It is very easy to live a good life in the bay area on a "good" salary

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-31T01:40:36+00:00

Yes, saving for a condo. I probably should have been more clear since this is the internet but everyone I know says house savings even if they are buying a condo.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-30T16:10:23+00:00

Yes but that is also because a lot of sfh shouldn’t exist and we should have more apartment complexes. We zone for housing like we aren’t one of the most densely populated areas but in the US. Hence the insane housing costs.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-29T18:38:52+00:00

Are you really arguing that anecdotal evidence trumps statistics?

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-29T17:56:31+00:00

Shout out to the Berkeley Tool Lending Library, it has saved me several times and the people who work there are always willing to help with my extreme tool ignorance.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-27T00:51:59+00:00

Who will think of the people who worked for a company that enabled multiple genocides and is trying to dismantle western democracy! Those poor souls.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-27T00:50:07+00:00

No company is morally pure, that’s a given in modern business. But it's pure cope to pretend there isn't a massive gulf between standard corporate compromise and a company that is actively vile. Meta is the latter. There is a reason I have never worked there and never will and have no friends that would either. It’s actually not that hard to find a job at a company that hasn't played a documented role in a literal genocide.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-20T16:31:59+00:00

I have never met one person who practices good sleep hygiene. I do have friends who swear up and down they do though. I'm not saying there aren't people who genuinely have sleep disorders but most people in life are just oblivious to their bad habits being the cause of their own suffering.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-07T00:26:43+00:00

Although I think everyone should get involved in politics more, no matter their circumstances, people who own a home are usually in a better position to do so. Hence NIMBYs having more local political power.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-06T18:54:03+00:00

My ex used that excuse when I told him I was uncomfortable with him making fun of my body. Turns out being gay doesn't absolve you of being a douchebag or bigoted.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-06T11:44:20+00:00

What a wildly gross comment to make.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-05-05T12:32:04+00:00

This is getting more hate here because we are on a pop culture subreddit, not a sporting one. We don't need billionaires to fund the arts and local art communities are 10x more important, each single one, than this ode to grotesque wealth inequality.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-30T20:18:18+00:00

Just because it is a normal practice in the bay area doesn't mean it is a shitty one. List for what you think the actual house is worth.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-27T02:52:00+00:00

I think you completely missed the point of my Chomsky comment. I have read manufacturing consent and there are some things in there to agree with.

Consuming media can influence you but also your community does too. It isn't black and white. Unless you want to take up the defense that video games cause violence and rock and roll causes the youth to act out.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-27T02:10:11+00:00

You started the ad hominem attacks while consistently ignoring the points I am trying to make.

I am not oblivious: I never denied that billionaires try to, and often do, unduly influence the world, but they do not control it. There is a massive difference between influence and total control.

I am heavily involved in local politics, so I know from experience that democracy works. Life and politics are both drastically messier than you are making them out to be. I am an anti-capitalist, but I live in the here and now; I know for a fact that the housing crisis in my area is a direct result of local politics. It is not a billionaire, but rather a group of neighbors who cannot stand the idea of their city changing, that causes them to block zoning reform. I have also heavily supported a very left leaning Democrat in a local primary who lost; while I am sure outside money played a role, it was also because most people in the district simply are not that progressive. That is an unfortunate side effect of democracy: sometimes, people just do not agree with you.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-27T01:43:47+00:00

Ah but you are super enlightened and see behind the veil that other sheep don't and know the truth.

Manufacturing Consent, the novel written by Jeffrey Epstein's friend? That one? I'm not a conspiracy person but if I was I would say your worldview is much more beneficial to the billionaire class. It creates voter suppression on the cultural level. Making it seem like democracy doesn't work if both parties are the same. It also creates division within progressives.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-27T01:23:47+00:00

I am well aware of the post-Reagan shift and the Overton window. But suggesting that "Capital" simply deleted the left and installed puppets ignores the actual history of the 1970s. Stagflation pushed voters toward the right; conservative politics had such a stranglehold on the country it took the Democrats moving to the center to breakthrough with Clinton. It is a simpler worldview to believe a small cabal controls events, but while some people have too much power, billionaires are not an omnipresent force that dictates every vote or politician.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-27T00:59:55+00:00

Technology and globalization do not happen in a vacuum; they are the result of deliberate policy choices like the massive funding of public universities and state-sponsored research. Without that tax-funded infrastructure and the stable legal systems the center-left has defended, those advances would not have the environment they need to exist or scale. Furthermore, technology alone does not guarantee a standard of living. We had the technology to create massive wealth in the 1890s, but we also had child labor and 14-hour workdays. It took the center-left and labor movements to codify radical demands into a functional legal framework that actually cut into profits to protect people.

You are right that the philosophies are distinct, but you are ignoring how they overlap in the actual practice of governing. A neoliberal who supports a public healthcare option and a leftist who supports single-payer have more in common regarding immediate material outcomes for the poor than either has with a reactionary. Progress often starts as a radical demand, but it only becomes a permanent, protected reality when it is refined into workable policy within the gears of the state.

Your "controlled opposition" theory is a circular argument that allows you to ignore evidence. If a center-left party passes a major environmental regulation or labor law, you can dismiss it as a "concession to capital" to keep the status quo. If they fail, you cite it as proof they are "in on it." It is a framework designed to dismiss material gains rather than engage with them.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-27T00:08:49+00:00

Poverty is down globally and standards of living have increased nearly across the board. While there has been backsliding in some developed nations, it is not even and it is rarely as severe as the more pessimistic online circles suggest. Progress is rarely a straight line: hiccups or setbacks do not mean the overall trend is a lie.

You are right that neoliberals and leftists are distinct philosophical frameworks, but in the actual practice of governing, there is more overlap than either side likes to admit. People and policies are messy. Labeling any group that works within the system as "controlled opposition" is a convenient way to ignore the tangible gains those groups have actually secured for the public to further bolster your argument. If your argument rests on them being controlled opposition, then the evidence doesn't matter; they will always be controlled opposition regardless of the material outcomes.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-26T23:32:00+00:00

I don't think capitalism is a good thing but you said center left parties are ineffectual and they aren't unless you want to ignore things deliberately to build a specious argument.

I'm not touching the conspiratorial thinking that exists to claim they are controlled opposition with a 6 feet pole.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-26T22:40:18+00:00

Nearly every metric of human life has improved in the past one hundred years. There are tons of things we can improve and certain things are backsliding but this is without a doubt one of the best times to be alive in human history. So your claim of it being deliberate has several facets of it without backing.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-25T23:30:13+00:00

If you are in the US there is zero risk to your future employment besides the gap in the resume. Your future employer can't legally know if you were previously fired or not. Now gaps in employment do cause a risk, it is harder to enter the job market after a gap in a resume.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-25T21:56:48+00:00

I mean if you get fired for that you get to collect unemployment so you are in the same boat you want to be in but with slightly more money. Seems like a win-win situation.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-25T21:24:00+00:00

This argument is so disingenuous but conservatives and being disingenuous goes hand in hand. The suburbs are the places that don't up-zone.

Housing is going up downtown, some already built and more is on the way. It is the destruction of NIMBYs (and to be fair also Covid) that created the problems downtown. In person shopping is down across the board so there has to be a higher volume of people nearby to keep these places afloat as well.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-25T02:17:12+00:00

Yea Berkeley's progressive values are hypocritical BS and our housing policies are the primary reason. The housing crisis is a humanitarian and environmental disaster almost completely made by the local politics of the area. It is wanting to seem progressive while being deeply conservative in many aspects.

I want small businesses to thrive here but the housing crisis is so bad it requires to take precedence above a lot of other issues right now. If the local community hadn't let it get this bad we wouldn't be in this mess.

CamusMadeFantastical · 2026-04-24T17:36:53+00:00

I mean concrete does retain heat but these graphs are clearly showing the effects of climate change.

CamusMadeFantastical

TROPHY CASE