This is capitalism's vast irrationality and inhumanity in action. Markets and The Economy™ matter more to capitalism than the concrete distribution of resources according to tangible human need.
Resources exist in abundance -- give them to people. Housing sits empty -- give it to people. The rules of the feast table should apply to our economic system -- no one gets seconds until everyone has gotten a plate.
We stand at a crossroads in these chaotic times: socialism or barbarism! The ruling class repeatedly chooses the latter. We need to organize and choose the former!
for everyone who’s a bit sick of being stuck indoors
I know that feel. I’ve been in isolation for about four years due to illness. It was let’s say a very difficult life change. I crashed out of the world pretty hard and spent a few months in bed in constant pain wishing I was dead, while everyone thought I was just being incredibly rude. It sucked.
I’m saying this because I’m about to drop a few pieces of advice and I want you to know that they’re coming from a place of experience and empathy.
We are nowhere near the end of this crisis. We need to be ready for the long haul, because we still have months of isolation, restriction, and caution ahead of us. This is normal now. That’s a lot to deal with. This sucks.
And hey if you’re still enjoying the veg-out binging netflix in your pyjamas with a bucket of chicken phase, that’s great. You deserve to rest. Come back to this post later when you need it.
But if you’re realising there’s actually a limit to how long social media, TV, and video games can keep you civil? Let me help with that.
0. Thank you. I’m immunocompromised, so thank you for staying home, washing your hands, and following the guidelines to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the virus so I don’t die. I know it’s hard. Remember you’re doing a good thing.
1. Keep using the internet to stay in touch and communicate with people so you feel less lonely. Use social media to socialise, not as a news source. Learn new things, fall in a wikihole, tell someone something interesting you just found out. But logging off will do you a power of good.
2. You need to engage your other senses to stave off depression. Your body and your senses need to be kept occupied, not just your brain. Learn to cook from scratch, try new recipes, bake something, have a home spa day, light that fancy scented candle you’ve been holding on to for a special occasion.
3. Oh yeah, whatever you’ve been holding onto for a special occasion, bust that baby out now. The nice outfit, the posh food, the fancy soap, whatever little treats you have squirreled away. Instead of saving them for a special occasion, use them to create an occasion and make it special. If nothing else, it will help stop the days blurring into each other quite so horribly.
4. Don’t get drunk. A drink is ok, but a hangover will make everything feel worse.
5. Your round toit is here. Mend and repair those things, do a deep clean, rearrange that room, organise that stuff, do some arts and crafts, try a new hobby. Make and do something with your hands. BUT! Pace yourself. Spread things out a bit. Do a little bit of this and that each day, instead of doing one thing all day or everything in one day.
6. Don’t sleep in. Go to bed early, take naps, get your rest, but if you’re going to have to go back to work after this, you really don’t want to let your sleep pattern shift, and the best way to avoid that is by not sleeping in. Sorry. Really, I am so sorry.
7. You need to move your body, especially when you feel anxious. Anxiety is in the body, you can’t think your way out of it, you need to move. Yoga is uh fine I guess, pretty good for stress, but tai chi is actually a lot better for anxiety. Or do some bodyweight exercises, or pilates. Or come up with some choreography and rehearse it and then perform it in the street for your neighbours. Or just pace around the house like a zoo animal, and roar occasionally. Roaring helps too.
8. Mind your diet. I know it’s a hassle when you can’t go grocery shopping as often and you’re probably eating more tinned and frozen foods than usual, but do your best to vary your meals and eat a balanced diet. Don’t add nutritional deficiencies and the misery of food boredom to your problems. And stay hydrated.
9. Look after something living. If you don’t have a child or a pet or a garden or a houseplant, try growing some sprouts or microgreens, or start a sourdough mother or a ginger bug. Nurturing and caring for something alive (even yeast) is incredibly healing and stabilising. Also we’re starting to realise plants are super important for mental, emotional, and physical health. Humans need green time, so if you don’t have a houseplant maybe see about getting one.
10. Be thankful. I don’t mean in a stupid platitude way like “some people have it worse” or anything fake like that. You can still be angry, bored, outraged, frightened, disappointed, exhausted, dismayed. But to avoid falling into meaningless grey despair, set aside a few minutes each day and find things to be grateful about on purpose. It doesn’t have to be big. Your pet has been super affectionate? Favourite youtuber uploaded? Weather was kind of nice? New episode of that show you like? Chair comfy af? Tasty breakfast? Recognise it and be thankful for it. You don’t have to be thankful TO anyone or anything in particular, just be thankful FOR something in particular. Try for five things per day to start, but do more if you want.
11. Take some cosy time. I think this is maybe kind of like hygge? Spend some time each day doing something that makes you feel calm and cosy and safe. Build a blanket fort or snuggle up with a hot drink and a book, and just be cosy for an hour or so. This is a very stressful and frightening event we’re all going through so making a deliberate effort to cultivate feelings of warmth, contentment, and safety every day will help fend off trauma.
12. Speaking of books, reading a book engages your brain differently from watching a movie or listening to a podcast, and is very good for your brain and mood. If you have a to-read pile you’re probably already making a dent in it but if you don’t, or if you’ve reached the bottom of it, a lot of writers and publishers are offering free ebooks to help with isolation. You can read ebooks on your phone if you don’t have an ereader or tablet.
13. Balance your news intake. Restrict the amount of time you spend looking at news about the pandemic, and limit yourself to a few reliable sources. For every hour you spend reading the news and watching the scary numbers go up, spend an hour specifically looking for good news. Incompetent governments are failing their people, a minority of profiteers are trying to take advantage of the situation, and a lot of people are sick and dying, but that’s not the whole story. People can be SO GOOD. Did you hear about the medical drama shows donating their PPE to hospitals & fire departments? And the cosplayers and actors doing in-character birthday videos for kids who can’t have parties? People are helping each other, taking care of each other, there is so much good news so look for it, and then share it.
14. Get fresh air & sunshine. If you have a garden or a balcony, use it. Spend as much time there as the weather allows. Open your windows, weather permitting. Pull a chair up next to a window and read a book. Depending on your location, you may even be safe to shove your hands in your pockets and go for a walk–but keep at least 2m away from other people and if you’re in a hard lockdown or enforced quarantine, don’t flout it.
15. If you’re working from home, be able to close a door on your work space. When I worked remotely I had the computer set up in a wardrobe because I didn’t have a wholeass room for it, and I would unplug it and close the door on it at the end of my shift, it was a real sanity saver. Even if you don’t passionately hate your job, be able to close a door on it. Closing a physical door helps your brain to keep your work compartmentalised away from your home life, and helps you control work-related stress.
16. Do something for someone else. We’re a social species, we have a fundamental need to help others. It makes us feel connected, less isolated, and that’s something we all need right now. If you have a sewing machine, make masks for people who need them. If you have money, drop some of it on gofundme’s to help people who’ve lost their jobs make rent. If you bought too much toilet paper and you’re starting to realise that was a mistake, ask your neighbours if they need any. Live stream a cooking class. Teach someone how to use skype. There is something you can do to help someone else, so find it and do it. You will feel better for it.
17. The corollary to helping is: accept help from others. Helping others is one way we strengthen our social bonds, accepting help is another. Plus right now there’s a lot of ways that accepting help is also helping others. If someone offers to pick up groceries or a prescription for you while they’re getting their own, that’s helping everyone, the fewer people in the stores the better.
18. Avoid platitudes. They’re actually harmful, not helpful. Be sincere, both in expressing your own feelings and when other people share theirs with you. To be perfectly honest I’m pretty bad at this, it’s hard not to make jokes and deflect, but it’s so important right now to communicate authentically. I know how uncomfortable it can be but do your best. When we feel deeply heard and understood, we feel less alone. It’s still ok to be silly and goofy, just be honest and compassionate as well.
19. Mind your temper. Try not to lash out or get drawn into arguments, it won’t make you feel any better. You might get an easy rush and some attention out of it, but afterwards you’ll just feel more isolated than ever, and you risk permanently alienating people around you.
20. Everyone’s process is different. Don’t try to police other people’s emotions. Respect that we’re all processing this at different speeds and in different ways. We’re off the map, in an unprecedented situation, there’s no “right” way to feel about that. Invalidating other people’s feelings is a surefire way to push them away, and we all don’t need any of that right now.
21. Keep taking care of yourself. Keep cleaning your teeth, bathing, changing your clothes, brushing your hair, doing your laundry. Keep taking your meds, doing your exercises, getting enough sleep, eating on time. Not just to avoid a big personal crisis when it’s time to go outside again, but also because you deserve it.
Covid-19 is showing us what’s really important. After this is over, don’t forget about it. Remember service workers, warehouse workers, and other “unskilled” workers keeping the supermarkets running. Remember farmers and factory workers stepping up production to refill the shelves, and truckers hauling the goods. Remember doctors and nurses, orderlies and cleaners, working overtime, understaffed, underprepared, and under-equipped, to care for the sick and dying. Remember artists, writers, musicians, actors, performers, designers, and developers keeping you sane. Remember the garbage collectors and the street sweepers, and the folks who work at power, water, and sewage plants. Remember delivery drivers, couriers, and postal workers. Remember the disability and chronic illness communities reaching out to help you navigate your visit to our everyday reality. After this is over, be kind, and pay it forward. Tip generously, mind your manners, and don’t look down on anyone for their job or ability level. Fight for better wages and working conditions, better accommodations, and better social safety nets. Show up for the people who are showing up for you.
Some of this is excellent advice I haven’t seen from anyone else.
why are schoolchildren so much better at detecting autism in girls than legit doctors
after seeing a knowledgeable pediatrician ur whole life you’ll finally get evaluated as a teenager and they’ll be like “I am forced to concede...that you may have a slight case of the Ass Burgers”
when Melissa, Kelsey and Sophie from the third grade will look at you for .5 seconds, simultaneously be like “this other small girl has something wrong with her” and give you lifelong trauma without even referring you to a psychologist
Ouch
The fact that epidemiologists now have to include a factor in their models for "how much the politicians in power will try to discredit us and thus how mistrustful the public will be about our warnings" is like...fucking surreal
A ton of you are being all "ohohoho i am so cynical and intelligent" about this but I need you to take a step back and look at how this is being handled and really think hard about it. This is not your run of the mill mishandling of a crisis. What I am talking about here where the levels repubs are going to to discredit experts in ways THEY didnt even anticipate to the point where it has to be considered when modeling how many people will die -- yes, it is a logical progression of e.g. how they handle global warming etc. But no it is not, like, something we should just be like "well thats normal" about. Its not. Its not normal.
Like yes yes politicians are evil or whatever but if you look at the way past US presidential administrations have dealt with the recommendations of epidemiologists it is... Worlds away. Like. Just absolutely this is not precedented! Yes scientists have long been ignored by politicians but this is... not ignoring. This is... Not....like. I dont know how to explain to u that this is not normal. Its not normal! It is bizarro world stuff!
This article has some really interesting stuff about past biodefense advocates and plans and how completely bananas what is happening now is compared to like. Any... Any other thing
Like ppl who wrote biodefense plans for the GWB administration are going "???" about what is happening now. Its bananas. Guys. Its completely insane
For standard of comparison...My province has a very conservative government that is, in my opinion, handling the crisis fairly badly with regard to their support for people put out of work, and their ongoing fucking around with healthcare and education staff in mid-pandemic.
They have not once suggested that the chief medical officer of health cannot be trusted, that she is lying, that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, or that this crisis isn’t bad enough to justify the measures she’s recommended. Not because they’re handling this well, but because NO normal politician, not even the shitty ones, would actively undermine the authority of public health experts during a pandemic.
Bingo!
idk who needs to hear this but nurses who work 16hr shifts aren’t heroes. they’re horrifically exploited workers& they don’t need thanks or applause, they need more colleagues and better labour protection
or, here me out, how about this: BOTH ARE EXTREMELY NECESSARY. I work in healthcare, I am also exhausted, and while I’m not a nurse, I’m part of a very unappreciated and understaffed healthcare field, so here is why we need both:
I totally get where the OP is coming from: thanks and appreciation mean very little in the face of labor exploitation and abuse. And nurses are absolutely exploited workers and they need and DESERVE more help and better labor protection.
BUT. It’s because of that they need to ALSO be called heroes, need to be applauded, and need to be thanked. They are an exploited class in healthcare, but they are still busting their ass to help people day after day after day, and especially during a time of crisis like the current pandemic.
They deserve both BETTER LABOR PROTECTIONS and APPLAUSE AND APPRECIATION. Not just one or the other.
THIS
the annoying thing about adhd is that like, most of the symptoms you can’t even argue are “evolutionary flaws” or “chemical imbalances.” literally it’s just that it’s not good for lining somebody else’s pockets. being “distractible” helps people notice predators or juicy berries out of the corners of their eyes. hyperfocusing on a task until it’s done is literally exactly in line with what an alleged persistence predator would need to do to actually follow through on hunting other animals. there’s so many little things that are obviously beneficial to have outside of a fucking factory assembly line
NEUROLOGICAL DIVERSITY IS AS IMPORTANT TO SURVIVAL AS GENETIC DIVERITY, and OUR CONCEPT OF DISABILITY AND NEURODIVERGENCE IS BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF OUR OWN MAKING
When I lived out in the woods and spent my time herding sheep and hunting bullfrogs, nobody gave two shits that I walked around barefoot and said whatever popped into my head out loud.
My hyperfocus and poor sense of time made me a hard worker, my compulsion to sort and organize random crap kept the property clean, and my special interest in native flora and fauna meant I could go out into the woods thanksgiving morning and come home with all the pricy mushrooms and herbs we couldn’t normally afford otherwise.
Who cared that I was awkward? There was nobody around except the occasional customer or temp worker, and those kinds of interactions could be entirely scripted.
Who cared that I dressed funny, had frizzy, dry hair, talked flat, and ate raw onions? Who gave two shits that I built forts out of scrap metal and twine? How did it matter that I passed time running in circles over old truck chassis’?
There were no bright lights, no packed-in crowds, no huge collections of shouty, screamy, smelly people. Nobody stared at me for more than a few seconds. Nobody critiqued my body language.
I was a bit odd, yeah, but all I knew was that I was smart and creative and better than other people at fixing problems.
I went damn near fifteen years out there not even suspecting I might be autistic. Nobody even thought to bring it up.
Now I’m in the city, and I have a hard time going into the middle of a store. I hate the mall. My eyes hurt. Ambulances and fire trucks and cars with bad brakes go by and I cover my ears and nobody else does. I’ve been told I come off as “quirky”.
My question is, though, if an atypical person is in an environment that suits them, can anyone tell?
Most folks only know who’s blind when the lights are on. If the sky went dark tomorrow, we’d have no idea.
i want a modern-accent-accurate version of the arthurian myth. guinevere with a welsh accent, arthur with a midlands or northern accent, lancelot’s french, all the orkneys are scottish…
how much better would mordred be as a character with a scottish accent?
“a asked ma maw if arthur was ma da or ma uncle an she went tae me ‘yes’. a canny deal wi this am gonnae blow the whole kingdom up tae fuck”
kaylapocalypse
I’m crying. I’m going to screenshot this and send it to my professor
🤭🤭🤭
I wont say an exception is not possible, but billionaires do not donate money. They buy control over something that is important to them. If there are exceptions I have not seen them. Every time you see a billionaire being a philanthropist and actually giving a significant percent of their money look a bit deeper and you will find them actually buying control, not giving money away.
A prime example is Bill Gates. Well known as a philanthropist, primarily for his large scale donation to education. Except what actually happened is he essentially bought a sharing control in the US education system and proceeded to fucked it up terribly. I will believe his intentions were good, but frankly that doesn’t matter. He fucked it up because he is a billionaire and billionaires just can’t give up control. It is how they became billionaires in the first place, it is baked into their minds.
They just can’t accept that Notre Dame isn’t for sell. Because that is what “donations” mean to billionaires. They want to buy a controlling stake in something that they care about, and they have been doing so long they think that this is philanthropy. Because it makes sense to them that if they are going to invest *their* money that they should make sure it is done right. But they generally have no fucking idea what they are doing when it comes to these things.
Anyway if billionaires actually wanted to help the first thing they need to do is let go of their control and pay god damn taxes.
Yeah, that’s why you don’t excuse “donations” as a reason why the rich shouldn’t pay more in taxes. This is exactly why we need their help funding essential services through TAXES. So THEY stay out of what DOES NOT belong to them.
Here is the guardian article
Source: t.co
Update For March
I apologize, I fell off Tumblr for the past several months. I don’t really have an excuse. I think having to keep up with everything across different social media platforms while struggling with job loss and medical issues was overwhelming. If my friends are still around Tumblr, I am deeply grateful and appreciative of your support and patience.
On to the good news - I have a new job now that I started on March 16th. I am still working for the same healthcare company but instead of working in medical records, I am working in financial records. After completing my training I was sent home with my work computer to work from home during the Covid-19 crisis. Seems ironic to me as I struggled for years in my old previous job to be able to meet productivity standards to work from home which was simply handed to me after 2 weeks in my new job. Go figure.
My sleep apnea has improved with the CPAP machine I wear at night. My doctor would like to improve it even further by ordering me a fancier machine that breathes with me instead of just blowing air against my face but we will see. I have a phone appointment this Tuesday to see about that.
Anyway I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I’m sorry I missed wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. Please take care and I will do what I can to be more active on social media nowadays.
Love you all. ❤️
This blew up on Twitter but I got for exposured
Louder for the people in the back 🗣🗣
The most insidious version of this is honestly the “Rags to riches” trope, especially when it’s a supposedly true story. It doesn’t work that way, the rags to riches story is social engineering to give the rest of us the illusion that we might someday earn wealth by following their rules, which are designed to keep wealth where it is.
Take for instance The Greatest Showman. Presented as a true story. Barnum’s father was quite wealthy and had connections that made it happen, and Barnum exploited the fuck out of people and that feel good ending where he respected his performers never happened.
If you aren’t already in the 1%, yes you reading this right now. If you aren’t now, you never will be. Period.
Eat the rich.
quiteliterallyhotsauce
why can’t I be addicted to something productive like the gym or saving money
I wish my hyperfixations were like this too. XD
Source: twitter.com