Festivus 2024
The Tradition of Festivus Begins with the Airing of Grievances
The Tradition of Festivus Begins with the Airing of Grievances:
The Democratic National Committee, Nancy Pelosi, and the Neoliberals who think malign neglect of working people is going to be sufficient to win in ‘28 can eat a dogshit sandwich.
They promised us that if they lost 2024, IT WOULD BE THE LAST ELECTION, EVER.
IT SHOULD BE for every single one of THEM. I recall hearing more than one Democratic party leader say something to the effect of, “If Trump wins, it will be the end of democracy.” That was the best you had? Not Medicare for All or a $15 an hour federal minimum wage or the Equal Rights Amendment—”Vote for Biden Harris OR ELSE.”
Whelp. It’s “Else” and you offered no vision for the future last time around, so what are you going to be serving up, but more of the same #failureship?
Speaking of clueless and stuck-in-the-past, did the Democratic leadership think if they shielded him from primary challengers that America would not notice Joe Biden was ELDERLY when the presidential race came around? I would have loved to have been party to those communiques, where Kamala orchestrated her move. I wonder what she gave to Mayo Pete to keep him from jumping on the opportunity—he is definitely the thirstiest of the D-publicans
Pardoning people’s marijuana possession convictions does not help those who were convicted for growing it for them or selling it to them. Rescheduling is not de-scheduling—manufacture, sale, and non-prescribed possession of Schedule III substances are crimes. Kamala Harris will not be president. Five years after making the campaign pledge to “decriminalize” marijuana, all the Biden administration has to show for it is a half-measure, benefitting some people.
Premeditated murder is wrong. Except when it is not. The fall back position that all homicides are morally equivalent is belied by the social construction of deviance. Deviance does not exist in the Act, alone. If I write and send you a letter telling you when, where, and how I intent to kill you, that is a crime—but not when it is issued by the state to the condemned as their sentence. Or maybe the Ruling Class has put the two of us in lethal opposition, where we are each trying to kill the other for oil that we are prevented from claiming for ourselves, by that same Ruling Class. This is why killing a CEO for doing their job is a Major Event—it’s a social class morality play; it is striking at corporate hegemony.
Surviving Boomers showed us through their 2024 presidential votes once again that they do not like presidents to be YOUNGER THAN THEY ARE. Birth cohort density and its effects on economy and culture is one of my ongoing side concerns. In a system where the majority wins the office, outsized birth cohorts are going to exact more influence on outcomes. As people age, their needs, lifestyles, consumptive patterns, social networks, and statuses change — none of this has to do with ascribed identities or social class, per se. Teens as a cohort are vastly different than 45-year-olds as a cohort who are different than 70-year-olds, and one cohort can never occupy multiple statuses at the same time, though as they age they will occupy each.
Boomers loved to self-identify with a generational trope of “uniqueness.” They invented the Generation Gap when young (“Don’t trust anyone over thirty.”) and then as they aged, they kept referring to themselves as “The New,” as in “40 is The New 30” and “50 is The New 30” and “60 is The New 40,” et cetera. Laying claim to younger stages of life—refusing to mature—means the generation that followed (“X”) would be forever younger and that their social status was diluted. Of course, large birth cohorts give birth to even larger birth cohorts (Millennials), and the anticipated rapid-aging of Generation X is well underway. We spent the first 50 years of our lives as “very young” and now we are transitioning to “very old,” which will be completed in under a decade. Gen X doesn’t get the earning power, the wealth, the political offices, or the cultural status that previously came with middle age.
That’s why as a generation, we produced the best #Festivus music:
Final note for today, and through the remainder of 2024: Please consider buying a full 2025 subscription to my page for yourself or as a gift for someone you know will enjoy critical approaches to social power. It’s 50% off for the full year (just $50) if you purchase before December 31. That’s less than a dollar a week, and your support keeps the public sociology alive, literally. Thanks!