Progressive Growth – A Race To The Fascist Line

“Of course people are gonna challenge these ideas. There’s nothing really holding these ideas together, is there?”

Lovely Picture

It’s a lovely picture… What is it??

King Critical argues in a recent video that straying from Liberal orthodoxy does not a Conservative make. He describes the arbitrary groupings with panache, walking us through how going to the source material first started him asking bigger questions.

“So, I looked into Islam and I came to an uncomfortable conclusion – I literally could not believe Islam is true. Because if I did, I would have to believe lots of horrible, horrible, evil things.” 

“And I wanna stress this – I don’t mean these things were the *apparent* meaning.” He tells us he read the Koran all the way through, along with official commentaries. As always, he wanted to double-check before making up his mind.

“I don’t mean that these things were the most obvious reading, or the most mainstream reading, or the most scholarly reading. I mean these things would be the *only* reading.

“Really looking towards proper Islamic scholarship, I arrived at a conclusion – Which is no! Context doesn’t help! Interpretation doesn’t help.

“There’s no way to interpret ‘fight the unbelievers until they feel themselves subjugated, because they want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths’ other than, ‘Don’t allow people to criticize Islam, use violence to make them so subordinate that you can just impose your will on them.’

“I don’t see any other way to read that.

Hitting a wall like this will sound familiar to anyone who’s had a ‘Peak Trans’ moment. When you reach the inescapable conclusion that you are mistaken, the reasonable person will take a step back and have a long think.

Michael says all this to illustrate how quickly party orthodoxy begins to unravel once you start asking questions. “It’s kind of weird that me having a different interpretation of the Koran came to be such a monumental political event for me. Why would that be the case?

“What on earth is the association between believing in man-made climate change and believing that Surah 9:29 through 32 is actually not commanding the subjugation of all non-Muslims?”

I don’t think he means to imply that man-made climate change is nonsense. It seems to be a random example, and maybe that’s the point: “There’s no association between those two things, and yet they’re connected. 

“It’s simply because ‘Progressivism’ – as some big, amorphous blob – just decided collectively to be wrong about Islam. The result of that is, when I looked into it, turns out Progressivism is wrong.

Ice Cream Oops

Has the cheese slipped off his cracker??

“Similarly, it seems like Progressivism has just *decided*, ‘Let’s believe that biological males can be women if they say so.’ It’s so self-evident that this is nonsense.

“How could anybody possibly be surprised that a critical thinker is not going to be one hundred percent progressive – Or, indeed, one hundred percent conservative?” But the ubiquity of this inclination highlights the dearth of critical thinking out there.

Michael keeps ploughing forward toward his larger point, but his bramble of a question snagged me – What connects the ideas of so-called Progressive parties? And the answer was obvious – Money.

Down The Moneyhole

Progressive politics is all about moral mandates, more concerned with doing the ‘right’ thing than making any sense.

Despite this, after September 11, 2001 and in the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq, objections of a more intellectual bent were growing from the general atmosphere of anti-Muslim sentiment. Christopher Hitchens was a particularly loud, articulate voice, insisting the ‘religion of peace’ was really determined to convert the whole world.

He’s dead now, and his sentiment has long been drowned out by popular repetition of the Good Muslim trope. Conflicting interpretations are a common-sense explanation in a world shaped by Protestantism.

But, as Michael said, “Finding out Islam isn’t true, well, that’s no big deal.” It’s just awfully convenient how this narrative flows right along with the oil contracts we’re all pretty sure Iraq was actually about.

We have seen how the policies of each successive administration don’t actually differ all that much from their predecessor, whatever they may say. Once again, we have to break down the words they use – Neoliberalism by any other name is just as Randian, and actions tell the real story. 

Progressive generally refers to social progress, lifting up citizens’ standard of living through technological and bureaucratic innovation.

But progress also means growth, and this begins to bring things into focus.

Tied Up

Is this what he meant when he said he’d keep me tied up all weekend??

An Oily Business

Exxon knew they were screwing us all back in 1982. Their own scientists expressed concern about what their business practices were doing to the environment, and their models looked pretty bad. They tried to cover it up, but by the end of the decade it was widely accepted that greenhouse gas emissions were a problem.

By 2003, the board had been tilted such that George W Bush removed carbon dioxide from the list of regulated pollutants altogether. It’s probably the methane from all those damn inefficient cows, right?

Along a similar timeline, plastics went from modern miracle to environmental disaster. Recycling was everywhere – A system so official, I know plenty of people who saw the reports about Chinese landfills, but still manage several bins as they cling to that sense of control. 

Visiting South America in 2003, filmmaker and author Naomi Klein found herself with the vista to see a bigger machine in motion: “If we look at the history of this really quite radical economic model – of privatizing key state assets, deep cuts to these social assets that people tend to protect like healthcare and education – When politicians try to do this under normal circumstances, people tend to organize and resist.”

Pesky populace, wanting their fair share of resources!

“So, the use of crisis for political ends has been a part of the advancement of this ideology.” Naomi laid out her ideas in a book she called Shock Doctrine, “The shocks are getting bigger, a debt crisis isn’t enough to disorient a whole society and convince them to accept their bitter medicine. Crisis is required to rationalize policies that would be rejected under normal circumstances.

“The legacy of this economic system is tremendous inequality.” Traditionally, inequality begets instability.

Leviathan Sheds Its Skin

Naomi’s distant perch and well-developed political vocabulary presented her with an opportunity to connect the dots, “There were all these things going on in Latin America that were all connected in rejection of this economic model. They saw a real connection between their rejection of these policies, and the fact that the same economic program was being imposed in Iraq through tremendous violence. 

“You really saw and felt those connections – Bechtel, just thrown out of Bolivia, suddenly shows up in Iraq with the exclusive to rebuild their water system.” How convenient! “It felt like this model that had been imposed peacefully – through the International Monetary Fund, through the World Bank, through the World Trade Organization – that wasn’t working anymore.

“The legacy of inequality was so dramatic that the sales pitch of, ‘just wait for the trickle down’ wasn’t working anymore.” Not only is the trickle not coming, the top layer is designed to absorb it. People decided they were sick of this shit in the 19th century! But the demand for infinite growth means infinite consumption  – And eternal colonization.

Space Couple

Jesus, Gary – What the hell did you get us into this time??

“Now there was this new phase – And it wasn’t even asking, and it wasn’t even negotiating, it was just imposed through raw violence. We’ve entered this phase of disaster Capitalism, using a shock to impose what economists call ‘economic shock therapy.’ Austerity measures we know are hard on the poor, but sacrifices must be made for the bottom line. And anyway, if they were productive workers, they wouldn’t be poor! 

“Water privatization, electricity privatization, displacing poor people on the coast with hotel developers – A social re-engineering of society in the interest of corporations, which is what we’ve been doing under the banner of Free Trade.” Rolling in elements of social control has allowed the same colonialist consumption mechanism to keep running in the background, an escalator to nowhere.

“But now, it’s under the banner of post-disaster reconstruction.” This always seemed like a weird flex after decades of fearmongering about over-spending, but it’s all about emphasis – In an atmosphere of anxiety, logic gives way to instinct and we become easily lead. 

Atmosfear

We have to cut the school lunch program – Do you want your kids to be owned by China? We had to invade Saudi Arabia Iraq because our guy  Saddam wasn’t doing what we wanted playing by the rules! Clearly, a bad apple…

This angle makes the old-fashioned theocratic aspirations of the right wing look almost quaint. Trump’s tendency to tell on himself by accusing his opponents of his own tactics might suggest so-called ‘Progressive’ politics should be scrutinized for their obsession with moral mandates. Single-sex spaces were only ever really a moral mandate, unenforceable as our Trans friends have made a point of demonstrating. And when the narrative began to shift, we took too much for granted.

Because there can be no dissent if you don’t ask for consent. Innovation – the very Future itself – is at stake! Climb aboard, and take the endless ride to nowhere.

And I think that’s the twist – A lot of us missed it because the fascist’s mythical shared past has been replaced with a mythical future. The strip mines were necessary, you know – We needed the minerals to power our space-ready gadgets.

Innova-shunned

Most pro-Capitalist arguments are made by those who believe wealth drives innovation. They must have some of their own hearts propped up with this idea, because innovation is part of the human psyche. Innovations in trade and commercial enterprise is what got us here. 

True innovation is a group-level effort. Materialists appreciate that real, lasting social progress requires a collective push. ‘Progressives’ may twist language in knots and say anything to feed the bottom line, but they understand the importance of materials.

Bolt Of Fabric

If we make them pretty colors, they won’t notice they’re all the same!

Opposition is strangled in the cradle as the ultimate narcissist in our midst rationalizes away all the bad thoughts. The right wing wags its finger at you, but their God is waved away as easily as they invoke him.

‘Progressives’ are delivering us to their very real corporate overlords with a smile. Borrowing from power grabs past to dampen dissent, they reassure us while Capital continues to evolve and spread. 

What can we do? For now, I think it’s important more people recognize we’re being played by both sides. Yes, Republicans want to take away women’s healthcare. But Democrats are doing their part to make even discussing such things impossible. 

Will we be forced to bend the knee for Abraham’s God or Uncle $am? It’s a race to the Fascist line! 

Working Mothers: Walking Man’s Road

The article’s lumbering title reads like a summary of the past 50 years of feminism – American Motherhood Vs. The American Work Ethic – Working motherhood is getting harder, Let’s fix that!

Grocery Bag

I’m sure setting it up so I can do it myself wasn’t in the budget this year!

Meet The New Boss…

Senior Data Reporter Rani Molla sets the scene, “’When you’re in a tough position, when you’re forced to make a choice that isn’t ideal, oftentimes, you’ll find a silver lining and you’ll find a thing to look to that allows you to feel good about that choice.'”

And Vox is here to help you with that. “The root cause of this crisis long preceded the pandemic … and something’s got to give.” Naming the pain gives the illusion of urgency without actually having to fix anything.

“What happens next may significantly shape what the future of work is like for millions of Americans.”

Probably, and it’s shaping up to be more of the same: “The American Rescue Plan … gives parents a child tax credit of up to $300 a month per child – not enough to pay for full-time child care, but certainly helpful – and advocacy groups are hoping that benefit will continue indefinitely.”

Just like the wage stagnation and creeping inflation that will eat up every bit of benefit from it, sooner or later.

“‘And there are hopeful signs that at least some companies are taking these issues seriously.’” This is what we’re left hoping for! Why hold our elected representatives responsible for the state of the standard of living? Just beg a corporation for what you need!

They really do have our best interests at heart – “‘There’s been a lot of research that talks about diversity in general, but even specifically women in leadership roles, and how that can [positively] impact culture and financial results.'”

All aboard the sinking ship!

Waist Deep

It just keeps getting deeper!…

“’So organizations are very focused on that.”’ How’s that going?

“‘I really hoped that the silver lining was coming, that there would be some more structural change,'” Danowski said. “’I’m not really seeing that.’” Gee, whiz.

“Flexible work schedules, where women can duck out in the middle of the day to pick up a sick kid or get some chores done, are a way to help women balance their conflicting demands.” Fuck this, I am so over it. How about helping me even out my workload??

No, it’s the same old crap we’ve seen a thousand times – Now with Pandemic! “But when the pandemic came and shuttered schools and child care services, Danowski’s feminist ideals smashed into reality. She makes less money than her husband … So her family made a simple economic calculation” Nothing personal, honey!

Our overworked attorney dutifully cut her hours in half, because “She had to take care of the kids.” 

…Same As The Old Boss

Bizarrely, women have come to a place with more choices, but fewer options.

Kids have become optional, but work is now mandatory. Trouble is, the next generation still has to come from somewhere.

But it’s all so unfair! “Because many women in heterosexual partnerships are making less money, that often pushed them to take on an even larger portion of child care and housework than they already disproportionately shouldered.”

The role of Mother/Spouse feels pretty out of touch with the current moment, lacking any serious earning potential. But hypotheticals about division of domestic labor fall flat when you both work, and only one is lactating.   

“‘I always need to be available for my team, clients, and also reporters, in addition to the day-to-day work that needs to be done,” Lauren Perry, a vice president at a PR agency who’s based in Massachusetts and who has a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, said. To keep up, she multitasks and misses sleep.”

Ten Of Swords

No, really, I’m fine!

In the push to measure up to male standards in a man’s world, women have demonstrated our adaptability and taken on those skills. After a lifetime of educational milestones, the birthing bed can feel like a detour. Time spent having babies is taken straight from your career. Those early years are the most impactful for kids and careers alike.

Work/Work Balance

The problem is right there in the title, and never leaves center stage – “The only way Danowski could meet the strict court deadlines for her job was by regularly working on weekends and through the night after her kids went to sleep.” Why not work while they’re awake?…

“’It meant my own self-care and basic needs – sleep, exercise, downtime – came dead last,’ she said. ‘I usually thrive under pressure, but this translated to frequent meltdowns, panic attacks, and a whole new level of stress I never before experienced’ … Nearly two dozen white-collar women Recode [that’s Vox’s bespoke tech mag] interviewed in recent weeks said working from home during the pandemic stretched them beyond their limits.”

But Vox is here to put it all in context for us: “The expectations for the American worker and the American parent are inherently contradictory.”  Maybe because those roles were designed to be filled by separate people?

It’s almost like there’s someone missing here… 

“The ideal worker norm tells you that you have to be dedicated to your job 24-7…’ Jessica Calarco, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, told Recode. “The paradigm of the ideal worker is predicated on the notion that someone else (typically a female spouse) will take care of child care and domestic labor.

That’s right – Mothering is work.

The Bird

When you gonna even up for all this unpaid labor??

Mothering is often long, grueling hours spent with someone with poor communication who relies on you for everything. Mothering is thankless sleepless nights, even without deadlines to meet.

” …The ideal motherhood norm tells mothers that they are supposed to be dedicating their entire lives to their children.” Yep, each role is its own full-time gig. Most of the time lately, women are working two jobs to enable the long wage hours the breadwinner needs to pay the bills. Any ideal of motherhood has the life squeezed from it between dings of the timeclock.

“‘It’s so in everyone’s face right now…'” We had better get out in front of this before it effects the Bottom Line! “…said Jasmine Tucker, director of research at the women’s advocacy group National Women’s Law Center. ‘If we want women to come back to the labor force, then we’re going to have to make it so that they can afford to do so.”’ Big business doesn’t care about your kids… Can’t you send them to your mother’s or something?

So, What Do You Do?

We’re given the task of ‘balancing’ these 2 competing roles. Focusing on the balancing act means we’re not really focused on what we’re doing. This nurtures cognitive dissonance, just creating more stress.

Life has so much more to offer! What about hobbies? Free time? Self-improvement? Anything??

Sure! These days, you can monetize whatever you want faster than you can say, ‘Side Hustle.’

Strawberries

I knew I should have taken that marketing class!

“Her mother’s generation had it different, Danowski says.” No, really? Do tell! “‘While she limited her work to fit only within the hours her kids didn’t need her, I am constantly working and even looking for more time to give to my career.”’

That’s because her job was for extra money. Yours is your ‘career,’ that you’ve been convinced you needed. And – Ta-da! – Now you do!

But, what if – Bear with me, this might sound a little crazy – What if we made it easier for women to be mothers instead of focusing on getting mothers into the workforce?

The Working Woman was created as an alternative to Woman Classic, but it was a choice – Career Gals were often single and almost always childless. There was always a whiff of slumming in agonizing over a choice poor women never had.

But all of us are working women now.

Revitalize Feminism By Coming Down To Earth

The outside world will save us. I know it exists, because I lean on it all the time.

Table Holding Me Up

This table is the only thing holding me up rn!

We all do – Medicine relies on it to make diagnoses and treatments. We’re using it right now because, of course, technology counts on particles, materials, software, and even human intuition to function in expected ways.

But we don’t really like applying this predictability to ourselves. Each of us is a brave pioneer in her own universe! We’re all soaking in Choice Philosophy, the spread of Gender Religion just the latest wave of neoliberal nonsense to wash over us.  

Those waves have only gotten bigger over the past 50 years – Choppy seas stirred up by a handful of men hellbent on preventing the State from supporting its People.

Not Us – ME!

Centering everything around my own identity isn’t narcissistic. I’m contributing to Diversity, the most important virtue of all!

So goes the Wokist’s Prayer. The problem is, it’s a total lie. A lie told over and over as various kinds of ‘validation,’ throwing the guilty conscience a bone to gnaw on.

I shouldn’t be too hard on them, we’re all guilty of staring a little too long into the void here and there. I wish I could tell those new converts that it’s time to step away from the black mirror. I promise, it will be worth it.

The problems are visible to anyone who goes looking. I’m not the first person to point out that identity politics atomizes humanity. Or that this only serves the interests of the ruling class. Oh yeah, they’re still around, despite what you may have heard.

They have gone underground for the last hundred years or so, after the People made it clear they weren’t interested in financing their inbred regimes anymore. Call me paranoid, but the mushrooming of individualism in the media their heirs run doesn’t look accidental.

Especially considering that the ruling class has a new motivation to clamp down and preserve their power in this brave new world.

New World Birth Order

Before the fall of the old world, nobility tended to outbreed the lower classes. They had access to healthcare – Not better healthcare, often just any at all – and a greater percentage of their children survived into adulthood.

During the 20th century, that ratio flipped.

Antibiotics, standardized care and education, bountiful nutrition across most of the Western world, change on every level set the scene for a boom in regular people. The world population doubled in 50 years. Then it did it again. 

Meanwhile, the wealthy are still human. They’re not immune to the dropping birth rate everywhere modernity takes hold. The regular people outnumbered them to begin with, but these trends have made some of them very nervous.

We live in an era of unprecedented prosperity, but our culture is plagued by a nameless anxiety. Recently, we learned a whole new level of dissociation from our daily grind through the half-relationships of social media. Feeling close to the gilded ones tilts the landscape just enough, enough so we don’t see ourselves collectively producing the wealth being sold back to us as lifestyle brands. 

In fact, we’ll take one in every color, thanks! Better get them before everyone has one.

On High

That coupon code oughtta hold them for a few days!

The set for this divide-and-conquer scene is painted in the bold primary colors of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’. We complain, but we kinda like it that way. This shallow pantomime has become almost comforting as the world rocks around us.

But these labels don’t really apply anymore. The old politics is dead.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

What makes a leftist a leftist? Collectivism is the defining feature of real leftist politics. They want to recreate society to function as well as possible for as many people as possible.

The right is defined by individualism. The rugged pioneer is a powerful American icon but, if we have to go to space to find a frontier, we might want to check ourselves first.

Not that collectivism doesn’t have its issues – Put that collective power in the hands of one person and, Voila! you have a dictator. Kinks need ironed out, but it’s never going to get done if none of us really understand what we’re talking about.

The supposed ‘left’ is not really any such thing. Democrats aren’t pro-union. They talk here and there about healthcare, but prefer patchwork to enacting the overhaul the system really needs. The social safety net is the essence of leftist politics, and Democrats are too busy collecting donations to pay much attention to collective action.

The right, on the other hand, have been hardcore individualists for a while. Many people are attracted to conservative politics because they mistake consistency for authenticity. Their message hasn’t changed much in 50 years but, behind the scenes, the most toxic elements have eaten away at the ideology until the pillars of racism and xenophobia are about all that’s left.

Who’s The Purest Of Them All?

And no one fits neatly into one camp or the other, anyway! No one is lock-step with their party affiliation, and purity politics has everyone pointing fingers.

We’re locked into a purity death-spiral because each of us is locked away in our own identity. We’re left unable to muster the group energy necessary for anything to really get done. We’re too busy arguing over who counts as black or female or needy to come to any agreement of substance. We lose sight of common ground when we’re each busy staking our own claim.

Both sides complain about purity politics. Both sides accuse the other of ‘cancel culture.’ And both sides do it, because they’re two flavors of the same thing. It’s all different facets of commodified individualism.

Your Dreams Were Sold To You

Every ounce of energy you spend choosing from the 1,400 different kinds of toothpaste, 80 burger joints and 25 different shows to watch – That’s energy you won’t be spending on anything else. These droplets of time condense into an ocean spent pondering meaningless details, while the world burns.

Burning Cross

Honey, quick – Go turn on the sprinklers!

Not an ideal situation for most of us. 

But the revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries taught the ruling class a thing or two, as well. If internet weirdos are pondering the guillotine, you can bet it’s occurred to those nervous oligarchs! 

Not that we should expect anyone to take responsibility for the current mess. But if you scratch the surface of modern economics, you find Friedrich Hayek hosting meetings in the settling dust of WWII.

His collection of intellectuals complained about the collectivist trend started by John Maynard Keynes, and made plans to drown it in the bathtub.

If this sounds like a conspiracy, that’s because it was. And it even has a Wikipedia page! – 

“Economic historians have labelled the period from about 1951 – 1973 as the Age of Keynes or, more commonly, the Golden Age of Capitalism due to its relatively high average global growth, low unemployment, reduction of inequality, lowering of public debt and very low incidence of financial crises,” almost as if Capitalism works best when well-regulated! 

But just as the old Democrats were setting up the Great Society, contrary currents in their own government were already undermining them. They had to, you see, because these thorny cultural arguments have deep roots in economics, the ruling class’ area of special interest.

Focusing on material economic outcomes brings everything into focus.

Follow The Money

Those who would profit from our labor have been focused on them for a long time: “As early as 1947, Friedrich von Hayek had gathered together some 40 intellectuals with free market sympathies to form the Mont Pelerin Society. Their explicit intention was to nurture intellectual currents that would one day displace Keynesianism and other collectivist influences.

Their level of success is nothing short of amazing – “In the decades following its establishment, the Mont Pelerin Society came to take a central role within a network of over 100 pro-free market think-tanks located all over the world.

“The think-tanks typically enjoyed financial support from commercial interests. Conflict of interest, anyone? “Collectively, the think-tanks won increased acceptance for free market thinking …You know, the thinking that gave us the transatlantic slave trade and the Great Depression! “…within academia, within public opinion and among governments.” One of the key US organizations listed is the Heritage Foundation. Something told me they were bad news…

And they weren’t the only one shilling for Hayek: “1968 was a pivotal year when power shifted in favour of private agents … when America suspended the conversion of the dollar into gold except on request of foreign governments,” This matters because the US Dollar went from being backed by gold, to being backed by faith. “which they identify as when the system Keynes had helped to design first began to break down.”

This breakdown was helped along over the next few years, “Further key events were the Nixon Shock of 1971 when conversion to gold was suspended even for governments, the collapse of the fixed exchange rate system in 1973, and the United States official abandonment of capital controls in 1974.”

Excuse You

Here’s to Richard Nixon, that swine!

So, what I’m saying is, they did all this on purpose.

Hayek’s disciple Milton Friedman continued writing from this angle over the next 20 years. “Friedman’s work began to gain increasing acceptance among academics after 1973, when stagflation – the simultaneous increase in both inflation and unemployment – became prominent, just as he had predicted.” The system failed just like the guy working to sabotage it said it would! How about that shit??

But this vindication, combined with characteristically wishful midcentury thinking, lent credibility to Friedman’s theorizing. The reversal was complete by the 1980s, and Friedman’s theories have become standard operating procedure in the US and the UK, among other countries.

See, Friedman was worried about how the big, central organization necessary for a social safety net would inevitably lean toward regulating behavior, if only to keep things simple. It’s incredible the lengths he and his comrades went to avoid their own hypothetical oppression, while apparently ignoring the suffering of those cannibalized under unbridled capitalism.

Don’t Say The Secret Word

The early modern period saw radical experimentation in collective infrastructure. This was breaking with millennia of tradition, creating something new and unstable. The urge to dissolve back into our tribal groups is ever-present, and the architects of culture have made this their goal.

Western propagandists embraced the despotic ‘socialism’ of the Soviet Union and others, training entire generations to cringe at the word. Millions of kids were traumatized watching graphic news reports from ‘communist’ countries as their government road-tested the Ludovico Method.

So, collectivism is blocked from all sides. Meritocracy is real and good. To disagree is to discredit yourself, just work harder! The Market balances all forces. Shop, or the terrorists win!

After 100 years of consumerist distraction, we’ve woken up in a literal reincarnation of the old-world monarchal system.

Old-school monarchies were private families who owned almost everything and ruled with authority given by God, who must not be questioned.

Modern corporations are private companies buying up everything, their authority endowed by the Market, which must not be questioned. I don’t think this resemblance is a coincidence.

Both sides are prone to cancel culture and purity spirals because both sides are invested in the current system – That is, both sides are conservative. There hasn’t been any real progressive or leftist representation in Western politics for decades.

Identity Is Irrelevant

I laughed pretty hard the other night when I saw long-time self-anointed Progressive YouTuber Kyle Kulinski getting heated, saying Caitlyn Jenner’s identity doesn’t matter in a Governor’s race if the platform is terrible. Maybe he’ll see it one of these days. Identity doesn’t matter. 

If you are a human being, it’s very likely you will encounter certain material needs. Whether you like this, or what any of it means to you, is not important to how the resources are distributed to fill these needs. 

The answer, as history betrays its authors to show us, is to put personal identity aside in favor of creating the largest coherent group possible.

If the system doesn’t work, your identity falls by the wayside as you struggle to survive. If the system does work, your identity is irrelevant in what you can achieve.

Material reality is referred to like a catchphrase only used by Marx groupies, but it’s superbly useful to everyone! We all live here every day, and we can all see what effect the current paradigm has had on the world around us.

Wuthering Hts

Don’t worry, Babe, the new job pays $12 an hour – And they only need me there eight days a week!

Let’s Ignore The Bullshit

As furiously as they obsess

And harass

And insist that we validate their Gender Souls

We will defy redefinition

Resist redirection

And push back with material facts. 

Women exist beyond men’s imaginations, and reality is on our side. We have allowed ourselves to get distracted by shiny bullshit, but history isn’t completely forgotten.

To revitalize feminism, focus on the real. If it isn’t material, it isn’t  relevant.