I can see why you might read my post that way because what other context do you have. I don’t belong to the “us” group you mentioned. I spent 2015-2022ish doing direct service activism and it cost me a great deal. Part of the reason I sound disillusioned is because the fascists directly attacked and destroyed much of my work as I was performing it (especially in 2018 2019 when they were a little better organized). I did literacy and library access work for the incarcerated, primarily. My work was primarily volunteer so it seriously hurt my family’s economy, in addition to being undone in real time as paper bans and mail bans were put in place. People at the universities I “worked” for would provide verbal support, but that was all it ever amounted to.

Part of the reason I like Doctorow is because he gave a pretty accurate description of how literacy access within the prison system works in The Bezzle except for the part where he was using it to distribute LSD. That sounds cool but its largely based on a myth made up to protect prison employees who trade drugs inside.

You don’t even have to do anything and there are thousands of people out there trying to protect you from getting more fucked[…]

Don’t go around telling them they don’t have to “do anything” plz 😅

Not trying to call you out otherwise, how are you supposed to know

Heyyyy you’re right

fantastic post, I wouldn’t have considered that fan setting issue on Bazz…

wonder if one of the linux fans speed apps can replace that functionality to some extent

You know I think he actually uses the music producer example in his 2nd novel (The Bezzle).

Doctorow can write a great detective novel but he lives in absolute La La land. I’m glad he’s open about the fact he’s just distracting himself with this post, but the idea that these webs of laws or these models of “how things should work” mean anything tho the people with power are complete nonsense.

He has some understanding of that, I think? But like, buddy, your country just went full Nazi. You’ve been living in a total fantasy. You’re not going to rethink the concept of fixers, get a grip.

in about 201X I was having a terrible time trying to get through the thesis period of a master’s program

picked up some bundle of the OG 2DS (black & blue variant) and Pokemon X and loved it

a world where I could pick my friends, people were pleasant, my next career moves were obvious, and my work was rewarded? To this day, this is my escapist fantasy.