So, I'm listening to Harris's speech on the economy today, and ugh, listening to her, my soul wants to leave my body at the thought of casting a vote for Kamala Harris. It really does. And people might really wonder, like, why? What do I find so offensive about her comments? She's doing fairly progressive things, right?
Yeah but ideologically she's talking in a way I find very cringey. She's pushing the religion of work. She did this in another interview I watched where she shot the crap with Tim Walz too. Like everything is blah blah blah hard working, blah blah blah. And I'm going to say it. F work. Work sucks. We should try to work less. You start framing crap from the religion of work and "opportunity" (ie, reframing wage slavery as being an "opportunity") and i just get turned off. its like elizabeth warren syndrome. Like Elizabeth warren kinda did this too. Where she was progressive but really bought into a lot of the american dream nonsense, and I'm really in the george carlin camp of, "its a dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." Like, really. I might not be a hard anti capitalist or leftist, but listening to these guys speak realize how adjacent to those ideologies I really am. Now, for me, it's not capitalism I hate per se, it's work. But the spirit of capitalism is the protestant work ethic. And THAT'S what I oppose.
Look, this might not be popular given our ideological conditioning, but i really do hate work and want like "free stuff." UBI, free healthcare, free college, and for all the blah blah blah who's gonna pay for it? Well, for the bottom 70-80% of people, probably not you in net. Even if you pay taxes toward it you benefit more than you pay in, so stop being a resentful jerk who balks at the idea of "free stuff". Only the top 20-30% would pay for it. And it would benefit all of society. Okay? So, don't even try the resentment politics crap with me. I'm just gonna laugh at you and call you stupid and brainwashed if you do.
So yeah. Free stuff. Not blah blah blah "hard work". no, that's right wing framing. We don't do that here. Just own it. I hate how progressives and liberals feel the need to condition every policy proposal they do with this nonsense hard work rhetoric to appease the rightoids and not come off as a dreaded "commie".
Hell, Trump is STILL comparing Harris to fricking Maduro despite this, and claiming she wants to give everyone free healthcare. I WISH (on the healthcare thing). I'm disappointed she DOESNT want to. Because she has to appease these weirdos who are brainwashed into this cult of work.
And no, i dont wanna turn us communistic either btw. The problems with that were, again, 1) the revolution problem and how revolutions dont work and just lead to political violence and inevitably dictatorship, 2) the fact that we need SOME work done and capitalism already has a decent incentive structure, and, btw, I dont believe my proposals in any way destroy this incentive structure, even if they dampen the more coercive elements of it, and 3) reinventing the wheel doesn't actually lead to a better system, just an even more coercive and inefficient one. So yeah, not a socialist. I actually cant envision any socialism beyond market socialism working and support a variation of welfare capitalism. I just dont have a work fetish infused into my iteration of capitalism and believe that we should strive to work less over time, eliminate all the jobs, and I'm just full on, straight up, F work.
Someone like Harris isn't gonna get it, and tonight, I kinda understood why. Because I listened to the Walz interview, and one topic discussed was what they learned from their dads and how it shaped them into who they are. And...let me just say a bit about my dad. My dad has...always been a rather unhappy guy in retrospect. He's the kind of guy who graduated from "the school of hard knocks", or given he went to vietnam "saigon u". He grew up middle class but never went to college. He did go to trade school and went into HVAC. And you know what? He HATED it. He was always so unhappy. He spent most of his time working, and most of the time he wasnt working, he was ranting about how much he hated his job. I remember asking him once when i was a kid why he couldnt quit his job, and he said if he did we wouldnt have any money and we would be poor, blah blah blah. So he kinda was stuck in jobs he hated, he was unhappy, always stressed out, and always kinda bitter and resentful. And like most conservatives, he hated welfare. He was a reagan conservative who was like "i work so hard why should my money go to illegals and lazy people to get crap for free?" And I kinda get it. You're forced to work by this crappy system, you hate your job, and then youre taxed and OTHER PEOPLE can just sit back and not work? Of course you'd be angry. Why aren't you getting that money? And because most conservatives believe humans are inherently evil and lazy obviously the argument was that we all have to be coerced to work or we wouldnt work and blah blah blah. And yeah. I understand resentment politics well.
With me, he always wanted me to get a college education. He saw college as the ticket to the upper class, the ticket he never had. You see, HVAC is hard work and for boomers, it wasnt actually as dignified or well paid as it is now. Trades are popping economically because they're INSANELY HARD WORK. They are physically punishing, and break your body down. My dad actually developed some level of degenerative joint disease in his back because he lifted these 200+ lb air conditioners and dragged them across roofs. It sucked. And he would work 40+ hours sometimes up to 70-80 hours a week doing this stuff. And he HATED it. But he had to do it. Or we would be poor. That's capitalism for you.
Anyway, my generation, decided F this why should we kill oursleves for this, and now those jobs pay a lot more. They're not any better, they're not unionized, heck, my dad wanted to get the unions into his former place of employment, only for that to end poorly and for him to not be fired, as that's illegal, but forced out of the company through shady yet legal means. Ya know, making up new rules specifically to punish him, that sort of thing. They actually relocated him down to another store IN ANOTHER STATE where he had to commute 2 hours a day to keep his job. I never saw him while he worked there since he was not only working 40+ hours but then commuting several hours each way a day, and he was super miserable and stressed out.
He quit, joined another company, and things started out good, until they got worse. The company got bought out by a larger corporation, the corporation did corporate things, and since he was getting older, and we hit the recession, they started laying him off. ANd that's the thing. These companies will use you and abuse you, and then throw you aside when youre too old to do the job. And they did. He was on medications that made him unable to be on call, and they got rid of him for it. This was in the peak of the recession with like 10% unemployment, and these MFers set up a meeting, congratulated him for helping make record profits, and then laid him off. That's capitalism for you. Why do we circlejerk about how great work is? And oh dont get me going in trickle down. This is the kind of crap that radicalized me into who I am today.
Speaking of me, honestly? Watching him my whole life gave me a pathological fear and hatred of work. Because it just seems so obvious its abusive and its slavery. And then my dad would wonder why i never really developed a work ethic. What, so I can be as miserable as he is all the time? you get the idea. Heck. That's why i worked hard in school. His whole thing was go to college and then you can get a GOOD job and you wont have to kill yourself doing hard physical labor. Then I graduate and i cant even fricking FIND a job, because of how crappy the economy is and how abusive just the process of applying is. But yeah.
You can obviously tell where I'm coming from. Now, does this mean my dad "failed" me by failing to instill good work ethic into me? No, I dont blame him for his attitudes toward work, and quite frankly, i sympathize. He really did teach me how much work sucks, and as a result, i never got into it. Of course, as I got more educated, I also got out of that more bitter resentful phase most white working class conservatives are in, and i kinda realized government is actually good and does good things. And inevitably, after researching UBI, and other things, i successfully indoctrinated myself out of that ideology. I kinda realized, hey, yeah, a better world is possible, we can build it, this is how we do it, and this is how it benefits us.
Will it work on everyone? Well it wont work on stupid uneducated people and sadly many WWCs are far stupider than my dad was. He has shifted away from conservatism btw and now he's like a moderate. He probably disagrees with me on these topics since he still has this GET A JOB type mentality with stuff, but he's softened somewhat, since ive kinda helped walk him through how bad the economy is.
And yeah, I'm going to be honest. Like, this is why i tend to have this rough around the edges philosophy that i do. Where ya know, I'm kinda WWC but I'm also progressive. Because I come from that background. But again, I also kinda outgrew it. I feel like the reason resentment politics is such a big thing is because we live in this world where life sucks, but then no one really thinks we can do anything about it and that's just how the world works and how it has to work. And....yeah. That's where I've transcended this mentality. I came to realize not only does the world not have to work this way, a better world is possible. SO yeah.
But, back to the subject at hand, that's not the kinds of stories most liberals have. And Kamala harris and tim walz kinda did the blah blah blah we come from hard working background blah blah blah aint jobs so great, blah blah blah. And I just look at them and I cant relate to these people. Like. Okay, I kinda get the whole "life sucks and then you die" thing. The whole "the world sucks, and its not fair, just dont screw me over even more trying to fix it" mentality conservatives sometimes have. Like...Im more familiar with that, and I believe it's a more honest view of the world. Like, we're not like sugar coating crap. it's just, yeah, this sucks, it's unpleasant. I wish the world wasnt this way, but it is, and trying to fix it at my expense isnt gonna make it better, its just gonna make things worse." At least they think that work is a bad thing. Even if it is inevitable. Even if it does define their life. And even if they develop this weird cult of misery where they act like crabs in a bucket and wanna pull each other down out of ignorance. But what scares me and baffles me are LIBERALS who are like "work is great". like Biden when he was like MY OLD MAN TOLD ME THAT WORK HAS DIGNITY AND BLAH BLAH BLAH. Like, really, who actually believes that crap? That just seems like some feel good nonsense they tell the slaves to make them feel better about being slaves. And that's just this fundamental disconnect I ahve with Harris too. Since Harris kinda has that mindset too where it's like work is good, work is great, opportunity, blah blah blah. It literally doesnt connect.
Again, you can criticize me, or even my old man all you want here, but at least the "work sucks" mentality feels HONEST to me. And to me, that's what I relate to. I dont look at stories of people working so hard and blah blah blah as uplifting. I see it as terrifying. And what my soul longs for more than anything is like...deliverance. Like we need a modern fricking Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt or something. Or a new 21st century FDR to come along and say, yeah, this system sucks, these corporations are out to screw you, let's fix it. Ya know? like Bernie. Bernie was populist and relatable, because he kinda connected with me and a lot of people on a level of "yeah, we're being screwed, lets fix it and go after the people responsible for making our lives a living hell!" Ya know? And that's why i think he wouldve won PA and the rust belt. Because the rust belt is full of these bitter resentful people left behind by globalization and who have been repeatedly screwed by life for the past 4 decades. It's also why Donald Trump if all people connected. Because he was the dude who was like WERE GONNA TAKE ON THE SPECIAL INTERESTS AND IM GONNA MAKE THEM PAY AND WERE GONNA DRAIN THE SWAMP AND IM GONNA BRING BACK THE JOBS AND BLAH BLAH BLAH. And again, his vision in 2016 wasnt great if you understood POLICY, but on sentiment? Definitely beat Clinton. I understand why he won. I just dont understand why people STILL back this guy. Because he's a psycho. But in 2016? I kinda get it. Make america great again. Go back to that golden era of where everyone had jobs that paid and we werent as screwed. Unfortunately trumpers dont seem to understand that it was FDR and the new deal that made that a thing. And all that reagan crap and conservatism is just making it worse.
And thats the thing. They dont understand conservatism MAKES IT WORSE. They dont seem to realize they're being screwed by these people while wanting salvation from them at the same time.
And yeah. Again. This is also why harris just doesnt connect. I dont relate to her. I dont feel sympathetic to her perspective. Sure she's more hip and trendy than the 80 year old, but since the 80 year old stopped running, he's also gotten kinda cool and now he talks crap to the press too and i actually find it entertaining. Biden has no chill now. But yeah. I just hate this politically sanitized speak where in america everyone in politics seems required to circlejerk about how great work and jobs and the american dream are every 5 seconds.
Honestly, again, I'm still voting for Harris. And I ahve several reasons for it. The biggest being trump and the GOP are absolutely insane. btw, you know these project 2025 idiots have this crappy "work is freedom" language in their crap too? yeah. They're religious psychos who wanna push their distorted vision of the world on us. harris might be a big "meh" for me but trump is battery acid and yeah. The GOP has to be stopped, that's non negotiable. Whatever issues i have with harris are secondary to the insanity that is the modern GOP.
Then we have harris being ok, biden doing some things that earned my vote. harris kinda doing some things too. And yeah. Even if i find her cringey, she's not THAT terrible. She's just not everything i want.
And to be frank, I dont vibe with the far left either. To go back to my dad. I mentioned "saigon u", yeah he was a vietnam vet. And he's always had a chip over his shoulder about it. And he was called a "baby killer" by leftist weirdos when he came back from vietnam. And yeah Im gonna be honest, looking at the leftists losing their crap over palestine, I kinda can't help but fricking think of my dad being mistreated by weirdo leftists after coming home from doing what he was effectively forced to do. Like, how tone deaf are you, jesus christ. Even if youre anti war dont crap on the troops. But leftists cant help but make it personal. But between them leaning into that cringe with palestine, and them also having a weird work fetish, just in the form of government jobs programs, it's like...this doesnt cut it either.
Like, again, I've just evolved to a place where I am just against work. I understand that work isnt as necessary in the modern era that it used to be, we actually talk nonstop about "creating jobs", and id rather just give people money and healthcare and let them figure life out from there. Most would work, by the data, in some form. Maybe some wouldnt. But they should choose. And as long as the basic work needed to keep society working is done, i dont care from there. We're literally working and imposing the kinds of misery this post is about on people just so line on chart goes up. it's just so sickening to me. Our society is insane. And I feel like I just understand it for what it is while everyone, including harris just keeps repeating this lie about work being dignified and great and blah blah blah. No, it's not, it sucks, and we shouldnt do it any more.
So yeah. The right sucks. The democrats suck (less), the left sucks. Everyone sucks. We need a whole new ideology that doesnt suck. Which is what drives me more than anything. And honestly, that just makes me underwhelmed as far as harris goes. I cant get excited about her, or passionate about her, listening to her here. My vote is purely transactional. The passion is gone. She's just hip younger biden. And I'm actually, if anything, starting to appreciate the "gran torino" streak Biden is developing since dropping out if anything. Like he's finally become a cynic too. Yeah that happens when youre used up and spit out. Sucks, don't it? Welcome to the club.
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