captainjonnitkessler

[captainjonnitkessler]

One of the things that gets ignored in a lot of posts about violence in protest is that "they gave us rights because we gave them riots" is not the only way for that to go; the other is "send our brave boys in blue to beat the protestors half to death stop the chaos and bring back peace". Tom Cotton's fascist wet dreams are a lot easier to sell the more the public sees your protest as violent rioting.

That doesn't mean that violence is anathema. It's just not a secret "Win" button the liberals are hiding.

#this sort of ties back in with last night's posts about the far-right and far-left shared belief #that you're speaking for a vast silent majority who totally agree with you #unfortunately you are not. and unfortunately you do have to consider optics as part of your long-term strategy

[captainjonnitkessler]

Me waking up in the middle of the night: *doesn't remember where I am, who I am, what the laws of physics are*

My brain, providing zero context: EVERYBODY DO THE WEENUS! THE WEENUS IS A DANCE!

#dropout tv #game changer

[captainjonnitkessler]

Brian David Gilbert getting himself adopted by Dropout is one of the best trades of the century

#Dropout tv #game changer

[captainjonnitkessler]

#dungeon meshi

[captainjonnitkessler]

reblog to kick a camera and send your friends into a timeloop

#game changer #dropout tv

[captainjonnitkessler]

wenis comp

#this was a hell of an episode #game changer

[captainjonnitkessler]

Watcher fandom is continuing to have a normal one I see

#context: some youtubers walked back their decision to paywall their content after fan backlash

[captainjonnitkessler]

local woman who claimed she will "cross that bridge when she comes to it" arrives at said bridge

[captainjonnitkessler]

People reblogging dungeon meshi posts and going “I don’t go here but”. Well? Fix that then.

#dungeon meshi

[captainjonnitkessler]

I’m sorry Pathfinder:Kingmaker, but I’ve seen a documentary in Netflix about this and I don’t think you are right

#dungeon meshi

[captainjonnitkessler]

I think you're absolutely right, and honestly I've been noticing a lot of conspiratorial thinking among internet leftists lately. Insisting that the DNC is rigging elections to stop us from having progressive candidates, that the DNC is actually colluding to keep Republicans in power because it gives them a "threat" to be the alternative to, that the President could just unilaterally impose all the changes we want and is choosing not to, that building codes and regulations are just "their" way of keeping us dependent on the state (no I will not stop banging my drum about anti-regulation sentiment on the left).

Half of it is just word-for-word QAnon conspiracy theories with the values swapped. It can't possibly be that a lot of leftist policies just aren't that popular, no, it's a massive conspiracy to keep the people down! It's not that politics is an incredibly complex machine made up of thousands and thousands of people who all have different goals and ideas and agendas, they're all actually working in lockstep to keep us complacent! It's not that most people just don't really care that much about politics and have literally no idea what people online are saying, it's a conspiracy to keep up the status quo! If only The People could have their way, we'd fix everything immediately!

Maybe this is why people keep accusing me of saying that if we just win this one next election, everything will be fixed. Because they genuinely think that that would be true if only the DNC would let a truly progressive candidate win (who would obviously then win the general in a landslide because everybody actually loves socialism and is just pretending to hate it in the polls for some reason).

How do I put a filter on my posts that stop anarchists from scolding me about the labor movement in the notes unless they are an active member of a trade union

#us politics #sorry that this is my brand now. i'm just. i am just Tired

[captainjonnitkessler]

My problem is that I like collecting things and putting them on a little shelf

#my apologies to whoever has to clean out my house when i die #but yes. every one of those rocks was vital.

[captainjonnitkessler]

with access to the 2022 tumblr vernacular, he'd be unstoppable

[captainjonnitkessler]

My partner is an electrician and I sent him your post and he said "where's the electrician post, I want to see it!"

Yesssss . . . the trades side of tumblr grows!

[captainjonnitkessler]

What if I made a sticker for my hardhat that said "unions are inherently socialist endeavors you dipshits" though

#specifically in regards to the many union coworkers i've had who make 'hating socialism' big parts of their personality #i'm not going to because frankly i do not get paid enough to deal with the shitstorm it would generate #but still . . . imagine. maybe someday when i'm less tired and my coworkers are less ready to shoot liberals

[captainjonnitkessler]

Student anon again, I've sent in a few other asks but realized I hadn't properly said 'hi' in a while. I had a thought, and it might not make sense, but I really really hope it does. Here we go

Peers at my college treat voting the exact same way that they treat putting in a work order for something that is broken.

Because you start out, and something breaks or is already broken. So you ask your older friends what to do and they say, "Well, you could put in a work order, but usually nothing ever comes of it." And then they launch into a story about how their friend put in a work order and it never got resolved, and then another person in the group chimes in with what they've heard and soon enough it is understood that you don't ever really bother with facilities because they're never going to bother with you.

So then time goes on, and you start being the person who says "Ugh, don't bother putting in a work order." which leads to the cycle starting anew...but then at the same time, everyone is whining and bitching about the fact that so many things are broken. But when asked if they've put in a work order the answer is always just, "But what good will it do?" or "I'm sure someone else will do it."

Which is how I end up playing work order chicken with my entire dorm floor about a broken toilet seat until I say "FUCK IT" and put in the work order. And you know what? It was fixed within 24 hours. (I'll also be honest I've never had a work order go ignored, and I have put in quite a few.)

And I don't know but it just feels like this is the same sorts of attitudes I'm seeing when it comes to the apathy towards voting. "It won't change anything" "Other people will vote, I don't matter" all the while moaning about how fucked up the world it without ever lifting a finger to do anything about it in a constructive way.

I hope this makes sense...

Oh hey, nice to hear from you! Hope you're doing well, or as well as any of us are doing lately.

And yeah, I like that metaphor! Just assuming that nothing will ever change and that your participation isn't necessary is how we got Trump, and it's fucking baffling to me that people are already acting like his presidency wasn't a disaster and that we shouldn't even try to avoid making the same mistake again.

#us politics

[captainjonnitkessler]

How does a trade union work? You mentioned union politics and stuff and I really don't know anything about that

This is mostly going to apply to the IBEW because that's what I'm a member of, but I think most unions amongst the trades work similarly. Also I'm not sure if you meant how the union in general works or specifically the politics so I did both!

So my union is a hiring hall, which means that when any electrical company who has signed our contract agreement needs workers, they put a call in to the union hall, and whoever is out of work at the moment can pick up that call and go to work for that company. You get laid off when work slows down, you sign the book at the hall and wait for another company to put out a call. So you might work for one company for a few months or for a few years, but ultimately you're really working for the union, and both the workers and the companies are bound by the collective bargaining agreement, or CBA.

The CBA is signed by both the union hall and the electrical companies, who negotiate the terms of each contract (contracts last 3 years in my local). The companies negotiate through a contractor's organization, and the union appoints a committee to negotiate on our behalf. Stalemates go to a supposedly-neutral party called CIR, but I'm told they rule against us more often than not, so we try hard to avoid that and have had to make major concessions because of it.

As far as the political stuff goes: The union membership votes for an administration - president, business manager, organizer, etc. Those people appoint others to committees who take care of things like the pension fund, annuity loans, the healthcare plan, political lobbying and of course negotiating.

The problems come in like with any politics - people pick their friends for positions they're not qualified for, they backstab people to gain standing or maintain their positions, they waste union funds, they spend union money in shady ways, they'll run on one platform and then not follow through, they aren't clear and transparent with the membership, etc. It's all the worse because construction workers are absolutely notorious for being an old boy's club, and it's very much about who you know even on the jobsites, let alone in the political sphere.

The mechanism that's supposed to make unions different is that most major decisions have to go through a vote in the membership. Things like approving a CBA, deciding how a raise will be distributed, what our healthcare plan should cover, anything about the pension - it all has to be voted on by the membership. So the workers have a say in what the union does. The catch, though, is once again endemic to all politics: most people don't care. We have over 800 active members, and barely 50 show up to most meetings. People complain loudly about how much they hate the administration and then say that they're glad they're not an apprentice so they aren't required to go to meetings anymore. Most people genuinely don't know or care what the union does as long as they keep getting paid. It's just the same apathy you see in regular politics, on a smaller scale.

So this was probably way more information than you wanted or needed, but if you have any other questions feel free to ask! I do like talking about union stuff, even when I'm annoyed with mine.