StillNoLeftLeft

Especially liked this bit:

The behavioral evidence of caring: When researchers moved beyond flawed questionnaires to test actual empathic behavior, the results contradicted the deficit narrative. For example, some studies measured generosity toward loved ones and strangers—a behavioral test of empathy. Autistic adults gave to their loved ones as generously as allistic (non-autistic) adults, and were significantly more generous with strangers. This finding was replicated across the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany.

Instead of empathy deficit, autistic people demonstrate a broader moral concern, extending fairness beyond their tribes. Where researchers had assumed impairment, they found autistic people applying moral principles more consistently—even to strangers, even when costly. In a world increasingly damaged by in-group bias, this isn't a deficit; it's a collective-level fail-safe feature.

This is it. I could not even count the amount of times I've been accused of being cold or unempathic when I have pointed out that my privileged friends are going to be ok when they get a slightly bigger electric bill one month, but people in Palestine aren't.

Original Show Notes:

Celebrating the life and work of Michael Parenti, a towering figure in Marxist scholarship and activism. We will discuss Parenti’s profound impact on the study of imperialism, war, propaganda, fascism, and the difficulties of socialist construction, as well as his unwavering commitment to the global class struggle. Speakers Ali Kadri (Professor, Sun Yat-sen University) Ben Norton (Editor, Geopolitical Economy Report) Corinna Mullin (Associate Editor, Middle East Critique) Immanuel Ness (Professor, City University of New York) Gabriel Rockhill (Author, Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?) Sara Flounders (Co-director, International Action Center) Shiran Illanperuma (Researcher, Tricontinental Institute) Barry Lituchy (Professor, City University of New York) Chair: Carlos Martinez (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China) Organisers International Manifesto Group / Critical Theory Workshop Co-sponsored by United National Anti-War Coalition, Iskra Books, Manifesto Press, Friends of Socialist China

Apparently Babylon 5 can now be watched on YT. Would not call it free though, because YT.

Used to be the biggest fan of this series and it has been only a few years since I last watched it, but though others might enjoy this news.

My oven pancake game is on point these days, look at all the bubbling! I put sourdough starter in it and it tastes amazing.

Time to

Welcome to Finland, the country where the exploitation and abuse of the proles looks pretty civil to outsiders, but it is such a devious fucking system with nowehere to turn, that the only way I can describe it is as a carceral system.

My partner has worked hard his whole life. He was a welder who happily worked in the ship building industry until neoliberals made landfall here in the 90s and he as a union man (steward) was eventually let go. He did odd jobs after that, but never found anything permanent so he decided to go to nursing school and became a practical nurse.

He was great at it. Did it for 10 years until he got so severely burnt out by it that it nearly killed him. He has never recovered and applied for retirement then, but wasn't allowed to retire. He's been in these joke jobs assigned by the empoyment agency several times since. They were short contracts of all kinds, but those at least were paid work. And his disability was taken to account with things like 4 hour days which he could still do.

He has been on this slightly better unemployment now for little over a year after the last stint of work. It's the sort of benefit that ends after a period and you drop to this shittier general benefit that we can't survive on despite my wage. He has been looking for any part-time work for 6 months now and had zero callbacks. He could probably do part-time work, he has tons of work experience in everything from construction to elderly care.

He has been in line for adhd assessement for over 2 years at this point and is still not allowed to retire, nor does he get called in to get tested. Covid also did a number on him and he is even more forgetful, tired and easily stressed than before.

And now the unemployment agency decided to put him into a 3 months "work rehearsal" which means no wage slave labor, full time. As a janitor for some small business owner. This way he gets to stay on that higher benefit tier for three more months, but after that it will end anyway. This is no prospect for actual waged work, nor does he get even meals or any support for commuting, but has to pay all that out of pocket. Yet it is mandatory and if he was to refuse, his entire benefit would be cut.

He also can't call in sick at all, because sick days for the poors have a 7 day wait period for any sort of sick leave payment and unemployment also isn't paid for sick days. So if he can't do this, he gets financially fucked.

So here I sit. Listening to this amazing human sleep as he has to get up at 6am to go to work for free and pay for the bus to get there. All to be just as unemployed three months from now as he is now. Time he could spend trying to find actual paid part-time work that would not burn him out.

This won't end well. I hate it.

The dreaded day has come. Our landlord ended the contract of everyone in the building a few months ago due to a large renovation and I definitely wasn't happy about it, because we only got to live here for a few years and moved in on the premise that we can live here a long long time. So I got all these houseplants with the idea that I can just live life with them here, but no.

So today I am moving them. It's winter, but thankfully such a shitty one that the temp isn't below freezing. It is about +2C though and very windy.

So I am posting a few highlights of them to this post, in case some of them die.

Started by untangling the pothos from the plant shelf:

Packed it in a box and it fills half of it. In the same box are some of the most sensitive guys like two hibiscus and a rare and very sensitive begonia variety from the beginning of the last century.

This is the begonia in its normal state, it might not survive the move:

Then I took Bob, my fern out from the corner it's been living and my god, this boy has become HUGE again!

The shelf is the larger Ikea Ivar and this boy fills almost the entire shelf.

In the corned under Bob was also one of my variagated monsteras. It's a shadier spot so its leaves are smaller, but it has grown into a beautiful plant next to a moss pole. I never really saw it well as Bob was shading it quite a bit.

To be continued as the packing proceeds.

Fun fact, when he mentions how the poorest are mostly in debt, the debt is typically caused by healthcare bills, rents and other mandatory payments that people cannot afford to pay. Basic social security level in Finland is so low that a human rights organization has given a notice about it to Finland three times in a row. At the same time, healthcare fees are some of the highest in the world. Contrary to what is often known about our "free healthcare", it's not free, it's very expensive and the main reason for the debt of the poors.

The credit system in Finland is such that if someone has a mark on it, unpaid bills or debt, it prevents you from getting housing, loans and even basic services like home insurance, car insurance, a bank account, a phone service, electricity etc. completely. The mark used to last for years and would shut people pretty much fully out of society and it still does that, getting housing without clean credit is nearly impossible for example.

What is often then demanded from the very poorest is a sort of bond payment for the service that they are deemed unrealiable to get due to bad credit. Obviously nobody can pay a 400€ bond payment just to get electricity in their home if their entire monthly income is already only about 500€. Therefore these people are completely screwed no matter what.

Then if by miracle someone with bad credit like this gets a job, there is a system where most of their income gets deducted to pay the debt and this can't be avoided. So they often again can't pay for their basic needs, but also can't get credit due to bad credit.

Often these debts are things like 50-100€ healthcare bills that go to be collected into private debt firms that add huge sums of processing fees to them. The court also adds more fees to them. Once a small bill like this is unpaid, it trasfers into a debt worth hundreds. A poor family for example often is forced to skip paying these or daycare fees to feed their kids and all of these are the true debt of the poors. If you get caught travelling on the tram without a ticket, you get a 80€ fine for it and these mostly end up turning into debt as well, because the people using the tram without a ticket are often poor.

Point being that poor people don't have any consumer debt, because nobody can get those without a steady wage income. It's all this other mandatory stuff.

It's a vile system through and through. I've been in that situation myself for 20 years, due to an unpaid student loan and having been financially scammed as a young adult. I am now free from if, only thanks to help from loved ones, but will never be able to own anything because I don't have time to earn enough for that before I run out of worklife.

I work with people who are all in this situation. The main issue with getting housing for poor or homeless here is this bad credit, not a single landlord will even consider someone who has a marking in their credit and often the marking is from something like a bill from a dentist and just spirals out of control from there. As soon as these bills move to a credit firm they rise beyond anything a poor person could hope to pay. To levels beyond their income. It's a carceral system that keeps people in misery, by design.

Tis the season!

When me and my partner make our weekly bread, we always make about the same amount of dough for it. We make two 800g breads from it and are typically left with a leftover piece that varies in size.

We always make some sort of treat from it. A pizza, separate bread buns or some sort of flatbread that fits with our dinner that day.

This week I made focaccia, the classic version that is heavy on garlic and olive oil. Some dried rosemary and seasalt on top as well. Here it is, ready for the oven after work today:

It's just the most delicious thing, especially when the dough is sourdough made of spelt which gives it a much more complex, slightly tangy and nutty flavour.

Had some vegan gingerbread dough and vegan royal icing leftover from a work Christmas party so made some today, still had 1/4 of the dough leftover to freeze for Christmas. Loving the unicorns especially:

The dough here has a lot of bitter orange in it, along with the common cinnamon, glove etc. Also added some cardamon to it this time, thanks to a tip from a comrade here. It is so good.

Made some Hexbears, some communist propaganda and other cute things. Making everything political as one should.