I have a close friend that I’ve known 20 years who became obsessed with right-wing politics. even though I’m liberal, I don’t make it my entire personality and life. But anyway… I was talking to him this morning casually like friends do.
Me: “Hey man. Do you have off today for MLK day?” Friend: “No, I have to work today.” Me: “Damn, sorry to hear. I have off today since it’s a company holiday.” Friend: “Yeah, I work for a living. Guess that’s the difference me and people who live in an ivory tower.” Me: “Uhh I work for a living too. Idk why you’re acting like I don’t?” Friend: “I didn’t mean you specifically. But you’re off and I’m not so it shows that you get to relax at least. You should be able to handle the truth lol. There’s no shame in admitting that I’m a harder worker than everyone else. you shouldn’t be so sensitive”
Honestly, he’s not unique, either. I’ve met so many people who are conservative, obsessed with right-wing stuff, and they’re all like this. They act like they’re special and the whole world is lazy, “no one wants to work anymore” attitude.
Friend doesn’t get a day off, complains about the “ivory tower” of those that get a holiday, instead of blaming his boss and/or company for being a souless machine grinding his bones to dust for 3 extra pennies that quarter.
Then proceeds to vote for the side that’s telling them they’re not working hard enough.
Let’s trade in some billionaires for more holidays.
It’s not “why are they like this?” but rather “who has made them like this?”
Who has a vested interest in creating a generation of people who take a perverse personal pride in working themselves to death so somebody else can get rich? Hmm, tough one…
I wouldn’t even mind if the ultra rich were doing something with that money, but they just hoard it. Elon Musk could have a giant fortress in the shape of a skull, but instead he just goes home and cheats at videogames. I can do that for next to nothing!
The people who did it are the same wealthy anti-progressive, anti-New Dealers who hated how the government did so many programs that didn’t just work, but worked brilliantly. I need to mention that not all New Deal programs survived, but most of the ones that were cut were done so due to early concerted opposition to them and nothing organic.
No joke, it is a combination of old ideas and opposition to new ideas.
I notice that those enamoured by the right are-- there is no other way to put it-- insecure. We all got insecurities, but I think the right has managed to tap that and groom them.
The thing with this attitude of feeling special that they work excessively is precisely the right has groomed them to be part of something bigger. And humans, but not all, naturally yearn for social acceptance and wanting to be part of something big. These folks feel that their contribution counts for something. The right has tapped that feeling, but for sinister purpose unfortunately. In the case of your friend, it just so happens that a fake wannabe right wing university, which shall not be named, has a video imploring viewers that work is good and that it is the ultimate goal. It makes you feel special. No buddy, the only person who you make feel special is yourself for grooming individuals to be mindless workers who will not question longer hours with no extra pay.
Tranalation: “Work Will Set You Free” written above the entrance to Auschwitz.
Haha funny thing about that is one of the most right wing ppl I know only talks about his small pecker and how he cream pies his wife.
He also has threatened to assualt me twice because he thought I kissed him in the ear.
I’m not even gay and I have a son.
Idk man. I stay away from those people now.
They’re sad insecure people who try to find self worth by looking down on others, which is hard work for a bottom feeder
Yeah I have a friend that does this too. They try to do it to me and I’m just like … I don’t care working is fucking annoying and jobs suck. I just do it to fuck with them but it always blows their damn mind lol.
The funniest thing about conservatives is how they’ll complain the left are a bunch of snowflakes, but you say a single word like trans and they’ll probably explode into a million pieces because you said a bad word that scares them.
I was reading a standard celebrity obituary article the other day. It was an actor nobody really remembers and it mentioned his family and the shows he was on.
In the comments someone said something like:
I don’t know why you had to mention his husband!!! Why does everything have to be so woke?
Sure, pal, if he had married a woman, everything would be ok, but since he had a husband, we need to pretend that he doesn’t exist around you so you don’t feel icky?
Earl Holliman?
Doesn’t sound familiar, but maybe.
I just googled “news dead gay actor” and he did episode 1 of The Twilight Zone, which is a pretty notable resume item. He died a month back unfortunately.
Mentioned COVID tests around my dad cause my brother was going to see my Aunt sick with an aggressive cancer. He exploded about how COVID is fake and the Flu will kill her too… Shes sick with cancer, dude… Shut the fuck up…
If I’m honest, I think your dad’s logic is sound:
Whether or not your brother has COVID is immaterial to the fact that he has an illness that is likely contagious and is still planning to visit your compromised aunt.
If she’s ill enough that any illness could tip the scales for her, then it doesn’t matter which illness. The real question is why the hell is your brother considering visiting at all.Not that you’re wrong for asking that, it’s just that your question is superseded by a question that it seems your dad forgot to think about while contradicting you.
Edit: Scratch that. I can’t do words good sometimes.
I re-read your comment. I misunderstood part of your comment. I thought you were saying your brother is visiting your aunt sick, who has cancer. But your aunt is sick with cancer. My whole comment is predicated on a scenario that isn’t happening.Except they were possibly exposed to it. So you know.
Ooh. Yeah. Possible exposure. Definitely grounds for testing.
Lol this same person once told me that he doesn’t support LGBT or Black lives matter or any of that because he doesn’t agree with those communities and thinks that they are hateful
Have you ever considered that your buddy just might be a fucking idiot?
They are hateful of him. And should be.
Sometimes I’m struck by the way that framing impacts a situation. To many people feeling that a minority group is hateful is a legitimate reason for them to oppose our rights, and the response so often is (rightfully and accurately) that that group isn’t or that it’s ridiculous to imply that they’re hateful. It was even my gut response to say that as a white person who’s protested with black lives matter I was treated as one of them.
But the framing is wrong. Even if every blm protestor is a belligerent asshole, does that mean that the facts of american policing aren’t still horrifying? If every gay person was an annoying jerk why would that have any away in whether you should be allowed to discriminate against us for being gay? If trans people were all unpleasant, why would that matter for our right to live as we please and to be seen and recognized as the genders we live as?
Because while you can probably find people in each group who argues the majority should have less rights or should suffer as we have, they’re a small and powerless contingent. Majority rights have never been on the table, except when necessary to further oppress the minority (such as the right of cisgender girls to compete in athletics without genital examinations).
It’s cause they never know what trans people are packing, and a penis scares them more than a gun.
I love telling transphobes that they’re only mad because the ladies’ dick’s are bigger than theirs.
They want to secretely fuck trans people, that’s why.
I guarantee he is projecting how little he works on others. Every accusation these people make is a confession.
And yes, even the “why do you have to make it your entire personality?” is projection. As much of a cult as maggots are, I think the only real difference is trump is too stupid to use the usual double speak politicians were using before and the base that always was out for blood ate it up. He also gave them phrases and symbols to plaster over all their stuff.
Yet they will claim someone having a single pride sticker on their car or flag outside their house is “shoving it in their face” while they drive down the road with a 2 or more flags I their car, along with countless number stickers, and a house covered in at least a half dozen flags and signs.
And no, I’m not exaggerating. I see these trucks (always a shitty truck) and houses regularly where I currently live, and I’m fleeing in a month as I’m queer and one of their targets.
If you’ve known him for 20 years he should respect you enough that you can tell him he’s being a cunt. Coming from you it should mean something, and maybe he’ll take a look at himself. I’m friends with some right wingers who are decent people but folks like that need to be called out.
I’m friends with some right wingers who are decent people.
?
“right wingers” or “decent people”
Choose one, because they are mutually exclusive.
You can still be charismatic, a good neighbor, someone who stands up for friends when things start getting rough, a caring person that worries about those around them, and still hold the most batshit insane political ideas. I happen to know multiple people like this.
People are complex, and plenty are good people who have been led to believe the most outlandish shit. They are gullible and don’t put enough thought into what they accept as truth. It is just as attractive to people on our side of the fence to paint everyone else with broad assumptions. It is the nature of Evil, because evil is ultimately a boring thing that we all do every day without thinking about it.
I think the difference is between our definitions of “decent people”, because I don’t think a person gets to be called “decent” simply because they can be nice, pleasant, thoughtful, or helpful to only the people who abide by their personal world views while actively trying to make life worse for people who don’t meet their bigoted qualifications.
Yeah, they can sure seem like “decent people” if you’re not on the receiving end of their bigoted ire.
It’s not even that they only accept people that abide by their views - it’s just that they are oblivious to those outside the scope of their lives. They are not people who hate immigrants or other minorities, they’re people who never interact with minorities at all and so get no pushback when they just passively accept the idea that they are stealing all the jobs in the US. They don’t know any trans people and so when they hear that trans people are groomers, they just go “that’s horrible! Someone should do something about that”.
We need to remember that these people are a large portion of half the US we constantly have to fight against. They’re not all just a hateful swarm, there’s variety within that mass. They’re our relatives and our neighbors. A large amount of these people are really just insanely gullible and don’t see past their own noses. That gullibility is a mark on their quality, yes. They can still be decent human beings, despite that. They can also be corrected if you get them to understand, which I’ve done before. Many others have done the same.
This attitude makes liberals lose elections.
Of course there are decent people on “the right”. What would you call them if theoretically, they voted for what you want? Would they still be terrible people, just voted correctly?
What exactly is the logic of your comment? The attitude of people judging right wingers based on their own actions makes “liberals lose* elections”? Where exactly is the information you’re basing this on? Your gut feeling? None of what you said made any sense.
The actions of voting for people who want to remove people’s rights. The actions of supporting a rapist convicted felon liar. The actions of spreading lies that cost people their lives. The actions of spreading hate towards LGBTQ+ people and anyone who is not willing to be a bigot towards them too, like library workers who get so many death threats they have to leave their job and town. All of these of their own actions are what makes them no longer decent* people, not the label itself. Their hateful, disgusting actions.
How does that exactly cause liberals to lose elections?
People who are willing to do and/or support any or all of the aforementioned behaviors had already made up their mind on who they would vote for. When logic and reason was never even involved in their decision in the first place, then logic and reason is not going to magically start working suddenly.
You’re judging people based on some flaky righty-lefty dogma that attempts to put people in teams. Stop doing that, and think a bit more logically. People have a million different reasons for thinking a certain way about different subjects, and they might still be kind people. Of the top of my head, i remember the pair of guys who let Borat stay with them. They had the most insane ideas about politics that i’ve ever heard. But they let a random “immigrant” stay in their house, and didn’t utter a single word of complaint. So you’d think they are pretty tolerant. Much more tolerant than a lot of people who vote left that i’ve mer. Those are the kind people that you lose to the other side. Especially when you call them evil, or whatever you think they might be.
My gut feeling? You did lose the election. Are you not living in the same world I am? You have lost touch with what people want and prioritize.
Judge people on action, but don’t fucking label half your country as evil. Many of them have been spoonfed lies like religion since birth.
Judge people on action, but don’t fucking label half your country as evil. Many of them have been spoonfed lies like religion since birth.
Can we skip right to the part where we show them films of the atrocities they voted for (precursors for many of which area already in today’s headlines) or do we have to wait for all those atrocities to happen first?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5307007/Clip-shows-Germans-walk-Nazi-camp-WW2.html
There you go again. Nazis. This isn’t the same. Find a new angle, because whatever is going on in the US isn’t working.
1932 was a pivotal year in the Nazis’ ascent. It’s a terrifying parallel for today
Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies
Here’s the list from that second article. Article goes into detail for each.
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Neither was elected by a majority. (not relevant now this was 2019 - but if you are trying to pick these apart one by one instead of looking at the picture they paint, you are still doing it wrong)
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Both found direct communication channels to their base.
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Both blame others and divide on racial lines.
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Both relentlessly demonize opponents.
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They unceasingly attack objective truth.
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They relentlessly attack mainstream media.
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Their attacks on truth include science.
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Their lies blur reality–and supporters spread them.
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Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status.
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They embrace extreme nationalism.
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Both made closing borders a centerpiece.
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They embraced mass detention and deportations.
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Both used borders to protect selected industries.
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They cemented their rule by enriching elites.
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Both rejected international norms.
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They attack domestic democratic processes.
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Both attack the judiciary and rule of law.
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Both glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.
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They proclaim unchecked power.
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Both relegate women to subordinate roles.
Though if you can’t see it for yourself by now you aren’t paying attention or don’t want to see it.
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You’re judging people based on some flaky righty-lefty dogma that attempts to put people in teams.
Judge people on actionI literally listed actions of individuals. I did previously also very clearly provide logic explaining how the right has defined their party as “all or nothing” themselves. If you don’t want to be a part of a party that wants that, then don’t support that party.
Additionally, you’re the one spouting brainless “left bad” nonsense without anything to back it up:
Much more tolerant than a lot of people who vote left that i’ve mer.
Then you’re trying to put words in my mouth:
Especially when you call them evil, or whatever you think they might be.
don’t fucking label half your country as evil.I never even said the word “evil”. I think you just outed yourself.
My gut feeling? You did lose the election. Are you not living in the same world I am? You have lost touch with what people want and prioritize.
I never said anything about not losing “the election” (Note how that’s different from “elections” like you said earlier. Now you’re shifting the goalpost). I was specifically asking about your claims for the cause of lost “elections” (again, different from “the election”). You made a very specific claim about the cause of lost elections, and you also said “elections” which claims like these need backing data and information, otherwise you’re talking out of your ass.
But again, it seems you’ve outlined the disconnect there in that you’ve decided to live in a different world where you get to choose what I said and what I meant. Good luck in that little world of yours, kiddo. Keep me out of it.
“right wingers” or “decent people”. Choose one, because they are mutually exclusive.
Your words. Literally. Stop labeling people.
It must be exhausting and lonely seeing the world in black and white.
Must be nice to be able to not be a subject of people’s bigotry and think that people who are actively trying to remove other people’s rights and even have a hand in causing people’s deaths could be considered “decent people”.
Considering you immediately turned on me for having a different opinion on who could be considered “decent people”, you are likely to be similar to them in their lack of empathy towards people who are different. Maybe you’re not exactly the most qualified person to determine who is “decent people”.
But please, prove me wrong and show me that empathy you seem to have for your so-called “decent people”. I’d suggest starting with treating me like a person and asking “why do you feel that way?” instead of spewing negative comments towards me.
Those mental gymnastics you perform daily to justify being friends with hateful morons must be twice as exhausting.
Apparently you project your toxicity onto the decent (eventhough you’re a leftist) Nuance is clearly, not your forte
I can’t think of a single Conservative social talking point that would make them good people. You have to remember these are the same people who want to ban abortion, gay marriage, remove rights from minorities, and have ‘in’ and ‘out’ crowds. There’s no ‘good people’ there. They may perform good actions, sure, but their belief system is entirely about stagnation and dogma.
Left aren’t any better, they have stallin apologists for one, in your quest to “give rights to minorities” you end up marginalizing the majority for two & three your open border policy causes massive economic damage
Plus I am talking about those said good actions, also there’s a world outside of politics
You’re a naive fool if you think democrats have an “open border policy”. Go talk to your right wing business owners and suggest that if we really wanted to stop illegal immigration, we would jail business owners who hire them. Surprise surprise, those right wing owners exploit these people but don’t really want to stop any illegal immigration.
Funny because, those right wing business owners never said that They would rather employ their own people, rather than those immigrants
You’re talking about corporations, who don’t really have any political affiliation & try to suck up to anyone who is currently in charge
Again you assume all right-winger are the same, People are very nuanced & it’s naive to go “Leftists = bad & Rightists = scumbags”
I imagine this is the kind of nonsense political take one develops when they go through life only skimming a few grade school social studies textbooks and actively disregarding all other reality or thought.
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Those are called tankies and nobody likes them. Especially those of us on the left.
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“Marginalizing the majority”. Yeah, because white Americans are so marginalized with their hegemonic control over the state and capital.
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Oh, no! The economy is tanking because Juan from Chiapas got a job picking oranges for a Dole contractor in California for less than federal minimum wage because his shitbird boss pays him under the table. Do you know how fucking stupid that sounds?
No, there is no world outside of politics. The personal is political. Choosing to associate with ignorant bigots says more about your values than any half-cocked appeal to moderation.
What hedgemonic control ? People have been losing jobs left & right
The right knows how to mask their hatred when it counts, while the left is busy virtue-signaling, Anyone half-intelligent will use whatever tools effective & honestly so will
Rightist policy of exclusion is pretty good you know, I want to exclude capitalists from society for e.g
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noooo you HAVE to enforce borders with violence!!! How else will you keep out all the cretins from nations whose infrastructure you’ve destroyed and resources you’ve plundered!!! You can’t possibly take care of all those people, think of tHe EcOnOmY!!!
hahaha that’s so funny guy you really think this is a normal and well adjusted view of the world. Those scare quotes around uplifting minorities is a cherry on top. You’re so devoid of empathy you can’t even fucking imagine a world of people that actually care about each other for the sake of their humanity.
I’ll take a “stallin apologist” over a capitalist that cares more about his stocks than his fellow man. Any fucking day of the week.
I do care about empathy, just not for people who keep saying “Right wing bad, Left wing good” When have you actually done something for the working class ??
Oh & reminder Stallin apologists are class traitors, if these are the people you’d chose then you are basically killing your own movement you’re too busy marginalizing the majority, which can be turned to your side
marginalizing the majority
Oh & reminder Stallin apologists are class traitors.
Who told you that? The American capitalist class? You really trust what they have to say about the leader of a socialist country they were trying to justify a war with, and prevent their own working class from getting any ideas, at all costs?
I invite you to challenge all beliefs that have been formed under a state which finds itself threatened by socialist revolution.
You went pretty quickly into insulting me simply because I don’t agree that hateful bigots should be considered “decent people”.
You’ve shown plenty of evidence that you are not qualified to determine who are “decent people” and who is “toxic”. Seems I was able to determine the toxic nuance embedded in your comment just fine.
Yeah when you go Leftist good, Rightist bad, well let’s say that, that kind of dumb thinking is what makes you lose strength in the eyes of apolitical people & invites trouble , the world of politics is too murky for you behave like that
Oh & as for rudeness, you’re the very definition of hateful since you cannot compartmentalize, You have made your politics into your entire identity & as for rooting out things; Leftists have been losing a lot of potential recruits lately haven’t they (you couldn’t root out your own toxicity)
I’m “hateful” because I disagree that people who support a literal felon rapist get to be called “decent”?
It’s clear you’re just a troll, because you don’t even make an attempt at logic and immediately jump to insults to try to disguise that. Your post history proves that you desire downvotes like it somehow validates your pathetic child behavior.
The right has shown time and time again that they specifically want to define the entire party as “all or nothing” and we can only accept that as truth. Yet, when people treat them that way we are making things black-and-white, “Leftist good, Rightist bad”.
You can’t hide your true face, troll.
Where I’m from calling someone a cunt is term of endearment.
In North America it’s like domestic violence in a word. Cunt doesn’t really have a positive connotation here.
More seriously in the U.K. it matters whether the people you’re talking to are posh or working class, and also context.
To be fair though, I think it’s a sexist term, and I shouldn’t have said it.
You’ve got it backwards. Toxic and aggressive people become conservatives (in Anglo countries) because it serves them emotionally.
Occasionally one is too queer to successfully do that, and have to find an alternate outlet, like stanning for North Korea or something.
idk, I know a gay conservative. Extremely stupid and selfish. He’s not even “normal gay” or whatever. He’s like some caricature out of a 90’s sitcom. Him and his boyfriend have the most toxic, untrusting relationship. I avoid him as much as possible.
Hate, insecurity, intolerance, and ignorance are the foundation of their ideology. I’m not proud of myself at all for this, but I got sucked into the pipeline when I was a young teen. However I am proud to say that I did fortunately manage to pull myself out of it and I’m now a socialist.
While I hate that I got sucked in, it does give me a lot of insight into why they are the way they are. They start by targeting common insecurities which they use to lure people in, and then they feed them lies while appealing to those insecurities. For example, I remember being a lonely teen and watching mgtow 🤮 videos and the gist of the videos was that if you joined their “movement” that you would get laid all the time, and of course that video was ridden with a shitload of misogyny and lies. Then from there it snowballs into more and more hatred and lies.
Conservatives are just sad, narcissistic losers who are incapable of understanding that people need to lift each other up rather than putting each other down. That’s why conservatives like to brag, because they think putting others down is how they get lifted up.
Being knowledgeable is a good defence against their tactics since their lies become obvious and it quickly becomes evident that they are fools.
The secret sauce at fox news is flattering dumb people, telling them they are smart. Smarter than those woke professors, doctors, scientists. “Youre a free thinker, you see right through the deep state lies, you know the real deal and dont fall for their propaganda…etc.” If you can flatter a moron into thinking they are smart, you can literally program them like a manchurian candidate or robot.
Yall are in the best position to deradicalize them. And while it wasn’t good you got sulked in, they were actively targeting people like you to suck you in
its the propaganda they ingest. they are constantly told that everyone brown or poor does nothing but live off the government teat. constantly . despite this being demonstrably not true.
This one sounds more like the “real man” propaganda.
A real man behaves a certain way and can only wear certain clothes and do certain jobs and is respected by women.
They refer to themselves as “Real America” so it’s pretty much right there in the open.
you shouldn’t be so sensitive
Imagine being so sensitive that someone else having a day off sends you into a insecure tirade about how hard you work. Ditch that loser. Life is too short.
Typical conservative reply: it’s your fault you’re offended that I was an asshole.
Reminds me of this dipshit I saw in a Starbucks once wearing one of those anti-welfare t shirts. He spent a good 20 minutes bragging to this poor young woman working the counter about how hard of a worker he is and that people on welfare are parasites.
When she asked him what he did, he sheepishly responded that he did a few hours a week of per diem work at UPS. She just rolled her eyes and asked him if he needed anything in that “buy something or get fuck out” tone.
After he left, she started talking to another employee about how much of a tool he was. The other coworker responded that he pulls this goofy anti-welfare ranting shit to try and impress new girls and that he actually lives with his parents and collects state aid himself.
The conservative people that run my job think they’re funny or something. We get a the standard holidays off but if the 4th of July or whatever falls near a weekend they’ll swap another holiday to make it a 4 day weekend.
The only holidays they “trade away” are MLK day and Juneteenth… Funny that.
Ray Cesum
Ray sees 'em.
Same, though I’ve never had Juneteenth off (AT best there’s a Juneteenth BBQ that… no one but management gets to attend because we don’t have to day off to do so) and we traded MLK Day away for… I think Black Friday? I don’t remember… I just know that I work on it.
