While some people are debating and leaking emotions, others are doing a cold-nosed monetization.
Monetize Everything
Another Woman’s Pregnancy
From Slate:
When women can’t have as many children as we want to have, it scrambles our brains. Some of us deal with it through therapy, religion, and tons of personal growth. Others prefer not to address the issue and become bitter harpies who seethe with rage and envy towards more fertile women. I do not recommend this latter path.
I don’t like Usha but I was extremely happy for her when her pregnancy was announced. As I’m happy when anybody’s pregnancy is announced but I’ll confess that the feeling is especially acute when it’s an older mom.
It is not other women’s fault that we have been blighted in the reproductive area. Their easy, healthy pregnancies don’t take anything from us. The only right thing to do is to be sincerely happy for them.
No matter the hardship that has touched your life, you can always decide not to be a shit, is what I’m saying.
Talented and Gay
I’m not shocked that it was a gay man who created this brilliant political ad:
I don’t know why this woman is picking up jaws when everybody who lives in human society knows that the proportion of talent and creativity among gay men is off the charts.
Pro-hockey
This person is talking crazy. Hockey is the only sexy sport.
Choice Theory
I’m babysitting today for the kids of a friend who has been illegally in the country for 15 years. The entire time I’ve known her I’ve begged her to get legalized. Or to go home. But it is all part of a bizarre relationship she has with the father of her children. Like for a very large percentage of illegal immigrants, it would have been the greatest mercy and the most wonderful thing if somebody had sent her back home to Canada when she first started on this illegal journey. She’s now 34, completely dependent on this absolute douche of her boyfriend who owns her like a slave master. The moment she misbehaves, he’ll shop her out to ICE and find a newer version of her to cook and clean for him. And he’ll keep the kids, of course.
People’s brains are infected with choice theory and they honestly think that every illegal in the country is benefitting from being here.
Alex Pretti
Instead of going in circles and repeating the same thing, let’s look at this from a different angle. People want neoliberalism so badly that they are willing to lay down their lives for it. They are willing to accept the most terrible forms of torture for it. Here is an example:
Being gang raped for 6 hours is something that a neoliberal subject uses to develop her personal brand and to monetize. It doesn’t get any clearer than this. You’ll have to tear the gang rapists, the Somali “learing centers” and all the rest of it from her cold dead hands. She loves all of it and she won’t let it go. She’s not experiencing “suicidal empathy.” This woman’s world has no empathy in it at all. She’s in the business of monetizing the emotions we leak as we recoil from the story in horror.
When we see welfare become a criminalized free-for-all, when cities turn into shantytown dumps, when the middle class remains a distant memory and child-bearing is enthroned as class privilege, let’s remember that this came about because people passionately wanted it. Let’s remember that they wanted it so badly that some of them went into the streets and laid down their lives for it. And they wouldn’t do it if alongside with everything it takes away it didn’t give them something so big, so enjoyable that no sacrifice would be too small.
Another #MeToo Story
Another story has dropped of a #MeToo-inspired destruction of a guy with a fancy job. It’s only men (and extremely rarely women) with coveted jobs that are targeted by #MeTootery because nobody else attracts the eager whoredom of #MeTootie victims.
Asher was a star: the acclaimed author of four novels, including the internationally best-selling Thirteen Reasons Why, which had been adapted into a hit Netflix show that was about to release its second season…
Asher has never been formally accused, in any forum, of harassing or harming a woman—nor ever investigated, let alone found guilty, for such an offense. But he has lost pretty much everything—not just his identity as an author but his agent, his publisher, his livelihood, and his reputation. His marriage is over. He’s been virtually unemployable since it happened, he says (do an internet search for his name and you’ll understand why) and his life savings are gone.
Asher didn’t harass anybody. He didn’t act violently towards any woman. What he did do was have an affair with a woman on whom he cheated with a bunch of other women while cheating with all of them on his wife. In short, he treated women like disposable toilets for decades until one of the toilets finally shat back on him. They all deeply deserve each other.
The idea that women crave being ejaculated into and discarded has proven to be a lie. Who could have possibly guessed? Asher violated the gods of consent by fibbing to his mistresses. I don’t know if he’s learned anything from this but if he did, I hope it’s that consent is a terrible guide to morality.
The problem is that we still collectively can’t say this honestly. Instead, we throw around accusations of rape and harassment. It’s the general dishonesty of our sexual philosophy as a society that caused #MeToo. Women like Asher’s mistresses, of whom he had about a platoon-sized troop, pretended to “just want sex”, and Asher pretended to believe them and never asked himself why none of these women “just wanted sex” with any married janitors or unemployed guys. Neither he nor they deserve compassion. They play these stupid games and we are all on the hook because we are the ones who have to sit through endless harassment trainings when we all live in extremely faithful, happy marriages.
Who Goes Chagos?
Wow, people, whuuut? The Chagos deal is off? How could I possibly have missed this?
Trump did good. This deal was an abomination.
I’ve seen five trillion reports on something rude Trump said about the British army but I didn’t see this excellent news on Trump forcing out of existence a deal to hand over British-controlled lands.
People urgently need to do some soul-searching as to why they value words over actions. Forget Trump. This is a blight on any life project if it’s based on worshipping words and disregarding action.
Winter Storm
Two places are filled to the brim on the eve of a promised winter storm: the gym and the grocery store. I visited both and came home to make a diabetic fish stew: no potatoes, no rice, no roux. Fish, kale, and Bangkok spices.
This is the first normal winter we are having in 17 years here. Normal winter temperatures that you associate with Illinois. And it even snowed more than once.
I remember when I was pregnant with Klara, I wore the exact same clothes and shoes the whole pregnancy which culminated in February. I was glad not to have to spend money on maternity boots but it felt weird to wear a summer getup in February. It only snowed once that winter and that was the day before she was born, making the drive to the clinic for high-high-risk pregnancies very entertaining.
Cat Owner Advice
Do you have advice for a first-time cat owner?
Before anybody freaks, please remember that nobody, including me, thought I’d be a good driver. And I’m an excellent driver. I love driving and always invent new routes to get in and out of state, even if they take much longer because I love being in my car. The point being that I can be good in very unexpected arenas.
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