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OMG, An Open Thread!

I wanted to blog this weekend, but I’ve got a cold. Again.

So it ocurred to me that we could have an Open Thread of some sort. Is there anything you want to ask me? Anything in particular you wish to discuss? Feel free to babble utter nonsense and have a laugh. (lolcat language highly encouraged)

Oh, and don’t worry about my cold, (or my life).

fine-copy

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The Zero Sum Job Game

Zero Sum Game: zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). ie: if one gains, another loses.

Because the job market is all about competition! And because for you to win, others have to lose! Doesn’t it sound FUN?

Proving once again that propaganda is everywhere, even when we don’t notice it. “Competing is good, so long as you come before everyone else”, “everyone can reach the top if you know the right tricks” and “there’s not enough to go around”.

Dedicated to Lynn Gary, producer of the awesome radio programme Unwelcome Guests and author of the quote above, for providing the world with a good-sized serving of dissent and for giving me a much needed weekly dose of sanity.

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The Crisis In Question

Teh Crisis

The speech reads:

“This is the bill with the cost of the financial crisis I caused with your subprime mortgages in the process of enriching myself yet some more. You either pay it or you and the conomy will go to Hell.”

Dedicated to all the victims (that’s right, I said victims) of the subprime mortgages, junk credits and other varous greed powered crap thrown at them.

Oh dear. Another decade, another economic crisis. Another crisis, another chance for journalists, politicians, activists, intelectuals, etc to go on and on about the hows and the whys.

Here’s a wide and spot on description of the general crap of the system, by Michael Albert. And here’s another, from Barbara Ehrenreich, with a very different spin, bringing attention to “positive thinking” as one of the culprits of this giant mess.

With so much discussion going on, what can I, from this little corner of the intertubes, possibibly have to offer, aside from one comic strip?

I could ask the same question that is in everybody’s mind. A question so big, so full of well justified anger and frustration that even the Mainstream Media can’t ignore it. And so it gets raised, time and again. The question is big, true, and the Mainstream media can’t afford to “not ask”. But it’s duty to the public interest ends there. The answer isn’t boiling inside people’s throats as the question is. In fact, I am yet to hear anyone attempting to answer it.
Here it is, the most pressing question this current crisis has brought:

Why are profits privatized and losses nationalized? How come when the cash is flowing it ends in the pockets of a few but when troubles begin we ALL have to pay up?

Now I, plucky little thing that I am, do have the courage to give an answer: it’s because the powers that be want to win at every stage, and so they have devised the most andvantageous system they could, one that innevitably screw us all over left and right. Some have termed it “Socialism for the Rich”, an admitedly corrupt use of the term “socialism”.
But why?
Because we live in a Plutocracy, which is the ruling of the wealthy. And if that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll have.
But why?
Because we haven’t changed the system so far.
What system?
Good Question. One thing is clear: this is not capitalism. This is CRAPitalism, meaning “an ism that’s crap for everybody but those at the very top”. This whole “the State steps in to help out the rich (capitalists) when they get in trouble” goes against the most basic laws of the “Free Market”. Though one could argue that, since rampant, unchecked capitalism does lead to huge concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few, it is innevitable that, when this money making entities (corporations) get too large, it would be quite impossible to let them fall without wrecking holy havoc on the whole of the economy. So the laws of capitalism would seem to break down as the system progresses. But that’s going way too far for this wee little leftist brain. At any rate, it was capitalism that brought this on. So that’s where I would put the blame.
In short, WHY does this happen?
Because this system is inherently UNFAIR. It’s unfair as foock. So we have two options:
1) Accept it’s unfair and stop asking, complaining and crying when it does turn our to be unfair.
or 2) Change it.

And I advocate CHANGE.

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Feminist LOL Funfair

Welcome to the Feminist LOL Funfair! What is a Feminist LOL Funfair, you wonder? It’s a collection of quotes from feminist posts that make me LOL. (I love it when people make me laugh when they weren’t planning to). It’s a Funfair, not a Carnival, because it’s tiny.

Hope you LOL too!

“Hands up all feminists who’ve been told in a patronising tone that they should drop their struggles for gender equality, because there are MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS in the world today? *waves hand frantically* Nice to know there’s a precedent… and nice to know there’s a precedent for replying with bugger off, too.”

The “Bugger Off” did it for me.

from Friday Hoydens: The Suffragettes In Court

“Everyone agrees that Hillary has too many icky girl cooties to be President. But just how icky are her cooties? Normal icky or super-duper icky?”

from She’s probably a bad driver too

“Lauca: If a woman touched Daddy’s penis?
Me: She’d be in big trouble, let me tell you, BIG trouble.”

from The body sovereignty conversation you didn’t get to hear last time

“Q. Is eating Heinz Tomato soup feminist?
A. Yes. (…) It therefore fills all the requirements of feminism. Which are 1)A woman, somewhere, likes doing it and 2)It is therefore full of empowerfulmentnessism.”

from Things you didn’t know were feminist – No 1

I present you sexeee anecdote: when I was 2 I had chubalicious baby fat, the kind that fell in rolls down my legs and arms. My hair was short and whitish blonde. I had a drooly mouth cuz I chewed on everything. And because I wasn’t some prodigy-pooper I was bottom heavy in a diaper like all my tot friends.

Prodigy-pooper! HA HA HA!!!

from Hot for Tots (Sexual Stigma, p.1)

“This post is about all those young women (mostly young) who think Opossum is Cream of Jesus on toast.”

Cream of Jesus on Toast!!! LOL!

from The Opossum Delusion

“Only women who conform 100% to patriarchy’s exacting standards – ones who are beautiful, white, slim, blonde, big breasted etc, etc, etc blah blah de blah blah, don’t get shit. And even then you get shit – because you’re too sexxayy! Rule number one of patriarchy – you can only win with patriarchy if you’re a man!”

In short: you will bet shit. :P

from Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

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Women’s Places Before and Now

This idea sounded better in my head. Oh well.

Here’s a depiction of how women were distributed in the hierachical structure that is patriarchal society* BEFORE…

Before...

And NOW…

Now

I tried to show how things have changed. Well yes, they have, but mostly for those on top. You know, the ones who were already A-OK-ish.
There’s a big reason why the people at the bottom of the structure are sistematically ignored by feminism. Yes, it is, partly, because feminists who have time to engage in feminism are usually from the top themselves. But also, because the only way to move the people at the bottom UP is to move the people at the top DOWN. And yes, the very feminists who are at the top are not very likely to work towards moving themselves down. But also, because in order for that to happen, we would have to bring “teh left” into the table. And “teh left” is, like, not cool. It’s a dirty word. It’s not gonna make you very popular. And it’s definitely not gonna help you sell “cool” books.

Constructive criticism welcomed!

* not to scale, not scientific, not researched, not… that good.

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