Relevant anecdote: I had back surgery for scoliosis as a teenager. As an adult, I once went to a doctor for some acute back pain. I just wanted to know some stretches or something like that that might help. The doctor asked how often I have back pain and I casually responded “every day”. He gave me a prescription for…

That’s too black-or-white in my opinion. As someone who has struggled with self-care for a long time, there is a definite effect on my immediate community when I actually take the time to do what I need to do for myself. It may not be intended to effect them, but it does, so should it be discounted entirely?

I agree. What I understood from this interview is that she thinks we should smash everything and start over. That kind of thinking is simplistic and dangerous. At the same time, revolting against the system in thoughtful ways will absolutely make a change. We just have to make sure that it is the right change.

Yes, everyone does need to take care of themselves as a human being. Yes, capitalism makes that difficult, if not impossible.

My biggest objection, honestly, is this idea that a revolution will fix everything. No, it will not. We will still all be the same deeply flawed individuals who grew up in a deeply flawed society and it’s deeply flawed system. None of that gets erased if you, say, tear down all the individualized apartment buildings…

Except that in certain contexts, self-care IS feminist. It IS anti-patriarchal. Motherhood, for instance, is constructed in patriarchy as something that requires absolute devotion and unending sacrifice from mothers. Many mothers I know forego basic bodily functions like pooping and showering because they buy the…

Yeah, that made me laugh. I guess the fact that my husband and I trade “traditional” roles as necessary is not feminist of either of us (shocking side-note: he’s a feminist too!). Also, marriage used to be a social institution but now it’s almost entirely an economic one. We can dream of a future that involves…

The contrast for me was between one part of my childhood and another. Dad and his second wife were upper middle class for sure. There were 4 of us kids and while we shopped carefully at Costco, we never really wanted for anything, lived in large, spacious homes, dad was employed, etc. Dad and his third wife were poor…

I’m a progressive and went for Hillary because 1) her voting record in Congress matched Bernie 97% of the time so they really weren’t as different as everyone has made them out to be, and 2) she had a lot of experience in different parts of government.

This is exactly what we need! Thank you for jumping in.

I would love to see a citation for that, if you have one.

Exactly. This is why I liken forced pregnancy to torture - because doing it willingly wasn’t so great, so why would doing it unwillingly be any better?

Right. Or my anxiety sets in right after the introduction because now I have to think of things to say and they’re waiting.

Shame them publicly, too. I recommend documenting every instance of failed connection with a Twitter comment and the hashtag “wheresmysenator” or something like it.

I understand this. I felt some of it too. I organized a phonebank for Hillary for 2 months leading up to the election and only 1 of all of my supposedly lefty friends actually showed up. When they were crying after the election, I wanted to yell, “where the fuck were you when we were trying to PREVENT this?”

Precisely this. In Tulsa, we had 1,000 people. That doesn’t even count those I know from here who went to our state capitol or to DC. I’ve been fired up since summer because I could see Trump’s awfulness from a mile away but to know that that many people in this red city and state even agree with me? Wow.

I have had multiple people say to me, “I’m not going to protesting something that hasn’t even happened yet.” *headdesk*

Someone doesn’t understand evolution.

I feel you, Beaver. I’ve seen the same thing happen in my state and it’s fucking ridiculous. Maybe if they actually fought, they would actually have a chance of winning.

I can only contend that you have a rosy view of the Founding Fathers. In my estimation, they didn’t want the great unwashed masses mucking up their democracy. Otherwise, they would have given everyone the vote (not just landowning (rich) white males), freed their own slaves, etc.