#millionaire on billionaire violence

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The conservative movement is cracking up

I'll be in Stratford, Ontario, appearing onstage with Vass Bednar as part of the CBC IDEAS Festival. I'm also doing an afternoon session for middle-schoolers at the Stratford Public Library.

Politics always requires coalitions. In parliamentary democracies, the coalitions are visible, when they come together to form the government. In a dictatorship, the coalitions are hidden to everyone except infighting princelings and courtiers (until a general or minister is executed, exiled or thrown in prison.)

In a two-party system, the coalitions are inside the parties – not quite as explicit as the coalition governments in a multiparty parliament, but not so opaque as the factions in a dictatorship. Sometimes, there are even explicit structures to formalize the coalition, like the Biden Administration's Unity Task Force, which parceled out key appointments among two important blocs within the party (the finance wing and the Sanders/Warren wing).

Conservative politics are also a coalition, of course. As an outsider, I confess that I am much less conversant with the internal power-struggles in the GOP and the conservative movement, though I'm trying to remedy that. Books like Nathan J Robinson's Responding to the Right present a great overview of various conservative belief-systems:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/14/nathan-robinson/#arguendo

And the Know Your Enemy podcast does an amazing job of diving deep into right-wing beliefs, especially when it comes to identifying fracture lines in the conservative establishment. A recent episode on the roots of contemporary right-wing antisemitism in the paleocon/neocon split was hugely informative and fascinating:

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-in-search-of-anti-semitism-with-john-ganz/

Political parties are weak institutions, liable to capture and hospitable to corruption. General elections aren't foolproof or impervious to fraud, but they're miles more robust than parties, whose own leadership selection processes and other key decisions can be made in the shadows, according to rules that can be changed on a whim:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

Which means that parties are brittle, weak vessels that we rely on to contain the volatile mixture of factions who might actually hate each other, sometimes even more than they hate the other party. Remember the defenestration of GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy? That:

https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555

Even outsiders like me know that there's a deep fracture in the Republican Party, with Trumpists on one side and the "establishment" on the other side. Reading accounts of the 2016 GOP leadership race, I get the distinct impression that Trump's win was even more shocking to party insiders than it was to the rest of us.

Which makes sense. They thought they had the party under control, knew where its levers were and how to pull them. For us, Trump's win was a terrible mystery. For GOP power-brokers, it was a different kind of a nightmare, the kind where you discover that controls to the the car you're driving in high-speed traffic aren't connected to anything and you're not really the driver.

But as Trump's backers – another coalition – fall out among each other, it's becoming easier for the rest of us to understand what happened. Take FBI informant Peter Thiel's defection from the Trump camp:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/12/silicon-valley-billionaire-donors-presidential-candidates/

Thiel was the judas goat who led tech's reactionary billionaires into Trump's tent, blazing a trail and raising a fortune on the way. Thiel's support for Trump was superficially surprising. After all, Thiel is gay, and Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, openly swore war on queers of all kinds. Today, Thiel has rebuffed Trump's fundraising efforts and is reportedly on Trump's shit-list.

But as a Washington Post report – drawing heavily on gossiping anonymous insiders – explains. Thiel has never let homophobia blind him to the money and power he stands to gain by backing bigots:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/12/silicon-valley-billionaire-donors-presidential-candidates/

Thiel bankrolled Blake Masterson's Senate race, despite Masterson's promise to roll back marriage equality – and despite the fact that Masterton attended Thiel's wedding to another man.

According to the post, the Thiel faction's abandonment of Trump wasn't driven by culture war issues. Rather, they were fed up with Trump's chaotic, undisciplined governance strategy, which scuttled many opportunities to increase the wealth and power of America's oligarchs. Thiel insiders complained that Trump's "character traits sabotaged the policy changes" and decried Trump's habit of causing "turmoil and chaos…that would interfere with his agenda" rather than "executing relentlessly."

For Trump's base, the cruelty might be the point. But for his backers, the cruelty was the tactic, and the point was money, and the power it brings. When Trump seemed like he might use cruel tactics to achieve power, his backers went along for the ride. But when Trump made it clear that he would trade opportunities for power solely to indulge his cruelty, they bailed.

That's an important fracture line in the modern American conservative coalition, but it's not the only one.

Writing in the BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller and Lee Hepner describes the emerging conservative split over antitrust and monopoly:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/is-there-an-establishment-plan-to

Antitrust has been the centerpiece of the Biden Administration's most progressive political project. For the left wing of the Dems, blunting corporate power is seen as the necessary condition for rolling back the entire conservative program, which depends on oligarch-provided cash infusions, media campaigns, and thinktank respectability.

But elements of the right have also latched onto antitrust, for reasons of their own. Take the Catholic traditionalists who see weakening corporate power as a path to restoring a "traditional" household where a single breadwinner can support a family:

https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/when-capitalism-becomes-tyranny-with-sohrab-ahmari

There's another reason to support antitrust, of course – it's popular. There are large, bipartisan majorities opposed to monopoly and in favor of antitrust action:

https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Antitrust_Policy_poll_results.pdf

Two-thirds of Americans support anti-monopoly laws. 70% of Americans say monopolies are bad for the economy. The Biden administration is doing more on antitrust than any presidency since the Carter years, but 52% of Americans haven't heard about it:

https://www.ft.com/content/c17c35a3-e030-4e3b-9f49-c6bdf7d3da7f

There's a big opportunity latent in the facts of antitrust's popularity, and the Biden antitrust agenda's obscurity. So far, the Biden administration hasn't figured out how to seize that opportunity, but some Dems are trying to grab it. Take Montana Senator John Tester, a Democrat in a Trump-voting state, whose campaign has taken aim at the meat-packing monopolies that are screwing the state's ranchers.

The right wants in on this. At a Federalist Society black-tie event last week during the National Lawyer's Convention, Biden's top antitrust enforcers got a warm welcome. Jonathan Kanter, the DOJ's top antitrust cop, was praised onstage by Todd Zywicki, whom Stoller and Hepner call "a highly influential law professors," from George Mason Univeristy, a fortress of pro-corporate law and economics. Zywicki praised the DoJ and FTC's new antitrust guidelines – which have been endlessly damned in the WSJ and other conservative outlets – as a reasonable and necessary compromise:

https://fedsoc.org/events/national-press-club-event

Even Lina Khan – the bogeywoman of the WSJ editorial page – got a warm reception at her fireside chat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FwdAxOSznE

And the convention's hot Saturday ticket was "a debate between two conservatives over whether social media platforms had sufficient monopoly power that the state could regulate them as common carriers":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwoO7bZajXk

This is pretty amazing. And yet…lawmakers haven't gotten the memo. During markup for last week's appropriations bill, lawmakers inserted a flurry of anti-antitrust amendments into the must-pass legislation:

https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/fsgg-approps-bill-must-support-enforcers-not-kneecap-them/#

These amendments were just wild. Rep Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) introduced an amendment that would give companies carte blanche to stick you with unlimited junk fees, and allow corporations to take away their workers' rights to change jobs through noncompetes:

https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/118th-congress/house-report/269

Another amendment would block the FTC from enforcing against "unfair methods of competition." Translation: the FTC couldn't punish companies like Amazon for using algorithms to hike prices, or for conspiring to raise insulin prices, or its predatory pricing aimed at killing small- and medium-sized grocers.

An amendment from Rep Kat Cammack (R-FL) would kill the FTC's "click to cancel" rule, which will force companies to let you cancel your subscriptions the same way you sign up for them – instead of making you wait on hold to beg a customer service rep to let you cancel.

Another one: "a provision to let auto dealers cheat customers with undisclosed added fees":

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118hr4664rh/pdf/BILLS-118hr4664rh.pdf

Dems got in on the action, too. A bipartisan pair, Rep Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep Lou Correa (D-FL), unsuccessfully attempted to strip the Department of Transport of its powers to block mergers, which were most recently used to block the merger of Jetblue and Spirit:

https://www.congress.gov/amendment/118th-congress/house-amendment/640

And 206 Republicans voted to block the DoT from investigating airline price-gouging. As Stoller and Hepner point out, these reps serve constituents from low-population states that are especially vulnerable to this kind of extraction.

This morning, Jim Jordan hosted a Judiciary Committee meeting where he raked DOJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter over the coals, condemning the same merger guidelines that Zywicki praised to the Federalist Society:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7jxc8dp8erhe1q3wpndre/GOP-oversight-hearing-memo-11.13.23.pdf?rlkey=d54ur91ry3mc69bta5vhgg13z&dl=0

Jordan's prep memo reveals his plan to accuse Kanter of being an incompetent who keeps failing in his expensive bids to hold corporate power to account, and being an all-powerful government goon who's got a boot on the chest of American industry. Stoller and Hepner invoke the old Yiddish joke: "The food at this restaurant is terrible, and the portions are too small!"

Stoller and Hepner close by wondering what to make of this factional split in the American right. Is it that these members of the GOP Congressional caucus just haven't gotten the memo? Or is this a peek at what corporate lobbyists home to accomplish after the 2024 elections?

They suggest that both Democrats and Republican primary contesters in that race could do well by embracing antitrust, "Establishment Republicans want you to pay more for groceries, healthcare, and travel, and are perfectly fine letting monopoly corporations make decisions about your daily life."

I don't know if Republicans will take them up on it. The party's most important donors are pathologically loss-averse and unwilling to budge on even the smallest compromise. Even a faint whiff of state action against unlimited corporate power can provoke a blitz of frenzied scare-ads. In New York state, a proposal to ban noncompetes has triggered a seven-figure ad-buy from the state's Business Council:

https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/noncompete-campaign-raises-state-lobbying-18442769.php

It's hard to overstate how unhinged these ads are. Writing for The American Prospect, Terri Gerstein describes one: "a hammer smashes first an alarm clock, then a light bulb, with shards of glass flying everywhere. An ominous voice predicts imminent doom. Then, for good measure, a second alarm clock is shattered":

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-11-10-business-groups-reflexive-anti-worker-demagogy/

Banning noncompetes is good for workers, but it's also unambiguously good for business and the economy. They "reduce new firm entry, innovation by startups, and the ability of new firms to grow." 44% of small business owners report having been blocked from starting a new company because of a noncompete; 35% have been blocked from hiring the right person for a vacancy due to a noncompete. :

https://eig.org/noncompetes-research-brief/

As Gerstein writes, it's not unusual for the business lobby to lobby against things that are good for business – and lobby hard. The Chamber of Commerce has gone Hulk-mode on simple proposals to adapt workplaces for rising temperatures, acting as though permitting "rest, shade, water, and gradual acclimatization" on the jobsite will bring business to a halt. But actual businesses who've implemented these measures describe them as an easy lift that increases productivity.

The Chamber lobbies against things its members support – like paid sick days. The Chamber complains endlessly about the "patchwork" of state sick leave rules – but scuttles any attempt to harmonize these rules nationally, even though members who've implemented them call them "no big deal":

https://cepr.net/report/no-big-deal-the-impact-of-new-york-city-s-paid-sick-days-law-on-employers/

The Chamber's fight against American businesses is another one of those fracture lines in the conservative coalition. Working with far right dark money groups, they've worked in statehouses nationwide to roll back child labor laws:

https://www.epi.org/blog/florida-legislature-proposes-dangerous-roll-back-of-child-labor-protections-at-least-16-states-have-introduced-bills-putting-children-at-risk/

They also fight tooth-and-nail against minimum wage rises, despite 80% of their members supporting them:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/04/leaked-documents-show-strong-business-support-for-raising-the-minimum-wage/

The spectacle of Republicans in disarray is fascinating to watch and even a little exciting, giving me hope for real progressive gains. Of course, it would help if the Democratic coalition wasn't such a mess.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/14/when-youve-lost-the-fedsoc/#anti-buster-buster

Image: Jason Auch, modified https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antarctic_mountains,_pack_ice_and_ice_floes.jpg

CC BY 2.0

#pluralistic #trustbusting #antitrust #schisms #infighting #conservativism #millionaire on billionaire violence #jim jordan #lina khan #jonathan kanter #federalist society #trumpism #class struggle #labor

[moonastrogirl]

2024 Numerology

- Predictions/Tips

Credit @moonastrogirl

2024 is an 8 year. Karma will be served like no one has ever seen it. Power and money will be given to the right people who deserve it.

Number 8 is often associated with the infinity ♾️ symbol which means limitless, abundance but it’s wrong. It’s the symbol of the snake eating his own tail. It’s the symbol of karma which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on past actions and karma laws.

Number 0 is the true symbol of infinity. It’s wholeness. It’s love. It’s true bliss and abundance. It’s joy and surprise combined. Everything has to come in a full cercle. To receive abundance someone gotta give back too. That’s why lot of millionaires and billionaires donate to charity or do charity galas etc. They know to multiple their money and gains they have to give back and create the full cercle energy.

Those with a prominent Saturn or Saturn ruled placements in their chart/Saturn aspecting personal planets in their birth chart or with a prominent 8 energy in their numerology chart will understand what it truly means and how the smallest action can impact someone.

Power, connections and money will be taken away from abusive people who were using others, gossiping, spreading rumours, lying etc. Divine justice will be served. Honest , generous, loving people will receive their flowers and more.

The scales ⚖️ of divine justice are bringing back true equilibrium.

Those who went through it, true givers and generous people will receive if they are willing to receive. Takers will lose everything if they are not willing to give. People who were made fun of or put down by society for what they do even if they don’t harm anyone (prostitues for instance) will receive plenty and fast. Victims of circumstances, of violence, of abuse will also receive what they need.

Again it’s based on the willingness to receive and give back.

This energy is already being felt for weeks now : karma is here. She serves and delivers like no one. Already conspiring and bringing powerful people down (P Diddy - Cassie case).

Releasing bad karma, bad habits, lies (even white lies) is key 🔑 to receive blessings. It’s best to proactively go get yours blessings, they won’t just come to you. Work hard and smart.

Be willing to release and receive, give back and have faith.

Wishing you and myself peace, love, blessings and abundance for 2024 and may the scales of divine justice be in our favours 💫

Thank you for reading me and if this post resonates with you, please feel free to like, comment or reblog 💜

Credit @moonastrogirl

#numerology #vedic astrology #numerology for 2024 #predictions #number 8 #number 0 #analysis of 2024 #astrology observations #vedic astro observations #aries #taurus #gemini #cancer #leo #virgo #libra #scorpio #sagittarius #capricorn #pisces #saturn #matrix of destiny #prominent saturn #fypツ #fyp #for you #thanks for reading #wishing #astrology blog #aquarius

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Trump and his sycophants have destroyed the Republican Party. They are no longer conservatives either fiscally or on foreign policy. They are a party of chaos beholden to the right-wing culture warrior oligarchs. They are the derogatory agents of those oligarchs and the corporations owned by them. They make decisions based on the whim of a deranged madman.

They have gone from being closet racists/bigots to being full blown Nazis that call for the extermination of their culture war scapegoats they call “vermin” (marginalized people/political rivals). They take this term directly from Hitler who they openly embrace in speech and writing. They no longer care about tax cuts for all but just for the 1% and corporations. They want endless wars to profit from and to distract and rally their deplorable base. They no longer want small, limited government but opt for a massive government that intrudes into its citizens private lives and tramples their freedoms.

The party of law and order is now a party of criminals, sex offenders, grifters, traitors, and murderous street thugs. They are proud of this and fund raise and merchandise from their lawlessness. They have bought control of what is now an illegitimate SCOTUS which never allows them to be held accountable.

They use the KKK, Neo-Nazi groups, armed right-wing militias, Neo-Confederates, and white supremacists to persecute their opponents and victims in the streets and inside the Capitol itself. They tell us to “get over it” when mindless gun violence decimates our families in every public venue from churches, to schools, to 4th of July celebrations, movie theaters, shopping malls, and even a Super Bowl parade.

The police, courts, and legislatures are infested with their white nationalist/supremacists and Christo-fascists. They openly take money from Russia and others to influence our foreign policy and economic policy. Money from Russia is funneled into the NRA and Congress to allow a massive proliferation of gun violence on our streets that destabilizes our society.

They claim to be the party of the military but they degrade and insult our troops and cast our veterans into the streets. They abandon our allies and our treaty obligations at the behest of foreign dictators that bribe them.

They bust our unions and pass laws to weaken or prevent organized labor. They are forcing society to become wage slaves with no security, insurance, or pensions. They force our workers into the “gig economy” where everyone works incredible hours 7 days a week at multiple jobs and still are left unable to afford rent or mortgages. Nearly the entire population is one or two paychecks away from being homeless.

Decades of trickle down economics has seen our tax dollars poured into the accounts of billionaires, millionaires, and corporations with not a penny trickling down to the working class. The middle class has been practically wiped out by cruel Republican legislation written by political think tanks established and funded by oligarchs. The only thing these pseudo-conservatives conserve is their own wealth.

This is late stage capitalism run amok. The economy has been drained and now the oligarchs and corporations are plundering the government. They have taken advantage of decades of right-wing propaganda proliferated by Fox News, conservatives talk radio, and internet podcasts that have brain washed the rural areas into blaming the Democrats that are trying help them while convincing them to vote for the Republicans who have impoverished them. The French Revolution in reverse.

They see the Orange Dictator as their last best chance to completely take over the government and create a kleptocracy that pulls the strings behind an autocracy that pretends to be a republic.

The chaos of the Republican puppets is to distract everyone from the takeover by the oligarchs, corporations, and deep pocketed foreign adversaries.

#vote Biden Harris 2024 #vote blue always #vote democratic down the ballot #republican assholes #traitor trump #crooked donald #Republican corruption #Republican chaos

[deltadarlingf1]

On the Reality of Dating a Famous/Wealthy Man:

I was going to post this on Twitter but decided I wanted to a do a long form post. So an explanation of this tweet, which was inspired by the screenshot just below it:

First a disclaimer: I am not at ALL saying Mick is anything like the men I'm about to talk about (I genuinely doubt it). I'm using this response to him hard-launching his relationship as an example of the mindset I see in a LOT of the young female F1 fans. If you read the gossip blogs, you've seen posts like this and worse, particularly on Charles, Pierre, Danny, and Carlos's gfs.

As I said in my tweet, if these young girls knew what it can be like behind closed doors for the WAGs of the rich and the famous, they probably wouldn't make statements like this.

I see a lot of younger fans here on social media posting their imagines and fan fics, and as someone a bit older than them, it does worry me. I know for most people it's simple fantasy and fun, but when I see things like the above I know there are some younger girls that really just don't get it.

My aim in posting this is that maybe it'll be a bit of a reality check for some of those girls. And I don't mean that in a bullying way, I mean that in a "please don't look at these smiling pretty girls with the closet full of designer, perfect body, and seemingly perfect life and feel bad about yourself" way.

Lastly, how do I know any of what I'm about to talk about? I wish I was just chatting shit, but I have lived through all of what I'm posting below as the daughter of a "man" of wealth. His money came from corporate life, not fame, but when you have as much as my "father" did/does, you rub elbows with the famous. Everything I detail below happened to me, my mother, and the wives of my "father"'s coworkers. I'm now watching history repeat itself as I've moved up the corporate ladder and find myself around millionaires and billionaires on a regular basis.

1. The "Starter Wife" Phenomenon

In wealthy circles there's the concept of a "Starter Wife". This is the woman wealthy/famous men marry because they were high school sweethearts, worked together early on, or they dated before the man had his "come up". Sometimes men marry these women and have kids for the SOLE purpose of having the "Family Man" persona. For famous men, this can be good PR. For wealthy men, this can boost their career.

A lot of these men fucking HATE their wives. By the time they have money, they want the freedom of single life back. They can now afford their "dream woman" and loathe being "stuck" with their current wife because of it. Leading to:

2. Serial Cheating

These men have all the money and resources they need to live a double life. Not to mention built-in time and an alibi: They're on the road all the time for their job, work trips, events, etc. No time unaccounted for because they're always working.

Some of those work trips to wine-and-dine clients include runs to the local strip club, escorts, and in some cases some of those escorts are of INCREDIBLY questionable age (in reality, they are victims of trafficking). Again, I wish I was talking out of my ass, I have seen this shit with my own eyes and wish to the Gods I hadn't. Then there's also:

3. Domestic Violence

This is bad enough when it's a wealthy man whose built that "Family Man" persona to protect himself, but it's even worse when they're famous. No one believes the victims, in some cases the woman is financially stuck and can't just take the kids and run when it happens.

And for some women it hard to leave the man they thought their partner was and, yes, to let the lifestyle go. Speaking of the lifestyle there's:

4. The Loneliness

This is a big one for the F1 girlies I see posting their imagines and fanfics and what not. The fairytale of "he'll make time for me because he loves me and I'd be special. I'd be different."

These men are busy as shit. That Cartier Bracelet you envy on these girls is often a "sorry I missed your birthday". The big bouquet of roses is a "sorry I had to leave our trip early." Yes, we know the joke "well at least I can cry in a Ferrari", but that shit will wear on you more than you can believe. I can't tell you growing up how hurt I was when my performances were missed, major dates were forgotten, or my proud life updates were met with "yeah, uh-huh, hold on I have to take this call."

Of course there are good times, of course there's memories you'll cling to, but when you're out, you often realize how alone you felt in the relationship. Lastly, and most poignant with this F1 WAG nonsense:

5. Keeping Up Appearances

You're no longer your own person in a relationship with these men, you are an extension of them. With famous men, you're a part of their "branding".

You have to look a certain way, act a certain way, talk to the right people, have the right friends. In the corporate-wealth world, that means making your partner look good, playing the part of the trophy wife and perfect mother. Smile in front of those coworkers that you know just spent the last business trip drinking, gambling, and cheating on their wives. Wear the right dress to the corporate dinner to make his coworkers envy him, but don't dress too sexy or he'll grow angry and think you're trying to cheat.

If you're dating someone famous, by the GODS, you better look immaculate in every post. You better be there to support him at his events, but if you're there too often you're "attention-seeking". You better have model good-looks, but if you ARE a model, you're "a jobless loser trying to profit on him". Don't post him on your IG, but if you happen to post that you're in the same city as him, you're "dropping hints". If he posts you, it's only because you "probably begged him to".

It's a maddening dance where you cannot win for losing. And once you break up, enjoy letting the world decide if he should have stayed with you, or if they're relieved that he finally got away from "that selfish bitch".

Do what you will with the above. I just wanted to get it off my chest. But I do hope that maybe, MAYBE, it'll give someone that needs it some perspective.

#f1 #f1blr #f1 wags #f1 gossip

[racefortheironthrone]

So! I was planning on writing a Batman fan fic and had a question about the urban facing side I was wondering if you could help on. I suppose this can intersect with other super hero / billionaire figures. Interested in exploring urban development in the setting but trying to avoid pitfalls , but ofc no worries if this isn’t something in your purview or interest

I feel like Gotham, so deeply realized as a fictional setting and riddled with its issues as a city, would be a great template to explore these urbanist issues. And while Batman treats symptoms - protecting people from acts of violence, and also pursuing those who are responsible for the corrupt systems who have put themselves above conventional pursuit. But Bruce Wayne I feel like by a lot of fans can he overlooked as an agent of improvement in Gotham - he can use his political and economic clout to both publically and privately improve the systemic conditions of the city, like his famous hiring program for ex cons. And I would like to explore this side a lot deeper, however I’m wary of showing a billionaire as the only solution , or even the best solution to a city’s issues and basically recreating public policies privately.

Since showing a privatized solution to be the answer to all these problems isn’t the sentiment I want to give, as often private corporations are the ones exploiting / building up this cult of personality around millionaires is already troublesome. But ofc, Bruce Wayne is fictional and can be an example of how a CEO ought to act, but would like to show these solutions are achievable and to be sought after in the public sphere - we shouldn’t expect CEO to hire ex cons, build free transit, eliminate all these zoning issues by buying half the city because 1) unrealistic and 2) can institute a dangerous mindset where it’s like “just give everything to billionaires and they’ll fix things!” (See, the cult of musk)

So my question is, do you have any recomendations on how to achieve this balance of using Wayne as a championing workers rights, urban development , reform etc. without just shilling for billionaires? Because, after all, billionaires have been opponents and don’t want to diminish that. Perhaps using his influence to give away his infouence to others , if that makes sense. or even better - historical examples of figures of privilege utilizing their position to advocate for the public sector and go all in as earnest urban Allies as a roadmap to model this after?

This is a really interesting question, and I think points to some of the limitations of what can be done with the Bruce Wayne archetype.

As I've said before, I think what can be done to make Wayne an enlightened person without falling prey to the mentality that "the billionaires will save us!" (looking at you, RALPH) is to really explore the limitations of top-down reform.

Because if there is one genuine weaknesses both to the Batman and Bruce Wayne, it's that he has a well, "heroic" mindset in which he thinks that if he's just smart enough, prepared enough, tough enough, that he can win a one-man-war on crime and other social evils - but you don't really see him engaging in movement-building in either his vigilante or civilian sides.

In the former, even if we leave aside his more "lone wolf" depictions, Batman has issues with trust and working well in groups. At best, he cultivates a small number of people (the Robins, the JLA), and he tends to keep people at arm's length. In the latter, even when Bruce is trying to make systemic, social interventions in transportation or housing or health care or social welfare, it's usually done through a top-down approach - build this project here, support this politician there - rather than sitting down and doing an analysis of how he could build a sustainable majority coalition with the muscle to change Gotham on its own.

Realistically, an honest, militant, and strategic Waynetech union (albeit assisted from the shadows to keep the mob and the supervillain gangs at bay) could do more to change Gotham for good than any Foundation that has ever or could ever exist.

#comics #comics meta #dc #dc meta #bruce wayne #batman #gotham city

[suhmayzooka]

19–Rant about a change they made to a character of your choice.

:)

jason todd's everything

OKAY i mentioned this briefly here but i do think one of the worst things done to jason was actually done to willis and catherine todd: namely, making willis a basic abusive drunk deadbeat criminal, and making catherine...Just an Addict

i hate RHATO for many reasons (i only touched the tip of the surface here but tldr I Hate Scott Lobdell so fucking MUCH), only one of them being the absolute disgusting retcons to the todd family. thank god for RCO so i don't have to give a sexual harasser a cent providing these screenshots

from rhato 2011 #0, our introduction to catherine and willis was catherine in labor crying "get it out already" because she "really needed a cigarette" and willis already jumping out of the picture to flirt with the hospital staff

willis drives drunk and runs someone over, goes back to catherine, fights, gets arrested, leaving jason to take care of catherine who's addicted to drugs, etc. this is all a very, very basic story that has been told over and over, because (unfortunately) many people have experience growing up in this kind of environment. especially in poverty. perhaps if written by someone who understood poverty, crime, drugs, addiction, the cyclical nature of it all, this may have been told well. unfortunately scott lobdell is a piece of shit and DC can't handle sensitive subject matter, so DC has given us the backstory that, i reiterate, REAL PEOPLE EXPERIENCE (i know because i know real people who had this upbringing—poverty, drugs, abuse, violence) as an excuse to make jason 'street trash' and dehumanize low income families.

but lynx, you just said that you know real people whose lives are reflected by this, shouldn't this be valid representation for them? isn't it realistic?

sure.... maybe, if all the surrounding stuff about jason's story doesn't make this all so CLASSIST and gross in retrospect.

it's not enough that jason escaped the cycle of poverty.... he had to be saved by batman lest he become a Bad Criminal like his father, because that's the only possible outcome to this. there's no reason willis was abusive or drunk or a criminal beyond the fact that he's poor, that he's a 'street rat.'

(side note, can some fans like,,, cool off calling jason a 'street rat' all the time? it's dehumanizing, and like. you know. there are real life people in these situations, they're not 'street rats,' they're the results of a failing system that perpetuates poverty. your anger should not be with 'street rats' but with the governments and the system that leaves vulnerable people behind while lining the pockets of millionaires and billionaires who won't ever step foot into east harlem or brownsville. go serve soup at the bowery for one day and look into the eyes of people stuck into the failing systems, of families coming in with their kids who are trying to do what they can to survive, they're not 'street rats' they're evidence that leaders don't give a shit. your privilege is showing. i digress).

the thing is... making willis and catherine like this isn't bad on its face. before i read DITF, i assumed this characterization was always like that, since both canon and fanon never seemed to indicate any differently.

OH how wrong i was. as i mentioned before, one thing about DC comics that i find... weird... is how comics from before 2000 can be more progressive or sympathetic than comics from the past 20 years.

THIS is how catherine and willis todd were APPARENTLY introduced originally, from batman #426 (part one of DITF):

"her name was catherine todd, a good woman who probably loved her son deeply, only wanted the best for him. willis todd probably loved jason also. maybe that's why he drifted into crime, hoping to give his son a better life. the poor fool realized too late that those kinds of shortcuts never pan out. catherine todd's life was cut short by a disease that didn't care just how much love she had in her heart. jason's dad fell victim to the vicious gangster he was working for, two-face."

wow! so from this... it seems that willis todd wasn't a piece of shit criminal, but someone who turned to crime out of desperation. to give jason a "better life." shocking.... this is ..... more in line with how poverty actually makes people turn to crime. being poor doesn't make someone turn evil just to be evil.

POV you're willis todd. your wife is terminally ill (and, i want to remind international DC fans, gotham is based in new jersey. no free healthcare. no universal basic income. if you want to be precise about when this specific comic was written, RONALD REAGAN was president. think about the circumstances going on). you have a kid. you are unemployed, and there aren't many work opportunities around you.

do you relocate to metropolis, since that city seems better than gotham? with what money?? most of what you do have is pooled with your wife's money to fund her medical bills, but remember this is america and the costs are piling up. additionally, you have to pay for your kid's necessities like food and clothes. you're not going to find an office job making more than minimum wage.

two-face comes along and, being a criminal, can pay you better than working at a random warehouse can. you just go along and follow his orders, and sure it's dangerous and you know you can be arrested but your priorities in life are catherine (until she dies) and then after that, your kid. to willis, and indeed many real parents who find themselves in this situation, crime is probably the most immediate solution; whether willis dies or gets arrested isn't as important as making sure he can put food on the table for just one more night.

let's just go back to catherine—i've seen some people speculate that "the disease" was actually just a euphemism for drugs and the comic was trying to be vague about that. here's how I would handle it if I worked at DC: catherine was sick from some terminal illness, but couldn't afford to pay the ungodly medical bills, so she turns to illegal drugs. you think living in high poverty just makes people turn to nonmedical opioid (the 'opioid crisis') because they're evil ne'er-do-well drug addicts? no!

NOW let's get to jason. he's already an orphan when bruce meets him, stealing the batmobile's tires not out of an inherent evilness within him but because he needs money to survive. he says it himself, he doesn't want to be a criminal! did willis want to be a criminal? did catherine want to die? no! from batman #409:

"i don't wanna learn to be no crook. i just boost what it takes to survive..."

everything about this could make for a compelling story and why i hated HATED HATED cheer so much. jason KNOWS the relationship between poverty and crime because he's LIVED IT, more than bruce could ever understand.

jason is adamantly AGAINST the systems in power BECAUSE HE'S SEEN oppression and injustice. he's lived it.

making willis abusive severely diminishes any sort of sympathetic connection jason could have to petty criminals...which makes no sense because he was one. jason should not be killing random thieves or henchmen, his issues should always be with the people in power. including in crime. note that he DOESN'T go on an anti-drug, anti-crime crusade in UTRH (which, as a whole comic, does contain some war on crime propaganda, but overall miles better than the bad parents retcon). he DOESN'T think that all criminals deserve death; his issue with batman ISN'T that gotham is too full of criminals that should be killed, but if you read the retcons and the abusive willis todd it's easy to interpret that (URBAN LEGENDS CHEER MY BEHATED).

i think lost days should be included in every printing of UTRH because of how much emphasis it places on jason's compassion for the downtrodden; he's not just murdering people because hee hee the lazarus pit made him evillll but because they're oppressing others; he kills people in positions of power who are abusing the systems in place. (NIGHTWING ANNUAL 2021 MY BEHATED)

so much of that is just... it just doesn't come off the same if willis was abusive at the start.

now. even after my rant, i want to say there's an upcoming fan film about jason's upbringing as an "abused street kid", HOWEVER the creator has discussed many times that this is based on his own personal experience so i have a lot of hope that it'll be less misery porn than what DC wrote.

salty comics ask game!

#yes i watch many red hood fan films i have a whole playlist. some are pretty fun! #if anyone wants fan film recs i can provide a list. i think i've watched enough to do so #dc #lynxreadscomics #meta #asked #jason todd #benbamboozled #moots

[littlefankingdom]

Making Bruce Wayne a billionaire is a fucking crime and destroys all his character.

I could forgive him being a millionaire, because you a millionaire if you have 3 millions just like if you have 700 millions. So, he could be this crazy rich without it being excessive.

But a billionaire? That means he had the money to feed, house and send all of Gotham to college, what the fuck does he beat criminals up when the solution is right in his wallet??? To assert dominance from the higher class on the lower class? Put back the broke to their place? People turn to crimes because of the environment they grew up in and the lack of opportunities they can access, he can fix that and still sleep in his manor.

And the worse is how he is a "philanthropist" because he has so many charities and does gala. Charities are not a solution. And if he has already the money to support scientists to end climate change and to end world hunger, wtf does he ask other people to give money to help the people of Gotham, the sick and the poor??? If he is a billionaire, than he isn't giving away enough of his money! He doesn't need that much money to survive and take care of all his children, he doesn't even need that much money to support his nighttime hobby!

And yes, I'm mad. I'm mad because billionaires are running our lives. Because a billionaire owns a ton of media outlet here and controls the information, he pays the politicians, he feeds the people racist bs so they hate poc instead of him, he exploits people and destroys countries in Africa. Because, if you criticize him or his rich friends in the media, you will be harassed, insulted, and threatened with violence, even if you are a politician. Because he made a 10 millions donation and was thanked like a God, when it's pocket change for him and he only did it so if someone complained about him, they would be shamed because "he is a philanthropist". Because our national organisations to help the homeless and the poor during the winter have been crying on tv about how this was the worst year ever, and they would not be able to help everyone. Because hundreds of people die every winter from being homeless, not having access to food, or poor conditions of life. Because more than 2000 children are living in the street in just my country, a first world country. And I am told to be proud that one of the richest man on Earth shares my nationality.

Fucking capitalist usamerican propaganda "billionaires are good people". Billionaires are evil, they don't need to have this much money, they don't need to exist. Hell no, Bruce Wayne cannot be a billionaire, or the Batman is no hero.

#I'm going fully political for this but fuck it #batman #bruce wayne #dc comics #my ramblings

[kpop-kitkat]

Dangerous Secret | Xu Minghao

pairing | werewolf!xu minghao x f!reader

genre/cw | angst, fluff, werewolf au, secret, blood, violence, mild language, injury, dark forest at night

wc | 2.2k

notes | very motivated when writing this, hope it turned out alright :) minghao is like my ultimate bias wrecker lmao xd

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“Oh my Gosh- why did I let you drag me into this,” Lisa shook her head.

”Chill, you know I’m scared of the dark too,” Y/n replied, stepping over a tall tree root.

“Why does your boyfriend live in the middle of the woods anyway? Don’t you think he’s hiding something from you?” Lisa wondered, following in Y/n’s steps.

”We’ve been dating for three years Lisa, and we promised each other to always be open and honest with each other. I don’t think he’s hiding something from me. Besides, nobody likes being visited at 12:00 a.m,” Y/n reasoned. 

“I get it, but don’t you find it a little suspicious that he specifically told you no visiting after 11:00 p.m, and literally lives in the middle of nowhere? He could be a mafia for all we know,” Lisa teased.

”You, know, I’m starting to regret letting you come,” Y/n rolled her eyes. “Look! We’re here,” she whispered, pulling Lisa behind a tree.

”Ooh,” Lisa stared at the dark mansion. “I thought it would be some shitty looking cabin. Minghao’s a freaking billionaire,” she awed. 

“Well, he’s a multi-millionaire. His parents own a very successful clothing brand in China,” Y/n explained.

”And you tell me this now?” Lisa put her hands on her hips.

”If I told you when I first found out, you would’ve asked him out first. I know you’re a gold digger,” Y/n pointed out.

”Good point,” Lisa laughed. Of course it was just a joke and not actually based on facts.

”Should we go in?” Y/n wondered.

”It’s a bit awkward if I go. You should though,” Lisa suggested.

”But you’re scared of the-“

”That was a long time ago Y/n, I’ve matured.”

”Yeah whatever,” she playfully rolled her eyes. 

“Seriously, go see your Romeo.”

”Oh gosh, you never change, do you?”

Lisa gave her a small smile before she ushered her into the house and went back into the woods. Right before Y/n stepped into the mansion, she got a text

Bestie🤪: I’m heading back, I have an exam early tomorrow. Love you <3

Y/n: Aight, ily too ✌️

She sighed, slipping her phone back into her pocket. There were no lights on in the mansion, so she assumed everyone was asleep. But for some reason, the door was unlocked. She opened it and glanced around the eerily dark room. 

“Is anyone home?” she whispered, not wanting to disturb anyone if they were.

The reason Y/n came here in the first place was to surprise her boyfriend. She knew he said no visiting after 11:00 p.m, but she needed to know why. As she was about to take the stairs to Minghao’s room, she heard a bone chilling howl. It sounded like it was miles away, so she assumed she was safe. After entering his room, she looked around. No Minghao to be found. Only an open window with a ladder leading up to it from the dark forest below. She gulped hard, debating going down there. She ultimately decided to do it, and tried her hardest to be brave. 

“Minghao?” she called out once she was back in the dark labyrinth. Luckily, she had a flashlight. “Babe?”

She froze in her spot when she heard another howl. This time, much closer.

”Y/n?” a voice called from deeper within the forest.

”Minghao? Is that you?” she replied.

”Why are you here?” Minghao sighed.

”I came to see you,” she answered, still no sight of Minghao’s face. “Why are you hiding from me? Come into the light.”

”Y/n, you don’t understand. You can’t be here,” he warned.

”Minghao-“

”Please! I need you to go back into the house. Right now.”

”Just tell me what’s going on first!” 

“Shh! He’ll hear you!” he whisper-yelled.

”Who will hear me?”

A third howl was heard. This time, it was on the other side of the mansion.

”He’s found us. It’s too late, you have to come with me,” he explained, coming out from his hiding spot.

As he stepped towards Y/n, she shrunk back. 

“Minghao, you don’t look normal. Your eyes-“

”I’ll explain later. Now, we need to run.”

”Run?!”

”Shh!” he exclaimed, embracing her and using a hand to cover her mouth.

She couldn’t help but let out a quiet cry of confusion and fear. Minghao couldn’t let his emotions control him, they were in real danger. But the way she trembled just broke him. He planted a comforting kiss on her forehead and lips before taking her hands in his.

”We’re going to be alright. Just run, and don’t look back. Okay?”

She nodded her head slightly. He nodded in return and firmly grasped one of her hands and let go of the other. He began sprinting off into the forest, Y/n trailing close behind. As they ran, Y/n fought the urge to look back. But at this point, she didn’t need to. They were obviously running from a wolf. And possibly a werewolf. But did they even exist?

What seemed like hours was only ten minutes of running. The howling noises had ceased and the loud leaf crunching sounds had stopped. They were safe, for now.

”Okay. Tell me what’s going on,” Y/n begged.

He sighed heavily. “Alright. It’s hard to put into words, as they might not be so believable, so just, try not to scream?”

She tilted her head in confusion as Minghao stepped away from her. She could only stare in horror as Minghao’s skin suddenly became fur. His ears, pointier. A once nonexistent tail, visible.

Werewolves did exist. In fact, her beloved boyfriend was one of them. She could hardly believe her eyes, or any of her senses for that matter.

She backed up into a tree as Minghao began to approach her in his wolf form, tears threatening to fall. He whimpered when he saw how frightened she was. Minghao loved her. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him.

Y/n took a deep breath before reaching out her hand towards him. The wolf stepped closer and leaned his head into her touch. He was much bigger than an average wolf. Over two times the size. Y/n couldn’t help but smile, as she pet Minghao’s pretty wolf coat. It was a majestic grey and white ombré.

”You’re pretty as a wolf,” she complimented, earning a tail wag from him. 

Suddenly, Minghao’s ears perked up as he looked in the direction they were previously running from. He turned around and tilted his head, gesturing towards himself.

“You want me to ride you?” she asked.

He nodded eagerly, as if danger was pursuing them, which it most definitely was.

“Okay.”

She quickly sat on Minghao’s back and grabbed his long fur for support. He was pony-sized wolf, so he was the perfect size for riding. Once that same deafening howl was heard, he quickly broke into a sprint, making Y/n hold on even tighter. 

The thrill of being with the one he loved while running from the one he hated was unmatched to Minghao. His mind was only set on one thing: Y/n’s safety. For the past three years they had dated, that had always been his priority. And if he wanted anything more, it was the death of the person who was chasing them: Jung Songjin. 

~~~~~

About ten years ago from the present day, Xu Minghao’s father, Liqiang, and Jung Songjin’s father, Minseok, were best friends, who both led their own werewolf packs. But one fateful day, Minseok went wild due to close proximity with an intoxicating plant. Liqiang had no choice but to kill his best friend. 

Still to this day, Songjin despises Liqiang and his son, Minghao. He would kill them both if it meant the death of himself as well.

~~~~~

Minghao had been hunted since the day he was born. It wasn’t fair, but so life is.

Minghao sighed in relief when he caught sight of the abandoned shed he loved to play in as a kid. It would be a safe place, for the time being.

Once he reached the door, Y/n slid off of his back and unlocked the door. Minghao quickly nudged her inside and followed her in. Once inside, he shifted back into his human form, his clothes from before magically reappearing. He bolted the door shut and closed all the curtains in the windows. He closed his eyes tightly and sighed when he closed the last curtain. When he turned around, he was immediately embraced by his girlfriend. He hugged her back tightly, rocking her side to side.

”I‘m scared,” she whispered, voice cracking.

His heart broke a little hearing her words. All he could do was be her safe place. And that’s exactly what he wanted to do. 

“It’ll be alright, I promise,” he soothed, running a hand through her soft hair. 

“It’s all my fault,” she sobbed into his chest, clutching his shirt tightly.

”No Baby,” he pulled away to look into her eyes. “It’s mine. I should’ve told you my secret sooner. If I had, we wouldn’t be here right now. I’m so sorry I lied to you. I thought I was keeping you safe,” he admitted.

“Oh Hao,” she looked deeply into his eyes. “Just promise me you won’t ever leave me?”

”Of course I promise,” he smiled.

He was about to lean in to kiss her when the sound of a shattering window interrupted him. He quickly, yet gently, shoved Y/n to the side and shifted into his wolf form to confront Songjin. But as soon as Songjin saw the girl, he shifted into his human form to speak.

"You have a pretty girlfriend Minghao," he chuckled evilly.

Minghao shifted back into his human form and stood in front of her. "You stay away from her you bastard," he seethed. 

 "I'd rather not. Besides, why kill you when I can make you suffer instead?"

 "What?"

"The girl. She's obviously very precious to you. Killing her would do much more damage," he smirked. 

 "Not if I kill you first," Minghao stated, quickly shifting before lunging at his enemy. 

His hopes were crushed when Songjin pulled a dagger from behind his back and stabbed the wolf straight in the gut.

"No!" Y/n cried, watching as Minghao was then picked up and thrown against the wall.

Songjin's attention was now focused on Y/n. She whimpered and backed into the wall as he neared her with a piece of broken glass in his hands. As he raised the shard, she closed her eyes, awaiting the painful impact. But it never came. She opened her eyes to see that Minghao, in his human form, had stabbed Songjin with the same dagger he was wounded with. Songjin dropped dead beside her.

 "Minghao," she gasped. Minghao smiled at her before he became dizzy and fell to his knees. He dropped the bloodied dagger and was about to have his head hit the floor when Y/n caught him. 

 "Ahh," he clutched his side.

"Oh my God," she stared at the deep wound. "Stay here, I'll find something to help you."

Minghao could only nod tiredly in response.

She returned with an old cloth that she found and pressed it against his stab wound. "You're so stupid," she chuckled, trying to hide how nervous she was.

"How am I stupid for saving the one I love?" he smiled at her lovingly, despite his immense pain.

She shook her head at his stubbornness and continued to press the cloth to the wound. 

 Suddenly, Minghao's facial expression changed from adoration to alertness. 

 "What's wrong?" she wondered.

"Ngh," he groaned in pain. "Songjin... he isn't alone."

Minghao didn't wait for her response and stood, trying his best to ignore the pain. He took her hand again and quickly led her out of the door, and began fleeing back to the mansion.

 "Can't you shift!?" she asked, fearing for her life, as well as his.

"It takes too much energy to shift into a wolf," he explained, only focused on the path ahead.

Once they arrived back at the mansion, they used the ladder to climb into Minghao's room. He was swift to close the window.

 "We should be safe until morning," Minghao sighed. 

 "May I see your wound?" she asked.

He nodded and slowly approached her. He tensed as her fingers trailed over his wound. "The fabric of your shirt is making it worse," she noted.

He blushed as he tugged the clothing article over his head, revealing his well toned body. It wasn't like Y/n hadn't seen it a million times before, he was just shy. She spent the next hour carefully bandaging his torso. She then made sure he was comfortable as he laid on his bed.

"Do you need anything?" she smiled.

"Just you," he replied.

She was mindful of his sensitive spot as she cuddled up against his bare chest under the grey blanket. She didn't hesitate to peck his lips when she got the chance. 

 "You're a werewolf," Y/n said out of the blue, as if she hadn't fully convinced herself.

"And you're a werewolf's girlfriend," he giggled.

 "You're in love with me."

 "Of course I am."

#feeling motivated #xu minghao #minghao #the8 #the 8 #the8 x reader #the8 imagines #the8 fluff #svt the8 #seventeen the8 #seventeen #x reader #cute #angst #kpop #kpopidol #fluff #dailybg #the8 angst #minghao fluff #minghao x reader #minghao imagines #minghao angst #svt fluff #seventeen angst #svt imagines #seventeen scenarios #svt x reader #seventeen x reader #werewolf au

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Jesus Twitter Really?

Apparently wreckage was found of the submersible that went to investigate the titanic. According to the Navy, instruments picked up a hull breach sound at least a day before they would have run out of air. Parts of the submersible were found not far off from the site they dove at. They probably died instantly from the rush of water and the crushing pressure.

Meanwhile on Twitter before we had any of this information, there were people actively rooting for the sea to claim these people on this expedition because "Billionaires". How fucking disgusting do you have to be to hope people die just because they have money. Hasan Piker has money. I haven't seen any leftists or socialists demand he be killed. Other leftists like Bernie Sanders are millionaires and I don't see anyone calling for his head. Nor the heads of a lot of NBA and NFL players. They are all rich too.

Really. Radical leftists. Listen to me for just ONE second. If you don't stop this crap, people will keep fighting against you harder and harder. Until one day the idea of, "We should root for far leftists to die", will become mainstream. And you know what? I won't feel bad for you. That might be callous. But frankly you are the party of intolerance. You are the party of hate. You are the party of rage. You are the party of violence for the cause.

I'm against the idea that anyone should hope for another persons death. The only exceptions to this being where rape is concerned and CSA. Because in both cases, I would probably hope the person that did those things, had things happen to them. But specifically because those things are monstrous behaviors. It takes a monster to diddle a kid. The same as it does to force yourself onto someone else.

Again. HOW FUCKED do you have to be? "This persons net worth is x amount in assets, unrealized gains, stocks, and income COMBINED have a B at the end. Gee golly I sure hope their sub never comes back up". The level of sheer disgust I feel towards this. I can't even put it into words. Short of going onto a book long tangent I'm not sure what else I can say but the last thing I will say is this. Learn humility and respect.

[neonbuck]

i wish when millionaires and billionaires died they would pop open like piñatas and all their money goes to people who are struggling.

i see people in the community helping each other but its all poor and lower middle class sharing what little resources they have. which is good but its only so fucking much yknow.

hoarding money and resources on the level millionaires do could probably be considered...violence, if i'm being honest.

#.txt #plus the community organizations that help people around here are all struggling too due to covid and inflation #people are giving but they can only give so much while wealth is being fucking hoarded #and there are a LOT of people who need help !

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long sleep of capitalism’s watchdogs

There are only five more days left in my Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

One of the weirdest aspect of end-stage capitalism is the collapse of auditing, the lynchpin of investing. Auditors – independent professionals who sign off on a company's finances – are the only way that investors can be sure they're not handing their money over to failing businesses run by crooks.

It's just not feasible for investors to talk to supply-chain partners and retailers and verify that a company's orders and costs are real. Investors can't walk into a company's bank and demand to see their account histories. Auditors – who are paid by companies, but work for themselves – are how investors avoid shoveling money into Ponzi-pits.

Attentive readers will have noticed that there is an intrinsic tension in an arrangement where someone is paid by a company to certify its honesty. The company gets to decide who its auditors are, and those auditors are dependent on the company for future business. To manage this conflict of interest, auditors swear fealty to a professional code of ethics, and are themselves overseen by professional boards with the power to issue fines and ban cheaters.

Enter monopolization. Over the past 40 years, the US government conducted a failed experiment in allowing companies to form monopolies on the theory that these would be "efficient." From Boeing to Facebook, Cigna to InBev, Warner to Microsoft, it has been a catastrophe. The American corporate landscape is dominated by vast, crumbling, ghastly companies whose bad products and worse corporate conduct are locked in a race to see who can attain the most depraved enshittification quickest.

The accounting profession is no exception. A decades-long incestuous orgy of mergers and acquisitions yielded up an accounting sector dominated by just four firms: EY, KPMG, PWC and Deloitte (the last holdout from the alphabetsoupification of corporate identity). Virtually every major company relies on one of these companies for auditing, but that's only a small part of corporate America's relationship with these tottering behemoths. The real action comes from "consulting."

Each of the Big Four accounting firms is also a corporate consultancy. Some of those consulting services are the normal work of corporate consultants – cookie cutter advice to fire workers and reduce product quality, as well as supplying dangerously defecting enterprise software. But you can get that from the overpaid enablers at McKinsey or BCG. The advantage of contracting with a Big Four accounting firm for consulting is that they can help you commit finance fraud.

Remember: if you're an executive greenlighting fraud, you mostly just want to be sure it's not discovered until after you've pocketed your bonus and moved on. After all, the pro-monopoly experiment was also an experiment in tolerating corporate crime. Executives who cheat their investors, workers and suppliers typically generate fines for their companies, while escaping any personal liability.

By buying your cheating advice from the same company that is paid to certify that you're not cheating, you greatly improve your chances of avoiding detection until you've blown town.

Which brings me to the idea of the "bezzle." This is John Kenneth Galbraith's term for "the weeks, months, or years that elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery." This is the period in which both the criminal and the victim feel like they're better off. The crook has the victim's money, and the victim doesn't know it. The Bezzle is that interval when you're still assuming that FTX isn't lying to you about the crazy returns they're generating for your crypto. It's the period between you getting the shrinkwrapped box with a 90% discounted PS5 in it from a guy in an alley, and getting home and discovering that it's full of bricks and styrofoam.

Big Accounting is a factory for producing bezzles at scale. The game is rigged, and they are the riggers. When banks fail and need a public bailout, chances are those banks were recently certified as healthy by one of the Big Four, whose audited bank financials failed 800 re-audits between 2009-17:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/28/cyberwar-tactics/#aligned-incentives

The Big Four dispute this, of course. They claim to be models of probity, adhering to the strictest possible ethical standards. This would be a lot easier to believe if KPMG hadn't been caught bribing its regulators to help its staff cheat on ethics exams:

https://www.nysscpa.org/news/publications/the-trusted-professional/article/sec-probe-finds-kpmg-auditors-cheating-on-training-exams-061819

Likewise, it would be easier to believe if their consulting arms didn't keep getting caught advising their clients on how to cheat their auditing arms:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/09/dingo-babysitter/#maybe-the-dingos-ate-your-nan

Big Accounting is a very weird phenomenon, even by the standards of End-Stage Capitalism. It's an organized system of millionaire-on-billionaire violence, a rare instance of the very richest people getting scammed the hardest:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/04/aaronsw/#crooked-ref

The collapse of accounting is such an ominous and fractally weird phenomenon, it inspired me to write a series of hard-boiled forensic accountancy novels about a two-fisted auditor named Martin Hench, starting with last year's Red Team Blues (out in paperback next week!):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865854/redteamblues

The sequel to Red Team Blues is called (what else?) The Bezzle, and part of its ice-cold revenge plot involves a disillusioned EY auditor who can't bear to be part of the scam any longer:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-bezzle-a-martin-hench-audiobook-amazon-wont-sell

The Hench stories span a 40-year period, and are a chronicle of decades of corporate decay. Accountancy is the perfect lens for understanding our modern fraud economy. After all, it was crooked accountants who gave us the S&L crisis:

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10130&context=etd

Crooked auditors were at the center of the Great Financial Crisis, too:

https://francinemckenna.com/2009/12/07/they-werent-there-auditors-and-the-financial-crisis/

And of course, crooked auditors were behind the Enron fraud, a rare instance in which a fraud triggered a serious attempt to prevent future crimes, including the destruction of accounting giant Arthur Andersen. After Enron, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), which created a new oversight board called the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

The PCAOB is a watchdog for watchdogs, charged with auditing the auditors and punishing the incompetent and corrupt among them. Writing for The American Prospect and the Revolving Door Project, Timi Iwayemi describes the long-running failure of the PCAOB to do its job:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-01-26-corporate-self-oversight/

For example: from 2003-2019, the PCAOB undertook only 18 enforcement cases – even though the PCAOB also detected more than 800 "seriously defective audits" by the Big Four. And those 18 cases were purely ornamental: the PCAOB issued a mere $6.5m in fines for all 18, even though they could have fined the accounting companies $1.6 billion:

https://www.pogo.org/investigations/how-an-agency-youve-never-heard-of-is-leaving-the-economy-at-risk

Few people are better on this subject than the investigative journalist Francine McKenna, who has just co-authored a major paper on the PCAOB:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4227295

The paper uses a new data set – documents disclosed in a 2019 criminal trial – to identify the structural forces that cause the PCAOB to be such a weak watchdog whose employees didn't merely fail to do their jobs, but actually criminally abetted the misdeeds of the companies they were supposed to be keeping honest.

They put the blame – indirectly – on the SEC. The PCAOB has three missions: protecting investors, keeping markets running smoothly, and ensuring that businesses can raise capital. These missions come into conflict. For example, declaring one of the Big Four auditors ineligible would throw markets into chaos, removing a quarter of the auditing capacity that all public firms rely on. The Big Four are the auditors for 99.7% of the S&P 500, and certify the books for the majority of all listed companies:

https://blog.auditanalytics.com/audit-fee-trends-of-sp-500/

For the first two decades of the PCAOB's existence, the SEC insisted that conflicts be resolved in ways that let the auditing firms commit fraud, because the alternative would be bad for the market.

So: rather than cultivating an adversarial relationship to the Big Four, the PCAOB effectively merged with them. Two of its board seats are reserved for accountants, and those two seats have been occupied by Big Four veterans almost without exception:

https://www.pogo.org/investigations/captured-financial-regulator-at-risk

It was no better on the SEC side. The Office of the Chief Accountant is the SEC's overseer for the PCAOB, and it, too, has operated with a revolving door between the Big Four and their watchdog (indeed, the Chief Accountant is the watchdog for the watchdog for the watchdogs!). Meanwhile, staffers from the Office of the Chief Accountant routinely rotated out of government service and into the Big Four.

This corrupt arrangement reached a crescendo in 2019, with the appointment of William Duhnke – formerly of Senator Richard Shelby's [R-AL] staff – took over as Chief Accountant. Under Duhnke's leadership, the already-toothless watchdog was first neutered, then euthanized. Duhnke fired all four heads of the PCAOB's main division and then left their seats vacant for 18 months. He slashed the agency's budget, "weakened inspection requirements and auditor independence policies, and disregarded obligations to hold Board meetings and publicize its agenda."

All that ended in 2021, when SEC chair Gary Gensler fired Duhnke and replaced him with Erica Williams, at the insistence of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Within a year, Williams had issued 42 enforcement actions, the largest number since 2017, levying over $11m in sanctions:

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2023/01/pcaob-sets-aggressive-agenda-for-2023-what-to-expect-as-agency-enforcement-expands

She was just getting warmed up: last year, PCAOB collected $20m in fines, with five cases seeing fines in excess of $2m each, a record:

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2024/01/pcaobs-enforcement-and-standard-setting-rev-up-what-to-expect-in-2024

Williams isn't shy about condemning the Big Four, publicly sounding the alarm that 40% of the 2022 audits the PCAOB reviewed were deficient, up from 34% in 2021 and 29% in 2020:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-audit-the-auditors-and-we-found-trouble-accountability-capital-markets-c5587f05

Under Williams, the PCAOB has enacted new, muscular rules on lead auditors' duties, and they're now consulting on a rule that will make audit inspections much faster, shortening the documentation period from 45 days to 14:

https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/pcaob-rulemaking-could-lead-to-more-timely-issuance-of-audit-inspection-reports/

Williams is no fire-breathing leftist. She's an alum of the SEC and a BigLaw firm, creating modest, obvious technical improvements to a key system that capitalism requires for its orderly functioning. Moreover, she is competent, able to craft regulations that are effective and enforceable. This has been a motif within the Biden administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

But though these improvements are decidedly moderate, they are grounded in a truly radical break from business-as-usual in the age of monopoly auditors. It's a transition from self-regulation to regulation. As @40_Years on Twitter so aptly put it: "Self regulation is to regulation as self-importance is to importance":

https://twitter.com/40_Years/status/1750025605465178260

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28 - THIS SUNDAY!) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/26/noclar-war/#millionaire-on-billionaire-violence

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/

Disco Dan (modified)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danhogbenspics/8318883471/

CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #big accounting #auditing #marty hench #martin hench #big four accountants #management consultants #corruption #millionaire on billionaire violence #long cons #the bezzle #conflicts of interest #revolving door #self-regulation #gaap #sox #sarbanes-oxley #too big to fail #too big to jail #audits #defective audits #Public Company Accounting Oversight Board #pcaob #sec #scholarship #Francine McKenna #William Duhnke #administrative competence #photocopier kickers #NOCLARs

[evilsoup]

on the one hand, the whole super earnest "millionaires are totally different from billionaires" thing (when they're both at a level where they have a clear material interest in maintaining the capitalist system) is insipid.

On the other hand, it's responding to an even more stupid discourse about how we just need to kill the rich to fix things, which generally completely ignores the systemic nature of capitalism

Like, I'm pretty firmly convinced of the need for international proletarian revolution, which will involve some level of violence. But the point of talking about class isn't to determine which level of wealth makes you a bad person who we need to punish, it's to determined which parts of society would make a material gain (or at least not be made worse off) in the creation of socialism, because that's the potential coalition for making it happen.

[rhizomehaunt]

here's the thing, in a world where like, everyone had universal income and housing, free healthcare and childcare and education, didn't have to worry about food insecurity, had all debts forgiven, got the care they needed, weren't under constant threat of violence from the state and fascists, etc., I'd maybe be like aw, cool outfits. but I do not give a shit about rich celebrities celebrating their own extravagance and I fucking refuse to invest even one iota of energy into people whose lives and values are so in opposition to everything I believe and who are actively profiting off extortion, destruction, and the capitalist death cult that threatens the livelihood of the planet and literally everyone I love. it is fucking grotesque seeing the rich class parade around as if their entire existence was for us to find spectacular and visionary, for people to wear clothes that cost more than I have ever made in years at a time, for the wealthy to consume more and more at the expense of all of us and then throw a party to show it off. it's like when people bemoan what "we've" done to the planet—like excuse me? don't fucking lump me in with the millionaires and billionaires who are responsible for mass destruction and violence and death and absolve themselves of it by making imaginary shows of philanthropy or throwing balls while people are starving. eat the rich also means your favs!!! stop caring about celebrities, they do not care about you!!!!

#if i hear one more thing about the met i am going to bite someone #PLS RECOGNIZE THAT THESE PPL ARE OUR CLASS ENEMIES LIKE THEY ARE NOT OUR COMRADES THEY ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT US #guillotines pls

[papirouge]

I hate how everything online feels so US centric you know? Like no, stop assuming when I say I’m pro life I’m for this backwards medieval attitudes Americans have towards socialism and social welfare that’s needed to help decrease abortion rates. Being pro life for me means I support socialist systems to care for the poor and those in need that includes women who are expecting babies and the babies themselves. America shutting down maternity wards and refusing maternity leave for workers and canceling legislation that would give kids in schools free lunches instead of fucking school shootings ever week is an explicit American issue. I’ll gatekeep all day on this - Americans are not and never been truly pro life. Especially since they worship their guns so much it’s in their constitution 🙄

The fact they indifferently use socialism, leftism, globalism, communism, liberalism - and now 'wokism'....like they were synonym is enough for me to know they are idiots. I hardly take any political take coming from USAmericans that seriously tbh.

I'm not that much of a political person myself, but USAmericans are the only people acting like advocating for free access to healthcare was instantly making someone a Communist... Only on Tumblr I've been called a commie for advocating for a better wealth distribution 💀 They are insane.

"first they ask for free stuff, then they'll come for my property!!" bestie, we all know you're broke and ain't owning shit. Sit down.

In their mind = getting stuff for free = stealing someone's labor. It doesn't occur in their mind that health distribution can make it happen while everyone getting paid. When I fainted in a mall, got sent to ER, got tested AND went to the pharmacy for medication, I only had to pay 10€ for ALL of this. And yet, the ER, the medics, and my pharmacists all got fairly paid.

It's a well known thing in France that tax evasion loss covers the retirement hole which is the excuse for that reform. That's why ppl are fuckin shit up. That's unfair to make the people pay the price of greedy billionaires. The money is here. Wealth dstribution is the problem.

That's why it's soooo annoying to these twat scream about Communism at the slight possibility of a better redistribution. The fact that they're aligning with millionaires when they're socially closer to the homeless person down their block is cringe.

And yeah, pro life is beyond simply fighting to protect the unborn. That's also why every pro gun pro lifers Americans has cognitive dissonance. They're brainwashed by their savage culture bred from genocide and slavery. They are spiritually cursed. Only a few ones got the Grace to snap out of it.

They really shown they ugly hypocrite asses when they *suddenly* cared about gun violence bc the shooter was trans..... Disgusting.

If me wanting universal healthcare & get pregnant women have free pregnancy care makes me a Communist I genuinely don't care lmao Hail Stalin. I'm absolutely immune to this brand of anathema. Me being a Communism won't make anything that I say any less true 💅🏾

USAmerican hate Communism bc they know it's the only regime that could virtually rekt them, because Nazism was mostly targeting Jews, so the Whites USAmerican don't care that much (they'll never openly admit it ofc, but their obsesssive hate boner against Communism -and not as much against Nazism- speaks louder than words)

#answered #papi truths

[mariacallous]

I got this email from Princeton University Press, and I like to try to share this sort of stuff and I think it might be interesting. And if not, at least I'll have the info somewhere other than my email:

Princeton University Press: Enjoy this edition of Office Hours with Kimberly Kay Hoang

Dear Subscribers,

This month, I am delighted to bring you Office Hours with Kimberly Kay Hoang, author of Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets. She has some excellent book recommendations, she offers valuable career advice for graduate students and junior faculty alike, and she shares a story that illuminates how a single conversation can completely change the trajectory of one’s research.

Enjoy!

Meagan Levinson  

[email protected]

What are you reading now?

KKH: I am reading two books right now more for leisure.

Permanent Distortion: How Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever by Nomi Prins. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been concerned about elite capture of academia and have found much more inspiration in the work by journalists who take a much more critical approach in exposing systems of welfare for the rich. Her concept of quantitative easing exposes how fractured policies crafted by financial institutions has led to the manipulation of central banking policies around the world. The book sheds light on the widening gap between billionaires and millionaires in what she calls permanent distortion. It also seems most relevant right now with news of a debt ceiling crisis.

Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court by Matthew Clair. This is an incredibly rich study of criminal defendants and the differential ways in which they are processed in court based on their race and socioeconomic differences. This is a story about how those from working class backgrounds tend to become their own legal advocates in court while those with privilege navigate the courts with a greater level of trust in their attorneys to advocate on their behalf.

Both books make me think more deeply about the idea of impunity and the ways that it intersects with social class and race not just in the United States but globally.

What book has had the most impact on your career?

KKH: To be honest I can’t name just one. I would say the three most influential books for me have been The Managed Heart by Arlie Hochschild, The Purchase of Intimacy by Viviana Zelizer, and Servants of Globalization by Rhacel Parreñas. What connects all three of these books is an analysis of intimacy and the economy. Emotional labor (Hochschild) and intimate labor (Zelizer) are ways of thinking about the links between the private and public spheres. Parreñas really pushed into new fields by thinking about these concepts globally and at the intersection of race, class, and gender more specifically in domestic work, care work, and sex work. These three texts really shape the foundation for my own sociological imagination.

What is your favorite book to teach?

KKH: This changes for me every single year. In fact, I’m in the process of updating my syllabus right now, and I try to teach new books so that my courses provide students with some of the latest works published. I would say right now the book that seems to resonate with students and generate very interesting conversations is Ballad of the Bullet by Forrest Stuart. Being in Chicago and at the University of Chicago, there is a tradition of research on communities on the Southside. This book really advances that work by looking at poor urban youth and the use of social media technologies to capitalize on the public’s imagination of poverty and violence. Many of my students know of the music Stuart studies in the book and appreciate the nuance that he brings to a study of a local community.

Do you have a favorite moment as a researcher, maybe an encounter that unexpectedly changed your way of thinking or the direction of a project?

KKH: Absolutely. As an ethnographer those moments can feel like you’ve stumbled upon a diamond in the rough. For my latest book, Spiderweb Capitalism, I started with a small question about how foreign investors navigate new frontier markets around the world in different ways based on the laws that govern their investment activities abroad. I remember having lunch with a lawyer one afternoon when he asked me if I knew what a special purpose vehicle or holding company was. As he explained them to me, I found myself suddenly thrust into a whole world of offshoring, anonymous paper companies and a web of financial professionals who are connected but purposefully obfuscated from one other. This moment completely changed the trajectory of my research in ways that were both exciting and intimidating. It forced me to imagine a global ethnography that was not bound to a single space or place and instead theorize webs of people and capital that span the globe.

What is the best career advice you ever received?

KKH: Everyone arrives on their own time. Do not compare yourself to others; instead, focus on your own journey. I think that the journey through a PhD program—and, later, tenure—can create this unhealthy navel-gazing that can make us feel inadequate in relation to those around us. But if you keep your head down and focus on the journey of scientific discovery while also finding joy in making sense of complex data, things do eventually fall into place in their own way and on your own individual timeline.

What subject do you wish more sociologists would study and write about?

KKH: I wish that more sociologists would study elites and the systems that enable them to accumulate wealth. At the same time, I wish there were more research on the elite capture of the academy and social sciences more generally. I think that Charlie Eaton’s book, Bankers in the Ivory Tower, really begins to poke at these questions, but I would like to see much more research in this vein. I often think about how social scientists claiming to be objective researchers are, in many ways, either consciously or subconsciously working in a shadowy role of policy implementation that only serves to legitimize institutions of power. To me, this is concerning and dangerous, especially when it comes to proprietary data provided by private companies or governments.

If you could have dinner with two sociologists, living or passed, who would you choose, and why?

KKH: I’ll pick one of each.

Ibn Khaldun, who has passed, is someone I would love to sit down with. I only discovered his book The Muqaddimah within the last couple of years and often wondered why this work is not part of the canon of sociology. I would love to hear him talk more about his theories of the rise and fall of dynasties, power through states and bureaucracies, and the birth of social groups.

I would love to have dinner with Ruha Benjamin. I have her book Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want on my nightstand and will read a chapter here and there before bed. It reminds me of this mantra that inspired me as a graduate student: “personal is political”. Viral Justice does this work of forcing us to confront systems of injustice as they relate to mental health and the carceral system while also offering a vision for how we might be inspired to build a more just world. Perhaps this is my way of manifesting this, but I would just love to have a one-on-one dinner with her because I feel that I would not only learn so much but also find inspiration in her idea of collective healing. I think that as sociologists we are very good at identifying problems and systems of injustice and less creative when it comes to finding viable solutions to the problems we care about so deeply. Viral Justice provides a great model that broadens my imagination.

[we-pay-for-everything]

Another post about Lancelot Du Lac...

Fans forget that people are really hard on women. Even now, if someone cheated on the King, people would go after the woman hard - they’d call her a whore, a homewrecker, a gold digger, all sorts of name - so imagine how people would’ve reacted back then?

Something I haven’t seen discussed is how Gwen was perceived by the people of Camelot. A lot of the nobles, such as Uther or Agravaine, didn’t like her. But do you think the lower classes liked her any better? Look at Harry and Megan, and how people treat Megan. Both Megan and Gwen are women of color, who are not royal, and who "changed” the princes and the status quo. For that, Megan was bullied and scorned, and the same would’ve happened to Gwen. The people of Camelot may not have known why Arthur rejected Princess Elena, but they knew why he rejected Mithian. He rejected someone beautiful and appropriate, who would’ve been of great use to the kingdom, because he loved someone who had cheated on him - a servant girl no less, who should’ve felt lucky to be loved by a King yet had the gall to cheat on him. Imagine what they must’ve thought of Gwen! She was a nobody, a servant - she wasn’t even conventionally beautiful - yet she dared cheat on the King. She clearly didn’t know “her place”. I can’t imagine the people of Camelot not hating her and resenting her - calling her ungrateful, arrogant, entitled, a whore. The low class loves a royal wedding. People are fucking stupid - they don’t care if their tax money is spent on a useless, lavish wedding they won’t participate in, because they love the fantasy of seeing “superior” beings get married and live happily ever after. We’re in love with celebs, millionaires, billionaires, the royalty. People hate poor people begging on the street, but worship people who squander money away like it’s nothing or exploit the working class. The people of Camelot would’ve loved a marriage with Mithian over a marriage with Gwen. Even those who wanted a Queen like Guinevere (à la William and Kate) probably didn’t anymore after she cheated on Arthur.

Furthermore, the people of Camelot, who are used to public executions and violence, are probably not merciful. To them, Arthur would’ve been a weak man for letting himself get cheated on by a mere servant, and even weaker for not being able to move on from her. Arthur is lucky that he’s pretty, good in battle, kind towards the people, and a man. They probably forgave him and just chalked it all up to the King being very charitable, but I imagine Gwen wasn’t so lucky.  

What Arthur did, taking back someone his people probably despised, was actually very brave. Arthur cared more about Gwen than he cared about his reputation or becoming the King everyone expected him to be. He forgave and married a woman his people didn’t approve of, a woman who was clearly his weakness and who had nothing to offer Camelot in the eyes of others. Arthur believed in equality and in Gwen. He knew he needed Gwen and that she’d make a good Queen. He also knew that he would be stronger with her, since he couldn’t force himself to marry anyone else, and a lonely King is not a good King. Marrying Gwen was for the good of his people too, but it would’ve been much easier, perhaps better, had he married an ally. Imagine the excitement of his people had Arthur married someone like Mithian. Camelot was in shambles and Mithian would’ve given them hope since her father could’ve supported the rebuilding of Camelot. Instead, he married Gwen...

Also, people who think Arthur banishing Gwen was the worst thing he could’ve done forget that she no longer had any future in Camelot after cheating on the King. Most people would’ve scorned her or mistreated her... If not killed or banished, she would’ve had to be fired from the palace. But who would’ve hired her? The people of Camelot loved their King, who would’ve hired the woman who betrayed him and made a fool of him? Certainly nobody with good intentions. Sure, some would’ve stood by Gwen, but not many. Leaving Camelot wasn’t necessarily for the worst. The one thing that annoys me is that Arthur didn’t offer Gwen money, a horse, or a place to live. In his defense, he was pretty shaken by everything and she didn’t ask. I 100% believe he would’ve done so had she asked. What’s more appalling is that neither her brother nor Merlin actually helped her. Merlin just watched her go... Bad writing, I tell you.

TL;DR: If the Lancelot Du Lac episode proved one thing it’s how much Arthur actually loves Gwen and how good he is deep down. He did not feel humiliated by Gwen at all, not even that angry - just betrayed, sad, hurt, lonely. He didn’t banish Gwen because he couldn’t stand to look at her or to save face - he even apologized for the decision he had to make. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. I wouldn’t hold what he did against him. (He should’ve sent men out to look for her though...)

#bbc merlin #bbc arwen #arwen #bbc arthur #bbc gwen #arthur pendragon #gwen