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bhilasar · 10 months

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Very long post ahead. I decided to compile all the lyrics of the 7 songs from Finn's "Love songs" playlist, their possible meanings, and interesting facts about them.

Love Songs by Finn Wolfhard

Boys Don't Cry · The Cure Let Her Go · Mac DeMarco Africa · Toto Lovesong · The Cure Inbetween Days · The Cure Lost Weekend · The So So Glos Zenzenzense · RADWIMPS

Boys Don't Cry · The Cure

I would say I'm sorry If I thought that it would change your mind But I know that this time I have said too much Been too unkind I tried to laugh about it Cover it all up with lies I tried to laugh about it Hiding the tears in my eyes 'Cause boys don't cry Boys don't cry I would break down at your feet And beg forgiveness, plead with you But I know that it's too late And now there's nothing I can do So I try to laugh about it Cover it all up with lies I try to laugh about it Hiding the tears in my eyes 'Cause boys don't cry Boys don't cry I would tell you that I loved you If I thought that you would stay But I know that it's no use And you've already gone away Misjudged your limits Pushed you too far Took you for granted Thought that you needed me more, more, more Now I would do most anything To get you back by my side But I just keep on laughing Hiding the tears in my eyes 'Cause boys don't cry Boys don't cry Boys don't cry

Meaning & Facts

The Cure‘s Robert Smith has discussed how their classic track ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ continues to challenge gender norms – as well as speaking out to distance the band’s association with the label of “goth”. The art-rock veteran has opened up about the “contemporary resonance” of the iconic 1979 single, after being struck by the make-up of the audience at their acclaimed Glastonbury 2019 headline set back in June. “I was singing [‘Boys Don’t Cry’] at Glastonbury and I realised that it has a very contemporary resonance with all the rainbow stripes and stuff flying in the crowd,” Smith told Rolling Stone. “When I was growing up, there was peer pressure on you to conform to be a certain way. “And as an English boy at the time, you’re encouraged not to show your emotion to any degree. And I couldn’t help but show my emotions when I was younger. I never found it awkward showing my emotions. I couldn’t really continue without showing my emotions; you’d have to be a pretty boring singer to do that. He continued: “So I kind of made a big thing about it. I thought, ‘Well, it’s part of my nature to rail against being told not to do something’.”

Source: NME . Robert Smith on the power of The Cure’s ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ on gender norms – and never being “goth”

Let Her Go · Mac DeMarco

Tell her that you love her If you really love her But if your heart just ain't sure Let her know Growing by the hour Love just like a flower But when the flower dies, you've got to say goodbye And let her go Let her go Let her go Tell her that you'll be there If you'll really be there Separation's supposed to make the heart grow fond But it don't So tell her that you love her If you really love her But if your heart just ain't sure Let her go Let her go Let her go Let her go Let her go Yeah Or you can keep her, it's okay It's up to you Make your own choice, whatever you gotta do God bless

Meaning & Facts

This one is pretty obvious, but here it is.

The song "Let Her Go" by Mac DeMarco is about making the difficult decision to let go of someone you love, even if it might be hard to do. The lyrics suggest that even if your heart isn't sure, sometimes it's best to accept the situation and let the person go so that both of you can find happiness. Even though it might hurt to do so, the song reminds the listener to be honest and kind when making this difficult decision.

Source: Songtell

Honesty is crucial for a healthy relationship, but it can also destroy one. “Let Her Go” sees Mac advocate for complete honesty when it comes to decisions about whether to continue a relationship. It’s unfair to stick with an unhappy one.

Source: Genius

Africa · Toto

I hear the drums echoing tonight But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation She's coming in, 12:30 flight The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation I stopped an old man along the way Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you" It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had The wild dogs cry out in the night As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company I know that I must do what's right As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti I seek to cure what's deep inside Frightened of this thing that I've become It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain) I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain) I bless the rains down in Africa I bless the rains down in Africa (Ah, gonna take the time) Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Meaning & Facts

*It played in Stranger Things' "The Vanishing of Will Byers" when Steve and Nancy were making out.

“Africa” is a song recorded by the American rock band Toto. The lyrics of “Africa” capture the quandary of a guy who must choose between his two loves — the continent of Africa and girl he finds therein. The song’s co-writer David Paich (keyboardist and vocalist of Toto) said he was inspired to write the song when during the early 80s, he watched a documentary about the “death and suffering” plaguing many people in Africa. In a 2015 interview, Paich said the song is about a man’s deep love of Africa. Three years later, the songwriter went on to describe the song as one that is about someone flying to a distant land (apparently Africa) to meet a lonely missionary there.

Source: SongMeaningAndFacts

Lovesong · The Cure

Whenever I'm alone with you You make me feel like I am home again Whenever I'm alone with you You make me feel like I am whole again Whenever I'm alone with you You make me feel like I am fun again Whenever I'm alone with you You make me feel like I am young again However far away I will always love you However long I stay I will always love you Whatever words I say I will always love you I will always love you Whenever I'm alone with you You make me feel like I am free again Whenever I'm alone with you You make me feel like I am clean again However far away I will always love you However long I stay I will always love you Whatever words I say I will always love you I will always love you

Meaning & Facts

The Cure lead singer Robert Smith wrote this as a wedding present for his fiancée, Mary Poole, shortly before they got married in 1988. Smith has remained steadfast in his devotion to Mary, whom he met at school when he was 14. He credits her with saving his life by pulling him out of the abyss when he went through some self-destructive periods.

Source: SongFacts

The meaning of the song 'Lovesong' by The Cure is a reminder of the power of love. The song is about how being with somebody can evoke a feeling of peace and belonging. The singer recognizes the strength of the love between them and no matter what distance may come between them, they will always remain connected by that love. The chorus serves as an assurance they will "always love" the other person, no matter what. It's a beautiful statement of devotion that stands against the test of time and distance.

Source: Songtell

Inbetween Days · The Cure

Yesterday I got so old I felt like I could die Yesterday I got so old It made me want to cry Go on, go on, just walk away Go on, go on, your choice is made Go on, go on, and disappear Go on, go on away from here And I know I was wrong When I said it was true That it couldn't be me and be her In between without you Without you Yesterday I got so scared I shivered like a child Yesterday away from you It froze me deep inside Come back, come back Don't walk away Come back, come back Come back today Come back, come back What can't you see? Come back, come back Come back to me And I know I was wrong When I said it was true That it couldn't be me and be her In between without you Without you Without you Without you Without you, without you Without you, without you

Meaning & Facts

The song "In Between Days" by The Cure is about the struggle of accepting a difficult break-up and all the pain that comes with it. The song reflects on the sadness and helplessness of being in between the wrong and the right decision; being in between staying together and splitting up. The lyrics allude to the feelings of loneliness and longing that linger even after a break-up, as well as the inner struggle between loyalty to one's partner and the need to look after oneself. The final chorus serves as a reminder that, no matter the decision made, it will always be painful and that someone will always be left behind.

Source: Songtell

Person 1 // Interpretation 1: He starts to feel old in his current relationship. Finds an "in between days" girl to keep things fresh. Girlfriend finds out and leaves. He tries to convince her to come back and accept the triangle, but ends up admitting that he'd rather stay with the new girl: "and I know I was wrong when I said it was true that it couldn't be me and be her in between, without you." In other words, he sort of feels like a dick (he is) and regrets hurting his girlfriend, but mostly feels sorry for himself for not getting away with cheating. Person 2 // Interpretation 2: This is VERY good. After buying the album the other day, I finally realized that. The first verse, it seems that the girl really hurt him, and he's basically telling her that he never wants to see her again. The next day, he realizes how much he misses her and that, even though she hurt him, he'd still rather than she be in his life, and he's asking her to come back. And look at this- the lines in the "Go on/come back" parts paralelle each other. "Just walk away/Don't Walk away" "You choice is made/Come back today" (doesn't work exactly) "Just dissappear/Why Can't you see?" "Away from here/come back to me." The title comes from, I think, the moment he realized that he doesn't actually want her to go away- in between the two days. Not really sure about the chorus, but it sounds cool, especially after the verses. So it goes.

Source: SongMeanings

Lost Weekend · The So So Glos

You and I, riding high In a landfill building castles We get around while we're alive Stuck in a web with the spiders and flies Singing - Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah-oh-oh Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah-oh-oh Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah-oh-ah-oh And we can't speak Cause' we're in too deep We've grown up eighty-sixed and ended up like this So don't cry You did it as much as I And I'm not gonna be the one to bail you out this time Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah-oh-oh Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah-oh-oh Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah-oh-ah-oh We've been On a Lost Weekend We've been On a Lost weekend I've seen folks walk on high tight ropes But they're more fun To dance across Then at the end of the day when the work weeks' through There's a sign That says "get lost" So we've been drinking far too long We stumble forward Hung up on the past Don't you worry about that my babe These days Weren't built to last We've been On a Lost Weekend (Weekend) We've been On a Lost weekend Lost weekend Ahhh, lost weekend Could you forget the future If it was just a lie? Stuck in a web with the spiders and flies Could you forget the future If I could forget mine? Could you forget the future? Oh!

Meaning & Facts

The So So Glos's song Lost Weekend is a powerful and evocative expression of the sense of disillusionment and frustration that can accompany early adulthood. The song's lyrics convey a sense of dislocation and aimlessness as the narrator and their companion wander through life, feeling disconnected and out of step with the world around them. This theme is powerfully expressed in the line "We grown up 86'd and ended up like this," which speaks to the sense of loss and missed opportunity that pervades much of the song. Despite the melancholy tone of much of the song, there are also moments of defiance and determination. The refrain "We've been on a lost weekend" speaks to a sense of camaraderie and shared experience that transcends individual pain and isolation. The narrator seems to be urging their companion to embrace this sense of community and to draw strength from it, even as they confront the harsh realities of adult life. This tension between hope and disappointment is one of the most compelling aspects of Lost Weekend, and it is a testament to the skill and insight of The So So Glos as songwriters. Overall, Lost Weekend is a poignant and affecting expression of the challenges and joys of early adulthood. The song captures the sense of dislocation and uncertainty that so many young people feel as they navigate a complex and often bewildering world, and it does so with a degree of honesty and raw emotional power that is truly remarkable.

Source: Sonichits

Zenzenzense · RADWIMPS

At last, hello you’ve opened your eyes But, why won’t you even look me in the eyes, what’s wrong with you? You angrily tell me that I’m late Well, I’m sorry, but I did my best and running at my fastest pace My heart overtook my body as it flew to find you in this place Seeing your hair flowing and your bright eyes glowing aches my very core Wish I could breathe in the same dimension, I don’t want to let it go Now that I am finally faced with the voice I’ve known for so long I don’t know what the words should be the very first I say to you Back in the zenzenzense ‘til this day been looking everywhere for you I followed the sound of your innocent laughter and it guided me in the right way Even if every piece of you disappeared and if it scattered everywhere No, I wouldn’t waver, I would start back at one look for you all over again Or maybe instead I’ll take the whole universe right back to zero again Where should I start? How should I explain? Wanna tell you everything that happened while you were in a long long dream I flew through dozens of skies To tell you adventures I’ve been through hundreds of millions of light years’ worth But now I’m here, finally seeing you reflected in my eyes I just want to know you, play around and show you who it is that you can be I just want to love you, every fragment of you right down to the pain you feel Now that we have finally met at many galaxies’ end I don’ t know how to hold your hand so that I don’t break it Back in the zenzenzense ‘til this day been looking everywhere for you Oh, I let the sound of your unfettered voice and the shedding of tears lead me this way So tell me, who will ever gonna stop us on this the eve of our revolution No more hesitation I will put up a flag to stake my claim on your heart tonight ‘Cause you took away from me the will to give up so clearly and awkwardly I wonder if we can push our way through The countless barriers that’s waiting in the future just beyond our view Side by side, no way we can lose We’ll beat destiny at its own game and make it follow our own rules And there isn’t any weapon besides you that I need to use Zenzenzense ‘til this day been looking everywhere for you I followed the sound of your innocent laughter and it guided me in the right way Even if every piece of you disappeared and if it scattered everywhere No, I wouldn’t waver, I would start back at one look for you all over again For millions of light years yet to come with a verse on my lips that will never end

Meaning & Facts

It's one of the songs of the animated film Kimi No Na Wa // Your Name. Its plot revolves around a romance that defies that space and time. You can read the plot on Wikipedia.

#byler #<target audience #finn's playlists

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gvftea · 10 months

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You know what time it is! Here’s what you missed on GVFTEA!

- This is the end of GVF lowkey

- Who is Kelly? Jake dated someone with the same name as his father?

- Micah birth chart analysis

- I’m glad Josh came out because now I feel less delusional

- Sam forehead big

- Josh mullet no sexy

- Jake eyeliner nono

- Circling back to Danny when they find something to pick on him for

- Marcus King’s wife Kaylee (Briley) has horrible fashion sense

- Josh is just living his truth

- Greta Van Fleet fans (Derogatory)

- Sam and Hannah invented cheating

- GVF sees their peak in 2018-2019

- Can you guys PLEASE be respectful Jake has dyslexia

- GVF members don’t want to fuck you!

- You couldn’t waterboard me into admitting I met Yoko Ono (Referring to Hannah meeting Yoko Ono)

- Hannah is only touring with GVF so she can make sure Sam doesn’t cheat on her

- Who remembers that one time when Jake and Jita had an argument

- It’s clear Danny doesn’t like Hannah have you seen him in pictures with her

- How do you guys expect great musical production from a band who couldn’t spell their names right on their promotional flyer years ago

- Why is a fan comparing people who like Jita to the KKK???!!!!????!!

- The boys sleep in a 4 person tent, though they do have connections to Motel 6

- Not y’all thinking the guy in that picture is Jake Butler 😭😭😭😭😭🗣️🗣️‼️‼️👆🏼

- His instagram is literally Jake Butler

- BEANIE GUY IS MICAH

- NO WHITE SHIRT

- NO BEANIE

- Everyone here has mental illness and probably no access to a vibrator

- Micah lost weight with Ozempic

- Danny had major glo up

- Hannah manifested her relationship with Sam (She just like us fr)

- I hope Sam and Hannah break up right before a European show so that she goes on stage with fucked up makeup and Sam cries during LML and then takes live_at_gvf backstage

- Hannah Wicklund homewrecks relationship to her current boyfriend

- “Doing a Hannah Wicklund”

#greta van fleet #gvf #josh gvf #sam gvf #jake gvf #josh kiszka #danny wagner #danny gvf #jake kiszka #sam kiskza

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thomsenliu65 · 4 months

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19 Greatest Asic Miners For Mining In 2023

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xtruss · 1 year

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Senator Bernie Sanders in Washington, DC. Photograph: Stephen Voss/The Observer

Bernie Sanders: ‘Oligarchs Run Russia. But Guess What? They Run The US As Well’

The veteran senator is now part of Joe Biden’s inner circle, and is still fighting his country’s vast inequalities

— The Guardian USA | Sunday February 19, 2023

After the State of the Union address at the beginning of this month, the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece that argued: “Joe Biden is Bernie Sanders.” By this it meant that, somehow, by stealth, under the cover of darkness, a “democratic socialist” – both words apparently terms of abuse in the WSJ commentator’s lexicon – had invaded the White House and was now making policy for ordinary Americans, interfering in the unjust struggle of their lives, trying to help them get decent jobs and provide them with affordable healthcare. The implication was clear: offshore your assets and offer unhinged prayers to Marjorie Taylor Greene!

Speaking to Sanders last week, I wondered if that was how it felt to him.

The 81-year-old senator for Vermont gave one of his brief, gravelly guffaws, his concession to small talk. “Not quite,” he said. “I do go to the White House every now and then and chat with the president but no, I’m not in the White House. But that’s the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch’s paper – you know Rupert Murdoch in the UK, right?”

I confirm a passing acquaintance.

“Well, the fact is the Wall Street Journal is shocked – flabbergasted! – that an American president would have the courage to mention in his speech, say, that the Oil Industry Made $200bn in Profit, while jacking up prices for everyone; they are shocked to hear that a president wants to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry; shocked to hear a president talk about the need to raise teacher salaries. Joe Biden is far more conservative than I am. But to his credit, I think he has seen what the progressive movement is doing in this country. And he feels comfortable with some of our ideas – and I appreciate that.”

In some ways, the Wall Street Journal was more on the money than Sanders allows. Many of Biden’s proposals did appear to come verbatim from the manifesto that saw Sanders twice beaten to second place in the race to become the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2016 and 2020 – policies that Sanders has been pressing since he first ran for the office of Vermont senator in 1972, on behalf of the Liberty Union party, and finished third with 2% of the vote. For much of that time Sanders – the longest-serving independent representative in congressional history – sounded a lot like a prophet railing in a wilderness of Reaganite deregulation (he has been arguing for a $15 minimum wage for two decades; it still hasn’t come to pass). In the years since the financial crash, however, and particularly since the start of the pandemic, many more people have listened.

For a generation of millennials raised on digital noise, Sanders became, in 2016, the political equivalent of a rare vinyl record: tangible, authentic, a reliable source of timeless indy riffs. For all but the most self-righteous of those fans – a strident few believed him a sellout for eventually endorsing the “centrist” Biden – he retains that appeal (strange to think that the progressive hero of the land-of-the-next-new-thing is an octogenarian – stranger that both of his most visible political rivals are, too). Sanders has written a new book partly aimed at that millennial generation – its Day-Glo title is It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism – reminding the young of their age-old rights and responsibilities.

With Joe Biden, 12 September 2019, when both men were Democratic presidential hopefuls. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

The driving narrative of the book is outrage at the obscene wealth inequalities in the world’s richest economy. One of the things that Biden had the temerity – in the Wall Street Journal’s view – to raise in his State of the Union address was a billionaire minimum tax, “because no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a firefighter or a schoolteacher”. Under the proposed tax on annual gains in wealth, tech billionaire Elon Musk, for example, would have paid upwards of $20bn a year through the pandemic. Sanders would go further, but he concedes it’s a start. In his book he refers to America’s billionaires as oligarchs. He hopes the pejorative will finally start to catch on.

“One of the points that I wanted to make,” he says, “is yeah, of course the oligarchs run Russia. But guess what? Oligarchs run the United States as well. And it’s not just the United States, it’s not just Russia; Europe, the UK, all over the world, we’re seeing a small number of incredibly wealthy people running things in their favour. A Global Oligarchy. This is an issue that needs to be talked about.”

There are plenty of others. Sanders writes, likably, as he talks – straight to the point, low on personal digression, high on public policy. A keen admirer of his once observed how “Bernie’s the last person you’d want to be stuck on a desert island with. Two weeks of lectures about healthcare, and you’d look for a shark and dive in.” In this determination, he says, he wants to be an antidote to the oligarch-owned American media, which would have its audience think and talk about anything else – celebrities, the ballgame, the latest “woke” meme – than the stuff that might loosen their control of politics and the economy. “We don’t talk about our dysfunctional healthcare system. We don’t talk about income and wealth inequality. We hardly talk significantly about the existential threat of climate. The purpose of my book is to begin that discussion.”

It is one flank of what might yet be the beginning of the closing chapter of Sanders’s unique career, a suitably raucous throat-clearing for a last hurrah. There is another thrust to that campaign. Sanders has just become chair of the Senate health, education, labour and pensions committee. He clearly intends to use that office not only to pursue his primary long-term aim – Medicare for all – but to create some proper political theatre along the way. His opening acts have seen him request the presence before the committee of Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of Moderna, who Sanders argues “has become a multibillionaire” by creating a coronavirus vaccine with government money. Calls have also gone out to Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, to address his “union-busting” policies and their relation to his staggering personal fortune. Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, a long-term bete noire of Sanders, should also look out for an invitation. Expect TV ratings of Senate hearings to soar.

One of the inspiring things about Sanders’s devotion to his cause – in light of the factional divisions of the British left – has been his grownup willingness to get behind Biden’s programme and try to influence it from within. The two of them have profound political differences, but, as he outlines in the book, a sincere personal respect; their wives get along well. Sanders would probably hesitate to use a term as emotional as friendship for a political adversary, but that’s how it sounds.

“For us to get along was a) the right thing to do,” he says. “And b) good politics. If you’re a smart guy and you want to win an election, why wouldn’t you sit down and work closely with the person who came in second place? The results didn’t go as far as I would like, but there are solid ideas which have been incorporated, in some cases, into governmental policy.”

Bernie Sanders in 1981. Photograph: Robert Swanson/Vanguard Press/University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library

Having ceded the nomination, he was not interested in any kind of pious sulk that might have divided the Democrats and allowed Trump to return. He is very clear about the existential threat that Trump posed to American democracy. To what extent does he think that threat still will be a factor in 2024?

“Well,” he says, “just before talking to you, I came from a meeting with Lula [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva], the president of Brazil. That is exactly what we talked about. He had the same phenomenon with a rightwing authoritarian, [Jair] Bolsonaro, refusing to accept the election result.” He had been discussing with Lula something Franklin Roosevelt argued in the 1930s: “FDR said freedom is not just the right to vote. It is the right to healthcare, housing, a secure job. When [government] works to do that rather than looking after the interests of billionaires, then people will say ‘you know what, I think democracy works’. If it doesn’t do that, bad things happen and Trump and Bolsonaro gain a foothold.”

The 6 January hearings about the insurrection at the Capitol were important historically but had a limited political effect, he believes. “Trump supporters don’t sit around watching CNN. Many of them still believe that the election was stolen and Trump is right.” He points to an ABC-Washington Post poll of a couple of days earlier that, while expressing little excitement about either candidate, had put Trump three points ahead of Biden in a presidential race.

One of the causal factors Sanders addresses in his book is the alarming growth of news deserts in the US: cities and regions where there are no local news outlets at all. In the absence of knowing what is happening in their neighbourhood, people become entangled in the seductive conspiracy threads of social media. But as well as proposing a method of federal funding for local news, Sanders also keeps the faith that social media – a powerful personal campaigning platform for him – can be redeemed. Isn’t there a certain naivety in this? Isn’t the divisive anger that drives the revenues of Twitter and the rest always more likely to be a reactionary than a progressive force?

“Well,” he says, “I think, the more we know, the more positive options are open to us. And in terms of anger, I think people do have the right to be angry. In America right now, weekly inflation-adjusted wages for workers are lower than they were 50 years ago. Should people be angry that their bosses now make 400 times what they make? I know in the UK you have in a lot of strikes and turmoil. It is about the fact that in the last 40 years, 50 years, there has been an unprecedented transfer of wealth, from the working families to the top 1%. Should people be angry about that? Damn right they should.”

The hero in his book is Eugene Debs, five times presidential candidate of the Socialist party of America at the turn of the 20th century. Before Sanders went into politics – when he was living somewhat off-grid in Vermont (“definitely not a hippy”) – he made a documentary about Debs, designed to be sent to schools across the country. He is the figure he has always tried to live up to.

“Debs is almost unknown now, but he was a remarkable man. A great orator, a great organiser. Contemporaries referred to him as almost a Christ-like figure, prepared to give you the shirt off his back. He ended up spending three years in jail for his opposition to world war one.”

Forerunner: Socialist Eugene Debs addressing a crowd, circa 1910. Photograph: Fotosearch/Getty Images

I wonder, in relation to this, if any of his early interest in socialist history came from his family.

He suggests not. “My father immigrated to the United States from Poland at the age of 17, without any money at all. He got a job as a paint salesman and was a paint salesman his whole life. He was never a union man.”

What would his parents have made of how things have turned out for their son?

“Both of them died young. To be honest, I think they would have been delighted to discover I graduated college. Being a United States senator, running for president, all that would have been unthinkable.”

And would it have seemed unthinkable for him at the time too?

“It was never about a career,” he says. “When I was in college I got involved in the civil rights movement, then I worked for a union. Those were the things that I was motivated by. Eventually I ended up becoming mayor of Burlington, Vermont by 10 votes. But no, I never thought that I would get elected anything.”

With Sanders making noises about his schedule, this leads us to the billion-dollar – or $15 – question. His book-length manifesto ends with something of a rallying cry: “Let’s do it!” Is he still thinking of another run for the Democrat nomination for 2024?

“I think what’s going to happen,” he says, “is that President Biden is going to run for re-election. And if he does, I will support him.”

And does he think age is a key issue in that choice – for Biden and for himself?

“Age is always a factor,” he says. “But there are 1,000 factors. Some people who are 80 or more have more energy than people who are 30. I would hope,” he says, warming, as ever, to his theme, “that we will fight ageism as much as we fight sexism and racism and homophobia, judge people on how they are and not simply by their age. There are,” he says, “a lot of elderly people with a whole lot of experience who are very capable of doing great work.”

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