehood, it's refreshing to see.

Denver, the Clusterfuck: Weed, Jobs, and Homelessness

These days, there are several articles and studies that suggest that because weed was legalized in CO that there's a direct connection to the rising homeless population. Yes, there's a lot of people that have become homeless since January 2011, but many of them came to Denver for the purpose of making money during the economic boom that is still rolling on to this day. This is not to say that there are not a lot of homeless pot users. Indeed, most of the ones that you see asking for change are using said change to get to their next joint/blunt/bowl/dab, and many have even gotten into the habit of stating it outright on their cardboard signs. I do believe that there are some people who have lost their livelihoods or ability to return to their families from marijuana and other drug use, and to say that otherwise would be a misstep on my part.

However, I've also noticed a sharp rise in employers that both require years of experience and drug test for menial, everyday positions. During my search for employment, I've been seeing more and more simple jobs that pay either minimum wage or near it requiring people to get tested and have "experience" in the field. Why does a person that is going to be washing dishes for $8.50 an hour need to have a resume, two years of experience, and be submitted to drug testing? Is flipping a burger, busing a table, or scrubbing a toilet really that difficult that you have to make people jump through so many hoops just to get the job? Or is it that these businesses are trying to filter out those of us who smoke, knowing that the majority of the younger and poorer population either has smoked or currently does?

Yes, weed has been legalized for adult use in Denver, but the prevailing business culture seems as if it hasn't caught up to accepting that yet. Even though it's perfectly legal for adults 21 and over to have a smoke here in CO, these business owners still think that all pot smokers are lazy and not worth having on staff. Even though there are several examples of successful people that have smoked their entire lives, they still shame and naysay it. Despite the fact that some individuals cannot function properly without it (either mentally or physically), these older, more established Baby Boomers still seems to have the same backward attitude towards it that they had during the days of Reefer Madness.Yet somehow, they don't do the same testing for alcohol, which is under the exact same strictures that weed is here in Colorado. As a matter of fact, some businesses encourage drinking, holding business functions and such with open bars, bottles of wine, and gift baskets with alcohol in them. It is extremely frustrating knowing that one legal substance that has been proven to kill people in several ways is considered perfectly acceptable, all while another that has actually been shown to help certain individuals is still anathema even when it has been legalized.

Yes, businesses have their own prerogatives when it comes to choosing who they hire. No one has to hire any of the thousands of pot smokers there are out here, ones that are willing to work just as hard and are equally as human as non-pot smokers. However, it's absolutely ridiculous that in a state that has made a stand and declared pot to be legal that one can still be disqualified from being able to work because they've consumed it anywhere within two weeks to a month of applying for a job. Just because a person smokes in their free time doesn't make them a bad, lazy, or unfit worker, just as having a drink every now and again doesn't make one a drunkard. Therefore, seeing as they are in the same exact class of substance, Denver businesses should not test for marijuana just as they don't test for alcohol. This double standard is unfair, biased, and based only on the generational hate-mongering and misinformation smearing that has been going on since marijuana was banned in America. I understand testing for harder drugs, but for one that has been approved by the state for general consumption, it makes zero sense and only helps to boost the homeless population that these people look down upon so quickly.

#OpMoneyMouth

Good day, World.

Recently, I've been watching the American people, observing how we've been dealing (or not dealing) with several social, environmental, and economic issues. After years of studying, reading, and writing about these things, I've come to the conclusion that the majority of Americans are somewhat aware of the issues that are plaguing our society. Even those who only view mainstream news and media at least have some knowledge of one side of many of these stories, and now that grassroots movements have shown that they can influence larger media outlets, more problems are being brought to the forefront that otherwise wouldn't even be on the radar. Independent news companies like The Young Turks, The Daily KOS, and Info Wars are also gaining momentum every day, using their more varied stories and viewpoints to build a viewer base from people who may be getting bored with all the usual rhetoric. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media forums are also being used to get messages from the underground out, with pictures, videos, tweets, and such now being a main mode of judging popular opinion on a daily basis by both individuals and news companies big and small. The knowledge of these issues is out there, and slowly, but surely, people are listening.

However, the reason why people do not act upon their knowledge of these things is that we feel helpless to change these situations. We know that the Walton family is making money hand over fist and somehow is barely paying its workers, buying cheaply made foreign goods and flooding our homes with them. We know that the minimum wage is too low, and that bureaucrats who have been making a fortune on our tax dollars are fighting to keep it that way. We know that the US government is spending far too much money on war and not enough on social issues, and that we've been fighting wars all over the world that seemingly have nothing to do with us as a people. We know those things and more, and yet the story remains the same. Why? Because we feel like the problems are too big for us as individuals to address.

Well, what if I told you that every little change counts, that we can start shifting the outlook of the future, and that it only takes a little bit of effort? Would you believe me?

We can.

See, the reason these companies, politicians, and figureheads are in the positions that they are in is because we have allowed ourselves to become blinded to the terrible things that they do in order to maintain that power. Therefore, in our ignorance, we give our money, the most basic and effective form of power that we have, to people that may not care a single iota about us. If we start paying more attention to the companies, products, and services that we choose to give our money to, we can redirect the flow of power to these people who are destroying us by inches.

For example, I am a big fan of Dr. Bronner's Soaps. They're all natural, free of animal testing, smell great, safe for the environment, and clean just as well as any conventional soap. And so, knowing that other companies put things into their soaps and body washes that pollute, are not safe, and could kill you if accidentally consumed, I choose to give my money to this small company that makes a quality product which doesn't have much of a negative impact on the environment.  ( http://www.drbronner.com/ )

The same goes for Marcal tissue, a company whose CEO actually got mad at Greenpeace for not fighting harder to make sure that Kimberly-Clark used more recycled material for their paper products. Of the Kimberly-Clark/Greenpeace "truce," he actually said, "Using any percentage of virgin tree fiber to make household paper products is still destroying the planet." ( http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marcal-paper-ceo-comments-on-greenpeace-and-kimberly-clark-truce-62184077.html ) After hearing that, I switched to Marcal's Small Steps 100% recycled tissue and paper towels, seeing that the head of the company was actually trying to do something about the issue rather than just talk a good game.

Another company I support and have personal experience with is TerraCycle, a company that's been gaining momentum over the past few years using purely recycled goods to create practical products for everyday use. They started with an all-natural fertilizer based on worm compost and have been growing ever since. Now, they offer building materials, home and office goods, electronics, and other useful items that anyone could use on a daily basis, all made out of majority post-consumer waste material. ( http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/products.html?page=1 )

These are just a few of the companies that I know of that can be used as alternatives to working with other more nefarious and greedy corporations that are out there. There are so many more that are there, though the few that I have provided you with is a good launch point to start with. A little knowledge goes a long way, and examining the methods and motives behind the companies that you choose to give your money to is the most effective way to reroute power from those who care nothing for you. Yes, Reader, you are only one person, but by nature of being a human in America, you are a part of a network. If one person sees your behavior and decides to change one thing about what they buy or support, it's a start, and even if no one else follows you, you're still doing the best you can to improve the world around you.

Be the change. Use yours.

Put your money where your mouth is.

#OpMoneyMouth

Good day.

Find me: @xXxAnarchosxXx

"The Way Things Are"

Recently, I've been hearing a bit of resistance to my writing. The complaint is usually something along the lines of this: "Your ideas are good, but it seems like you're trying to convince people to change human nature." I suppose they're right, in a way, given how the majority of humans act towards each other in this day and age.

I have a qualm with this concept of "human nature," though.

You see, one of the supposedly unique qualities of humanity is their ability to make informed decisions without using just instinct. We're supposed to be the most intelligent beings on this planet, our decidedly lacking physical prowess counter-balanced by our hyper-advanced minds. We've developed language independently in our respective civilizations, made technology that makes impossible things into everyday occurrences, and even began understanding the individual components of the known universe.

How is it, then, that we are not evolved enough to make collective advancement possible?

We have enough technology, resources, ability to network, and population density to make the entire world a better place all at once. This generation can end world hunger, war, mass deaths, and most of the evils that the world has seen throughout history.

Except...we won't.

Why?

We've all been taught that it can't happen.

All of the generations before us have taught us not to try to make a difference in the collective consciousness. They squashed dissenting ideas for prevailing ones, delaying or outright obliterating ideas from coming into fruition. Every generation before ours has told us that humans kill, destroy, subjugate, and otherwise ruin each other's lives and their surroundings because that's "Human Nature." We are told from the beginning that humanity is beyond redemption, and that we should not bother trying to affect humanity. Paradoxically, we are also shown examples of individuals who changed history by being either extremely persistent or too intelligent and outspoken to ignore. They are simultaneously paraded around as heroes by our schools and other institutions while mainstream culture constantly convinces us to remain a part of the herd.

In spite of the culture's best efforts, a brave few have broken this mold. It takes an extreme amount of intestinal fortitude to fly in the face of violent, cruel convention, but some have done so successfully. Some of these people are controversial, while others have become worldwide symbols of positive progress. However, in a constantly warring world where "different" has the connotation of "dangerous," it has become rebellion to retain all of your individuality, and it has become treason to defy immoral practices by the ruling class. The people are unhappy, but they are afraid of being ostracized for pointing it out. Therefore, more and more people use the excuse of human nature to justify refusing to act in defiance against the vileness they see around them every day.

You're all either afraid or too lazy to try. You can admit it. You see the evil I see, but you wave it away dismissively under the banner of "human nature." No, you cannot change anyone other than yourself, but if more people decided to change themselves for the better, the world would be a better place. Cruelty, famine due to greedy food distribution, war, domestic violence, police brutality, ethnic tensions between races...these are all taught behaviors. If we can teach a child to hate someone for being different, we should be able to teach them to view people as individuals. If we can teach that one color of skin is better than another, we can teach that all colors are equal.

But we can't teach those things with any sense of gravity if the elders don't truly believe the precepts. Sure, we teach kids in school how to share, that we're all equal and should be treated like that, and all of the rest of the lessons we get from Kindergarten to 6th grade. However, American culture doesn't support the lessons, making the nobler concepts of equality and fairness ring hollow once the kids get a glimpse of the outside world. Of course, everyone is different, but the differences between us should be appreciated, not viewed as a detriment because we don't understand them.

In the end, the reason why things are the way they are is because humanity does not want to change. We have been taught we should not, and so we do not. However, we are completely capable of doing so, and once we realize that, we can make progress together. 

Thought for the Day