I assure you, the system is rigged, and I came from the plus side, so it’s not like it’s sour grapes or anything. America is rigged, more or less, in my general favor, providing I work within certain parameters. Despite my obvious flaws and handicaps (complete lack of work ethic, little interest in advancement, antagonism toward authority, zero respect for anything, inability to comprehend or observe social norms, failure to ever do anything for 8 hours at a time except sleep) the world is biased toward me, because I have fair skin and multiple degrees (obtained without accruing student debt), speak the language of the culture of power as my first dialect, and hold an inherent belief regarding the value of my own skill set. Even the fact that I was assigned female at birth and only loosely conform to gender expectations doesn’t shut me out because my upper-middle class upbringing has always assured me that I’m totally within my right to say, “My time is extremely valuable, and if you want me to do something that’s not my idea, you’ll have to pay what it’s worth to me.” I know so many people who are more talented than I am, or at least better employees, by an order of magnitude, who have struggled all their lives and worked 10 times harder than I ever did, but weren’t born into my circumstances, and can’t get past the built-in obstacles designed to prevent them from advancing.

So, yeah. A lot of the people who enjoy the benefits of this imbalance actively work to maintain that imbalance even while offering lip service to progress.

Some folks have called the current crisis in the US the last gasp of white male supremacy, but I honestly don’t think the system is designed to break open like that. Things change–sometimes slowly, sometimes in big jumps, and sometimes going backwards for a little bit before they can move ahead again–but the world is built on what’s come before. We never wipe civilization out and start with a blank slate. It’s going to be a while before those cold, gray hands loosen their grip on the reins. You might not see them, but they’re there, and they’re not ready to let go, not until a critical mass of everyone gets woke and forcibly removes them from the driver’s seat.

Hopefully people will appreciate my webcomics in that reality.