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Good old days


DarkAnts

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The past wasn't better for women in any way; I really don't understand how fundies don't see that. For one thing, the mortality rate of women in childbirth was ridiculously high. Far too many children died at a very young age, too.

They are all for women having fewer rights. They also have a perverse picture of being a martyr if they die in child birth. I think they assume that they would be wealthy because of the so called prosperity gospels. Someone said it best when they think the tax man is the only thing standing between them and being rich.

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Ambergris is actually whale shit. Just saying.

No...it is actually either or. It is built up bile in the digestive system after a whale eats a squid and either regurgitated or defecated by sperm whales.

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What really gets to me is how they take for granted all the modern conveniences we have. Even something as common as clean, running water really changed people's lives! I didn't realize this until I visited my relatives in China who lived on a farm with only a single faucet which provided ice cold water and was undrinkable. In winter, I couldn't shower or wash my hair unless I went into town. Even getting a drink of water required extra maneuvering as it had to be boiled and then cooled. Going to the bathroom meant tending to business in a pit which smelled like sewage. I can't imagine fundies would appreciate that! The expensive looking outfits fundie women like to pretend to dress up in required extensive effort to maintain, as every aspect had to be hand washed and hand mended. I could go on and on about how it was in the good ol' days but we all know that. Only fundies, with their nostalgia for days gone by when women were property and men worked 14 hour days, would think those days were the golden years of America.

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What really gets to me is how they take for granted all the modern conveniences we have. Even something as common as clean, running water really changed people's lives! I didn't realize this until I visited my relatives in China who lived on a farm with only a single faucet which provided ice cold water and was undrinkable. In winter, I couldn't shower or wash my hair unless I went into town. Even getting a drink of water required extra maneuvering as it had to be boiled and then cooled. Going to the bathroom meant tending to business in a pit which smelled like sewage. I can't imagine fundies would appreciate that! The expensive looking outfits fundie women like to pretend to dress up in required extensive effort to maintain, as every aspect had to be hand washed and hand mended. I could go on and on about how it was in the good ol' days but we all know that. Only fundies, with their nostalgia for days gone by when women were property and men worked 14 hour days, would think those days were the golden years of America.

Not to mention that the streets in the 'good old days' were full of shit, vomit, and any number of other things. People (men and women) used to just pop a squat whenever/wherever they wanted to. It was said that you could smell Paris before you even saw the first spire upon approach. These people want to romanticise the past without actually cracking open a history book to find out what it was really like.

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False nostalgia is a major pet peeve of mine. Though I don't know much about my family history, it is highly probable that my great-great-grandparents were slaves since my grandmother's family is from the South. My parents were born during the Civil Rights era. While racism is still a thing here in the 21st century, it's nowhere near as bad as it would be about 100 years ago.

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If anyone's curious to see a reenactment of these safe, wonderful working lives that children enjoyed, there's a great tv series with Tony Robinson (of Blackadder fame) called, very appropriately 'Worst Jobs Ever'. The series focuses on different eras, eg Tudor, Georgian. I think one of the most awful jobs that he undertook was dollmaker. Not as toxic as other jobs, and there was very little danger of the "will fall off a cliff or be shot" type, but seeing these beautiful dolls and hearing that they were made by poor children for the wealthy made me feel very sad.

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If anyone's curious to see a reenactment of these safe, wonderful working lives that children enjoyed, there's a great tv series with Tony Robinson (of Blackadder fame) called, very appropriately 'Worst Jobs Ever'. The series focuses on different eras, eg Tudor, Georgian. I think one of the most awful jobs that he undertook was dollmaker. Not as toxic as other jobs, and there was very little danger of the "will fall off a cliff or be shot" type, but seeing these beautiful dolls and hearing that they were made by poor children for the wealthy made me feel very sad.

It's still happening. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Indian children and many many more women are laboring every day to makemproducts, including toys, that they will never be able to afford for themselves or their children.

That cute outfit I spend $100 on for my daughter is made by women who every day sew garments that they could never provide for their own daughters, who they often don't see because they are back in the village with their grandma and their mother is working ridiculous hours in horrific conditions to clothe and educate them.

American fundies are, this instant, part of a very privileged minority.

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Not to mention that the streets in the 'good old days' were full of shit, vomit, and any number of other things. People (men and women) used to just pop a squat whenever/wherever they wanted to. It was said that you could smell Paris before you even saw the first spire upon approach. These people want to romanticise the past without actually cracking open a history book to find out what it was really like.

"Gardy-loo!"

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I don't think anyone's romanticising sweatshops. At least I really, really hope not.

It's interesting, though, that in order to avoid supporting these places financially you need to be well off to buy alternatives which are, almost always, far more expensive. I notice it in my own efforts, particularly with grocery shopping. While not strictly a labour issue (although I've no doubt that those producing food in China are subject to woeful workplace conditions), buying locally grown and manufactured food adds a significant amount of money to my grocery bill. Buying ethically sourced meat and seafood adds another layer of expense. Even sewing your own clothes is no longer cheaper than buying from discount stores, and probably no better for sweatshop workers as so much cloth is sourced overseas. That assumes you can sew, can afford a sewing machine and have enough spare time to craft your wardrobe from scratch.

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I don't think anyone's romanticising sweatshops. At least I really, really hope not.

It's interesting, though, that in order to avoid supporting these places financially you need to be well off to buy alternatives which are, almost always, far more expensive. I notice it in my own efforts, particularly with grocery shopping. While not strictly a labour issue (although I've no doubt that those producing food in China are subject to woeful workplace conditions), buying locally grown and manufactured food adds a significant amount of money to my grocery bill. Buying ethically sourced meat and seafood adds another layer of expense. Even sewing your own clothes is no longer cheaper than buying from discount stores, and probably no better for sweatshop workers as so much cloth is sourced overseas. That assumes you can sew, can afford a sewing machine and have enough spare time to craft your wardrobe from scratch.

I know. I didn't mean to sound moralistic, just pointing out that the problem hasn't gone away, just moved.

And as far as manufactured products, here in Australia I have found it not just expensive but impossible to find alternatives that aren't made in China. And I'm not altogether certain that its a good thing to do so. The woman working in a sweatshop is leading a miserable life, but she is allowing her children to get an education and hopefully not have to live the life she does. I do believe that the benefits of international trade do trickle down, and soon China will have a large educated middle class and the centre of sweatshops and exploitation will be Africa, until the people of Africa achieve a certain level of education and standard of living. I have reached personal conviction that I should boycott companies known to use child labor and slave labor but that supporting the desperate women working in third world sweatshops will pay dividends in their children. I wish they all had decent working conditions, but taking away their jobs won't help them achieve them.

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Not at all, I think it's an interesting counterpoint. I wonder if the producers/anyone involved in the series considered that while they were bringing to life the truly awful jobs of previous eras, there are people today who are employed in jobs that are just as, if not worse than the ones featured in the show.

I'm in Australia too and know just how bad it is trying to find ethically sourced clothes. Essentially, it's near impossible unless you're willing to fork out for handmade (again, where is the cloth produced? More than likely China or Pakistan) or pay for organic cotton sacks sewed with love by hippies up in Byron. If you're overweight, if you can't afford a $150, no larger than a 12 shirt, well, you're completely out of luck. I'm not sure I could really form any sort of social attitude toward clothing. Even though I do sew a lot of my own clothes, I know the fabric is often being produced in terrible conditions. Somewhere along the line someone is suffering so I can stay a step ahead of public decency laws.

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If anyone's curious to see a reenactment of these safe, wonderful working lives that children enjoyed, there's a great tv series with Tony Robinson (of Blackadder fame) called, very appropriately 'Worst Jobs Ever'. The series focuses on different eras, eg Tudor, Georgian. I think one of the most awful jobs that he undertook was dollmaker. Not as toxic as other jobs, and there was very little danger of the "will fall off a cliff or be shot" type, but seeing these beautiful dolls and hearing that they were made by poor children for the wealthy made me feel very sad.

Worst Jobs In History. :)

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Just when I was congratulating myself for not mixing up Blackadder and Mr Bean :lol:

Tony did another show and at one point he was watching a girl have brain surgery done. She was awake but hazy for the operation and at one point asked him 'Can I call you Baldrick'? He got a bit weird about it and cracked some joke about how he would have to do something horrible to her if she did. I thought it was kinda funny.

Worst Jobs In History was a great show! I think I will actually watch it again. I just finished watching Gods and Monsters again. He's brilliant.

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