It mildly terrifies me that a lot of things we think are natural are just things that were invented by American advertising agencies in the 40s and 50s

The nuclear family, diamond engagement rings, owning a motor car, etc are all works of fiction that we have subsumed into being part of our culture, instead of it being astroturfed by a bunch of skilled marketers

Even the idea of a woman being a homemaker while her husband goes out to work is, in itself, a fiction. That never happened. Women have been working for hundreds of years, but only in dirty jobs. The only women who could be homemakers were those whose husbands were wealthy and worked in the service economy… And therefore able to purchase microwaves and washing machines!

@yassie_j My wife's a home maker right now. I will tell her she's fiction.

Okay, I told her she's fiction; this was her reply:

"That's erasure of me and my choices as a woman; who would say that?"

Which I think is hilarious.

@havoc @[email protected] Mastodon and its consequences have been a disaster for the Fediverse

@hummingbird @yassie_j I'm glad there's no advertising, and it's easy to block instances you disagree with; I don't see anything wrong with it.

How do you think it could be better?