Ben Hsu

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Blog · Essay · LGBTQ · Political
The American Nightmare

I watch a lot of horror movies. It's fun because either it's a great movie that intrigues, frightens, and engages me. Or it's a terrible movie and I get the schadenfreude of watching a group of interchangeable idiots blunder into well deserved deaths (bearing in mind I clearly separate the actors from the interchangeable idiot…

Blog · Essay · Nonfiction · Political
Take Stock of Your Stocks

By now I expect you all know me fairly well. You know I'll jump at any chance to point out the failures of late stage capitalism, and normally I would LOVE to tear economic policy a new one over the whole GME (Gamestop Stock) debacle. But something bothers me about the whole situation. Specifically, more…

Blog · Essay · Nonfiction · Political
Me Doth Think The Left Doesn’t Protest Enough

  Wednesday, January 20, 2021 was a huge day for the USA. Sure, there was the whole deal about ousting a mutant Cheeto from public office, but here in Portland, Oregon we also experienced another incident between protestors and federal forces. This was just hours after President Joe Biden was sworn in. Now, there's a…

Blog · Essay · LGBTQ · Political
Fixing Monopoly

I was thinking about the game Monopoly, you know the game that was initially conceived to highlight how terrible capitalism is? I realized that the game has, built into its core ruleset, the idea of universal basic income. Pass go, collect 200 dollars. Well, as a staunch capitalist that believes in real freedom that won't…

Blog · Essay · LGBTQ · Nonfiction · Political
Unslipping the Slippery Slopes

Something's been bothering me about recent attempted coup at the US capital (beyond all the normal anxiety a violent coup causes) and I've finally figured out the problem. Many of the arguments being used against the insurrectionists parallel the arguments the right has repeated used against the minority communities to which I belong. Specifically, I'm…

Blog · Essay · Nonfiction
Symbols Symbolizing Symbolism

Let's talk symbols! They're great aren't they? It's a fast, easy way to convey a lot of information in a tiny bit of space. For example if show the you the '$' symbol you immediately know I'm talking about money. But more specifically you can also infer American money (dollars as opposed to other currencies…