Decline of the western society #2

Oh dear.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12544297/Hundreds-people-identify-DOGS-gather-bark-howl-Germany.html

Hundreds of people who identify as DOGS gather to bark and howl at each other in Germany

Around 1,000 'trans-species' activists met up at the Berlin Potsdamer Platz railway station in the German capital. The group said they do not identify as human beings and instead wish to be recognised as pooches.

Many online weren't impressed with, one local saying: 'Just abandon them in the Siberian tundra and let them survive with their canine instincts.'

H. I. G. C. Kumara*  and R. A. W. D. Jayawardhana (2018). International beauty pageants and the construction of hegemonic images of female beauty.

The research discovered that 68% of titleholders are from peripheral/semi-peripheral countries such as India and Venezuela. Further, the researchers found that the physical features of these non-European titleholders from the peripheral states closely resemble western Caucasian ‘white’ woman, conforming to ideal standards of western feminine beauty. On the other hand, ironically, 95% of branded beauty products are manufactured and distributed by multinational companies
with headquarters in developed countries.

Accordingly, the research concludes that the women chosen as the world’s most beautiful females display core characteristics of ‘stereotypical western feminine beauty standards’ and thereby, resemble a ‘fantasy model of feminine beauty’ conceptualized by a regime of ‘white men’, projecting its economic and political influence on the world stage. The fact that most titleholders are chosen from peripheral/semi-peripheral countries may be driven by a capitalist commercial project in which economies in the world dominant core countries have created a lucrative market for their beauty products in peripheral countries.

The so-called ‘fantasy female body image’ includes being fair, slim, wrinkleless, flawless etc., and these false ideals of body perfection are carried to the world through visual arts, media, science, technological innovations and also literature (Karacan, 2007). ‘Hegemonic beauty deology’ is a ‘myth’ based on the European (AngloSaxon) values. (...) As stated by Veblen (1899-2005) in his Trickle-Down Theory, ‘fashion is practiced in the upper classes and imitated by the lower classes’ and this ideology has been used in the capitalist world order to create markets for different types of beauty products. With the rise of these capitalist economies and globalization many aspects, including female beauty ideals of western culture, have been elated by the rest of the world, hence, the discourse of hegemonic power and core-peripheral dependency provides insight to understand non-European women’s quest for Eurocentric female beauty ideals as standards.

Hegemonic beauty culture has normalised its own values and norms as models and had them imposed on the ‘base’ (southern periphery) in order to maintain their cultural hegemony (Salamini, 2014). Accordingly, the ideals of feminine beauty in European culture, which are created and maintained by the ‘white man’ who enjoys economic, social, cultural and political dominance within the ‘super structure’, have become the universal ideals of ‘female beauty’.

Most mainstream beauty pageants have very strict ideals of beauty, and winners have often been falsely glorifed for their beauty. These events lack “uniqueness” and “specialty” among the contestants who have beenforced to accept an “unrealistic” beauty image which is rather an “unattainable” ideal for most women in the peripheral regions. Use of winners of beauty pageants in promotion campaigns of exclusive beauty care brands or advanced technologies in beauty surgeries, reflects “differentiation of consumption where consumption of disparate sphere becomes intertwined" (Warde, 2005). Additionally, these events are organized in an emotionally satisfying/appealing manner that “distract the consumer from realizing that they are being captivated into an artifcially constructed themed environment and pitched the sale of goods” (Bryman, 1999: p. 380).

It should not be neglected that the titleholders from India and Venezuela have won the titles after 1980s and two underlying factors behind this selection can be observed. First, both countries have opened their economies after the 1980s based on neo-liberal ideologies and consequently multinational companies manufacturing exclusive brands of beauty products entered the territorial boundaries of these countries. As a part of expanding their markets in these countries, these companies have promoted and sponsored beauty pageants within the country and worldwide. (...) Second, a link between the size of human population in these developing countries and the selection of titleholders can be established. For example, countries such as India, Brazil, Venezuela and Nigeria represented by a major international beauty pageant’s titleholders are the top world ranking countries in population size (see Table 2); that is, both neo-liberal free trade economic policies of these countries and their population size have become a hidden criterion in the selection of titleholders from these southern peripheral countries.

Summarized translation from Vietnamese

https://nongnghiep.vn/khi-giao-vien-hoa-ky-di-lam-them-d363388.html

One-sixth of American teachers have to take an additional job. In 2022, it is said that 17% of USA teachers need another jobs to increase the income.

Teacher is a toilsome career. Teachers have to bring the office work to their home after working hours. They have to work more than what is stated in the contract. University lecturers are the same. Although it is not like they will be paid more for that overtime working.

Teacher salary is low. People said that their salary is just a joke. National Center for Education Statistics NCES announces that 300000 high school teachers in USA dropped their job during the period of 2020 to 2022, at the time of Covid-19.

The Teacher Association of America, represented 3 millions teachers, upload a guideline article listing 50 additional job to increase the teacher's income, including tutoring. However, teachers can't tutor the students in their class or in their school, it is considered a conflict of interests. Popular additional jobs for teachers including online tutoring English for Chinese kids, extracuriccular activities counseling.

There is also manual labour such as babysitting, pet-sitting, dog walking, domestic work. And shipper, food delivery, grass mowing. That's right. You do not hear it wrong. These are the jobs that USA teachers are willing to do.

They can rent a part of their house for people in need. Or they can sell the unused, old stuff in their house. Garage sale is an interesting activities in North America.

In conclusion, USA teachers do not have high living standard as many believe. Sometime they have to do the jobs that other people never think of from the beginning.

“GDP may be doing great, but people are dying in increasing numbers, especially less-educated people,” Anne Case said, “A lot of the increasing prosperity is going to the well-educated elites. It is not going to typical working people.”

The mortality gap widened explosively during the pandemic, according to the paper.Both COVID-19 deaths and deaths of despair were more common among people without college degrees, who were more likely to work in public-facing jobs, use public transportation, and live in crowded quarters.

“People with BAs have Zoom. People without BAs don’t have Zoom; they have to go to work,” Deaton said.

Europa, a Girl from West Asia, Raped Again by an American Bull, by Pepe Escobar for Strategic Culture Foundation. 10.02.2023.

We may always dream that following an Ariadne’s thread we might, just might, extricate ourselves from the current, incandescent geopolitical labyrinth by applying an exceedingly overhyped commodity: logic.

Yet the post-everything, cancel culture West has also cancelled logic.

When in doubt, at least we can go back to foundation myths.

So let’s go back to the birth of the West, as in Europe.

Legend tells us that one fine day Zeus happened to set his roving eye on a beautiful girl with big, bright eyes, a daughter from a thalassocratic civilization in the Levant: Europa.

A while later, on a pristine beach in the Phoenician coast, an extraordinary white bull showed up. Europa, intrigued, got closer and started to caress the bull; of course, that was Zeus in disguise. The bull duly annexed Europa and darted towards the sea.

Zeus had three sons with Europa — and left her a spear that never missed its target. One of these sons,
as we all know, was Minos, who built a labyrinth.

But most of all what legend taught us was that the West was born out of a girl – Europa – who came from the East.

Enter the toxic Medusa

Now cue to a trashy Medusa maneuvering her toxic tentacles in Brussels, using a self-congratulatory Atlanticist fest to praise the head of the Japanese government for supporting the neo-nazi gang in Kiev and fighting Russia.

That was the preamble for a linguistic twist from hell: “Russia threatens to use nuclear weapons again”. That blamed Russia, by implication, for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, when the whole planet knows who did it.

Astonishing lying is the Medusa’s standard modus operandi: yet what’s even more startling is that this Eurotrash stock in trade is fully normalized. And of course merrily accepted by the Rising Sun neo-colony.

This is how History is now being taught in “elite” universities across the collective West. And this is also the reason why Russia has given up on finding even minimally qualified interlocutors across the collective West.

And it gets worse. Such emanations from a cultural swamp are supposed to represent “Europe”. We are light years away from the late, great Gianni Vatimo – one of the last towering European intellects, who proposed several nuances of compassionate nihilism and an understanding of politics as forms of consensus that communities deliver inside historical and cultural horizons.

The abuse of Europe is never-ending. In geoeconomics, German industrial exports – which were a key factor in its positive balance of payments – are going down the drain. Germany and assorted EU nations are now dependent on ultra-costly American LNG.

An enslaved EU was forced by the American “ally” to simply give up on the Russian market for its own auto and other exports that paid for cheap energy imports. In a matter of months, balanced trade Looking East was turned into deficit trade with the Hegemon.

That is the key legacy of the tactical victory obtained by the Hegemon with the bombing of Nord Stream 1 and 2 – exactly a year ago.

Seymour Hersh’s sources inside the U.S. Deep State revealed who did it. The whole Global Majority with an IQ over room temperature knows who did it – and who ordered it. And still the current Straussian neo-con psychos controlling U.S. foreign policy are able to get away with it.

The bombing of the Nord Streams was the Rape of Europe Remixed – now performed by an American bull.

As the indispensable Michael Hudson has detailed, domestic budgets of Germany and other EU/NATO nations are already in deficit territory – with the added “incentive” of the non-stop militarization of the EU.

That will “force cutbacks in domestic government programs – just as Germany and its NATO neighbors are moving into a post-industrial depression in which families and businesses need subsidies to cover their rising heating and energy costs, and unemployment insurance.”

Moreover, the euro will continue to plunge against the U.S. dollar, and may soon fall to 90 cents, or lower.

Prof. Hudson’s conclusion is stark: “So what seemed to be a U.S./NATO war against Russia in Ukraine has been a stunning U.S. military victory to lock European NATO members into the U.S. orbit and block their plan to turn East for trade and investment with Russia and China.”

Enjoy the “laboratory for military innovation”

Meanwhile, the Hegemon is making a killing – literally – with its proxy war in Ukraine.

The basics: over half of agro-Ukraine is now owned by Monsanto, Cargill and Dupont, bought for a pittance and profiting from the most corrupt environment in any country in the world.

Ukraine seeds were destroyed: Monsanto now runs the whole GMO racket. Ukraine cereals going to raped Europa equal full control of the EU’s agriculture and food market.

On the military front, the U.S. weapons matrix and its satellites continue to profit immensely from what is in effect money laundering of public funds. Ukraine simultaneously became:

1. The graveyard for outdated weapons in need of recycling.
2. A privileged “laboratory for military innovation” (like Afghanistan and Iraq, previously) – as admitted by the Pentagon’s number two, Mara Carlin, at the Ronald Reagan University.
3. A show room for global exports (well, Abrams tanks about to be incinerated by the Russians don’t exactly qualify as a strong selling point).

On the energy front, it’s all about the Nord Streams, all over again. The remixed Rape of Europa comes complete with ancillary financial bulls BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street totally controlling the spot market for anything the EU wants to buy, with prices occasionally 20 times higher than before.

This is just the short version of what “helping Ukraine” is really about.

And still the wunderwaffen keep coming: F16s are next in line.

Andrei Martyanov summed it all up, concisely: “The combined West failed at war”. As in NATO’s utter humiliation will be cosmic. And that comes with a – possible – punchline – for which obviously one cannot have direct confirmation in the corridors of power in Moscow: “Russians did plan for that, they just couldn’t anticipate that the West would self-annihilate itself that fast”.

It’s firmly established that in the Kremlin’s strategy the ultimate aim is to demilitarize and smash NATO. We’re getting there, slowly but surely. What is already established is that the Serial Rape of Europa by the American bull has totally broken it – physically, economically, culturally and psychologically.

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/europa-a-girl-from-west-asia-raped-again-by-an-american-bull/