Nowhere GirlApr 16
Housing prices went insane because houses were the last wealth-building vehicle most people had access to and because economic inequality tilted the market toward the millionaires and billionaires, including investors, and both groups demanded values had to continually go up-up-up so they could make a profit. Nobody built cheap, affordable housing because they would rather build luxury units for the top end of the market instead even if nobody actually lived in them.
Show threadNowhere GirlApr 16

Once permanent housing stock dried up, the problem trickled down to rentals, particularly as the investor-landlord class went looking to squeeze more profit out of the entire system.

But the incentives have all been aligned in this direction for decades.

Show threadNowhere GirlApr 16

Even when local governments tried to pay developers to make affordable housing, the efforts were stymied either by racist, NIMBY homeowners trying to protect their real estate values or by builders who refused because they would rather build luxury units for the higher profit margin.

Prices were held artificially high by investors sitting on numerous empty properties looking for a big pay day down the road.

Show threadNowhere GirlApr 16

This is a parable about the American economy writ large.

The top 10% have so much money they command excessive attention from the entire market. Houses, cars, electronics, you name it. The luxury markets have been running hot.

By themselves, they were able to prop up the economy, at least on the averages. Higher interest rates generally worked in their favor.

The lower half of the market stagnated, leaving poor and working people eating continually higher prices for lower quality products.

Show threadNowhere GirlApr 16

To talk politics, you have to understand how these groups split.

The top 1% made out like bandits. Billionaire wealth skyrocketed. But the greedy fucks backed Trump for tax cuts deregulation to game the system harder.

The top 10-20% were tickled pink and generally thought Biden was a great guy. Why mess with perfection as far as they were concerned?

The bottom half of the economy got told to suck it up and shut up and either tuned out or broke for the guy promising to destroy the system.

Show threadNowhere GirlApr 16

The top 10-20% are almost exclusively white. Many of them are older. And they swung for Harris in the election where almost nobody else did. There just aren't enough of them to matter.

The bottom half is obviously younger, more diverse, more female, more queer, and more liberal because that's disproportionately who the US has offloaded its poverty problem onto.

The more marginalized members generally felt Biden-Harris weren't interested in helping them and checked out of the process.

Show threadNowhere GirlApr 16

The people most likely to survive Trump burning things down -- or who thought they could anyway -- tended to swing right, particularly if they were activated by other bigotries.

That's mostly younger to middle aged white cis-het men, who were already doing better than most.

Show threadTa2edfreakApr 16
@gwynnion how do you decide who is "cis"? Honest question, and not meant to be argumentative, or baiting. I'm a white male (says so on my birth certificate), and in a relationship with a white female (says so on her birth certificate)...what makes people so comfortable labeling others without knowing any more than that? I've been flamed out online for asking the same question (several times), In spite of actually being a supporter of the groups that insisted on stomping me into the ground.
Show threadJargogglesApr 16

@Ta2edfreak @gwynnion
Right off the bat, I just want to say that this reeks of bad faith, but what the hell, I'll bite for a sec.

You identify with the gender you were assigned at birth - that's what it means to be cisgender.

What issue do you have with the term "cisgender?" It sounds like you really resent it for some reason.

Show threadTa2edfreakApr 16
@jargoggles @gwynnion that's just it...I don't identify with my assigned gender, or anything else. I just resent others wanting to label me, and getting abusive when I resist.
Show threadJargogglesApr 16

@Ta2edfreak @gwynnion
"I'm a white male..."

That's you identifying as a gender. That's literally what it means.

Show threadTa2edfreak
@jargoggles @gwynnion. That's me acknowledging what the label on my birth certificate is. I am depressingly pasty white, but male is not quite accurate. I'm honestly not looking for a fight. The body I'm in has advantages that have kept me safe, and alive (let's not forget alive) in a society that assaults "different"...what I'm trying to understand is why people who don't like labels, insist on imposing them on people they know nothing about.
Apr 17 at 12:03amMastodon for Android
Show threadJargogglesApr 17

@Ta2edfreak @gwynnion
Gotcha, so if I understand this right, you're saying you don't consider yourself to be a man or a woman. There's nothing abnormal about that, a lot of people don't feel like they fit inside that man/woman binary.

If that's what you're saying, you're definitely not cisgender because you don't identify as the gender you were assigned at birth.

I'm not saying you're obligated to adopt any particular label, but that's generally what people would call non-binary and it would typically be considered transgender because you don't identify with the gender you were assigned at birth. That's what the white line symbolizes in the trans flag.

The reason that I find what you're saying to be so suspect is that you clearly don't have an issue with the idea of labels in general. You keep calling yourself white (in a conversation that has nothing to do with race, no less). That's a label.

So what is it about gender-identity that makes you uncomfortable in a way that race doesn't?

Show threadTa2edfreakApr 17
@jargoggles @gwynnion well, again, the fact that my question is sidestepped, and refocused... As I said "pasty white". There's no escaping that. The question is why people who don't like labels, insist on referring to me as CIS, when I'm so totally not comfortable in my own skin
Show threadJargogglesApr 17

@Ta2edfreak @gwynnion
You asked what is considered "cis" and I haven't side-stepped that by any means. The fact that you're claiming I did is extremely dishonest.

Race is just as much a social construct as gender. There was a time Irish people weren't considered white, just as an example of how arbitrary that is.

I find it *extremely* unlikely that apparently so many people are calling you cis if you don't identify as a man.

"The question is why people who don't like labels..."

No it wasn't. This is the first time you mentioned that the people who are calling you cis don't like labels. Besides, what a weird thing to claim. You're saying this happens a lot? All of these people who are calling you cis are *also* literally telling you they don't like labels? Bullllllllshit.

I believe you when you say you get dragged all the time, but I guarantee you it's not because of your gender identity, it's because you're a weird liar.

Show threadTa2edfreakApr 17
@jargoggles @gwynnion simply proving my point, so thankyou.
Show threadJargogglesApr 17

@Ta2edfreak @gwynnion
Hahahaha, you can't even cope without telling on yourself.

How can you have had a point if you were just asking questions that weren't meant to be argumentative? You get how that's mutually exclusive, right?

Why are you like this? What do you get out of telling weird lies like this to strangers?

Show threadTa2edfreakApr 17
@jargoggles @gwynnion again, sidestepping, labeling, blaming someone else. Yet you wonder why you don't get the support you want? I ask a question and you attack the reason without knowing anything about me. That's why there are so many JK Rowling supporters out there.
Show threadJargogglesApr 17

@Ta2edfreak @gwynnion
Good people don't hinge support for human rights on how nice people are to them on the internet. That isn't how human rights work.

And wait, were you just asking a question or were you making a point? That's rhetorical, it was obvious you were lying about asking a question in good faith and you had an agenda the whole time.

Anyway, if there was a "Just Asking Questions Bigot" bingo card, I'm pretty sure I'd have a blackout, so I think I'm done here. We both know you've just been having the argument you planned to have regardless of anything I said, so if you want to keep pretending I'm still talking, go for it.