Tag: anti capitalism

I also think there might be a unique phenomenon with second shift labor and the relation of bourgeois women and proletarian women.

Because in essence the capitalist receives compensation for the work of many workers, yes? And the capitalist heterosexual housewife receives compensation for the sexual and domestic labor of many women, from her husband’s paycheck receives her compensation, and she receives an unjustly large amount, just as a proletarian heterosexual housewife receives a portion of her husband’s paycheck, and receives a small amount, and I believe this is in part because as the capitalist is paid for the value created by many workers, the capitalist wife is paid for an amount of domestic and sexual labor one worker could not do, she is paid for the work essentially of many “wives”, she is paid for the surplus created by the housecleaners, sex workers, beauty support workers, childcare workers and so on, I’m not sure if this is the exact explanation or perfectly theoretically correct but I think I have a point… there’s something there.in the way second shift labor is done in bourgeois households.

I think applications of labor theory to the domestic sphere are useful and important for understanding the condition of women

Feminism is a way of forcing men to such desperation they must work, therefore it is slavery.

of-another-broken-heart:

manslator:

Manslation: I ostensibly consider voluntarily seeking out employment for which one is compensated and retaining the right to leave at any time to be slavery, so that’s… confusing.

Alternate Manslation: My mom told me to get a job 😦

Alternate alternate manslation: the idea that women want to be treated like people instead of defacto door prizes for men who go through the tedious and extensive trouble of existing are so demanding! I shouldn’t have to work for companionship or affection!

Alternate manslation: I’ve confused feminism with capitalism again

I Dream Of Glamorous Beautiful Retail Environments Piled High With Marvelous Consumer Goods In A Post-Capitalist Society

Beautiful shop window displays, attentive (because they all have a stake in the wellbeing of the place) staff who treat all shoppers with respect because everyone has means to purchase goods and shoppers who are respectful because they all work for a living too.

I dream of bounty and extravagance made available to everyone.  Full employment and use of labor power making beautifully beaded and tailored gowns available for all.  I want to be commie Mr. Selfridge.  And then eventually we replace all workers with robots and people can live lives of leisure and pleasure without even having to work, and still beautiful retail enviornments.

I want shopping to be a lovely leisure activity available to all people without the stress of potential deprivation. 

Consider mental illnesses an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism. First, it reinforces Capital’s drive towards atomistic individualisation (you are sick because of your brain chemistry). Second, it provides an enormously lucrative market in which multinational pharmaceutical can peddle their pharmaceuticals (we can cure you with our SSRI’s). It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation. If it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. This requires a social and political explanation; and the task of repoliticalising mental illness is an urgent one if the left wants to challenge capitalist realism.

Capitalism Realism – Mark Fisher (via communize-anarchy)

Sometimes you just have low serotonin levels, like some people have endocrine issues, but also sometimes this is true… like trying to claim it’s exclusively caused by capitalism is really REALLY fucked up.  SSRIs have saved the lives of MULTIPLE members of my family.  Lactose intolerance isn’t caused by capitalism (not producing enough of the enzyme that breaks down lactose) and sometimes not producing enough serotonin isn’t either.

If your post-capitalist utopia doesn’t include my psych meds then your post-capitalist utopia can go fuck itself.

I’m Not A Reformist or A Revolutionary, I Am A Pragmatist

I will do whatever works at this particular moment to make shit better for people, if that means reformist politicking, then I’ll do it.  If that means revolution, I’ll do that, but if there isn’t the critical mass for a revolution, I will get in there and work the bureaucratic, ugly, boring nitty-gritty if it means improving people’s lives even a tiny bit.

I will do what it takes.  I don’t think reform is enough on its own, in all likelihood, to fix the system, but I do think that one less kid going hungry, one less person victimized by police, one less person dying of a treatable or preventable illness is worth the hassle of struggling through the system’s bullshit “approved channels” for if that’s what gets it done.

I’m not going to wait for a revolution, the kid is hungry now, the police are violent now, the person is sick now.  I’m not asking those people to wait politely for the rising tide of discontent to spill over, I’m going to do what I can to help them now so that they get to see what comes after the revolution.

Get it done, get your hands dirty, I’d rather have stains on my theoretical moral perfection and fewer lost lives. Clean hands and moral superiority are for those that can afford them.

I Want To Write A Thing About Feminized Jobs Doing Other Women’s Second Shift

And how they illustrate the shittiness of capitalism and the patriarchy really well.  Most of the job’s I’ve had have been in some way me doing another woman’s second shift (child care, beauty industry, sex work with a heavy focus on emotional labor) while the employer benefited from the product of my labor and gave me a tiny percentage of the value I’d produced back.

But, also because the employer is typically a woman, getting “paid” the value of a bunch of women doing second shift work, she’s usually getting paid for the value produced in a portion of her husband’s larger salary (which is in turn the value produced by a bunch of workers working under him, who get a tiny percentage of the value produced back, and also larger because he’s giving his wife a percentage of the value of her doing his second shift work has produced).

Does that make sense?

Like I am denied the comfort of the middle class woman who at least spends her time taking care of her own kids, sexually and emotionally dealing with her own husband, and keeping her own house clean, and the comfort of not having my own second shift waiting for me when I get home (thankfully D does not demand the second shift from me).

Like I’m having trouble expressing as thoroughly and accurately as I want to what sucks about this.