ratboy [they/them]

  • 3 Posts
  • 19 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 17th, 2023

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  • I think YouTube would be the toughest for me to quit as well. But I use it almost exclusively for music; I listen to a lot of underground/independent artists and its just so easy to find everything I want, and their algorithm works decently well so that I can discover or rediscover artists. Being able to use the app on my TV is another attractive part of it too. I admit I havent spent too much time in newpipe or any of the other alternatives; it would probably get easier if I made myself use it and ease in but I just don’t!



  • I think when I focus on working in private practice, I have a particular idea of the working conditions of the social workers compared to those that do not or cannot do that. I didn’t quite flesh out what those differences are. I think I also got lost in the sauce trying to classify the workers that there are other things I neglected or just straight up forgot about while thinking about this, combined with my personal experience and struggle in the profession. Glad you reoriented me, though.

    I keep trying to figure out how to clarify my thoughts in response to you, but I can’t even figure out where to start because as I type things out, I keep bringing myself back to the definition you pointed out and I think disentangling some of these things would be needed before even trying to classify the workers. So I’m just gonna ramble on here and if you have any thoughts on it I think it could be really helpful in reframing the question for me.

    For the rest, this is explicitly from the perspective of the US, where requirements for the profession can be quite different than that of other countries as you can guess lol.

    The working conditions for social (service) workers can be radically different. In private practice, working conditions and wages are significantly improved, and the type of work, which is typically therapy, is much more focused on the individual and coping in a capitalist society. In general, positions that do not require licensure are those much more focused on case management, where one is focused moreso on trying to change the material conditions for the individual but even this is not black and white because these same workers can do crisis work, for example…But those workers are often supervised by someone who is licensed where it’s not required of case management. And supervision in this sense is not quite the same as how we would think of it in other contexts.

    Referencing StillNoLeftLeft again, the work has largely functioned as an arm of the state in order to quell revolutionary potential in people by providing them with their basic needs, as well as diverting efforts of potential workers away from revolutionary activity towards a watered down version of this. But then come nonprofits. Part of the purpose of diverting jobs towards nonprofits and away from the public sector was to weaken unions. But in this, there has been the potential for freedom of work and the mission of the agency where I believe social (service) workers can and have pushed back against this mechanism. There are a subset of workers whose personal goal is to no longer have a job because the conditions under which social work is “needed” will no longer exist. An example of an agency trying to approach this issue from a broader sense than meeting peoples basic needs are trying to work alongside the homeless community and build political consciousness in that population. As you can imagine, the state tries to wrangle in and/or crush agencies that do not seek to maintain and replicate current conditions, but I feel like more and more groups with that outlook have popped up.

    So, I don’t yet know how to parse all of this out because I feel like there are a lot of contradictions and that it’s quite complex. I don’t know if these are not the variables that I should be focusing on and that I’m too zoomed in but if you read all that and have thoughts, again I’d love to hear em











  • Big agree on Idaho, and somewhat on the gen x’ers. Ive really been wanting to camp and explore Idaho because it seems really pretty, but it makes me pretty damn nervous. I’m white even, but dress alternative or whatever so I feel like there might be some kinda singling out outside of Boise, maybe.

    I think some of this generational stuff depends on where you land, kinda feel like there are 2/3 different grouoings in each category. but ive noticed that a lot of gen x’ers I know seem to have turned from apolitical to reactionary. My parents are early gen X and they all of a sudden decided to become trump supporters, they’ve been separated for years too so they developed independently. Lame since many gen xers grew up with Rage Against the Machine and/or System of a Down. Some late gen x/early millenials can be chill though but seem to fall into this trap as well.(I am a mid millenial if it matters)