SLASH'S PROFILE

selfie mode:




cosplay bonus:

The Redwall books were so dang cool when I was growing up..! I kinda wanna go and read more of 'em now.

I recently read The Left Hand of Darkness, which is a weird, quiet sci-fi novel that I really enjoyed. I'm currently reading through A Profound Waste of Time and Offworld - both are collections of articles and interviews from a plethora of game developers from covering different backgrounds, disciplines, subjects, etc. They're super cool so far!

1. I'm glad your uncle was born here. It's nice that you've visited. I've lived here my entire life. I have said that four times now. Read my posts before you respond, and then go read a book. You're trying and failing to weaponize the plight of millions as a bullet point for your imaginary facts. Your anecdotes won't save you here. Use real, recorded history.

2. False. The KKK is on record as supporting Trump. They're proud of it. David Duke runs as a Republican. Richard Spencer, a white supremacist, is a proud conservative.

I'm also queer and I've had and seen hatred and ignorance visited on myself and people I care about by both Republicans and Democrats. Again, your personal anecdotes and experiences don't apply to everyone. Trump is on record as being against equal rights for transgender and LGBTQ folks in many forms. Democrats waffle on the issue, but Republicans don't - they value "traditional" lifestyles and family over civil rights, and are actively working against equal rights for queer folks.

3. It is both an embarrassment and show of our country's weakness that we allow citizens to suffer disease because we're too cheap to pay for it, because we have the wealth to solve it. Things being acceptable in the past (they weren't) doesn't excuse making the same mistakes today.

This has been nice practice though, it's been a while since I've gotten to have a good old-fashioned political throwdown. It feels like I'm shaking off the rust for Thanksgiving, hah. Moving away from my family has weeded out a lot of the bullshit stereotypes and horrible beliefs in my life. I forgot how often people just make up stuff and yell it without thinking :P

Let's start with the last one first. Why did a thriving industry crash? Because of unionization. You see, aside from straight up competition or poor business decisions, for three big companies to all fail requires something else. High regulation (prohibiting companies from making decisions it needs to), high taxes (prohibiting money from being saved for more resources), and high involvement from third parties (unions are one, but not the only one, teachers get to deal with "specialists" and their crackpot teaching theories) all work to stifle business.

Unionization is one reason of many. Others were rising foreign oil prices and rising competition in the 1970s. Condemning the unions is easy, but lazy. Automobile regulations should be considered vital, unless we want cars that will get us killed and workers being maimed by machinery.

Why did white flight happen? Because of riots and agitation. Whites and blacks can live together in a city. In my town, it's very mixed, but it's also very very conservative. When push comes to shove, the only reason whites really leave a city is because they feel unsafe there.

Incorrect. White flight was well underway nationwide over a decade before the Detroit riots, beginning with the desegregation of schools after WW2. In Detroit, white flight was part of what led to the riots, as whites opposed to multiracial schools and neighborhoods, and moved to wealthier areas in the suburbs. This, alongside increased automation, the slow decline of automobile sales, the construction of highways through black neighborhoods, led to the city itself becoming very poor and unstable and eventually the riots.

Oh look, that also answers more about where the money went. They took it with them. No industry to pick up the pieces. And bye bye white people. By the way, to say that whites are the only income is extremely racist. Black middle class people were also a key part, and they left too as a result of black on black crime.

It's not racist to point out that, due to our country's systemic racism, white people were both better paid and given better jobs in Detroit at the time. Again, due to redlining, white fear, and other racist housing policies, it was much more difficult for PoC to move to predominantly white suburbs. Many simply did not have the choice.

The aftereffects of white flight are still here today. I was born in Oakland County and now lives in Washtenaw County, and I've been adjacent to the suburbs of Detroit my whole life. They are predominantly white. The city itself has been gutted and poor for a long time, and a major reason behind all of it was our country's unquestionable racism at the time and today. It hasn't recovered and very few have been willing to acknowledge it or do anything to support it.

pre-existing conditions

You misunderstand what I described. Before 2010 and ACA, someone born with a genetic condition like ulcerative colitis could be denied all insurance covering that disease. This is why we demanded companies cover those conditions, and why the mandate required insurance. Again, it is a flawed solution. We should be covering health care regardless - our nation has the money. We can afford it.

If our country's medical system cannot support people who are born with diabetes or tinnitus, or who break a leg or get cancer, it has failed us. If our insurance policies are unaffordable, they need to go. Our country is not measurably unhealthier than others - we smoke less and (despite stereotypes) are not overly obese, and we don't see the doctor more often.

You cannot apply the laws of supply & demand to healthcare, as it is an inflexible good. Unlike strawberries or peanut butter, people need healthcare to live, and they will pay what they have to. You don't have the ability to haggle prices when you have head trauma, or cancer, or a gunshot wound.

Holy shit, has this has spiralled off-topic. But since we're here...


The idea that GOP encourage "hard work" and liberals encourage "giving away free stuff" is laughable and easily disproven. It's based off the Republican idea that we live in a meritocracy - a society where hard work leads to success. Historically, however, the most hyper-successful people are those who have either inherited wealth or created it through evil means. Our president was made from his father's fortunes. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Richest Man In The World, makes $4,000 a second because his company has been fraught with worker abuse and underpayment for a decade - "hard work" didn't lead to his wealth; creating a monopoly that screws its workers did. And as a resident of Michigan, the result of our governor "running the state like a business" led to an environmental disaster than has been plaguing a major city for years.

The GOP's policies do nothing to encourage hard work - they benefit corporations, not employees. The theory is that giving a corporation more money (by cutting taxes) will help their workers, but historically, companies will just give themselves and the stockholders bigger bonuses. The lion's share of the benefit goes to a small, wealthy group, once again. This is not a meritocracy, and Republican fiscal policies do not benefit those who work hard - they benefit those who already have money, and those who make the rules.

I have problems with our Democratic party - they half-ass a lot of solutions, compromise too often, and often can't sympathize with the common worker. They're still a group of elites who make money selling their votes to lobbyists, just like the Republicans do. But at least sometimes they recognize and fight against this idea that we can rely on profit-driven corporations to run our society fairly. They recognize that not all people have the same access to education, to inherited wealth, to affordable rent, and they fight to change that. They recognize that the world we live in is not a meritocracy, and that the powerful in our society have a responsibility to help those without power.


If a company can't pay its workers a living wage, it should fail.

If a company creates unsafe working conditions and abuses the environment in an effort to save money, they should fail.

If you work 40 hours a week and you can't afford health insurance, afford a house, afford basic amenities, our system has failed you.

If people are homeless and starving and other people are rolling in billions, we're doing something wrong.

If we can't demand a fair share from our employers, we're only going to continue to get wrung out to dry while they walk away with the money we've created for them.



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On Detroit: