It’s fucked up that I read a comment the other day making the argument that this would not be painless if he were able to fight it. And that comment got downvoted to shit. And here we are.

Some of us go to concerts alone. It’s not that crazy to leave a single seat open.

Not that that should ever be the consumer’s problem anyway.

nobody ever wants to pay for anything on the internet

To your point, maybe if what we got in return were worth a shit, people would be more willing to pay. But it gets shittier and shittier, more and more inundated with ads, worse journalism with more clickbait and AI, all for prices that go up every year to multiple times per year.

It was more reasonable when you could go to the store and pay for one newspaper or one issue of a magazine. Then if you really liked it you could subscribe. Now there’s no other option but to subscribe. Not everyone wants to be paying a bunch of separate subscription fees per month just to get decent news, and not everyone wants one hundred percent of a news outlets content. But we’re charged for it regardless. Fuck no, no one wants to pay for that.

Maybe if it were one of the only things that required a subscription. Like it used to be. But now, almost every single thing we use comes with a subscription charge and there’s usually no other way to pay for it. It’s all or nothing. And it gets totally exhausting, aggravating, and ridiculously expensive, especially when they force you to pay for a bunch of shit you don’t need, or they charge you cancellation fees on top of an extra month, or raise the monthly price without telling you, or tack on extra charges for shit that should just come with it in the first place, etc etc.

My point is, no one should defend the subscription model. If an outlet does good journalism, they’ll have donors. PBS Newshour, NPR, Democracy Now, they’re some of the best souces and they’re all nonprofit. And, what do you know, none of them have actual ads.

And shoutout to local libraries to loaning current magazine issues online. I get a Libby notification every time the New Yorker comes out. And I’m sure they’re losing a ton of money because I don’t personally pay for a subscription /s

I am so sick and tired of having two people standing right behind me staring over my shoulder as I’m using self checkout at walmart. It makes me never want to go back there. I actually have never “forgotten” to scan anything, ever. Yet these mfs are breathing down my neck at every store, every time I go. Target is the opposite. I swear these LPs (the plain clothes people but with walkies, come on) and workers are next to me at all times when I’m shopping. But then they usually leave me be at self checkout. I guess by then their ridiculously invasive theft monitoring system has determined I’m not a threat or something.

Fuck both of these companies. And fuck them even more for running every smaller company out of business so we have nowhere else to shop when we’re sick of being treated like criminals and sick of being sold garbage at some insane markup.

One of the most valuable parts of my MA program (probably the most) has been learning directly from faculty. Especially in understanding theory. That’s something I just couldn’t grasp straight from the writings, even with secondary texts. Plus the historical context that I wouldn’t have considered.

Teaching experience has been valuable, in that I’ve learned that I hate it and that I despise the institution of academia in general. Yes, my dreams have been crushed by its greed, bureaucracy, and emphasis on the status quo, but at least I won’t waste 4-6 more years on a PhD.

I love my field. I love writing and research. I like lecturing and being in the classroom. But working within my discipline is like ten percent of my time. The rest is spent on navigating bureaucracy, actual hours spent answering emails, getting shit approved by admin who know nothing about my field, attending pointless meetings, and office politics. And from what I hear it would only get worse. It’s so disappointing. As much as I love my discipline, it’s not worth it.

Eta: oh, and can’t forget the constant demands and criticisms with jack shit in return. Every student and faculty member is demanding every minute of my time, not a single thing is ever good enough, there’s never a single ounce of positive feedback. The closest I ever get is an A on a paper with a bunch of criticisms. The grading I do for other people’s classes could have over half the class getting D’s based on the prof’s answer key, but yeah, it’s definitely your TAs grading that’s the problem. I think that’s all they’re paying us (less than minimum wage) for. To shoulder all the blame and the busy work with zero recognition or empathy for our workload.

it feels so unfair that I don’t get to experience the life I have the way I imagined because getting here took too much out of me

Fuck, that’s relatable.

Really confused by these “no one ever said redditors are creative” comments. No one ever said that no one ever said that.

Don’t overthink it.

It’s more the hypocrisy of some people. The ones who cheer for a huge defense/foreign aid budget year after year no matter who it’s for, and then leave bitchy comments on FB about student loan forgiveness being “unfair” because it uses their tax dollars.