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1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:10:31 EDT Adam

   We have this local magazine that is targeted at cool, hip, upper middle class people. The editors (and, possibly, the audience) are in such a downtown-hipster bubble that the most recent issue is focusing on the fact that more and more people are choosing to live in the suburbs. Um...that's the way it's been in this town for literally decades, guys. This isn't some new trend you've discovered.

   1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:11:01 EDT Adam

      in reply to

      Literally the only part of their take that is at all unique is that they're suggesting that the suburbs might actually be cool, instead of incredibly bland and dull.

      1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:39:23 EDT Adam

         in reply to

         And, OK, I'm talking about the magazine, and I'm sort of nominally in their target audience, so maybe this is exactly the response they're going for? I dunno. Growing up in a working class family, I still feel like an imposter and often forget that I actually have money and could easily buy into whatever crap lifestyle magazines are trying to sell me. Thing is: I don't want that stuff.

         (this is getting long, so the rest of this thread will be unlisted...click if you care to see the rest)

         1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:41:44 EDT Adam

            in reply to

            And even if I did want that stuff, I'd feel like I was suddenly back where I grew up: always worrying about money and debt. It's the same financial trap, just with nicer furniture.

            Part of the reason my wife and I can decide, sort of on a whim, to go to Europe or buy a trailer is because we literally don't do anything else with your money. We buy groceries and...that's mostly it.

            1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:43:35 EDT Adam

               in reply to

               This probably sounds like a humble brag, and I guess maybe it is, but that's not really my intention. I agonize over big purchases like these, even though there's money in the bank, because I remember what it was like to not have money. I remember my parents having to borrow $5 of my allowance to avoid going into overdraft. As an adult, I realize how awful and humiliating that must have felt.

               1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:45:58 EDT Adam

                  in reply to

                  Incidentally, this is also a big part of why I'm a socialist: I want everyone to be at least as secure and comfortable as I am. I know what it's like to be poor. It fucking sucks. I also know that I got to where I am today largely because of luck. My dad got to to go college because his employer saw something in him and helped pay for it. If not for that lucky break, we might have always been poor. I might not have been able to go to university and my whole life might have been very different.

                  1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:48:42 EDT Adam

                     in reply to

                     Like, yeah, I made some important decisions and put in some work along the way. I don't discount that. But a lot of other people work way harder than I do (because, honestly, I'm super lazy) and don't get to have half of what I do. And that's why I'll never say, "Fuck you, I got mine." Even though that would be the easy thing to do: pretend it was all hard work, that they system is fair and that everyone who is poor just needs to work harder.

                     1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 13:49:37 EDT Adam

                        in reply to

                        Phew...end rant, I think. I did not except to go down this path when I started with a silly toot about a lifestyle magazine having a goofy take on the suburbs.

   2. Saltiest Cloister (saltiestcloister@quitter.im)'s status on Thursday, 16-Aug-2018 21:09:17 EDT Saltiest Cloister

      in reply to
      @inkslinger We have one of those, too, always boosting 'gentrification' like it's the best thing ever, which it is but only if you have means. I live in the 'burbs, have for my entire life and it's good to get to know your neighbours, which you'll do, if you're basically decent and friendly or whatever you can do that passes for friendliness, in whatever part of town you're living in.