All this "is it a coup?" talk makes me think about the times I've suggested folks might wanna google "autogolpe" or "self-coup" because, come on, people. "A self-coup (or autocoup, from the Spanish autogolpe) is a form of putsch or coup d'état in which a nation's leader, despite having come to power through legal means, dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assumes extraordinary powers..."

It's #LaborDay weekend and all, so I'm gonna do a thread about a job listing I just saw.

I think it's depressing and on the dystopian side that this looks normal to lots of people. Let's unpack it together...

Have a song to read it with:

[1/15] "We have 2 different opportunities- both in fast growing companies with lots of room for advancement! Hard workers rewarded! I need about 50 people. General Labor to start at $11-$12 an hour. Four shifts available starting 5:30, 6:30, 7:00 and 3:00(pm). Overtime available" [2/15]

I hear this shit about my work all the time but let’s try it on a few other jobs.

If you’re getting paid to provide medical care, you shouldn’t be providing medical care, amirite?

If you’re getting paid to be a cop, bad call, you should do it free, right?

And so on.

https://twitter.com/chel_c_cam/status/1035290030841978881

People always respond to that pushback, though, with insistence that cops are doctors are important. I always wonder: do they think that’s gonna make professional creatives WANT to continue the discussion?

So at that point I usually ask the artist what THEY do for work.

Have folks read this? I found it a really well-written piece that gets to the heart of why "racism" doesn't mean what many people think it does.

I feel like @SheWritesToLive does an incredible job answering questions people are *about* to ask, first.

medium.com/@shewritestoli… I shared this article elseweb yesterday, and one person asked me how I could share it when I am obviously a white person -- am I saying I'm racist?

The answer is, basically, yes -- whether I want to be or not, because I benefit from all the structural aspects. [2/5]

Hey @gmail, what the hell are you doing with my inbox? Why did you just present me with a 3-day-old email as if it were brand new? Is this Facebook-style "top stories" for my inbox? If so, get it the fuck out of there, for fuck's sake. I want my email chronological. The end. I damn well know I received it 3 days ago. We had an email exchange and I'm not trying to get in the last word after 6 rounds when the last reply was closure of the thread. Where's the setting to just show me my email without fucking with it for no reason?

This is a point I often make about my oldest ancestors who came to the New World from England in 1638: they were not immigrating, they were colonizing, in the name of the very empire they felt was treating them unfairly.

https://twitter.com/breenewsome/status/1014533839350353920

The well documented 1638 ancestor had a wife and 2 small children. He was a minister, and basically signed on to be the minister for a for-profit colonizing expedition to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He died at sea, and his wife got his plot of land in a brand new town...

People who don't understand #spinning yarn by hand, aka #handspinning, think a spinning wheel works if the drive wheel turns. And that wheels are easy to build. I mean, how hard could it be? They're totally for women, so they're obviously not really technology. These thoughts brought to you by yet another morning waking up to an email asking if someone should spend $300 on a non-working "antique" that someone says "works great," because new wheels people recommend start in the $500-600 range.

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Someone says: "So, our government's doing a bad thing, and it needs to stop."

A Trumpist says: "Something vaguely similar has happened before, so your argument is invalid."

Folks, we already know this is a bullshit argument, but let's take a minute and unpack it. First, for the purposes of this exercise, let's leave aside the issue of whether or not something similar HAS actually happened before. Let's just say it has, and that it's not a false equivalence, misunderstanding, divorced from context, or an outright lie.

But seriously though, I do want to know: under what circumstances do you personally think your children belong in a concentration camp?

I mean, I know where I stand on that. There are no circumstances under which I think anybody's children belong in a concentration camp. So yeah, bring it on. Is it when you knowingly break the law, like that time when you touched your cell phone while you were driving in a state that doesn't allow you to? That time you didn't renew your driver's license on time? That speeding ticket?

"My mother taught me never to talk about religion or politics."

So says a commenter on a friend's thread, scolding her for saying something political.

Let's talk about this. [1/] My take is: if your mother taught you never to talk about religion or politics, your mother disenfranchised and disempowered you.

And that's something to FIX. Not something to use to scold others into silence.

But that's not all. [2/4]

I keep seeing women ask men in their friends lists/timelines etc:

So how do you speak up against sexism and misogyny?

And so many of these men are like, "Geeze, I totally would, if I ever saw any happen!"

And like, these men seem to think that's a good answer. [1/] Like, seriously? You actually expect us to believe sexism and misogyny never happen around you?

How does it not occur to you that what you just said is "I give no fucks about sexism and misogyny?"

Obviously you wouldn't speak up against it or you'd be talking to yourself. [2/

Here's a quick thread about how to deal with someone telling you there's a problem.

This is especially for white women who are saying things like "But I'm trying! If trying is never enough, why should I bother?" Let us suppose that you and I are standing in a crowd. You take a step. This step leads to you standing on my foot.

I say, "Pardon me, but you are standing on my foot."

You say, "I didn't mean too! It's not my fault!" but you don't step off my foot.