I know someone who calls herself a feminist, puts her pronouns in her work email signature, donates money to women’s empowerment funds, and thinks we should deport more refugees. I also know someone who calls people ‘pussies’ when he plays video games, who doesn’t know what a pronoun is, and, for his defence of low-wage women workers in a highly-exploited industry, is a better, more strident defender of the rights of working-class women than almost anyone else I know. Of these two people, I know who is on my team, and who I want on my team, yet the standard liberal feminist calculation would have me chose the woman who loves a little deportation over the man who is occasionally uncouth, solely because the woman knows to keep her language civil, and the man doesn’t. Liberal feminists get incredibly caught up in the politics of language, because language is all they have. They don’t have a revolutionary programme for overthrowing patriarchy, so they’re forced to tinker around the edges of it, quibbling over word choice and jargon instead of building the coalitions necessary for destroying patriarchy.
Thinking about the two (male) coworkers I had a few farm jobs ago, one of whom was a very well spoken and politically knowledgeable self reported socialist who was nevertheless urging me to stay silent about the lower wages I was receiving so I didn’t compromise his job. The OTHER one was a foulmouthed nineteen year old who didn’t know what trans meant (but listened VERY well when I talked about it) and was absolutely up in arms about the wage inequality, and honestly any injustice in front of him. I’ll let you guess which if them I’m still in touch with
it will be less than a year until james somerton puts up a post on whatever platforms hes still wringing dry like Hey this is his doctor… james just went into a coma while doing community service :( btw when we scanned his brain the section responsible for honesty was very large, almost dangerously so. and his haircut did not look strange, medically speaking
For reference, the federal minimum wage would have you earning roughly on average $1,256.66 a month
It’s recommended your rent only be 30% of your total budget, so with an average monthly rent of $1,827 that would mean your average renter’s monthly income should ideally be $6,090
That would be roughly $35.13hourly or $73,080annually
However, the average renter’s household income is only $42,500 annually or $20.43 hourly (as of 2019 according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey)
This means either rent prices are too unsustainably high and price gouging or wages are too unsustainably low and predatory
Or both
(Hint: it’s both)
not to mention most apartments won’t even allow you to apply unless you make 3 times rent.
ALT
If 150 year old political memes are still relevant, it means the system is broken (or it’s working exactly as intended and that intention is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer).
ALT
