Mondays in the Bidenverse are surreal. I show up to work like always. I do my job like always. But each Monday I begin by wondering if I actually have a job at all.
We all know that keeping a modern job is completely unrelated to doing a modern job. Unless you burn down a factory or drop a busload of nuns off a cliff with the company forklift, you won’t be fired. Even then… who knows? However, getting canned for arbitrary non-work related issues is a looming threat.
It’s common to say this is new. It’s not. It’s been leaning that way most of my life. Certain articles of free thought were “sketchy” long ago. They inexorably drifted into Wrongthink. In modern times, we forget that firing a plumber for his opinion on sexuality wasn’t always a thing. Social media turned the dial to eleven before most of the modern workforce was out of diapers. They don’t know what a free workforce even feels like.
In addition to Wrongthink, we’ve grown used to punishment for genetic apostasy or internal emotion. You won’t get canned for being incompetent but it’s easy to get canned for being male or white. The worst fate is reserved for the pool loser who still (horrors!) wants to just do their job. “Not being a team player” a fatal flaw when you’re evaluated by a nonentity who’s only skill is following the herd. It’s all about the pieces of flair.
In September, President Potato doubled down on stupid. He fucked up my world along with the workplace of most Americans; which makes sense for a man who’s never had a job in the workplace. Bidendriod the Awesomnator (somehow) deleted HIPPA. (Laws are only words ya’ know.) He put every worker’s medical decisions under review by HR and (ultimately) President Potato himself… because he is apparently a God Emperor. Big britches for an unpopular doddering one-term placeholder.
I look hard but just can’t see his crown.
I miss going to work for the purposes of doing stuff. I do so now out of inertia; such is the Bidenverse. I guess I’ll keep at it so long as the job is there… however how long that may be. It’s not great for a hard working personality like mine. I still remember job satisfaction unrelated to a paycheck.
Of course, the Bidenverse’s effect on workers has nothing to do with things like “unexpected supply chain disruption”… that would be silly. Everything from an orange grove in Florida to a oil pipeline in North Dakota to a car factory in Detroit… hell, all the way to a Tickle Me Elmo factory in Guangzhou has been kicked in the nuts. Given all this, Commander Corn Pop is going to “fix it” by bitching about a single overloaded shipping dock in LA? Suuuure…. pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.
The good news is this. Economic collapse is just economic collapse. It has happened before. Mismanagement by clueless incontinent geezers is just part of the cliché. We’re in the phase where nobody knows who’s running things. The press will report “ruler X is fit and healthy and totally in control” right up until they report “ruler X died two weeks ago”. Then they’ll claim “all hail Ruler Y who was found in a spare room just lying around. He’s fit and healthy and totally in control.” It will continue until they run out of doddering old fools. Such was the case in the declining USSR, such it is for us. That’s not so bad. Right here and right now, I might get fired. That not the worst fate. It’s not a bed of roses but it’s not a bullet to the skull.
Others face circumstances I don’t. For example, I’m currently unlikely to wind up in a concentration camp. Here’s a test; what do Australia 2021 and Germany 1940 have in common. Hint: it’s not kangaroos.
I’m lucky. So far, I have a full freezer, my health is well, my soul intact, I’ve stacked plenty of ammo, and the McRib is still available. Here’s a test; what is different between America and Australia in 2021? Hint: it’s not the McRib.
Shit looks dire but our enemy is a drooling puppet at the head of a paper tiger. Even if Captain Depends puts me on the street, this is not the only world. The material is the least important arena… and even that’s not completely fucked yet. Others have faced this situation; many have carried on and even thrived. They show the way.
In case you need it (and we all do), I’m linking to a story of hope. Please enjoy How I Survived Being Canceled:
Like many others, you may have decided not to comply with the vaccine mandate, or your employer is bearing down on you, and you have not decided. You’re thinking about how you would make a living, care for your family, and how the government could arbitrarily defy your constitutional rights. I know the feeling, because I was there…over twenty years ago.
. . .
God is much bigger than the U.S. government. He has his ways of taking care of you. You never know where your support can come from, so don’t let pride frustrate God’s ways to provide for you.
Traumas can heal, and debts can be repaid. Standing up for what you believe in is eternal.
Not to be all about me, but… “I still remember job satisfaction unrelated to a paycheck.”
Care agency dropped my two physically disabled clients because they weren’t profitable enough.
Fuck.
I worked two (or three? I disremember) weeks without pay because no one else would take care of them until a paid nurse from another agency took up some of the slack.
Moral: if it’s just a job, it sucks out your soul.
I’m now back doing exactly the same job with a pay raise.
Bonus: I learned you can use the Amazon Echo to translate ‘Merican into Arabic so your trainee can follow simple directions. Sigh.
Wise words.
I wrote a somewhat large blurb on this interesting astronomy talk I watched recently. Minor clownworld preamble, since losers tried to cancel the speaker, but his university actually stood up for him a bit, and he presented the talk anyway online. Dorian Abbot’s talk on tidelocked extrasolar planets.
If you’re interested, I can post my blurb along with the link to the talk.
If it’s short send it as a comment and I’ll approve. If it’s long send it to me as an email and I make it a “guest post” (with credit to you of course).
Just read an article from NPR (https://www.npr.org/2021/11/22/1056238770/covid-delta-unvaccinated-higher-health-insurance-premiums) new tactic that probably will be more successful than mandates. No reason to force people into something causing them to dig their heels in and say “Hell no”. Insurance has a long history of “allowing” people to participate in activities that may be detrimental. Smoking, drinking, race cars are just a few things that are okay to do but you’ll have to pay a bit more for insurance to cover the increased risk. It also gets around HIPPA issues. A vast majority of people won’t die or have complications from COVID requiring medical treatment but a few will. Insurance is basically math, how likely is something to happen and how much will it cost to treat. You choose to smoke so your chance for cancer increases so your insurance rates go up. Looks like they are starting to treat this vaccination the same way.
So much for optimism. Also, nothing NPR says is true; if those fuckers say the sky is blue you’d better step outside and look before you believe it.
Live in your own real world. You will be better off.
Thank you AC – I really needed to read that story.
Kind regards,
KA
Glad you like it!