ryepunk [he/him]
Just some pathetic cis white boy from Canada’s worst province who never amounted to much of anything. Work in a grocery store that is mostly okay, but don’t make enough to live off so I’m resigned to just trying to not cry too much every day. I have a partner I dearly love.
Do not worry I have visited the geniuses of specifically neoliberal, and bring you their wisdom on what the election means.
"Dem state and local level governance has been bad. SF, Chicago, etc haven’t been good at delivering for their residents or spending efficiently, and voters nationwide punished Dems for their regional failures.
Dems have spent/prioritized groups without a worthwhile payoff. There’s been hundreds of billions spent bailing out union pensions, primarily benefiting old white retired former union workers- often ones with rich pensions. These voters have taken Dem money and shifted to Trump.
Dem policy for decades seemed to be built around “let’s do ____ good thing in a way that creates lots of jobs”. This isn’t a fit for 2024- and left behind a cancer of inefficiencies. Dems need to reinvent to “let’s do ____ good thing in an efficient low cost way- so we can get the most bang for our buck”. This is in conflict with unions/local non for profits- but it’s a big reason why it’s so much more expensive to live in Dem states.
It hurts me deeply- but the Biden plan to lift up the bottom quadrant of wages through full employment failed. It led to inflation- which is politically toxic. Next time in a crisis - the horrible choice has to be mass unemployment and limited stimulus.
Dems screwed up by having so much of the infrastructure projects get bogged down in years of environmental review and paperwork. Now- Republicans will get credit for the work.
Dems failed to limit the flow of asylum seekers- and it was an unpopular disaster. This was made worse by Dem states and cities not having the capability to handle migrant influx without grifting/super inefficient spending.
Biden’s late exit put Kamala in a tough position.
Millennial generation seemed to have the 2007 crash as their formative political moment- and blames Republicans for it. Gen Z is different, and seems much more open to Republicans.
Abortion referendums ran ahead of Dems pretty universally. Dems didn’t seem to be able to tie Trump or other Republicans candidates to abortion policy.
Some of the story is just a global anti-incumbent wave…. But Trump was the opponent. It goes beyond that.
The old media is dead. Trump and Musk figured out how to connect with voters through new media. Kamala didn’t.
This might be me being petty/angry- but I think a lot of left-ish influencers had the best years of their life 2016-2020 when “resistance” money was flowing in for podcasts/donations. I think this made them less urgent to oppose Trump- which hurt on the margins."
Definitely smart takes there and not just revealing how the libs have got.
I mean he made a Netflix show about government and had Obama on and didn’t yell at him at all so I saw this coming a mile away.
It’s hardly surprising these are the same super assholes who think that capitalism can work as long as you put 20,000 pounds of restrictions and safeguards on it to make sure it doesn’t melt the planet down in an effort to sell more fossil fuels… Oh wait that already happened?
Yeah definitely wouldn’t want a weak republican party then the Dems would actually have to do the things instead of just running in place forever.
Thank you for the kind words. I always feel imposter syndrome and rarely feel like anyone except my partner ever says they value me so it’s real hard to get up and get to work day after day.
My ex had something going on, I tried to respect them as much as possible and was always supportive to help them get jobs or even just the effort of applying for jobs. Possibly ADHD, anxiety issues as well, they switched meds a few times when were together. We also ended up having completely opposite sex drives which soured things pretty badly, they also were really against masturbation which was very stressful for me. Although possibly I just wasn’t paying enough attention to their needs and desires, I feel like I could have tried harder but work and everything and well maybe I could have been better?
I know they spent days sitting in bed feeling bad about not helping out, but eventually it becomes hard to feel sorry when I’m completely burned out from work. I once heard that we all have batteries and eventually they drain and yea at a certain point I did find it very hard not to be bitter at them being at home so much and able to play games watch streams and movies and tv shows.
We split up when they were in a decent place, they had been working consistently for about a year by that point and they had initiated talks that they no longer cared for me and thought of me more as a roommate or friend. And then I tried to make it work, tried to get a better job (that was what caused me to try looking into teaching English before covid put that whole thing on the backburner for 2 years). I hope they’re doing well. They had a good job the last time we spoke.
Hey thanks for reading through my post. Appreciated it.
I think 5 or 6, I’ve been at my current job for 17 years because I learned I don’t really find any form of work any better than another so something simple and tedious is better than difficult but fulfilling and I cannot handle responsibility I run in terror when it is given to me.
Grocery store - cashier then got promoted to front end supervisor and they wanted to fast track me into management when I was twenty, but I quit because I abhor responsibilities.
Different grocery store, I quit after a day because there was no real guidance on what to do that first day.
Future shop (Canadian best buy before best buy bought and killed it) - I was in computer department, and selling shit to people because I would get a better commission felt really scummy. My boss was a dick who kept trying to get me to flirt with girls despite seeing me being uncomfortable, and a manager scolded me thoroughly my first shift being left without supervision because I went for lunch without checking in something I was not told I had to do. So I quit after like 3 weeks.
A different grocery store that had an electronics department, where I’ve been for the past 17 years - my department has shifted from having a sizeable portion of the store with tvs, video games, and cameras, movies, music. To eventually being just games, to eventually the department was closed and I got transferred into seasonal, which eventually got folded into housewares and seasonal and toys and whatever electronics we still happen to carry (mostly batteries and whatever games Nintendo ships us). It’s okay mostly, but harder on the body as I approach 40. I feel like I’m going to break at some point and just be unable to work anymore. It is unionized though so hopefully I could get an accommodation. I have served as a union shop steward and sit on the health and safety committee. But I basically got volunteered for both and was too afraid to say I don’t want to do this. After ten years of steward thing I resigned from it, incredibly stressful role often having to see employees get fired for things they didn’t realize was technically theft. No warnings ever given once they caught you and often times I would need to spend 4 or 5 hours writing paperwork and statements to union about meetings and it basically wiped me out for a week or two if I had one. I still sit of health and safety though.
Worked on a startup games website and podcast through some online mutuals; that revealed I don’t want to do that, but I was also working at the grocery store so it probably impacted it, if it was paid and I could have only worked on the games stuff it might have been better, but turning a leisure outlet into work production is brutal and it felt like I could never turn off and enjoy life anymore. Also the mutuals who were running the site slowly revealed to be more chud like than I thought so I have slowly melted away from them.
Teaching English as a Second language for high school immigrants (mostly from mexico and japan and Korea). I got my certificate to this right before covid started so had to wait until 2023 before they started practicums. They hired me once I finished that for summer school classes and immediately found myself overwhelmed and shockingly underpaid despite making over 40 bucks an hour. Mostly because I had like 3 - 4 hours of prep time for a class, which I didn’t get paid so I was making about the same as my grocery store job, with a significantly longer commute, more stress. So after subbing for the winter semester I declined to take a larger role with that job.
Nothing I do has ever felt good, or let me feel comfortable, but I continue to need to work. And during 2014 until 2021 I had a mortgage that I was often paying off by myself because my ex would get tired of their job and quit or work so badly until they fired them (so they wouldn’t have to bother quitting which is funny but kind of rude to me), so during those 7 years I think I had maybe 3 weeks of vacation.
Where is the bacon flavoured Doritos ranch dressing of china? How about some ranch infused kung Pao sauce? Truly an uncultured society where you don’t have thousands of choices for which sauce goes on the chicken nuggies. If I cannot experience choice paralysis at the grocery over items that have no real discernible difference than what is the point of living?