Des taxis pour les galaxies... *

So instead of asking “can a feminist do x?” ask “is doing x a feminist action!”

Can a feminist take her husband’s last name? Mu. Null. Question un-valid, please un-ask question.

Is taking your husband’s last name a feminist action? No it isn’t. It doesn’t challenge the patriarchy in anyway, it is the status quo thing to do, it is what is expected of women, and it carries a lot of historical baggage about ownership and shit like that.

“Boss made a dollar Granddad made a dime But that was a poem From a simpler time.

Boss made a thousand Gave pa a cent But that penny paid the mortgage Or at least it paid the rent

This is not “oh my gosh, how do our bosses not understand that the culture before was modeled after being in prison, and that it stifled innovation?”

They knew that. That was the entire point. The workplace culture was like that on purpose, and absolutely intended to keep us busy and miserable, because there are more of us than there are of them, and the last time the working population was aware of that, bosses were forced to make major concessions.

Our previous workplace culture made no fucking sense to continue for as long as it did. We’ve known for decades that the 8-hr workday is not effective, that cubicles destroy morale, and that “lean staffing” is bullshit designed to keep the bosses rich while causing massive burnout to everyone else. More recent is the knowledge that they could afford to double their workforce AND sharply increase everyone’s salary and benefits and still make astronomical profit, but that they won’t, solely out of greed.

But our bosses always said, “well okay, maybe that One Study said this was bad… but there’s Just No Other Way, and even if there was, we can’t implement it! Oh no, things just have to stay the same!”

….until the pandemic forced a change.

Rather than completely grind to a halt and make $0, bosses implemented radical, sweeping changes, and they did it FAST.

And their lies have fucking fallen apart.

We can work from home, and we’re just as efficient- if not more so.

Wearing jeans, t-shirts, and even pajamas or no pants at all does not affect the quality of our work.

Since plenty of us are at home, and “stepping away from the desk” more often than managers would typically allow, we now know that actually, yeah- we can get all of our tasks done in 4-5 hours instead of 8.

Not every meeting needs to be in person. Not every meeting even needs to be a meeting- a lot of them can be emails.

…all those lies our bosses told us have been revealed to be ash, falsehoods to preserve the status quo. Their system of power that was broken beyond repair has been un-glamoured. We see it for what it really is.

…which is why our bosses want us to return to it ASAP.

Because we’re aware now that it’s broken, but we haven’t truly started to fight back yet.

We can see that the structure is essentially held together with sticks and spit, but no one’s given it a good kick yet.

They want us back under their thumb before we get a chance to remember what our greatest weapon is and use it against them.

Hint: it’s unions. It’s organization. It’s dignity, and knowing that we deserve it, and collectively deciding that we’re not going to put up with less. Unions, and collective bargaining, and strikes, have the power to completely dismantle the system, and they know it…

They want to returns us to the system that burns us out, because for the first time in decades, we’re not just smoldering coals anymore- we have a spark. And motivation to fan it into flames.

Nurture that spark, y’all. Unionize.

You don't have to date. You don't have to stop being friends. You can just keep hanging out. Self control and respect exists.

thank u. its random comic tips which may or may not answer your question time, cookie edition

Houses in my city go for, like, $500k. I can't. Housing prices in the US have skyrocketed while wages have stagnated. That is in fact the problem--most people cannot afford to buy a house, and many people pay more than half their income in rent. Ever saved up for a down payment on a house while doing that?

"mOvE iF yOu DoN't LiKe YoUr LaNdLoRd"

Moving is expensive and stressful. There's no guarantee of finding another place within reasonable distance of where we work, where we buy groceries, etc.

"bUt If LaNdLoRdS dOn'T rEnT oUt HoUsInG wHeRe WiLl PeOpLe LiVe?!"

If landlords/property companies all were forced to sell every place they owned except housing they specifically lived in, the market would have such a glut of housing that prices would nosedive in nearly every city in the US, possibly to the point where normal, average working people could buy one. Houses and apartments do not blink out of existence because a landlord stops renting them out. Why do I see this dumbass line of logic so fucking often.

People literally cannot wrap their minds around the fact that landlords (and I include property companies--the kind that own multiple apartment complexes--as landlords) don't create or do anything of value. "But when I need the water heater fixed, the landlord fixes it." Except for some mom'n'pop landlord operations that insist on DIY'ing everything, your landlord is not the one who is fixing it. The person who physically comes to your unit and fixes it is the person who fixes it, and your landlord is just an expensive gatekeeper who decides for you whether you actually need your water heater fixed. If you owned the place you could have insurance against that kind of thing, you could put money in a co-op that pays for that kind of thing (like condo associations do), or you could just pay out of pocket for it if you have the money. If you did take on the risk of repairing it yourself, the only person who would suffer is you. But you wouldn't be at the mercy of some dipshit who tries desperately not to get your water heater fixed (even though that's illegal), or who hires the cheapest person they could find (who might suck ass and make it worse), or insists on doing it themselves (whether they know what they're doing or not).

HUMANS REQUIRE SHELTER TO SURVIVE. The modern standard for housing includes things like locking doors, ceilings and windows that don't leak, walls that aren't covered in mold, and working electricity, plumbing, and hot water at a bare minimum. On top of that, we need shelter that's near enough to our place of employment and places to buy food, etc.

Landlords do not provide housing. They hold it ransom for as much money as they think they can get, because they know we need housing to survive. They buy up as much housing as they can (reducing the supply of available houses for sale) and then rent them out at a profit (which means more than they're paying on the mortgage, if they have one). They are hoarding housing, creating a false scarcity, and then profiting off of it.