WHARRGARBL @ WHARRGARBL @beehaw.org

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Joined

2 yr. ago

Ah that extra loan hurts. Good thing you have your Super Special Boomer Advantage wealth socked away for vacations and retirement!

Same with us - a mortgage was cheaper than renting what was available. If it wasn’t for a “zero down” VA loan and crazy low interest rates, we wouldn’t have been able to buy.

It’s horrible to see millions of younger adults hemorrhaging money on rent because they don’t have 20% to put on an overpriced house, but as you stated, that isn’t due to the year someone was born; it’s because the rich are kicking us down.

Is there anything that's more obviously a "divide and conquer" tactic than all this unhinged generational bullshit?

It’s insane but effective. A friend who is 25 years younger than me angrily called me a Boomer because my husband and I bought a house in 2020, which means we had advantages that he didn’t get.

It was our first house, in rough shape, and it was through a VA loan. Every repair was DIY. Meanwhile, the guy who called me a Boomer inherited his house and massive acreage. Also, unlike that guy, we’re pro-union, politically active environmentalists who vote for progressive candidates. Just an absolute wtf moment.

The US has become a cautionary tale for:

• Refusing Universal Healthcare

• Opposing Racial and Cultural Equity

• Revoking Women’s Bodily Autonomy

• Expanding Excessive Incarceration

• Exonerating Police Violence

• Dismissing Effective Gun Control

• Ignoring Mass Shootings

• Denying Veteran and First Responder Care

• Allowing Environmental Toxins

• Approving Carcinogens in Food

• Condoning High Infant Mortality

• Eradicating LGTBQ+ Rights

• Encouraging Religion in Government

• Dismantling Social Services

• Rejecting Living Wage, Retirement, and Pension Issues

• Persecuting the Low-income and Homeless

• Promoting the Purchase of Politicians and Judges

Not dealerships, but 43 US states plus DC, have dram shop laws that allow a drunk driver to sue the establishment that overserved.

HP lured me away from Apple about 15 years ago, with promises of better pay and benefits. I made the mistake of believing their lies, and proceeded to work in one of the most hostile environments I’d ever encountered. Aside from the open and constant sexual harassment, I was horrified to see customer service maliciously transfer callers to dead extensions or to the branch in the Philippines, then laugh about it. “Tech support” was for selling more products, not for resolving issues. Management was a shitshow of nepotism, falling-over-drunkenness, corruption, office affairs, and massive cover-ups.

I lasted 8 months, then I fled back to Apple, but I’ll never forget how HP blatantly loathed the customers.

I was healthy, fit, worked from home for years, and strictly followed lockdown protocol. My only “high risks” were being married to a first responder and living in Texas at the time.

That state was a shit show.

For an unvaxxed perspective, I’m on day 1,276 of stuffy, runny nose with limited senses of smell and taste plus constant mild fatigue and brain fog. I was unable to carry a conversation or walk more than 7 or 8 steps the first 3 months due to breathlessness, and smelled nothing at all for 14 months.

I get EVERY vaccine now.

I’ve lived for 7 years in California and 7 years in Texas. If states were like dogs, Californians would be friendly Labrador puppies - Texans are mean little dingoes.

Fuck dingoes. Fuck the Texas deregulated, off-grid, exploitative electric industry. Fuck Texas for the systematic elimination of human rights and fuck Texas for destroying education. Fuck the blatant Texas voter suppression. Fuck Texas all the way back to their sacred War of Northern Aggression, and fuck them deep into their nasty Gulf of discarded medical supplies, oil slicks, and detritus.

The Democratic National Convention of August, 1968 was in Chicago. It was marked by massive riots, after the April and June assassinations of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and Democratic POTUS candidate Robert Kennedy, respectively. It was triggered by many issues, including anti-Vietnam War sentiment.

Interestingly, the August, 2024 DNC will be in Chicago. Maybe it’s time for the people of the United States to come together for another “year that breaks America”, and fight for the need to eliminate the DNC/RNC corporate stranglehold and work toward establishing a ranked voting system.

Or we could continue to choose between happy uncle fascist or bloated grifter fascist.

Bonus!

According to this tone deaf article, the middle class is still taking family vacations to Italy and Iceland, without sparing a thought for the carbon emissions of our flights.

Shame on us all for doing the things we’ve never done!

I stopped using deodorant when I moved from the Gulf Coast to the PNW mountains near BC. I just don’t sweat much in drier climates, but I do bathe or shower every day and I shave my armpits plus I use a deodorant soap. I think if I stopped shaving or didn’t shower every day, I’d probably still need deodorant?

Thank you for your clarity. I don’t know how common it is for people to directly question existence, social contracts, our roles and purposes, but I imagine your thoughts resonate with many of us; the experiences and perceptions you shared are deeply familiar to me.

Since your story helped me understand where you’re at, I will reciprocate with a story for you.

I never quite succeeded at living a life that resulted in genuine acceptance from relatives, religious circles, authority figures , or peers. I tried to fit in for awhile, and to even please others a few times, but it isn’t who I am and it shows. This disconnect allowed me to metaphorically wander into the wilds.

For over 30 years, I explored almost all big religions and some philosophies, and by the time I was in my late 40’s I finally embraced my atheism with a growing sense of liberation, although I don’t mention it around theists. I think it scares them, and who am I to yank away anyone’s security blanket?

I’ve lived a long and unconventional life with my own credo. Sometimes this meant fine tuning who is in my life, and who is excluded, which can be controversial - but for me it’s been a relief. Also, controversy is just one spice in a feast.

I agree with you that institutions or culture leaders or mythological deities can’t dictate what is good. My direction has always come from within because that’s the loudest voice*, and when I need to be reminded of what that means, I focus on the REAL life around me.

I don’t look for a purpose or a life well-lived because humans are no different than fish or rabbits or deer … except for how we lost our way. Seriously, look at the animals; this is what I mean by REAL life. They don’t waste their energy striving for someone else’s declared ideal. They don’t worry about yesterday or tomorrow. They don’t get wound up in possible outcomes or fake rewards. They just … are.

As you stated, we are briefly here on an insignificant rock spinning around in a tiny solar system of a regular galaxy, in one universe among countless universes, and we weren’t deliberately placed here to hoard crap, exert “dominion”, destroy everything, or delude ourselves that we should be famous or rich or impactful. (Okay, I took your thought and ran a bit with it.)

My life is filled with the things I need to do for survival, with interludes of connection that bring me joy. I try to not think too much about the survival part because for humans it’s so contrived, and it blocks natural feelings. My biggest struggle is keeping that shit where it doesn’t ruin the things that matter.

And what matters is YOUR call. Time with the people you love or being immersed in music or reading or looking at stars or laughing at how your dog zooms or touching trees or breathing or … whatever you want. As long as you can be in the moment with your true self, you aren’t wasting this magical blink of life.

*I don’t have an actual voice within, because I have total Aphantasia.

There are some philosophical undertones here, and I’m wondering what you really want to ask. Could you elaborate?

Great catch on those scrubbers - I hadn’t even thought about everything I use to clean, aside from plastic-free dishwasher pods. Thanks! And ono’s suggestions are awesome!

We ALL need to do what you’ve been doing.

My household eliminated plastic and non-stick items. We’ve been using only cast iron and stainless steel for stovetop, glass and stainless steel for oven and mixing, glass and stainless for eating. Even the pets’ bowls are stainless steel.

Plastics and Teflon coatings are pure poison.

There was an elm tree in my childhood front yard. I loved her the way kids love their moms. In the summer, I would spend hours sitting by her, leaning against her trunk, hugging her, reading and telling her everything in my life.

When Dutch Elm Disease hit, she was tagged by the city to be cut down. Every day after school, I ripped off the tag. Every day, the tag was placed higher, until I couldn’t reach it. I screamed and cried when she was cut down - it still hurts. I spent weeks sitting by her stump, apologizing for not stopping the killers.

As an adult, I fell in love with an apricot tree in my back yard. I named her Apollonia. She’s magical, and I thought I’d be there with her until I died, but we had to move last month. I took a small branch from her last prune to keep with me forever.

Our method of managing the rodent diggers on our property is to look at the big picture. We live among moles, deer, rabbits, hawks, eagles, roaming stoats, frogs, falcons, snakes, doves, wasps, sparrows, etc. They were here before we arrived, they’ll be here after we leave, and they live in natural balance.

If we spot a rattlesnake, we avoid that area for a few days. If a wasp gets in the house, we take it outside. Any spider lurking indoors who wasn’t nabbed by a bird or mouse gets a pass.

We “manage” by recognizing that we’re the intruders occupying their space for a brief time, and they’ll be here long after we’ve gone; we just get the privilege of watching them for awhile on their land, and it’s amazing.