Vic Crain raises an important issue:

“I really don’t understand why people so firmly resist the idea that economics, not race, is the fundamental dimension of discrimination.”

This happens because there were concerted and extremely successful efforts to substitute the terminology of class war with the terminology of inherent, inborn, inescapable identities.

The goal was to support the “end of history” line of thought that goes as follows:

the only real divisions among humans are those of “identities”

⇓

 “identities” are the source of all problems that we experience today

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“identities” are “hard-wired” and can’t be changed

=

ergo, nothing can be changed and we live in the best of all possible worlds.

It’s a nifty little trick of manipulation aimed at ensuring that everybody is so dedicated to the endless repetition of trivialities (without which no identity can exist) that economic exploitation does not even get mentioned.

As the great Spanish writer Rafael Chirbes observes, the word “class” is used today solely to signal that one is not adhering to the values of consumerism well enough. We all know what “She has so much class!” and “What a classy guy!” mean, don’t we? These expressions point to the sad, empty space where the concept of class as a social and economic category used to sit.

My students are so young! I tried discussing Sex and the City as an example of homosocial communities, but many had no idea that the show even existed. I could have used The Wire as well, but if they don’t know Sex and the City that has reruns on every other channel, what are the chances they will recognize The Wire?

And why I’m on The Wire, the upsetting thing is that the moment I get emotionally invested into a character, he gets killed. Obviously, it’s done on purpose to imitate the emotional experiences in the street but I still feel sad for the characters.

I just discovered that there is now a brand that has stopped attaching the maddeningly vague and downright useless label of “nude” to a single shade of lipstick. There is finally a collection of “nudes” for people of different skin tone.

In a large Ukrainian city, municipal authorities are too lazy and corrupt to mark pedestrian crossings.

So people decided to stop waiting for these idiots to grow a conscience. They got together and painted the crossings:

When the photos of the crossings started to appear on social media, Kremlinbots began to flip out in a frenzy of, “This is propaganda of homosexuality! You are all gay! We knew it this entire time! Evil Ukrainian gays are destroying traditional values!”

Ukrainians are, of course, finding this all absolutely hilarious.

When I enter “I’m” into the text message box, the suggestions this new operation system gives me are “detained” and “confused.”

I have never used either word in the text messages, so these are not based on my usage.

Spanish chain Zara has had to take this product off the shelves:

Living in a small town is sometimes quite constraining. I go to the CVS and discover that a student of mine works there.

“Hola, profe!” he yells happily. “What are you getting? Medication? What kind? Are you sick?”

The entire store stares at me as I scurry towards the pharmacy.

Oh, and Ukraine is also finally opening the archives of the Soviet secret police to everybody.

Finally people will at least get a chance to find out what happened to their family members and learn the truth about the past.

I had to get up early and discovered that at 6 am what people get at the convenience store are lottery tickets and coffee.

I come to this depanneur a lot but never this early. So I had no idea that lottery tickets are so big at this hour.

Is this because it’s the time when blue-collar workers set out for work?

Stupid sack of shit Tsipras is fellating Putin in Moscow. In the meanwhile, Greek cargo ships are robbing the people of the Crimea, dragging out of the occupied peninsula everything of value there is still left.

Greeks have turned into disgusting vultures prepared to engage in any disgusting act as long as they can prolong their laze bum existence at least for a second longer.