#lower class america

[fandom-addict404]

omg i’ve started watching shameless (seen season 1) and i haven’t said anything yet what is happening???

- first. lip is HOT

- second, frank is funny yet so infuriating. i have no sympathy for that man

- third, debbie is concerning yet endearing. i feel like she’s gonna do something dumb but imma just chill w her for now

- kev and v are couples goals fr fr

- jimmy-steve was sooooo cute and loving 🥰🤭

- mandy was low key hot and karen was too!!!

#shameless #shameless season one #lip gallagher #karen jackson #mandy milkovich #frank gallagher #kevin ball #veronica fisher #jeremy allen white #netflix #binge watch #netflix and chill #couples goals #debbie gallagher #lower class america #chicago

[mystybird]

“i worked 12 hours today and still can’t afford rent.”

waiter!alfred but make it realistic to the american experience.

#hetalia #aph america #alfred f jones #hetalia world stars #hws america #aph hetalia #americana #i might turn this into a series #take two of my passions - hetalia and americana/the community of the lower working class #mystydoodles

[takeustothelakes]

okay but isn’t it funny to think that steve wasn’t actually a captain when he was told his little hero jingle name, and he didn’t get promoted?

sergeant first class steve rogers after the serum: excuse me-

a second lieutenant: oh, i’m so sorry, sir, let me call everyone here to attention-

steve, blinking: the fuck

#sergeant first class is a lower rank than second lieutenant! but second lieutenant is lower than captain #just some information so this isn’t so confusing #i thought of this today and i made myself laugh #steve rogers #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #marvel mcu #captain america #us army

[kyyall]

the first comic i ever read was ms. marvel vol 1, kamala khan’s first solo book, and that’s what got me into comics. i had to be at least eleven or twelve, and she was and still is my favorite superhero. she was incredibly easy to relate to as a middle schooler going through puberty, and she was also my first encounter with any sort of muslim representation in ya or children’s media. reading the ms.marvel comics allowed for jump off point, as i started reading champions and avengers and read some of jane foster’s thor and miles morales’ spiderman. i’ve read nearly every solo comic she’s in, and i own most of her comics. she was awesome and even though i’m mainly into dc today, i owe my love of reading comics to her.

anyway, what i’m trying to say here, is that there is a huge difference is how the mcu characterizes characters and how the characters are actually portrayed in comics, and when you change a fundamental aspect of who they are, one that is main part of their identity, then that character is no longer that same character, and congrats! you’ve just made an entirely new person and you should’ve expected that fans of that original character are going to be pretty pissed about it. kamala’s powers are integral to her identity and how she develops as a character, and without that, who is she?

#tbh the mcu does it to all of them #peter parker went from lower-class superhero to iron man jr #tony stark went from generally being distrusted in universe to beloved and can do no wrong #america chavez got FUCKED in dr strange MOM #they slapped bendis writing straight onto mcu wanda #poor clint #they did you so dirty #the young avengers are straight-up going to be portrayed as avengers fanboys #look kamala is an avengers fan in the comics #but this is her story #and having ms marvel being a jump-off point for the marvels is disrespectful to her #and to be clear #she is an AVENGERS fan #meaning she likes all of them #anyway i have feelings #kamala khan #ms marvel #anti mcu?? #anti mcu #comics does it too

[mejomonster]

I started reading Billy Bat manga by Urasawa Naoki (u may know him as the guy who did Monster) and jesus christ its wild. Absolute experience. Judas and Jesus are in it, so are ninjas, so is lee harvey oswald (technically at least 3), theres a bat thats satire about how evil mickey mouse and disney are, there's lying cartoons galore, there's the civil rights movement, the oppressivr terror of the ku klux klan and the structural damage of segregation and fucked up laws, and the pervasiveness of advertising and the coca cola company ("golden cola") there's real events sprinkled with gratuitious fictional shit about manipulative God Billy Bat (or perhaps "administrator/guide to the human race"), a scroll that could control the world, Fake walt disney has hired killers, the looming brutality of imperialism and corporations buying out poorer areas, killing in other countries and breaking laws and whatever else is needed to acquire what they want, there's a cartoon dog kennedy assasination, a baby kevin inherits the powers of an older kevin, there's ninjas and priests, there's a small town out west full of cowboy larpers who are this comic artists biggest fan club, a secret agent Smith with a heart of gold (one hopes), a teenager named jackie whos seeing visions, there's a good and evil fake "mickey mouse" bat but frankly theyre probqbly both evil cause either way they lie and manipulate to get people to do what they want, judas cameos not only in his jesus arc but as a little kiddo, and like. Im not even halfway done. Einstein JUST showed up.

#rant #billy bat #its. an experience ill say that. its wild and im kind of floored it got published #it makes a lot of good points but its also ultimately a long winding Batshit Wild Bat Cartoon-as-God MYSTERY thriller #so its like. oh you learn about the pains of cowardice. the cruelties of corporations. #the way society doesnt value a whores life as you cry for her because she was wondetful. the way being just is hard #its hard to be brave and dangerous but it uas to be done. the vile dangers of advertizing and capitalism and profit over human life. #but then also. theres a fucking bat talking to a girl in her college class lol #its an interesting perspective in a way also cause like... #1 a lot of comic artists just full on would not touch these elements in their plots at all. and while ive seen these topics in stories #before. tjis is the most Pointed Disney/governments/corporations critique ive seen in comics. since like. its literally fake disney #ajd real ass historical figures and govts getting critiqued. #then 2 in japanese manga i havent seen foreign events covered much. and its interesting to see the perspective of #world events and america from this author. and his choice to make the protagonists who he did: a japanese american whos born american #and was in the allies as a translator. part of the US occupation when he initially visits japan. #the japanese mangaka whos older than ww2. the white upper class (truly upper class) coca cola #dynasty equivalent inheritor. a lower class black woman factory worker from florida whos outspoken and a leader and #braver than her husband. their kiddo kevin whos the most important person in the world worth saving. jackie the japanese american teen girl #eho grew up Loving fake disney and is in college. her dad the taxi driver who through other people #eventhally got the courage to go reunite with his wife and daughter jackie who left him. #(oh also a european priest and JUDAS and a ninja) #its just like. the author worked hard to put what feels like a japanese and american perspective and the Many ways those overlap and Dont #into this. as well as a variety of upper class and lower class characters. the rich fake walt disney and the poor bat town mayor and elder #who get killed for standing in the way of a corporations dreams. #jackie kennedy and the sweet girl who saved cartoonist Kevin and worked the street. #the rich dynasty inheritor of golden cola and his working class wife. how it all falls away in the deep soutj with pther lines #society draws. the poor student jackie versus the other protagonists witj a job #how kevin yamagata has not much connection to japan except a fondness for his parents. while jackie is even more #culturally removed (having never even visited japan) but her family still has their heritage of stories and places they miss and #want to visit and traditions her dad still regulalry discusses.

[heatwavering]

hmm

#tom iceman kazansky #even google knows his intricacies!!! #does this count as a wip wednesday?? probs not #but it is posted on a wednesday so i’ll let it slide pffft #also tom to me is a second NOT a jr. #but maverick is a jr. #getting named after your dad who did something memorable and having it follow you around #vs. getting your name from an older unknown male family member and having to make it your own #and never being able to shake your severely average lower class middle america lineage #poor kid ice can be something so personal #also i started this wip two hours ago and i haven’t given up immediately woohoo #top gun

[vivalamusaine]

Kinda crazy that the 23 conservative presidential debates is just a point buy system of how many people they can say they hate and walking a tightrope of trying to say they're better than trump without insulting him just in case (and there is an extremely high chance of this which is crazy) he wins and needs to choose one of them as his vp

#politics #us politics #conservative presidential debate #its also really funny hearing them say the statistics of how nobody can afford anything anymore #and they have to appeal to their lower class voters and also somehow appease their lobbyists and give tax breaks to the wealthy #the cognitive disconnect is wild #whats wilder is people listen to this shit and think.... hmm that does sound like a Solution #america get help pls

[margumis]

guys im literally going to have an aneurysm why don’t you know about monkey joe’s

#if someone who knows finds me we WILL kiss #it’s so lower middle class america core #please please

[ufonaut]

you mentioned it a few days ago but i'm still very curious about ur thoughts on alan's class traitor dynamics within the gay community in the 40s-60s era, the progression of it, and how that might compare to his current stance in the 21st century.

i don't think alan is a class traitor to the gay community per-se as much as he's a class traitor in general, and one of the most fascinating things about him (at least to me, personally) is the fact that nearly every part of him is a facade in some capacity -- from the big obvious things like his secret identity as a superhero to his eighty-something years in the closet to the fact that he's spent his whole life trying to distance himself from his social class.

(the green lantern 60th anniversary panel at the all-time classic new york comic book convention 2000, from alter ego 1999 #148)

like mart nodell himself said, alan was a working man. the few mentions of his childhood that exist (in the sleepers book two and jsa: ragnarok novels) have him growing up as an orphan in abject poverty; his work on the railroad -- which originally had him employed as an apprentice to a mr john hall in all-american comics 1939 #17, rather than any later stories claiming he'd ever owned or started a company -- paints him in the clear contours of the working class, as does his time on the radio where he works his way up from a jack-of-all-trades handyman position to radio announcer and beyond. to drive the point home, it's also important to note that alan spent most of his youth living in a rented one-bedroom flat with a taxi driver (and we know there's no question whatsoever about doiby dickles' working class background):

(examples from all-american comics 1939 #60, green lantern 1941 #26, the big-all american comic book 1944 #1 respectively)

there's also rare moments when alan's accent slips into a phonetically spelled new york accent like doiby's, or what we might call gotham in this particular case. this is one of the reasons i was so overjoyed by the whole "pal, start yakkin'" and the rest of his dialogue in jl vs losh 2022 #4.

this is all to build up to the fact that the few ways alan has expressed his sexuality are also steeped in working class dynamics:

(dc pride 2021 #1)

gay bar culture as we know it, particularly that of the 40s and 50s like alan would've experienced and as is pictured here, is a staple of the working class -- these are fellow working men we see milling around in a shuttered basement, people who might've already been made to feel like criminals and who had none of the comforts afforded by upper class social capital, this is a place for cruising as much as it is for solidarity.

that being said, alan has worked long and hard to rise above his station, so to speak.

(green lantern 80th anniversary special 2020)

he's visibly out of place among people like jimmy henton's mother because he's made himself out of place. over the course of his run in all-american comics 1939 and green lantern 1941, alan wears a grand total of two suits (and we even see him mending one at one point) but he still never dares for anything more casual. on one memorable occasion, he lies to irene miller about his education. whenever the radio gives him the opportunity to go to something relatively prestigious like the theatre or opera, both he & doiby are consistently surprised by it.

throughout his entire career, he's shown a good ol' 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' mentality as he's relentlessly worked his way up to the point that his work -- once the radio, later gbc -- would become the single most important thing in his life (the amazing world of dc comics #16 has a wonderful little analysis of this regarding his many mental breakdowns related to gbc's bankruptcy but even books like the golden age 1993 and starman 1994 #11 show a threat to the company as alan's sole fear). it's also often implied that jennie's gotten no help in her failing career as an actress, despite her dad running a broadcasting company & presumably having any number of industry contacts, for this exact reason. that is all to say that, by the 60s and up to the present day, alan has categorically made himself a rich ceo and acts like it too.

(all-star comics 1976 #64)

but in the process of distancing himself from his social class, he's also lost any hint of solidarity with young men he'd been exactly alike once upon a time. this is obvious enough in his treatment of jared stevens in both fate 1994 and the book of fate 1997

(fate 1994 #11 -- cultured people? style and taste? could alan be parroting what he'd been told was the measure of a hero back in the day?)

and following that same line of thinking, another layer is gained with the canon confirmation of his sexuality and the fact that he's evidently kept silent throughout every single movement of gay liberation in the 20th century. it's not that alan should've come out earlier but rather little things like him having led jay to believe he's a republican (aquaman 1994 #44) point pretty clearly to what opinions and stances he has expressed, if that makes sense.

even so, with all of alan's attempts to make himself virtually indistinguishable from the upper class crowd, the fact of the matter remains that he'll never be accepted as one of their own

('scenes from the class struggle at jsa mansion', from golden age secret files 2001 #1)

and that stays, i believe, the clearest indictment of alan as a class traitor (and how utterly fascinating that makes him!).

thank you for giving me the chance to get into it!!!

#alan scott #green lantern #jsa #justice society of america #asks #anon #god i missed this kinda ask sooooooo much thank youuuuu sincerely #ONCE AGAIN. ALAN SCOTT IS THE SINGLE MOST INTERESTING CHARACTER IN COMIC BOOK HISTORY #alan being told to lower his voice during the class discussion always gets me literallllllllly insane

[wsl-chelsea]

you guys know how im in america right (ofc you do i havent shut up about it lol) fat rant incoming:

the cost of living here is insane from what i can see, like this isnt to say australia is much better but god i feel for americans. sushi shouldnt be 15 usd!! why is the burger i had at my hotel (kind of a shit burger ngl) 27 AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS?! groceries too and this is just food i’m talking about!! idk what rent or electricity is like either!! i’ve known this for so long but its like just hit me, now that we pay double for our dinners even before we convert it. its ridiculous

#not really an isolated issue just for america but god please food should not break the bank #and it’s especially frustrating when i see that healthy food is the most expensive #here and in australia #how do you expect the lower class to idk. not die from high intakes of sugar and salt when it’s all they can afford #dan gets political ep 72372937389 #i don’t want this to sound like i’m only seeing the bad in america while i’m here #bc i’m actually having a really good time #i really enjoyed boston and it’s given me a newfound will to study at harvard which i did not expect

[foxcassius]

as i look at job listings here in korea, i cant help but still dream of that private lesson life. like, every job here will still expect you to teach 6 classes a day 5 days a week, for like a maximum wage of 2.4 million won per month. i could make twice that teaching that many classes in a private lesson setting, and i could easily make the SAME wage and just work less (ideal scenario)

#last night jiwon asked me like a million (imo unfair) questions about america and its society and why it succeeded #(unfair bc i just genuinely cant give definitive answers aside from 'it succeeded economically thanks to slavery') #and i was like 'you ask me sometimes why i dont want to move back to america and there are so many reasons and its hard to put into words' #'but one of them is that the work culture is so gross to be in and people still feel trapped in their jobs and there's no freedom to it' #and he was like 'korea is the same way it's just that i'm a specialist and you are foreigner who speaks english as a mother tongue' #'so i am inherently privileged out of genuine poverty by way of my degree and you are as well by way of being the class of foreign worker #you are. so korea has the same kind of trap for ''lower class'' people when it comes to work its just that you arent seeing it due to #your own status and my status as the main korean national whose life you are privvy to' #and i was like yes. i am aware of this. i am perfectly aware of how much poverty there is in korea and that not everyone lives as we do. #and i'm also perfectly aware of the fact that i would lose visa status and be sent back to my home country before i had any chance to #experience korean poverty. it sometimes feels like when he asks me why i dont want to go back to america he forces me to state One (1) #reason why and then takes that one reason and is like 'korea is like that too' which for starters I Know. because he refuses to acknowledge #this but korea is heavily controlled and influenced by the usa im not gonna get into that right now but I Know the similarities in many way #s between the usa and korea. secondly there are Many reasons why i wont be going back to the usa not the least of which is that #jiwon and i intend to get married and he doesnt intend to leave korea so its all a moot point anyway and idk why he keeps bringing it up #he wants to stay in korea and i wouldnt choose to move back to america so idk why he keeps like forcing me to explain myself on reason at a #time and like turn it around is trying to make me want to leave like. let it rest king i am so tired of talking about american politics #at 12 am especially bc sometimes he wants to have an argument abt it and im like Neither Of Us Is Educated Enough To Have This Conversation #i have my own lived experiences and a small amount of specific research. he has whatever they teach in school here abt america + some #internet readings. neither of us is qualified to sit and talk about this #it just feels like sometimes i'll be like 'america is a suffocating capitalist hellscape where kids get shot at school' and he's like #'well korea is also bad' and im like yeah no shit everywhere is bad everywhere is a capitalist hellscape the us has its hands in korea's #government and economy. but at least here i have a job with a decent salary and You so. #anyway. long rambling tags over. <3 #t

[b0bthebuilder35]

#retirement #retirement age #politics #political #political agenda #working class #middle class #lower class #need to know #presidential candidate #nikki haley #presidential campaign #2024 presidential election #democrats #republicans #conservatives #liberals #reality #America #united states of america #USA #USA politics #capitalism #capitalist society #capitalist #capitalism is killing us #capitalist bullshit #political bullshit #retired #no hope

[beccadust]

Then they wanna get involved in other typ

And she’s a slave over this now.

Ugly women should sometimes know their place.

Sadly, Stephanie thought she was besitfghil awe

#beautiful #technology abuse #lies they tell lower class girls in America #plagiarism #murder #India #supreme pizza and strep incest theft for dreams #sickos

[rudo-lfium]

Read this behemoth twice and have begun to systemise my notes for future reference.

In today’s day and age this should be on everybody’s desk at home.

#The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich #read it because you absolutely must #National Socialism and its consequences #How Nazis came to power by playing shabby tricks on the poor #A similar process is described in the novel It Can’t Happen Here by Lewis Sinclair in which a fascist dictatorship overtakes America #The so-called Forgotten Men (lower class laborers) overthrew democracy to avenge their misfortunes goaded on by a shrewd dictator wannabe #William L Shirer

[eyetothetelescope]

some days I truly hate the world and my life and today is one of those days

#journal #I hate working #I hate being on my feed on hard ass tile/concrete for hours on end #I got no break today #I love the people at my job and most days I really like my job #how much of that love is me being in denial because being lower class and needing money is so degrading and harmful? #I hate wealth disparity #I hate that poverty is such a huge problem in America and the world #I hate that no one I know is happy or satisfied with the state of our communities and lives #it breaks my heart #it makes me weep that all of us must face this

[awolfinmycity]

"Now I realized what I'd been missing all along. Here was true freedom. Serious money was the only path to liberation from the indentured servitude of twenty-first century lower- and middle-class American life." -Ayad Akhtar, Homeland Elegies

#homeland elegies #ayad akhtar #twenty-first century capitalism #late stage capitalism #capitalism #american dream #america #middle class #lower class #economics #power