catbum

joined 1 year ago
[–] catbum 46 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Am I the only one who didn't realize the film Hillbilly Elegy was based on this particular guy's memoir? No wonder it left me with a bad taste in my brain.

I remember deciding to watch it back when it was promoted on Netflix (in 2020-21?), going in completely blind to its background and bent, but wooed by the branding of it being "nominated for awards" and the imagery of a frazzled-looking Glenn Close.

I'll try to reflect on what I thought of it then without reference to what I know now: The whole movie was uncomfortable, felt weirdly holier-than-thou, and made me question what was supposed to be so good about how this guy was "overcoming" traumatic circumstances. I don't think I finished it in one go, only doing so because Glenn Close and Amy Adams brought talent to these painfully stereotypified roles. (I had just finished Sharp Objects, so you can imagine how disappointed I was that Amy had to work with so little substance, no pun intended, in this role's storyline.)

I remember thinking I really disliked the actor who played JD Vance for having such flat personality and boring acting skills. As it turns out, the actor did a helluva job! Bravo!

[–] catbum 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I hadn't seen this before, and it was generally really enlightening that these Trump supporters have genuine concerns for the working class, obvious as that should be by now. It just sucks that they've been hoodwinked into thinking that Trump is their savior from the corporate oligarchy that is clearly affecting us all. Misplaced reverence to a guy who is a mechanism in the same pro-corporate atmosphere. If only they realized that the Democrat party (flawed as it is) actually works toward their interests with policy (edit: toward improving wages, taxing the ultra rich more fairly, healthcare ideally for all, social programs, etc.), rather than attaching themselves to this "not-a-career-politician" who couldn't care less about them. Maybe not all hope is lost on trump supporters, but the cult of personality is much too strong and has been for a long time.

[–] catbum 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] catbum 27 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Policing is not just limited to police. Unfortunately, this is an example of quite literal corporate overlording. Soon they will be one in the same, a manifestation of the military-industrial complex, where corporations happily surveil in support of and in tandem with law enforcement.

As a reformed loiterer, I welcome our new Police, Inc. overlords. (/s)

[–] catbum 34 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I had just opened my Max app for some Saturday night distraction when I saw CNN Newsroom suggested front and center, with the description "...the rally where President Trump was injured."

This is terrifying on so many levels. At this point, it doesn't matter who wins the election; the stage is completely set for violence come November.

I haven't found any active comment threads on this yet, and I don't even want to entertain the inevitable conspiracy theories and possible acts of retribution that will rise after this attempt, so I'll leave it at this: I would be utterly shocked if "Donnie Van Gogh" memes don't exist yet.

[–] catbum 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And it sounds like you are still overlooking all of the qualifiers and nuance in my nonscholarly, inebriated statements. In neither post did I assert "society is not racist."

[–] catbum 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Exactly, that's why I qualified that statement with the terms "generally" across the globe and also distinguished being plainly racist (which I view as hate because of race itself, stereotypes at individual level) from racism that seems to primarily precipitate from fears of or for the state (hate because of the larger stereotyped idealogies or propaganda of that person's race, whether or not an individual espouses them).

I am not Black, this is true. I primarily worked my hypothesis out from a purportedly Chinese person saying they wouldn't trust the hiring of people from China. Now, their comment does seem to have a racist component. I don't know to what levels internalized racism is related to geopolitical fears, but if we consider that this Chinese person is likely not racist to themselves, e.g. hating their individual attributes, we can assume that they are not wary of the Chinese person for being Chinese. Their mistrust in the state makes them so wary they can't even be supportive of hiring people from China, in what I assume is the US. It seems like racism is only secondary to the primary fear of the state (or some geopolitical facet), the racism coming from a position of self-preservation rather than overt hate of the race.

Fear is going to be the death of us.

Also, I am high and pretty sure I just took the scenic route in describing xenophobia. Shit tits.

[–] catbum 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (8 children)

This is actually really fascinating to me, the idea that citizenship/nationality is a bigger factor in how you feel and that race isn't a key factor. It tells me maybe society (globally, generally) is getting less plainly racist, but anxieties around nationality (and what that could indicate about individual attitudes and intentions) is obviously rising and taking its place, so racism ends up being obliquely adjacent to the more direct fear of the state. In other words, general society is making progress with being comfortable with people of different races, whereas country of origin becoming more worrying and slowing down progress.

What a strange disconnect there. We don't fear individuals, we fear what they represent.

(I ate a gummy an hour ago tho sooooo I feel like I'm just stating the obvious so ... Maybe?)

[–] catbum 3 points 6 months ago

Yes! I was hoping somebody in the comments could direct me to this one again. What a wild ride (something something Mr Bones).

[–] catbum 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Alright, so I quite literally haven't stepped foot into Walmart since June of 2015. The only money I've given them since was for two grocery pick-ups during early COVID when it was in a 5% cashback category on my CC. I have no idea of what changes have been made in the physical stores since then, and this sounds ... Horrifying. What happens if the price changes before you check out? I would feel duped. Are they going to make you "check in" when you enter so they can give you the price at time of entry? Or are you SOL if you don't make it to the cash register in time? And wouldn't that extra rush to get out make them lose money on stuff you pick up wandering around? Or maybe they want you in and out as fast as possible. What a clusterfuck.

I do love telling people about my Walmart-less living when it suits the conversation, and 90% of the time they are shocked, absolutely flabbergasted. "How can you do that?! Where do you get all of your stuff?!?" Well, like many middling American cities home to at least 20,000 people, there is a Target, Walgreens, a regional grocery store, Maurices, and for some reason like 12 auto parts stores right down the street. I can't recall anything in Walmart, aside from exclusive clothing brands (if you can call them that), that I haven't found elsewhere in at least some quantity-per-package. I get that people want a one-and-done shopping experience, but besides my routine Aldi stops, I don't shop that much anymore, even online.

My reasons? I would like to say that I am boycotting them for paying shit wages, being viciously anti-union, and all the other ethical shortcomings that never seem to improve. And that definitely is a part of it. But the main reason, the one setting me on my path toward Walmart Recovery (I should start up a Wal-Anon) was from the experience I had the night I needed to buy a broom, my last night or day in that store.

It was somewhere between 11 and 1 am (definitely after 11) and I had just moved house into a... House. (I was in an apartment previously.) The place needed a serious cleaning, and I simply did not have the correct broom for the job. Picked out the broom and a few other cleaning things, all was well. But shortly before checking out, a group of rowdy youngsters in their late teens sidled by me, laughing about something while also eyeballing my cart with the broom and other boring household accoutrements. I was but 23. I guess I hadn't shaken the adolescent anxiety of feeling judged about appearances and actions at that point, but the thought that these slightly younger peers were making fun of my broom shopping was too much to bear.

"Oh my gawd, who buys a broom on a Friday night?? Get a life, ya loser."

"I did. I did get a life! I'm moving on up, bitches! I went from a 500 sqft apartment to an 800 sqft house with fuckin windows on all sides! I can put plants in every room, every nook and tiny-ass cranny! And I can bring my cat! And if that damn house of mine needs a broom at midnight, then my gods, I am going to go out and fucking GET ONE."

Anyway, that's my story about how I broke up with Walmart. DM me for requests to join Wal-Anon, we have plenty of seats for everybody! (The room will be free of any and all Mainstays furnishings and the coffee will be served sans Great Value cups, I assure you.)

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