Busting myths about unions on TikTok, parts 2-4.
Plus the musical tastes of dive bar frequenting devil sympathizers.
State of the TikTokcracy
Hi. It’s John.
Listen. Shit’s real bad out there politically, and we need a mass working-class movement to fix it. We can do that. It’s possible. This newsletter makes content to inspire and add to such a movement (in a small but growing way). I intend for it to stick around a while.
The TikTok page is doing a series busting myths about unions that are getting decent reach. Here are the numbers from the last 7 days:
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Here are the Toks with transcripts.
Busting union myths part 2: Unions make everything more expensive.
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Transcript with sources:
Myth Man: unions make everything more expensive. We don't need more infla..
Busta Myth: …ation. Yeah. So wages have been near flat for decades. Union density is at record lows, yet prices and corporate profits are off the charts. What does that tell you?
Myth Man: It's companies?
Busta Myth: Yes. Huge companies price gouge. Pick any name-brand shoe over $100, the workers who make it overseas are paid usually less than $1 an hour, yet the shoes are still expensive. It’s…
Myth Man: It's a huge companies with a boot on my neck….
Busta Myth: Yessssssss
Busting union myths part 3: unions protect lazy workers
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Transcript with sources:
Myth Man: Unions make it impossible to fire bad lazy workers.
Busta Myth: Man of course companies can fire people. Unions just mean you have to have a reason and a process to do it. They can't just fire you at will. And hey man, how lazy is a white-collar manager pulling down six figures for no production?
Busting union myths part 4: Unions are third-party special interest groups
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Transcript:
Myth Man: Unions are outside, third-party, special interest groups.
Busta Myth: My brother in Christ *you* are the union. Unions are nothing but a group of workers using strength in numbers to win back the wealth that they created. United, you bargain. Divided, you are on your own begging for a piece of what you made. How do you think we have billionaires? Nobody earns a billion dollars. They take it because they can.
American healthcare: paying the most to die the soonest
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There’s no transcript for this video, just a hilarious TikTok sound you’ll have to hear for yourself. I would however like to note how hard it was to sell even progressive voters on *actually* passing national healthcare and ending for-profit private insurance. I worked for the Warren campaign in 2020 and can tell you firsthand that throwing this yoke off our back is still a tough sell despite most people’s intense frustration with a hopelessly broken system.
The fun stuff: dive bartender stories
Things in my dive bar that should tell you we don’t make that fancy drink you just ordered.
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No transcript here. Just great music and things in my bar that make sense… for a dive.
Dive bar stories - the musical tastes of people that wear “666” hats.
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Transcript:
The first time I met this dude, I was scared. Okay? Mountain of a man as wide as he is tall. Could probably step through a brick wall and not even notice. Big scary beard. Tats. A friggin’ hat was “666” written across the top. And his name, of course, is Bear.
The bar clears out and it’s just a few of my late-night regulars that I know and him. Now usually this is my favorite part of the night because they know my tastes on the jukebox. We put it on, turn it up, and party. And I'm thinking this dude is going to rain on our parade, at best.
I’m cleaning up the bar, drying glasses, talking to my normal regulars, and this dude gets up and starts heading towards the jukebox. And “I'm like, here we go, man, Panthera marathon. I'm ready for it.”
Boy was I wrong! Because this big bastard, who looks like he could squash my head like a bug puts on SADE. Sade.
He’s got a smile on his face. It's all scrunched up. He's hitting the falsettos. Dancin, Boogiein’. Moving that big honky tonk dump truck.
And it wasn't just one! He put on the whole catalog! This dude with a 666 hat in redneckville, USA *the capital* got me back into Sade. Can’t make this shit up!
Stop me if you've heard this one: There's an old story about a union steward up in Detroit getting a demo of the newest manufacturing robots they were putting in. The company man says, "Good luck getting union dues out of those guys." The union guy answers, "Good luck selling them Cadillacs."