09/11/23 - Free America, shootings everyday.
Lately, the top livestreamer in all of China got into a scandal because he made fun of his audience for not being able to afford a brand of eyebrow pencil. [69 RMB for one pencil, but with only 0.08 grams of pencil, making it weigh twice its weight in gold.] Red Star News put out a poll, and discovered that out of the 110K poll takers, over 50% only use eyebrow pencils under 10 RMB, and over 80% use eyebrow pencils under 30 RMB.
Comments say, “Calculate yourself just how insane the profit margin on these are.”
“I buy mine at the dollar store for 2 RMB per pencil.”
“A 79 RMB eyebrow pencil is too expensive, but if they get it as a gift from their boyfriend, they complain about how stingy it is.”
“To say something kind of offensive—some girls just shouldn’t be mothers. They’re still kids themselves, no matter how old they actually are.
I know a lady who’s almost 40, been divorced for over a decade, and is still trying to fuck with her ex-husband and his family, cause shit for them, teach the daughter she abandoned when she got a divorce to be loyal to her, and teach this toddler to make enemies out of her stepmom and dad.
The stepmom is actually a pretty nice woman in this case. She never gets mad at the kid. Their family atmosphere has always been pretty optimistic and harmonious. But every time the poor kid goes to see her birth mom, she comes back upset for a long time. There’s just too much negative energy there.
Last year was the worst. This lady’s been divorced for years already, but when she saw how great her ex-husband’s life is with his new son and all, she just couldn’t take it. Especially when she saw her daughter and her ex-husband’s son taking happy photos together on their birthday, she couldn’t stand it and yelled at her daughter. Her daughter is a really pretty girl, but now she’s starting to dodge the camera when it’s her time for pictures.
When she first starting going to school, her grades were pretty good, but they’ve been slipping lower and lower these last couple of years. Now, it’s hard for her to even pass her exams. She’s super shy and nervous about everything she does. It’s easy to imagine how hard her life will be from here on out. But she doesn’t even know yet that the greatest barrier to her life is going to be her own birth mom.
From my point of view, if this mom really loved her daughter, then either she’d have taken the daughter with her in the divorce, or just give her good emotional support and some financial support. But I just don’t understand moms who torture their own daughter just to feel good about their life.
If parents love their kids, they plan for them long-term, but some parents aren’t even done growing up themselves.”
Comments say, “And this type of mom is the best at taking their kids hostage in the name of ~*~family~*~.”
“She would never take her daughter away. Her daughter is the only opportunity she can stay in touch with this man. Some women give birth just to tie a man to them long-term. Even if it fails, they can still keep being connected to the man through the child, and that’s why they’re useful.”
A blogger reposts screenshots of the take I’ve posted before, about how there’s no such thing as sitting-the-month illness, it’s just the natural consequences of childbirth and overworking. This blogger says, “Are sitting-the-month illnesses a lie made up to cover up the consequences of giving birth? The term “sitting-the-month illness” never appears in proper medical texts or studies. So what does it even refer to? Most of the time, it just refers to the consequences for postpartum mothers not following local traditions after birth.
It’s just like the saying goes, “Sitting the month well brings a new spring to your life, or it can bring life-long illnesses.” If people’s minds, postpartum moms have headaches because they washed their hair. Their knees ache because they turned on the AC. They feel weak because they walked around. Almost every problem that can conceivably occur can be reasoned to be a sitting-the-month illness. The only reason they can come up with for why the patient isn’t feeling well is because they didn’t sit the month welll enough.
If a girl doesn’t follow the sitting the month traditions, then there’s a all-purpose statement for that too: “You’ll know when you get older.”
Sitting-the-month illnesses are like some sort of horrible curse, forcing most postpartum moms to err on the side of caution and meekly obey.”
Comments say, “Honestly, most new mothers know in their heart that the reason their wrists hurt is because they’re carrying the baby too much. The reason they have a headache is because they’re not getting enough sleep. They have back pain because of third-trimester stress on the body and laying down too much. This is all just a result of giving birth and having a baby to begin with.”
“Honestly! Finally, someone is saying this! In real life, there’s always an irresistible force binding you in the name of tradition, using the power of collectivism to trap you, blind you to the truth, prevent you from any change, deny your feelings and needs! This kind of emotional torture is just as suffocating as physical suffering!”
“Women are always being disciplined: they need to stay pure before marriage. They need to be a good wife and a good mother after marriage. But if anyone knows something’s wrong with them, it’ll always get blamed on them as their own fault.”
A tiktok video of a Korean pop band performance, where a blogger writes, “This is a fairly normal dance move, but now because of the Crazy Horse Show Incident, everyone’s changed their minds. When I look back on this dance now, I just feel like this must be how blackpink acts in front of the big companies in private, with the rich people sitting around raining money on them XD.”
Comments say, “Jenny looks so much more innocent than everyone else—she’s just standing around kinda lost.”
“She [Lisa] used to be everyone’s, and now she’s the exclusive dancer of capitalists, stripping for them in VIP private rooms. How are her fans supposed to accept this?”
“Hasn’t Korean pop bands always been like this? What’s so weird about them making an appearance in Crazy Horse? There’s no fundamental change at all. They’ve always been the toys of capitalists.”
“Wanna hear a scary story?
9.56 million people were born in 2022. By 2052, these people will become the primary contributors to social security.
In 2052, if retirement age doesn’t change, then people born in 1992 will start taking social security. There are 21.19 million of them.
9.56 million people, providing for 21.19 million. Wow, what a thrilling thought…”
Comments say, “I’ll tell a scary story too—by the time people born in the 90s can start getting social security, retirement age will be pushed back to 70.”
“It can get even more thrilling. It won’t take until 2052. We might run out of social security by 2032, because people born in the 60s and 70s are also taking social security.”
“This can all be solved by massive inflation. That way, we could pay 10K in social security every month no problem. Just look at Russia.”
“I saw a lawyer say that, “The reason the first time you sue for divorce due to domestic violence will always get denied by the judge is because men who are capable of domestic violence and yet unwilling to agree to a divorce usually have a very extremist personality. The judge is protecting themselves in case he tries to get revenge on them. Even if they think it’s a bad idea, they’ll still deny the divorce.”
This teaches us that if women want to survive, they have to get violent too. We’ve all seen plenty of cases where domestic violence is really a matter of life or death. Whether you want to leave or you just want to survive, you have to get violent to survive in this warrior wolf society.”
Comments say, “Someone’s done a study on this—judges are afraid of abusers too. They’re worried about being stabbed.”
“Women are just the tools of society. They’re rather lock you up with a violent person at home and have him just attack you, than to let him out and endanger the rest of society.”
“If women really had a spine, they wouldn’t get married to begin with.”
Under the hashtag #it’s ridiculous to think only people who aren’t working hard enough think 79 RMB for a eyebrow pencil is too expensive, a blogger writes, “I’m at Shanghai. Just went out for a walk after lunch, and saw a construction worker fresh off of his shift nervously picking out some instant noodles for himself. Finally, he got a pack of instant noodles and two sausages, and when he went to the cashier and found out it was 20 RMB, he froze and a look of disbelief crossed his face. The cashier explained that the sausages are 7 RMB each, and he could go look for two that are a little cheaper instead. At that moment, I felt terrible. Some people are working the hardest jobs in the world and can’t afford instant noodles with some sausages, and some people are mocking others for thinking 79 RMB is too expensive for an eyebrow pencil.”
Comments say, “Oh god, that struck me somewhere deep. I think that’s so expensive too.”
“I went with my coworker to Shanghai once, and spent over 30 RMB on a plate of chow mein. I still remember it to this day and complain about it all the time.”
A compilation of people’s comments about what it’s like to go to school in other countries:
“Did a year in Germany—was pretty nice. Two years in Switzerland, very happy. One year in England, fucking terrible, deeply regret my decision.”
“I love Singapore. Every time I video chat my family, they say I’ve gotten prettier. Maybe it’s because it’s just so comfy here—great weather, great environment, I’m in a good mood every day. Although school work is kinda tiring, it doesn’t make you feel despair. I can deal with it. And the food at schools here are really tasty. I even gained a little bit of weight.”
“Don’t get fooled by the happy experiences of homestay students. Homestay students have a nice time no matter where they go. First, you’ve got the study abroad fund from the government to pay for all your expenses, so you never have to worry about money. Second, most schools don’t actually count the grades from the courses you did during homestay, so just like someone else said, it doesn’t even matter if you don’t understand any of the lectures. If you’re actually studying overseas at a school, grades are what’s important. It’s a huge hassle if you can’t understand any of the lectures. Like in Germany, 50% of people taking a class are going to fail. For some courses, it’s 70% failure rate. If you fail the same course three times, you’ll get expelled, and you won’t be able to take any major with this course in it afterwards. Like, if you fail math three times, you can’t do any STEM majors after that. You can only take law or other pure Humanities majors. A lot of homestay students to Europe spend their time travelling the whole continent to not waste their visa, but if you’re actually going to school there, you won’t have time to travel.”
“If you’re a girl, don’t come to Japan. You might get envy if you go study anywhere else abroad, but if you’re in Japan, you’ve got to deal with volcanoes and earthquakes and tsunamis and nuclear radiation and people bullying you for being a traitor to your country and involution and poverty and low school rankings and a patriarchal society where you can’t wear what you want.”
“It’s not too bad in Australia—food and scenery are both really nice. I hope I can stay here.”
“Not bad in Canada either—everyone’s super nice, lots of hiking, not a lot of art, not too many places to shop at, but the studying experience is pretty nice and the courses are all pretty easy. I think it shouldn’t be too hard to get a Master’s Degree and a PR. Downsides are: high cost of living, high real estate prices (in Vancouver in particular), and some Chinese people trying to scam other Chinese people (I don’t recommend getting in touch with any non-student Chinese people here), and don’t come here if you’re majoring in art (unless it’s filmography or movie-related.)”
“Anyone wanting to go to the Netherlands, look over here. First, the courses. I took a Humanities major with lots of reading, but everything’s very interesting. It’s great for people who like to read a lot and sort out all the information and draw mind maps. There’s a ton of little holidays and breaks, but none of them last long. The tests are really frequent in some majors, but for the most part, you’re gonna be working in team project presentations. As for everyday life: the weather is usually pretty dry, with occasional rain showers. I’ve seen rainbows tons of times. There are like three times as many international students in school as locals, so you get lots of cultural communication. Everyone’s really friendly and enthusiastic, haven’t had a problem with racists so far. It’s Hell Mode trying to rent a place, though, and food is also disgusting as hell. Transportation expenses are a lot cheaper than England, America, Canada or Australia. Rent isn’t too bad, and you can apply for subsidies. There’s always all kinds of events going on, and no one ever makes fun of you for your looks or fashion tastes.”
“Just arrived in Australia for a week and manage to make my first local friend with my shittyass English. My main feeling is that I can just be brave and speak English and no one’s gonna make fun of me. You can just tell people that your pronunciation is bad. Also, the sunlight here is so great. But it’s also super windy and cold. Their beaches are beautiful.”
“I’m in happy, free America, just trying to survive each day of my life.”
“Free America, shootings everyday.”
“I’m doing a homestay in Finland—it’s so awesome! Asian women are, like, so popular with European guys, especially a sidekick type like me. I just tag along with people to every event there is. Just went on a weekend tour with a bunch of Germans—they’re so hardcore.”
“No matter where you go, the trick is to not go to the local Chinese international student organisation. Just book some local city tours yourself, go visit some museum, and talk to other people. Otherwise, you’ll end up having a bunch of ridiculous stereotypes about the place before you’ve even known it, and get all nervous because you get warned about racism. I only make friends with locals or other international students, and I’ve had a great experience.”