[The Sabbaticus]

New England barns in the colonial period were red because white paint was ruinously expensive, and so was used only for houses. Red oxide paint could be made at home for cheap, and was therefore used for barns and sheds.

Now it's just tradition.


So the Exploiters and Teutons are, like, on the ropes at this point?

That's awesome.

Red oxide paint it is.

[mikema63]

Well, my husband was in new jersey for two weeks and i was in the summer break, so I decided I would go volunteer and see what it was like. Do something in the real world with politics you know?

Turns out the organizer was someone I knew through my old roomates and she was super stressed out and really needed the help so I volunteered a few more times. I ended up being really good at volunteer recruitment so I was offered a part time fellowship which would be interesting on my resume (some management experience wouldn't hurt). So I did that.

Then My friend, the organizer, got really really sick and had to quit and I was offered her job. It was a decent pay check, more than I'd ever made before. Looks really good on my resume (if you can do field organizing a regular job is nothing), and honestly I don't hate Hillary Clinton.

Sure, she's everything wrong with politics, but it's american politics that force people to do stuff like that not people like her who make politics like that. If you know what I mean.

She's a net positive for my demographic group and trump is a net negative to basically all demographic groups so I don't hate myself.

It's an interesting job, and I'm glad to have the experience. I could always segway it into a more palatable job with an activist group or non profit.

[Frollein]

it's american politics that force people to do stuff like that not people like her who make politics like that. If you know what I mean.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, mike. It was the same here, back in '42.

[mikema63]

In all seriousness If someone killed Hitler then someone else would've been the Hitler.

I don't subscribe to any great men theories of politics, our leaders are the result of our time and place and are largely interchangeable otherwise.

[Red Barn]

So you're no longer a communist, and no longer looking forward to making human skin in your bathtub?



This is a sad, sad day, (former) comrade.

[mikema63]

Honestly, if I say that in my heart it's still red but in real life the only things I can do are within the liberal framework am I a red?

It's an identity crisis I've had off and on for the last few months but simply not had the time to really think about it (this job is exhausting).

I just don't know what I am, I still want to push things left, but the only way that it's even possible to effectively do so in the US is the long slow struggle of a lifetime within the existing framework. There simply is no outlet or real organization that could radically change everything.

[Red Barn]

So you're going to work for a widely detested, badly dressed, chronically dishonest neoliberal who apparently spends all her spare time in bed with Lloyd Blankfein?



This is your answer to existential angst?

[The Immortal Goon]

Red Barn, I am happy that you are back.

I always thought you were one of the best posters on the forum.

[Red Barn]

Why, thank you, Immortal Goon. That's very kind.



But what are we going to do about Mike??? Are there no reeducation camps any more???

[Frollein]

His hope died with Bernie. He's a broken man. I think what he really needs is a hug and a hand-signed copy of Das Kapital now.

[Red Barn]

"Hand-signed" . . . hmm.

Do you think he'd fall for a Penguin Classic with "<3, KaR L" scrawled on the title page in orange crayon?

[Frollein]

Nah, make it black ink and an unreadable scrawl. All geniuses have crappy handwriting, that's why you can't read your doctor's reports.

[mikema63]

Your list of problems with her are either things I don't care about or true of every politician.

There really aren't any groups I could work for that would be communist and effective at actually doing anything.

I'm doing real things in the real world that make a difference. Not a big one, and it's hard hard work, but it's more than most whiny internet communists will achieve in moving things towards the left.

Edit: I didn't mean that to sound like it was directed at you. Sorry about that.

[Potemkin]

I'm doing real things in the real world that make a difference. Not a big one, and it's hard hard work, but it's more than most whiny internet communists will achieve in moving things towards the left.

I'm doing real things in the real world that make a difference. Not a big one, and it's hard hard work, but it's more than most whiny internet communists will achieve in moving things towards the left.

I'm doing real things in the real world that make a difference. Not a big one, and it's hard hard work, but it's more than most whiny internet communists will achieve in moving things towards the left.

[Frollein]

Just out of curiosity... how exactly will helping Hillary move things to the left in America?

[Red Barn]

" . . . whiny internet communists . . . "

This is like one of those heart breaking coming-of-age stories where the protagonist dumps her brilliant, adorably autistic boyfriend, then sells herself to some misogynist billionaire because she needs 60k to pay for design school.

[mikema63]

@Frollein while Hillary is definitely a neoliberal she has policies and history that I believe makes here genuinely a better person and politician than, say, Donald Trump.

@Potemkin

Don't cry pote.

@redbarn

Maybe I have sold out, but I have tons of debt and I want to actually do something, not languish in my own misery that there is no ideal group that I could work with.

[Frollein]

@Frollein while Hillary is definitely a neoliberal she has policies and history that I believe makes here genuinely a better person and politician than, say, Donald Trump.

I notice that you didn't mention "moving things to the left" anymore. That's progress, mike, not to cling to that fantasy anymore.

But you made two commies weep. Good job, mike, good job. All in a day's work, eh?

[mikema63]

1 step at a time.

I can't elect a leftist, the two party system exists and is not killable outside of a constitutional amendment. How you actually make change is to organize a faction of one of the two coalition party's and getting those candidates to a win in the primaries. It's the work o decades to systemically do that.

Right now my options are between tweedle dee and a dumpster fire, I don't want to die and yeah I want a relatively okay life. (My life within a normal liberal system will be pretty alright) Hillary may not be some true leftist but at least he's not stupid and crazy.

[Frollein]

:lol:

1 step at a time.

I can't elect a leftist, the two party system exists and is not killable outside of a constitutional amendment. How you actually make change is to organize a faction of one of the two coalition party's and getting those candidates to a win in the primaries. It's the work o decades to systemically do that.

No, mike. That's not how you do it.



That's how you do it.