“I hate ‘we’re fucked.’ I mean, I don’t want to shame anyone who has said it, thought it, or posted it. I have too. But as a philosophy, as a statement of belief, I hate it. Because it means you’ve given up. We are absolutely NOT fucked. Things are so bad. This country has taken a turn that I could never have predicted. It is absolutely fascist, nativist, and extremist. It’s every bit as scary as it seems. But we are not fucked. I read a long-form article on the Russia hacks in the New Yorker not long ago. However much you think that influenced the outcome, it was an instructive piece of journalism. There is very little indication that there was a specific political agenda that was being wished for. The goal was simple: Sow chaos and undermine the faith of Westerners in their own institutions. This is really important to think about right now. I have a high regard for Mueller and I think his investigation will
have some influence. But don’t wait on him to save us. He can’t. And
don’t wait on impeachment. I would support it fervently, but it is
nothing to bank on. And especially don’t assume Trump can’t win again. He absolutely can. Our best bet – better, even, than all of our protests and actions – is actually voting. It’s so square. It’s so old-fashioned. Many of us involved with the hard-left or anarchist scene have been trained to disregard it. Fucking don’t. NOT NOW, guys. It is the best tool at our disposal. Yeah, you can say that they will
sabotage it, reject it, whatever. “Sufficient to the day is the evil
thereof.” In other words, don’t create troubles before they exist.
Anything seems possible to me right now, but it remains the case –
despite hacked voting machines and gerrymandering – that there is no known mechanism by which our government can deny massive voter turnout. Take back the House in November. Then take back the Presidency in 2020. The worst thing we could do is pretend that these are givens. I never,
ever, ever thought that this piece of shit could sit in the Oval Office.
I was so humbled by my error. Therefore I assume he could take it again- I know he could – unless we accept the threat as real. When we say, “We’re fucked,” we roll over. We defeat ourselves. We do their job for them. Don’t do that. We are NOT fucked. We are in a fight. It sucks. It’s hard. People are suffering. The earth is suffering. It will get worse. You know, since everyone loves the Nazi comparisons,
there were people during the HEYDAY of the Third Reich who NEVER said, ‘We’re fucked.’ They said, ‘We’re in a fight.’ And you know what’s interesting? Nazi Germany went from the worst regime in the world to a liberal democracy within a lifetime. Look at Japan. Take the historical view. Stop pretending that the worst of what’s happening now is what is going to always happen. This is what is happening RIGHT NOW. That’s all you know. If you think it’s going to be this way forever, read a book. Countries slide into fascism for long periods. It happens. Countries also have short-term extremist right-wing governments. Happens in Europe all the time. They get voted out. The threat remains. The threat of fascism will remain in America in a way it never has before. It’s a real movement. But we’re not fucked. Not even close. We can get off the ropes in the mid-terms and knock them out in 2020. But only if we stop saying that we’re fucked, and start seeing this as a fight. I’m no Pollyanna. Things are so unutterably bad that I walk around in a constant state of nausea and horror. But you have to take the historical view, and you can’t lie down and say we’re doomed, or else they have beaten you. Again, I don’t want to shame anyone who says, ‘We’re fucked’ as an emotional reaction. I get it, I really do. But if you say that as a historical reality, then you SHOULD be ashamed. We are so far from being fucked. It’s time for that warrior spirit, from everyone. Our best bet, actually our only realistic bet, is to mobilize the vote. There has always been a silver lining to this situation. I have always hesitated to state it, for fear of sounding like I am not taking the horror seriously. Fuck that; I do. But there has always been the possibility, there remains the possibility, that this is a time when our country faces up to its worst reflection, sees it truly, and breaks the fucking mirror. A time when the last bastion of white power and male supremacy and oligarchy attempts to enact fascism, but the antibodies of the American system and American multi-culturalism kick in to reject it. Where do you want to stand in that equation? As someone who rolled over because we’ve have had two awful years of shit that much of the world has already experienced many, many, many times over, so you decided that we’re finished and done for? Come on. Look at Europe, look at Africa, look at Asia. Back and forth with this shit, and much worse. I have your back. Get up. Here’s my hand. Let’s fight. It can’t become hip to give up. It can’t become hip to say we are fucked. Look at history. People have been so much more fucked than us, and won. If you truly believe we are finished, I’m sorry, but you were the first to fall. Stick a fork in you, turn you over, you’re done. I don’t want to see you do that, if only for the selfish reason that we need you. Do all the protests, do all the direct action, make all the phone calls, then mobilize in October and November. That’s when we can get off the ropes and start punching again. Take the long view, my sisters and brothers. Don’t let them take you out of the fight. And if you need me for anything, I am here.”
In a way I’m glad they’re having Moira react like this. It means that when she learns and grows, the audience, ones who are bigoted and ignorant, will hopefully take that journey will her.
Definitely, Robert’s passive acceptance of violence. Robert seems to believe he deserves all and any violence inflicted on him by anyone. I don’t know if this is the show’s way of punishing Robert for myriads of crimes and misdemeanors. Maybe this is their way of telling the GA, “look, he’s not getting away with what he did.” But I don’t know any other character who’s at the receiving end of that level of violence. tbh, most of the time I am uncomfortable with it. Every single Robert storyline or plot has had loads of gratuitous violence directed at him. Frankly, it sends the wrong message. Any time there’s violence inflicted on an LGBT character or a woman there needs to be so much thought put into it and it better be shown it’s wrong. In Robert’s case, the message is always he deserved it, even when it’s partner violence.
To get back to your original question, I would really like this part of Robert’s character to be explored. And it would be a great storyline that might be tied to Robert’s complicated relationship with his father. And hopefully, it would end the aestheticization of violence where Robert is concerned.
you know why forty hours a week is considered the standard maximum?
because for SEVENTY FUCKING YEARS, unions demanded a forty-hour week and worked their asses off trying to get it.
SEVENTY YEARS workers organised, communicated, educated, protested, screamed at the establishment. They stood defiant, they persevered in the face of violent opposition from their employers, they went on strike to the point where one fifth of america’s labour force was on strike in 1919.
Organise. Unite. Stand up.
Stop listening to the bullshit about unions as a concept being corrupt or bad. Stop listening to the bullshit that capitalists invented these things and gave them to us out of the non-existent goodness of their slimy black hearts.
Unions gave you the labour rights you have. A minimum wage, a 40-hour week, Saturdays off, meal breaks–all these basic things were fought for by unions. UNIONS did that. I’m not asking you to feel guilty I’m asking you to BRING IT BACK. We have the power if we unite.
Please support your local unions, even if you can’t be in one.
In 1970, my dad worked at the post office, and they went on strike. This wasn’t permitted – the laws at the time didn’t cover that kind of collective bargaining. But they struck anyway, and marched around with signs in front of the post office, and so on.
One woman started to head into the building, realized they were on strike, and stopped. And my dad told her, “you can go in; there’s people staffing the windows.” And she said, “oh no; my husband’s a Teamster; he’d never speak to me again if I crossed a picket line.” And she left.
That’s how unions work. You support each other’s goals. You don’t casually break the picket line – you accept that the only reason people would be standing around outside waving stupid signs is that there’s something very very wrong with this business, and the workers understand it better than an outsider could.
Even if you’re not in a position to strike, you can be supportive. I know, it’s all fucked-up now; you can be working in an office and your actual “employer” is six states away, and your cubemates are also working for a company somewhere else but a different one, so no amount of waving signs is even going to be noticed by the companies that might actually be able to grant you better pay and medical coverage and so on.
But you can say, Unions are awesome. You can be grateful that unions won the 40-hour workweek. That they won OSHA standards. That they organized to stop “company towns” where you’d be paid in “script” that was only good at company stores. (Imagine working for McDonalds and only being paid in McDonald’s coupons.)
You don’t have to join a union to support union efforts – speak out in favor of them, don’t cross picket lines, and if you have the resources, help the strikes where you can: bring coffee, bring donuts, bring sunblock; let them know that the community has their backs.
Wow! You sound lucky! 🙂 Yes, he is straight but still. He is one half of a very famous gay/bi couple on the show. So, yeah, check the show out. There are a ton of scenes on youtube and other places if you want to see Danny in action. It’s a soap so you can just jump in and figure out the plot as you go along! 🙂
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