sonictransducer:

“The first is that our self-perception is so distorted that we can only see that ugliness in ourselves, and we desperately fear showing it to someone else. We see our history as a wreckage of one failure after another, one mistake after the next, a chronicle of a ruined person and a ruined life. As we know, this distorted perception of ourselves as particularly awful human beings leads to our constant, often life-long attempt to make people see us as a better person than we think we are. The face we show the world and the face we see in the mirror are light-years apart, and we’re often desperate to make sure no one else sees the person we see in the mirror. We have gone to radical lengths to seem like someone better, kinder, more generous, more reliable, and possibly above all else more normal than we really feel. People with mental illness have built especially elaborate facades for themselves and often hide behind a mask of health, stability, and normalcy that they’ll do anything to keep intact.”

— Marya Hornbacher. Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the Twelve Steps

(via wildfeminine)

rppadthai:

nbtomcatcultureis:

thepeacockangel:

karadin:

reagan-was-a-horrible-president:

This is a good article.

We have entered a phase of regression,and one of the easiest ways to see it is in our infrastructure: our roads and bridges look more like those in Thailand or Venezuela than the Netherlands or Japan. But it goes far deeper than that, which is why Temin uses a famous economic model created to understand developing nations to describe how far inequality has progressed in the United States. The model is the work of West Indian economist W. Arthur Lewis, the only person of African descent to win a Nobel Prize in economics. 

In the Lewis model of a dual economy, much of the low-wage sector has little influence over public policy. Check. 

The high-income sector will keep wages down in the other sector to provide cheap labor for its businesses. Check. 

Social control is used to keep the low-wage sector from challenging the policies favored by the high-income sector. Mass incarceration - check. 

The primary goal of the richest members of the high-income sector is to lower taxes. Check. 

Social and economic mobility is low. Check.

Temin says that today in the U.S., the ticket out is education, which is difficult for two reasons: you have to spend money over a long period of time, and the FTE sector is making those expenditures more and more costly by defunding public schools and making policies that increase student debt burdens.  

Even with a diploma, you will likely find that high-paying jobs come from networks of peers and relatives. Social capital, as well as economic capital, is critical, but because of America’s long history of racism and the obstacles it has created for accumulating both kinds of capital, black graduates often can only find jobs in education, social work, and government instead of higher-paying professional jobs like technology or finance— something most white people are not really aware of. Women are also held back by a long history of sexism and the burdens — made increasingly heavy — of making greater contributions to the unpaid care economy and lack of access to crucial healthcare.

How did we get this way?

What happened to America’s middle class, which rose triumphantly in the post-World War II years, buoyed by the GI bill, the victories of labor unions, and programs that gave the great mass of workers and their families health and pension benefits that provided security?

Around 1970, the productivity of workers began to get divided from their wages. Corporate attorney and later Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell galvanized the business community to lobby vigorously for its interests. Johnson’s War on Poverty was replaced by Nixon’s War on Drugs, which sectioned off many members of the low-wage sector, disproportionately black, into prisons. Politicians increasingly influenced by the FTE sector turned from public-spirited universalism to free-market individualism. As money-driven politics accelerated (a phenomenon explained by the Investment Theory of Politics, as Temin explains), leaders of the FTE sector became increasingly emboldened to ignore the needs of members of the low-wage sector, or even to actively work against them.

 Temin notes that “the desire to preserve the inferior status of blacks has motivated policies against all members of the low-wage sector.”

What can we do?

We’ve been digging ourselves into a hole for over forty years, but Temin says that we know how to stop digging.

If we spent more on domestic rather than military activities, then the middle class would not vanish as quickly. 

The effects of technological change and globalization could be altered by political actions. 

We could restore and expand education, shifting resources from policies like mass incarceration to improving the human and social capital of all Americans. 

We could upgrade infrastructure, forgive mortgage and educational debt in the low-wage sector,

 reject the notion that private entities should replace democratic government in directing society, and

 focus on embracing an integrated American population. 

We could tax not only the income of the rich, but also their capital.

 We have a structure that predetermines winners and losers. We are not getting the benefits of all the people who could contribute to the growth of the economy, to advances in medicine or science which could improve the quality of life for everyone — including some of the rich people.”

Along with Thomas Piketty, whose Capital in the Twenty-First Century examines historical and modern inequality, Temin’s book has provided a giant red flag, illustrating a trajectory that will continue to accelerate as long as the 20 percent in the FTE sector are permitted to operate a country within America’s borders solely for themselves at the expense of the majority. 

Without a robust middle class, America is not only reverting to developing-country status, it is increasingly ripe for serious social turmoil that has not been seen in generations.

In Other Words Revolution

Capitalism’s bad

I really hope i don’t see any fellow white Americans on this post talking about how we don’t deserve this because we’re “the greatest country in the world” or how “this shouldn’t be happening in America of all places”. It shouldn’t be happening ANYWHERE, it doesn’t need to be happening anymore, and the fact that it was already happening in predominantly nonwhite countries is largely the fault of white supremacy

Reject the notion that private entities should replace democratic government in directing society…

(via ice--ocean)

(via wildfeminine)

(via fullpraxisnow)

outforhealth:

“You aren’t too young to think about being sexual with someone else. Not everyone experiences sexual feelings at the same age, but at 14 plenty of people are experiencing some level of sexual curiosity or desire, whether it takes the form of a general interest in sex or sexual feelings for specific people. Even if it wasn’t normal, and most 14-year-olds didn’t have sexual thoughts or feelings, it would still be just fine for you to have them, just like it would be fine for you to have no interest in sex at all. People’s sexualities develop and manifest in many ways, each on their own timeline; there’s no one “right” time or way for it to happen. Sexual fantasy can be a great way to explore and think about how you might want to be sexual in the future: what kinds of people you find sexually appealing, what sort of sexual activities or dynamics sound fun to you, how you might want to feel during sex. Keep in mind that these feelings don’t necessarily mean you’re ready to have sex with someone else yet, or that you have to be sexual right now just because you’re having them. You might compare it to daydreaming about skydiving, or swimming with sharks; it’s totally possible to enjoy thinking about those things and imagine how exciting they could be without feeling like you’re ready to go out and do them. It’s not odd to have general sexual desire, or fantasize about sex with someone, without feeling ready to actually put those fantasies into practice, so if you feel overwhelmed or scared of any of these feelings, just keep in mind that you don’t have to choose to do anything about them right now.”

— I’m having sex fantasies about my crush
(via hellyeahscarleteen)

aggrokawaii:

Felix the Comrade

(via ice--ocean)

(via ice--ocean)

yeahabsolutelyido:

high res

dundermifflinscranton

have you seen this??

(via wildfeminine)

brbjellyfishing:

pastygobbler:

Panorama taken while rolling down a hill x

parallel universe

(via ironcladjohnson)

astrolocherry:

sagittarians are ‘glass half filled’ people and tend to look at the world through idealised lenses. they are typically impartial in their interpersonal interactions, especially at personal levels, where ‘optimistic detachment’ seems to be their reflex. despite their guarded nature, they have an easy time connecting with others

astrolocherry:

it can be hard for a cancerian to forge their own individuality in life. they can too often identify with their upbringing, family unit, collective past, belongings, moods, and heritage. loneliness is not an unpleasant feeling for a cancer - it symbolises isolation, extinction, and abandonment

astrolocherry:

virgos are an intellectual puzzle to be uncovered and their sensitivities and needs cut deeper than anyone could imagine. virgos emit so much tension they are reticent to project hostility into their relationships. the mysteries that can be unraveled in a virgo are enough to keep the more cerebral types completely occupied

(via glycoqen)

rudebwoytheron:

In honour of Aboriginal Day I’d like to bring this man to everyone’s attention. Sitting Bull was the ultimate rebel, and should be celebrated for his courageous stand against the American government. He refused to sign any treaties that the white man proposed, and refused to have his people placed in a reserve as he considered a reserve to be like prison. The American government ordered soldiers to hunt down any Sioux natives living outside of a reserve, which inspired Sitting Bull to create a Sioux war camp which attracted around 10,000 natives. In the summer of 1876, the American government planned an attack on this war camp which would become known as the Battle of Little Big Horn. Unaware of the size of the camp, the American army fell to Sitting Bull, becoming one of the greatest victories for Native Americans in history. Sitting Bull also had a Canadian connection as he spent some time in Saskatchewan after the battle when the American government sent in more troops to hunt down the Sioux people. He would later return to South Dakota.

(via fullpraxisnow)

unconsumption:

In the living room of the not-so-distant-future, you might have a glowing green blob of microorganisms next to your sofa instead of a lamp. A new line of photosynthetic furniture is filled with spirulina—a tiny, edible bacteria—that the designers imagine could help feed us without the incredible environmental footprint of conventional agriculture.

“We’re looking at how we can produce supplemental food by recycling things we don’t need,” says architectural designer Jacob Douenias, who created the conceptual line of furniture with industrial designer Ethan Frier. The custom glass bioreactors use waste heat, light, and carbon dioxide from a home to feed the spirulina inside.

Periodically, someone can turn a tap, empty out the green sludge, and eat it.

Prototypes now on display at the Mattress Factory gallery in Philadelphia.  More: This Photosynthetic Furniture Can Grow You Dinner | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.

— rw

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