Oh Damn, People

“They’re not smarter or faster they’re buying up others’ lifetimes to do their chores”

I see this reaction a lot, and I gotta say, it always makes me a little sad. Whenever the conversation of exploitation of labor comes up, inevitably someone finds themselves struggling with the guilt of “It is so important to me not to contribute to exploitation but I cannot do this thing myself and need someone else to do it for me, so how do I even approach that?”

Exploitation isn’t in the hiring of a service worker. Exploitation is in the respect you show them for their ability to perform the service you need from them.

I have been on a cleaning service staff before, and also been someone who hired a cleaning service, and I can tell you for sure that a lot of cleaning crews (especially worker owned ones) absolutely LOVE their clients and are genuinely happy to be able to make their lives better. The clients they don’t like? Those are the ones who disrespect the workers.

When I was involved with a cleaning service, we had everything from little old ladies living alone to McMasions with five cars as clients, and I can assure you that whenever there was someone who clearly hired us because they were overwhelmed or unable to keep their space clean, those were the households where you put a little more elbow grease in and did a deep clean even when it wasn’t paid for, because you could see how much these people were trying and struggling, and they were always so kind and generous and often embarrassed when talking to you about the job.

I only hired a service a couple if times in my life, but whenever I did, I worked with the same people as often as I could, tipped as well as I could afford, and tried to be the kind of client I would want to have, and that’s how I often ended up with my baseboards cleaned too, or my fridge scrubbed and organized or a restorative clean done in a high use room even when that wasn’t what I had scheduled or paid for.

I’ve heard the same thing from all manner of service workers over the years. Many of us like our jobs! We enjoy the work. It’s the customers that can do a number on you.

open IbisPaint

open a canvas (any one should do)

use the text tool to start typing

choose a font

click the + tab to look for fonts

Google ao3

heres a more visual example

“But I learned this cool th—“

You could also learn it much more reliably by choosing to engage with reputable content explaining it!!

Social media is a place where people can connect— like you and I are doing here. But you saw my post only because another human you chose to follow curated your dash by sharing it. They aren’t making YOUR feed, they’re sharing things they want on THEIR blog that you follow. You can unfollow them at any time. At several junctions, choice is involved.

TikTok removes most of the choice. Not only that, but it isn’t a reputable resource. Unless it’s from a primary source, the loudest people on there usually have no idea what they’re talking about.

And on top of that, it doesn’t enrich your life. I have seen my friends and family just completely check out to scroll for hours because it is designed to have an addictive UI that keeps your brain “engaged” for hours. Imo, that’s a lot less like social media and a lot more like a marketer’s wet dream.

people always say that internet spaces are americanised because the users are majority americans.

and i do always wonder how much of that is "there are actually a majority of usamericans" and how much is "usamerican cultural markers are a default for many online spaces, and non usamericans are often indistinguishable from usamericans unless you're actively looking".

so here's an incredibly unscientific poll reblog for reach or whatever

“…𝔩𝔞𝔱𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔰 𝔦𝔫 𝔞 𝔰𝔲𝔫𝔫𝔶 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔯…”

My barista on the headset tried. "Uh...one's blended and one's...not."

A note of impatience. "But how are they different?"

My barista turned to look at me.

I switched on my mic. "The blended version is more like sweet treat milkshake vibes and the iced version is better if you're looking for a caffeinated going to work moment."

And somehow it was the correct answer.