more appropriately, fail to remember, is that of the 3 groups that make up our modern nation-state, only one group is real.

People, Government, Business. The unholy trinity. But one of these things exists when the others do not. One of these things is a thing all by itself, without molding or definition from the others. The others are constructs, ways of structuring the world. We have been told that these structures are for the benefit of the people. They keep people safe and distribute resources in the most efficient way. But that’s a load of fucking hooey, coming from a bunch of fucking smoke-blowers.

You can’t have a government without people, and more importantly, without the consent of the governed. You can’t have trade without people. But people can, have and will again exist without either government or business. It’s a cycle. It always comes back around.

There will come a point when those structures that claim to make life better are seen by the majority for what they are, corrupt leeches sucking the life of us. What we get in it’s place is really a function of the same kind of dynamic that goes into disaster capitalism. What are the best ideas floating around at the time?

So the lovely Rachel Weisz has separated from her husband, Darren Aronofsky.

And a few months ago, Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes split up.

Now Kate is dating a super hot underwear model and Rachel is rumored to be hanging out with Daniel Craig.

Both their ex husbands signed the stupid ‘I <3 child rapist Roman Polanski' petition. So now for the wild speculation- douchebags who are so totally cool with child rape that they will sign their name to it end up being left by their (much more talented and richer) wives. Said wives will then start shagging dudes who are vastly hotter than douchebag ex husbands. This is your marital tip of the day. If you want to keep your wife, don’t be cool with child rape.

Holy shit, what a fucking title, right?

This must be a snake oil pitch. Or something. Well it’s something. It’s probably going to sound a little fucking preachy, hippy, free love crappy. I get it. Those kinds of things make me squirm in my seat, whether it’s someone bowing their head to say a prayer before a meal or telling me that their magic crystals cleansed their chakras.

But this you can do. And you don’t have to believe in any kind of deity.

Try to be a little less judgmental. I know, I know. Where is the fucking fun in that? I know, we HATE all the right people. I know there are a thousand ways they don’t measure up to what we think makes a worthwhile human being. I know, we are on the side of progress so our disgust is well-earned and just. I know.

But it is that well-deserved hate that keeps us separate. That is what makes us think left/right when the truth is Top/bottom. That little bit of condescension, snobbery, judgment, squeeful hate of those we deem unworthy is the prize we get for living in a stratified society.

From lefty types, good democrats all, I have heard it is okay to hate: poor single mothers with too many children by too many men, fat people if they are over a certain weight, the disabled if their disabilities aren’t of the wheelchair/seeing eye dog/ sign language varieties, people who don’t buy organic, mothers who don’t/can’t breastfeed, gay people who talk about being gay too much, progressives in general, and and and.

And I am not immune. I hate suburbanites and country folks. I don’t get rednecks and people who like most country music. And teabaggers, of the fucking teabaggers.

But if I take a minute, step back from the little endorphin rush that happens in your brain when you think about things you hate (and yeah, I am sure there is a little rush) and logically think about why someone is who they are, I come up with some understanding.

For example, that woman with too many kids and too many baby daddies is just following the narrative of true love means patriarchal family and babies. She’s doing exactly what she’s been told to do since she was a child, find a nice guy, settle down, have kids. She hasn’t been told that the fact that it keeps failing for her is because it’s a fairy tale, she thinks she just needs to find the right prince.

And that tea bagger partier is the buffer class for the elites. Of course he’s pissed and scared. He really will lose out if the horrid and unfair inequities of society are fixed. He doesn’t have any value to society if he loses his role as gatekeeper for the elites. (While I can understand where he’s coming from, this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t NEED to lose that position. It just means I can be a little empathetic when justice comes).

Just try it out. Just a little empathy and compassion. If you really hate it, you can go back to hating on people tomorrow.

(This post is brought to by the Veil of Ignorance. Go forth and google)

squatting as political protest/ means of solving homeless issue.

Look, we all know “the rents too damn high”.

So any readers out there with squatting experience? I’ve googled around a bit but i haven’t found any organized squatters in Seattle like you’d have in NYC, but we do have our organized tent city.

Elizabitchez is trying out this tumblr shit.

elizabitchez.tumblr.com

for the lighter side of the universe ending, or maybe I am just trying to find my bell hooks flavored joy in these crappy times through silly gifs of bizarre things.

Yesterday, after all the midterm election hullabaloo, the Fed released 600 BILLION dollars in funds to buy long term treasuries. This is quantitative easing, a way to keep interest rates low for large institutions that want to borrow money during a time of rising inflation.

Now with little fanfare, and no political fight, 600 BILLION bucks just made its way into the economy that wasn’t there before. It will have no tangible benefit for you or me or any of the bottom 80 percent. If we were capable of borrowing money right now, we would probably be hit with killer interest rates.

At the same time, unemployment benefits are running out this week for thousands, tens of thousands, many many Americans. One of my dearest friends called me panicked last night. You could here the pale fear in her voice. If I can scrounge the $, I’m bringing her wine tonight and getting her good and drunk. I told her we can all live in the park together, or we’ll go squat in some of the empty, newly built, luxury condos that can’t be sold.

600 billion would go a long way towards housing, feeding, and employing those of us in the bottom 80. But we are not a priority.

This is a theme I have heard repeated over and over at those of us who don’t want to waste time and energy on a failing system “do something!” “Why don’t you do something about it if you feel that way?”

Blink. Double Blink.

Because 5 years, 2000+ blog posts, being regularly screamed at, insulted, and basically abused by people on both the right and the left, plus the years of volunteerism, the protests, the protest medic-ing (yep, I’m the girl who knows how to wash tear gas out of your eyes) is nothing. Nothing if I am not contributing to the system in the only kyriarchy approved way, through little scraps of paper marked with a “choice” about who controls us. To them I have done nothing.

And I remember being the asshole who yelled at Nader voters in 2000 (I apologized during the primaries) and being the asshole who had “no respect for someone who wouldn’t do their democratic duty”. (I apologize now).

What I know now is that choosing not to participate in a corrupt system is much more work than “doing something”. That the amount of energy required to pull back the rhetoric curtains and critically view the system is immense, and it is “doing something” to expose it. That if I were to shut up, vote blue or red, keep my thoughts to myself and do as I am supposed to do, I would personally fare better is something I have thought about. I might even be employable if I could tow the line. But I can’t.

In the same way I can’t shoplift, even though I can see that it would be better for me and my family if I could just pocket what we need instead of paying for it. I can’t suck it up and pretend that the system just needs the proper tweaking from the right guys to make it work. It needs to be smashed and rebuilt.

I am doing something, with words like a hammer I am trying to chip away at this little corner of the system.

Oh Mr. Gramsci, you have ruined me forever. I can no longer look at “common sense” ideas without needing to pull them apart and examine them for upper class benefit.

So all the teevees, all the channels, all the talking heads owned by giant warmongering corporations spent the last few weeks encouraging, demanding, browbeating people into voting. Vote, vote or die. Get out the vote. Blah blah blah. And at this point we ALL should know that our best interest is not first and foremost in the minds of the talking heads and their corporate masters. When they tell us to do something, it is because it serves them, not us.

And it is not at all surprising that in a system that only allows for 2 parties who barely differ from each other (shit sandwich, shit sandwich with pickle) that people who are pissed at the status quo take the only option they are given for venting and vote for the slightly different status quo. There is no other option. No other option will be allowed to be viable. It is not in the best interest of the elites. And if it ain’t in the interest of the elites, you and me ain’t ever gonna get a chance to choose it. Period.

We should all be able to recognize this in the same way we recognize that commercials for painless, easy hair removal are full of shit. We know, in our hearts, that politics is a rigged shell game and we are the dupes on the street, handing over cash and trying to guess where the best governance is hidden. But we keep playing, keep giving legitimacy to our “betters”, keep voting and watching the talking heads and pretending that the screaming arguments we have over what branch of the monarchy elite controls us matter. We are kept confused with ideas of left and right, conservative and liberal so that we never ever look at the real structure, top and bottom. Up and down. Haves and Have Nots.

We fight with each other over the best way to serve the interests of our masters. We scream at the people who refuse to participate in Democracy Theater. We should all be able to see that this system is set up to divide us from each other so we keep fighting over the scraps of resources allotted to us bottom 80% instead of demanding a better split from the powers that be.

We should all be able to see this shit. We should all be able to agree on it. But Democracy Theater is a powerful show and we keep fighting each other while the powerful run off with bags of money.

So i was seriously trying to decide if I was going to spend my last 3 bucks on bus fare to go vote.

I decided nope. Not worth it.

This is a process. And because I am fairly open with who I am and what my thoughts are online, you all get to watch me waver and waffle and chew through information and figure shit out. You all get to watch me be broke and vulnerable and scared and sometimes (ugh) weak. But it’s a process and hopefully at the end of this adventure I will be a better person than I was when I started. It helps knowing that out in bloglandia there are people who watch this sausage making process and keep me honest.

So not voting. May spend the 3 bucks and hit a thrift store and see if I can find a cheap winter coat instead. Better use of time and resources. (And so obvious that I was reading feminist hulk twitters while writing this).