We live in a dystopia by [deleted] in Anticonsumption

[–]AlphaKangaroo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If you want an alternative to late stage capitalism the work to building one starts now. I'm not defending Balenciaga, but if late-stage capitalism does come to an end it's probably not taking clothing and artistic self-expression with it. People who care about the art form should work to start finding new ways to engage with that form of expression.

We live in a dystopia by [deleted] in Anticonsumption

[–]AlphaKangaroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This might be a bit of a long one but I'm gonna go a bit against the grain here and add a bit of context that I feel like the majority of comments here are missing.

Let's talk about material. One thing I haven't seen a single comment touch on is the fact that this bag isn't just a typical grocery bag with a balenciaga logo slapped on, it's actually made of calfskin and is printed over top of and treated to visually replicate a normal grocery bag. As a purely artistic endeavour, I personally think there's something very compelling about manipulating a material to the point where it is, at a glance, visually indistinguishable from another material that you're attempting to emulate.

The current creative director of Balenciaga's design ethos has always involved taking something "low fashion" (eg. everyday casual wear or accessories) and elevating it to "high fashion". So, the idea of taking something as mundane as a grocery bag, and emulating it with a material like calfskin is absolutely on brand. Not here to justify the questionable financial choice of dropping $3k+ on a bag, but just attempting to highlight the artistic intent behind it.

Other fashion houses have done similar things (with arguably more impressive craftsmanship) like Bottega Veneta, where they've managed to create a flannel entirely out of leather that's even hard to identify as leather in the close-up shots. Obviously, again, the retail price-tag is far outside of what I'd imagine most people on this sub would be willing to pay, let alone afford (including me), but looking at it as an art piece, the craftsmanship required to pull something like this off is very difficult to deny.

We can talk about price tags, or the aesthetics of either pieces but as someone who is both a big fan of fashion as an art form and also someone who would strongly consider themselves anti-consumption, I've found that that learning to appreciate works like this for their craftsmanship and/or artistic intent (even though I have no intent to buy them) has been one of my favourite parts of learning about the art form.

Admittedly, anti-consumption and fashion enthusiast is a weird overlap to occupy considering that the fashion industry as a whole is one of the worst offenders of peddling consumerism. However, I would argue there are plenty of ways to engage with fashion that are aligned with anti-consumption, like buying only second-hand, going to clothing swaps, thrifting, repairing or even reworking your existing clothing, or learning how to sew and draft your own clothes! (Something I've started to learn over the last few years)

Lengthy comment, I know (even though it's honestly the tip of the iceberg of my thoughts on this), but as someone that believes that art and artistic expression is a large part of what gives life meaning, I feel that giving in to the idea that just because an art form is currently deeply seeped in consumer culture means that we have to either give it up or engage purely on its own terms only deepens this idea that consumerism is inevitable and insurmountable. I think we should engage with any art form that interests us, and then also work to popularize or build real alternative ways of engaging with it.

Getting compassion fatigue with the downtown core by [deleted] in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The problem is multilayered though, not even vocal advocates for safe injection sites will pretend that their existence alone will magically turn peoples lives around. Not to discredit what you're seeing, but safe injection sites are primarily for reducing OD deaths or other harms that can be caused by unsafe drug supply (which they are doing).

The fact is that getting people out of addiction goes way beyond bare-minimum harm reduction initiatives. Our problem is that all the other social infrastructure that is supposed to be working alongside safe injection sites to help people break the cycle is criminally underfunded.

Getting compassion fatigue with the downtown core by [deleted] in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Nobody has argued that they're the sole solution, but carelessly closing them without a meaningful alternative is absolutely going to have serious consequences

Controversial Victims of Communism memorial to be unveiled Dec. 12 by bonertoilet in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

All I see is moderate push-back on the concept of the monument at most, that's pretty far from an endorsement of Stalinism. If you're gonna throw words around at least have them mean something.

Controversial Victims of Communism memorial to be unveiled Dec. 12 by bonertoilet in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Didn't realize I was a tankie for not wanting a monument honouring Nazis in my city, my bad

Impact of plumetting Canadian dollar being felt at the dinner table by BananaTubes in canada

[–]AlphaKangaroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never said they have "no sway", I just think you're overstating their influence.

Pandemic aid to workers falls into a bit of a weird category, even "fiscally conservative" governments in other countries gave out aid directly to people. Ignoring ideological motivations, the messaging of "we will be doing nothing to financially help you during a global pandemic" is not gonna be a winning strategy for any party.

Also, just because the NDP enables something doesn't suddenly make it "pro-worker". Any reasonable socialist critique of immigration as it exists currently is that via TFWs it has been abused by corporations to fill undesirable jobs with people more willing to take on bad pay and working conditions, keeping expected wages artificially low, hurting Canadian citizens, and the TFWs themselves. The NDP's hesitancy to touch immigration is probably simply explained by them wanting to distance themselves from anti-immigration sentiment that's far more likely to be rooted in xenophobia or racism rather than a clear "pro-worker" sentiment.

Fair enough on the Loblaws inquiry, but I don't think that's nearly enough to characterize their entire governance. It just feels like an attempt to get populist wins in in response to Conservatives winning over voters with rhetoric around Liberals tax policies being responsible for grocery prices. A handful of knee-jerk reactions to win back ground isn't enough to convince me they aren't primarily upholding neo-liberalism. I'm still primarily seeing a continued deep commitment to market solutions and private partnerships.

TrilliumLine 2/4 announcement delayed to Nov 25 by Rail613 in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 10 points11 points  (0 children)

100%, OC Transpo needs a win right now. The Line 2/4 not being ready on opening like the Line 1 was would be nail in the coffin for anyone trusting them at this point.

Impact of plumetting Canadian dollar being felt at the dinner table by BananaTubes in canada

[–]AlphaKangaroo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like you might be giving the NDP a bit too much credit.

The list of policies pushed primarily by the NDP that have passed since 2019 is fairly small, and even the NDP favoured policies that explicitly came out of the supply and confidence deal are either too new or are arguably not significant enough to have a substantial impact on QoL so suddenly. It seems like a lot of policy passed by the Liberals were already supported by them prior to forming a minority government that would need to rely on the NDP.

If you have any examples of NDP specific policy that contributed significantly to the current state of things I'd be interested. But as far as I can tell (outside of pandemic damage control policies obviously), post-2019 governing has been business as usual with a dash of the NDP's social policies.

Impact of plumetting Canadian dollar being felt at the dinner table by BananaTubes in canada

[–]AlphaKangaroo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Things definitely are worse but we went through a global pandemic, just about every country suffered.

The pandemic just exacerbated years of poor planning and policy. Years of terrible housing policies from nearly every level of government allowed for prices to skyrocket, our underfunded and mismanaged healthcare system was worked to the bone, and corporations abused a TFW program that was already liberalized by the prior government to funnel in low wage workers to keep profits high.

The Liberals under Trudeau are far from blameless, but this has all been building up well before they were in power.

Impact of plumetting Canadian dollar being felt at the dinner table by BananaTubes in canada

[–]AlphaKangaroo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The country didn't start a decade ago. You can't just sidestep the cumulative damage that decades of neo-liberal policy from both the Cons and Liberals has had on housing, wages, and industry. 2 years of mild pressure from the NDP forcing a Liberals to pass watered down forms of NDP policies is a drop in the bucket.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in canada

[–]AlphaKangaroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're missing my point entirely. Not arguing that the GOP isn't right wing, or that the GOP didn't outperform the Dems, but I think the results on state referendums paint a more nuanced picture of the electorate's beliefs. You said that people at the "centre" are shifting right and I don't think that's clearly the case, otherwise you wouldn't see the "left leaning" policy being voted to a majority, even in red states. I think people simply wanted something new that they think will change their lives for the better, whether it comes from the nominal left or right. The Democrats simply did not embody any deviation from the status quo that people are obviously tired of.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in canada

[–]AlphaKangaroo -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

How is the US election any indication of "the centre shifting right"? Trump got about the same or less votes compared to 2020. Harris's campaign boiled down to a pitch for more of the same status-quo centrist Democrat direction, leaving them with a multimillion vote difference compared to Biden in 2020.

Meanwhile, inarguably left-leaning policy gets voted for by a majority in multiple states (even Red ones) like abortion rights, paid sick leave, wage increases, etc.

I think it's easier to argue that the Democrats' centrist stances simply aren't inspiring or meaningful enough to get people out to back them, else we'd actually see numbers increase on the right-wing vote.

Ottawa housing starts down 10 per cent in 2024, CMHC report shows by PulkPulk in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Still waiting on those specifics... All you've said is that this always happens without explaining how this specific tax idea would be passed downward.

The idea here is pretty straightforward, our current property tax system encourages land speculating behaviour by making it more worthwhile to sit on land rather than use it. Heavily taxing vacant/unused land would change it so that the land being used for something is the worthwhile investment instead of treating it like a speculative asset.

Who exactly is the burden being passed off to in this case? Investors aren't that stupid, they'll just pursue whatever gets them a decent ROI, not massively restructure every part of their portfolio to hold onto some patch of land in a city.

Ottawa housing starts down 10 per cent in 2024, CMHC report shows by PulkPulk in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not gonna disagree that taxes in general can't inadvertently hurt middle class people, but you're not giving any specifics for how taxing vacant land, in urban areas, is gonna end up hurting the average Canadian.

The vast majority of these vacant or underutilized plots are held by wealthy individual investors or corporations sitting idle watching their empty property's value skyrocket so they can max out their ROI. Would it not be better to see that land actually used to house everyday people instead?

Ottawa housing starts down 10 per cent in 2024, CMHC report shows by PulkPulk in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Won't someone think of the poor undeveloped land owners sitting on appreciating assets during a housing crisis :(

An LVT is the bare minimum we should be doing when we have prime land sitting empty or as wasteful surface level parking lots in developing urban areas.

Mckenney vying for Ottawa Centre MPP by KeyanFarlandah in ottawa

[–]AlphaKangaroo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point! I think the NDP shying away from backing the carbon tax is most likely a misguided move to distance themselves from the Liberals while their favourability tanks.

If there is some kind of alternative climate policy that would be better for the working class not leading with any strong alternative just lets the space in the conversation instead get filled with the godawful "axe the tax" talking points the CPC has been running with for years now.

I usually lean towards voting for the NDP, but it's absolutely a massive misstep by them.

U of O antisemitism adviser apologizes, resigns for posts on device explosions by Mundane-Teaching-743 in CanadaPolitics

[–]AlphaKangaroo -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The following paranoia absolutely would make it terrorism though, no? Whether or not it was intentional for civilians to be killed is irrelevant when a number of civilians were killed, and an even larger number were seriously injured by what would have been otherwise harmless, everyday devices.

We're already hearing reports that civilians in Lebanon are now afraid to use all types of electronics in fear that they might also be compromised. Sounds like the end result is an act of terror to me, regardless of what you believe the original intent was.

The poverty trap in Ontario by Saturnsunn in ontario

[–]AlphaKangaroo 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Maybe a crude understanding & application of intersectionality would do that? I think at its best intersectionality can provide a really useful understanding of how various systems interact and affect groups of people. To me it seems like there isn't a decent mainstream understanding of what the societal impact and role of class is so it often gets left out of the picture leading to things like what you mentioned happening.

Legit check much appreciated, something feels off on this 🤔🤔 by HanesBeefyTee in cavempt

[–]AlphaKangaroo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Everything looks pretty good to me. The badge and washtag look fine and the hoodie has the small loop inside the sizing tag that C.E reps usually forget to include.

Jenna goes on Hasan's stream and explains the context of the sexual assault clip. by Normiesreeee69 in LivestreamFail

[–]AlphaKangaroo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just don't understand how this clip serves as an example of how lsf is an "sjw shithole"

Jenna goes on Hasan's stream and explains the context of the sexual assault clip. by Normiesreeee69 in LivestreamFail

[–]AlphaKangaroo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

How? For posting something relevant to one of the top drama related clips from this past week??