Existential Disaster

Hand holding. That's all it fucking took.

So catch me at Pride in a leather harness and holding a bat, because if hand holding is all it takes, we owe it to each other to stand together.

Earlier this year I received a letter of notice from a debt collector stating that they had acquired a debt supposedly belonging to me and that, per law, I have 30 days to dispute the debt. I immediately drafted a letter and sent it to both disputing the debt and request validation of the debt as well as possible settlement arrangements had they actually been able to validate said debt

I sent this letter via certified mail. Always certified mail.

About a week after the 30 day period for them to respond expired, I received a Phone call very specifically crafted in a way to invoke urgency and panic and suggest legal action. So, naturally, I called this number only to discover this was a different company that had only just recently acquired said supposed debt. I reiterated to them that I was disputing this debt and required validation in writing.

The initial conversation went smoothly, they then called me back the next day and became aggressive. They accused me of lying and did everything under the sun to try and trick me into validating this debt as mine so that they would not have to legally send me that validation. I, knowing my rights, insisted that I was disputing the debt and that they were required to send me validation despite them claiming that they were not and that they already had and many other number of lies. I refused to continue the conversation until someone had sent me validation to which they continually responded that they would be forwarding this to their legal department and blah blah blah blah blah.

Surprise surprise, I get a phone call today from yet another company, this one claiming to be in the process of forwarding my account to the county clerks office. That was an immediate red flag as the county clerk does not handle debt disputes. They would have to hire a lawyer in my state to handle this case. I asked what company this was as they had not stated initially, and when they told me I realized this was now another company who had purchased said alleged debt and we’re trying to collect on it. this one outright illegally threatening to take me to court knowing they weren’t.

Beyond that, he tried to lie to me and tell me that a debt validation was not what I thought it was and that a validation was actually just a notice that they had purchased a debt so when I received a letter stating that they had purchased this debt that would be a validation.

That is not true! Debt companies are legally required to send you notice of an allegedly acquired debt in writing and you have 30 days to dispute and request that validation. The company then has 30 days themselves to respond and validate your debt or the debt is forfeit. This man tried to lie to me and tell me that a notice was the same thing as a dead validation in order to trick me into paying a debt that he cannot validate that I am actively disputing.

This is now the fourth company that has attempted to collect on a debt they cannot validate. They know they cannot validate this debt and instead have relied on trying to trick me into paying it. These tactics would absolutely work if I did not have a sales background and or know my rights.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why you always always always dispute a debt. The last debt I disputed was immediately pulled from collections and that allowed me to get back in contact with the original creditor and work out a payment plan so that it would never hit my credit and keep my account with them current. This debt is invalid and therefore they cannot hit my credit with it nor can I collect on it or I will sue them.

For anyone that has a debt sold to a Collections Agency do exactly what OP did and request debt validation (Google-able). Most of the time, the Original company you owed debt to did not give them your Social Security Number or your date of birth; just a good phone number and address. In order to be held legally responsible for it and to be on your credit score, they need your SSN or DOB to prove it's yours.

Usually, they're initial call will say "Hey so before we can discuss your debt of $Xxxx, we need you to verify your SSN and DOB." They're lying. That means they want you to confirm it so they can legally pin that debt to you. If you send a Debt Validation letter VIA CERTIFIED MAIL, that Collections Agency has 30 days to prove you owe the debt and that it does in fact tie to you. Since in most cases they can't, they'll send a letter saying "We don't have the necessary information to collect on this debt. It is now null and void." Send copies of that to the credit bureaus, and they wipe it from your credit report.

With OP, they did the shadiest thing possible by constantly re-selling the debt, thus starting over that 30 day response period.

This is so important.

Do not give your ssn on the phone to anyone who has called you, ever, no matter what the caller ID shows. If you are doing something for which you should be providing your ssn (e.g. applying for a loan), look up the appropriate phone number for the organization you should give it to you, and you call them. If it's at all practical, find a way you can give your ssn to the organization in person at their offices instead, or by a form sent to you via paper mail. (If they're committing fraud by paper mail, that's mail fraud, the feds actually take that seriously.)

Anyone who needs to confirm your identity based on your ssn will tell you the last four digits of your ssn (not the whole thing).

In most cases I've seen, the person just... doesn't show up to court (always a terrible idea). That means the Debt Collector can get a default judgement, which basically means they can ask for anything the law allows. Since you're not there to defend yourself, you're simply at their mercy.

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.

Work first/last day of the month regardless of natural day off or PTO

Work holidays

No overtime

Once the 2020 Quarantine hit, the Powers That Be very much tried keeping everyone in office but it fell apart because of legal mandates. As everyone knows, the general US population had more time to actually think and realize "wait. Im literally dying and not even making money to show for it." So we DEMANDED better working conditions. A year later, we got changes

$15/hr minimum

No more forced first/last day

UNLIMITED OT

Holidays paid OT as well

purple eye disease

vagina fig

burn victim / horse dildo

mcdonalds chicken nuggets / tubby custard

i made stan get blinded by the whole community

Many, many people celebrated Pulse. We were told we deserved it. That it was God’s punishment for our sin of loving the same sex. We are sent messages like these I received in 2018:

We in the community often call the victim count 49+ to include the survivors who couldn’t live with the pain.

The event was never officially declared a hate crime or targeted homophobic attack and is rarely listed as one in databases.

At our vigils for those slaughtered, Extremist Christian groups showed up to protest, holding signs like this:

ID: Me kissing a woman I was casually seeing in front of an angry looking man with a “Sodomy is Sin” sign.

Please understand how much more than just a mass shooting this was. We are still to this day harassed and told we deserved it by some.

This video depicts a moment that is nearly impossible to observe: a sperm whale surfacing with a giant squid clenched between its teeth. These predators hunt at depths exceeding 800 meters, where light does not penetrate, and only biosonar directs the pursuit. Consequently, clear surface images are exceedingly rare.

My favorite thing about this clip is that, in the original uncropped footage, you can see her calf is right beside her, ascending from the depths along with her. Whale calves don't dive until they're taught by their mothers. It is very likely that this footage is of a mother whale teaching her calf to hunt on one of its very first dives.

The rest of you can (and really ought to!) reblog, but it's not your turn to talk. Just listen and reflect!

What DOES a good apology for antiblackness look like, to you?

Not a shitty twitter apology that dodges accountability. Not a genuine apology made to white fans to soothe their embarrassment and egos and maintain white solidarity.

What does an ACTUAL apology for antiblackness consist of, to you?

What actions do you need to see from people who claim to be better, to deserve your support despite a history of being unsafe?

Why do you think nonblack people feel they're entitled to grace, and what would actually EARN them your grace? What makes you not want to offer it at all?

First and foremost American culture is dead set on the idea that Black people, no matter how we've been wronged, MUST be the bigger person and forgive. Whether it be street level racism or extrajudicial murder at the hands of law enforcement, Black people are expected to show grace, mercy, and forgiveness. The only approved avenue for navigating being wronged for racially motivated pain is taking the high road. This is of course done while minimizing the pain caused to the victim(s), which is a form of racism.

There are a myriad of ways to analyze where it comes from, but it always boils down to the idea that Black people are expected to be bottomless wells of emotional labor for White people. Black people are not allowed to be angry or filled with righteous anger seeking justice. Otherwise the narrative shifts to the Angry Black Person trope which has been used to dehumanize us for decades.

Case in point: lynchings in the Southern United States. Black people had next to no legal standing even with no evidence. Even if the victim would be proven innocent posthumously, the family often had no recourse. The only thing they could say publicly is they forgive the accuser; thus setting the precedent without any repercussions.

We're expected to educate, show mercy, and offer forgiveness time and time again with nothing but hollow performative support in return.

Black people are expected to forgive the ones who dehumanize them in public or murder their loved ones. But the ones dehumanizing and murdering are simply expected to "learn and do better". But holding them morally and legally accountable is considered too much.

What would a good apology look like?

Not doing it in the first place. In the modern era, there is no excuse for being ignorant to racism. There is no reason why anyone, especially white people, wouldn't be able to take the burden of racial education upon themselves to learn proactively instead of retroactively. Otherwise, it shows at least on some level, they are fine with the status quo of hoping they dont

The key issue is that buy and large, white people fear being labeled as racist rather than actually perpetuating racism. It stems from the fact that social labels in the US were created by White people as a way to create in and out groups. Getting a "bad" label put on them is jarring. They're no longer just a person, they're a Racist person. Then making racially charged remarks or acting in ways consistent with racism are fine; until theyre called out for it and subsequently labeled. Only at that point do the bells and whistles go off. That's when they try defending themselves against a "bad" label.

When they make public apologies, it's not for the Black victim. It's seeking exoneration from the white community so the label gets invalidated. It's always

"I didn't know that was racist"

"That's not who I really am"

"I have a lot of learning to do"

"I just hope you all can forgive me"

But never acknowledging the actual harm done. Never acknowledging the humiliation. Never acknowledging the dehumanization. Never acknowledging the pain. Never acknowledging the loss of life.