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And he knows that! He's John Silver and he has a long fucking memory. He did not suddenly forget everything about the woman he's in love with. Which means he's telling her that lie either to punish himself and make her reject him, or to punish her (for giving him no choice but to kill Flint to save her?) because he thinks he can break her down and make her accept him.

This hug is what gets me. Look at how Scott holds Kip here, pulling him in so close (almost like he's afraid Kip will slip away) but also so freaking happy and free. Pure, unfiltered joy, and I am 1000% here for it.

A few moment later

Well Carter loves Scott and Kip, platonically of course. He loves hanging out with them but when he watches them hug and kiss, he gets this feeling in the pit of his stomach. It irritates and frustrates him, but he can’t figure out why. He’s thinking about it one night and the thought crosses his mind that he might be homophobic and he’s horrified. Scott is his bestie and he’s grown to love Kip just as much as he loves Scott. He always thought he didn’t have any issues with gay people, especially Scott and Kip, but maybe he does. Maybe he just pushed it down since he loves Scott, and didn’t want their friendship to end, but now it’s bubbling up to the surface and he can’t hide it anymore. He has to get a handle on this for the sake of his friendship and team dynamics.

Carter starts researching how not to be a homophobe and how to be more accepting. He creates a burner Reddit account and explains the situation before asking how to be better. Someone responds, “Dude, I don’t think you’re homophobic. I think you’re in love with them.” A bunch of people agree, but Carter thinks that can’t be right because he’s straight. He thinks maybe he didn’t do a good job explaining everything in the Reddit post and tries to correct people, but they double down on him being in love.

"Something I've learned while in law school is about the social construction of crime. I work in a legal clinic on wage theft cases, where employers have "improperly paid" workers by not paying, paying below min wage, withholding overtime, paid sick time, etc.

Most theft is wage theft. Meaning, the dollar value of stolen wages is greater than the value, each year, of all burglaries + robberies, shoplifting, auto theft, combined. Yet, wage theft is not a crime."

Below this tweet is an image comparing the cost of robbery, auto theft, burglary, larceny and wage theft in billions. Robbery only hits 0.34 billion, auto theft 3.8 billion, burglary 4.1 billion, larceny 5.3 billion, and wage theft accounts for greater than 19 billion dollars. The data is sourced from the FBI and EPF.

"If you steal $100 from your employer, you will get arrested. If you call the police because your paycheck is $100 light, the police will tell you to file a complaint with the AG, and the AG will settle the case for between $50 and $200.

(That's actually not true, because AG's only take on big cases where thousands of dollars are at stake, but they will settle big cases by typically requiring the employer to properly pay what is owed. No jail, no criminal record.)

If the AG doesn't want to take the case, it will give you a Private Right of Action to sue the employer in civil court for what you are owed, plus damages. It can take a 6 to 18 months to win at trial, and months or years to collect on the judgement if you win.

This is what we mean when we say crime is socially constructed. Not all social harms are criminalized. Not all actors committing social harm are criminalized.

I settled a case for $27k for three clients last year. We spent a MONTH negotiating the non-disclosure agreement because the employer stated if all his employees sued him and settled like this, he would go BANKRUPT. His business model DEPENDED on wage theft.

These employers go on to hold elected office. 45 famously used wage theft to improve his finances on construction projects, leaving a trail of victims in his wake. Some sued and he had to pay them. Others didn't have resources to pursue multi-year litigation + got nothing."

Then the user responds to someone else asking a question.

The question:

"Can you explain this reasoning? Why expanding criminal liability is a bad idea? For whom?"

The user replies:

"What should we do about it? Criminalize employers or decriminalize theft or something else?

Wage theft shows that we believe restitution is important. Giving the money back is important. Currently, AG keeps track of bad actors and will increase future penalties for bad actors.

It also shows when harm is committed, we don't have to lock someone in a cage or label them a felon, both of which destroy years of life even after the sentence is over. We can demand restitution instead of punishment.

It also shows how ridiculous the label "high crime neighborhood" is. And the arbitrary and racist response of police surveillance in HCN. Because we defined it that way.

Consider the social construction of murder:

The people committing the most harm aren't in jail, don't live in high crime neighborhoods. And "black people commit more crime" is true only because of how we have defined crimes, and how we then surveil their community in response to find more crimes.

There are so many orgs trying to address harm and create accountability within community + without incarceration. We call ourselves prison abolitionists.

Just a few: @ byp100, @ survivepunishNY, @ justicehealing, @ DeeperThanWater, @ BlackAndPinkBos and @ BlmBoston"

They're both having such radically different experiences in Tennis Club, but I also feel like they both came into the club with very different needs and gaps in their emotional/social abilities.

Like, Shane is someone who I headcanon has always struggled with forming deep friendships because he feels so uncomfortable and so othered. He also has almost no sexual experience and doesn't understand his own sexuality. He's now suddenly being thrown into a group of people that already know he's some sort of queer, that he doesn't have to explain himself to, and for whom otherness is the entire point. Figuring out rules and dynamics and where he stands with various people was really, really challenging for him at first, and "getting a good grade in gay" is DEFINITELY part of how he navigated that. It's also part of him figuring out his own identity and exploring sex in a low-stakes environment. But more importantly, it's such a relief for him to not have to hide everything. Yes, he's still being defensive about Ilya, but he's having genuine conversations about his feelings with other men!! What!!