The lesson for anyone who wants to start a community-oriented small business appears to be to avoid any mention of equity or social justice so as not to attract the lunatics. Just pretend to be an abusive boss looking for wageslave employees and then quietly pay them 2x the going rate.
I'm going to be THAT person on the thread, but yes, it is indeed inappropriate (if not illegal) to say something like, "we're hiring Black queers at our coffee shop" UNLESS you can make the case that it is relevant to their job. There are decades of case law that get very specific about what would qualify. https://bit.ly/3PaZQCU
And all the privilege/oppression jargon aside, you cannot discriminate on a protected class regardless who it benefits. This was literally the ENTIRE PLOT OF ON THE BASIS OF SEX.
Update from the workers' Instagram, the community gathering has been called off due to "covid concerns". Quite possible, since one of their complaints was that the promised accommodations for people still at risk of covid was an outdoor patio, which was apparently was not near good enough.
That being said, as a local I think even Portlanders are getting kind of sick of this shit. Covid and then the protests brought out an unprecedented amount of grifting even for this area, along with a drastic increase in a bunch of real problems. I know so many people trying to move because they're just sick of the bullshit and feel genuinely unsafe. And these are all people who absolutely fit a lot of the Portland stereotypes, not even remotely conservative. And I *know* that at least my own tiny Portland lesbian circle is just fully disengaged at this point. If anything, I'm shocked this place managed to open at all, even if just for a day. We have to sneak in sideways through soccer and other sports, directly acknowledging that your clientele are lesbians is a no-no.
On the "let's form a union at our small local business and tank it" aspect of all this: there is a LARP quality to these attempts at unionization, and I truly mean that. There's a sense of people who don't understand labor movements or their strategies trying to start one based on their collective memories. It's the Renfaire equivalent of a union.
For both Mina's World and the lesbian bar, there's a real "dog chasing the car" vibe from the workers. If they ever did gain ownership somehow, the businesses likely wouldn't survive more than a few weeks. The activists have little to no knowledge of how to run a business or the desire to handle the important but mundane details (taxes, permits, supply chain, etc...). Would be interesting to see it play out that way sometime, to see how quickly it implodes.
I went to Hidden Villa's 2 week "Farm & Wilderness" camp back in 1999, which involved a combination of farm work and backpacking run by a bunch of hippies. The F&W camp specifically was for young teenagers IIRC (I was 14 at the time) and for a significant chunk of us there, including myself, it was a way for their parents to get them out of the house. Despite growing up in the liberal Bay Area it was the first time I remember anyone talking about sexual orientation in a non-judgey welcoming way. One of the kids came out as gay at the camp (I wouldn't for another 2 years, but the experience certainly helped.) I don't remember anyone coming out as a they/them, but we're probably at least a decade before they would have started talking about gender identity. They didn't have any of those identity flags strewn about the camp either.
I can honestly say I never even noticed those swastika tiles, nor do I remember anyone noticing or talking about them at all. Given that summer camps rely on older HS and college students that can afford to take a mediocre paying jobs it's not too surprising that they'd end up with the exact sort of entitled emotionally stunted staffers that are incapable of understanding historical context. It's unfortunate cause the camp was a really great experience.
What a delightfully self destructive subculture. Also I'm pretty sure I almost injured myself through eye rolling when I heard the words "Sweat Equity."
Hilarious as usual but speaking as a libertarian, this episode is *especially* noteworthy because Katie uttered those five glorious words so beloved of Koch Foundation development people, er, I mean free market advocates everywhere:
"Go start your own business"
Yes. Yes. Yesssssss. It's only a matter of weeks, if not days. Just one more 1st class flight/fancy hotel stay and she is OURS
Also, Katie finally put her finger on why I like this podcast: it's highbrow libs of tik tok, if you define "highbrow" as "depressed lefties laughing between sobbing about the ouroboros that is the left"
I don't know why, but this episode seemed to be the most hilarious of all. Having to wipe the smile off my face now that I finished listening to it. Well done, guys!
I was recently (early '21) looking for a new job, tired of the bizarre ideological skirmishes at my current workplace. Every single one I applied for spat some DEI quiz at me.
I always stopped applying at that point, realizing I'd just be do-si-doing into another snakepit of identity fetishists. (Though thankfully, I'm only "a gay," so I'm not high on the social capital food pyramid for these creeps--they generally drool over other ID categories these days.)
When I think about the kind of person who *wants* to be fawned over and objectified based on their immutable characteristics, the kind of person who saw those quizzes as anything other than a red flag, I get a sinking feeling.
As a former Asian art curator, and current Asian art auction specialist, I have to say museums have played a pretty significant role in Americans ignorance on the swastika’s significance- not only as a historical symbol but also in its continued living significance. South Asian and Himalayan art in particular are abound with swastikas, but often when deciding what to put on display, there are certain works which sometimes the curator, sometimes their bosses, or sometimes other staff might object to just because of the optics and sensitives of putting something on display like an early Buddhist grey schist footprint of Buddha with swatikas on the heel and every toe. It’s not a conspiracy, just a knee jerk icky reaction that will cause something with “blatant” swastikas to stay in storage. I get into these conversations with friends sometimes when they come to our auction previews and are like omg who would buy that? Turns out, a lot of people! Swastikas are still (and should be) normalized in the majority of the world population
Another great episode, but with regards to the bar and camp - Jesus CHRIST, these fucking CHILDREN! I am looking forward to The Current Madness passing and watching life chew these people up as their whining and self-pity falls out of fashion. Their detestable appropriation of worker’s rights struggles and racial grievances aside, just the horrifically entitled nature of their complaints makes me lose all sympathy for them.
I want to start a troll/spite business to bait a bunch of MIna’s workers into trying an employee takeover. All so I can have a speech and say “I know a lot of you think I’m just some evil businessman…. And you’re right. You’re all fired. Get the fuck out of here.”
The "I've worked here for 5 minutes I should have a share of the business" chimes with a lot of the entitlement you see on Reddit (go to r/legaladvice for people living in a fantasy land of "squatters rights" for having rented a place for a few months).
The lesson for anyone who wants to start a community-oriented small business appears to be to avoid any mention of equity or social justice so as not to attract the lunatics. Just pretend to be an abusive boss looking for wageslave employees and then quietly pay them 2x the going rate.
I'm going to be THAT person on the thread, but yes, it is indeed inappropriate (if not illegal) to say something like, "we're hiring Black queers at our coffee shop" UNLESS you can make the case that it is relevant to their job. There are decades of case law that get very specific about what would qualify. https://bit.ly/3PaZQCU
And all the privilege/oppression jargon aside, you cannot discriminate on a protected class regardless who it benefits. This was literally the ENTIRE PLOT OF ON THE BASIS OF SEX.
Update from the workers' Instagram, the community gathering has been called off due to "covid concerns". Quite possible, since one of their complaints was that the promised accommodations for people still at risk of covid was an outdoor patio, which was apparently was not near good enough.
That being said, as a local I think even Portlanders are getting kind of sick of this shit. Covid and then the protests brought out an unprecedented amount of grifting even for this area, along with a drastic increase in a bunch of real problems. I know so many people trying to move because they're just sick of the bullshit and feel genuinely unsafe. And these are all people who absolutely fit a lot of the Portland stereotypes, not even remotely conservative. And I *know* that at least my own tiny Portland lesbian circle is just fully disengaged at this point. If anything, I'm shocked this place managed to open at all, even if just for a day. We have to sneak in sideways through soccer and other sports, directly acknowledging that your clientele are lesbians is a no-no.
On the "let's form a union at our small local business and tank it" aspect of all this: there is a LARP quality to these attempts at unionization, and I truly mean that. There's a sense of people who don't understand labor movements or their strategies trying to start one based on their collective memories. It's the Renfaire equivalent of a union.
Writing a letter to the ceo of the multi national corporation I work for saying I’m taking over this motherfucker
For both Mina's World and the lesbian bar, there's a real "dog chasing the car" vibe from the workers. If they ever did gain ownership somehow, the businesses likely wouldn't survive more than a few weeks. The activists have little to no knowledge of how to run a business or the desire to handle the important but mundane details (taxes, permits, supply chain, etc...). Would be interesting to see it play out that way sometime, to see how quickly it implodes.
I went to Hidden Villa's 2 week "Farm & Wilderness" camp back in 1999, which involved a combination of farm work and backpacking run by a bunch of hippies. The F&W camp specifically was for young teenagers IIRC (I was 14 at the time) and for a significant chunk of us there, including myself, it was a way for their parents to get them out of the house. Despite growing up in the liberal Bay Area it was the first time I remember anyone talking about sexual orientation in a non-judgey welcoming way. One of the kids came out as gay at the camp (I wouldn't for another 2 years, but the experience certainly helped.) I don't remember anyone coming out as a they/them, but we're probably at least a decade before they would have started talking about gender identity. They didn't have any of those identity flags strewn about the camp either.
I can honestly say I never even noticed those swastika tiles, nor do I remember anyone noticing or talking about them at all. Given that summer camps rely on older HS and college students that can afford to take a mediocre paying jobs it's not too surprising that they'd end up with the exact sort of entitled emotionally stunted staffers that are incapable of understanding historical context. It's unfortunate cause the camp was a really great experience.
What a delightfully self destructive subculture. Also I'm pretty sure I almost injured myself through eye rolling when I heard the words "Sweat Equity."
Hilarious as usual but speaking as a libertarian, this episode is *especially* noteworthy because Katie uttered those five glorious words so beloved of Koch Foundation development people, er, I mean free market advocates everywhere:
"Go start your own business"
Yes. Yes. Yesssssss. It's only a matter of weeks, if not days. Just one more 1st class flight/fancy hotel stay and she is OURS
Also, Katie finally put her finger on why I like this podcast: it's highbrow libs of tik tok, if you define "highbrow" as "depressed lefties laughing between sobbing about the ouroboros that is the left"
I don't know why, but this episode seemed to be the most hilarious of all. Having to wipe the smile off my face now that I finished listening to it. Well done, guys!
I was recently (early '21) looking for a new job, tired of the bizarre ideological skirmishes at my current workplace. Every single one I applied for spat some DEI quiz at me.
I always stopped applying at that point, realizing I'd just be do-si-doing into another snakepit of identity fetishists. (Though thankfully, I'm only "a gay," so I'm not high on the social capital food pyramid for these creeps--they generally drool over other ID categories these days.)
When I think about the kind of person who *wants* to be fawned over and objectified based on their immutable characteristics, the kind of person who saw those quizzes as anything other than a red flag, I get a sinking feeling.
As a former Asian art curator, and current Asian art auction specialist, I have to say museums have played a pretty significant role in Americans ignorance on the swastika’s significance- not only as a historical symbol but also in its continued living significance. South Asian and Himalayan art in particular are abound with swastikas, but often when deciding what to put on display, there are certain works which sometimes the curator, sometimes their bosses, or sometimes other staff might object to just because of the optics and sensitives of putting something on display like an early Buddhist grey schist footprint of Buddha with swatikas on the heel and every toe. It’s not a conspiracy, just a knee jerk icky reaction that will cause something with “blatant” swastikas to stay in storage. I get into these conversations with friends sometimes when they come to our auction previews and are like omg who would buy that? Turns out, a lot of people! Swastikas are still (and should be) normalized in the majority of the world population
Another great episode, but with regards to the bar and camp - Jesus CHRIST, these fucking CHILDREN! I am looking forward to The Current Madness passing and watching life chew these people up as their whining and self-pity falls out of fashion. Their detestable appropriation of worker’s rights struggles and racial grievances aside, just the horrifically entitled nature of their complaints makes me lose all sympathy for them.
I want to start a troll/spite business to bait a bunch of MIna’s workers into trying an employee takeover. All so I can have a speech and say “I know a lot of you think I’m just some evil businessman…. And you’re right. You’re all fired. Get the fuck out of here.”
The "I've worked here for 5 minutes I should have a share of the business" chimes with a lot of the entitlement you see on Reddit (go to r/legaladvice for people living in a fantasy land of "squatters rights" for having rented a place for a few months).