poked in his spokes

bye

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:53:53 -0400

bye

if anyone has anything really important to blog please do it now

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:35:36 -0400

if anyone has anything really important to blog please do it now

rgr-pop: Maybe a decade ago, the government offices downtown phased out a lot of its clerical...

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:40:17 -0400

rgr-pop:

Maybe a decade ago, the government offices downtown phased out a lot of its clerical positions, many of which had at one point been unionized jobs paying $15+ per hour, if they were not salaried. When they gradually laid all those people off, they introduced a new clerical position, the “Student Assistant,” which paid around $10-$12 per hour and allowed the state to make the position competitive-looking while structuralizing part-time, non-union labor that excluded almost every resident in the city. A few years ago, a lot of the departments these clerical “Student Assistants” worked in started privatizing. When Lucas held this position, his job was basically to write, rewrite, and digitize forms across government agencies, especially in Technology, Management, and Budget. Writing FOIA forms, creating more bureaucracy, digitizing bureaucracy, but also (at least) working to make paperwork more accessible. But his department, his government job, where we worked in the same building the Governor worked, was actually a contracted project. For Hewlett-Packard. The government contracted Hewlett-Packard to replace its interior bureaucracy-writing department. (And, as it goes, they dissolved their contract and everyone in the department was laid off without warning in the middle of the day.)

Now they are trying to transition those lower-paid, part-time “Student” positions into unpaid internships. Unpaid internships which amount to…paperwork. And maybe a fifteen years ago, would have been salaried and unionized.

It is so easy to say “look at how fucked the millennials are!” That would not be wrong. This is one of the best examples I can come up with to demonstrate how people like Snyder are fucking everyone over and creating, like, an uneconomy for young people which is some bananas labor exploitation.

But how come we never look at these stories and say “wow once residents of this city who worked for the city for decades had salaried, ‘secure’ jobs doing work for the city until the government wrote a new labor model which explicitly denied these local jobs to anyone except for students, most of whom do not even live in this city, many of whom are not even from this state, and now the people who have lived in this city for decades don’t have jobs anymore, and students are mad about getting paid only three dollars over minimum wage”? (Often those people are mad that the city is full of poor people who approach them on the street or sit next to them on the bus, lol.)

I don’t want to read as labor reverent or (god) promoting a kind of broad-based working class movement, because those aren’t necessarily how my politics work, nor do I think they’re that useful. And I won’t pretend like the babies of the New Left (in the UAW, for example) were heroes, or right, or not implicated in this. Walter Reuther was a precious babe and he was really smart and really important but he also invented a business unionism which wasn’t supposed to even sustain itself after the fifties, but which is just as much to blame for Reagan’s war on labor and neocolonial globalization as anything else.

But I am pretty consistently confused about why I hear so many “Millennials” (like, not anyone on tumblr, but in general) invoking labor arguments without really speaking to any of these labor histories? I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand how we look at shitty student jobs and not ask questions about who worked those jobs before we started doing them part-time. While I think unions are “to blame” sometimes, I’m not quite sure why I’m not seeing people my age write think pieces about deregulation, the destruction of the union, and the marriage between US unionism and imperialism that got us here in the first place.

I’m not sure why we can’t look at “Boomers”—ie, people of a certain age—and see that they don’t have jobs either. I can’t for the fuck of me understand why people keep passing around things that say GREEDY PEOPLE IN THE ERA OF REAGAN without recognizing that most people globally under Reagan were suffering, and some of them were right here, you know? YOU KNOW, THE STATE THAT HAS MOSTLY BEEN KNOWN AS A POST-INDUSTRIAL APOCALYPTIC WASTELAND FOR MANY DECADES?? THAT DID NOT HAVE ANY PERIOD OF NOT-RECESSION BETWEEN THE RECESSION IN THE EIGHTIES AND THE RECESSION OF THIS CENTURY? ACTUAL STATE OF PERMARECESSION????That older people really got fucked by this economy, too? Like, most people in my community are of “Boomer” age and are way worse off than I am? And many of them don’t have college educations and so, after being pushed out of “our” economy in order to make space for us to take shitty low-paying clerical jobs, are unable to ever get any kind of work again? And, like, they are older than us and have more health needs, and families to take care of? Not everybody’s parents are rich, that’s what the Reagan era means.

I just…don’t…understand? Is it easy for us to blame and crucify our poor, sick, homeless elders? How come no one seems to notice that blaming people of that generation is a pretty neoliberal project itself? How come people are cool with illuminating the shittiness of the decade that deregulated labor—ie, the generation where Reagan put many of our parents under the poverty level??—but like, totally on board with Bill Clinton, you know, the guy that turned Reagan’s imperialistic project into one of the most globally devastating things you could even imagine, the guy who did MORE TO DISMANTLE WELFARE THAN ANYBODY ELSE EVER BASICALLY?? How come Bill Clinton is not a Robber Baron, but, like, the 50-year-old lady down the street is?? Literally how come you are whining to me about how it’s not fair that I get food stamps (household less than $10,000 and my mother, a baby boomer, makes about that herself), but you can no longer get food stamps without working by declaring yourself a full-time student, which is bad sure but, HOW COME YOU ARE MAD ABOUT THAT BUT STILL LIKE BILL CLINTON.

I have no idea what I was on about, sorry, what? Basically, I am frustrated by the constant insistence that my generation is surprised to be poor because somehow all of our parents were rich, I am sick of “move back in with your rich parents” as a rhetorical device because it’s bullshit, I’m sick of young people using neoliberal strategies they learned in neoliberal universities to try to restructure our neoliberal economy for their benefit and nobody else’s, I’m sick of young people kind of employing a labor analysis but having no understanding of anything that happened in the US or anywhere else for the past thirty years, I am also sick of how sometimes “Boomers fucked us” rhetoric borders on “why ever would I support my ailing family, I WENT TO COLLEGE” rhetoric and on top of that isn’t even augmented by at least some critique of how few public social aid programs are available to our elders because of THE DISMANTLING OF WELFARE. I’m sick of some other stuff also probably.

I guess I’m sick of people my age who have two parents and a family home, lolol.

dtownsteez: myloveinthug: the new Y.N.RichKids (“hot cheetos...

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:26:00 -0400

dtownsteez:

myloveinthug:

the new Y.N.RichKids (“hot cheetos and takis”) is too. fucking. good. and the video! the juiceboxes! riding bikes through mall of america! ben 10 getting a piggyback ride from a roller derby girl!!!

these kids’ level of raw charisma and talent is just like… embarrassing for adults, honestly.

Not sure what to write/think/do right now.

oh my god remember in my car by the pack

rgr-pop: Student Activism, as a poor person. I’m sure a lot of you can relate: I am very lucky, and...

Fri, 10 May 2013 19:22:30 -0400

rgr-pop:

Student Activism, as a poor person. I’m sure a lot of you can relate:

I am very lucky, and I would argue privileged, to have only federal student loans, which have very low interest and are very forgiving, most of which are subsidized and are such not even accruing interest. I had access to this because my family’s income is around the lowest 5% in terms of people who actually go to a university like this. I don’t have very many friends at my university that were given the work study, subsidized loans, and state-funded aid grants that I have received. It really, really sucks to be middle class right now, since the biggest hazards are predatory private loans, which are the only things not-poor people can get. (If they don’t have money to pay.)

However, I do not have the option of a non-federal loan because my credit was ruined before the age of 18 because my mother opened bank accounts in my name in order to keep us from getting evicted, and those bank accounts closed in default. I do not have a parent who can co-sign a loan. In fact, my mother applied for one of those $100 parent PLUS loans the university offers, just for symbolic reasons, so she could feel like she contributed. She was denied.

And, I will never attend any speaking event, participate in any discussion, about the student debt crisis wherein someone (or many someones) doesn’t bring up the fact that some people can get state loans, and that’s unfair. Remember: I am the problem.

I was lucky enough to be eligible, based on financial need, for a tuition incentive program which paid for two years at a community college, where I was able to do well enough to transfer into a major university with some merit funding. (Plus I had a super good experience, got my math and science reqs taken care of for free, and met the love of my life, and was able to work many hours so I could save up to leave my hometown.) My high school counselor basically told me people like me don’t go to college. I did it anyway. If it wasn’t for that aid, and Community College (admittedly one of the best Community Colleges around because it’s a veteran of the Charles Mott model), I would not have ever gone to college. Nor would I have known I wanted to be a history major!

But, of course, Community College will forever be a liability in other people’s eyes. It makes me look bad. People make fun of it, constantly, and it hurts my feelings. It might exclude me from graduate programs, if I ever am able to apply for graduate programs.

Ok but, do you have any idea what it feels like to be a poor person with $15,000 in loans? I know a lot of you do. It’s the most terrifying thing in the world to even think about that many digits. When you were raised in a world where there was no “debt” (because there wasn’t credit), there was only “default.” Where having $200, $100, $50 at one time was sometimes inconceivable and routinely—like, weekly—meant losing everything. I know a lot of you know what it’s like for $50 to mean the difference between homelessness and brief stability. Where if something broke, it cost $300 to fix and usually it stayed broke, and that meant there was no more heat or there was no more car to get to work and so there was no more money. How can you even adjust, going from that to having a $15,000 loan? It weighs on you. I have more access, freedom, money, security than I have ever had but I am still so vulnerable and so afraid. $15,000 is the end of the world to me.

I am statistically more likely, as a poor person, to default on my loan. (So far, so good.) I am also statistically much less likely to finish my degree at all. Like, you know, a 5% chance. (It’s still not a sure thing, not by a long shot.) (Also, please pray for me.)

And, since I had dismal credit before I was even an adult, I cannot sign for my own, well, anything: rental, car, loan, phone contract. (Date a responsible middle-working-class boy!! He can co-sign you!!) If I default on my loans, which so far are my only hope for having salvageable credit in order to live independently in maybe five or ten years, then I will probably never be able to get or rent a home.

However, since my mother’s family never went to college, and are mostly good people, and because I already have enough job experience where I don’t rely on them, and I could lend them support if they needed it, which I do from time to time, I am lucky that my family will never be disappointed in my career choice. I am already doing “better” at my age than any of them ever did. I am at least partially-educated, from a university that everybody knows the name of. I am a “smart person,” like they might have wanted to be. I will never, ever, ever get a lecture from anyone in my family about how my studies are “useless,” because they are “studies” and that’s a big deal itself. They will never call me lazy. They are always impressed with me and always proud of me. (Ok I partially lucked out that I have a very nice family.) This is one of those times when I get alienated by my educated peer group, especially people who aren’t STEM majors.

Most of all, as a poor person from generations of poor people, I have the privilege of never having to feel insecure and defensive that my parents voted for Reagan. My parents did not vote for Reagan.

isabelthespy: by the time this post goes up i will have asked A Trusted Confidante to change my...

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:00 -0400

isabelthespy:

by the time this post goes up i will have asked A Trusted Confidante to change my tumblr password to something i don’t know and thus, be locked out of tumblr till i come back, which i’m currently planning to do after the 18th (end of classes/papers + philosophy final) or poooossibly the 23rd (my only other final). i mean, i am fickle so, like, i could be totally lying. but anyway my point is if you don’t hear from me i’m not dead. PROBABLY NO ONE WOULD HAVE WONDERED THIS ANYWAY but i am weird and vaguely paranoid, so.

xoxo~

i went to isabel’s tumblr because hey isabel would be a person to like my smoke signals post hey where’s isabel been etc, didn’t know this happened, i had been so proud of myself for not reading every single thing that ever shows up on tumblr

but yeah, i think today i’m going to do this, and i don’t know for how long it’s going to be. although i’m really coming to like the privacy of having my page blanked out, it is pretty awesome and stuff and i’ve been a lot more tame with it so far than i’ve wanted to be but w/e. it seems soon to do this but it’ll always seem soon.

update: the whole moving-across-the-country thing isn’t happening, at least not for a while i think, i’m trying to get this job on a three month contract and now i don’t know what i’ll do if i don’t get it, i literally have nothing else to do and now i have no money, i dunno. that hyperbole comic thing being posted today makes me pretty ok in saying i’m on the verge of another megadepression. all my health issues are getting worse and doctors schedule MONTHS between apts when i’d rather be going every day — no one knows for sure what’s wrong but all the possibilities seem to be rest-of-my-life type deals and at the very least it looks like i’m going to have to alter my entire diet and only eat Horrible Bland Shit for the rest of my life and that’s just making everything worse

i’ve had such a wholly unremarkable and boring life, these things are supposed to be payback waaah waaah write about me joel stein

but this also means i have to fix everything starting right now because i’m convincing myself that that’s what my body is trying to tell me, “quit tumblr at least for a while and you will stop having throat and also brain and also butt problems they will just go away” basically, and it might be onto smth idk

i admit 99% of the reason i love chester lake/adam beach is he...

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:07:14 -0400

i admit 99% of the reason i love chester lake/adam beach is he was victor in smoke signals

rgr-pop: I’m so mad SVU got TWO new cops AND a new d.a. AND brought Cassidy of all people back but...

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:05:49 -0400

rgr-pop:

I’m so mad SVU got TWO new cops AND a new d.a. AND brought Cassidy of all people back

but won’t bring back Chester Lake

;_;

how does the fandom hate him he was only on the show for ten minutes

i was watching BTR when this commercial came on and it actually...

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:00:04 -0400

i was watching BTR when this commercial came on and it actually uses the words “just like a cotton candy machine” so this is an RGR alert

a rad thing to know about academia is that harvard, in 2009, was totally cool with a dissertation...

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:24:50 -0400

a rad thing to know about academia is that harvard, in 2009, was totally cool with a dissertation that took I.Q. tests seriously

everyone on facebook keeps posting this jackson galaxy ted talk...

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:33:05 -0400

everyone on facebook keeps posting this jackson galaxy ted talk about feminism and man i didn’t even know he was like into that, kinda nervous about this

rgr-pop: musicamundana: Dis heifer thought it was a fucking...

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:23:00 -0400

rgr-pop:

musicamundana:

Dis heifer thought it was a fucking pin.

I’m stealing waiting to hear from Nick about whether the whole “this is a brooch not a pin, can you tell that I am gay in this fictional universe that’s not even on earth” exchange is in the books because from where I’m standing it looks like classic GRRM dialogue

either way you could say I was very very embarrassed for writers everywhere

i’m reading the second book now (i will probably read two chapters and then put it down like i did w/the first one) and there’s a big deal about how renly dressed his knights in rainbow colors instead of plain white

shame works

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:10:43 -0400

shame works

growingseason said: like, you should hate nicki minaj? or if you do, you better have a reason? the...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:26:00 -0400

growingseason said: like, you should hate nicki minaj? or if you do, you better have a reason?

the second one

the one rule is if you can’t conjure up a damn good reason for hating nicki minaj, you...

Tue, 07 May 2013 01:30:40 -0400

the one rule is if you can’t conjure up a damn good reason for hating nicki minaj, you can’t be trusted

WHAT ABOUT THE WORKING-CLASS WHITE MEN?

Mon, 06 May 2013 01:14:35 -0400

brujacore:

You see, I wasn’t called a bitch, dyke, spic by angry white hardcore boys in high school to be apologetic about my disinterest in their favorite bands

When my ex-boyfriend and I got chased out of a hardcore show by white supremacist hardcore dudes for being brown, the last thing I was really concerned about was their class status

When another ex-boyfriend told me to listen to “Guilty of Being White” at 13, I wasn’t impressed. I was very worried. He later became a Nazi sympathizer.

When some white NY hardcore bros groped and gaybashed our friends during my band’s set in 2011, we didn’t stop to discuss their alienation under capitalism. We kicked them the fuck out.

And you know what they did? They called the cops.

WHAT ABOUT THE WORKING-CLASS WHITE MEN?

What about them?

?

starting a private invite-only I Hate The Internet livejournal group just meet me after school by...

Sat, 04 May 2013 05:00:09 -0400

starting a private invite-only I Hate The Internet livejournal group just meet me after school by the soccer field for the pw

need to leave internet

Sat, 04 May 2013 03:30:35 -0400

need to leave internet

woodyeveryday: — From Manhattan

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:45:40 -0400

woodyeveryday:

— From Manhattan

jsyk when hollywood takes a mulligan it usually costs like a hundred million dollars at least

Thu, 02 May 2013 04:01:14 -0400

jsyk when hollywood takes a mulligan it usually costs like a hundred million dollars at least