272

Quit
Posted on February 5, 2022 by David M Willis

272 thoughts on “Quit”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “YOU DON’T GET TO BE A LITTLE SHIT IF I CAN’T BE A BIG SHIT”

    wait no

    1. Needfuldoer

      “Tough shit!”

      1. Decidedly Orthogonal

        No shit!

        1. SylntSyco

          Oh shit.

        2. Ana Chronistic

          I was trying to work out, “You can’t just dump your shit if I have to make my shit work!” but idk

    2. Deanatay

      Shit-ling rivalry? No.

      Soul shit-sters? No.

      Shit is thicker than water? Maybe…

      1. milu

        if your shit isn’t thicker than water, be worried.

      2. Jungle Dwayne

        One of my… how to put it… bathroom performances this week says otherwise.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          This is why we don’t raid Nana’s medicine drawer for snacks.

  2. Doctor_Who

    Zoomr driver: total silence.

    Five stars!

    1. Thag Simmons

      Look he’s not getting paid enough to care.

      1. Clif

        The driver has engaged the self-drive system and has gone to sleep. He doesn’t know a semi driver going the opposite direction has done the same thing.

        1. milu

          Soon, the inevitable happens: they pass each other by.

        2. nothri

          Alas never to know that they were one another’s soul mates. Like two ships passing alone in the night…except its smart cars.

        3. Decidedly Orthogonal

          SmartCars, or smart … cars?

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      They better tip that guy too for putting up with this bickering.

      1. vlademir1

        They better tip well for the service to begin with, and then tip extra for having to listen to their shit for two hours.
        This is already going to be around a $300+ (gross) trip for the driver, and at least $400+ out of pocket for Sarah (estimated on what I can find about how much Uber pays it’s drivers for both time and miles and how much they on average charge beyond that). Give the guy an extra $50 to $60 for that as a base tip for the trouble of driving so far, then give him about as much again for having to listen to your asses all the way there.

        1. milu

          Sarah isn’t paying for this, Carla’s corporate account is

        2. Decidedly Orthogonal

          That doesn’t absolve one from tipping decently.

          Argyle in Die Hard knew the way, “just remember that when you sign for the tip.”

        3. Delicious Taffy

          I would assume any tip is also coming from Carla’s corporate account, considering the express reason Sarah’s not paying for the ride is that she can’t afford something so extravagant.

    3. Deanatay

      “Just keep yer mouth shut, it’s only for another hour. That shit ain’t worth putting your foot into, not for what you’re getting paid. Just focus on the road, hope they don’t notice you…”

      1. StClair

        god, this, so much.

  3. Sirksome

    Geez it must be a long way to Muncie.

    1. Doctor_Who

      2 hours 14 minutes, from U of I to Ball State, apparently.

      So Joyce was pretty much correct, 4 hour trip.

    2. Thag Simmons

      Two-and-a-half hours according to google maps. Which ain’t that long but it’s long enough for some awkward arguments.

    3. Needfuldoer

      It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.

    4. Some Ed

      I remember people complaining about how much of that trip was on Indiana “highways” rather than Interstate highways. But looking on google maps, I’m not understanding why they didn’t just take I-69. I remember seeing I-69 back when I was going to a different college in Indiana, and thus needing to drive through or around Indianapolis.

  4. The Wellerman

    ? Okay, I’m not touching this one with a 10 foot pole.

    you wanna talk about your favorite burger toppings?

    1. Yumi

      Pineapple.

      1. The Wellerman

        Yummy! ? with the works of ketchup mustard and A1 SAUCE!!!

        1. Clif

          I like a variety. Lettuce and tomato are basic. Good additions are onions, bacon, mushrooms, avacodo, cabage, pineapple, pickles, peppers, grilled cheese, swiss cheese, spicy mustard, mayo sauce, Barbecue sauce, chili. Except, you know, probably not all at the same time.

          No filthy red ichor, aka ketchup.

        2. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Apple slices with a dark smoked cheddar.

          But I’m not a fanatic. I generalize and like to try different things.

        3. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Oh also: fried egg and or a grilled split weiner.

        4. Shadowsnail

          I feel uneasy about pineapple with mustard. Let’s go with pineapple, teriyaki sauce, grilled mushrooms, and a white cheese.

    2. Doctor_Who

      I got a Five Guys near me now, so any place that doesn’t offer grilled mushrooms will forever be a disappointment.

      1. StClair

        Same.

    3. Rose by Any Other Name

      New York Cheddar Cheese

    4. Thag Simmons

      Cheese and Lettuce are basically mandatory.

    5. Yotomoe

      Cheese. Kinda basic but a burger without cheese is a burger I don’t wanna eat.

    6. anonymsly

      Guacamole!

    7. BarerMender

      Must have raw onion. Also, either ketchup or else mayo and lettuce. Hold the pickles. Mushrooms? Bacon? You’re crazy.

      1. Deanatay

        Raw onion? Neh.

        Grilled onion? Yeh!

        1. John Lennerton

          Both.

        2. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Raw purple onion, grilled / carmelized spanish or yellow onion.

          Or deep fried onion rings.

          OOOHHH last night I got a Onion Ring Poutine! I kept digging, thinking it was a few onion rings on top of fries (as a flavour topping). NOPE! It was onion rings all the way down! ?? Like a french onion soup, but heartier. I had the remaineder for breakfast.

        3. StClair

          Neither.

    8. Reltzik

      I almost always top my burgers with half of a bun.

      1. Yotomoe

        Is it weird to say that I would totally accept a burger with only the bottom bun?

        1. Clif

          It’s only weird if you take the top bun off yourself.

        2. Wizard

          Just call it “low carb”.

        3. Reltzik

          Open-faced sandwiches aren’t the norm, but they’re far from unheard of?

        4. Jflb96

          Yank-style smörgåsbord? I can see it.

    9. Robbie

      If I’m going to a bar and grill with options or cooking at home, I like Swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms & onions, spicy mustard, and mayo or garlic aioli

      Or I also like a classic burger with mayo, ketchup, mustard tomato, pickle, red onion (I often skip the lettuce for sensory reasons) – cheese optional – I also like those toppings but with burger sauce instead (basically the sauce that’s on a big Mac)

    10. Delicious Taffy

      Mayo, ketchup, tomato, grilled onions, bacon, cheese, and more tomato.

      1. misanthropope

        if it ain’t tomato season, make mine a cheesesteak.

    11. RassilonTDavros

      Grilled onions. Or sometimes fried onions, but probably not onion rings. Swiss cheese is probably the best cheese for burgers IMO, though I’ll admit there are certain contexts where American makes more sense. Chili is also good, maybe with some mustard on the top bun. Once upon a time I hated mustard and ate burgers with just ketchup, nowadays I don’t like ketchup without mustard with it. Sometimes just leftovers of whatever I ate the day before will intrigue me as a possibility, and sometimes I don’t regret it. You also can’t go wrong with green chiles, unless you got a bad batch of green chiles in which case you can absolutely go wrong. There was a restaurant near me that sold burgers with Al Pastor pork as a topping on them, but unfortunately they opened right before March 2020 and were never really able to turn a profit so they shut down.

      Never fries, though. Never ever.

    12. Sam

      All toppings are rejected except for cheese.

    13. True Survivor

      Just Catch up for me please! Though I am trying to stop eating beef. Today, I passed a farm with a small heard of grazing cows. They looked very cute and very sweet and oh so delicious – my heart was both melted and torn.

      1. Reltzik

        Vegetarian who likes burgers here. A lot of the artificial meats are getting pretty good — to the point where they come very close to matching my memories (from 20+ years ago) of what real burgers taste like.

        1. Reltzik

          Not trying to pressure you or anything… just, you know, if you want to have a burger without having a cow…

        2. True Survivor

          Helpful advice, promoting green biotech solutions, and puns. I like you already, internet stranger.

        3. King Daniel

          It’s good to know that you don’t have a beef with our Resident Chief Punner.

        4. Needfuldoer

          I tried a couple of those, just out of curiosity. They weren’t bad, except for the eye-popping amount of salt they put in that stuff.

        5. Delicious Taffy

          But if you didn’t oversaturate it with salt, stupid people would freak out.

        6. Needfuldoer

          Without the salt, it probably wouldn’t taste as much like real meat. Then you might as well just make regular veggie burgers that don’t try to pretend they’re something they aren’t.

          And of course, MSG is ScArY because of xenophobic myths, so we can’t use that either. (MSG Makes Stuff Good!)

        7. milu

          haha that’s catchy =D

        8. Delicious Taffy

          I’m all for things not pretending to be something they’re not, especially when it comes to food.

          I hadn’t heard about the MSG thing though, what the heck is that? I could just Google “MSG xenophobic”, but with zero context I’m liable to find weird answers.

        9. Delicious Taffy

          Oh, it’s because Asian people existed within a hundred miles of it a hundred years ago and white people needed another excuse to whine and gripe and point fingers at them.

        10. Needfuldoer

          Yup, that’s the one. :/

        11. milu

          This episode of NPR’s This American Life tells the story of how MSG gots its bad rep! it’s the first segment (20min-ish?) it’s pretty good! the other two stories are neat too =)

        12. thejeff

          That’s my problem with them as well.

        13. milu

          same, i make my own patties by frying a mix of (pre-cooked) red lentils, finely chopped onion, flour and spices. plus whatever ingredient sparks my fancy on a given day, like mushrooms, olives, dried tomatoes…

    14. Doki

      Ooo, I like a LOT of different types of burgers with different toppings.

      My default is usually Swiss cheese, sautéed mushrooms/onions, avocado, lettuce, ketchup, mayonnaise, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. But not just any kind of mayonnaise, it has to be Kewpie OMG. Kewpie is THE BEST.

      1. Doki

        Oh, and I meant to put fresh tomatoes in that list of toppings too. Give me ketchup AND tomatoes, fuck yeahhhh.

      2. The Wellerman

        I never really use Kewpie mayonnaise in anything but egg fried rice, but it’s the PERFECT thing to add to it!

    15. PB

      I tried salsa on a turkey burger once. It would probably also be good on beef but it really amped up the turkey burger.

    16. tigerflower

      plain burger (which in australia means beef, lettuce, tomato, grilled onion, cheese, & beetroot) with tomato sauce and pineapple

      1. uaw

        Pineapple is an optional extra, like bacon or a fried egg. Beetroot is a necessity and any burger joint which dorsnt have it as part of the plain burger is sus as hell.

        1. uaw

          *Doesn’t

    17. not someone else

      Grilled mushrooms and onions, swiss cheese, maybe a mayo-based burger sauce.

    18. Needfuldoer

      Mustard, lettuce, a lot of onion, and a little horseradish.

      Grilled over charcoal. (Sorry, Hank Hill, it just tastes better than propane.)

    19. Keulen

      Cheese, sometimes bacon. And sometimes ketchup too.

    20. Inbar Fink

      Cheese and bacon, if I’m already going for a burger, I’m not going for healthy

    21. Ana Chronistic

      Fried egg

      Also gotta have a lettuce bun (hopefully actually a half a head vs the one time someone gave me two leaves total) or my blood glucose will be 300

      1. Clif

        Yeah, I didn’t remember fried egg but that can be pretty good on a burger.

      2. not someone else

        Oh wait yeah I’m changing my answer to this. An over medium egg, two slices bacon, two slices sharp cheddar, letttuce and tomato.

  5. Spencer

    As I approach my 30s I feel a degree of solace that I can see a teenager go “I hate you! You never let me do anything!” and not instantly declare them the antagonist in what would be declared a terminal case of being a boomer.

    1. Needfuldoer

      It only gets worse after you pass 30.

      I look upon zoomers with equal amounts of respect, pity, confusion, and disgust. Sorry we millennials couldn’t fix anything, kiddos. We were busy arguing with our boomer parents about trying to find a job in the middle of our third “once in a lifetime” economic downturn.

      1. Spencer

        Nah, I’ve been in too many scenarios brought about by some self-righteous fuckface deciding when I’m allowed to have value to ever see someone vocalize a complaint about something and not at least consider it, let alone when it’s a complaint about something bigger than them and outside their control.

        Which is lovely, but I also wonder if I didn’t go through those scenarios if I’d still be empathetic or if I’d be the kind of person who tries to checklist victims to make sure it’s their fault.

      2. Keulen

        As a millennial, I may not always understand zoomer humor, but I definitely find the struggles they’re going through relatable, since they’ve lived through at least one or two of those same economic downturns now.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Agreed.

          I still find TikTok baffling, though. I just don’t like it when the youths make me feel old (intentionally or not). 🙁

        2. BBCC

          If it makes you feel better, I’m on the cusp of being a zoomed and I don’t like TikTok either. I was never into stuff like Vine so it has no appeal for me. The funny ones end up on YouTube anyway.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          It’s essentially the same thing as early-00’s teens incessantly playing with their ringtones.

    2. milu

      otoh, we’re meant to at least find that line funny here. ymmv about why you think it’s funny, like i don’t think it demonstrates that Liz is a dumb spoilt brat, i think it’s just that it’s incongruous in this context. like this isn’t a “i want to stay over at my friend’s on a weekday” situation, it’s a lot more serious and specific than that. i think the point is that Liz and Sarah’s relationship runs in automatic grooves, which is totally relatable. when i hang out with my siblings (four of them) some vestigial part of my personality that no one else in my adult circle knows, just takes over and i behave in ways that i myself find obnoxious or silly.

      anyway to me it’s obvious that Liz is not ok, for reasons that aren’t yet quite clear to us, and as is so often the case in this comic her character will keep getting more and more nuanced and relatable over time. (i actually find her really interesting and complex already, but i get why not everyone sees her that way).

      1. Spencer

        I mean yeah it’s funny in a vacuum but we still already know where it’s coming from.

        Like I dunno how to read the part where Liz admits she’s going through the same shit Joyce is, so Sarah calls her a fraud, tackles her, and then physically drags her back to a place she’s scared of returning to on the grounds of what Sarah thinks it is, as if Sarah is not currently doing wrong by Joyce because she’s impressing a narrative on top of Joyce’s actual feelings, I dunno how to read all that and think “Sarah has a point for sure.”

        1. Sam

          I read it as Sarah not liking Liz much so playing to her with genuine vulnerability didn’t work very well and she just wants her to not be her problem as this is not a Disney movie where vulnerability suddenly makes people like you or want to solve your problems even if they are relatable problems to that of someone you like more.

        2. thejeff

          Liz also just barely touched on vulnerability before jumping back to “drop out and just live here and be rad and do drugs and sex all the time”.

          The problem here is not just Sarah shutting down Liz’s attempts to open up to her.

        3. Spencer

          I feel that, if you try to take control of someone’s problems, as Sarah has here, you took the responsibility of that problem onto yourself, and thus don’t get to whinge when your bad attempt at helping fails. Especially when we, as the audience, have very plainly seen that this is bigger than what Sarah thinks it is.

          She said the truth, Sarah called her and Joyce frauds, and then Sarah tackled her. She made it abundantly clear she was not safe to tell and wouldn’t care.

          It’s actually okay to blame people when they do bad things instead of getting wrapped up in an attempt at sharing the blame!

        4. Spencer

          Sarah is a bad sister and should be as alone and miserable as she repeatedly insists she wants to be, yes.

        5. Delicious Taffy

          I mean if nothing else, she’s specifically requested it several times. At some point, it’s only polite to respect her wishes.

    3. Wraithy2773

      Aye, we shouldn’t be assuming that this is just “Liz is an annoying teenage shitbag” or anything. She’s a person and people sometimes deal with conflict and strife in weird, occasionally fucking stupid ways (at least on the surface).

      I’m mostly trying to resolve to stay quiet on this story arc at this point, because it’s ping-ponged around a lot between possibilities, and I’m mostly just left with not a lot of idea of where its all going. Whatever’s going on, there’s just not enough info to say for sure, not until Liz fully opens up about what the deal fully is.

      And no, I’m not really blaming Liz for not opening up. I want to grab her and shake her while screaming “WHY DON’T YOU JUST TELL THEM WHAT’S WRONG”, but I fully recognize that clamming up is a common action for a lot of people in that position (…and boy howdy have I done it plenty myself).

      All of that said… I do think its possible that Liz’s problems are mundane. That she’s a kid that hates college for petty reasons and is tense around her friends because she’s not being honest with them about who she is now but who would get it if she told them and all that jazz. It’s certainly not the only reason, but… sometimes that can be the case.

      And given the stuff the characters have been through, they’re due for something like that >_>.

      1. Spencer

        She tried to open up to Sarah, who proceeded to call her a fraud and tackle her.

        We’ve also seen her say her friends condescend to her for being a Jesus freak, that she’s performatively Christian to keep her stepmom off her back, and the sexual puritanism beaten into her made her panic and think she’d ruin herself forever if she slept with Joe.

        Moreover, we’re probably not gonna see Ball State and then everything is fine, because that’d be a solution wrought by Sarah just ignoring Liz’s feelings and dragging her back for her own good and because Sarah thinks Liz is being spoiled. It’d be a victory because the victim was just wrong and lying, and actually the status quo is good and working.

        1. StClair

          No, IMO, she really didn’t. She didn’t communicate her actual problems, she just threw out a bunch of glib to try to deflect from being confronted on them, or having to face them herself. Sarah, reasonably IMO, was having none of that.

          I realize that Liz may not be capable of recognizing, or articulating, what’s really bothering her, but so far (again IMO) she hasn’t presented anything really honest for Sarah to either ignore OR grab onto.

        2. Spencer

          The problem is that Sarah is taking ownership of Liz’s problems and viewing them as a burden on herself she has to solve. If Sarah’s going to involve herself she can’t just decide Liz’s problems are that she’s a spoiled, unappreciative brat, but Sarah is constantly signalling and expressing to Liz that she doesn’t care.

          Liz is not someone to care for, she is someone who needs to go away so things quiet down. She talked about her religious problems and all Sarah took from it is that she and Joyce are frauds because Joyce is also someone who needs to shut up and be compliant.

  6. Suet

    Count your blessings before they hatch
    Wait no

    It’s always the advangtage of the younger, but people also damn know the younger get away with anything

    1. Shadowsnail

      The saying goes, “Count your blessings before they sneeze, or it’s your juice the devil will wease.”

  7. Opus the Poet

    Google Maps says that’s I69(nice).

    1. David M Willis

      not yet

      1. woobie

        is it the on ramp?

    2. Opus the Poet

      Also says there are several areas that are blocked by pileups but they are passable now. ETA is 2:33 from when I first checked.

  8. Yotomoe

    I’m allowed to quit college if I don’t wanna do it. It’s not MY fault my dad’s giving me a full ride! I’m on Liz’s side with this.

    1. Angel

      Did you forget Liz’s full plan was actually to drop out and live with Sarah at her school? If she wants to drop out, she needs to handle it like a damn adult. Inform the school, remove all her shit from her dorm and, y’know, actually tell the person paying her tuition that she’s not going back. And then to expect her sister to jeopardize her own scholarship by letting her move in and fuck around doing drugs and sex all the time (her own words) is ridiculous. If she’s going to act like a spoiled brat, it’s perfectly fair to treat her like one.

      1. King Daniel

        And the nomination for Most Ironic Gravatar of the Month goes to…

      2. Regalli

        Yeah, this is the impulsive and petulant plan of an eighteen-year-old who is trying to avoid her problems, not a well-thought-out ‘college isn’t working for me’ or even seemingly the ‘college isn’t working for me’ of a full-on mental breakdown.

        If she genuinely wants to drop out, that’s one thing, but this seems to have been an idea she hit upon because Joyce is Cool and Mature and they can be atheist friends who do drugs and have sex together (never mind both reality and the part where Liz tried to have casual sex and realized she Was Not Game For That,) and she doesn’t want to admit to her friends she’s an atheist because even if she doesn’t like the dynamic now it’s a known thing as opposed to a scary unknown thing. None of this makes dropping out a particularly well-thought-out move, and Sarah obviously couldn’t let her crash in their dorm for the next three months. The options were this or ‘call a parent,’ and this actually seems the less-intrusive one comparatively speaking. For one thing, Liz gets back on campus and doesn’t have to be out about the atheism to said parents.

        1. Michael Haneline

          This^

        2. StClair

          Agreed.

      3. Clif

        She wasn’t going to stay with Sarah, she was going to stay with Joyce. Who has experience with this. But where HAS she been spending the last two nights.

        1. King Daniel

          Joyce and Sarah room together. “Staying with Joyce” is equivalent to staying with Sarah.

        2. C.T. Phipps

          I think she was just going to generically “stay” with no plan of anyone letting them stay.

      4. Spencer

        It’s definitely a well thought-out and calculated plan, and not some 18 year old panicking mad because she’s being bullied at her school.

        Like she’s already admitted she has been, and Sarah doesn’t care.

        1. Shanunu

          I don’t remember her saying she was being bullied…? She said she was tired of pretending to be who she pretends to be to her parents in front of her friends. That isn’t being bullied and is kind of just totally on Liz.

        2. Spencer

          Here is Liz telling Joe that she’s still treated as that dumb Jesus freak they condescend to.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/01-sister-christian/totallynot/

          Here is Liz tearing up about the expectations put on her, those expectations being the above, with the added, textual acknowledge that Liz and Joyce are going through the same struggle with the same response from the people around them.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/heroworship/

          Like, did the part where Joe tried to sleep with Liz as a way to get over his feelings for Joyce, because they are the exact same person, just not register?

        3. Tilt

          ???? Not wanting to live up to other’s expectations, or even feeling pressured to do so, is not the same as being bullied. Not liking that people treat you as the person you pretend to be (She actively pretends to be a “Jesus freak” and then complains that people view her as one) is not the same as being bullied.

          Do you even know what bullying is? Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean that it’s bullying.

        4. Spencer

          pfft right yeah ok fam

          Liz is just pretending to be a Jesus Freak in a vacuum, she’s definitely not doing so out of a need to capitulate to someone in her life, her veering away from being a Jesus Freak had nothing to do with her peer group laughing about how she’d snap and suck a billion dicks, and were she to step out of it then those same peers would then not do things like ask if she even knows what a dildo is.

          Sarah’s little sister is definitely not expected to remain in her little fundie box for the convenience of those around her.

        5. woobie

          Liz iz remaining for Liz’ convenience. Letting people know her true self is too daunting a task, even though as soon as she does her life would be better and easier.
          And she appears to do this with everyone.

        6. Spencer

          idk Joyce let her friends know her true self and look how that turned out

          (which is something Liz feels will happen to her, according to that linked strip above)

          Also like maybe Liz shouldn’t have the responsibility of being true to people who mistreat her?

        7. Michael Haneline

          Spencer, you must be REALLY limber from all this stretching.

        8. Spencer

          Weird flex to call it stretching when it’s all stuff that’s been blatantly on-panel, but okay

        9. Thag Simmons

          Liz is also still performing christianity for her parents, the people funding her education. I don’t know exactly how zealous they are but she seems to have good reason to think they’d take her atheism poorly if it got back to them

  9. Yotomoe

    o3o I’m drawing Dina.

    1. Mewzard

      Those are words I’m always glad to see from you Yoto, lol.

    2. Delicious Taffy

      [Fallout New Vegas Narrator Voice] On the Fifth of February, in the year 2022 AD, at 12:18am EST, a declaration was made which would end society as we knew it.

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        And there was much rejoycing.

        1. Casi

          yaaaay

        2. Ed Callahan

          Until they ran out of minstrels.

    3. Clif

      Good move.

    4. Yotomoe

      https://i.imgur.com/rptJgrr.png
      I drew Dina.

      1. Deathjavu

        You have, in fact, drawn the hell out of Dina.

        1. Clif

          Although it shows nothing it shouldn’t, after viewing I felt like a pervert.

          Well done!

      2. Delicious Taffy

        [FONV Voice] Three hours after the declaration of intent, the world’s nations were unable to prevent the launch of a lethal Dina Bomb. The force of its impact left the American Midwest even more of a barren wasteland than usual, and the citizens were rendered slightly exhausted a few minutes later, for reasons nobody will discuss to this day. [/FONV]

      3. Needfuldoer

        oh no my weaknesses

      4. AGV

        *profusely sweating*

      5. Rabisch

        Now we can imagine Becky fainting. Or watch trembling sweating profusely.

        1. Deathjavu

          I’m thinking full on anime nosebleed from Becky, followed by fleeing or fainting. And I don’t even think it would take the full sequence to get there.

      6. milu

        oh my god that’s so good!

        and uh, yeah. pretty hot.

        @Taffy please post the coloured version you made please =)

        1. Delicious Taffy

          You’re lookin’ at it, full-size. I only colored in the one segment.

        2. milu

          oh ok! looks good on you =P

      7. Deanatay

        Life is GOOD! And so is your art, Yoto. Well done!

        If I may offer one criticism, though…

        Dina, put yer hat back on!!

      8. milu

        oh by the way, good job on the hands! i know they’re not your favourite. but they’re pretty good here!

      9. JBento

        Well, my libido hadn’t been cranked ALL the way up for a full three days, and I guess this fixes that.

      10. Jungle Dwayne

        Oh yeah that’s the stuff

      11. zee

        Very hot, thank you

      12. OBBWG

        You have captured the essence of Dina. Brilliant work.

      13. The Wellerman

        I’m getting heart palpitations just looking at this.

        Splendid work! You make a great deal of people really happy with your art! ?

        Although as hard as it is for me to admit, I’m going through a heavy depression right now, so I won’t be able to fully enjoy it for a while ?‍??

        Still, glad to see how many people like it Yoto!

      14. Amós Batista

        yes yes yes yes YES!

      15. StClair

        That last panel/pose is almost superfluous.
        Almost.

  10. Katerly

    Holy heck David! You did an amazing job mimicking their facial expressions against each other! It’s such a subtle and nice way to show that they are:
    A. Siblings
    B. More similar than they want to be deep down
    C. Hate that

    1. Deathjavu

      I didn’t consciously notice how similar their expressions were until you pointed it out. You hit the nail on the head.

    2. milu

      oh yeah! hadn’t noticed either! nice!

  11. DarkoNeko

    “no fair, you don’t let me do anything”, like fucking really, brat ?

  12. Axel

    What they have to do is elaborately scam Liz’s dad into paying for Sarah’s schooling while Liz goes and does whatever she actually wants to do

    1. Katerly

      LOL. The Tuition Trap

      1. Reed

        oh my god… the tuition trap.. perfect.

        1. Clif

          That won’t work, but otherwise it’s a good idea.

        2. milu

          which is more than can be said of some ideas.

        3. Clif

          True that.

        4. misanthropope

          all my best ideas work perfectly, and are otherwise terrible.

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Obviously they need to swap identities by forging their IDs, swapping clothes, and engaging in hilarious holiday shenanigans to try and maintain the ever-growing pyramid of lies.

      1. Needfuldoer

        That would never work. It would only take a few hours of acting upbeat before Sarah cracks an goes on a murderous rampage.

        1. Axel

          we don’t know that liz doesn’t go on murderous rampages on occasion

    3. Sev

      I feel like I should be seeing an obvious downside to this, but I’m not coming up with anything. Seems like a solid plan to me *shrug*

  13. alongcameaspider

    So with this I think it’s safe to say there’s not a more serious issue at Liz’s school she’s trying to escape

    If there was I feel like she’d be more distressed and less acting like a child

    1. C.T. Phipps

      I think its a nice subversion.

      People keep assuming that Liz is a much deeper character than she appears and the humor is she’s…not.

      1. Throwatron

        You’d think we’d know she’s a literal child once she was the first character in a horny college webcomic to deal with her sexuality worse than fucking Joyce.

        1. Ray Radlein

          tbf, fucking Joyce might not be the worst way to deal with her sexuality

        2. Spencer

          Yeah, Liz is such a little diaper baby for having it enforced into her, over and over, that she’ll ruin her life if she touches a wiener.

          What a shitfucker, that Liz.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          How awful of her to have been influenced by her environment.

        4. C.T. Phipps

          Yes, Spencer, she’s only defined by her fear of sexuality and in no way shape or form has any other qualities like being immature or, Willis forbid, a normal freshman college student.

        5. Spencer

          I know being wrong all the time is your forte, I assume and futilely hope it’s a deliberate piss-take, but you are aware that was in response to a post, specifically, about how Liz is “a literal child” because her Christian-brand sexual puritanism made her freak the hell out in a sexual guilt complex, correct?

    2. Spencer

      We already know her more serious issue!

      Just because Sarah makes some grumpy pissgoblin observation to blame her doesn’t make it true, it means Sarah’s remaining on-script!

      1. milu

        yeah, and just because Liz plays her part, which in this ingrained sibling dynamic is “recriminatory younger sister” doesn’t mean it isn’t a facade covering up some deeper fear and upset.

        immature or not, you don’t just run away from school with nowhere to stay in the middle of january unless something is actually going quite wrong.

        1. Spencer

          I don’t know what’s in the water that makes folks forget about things that already happened in the series so they can see a new strip and think “ah yes, here’s why the angry person is wrong and stinky” but I for one do not approve of it.

        2. milu

          eh, i mean it’s the day by day thing i think. if you were to read it in one go, like in a comic book or when you read the archive from the start, most readers would probably feel differently about it. your gut reaction would be a passing emotion between one click and the next and you wouldn’t feel there was a sense in sharing it.

          but that’s a well rehearsed discussion around these parts, so for the most part, i’m like whatever

        3. Keulen

          Yeah, I really don’t get why people keep forgetting stuff that happened in previous strips that decently explains why certain characters are acting the way the are now.

        4. JBento

          I take it that, like me, you absolutely loved it yesterday when, to a bunch of people, apparently the reason Joyce was ever angry can be boiled down to “that time of the month.”

        5. Spencer

          I didn’t really engage with yesterday’s strip as I didn’t know what it was about other than the theory that Joyce is on birth control.

          They weren’t saying Joyce’s current struggles and fights with her friends were because of PMS, were they?

        6. milu

          no.

        7. JBento

          A non-zero number of people attributed her anger to the time of the month. Though, to be honest, most of us were still distracted by Dina ramping up the sexy.

        8. milu

          some people were saying it might not have helped. that’s not the same thing

        9. Deadjolras

          Sorry, I had to go back to check the comments section yesterday and I didn’t really find anyone claiming what you said they did. Just people wondering if, on top of Joyce’s already existing emotional distress, there could also be physical symptoms making things worse. I don’t know if I missed something, but, to me, that’s not the same as people saying “oh, she’s just angry because she’s on her period.”

        10. JBento

          I need to a project done by tomorrow, so I don’t have time to go through all the comments, but literally 10 seconds give me this interaction:

          Poster 1: “Oh geez, all the stress Joyce is going through AND it’s Blood Time too? Poor gal.”

          Poster 2: “Actually that explains a lot of the anger.”

          (for clarification, I’m referring to Poster 2, with Poster 1 needed to provide context)

        11. milu

          i mean if you want to give zero benefit of the doubt to that one poster and maybe one or two others who may have been a) making a not-super-carefully-worded one-sentence comment or b) trying to explain away Joyce’s feelings with her periods, but honestly there are trashfire convos around here and this one was not one of them… to me at least, but well, if that’s how you read it, what can i say

        12. RedCat

          Sarah’s ALWAYS angry.

        13. RedCat

          Ok, so, on one hand, I get that Sarah is angry. On the other hand, you can’t make anyone do anything by yelling at them. Especially not your sister. Maybe listen to why Liz wants to leave? Like, seriously? I know they have to get to that yet, but I hope they figure it out.
          Sarah cares about Liz, but seems super annoyed by her, too, which… typical sibling-thing, I guess? idk

        14. RedCat

          it fucked my comment up again.

      2. C.T. Phipps

        I admit I’d prefer to stick on Liz and Sarah rather than constantly switching back to Joyce. She’s grumpy on a Sunday. I don’t see any reason to make a big deal of it.

      3. Thag Simmons

        I think they mean that this isn’t a Becky situation, Liz obviously has serious problems that need addressing but there doesn’t appear to be a dangerous person she’s trying to avoid

  14. Stephen Bierce

    Another musical interlude…
    Great Long Legs to Drive Me Wild
    (Bill Moyers’ program A Walk Through the 20th Century introduced this song to me)

  15. Qube

    as someone who had to drop out of college due to losing access to financial aid, I fucking hate liz and I hope bad things happen to her off-panel where I don’t have to look at her. like she was already annoying and thoughtless but now I just want her gone. I don’t care what happens to this bongo

    1. Delicious Taffy

      That’s a bit much, innit?

      1. Clif

        Harsh, but the way people feel is the way people feel.

        1. Zaxares

          It probably also depends on the “bad things” Qube wishes on Liz. “I hope you wind up working at a register in McDonald’s in 30 years and ruing the choices you made” is likely a lot more palatable than “I hope you die in a fire. And not from smoke inhalation.”

          As somebody who was lucky enough to have my parents pay for my higher education, I can totally sympathize with Sarah here. I have zero illusions about how lucky I am and how their assistance basically put me in a tremendously beneficial position to start my working adult life. I think that Liz is squandering a rare chance not many young people today have and doesn’t even realize it, but I would not go so far as to wish bad things upon her.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          Because my brain has been corrupted in some ways, I thought you wrote “I hope you die in a fire, and not from Snow Halation.” And now I’m just wondering how that song could kill someone.

        3. Spencer

          IDK listening to ProZD sing it kinda murdered me.

        4. Delicious Taffy

          If he didn’t do it in his Goofy voice, I ain’t listenin’.

        5. Spencer

          He did, in fact.

    2. woobie

      Wowww.
      I left because of a semitruck/ Mom collision that ended up with losing our house and moving to Grandma’s, and I don’t begrudge anyone their advantages or youthful lack of resistance to the sofa (they will likely regret that eventually anyway), and I sure don’t wish bad things on them.

    3. RassilonTDavros

      As someone who had to be pulled out of college by concerned family members when my depression got severe enough that I was spending whole days bedridden, and then spent a whole year moving from one medication to the next trying to find something that would even remotely help, I just want you to know that everything you said about Liz here is what was replaying in my head, over and over, during the time I was at home. And every time I tried again. And every time I made even the slightest fumble.

      So uh, y’know, thanks for that.

    4. Thag Simmons

      That’s needlessly harsh and cruel.

    5. Hazel

      I’m sorry that that happened to you Qube and that this fictional plot arc brings up pain. You can take a break.

    6. Spencer

      I got a grant for having a disability, and it turned out to be way more debilitating than I thought, to the point where it was a year of schooling and could barely function and kept switching majors until my last semester was a panicky mess of never staying in class long enough. The one prior I stayed in bed two weeks because I was too scared to leave my room.

      Naturally, I blamed myself for this because everyone but me was smart and I was trained in life wrong as a joke, because this was supposed to be the part where I figured my life out and would finally be happy like I was supposed to be the last time I went to college, paid for it myself with the 20k I saved up over three years working where I just ended up with a diploma I can’t use, and it wasn’t that I had further undiagnosed problems that have impacted me my entire life.

      But, y’know, I probably looked like a parasite to someone else.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Honestly, framing people with difficulties as “parasites” is really scummy and corrosive.

        1. Spencer

          I mean, I don’t even think someone like me who “has a reason” for it should be exempt from the label, we all should because society shouldn’t be telling itself it’s a meritocracy, and more individually we shouldn’t see someone’s mistakes and immediately leap to why it is, exclusively, their fault, and when it is their fault, how can it be corrected?

          Like maybe we should have higher levels of empathy than “suck it up, buttercup.”

        2. Delicious Taffy

          But if we have higher levels of empathy, something something liberal SJW agenda something something.

        3. Axel_Grease

          The elites love it when we fight each other over crumbs. Look at how tuition-related bitterness has sparked so much hate in these comments. Meanwhile everyone focuses on who did or didn’t dropout, who did or didn’t have rich parents, and no one even brings up that higher education funding should be available to all.

  16. Regalli

    Probably a good thing Sarah’s in the car so Liz can’t hurl herself out of it if we are in fact on the Fateful Highway. That place is cursed, y’know.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Too bad the driver has muted his GPS so we can’t hear the “Caution: Extremely Ominous Background Music Ahead.”

    2. King Daniel

      Well, this is apparently an older car model (per word of Willis, no center seat belt), and there’s no sign yet of someone sitting on Liz’s other side…

      1. Regalli

        Not a center shoulder strap, but there’s no reason to believe it doesn’t have a lap belt.

        And/or child locks.

      2. Needfuldoer

        The Doylist in me says Liz is sitting in the center (instead of against the passenger side door) for shot framing purposes.

        If this was live-action and shot with a real camera, we’d have to use a wide angle lens and/or take the front passenger seat out and bolt the tripod down in its place.

        1. King Daniel

          According to Willis a few days ago, Liz is in the center seat so she can’t just jump out of the car at the first intersection or something like she threatened.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Sure, if you want to get all Watsonian about it! 😛

  17. Endplanets

    “You take my easy money and I’ll take your easy friends.”

  18. Heather

    Honestly though I’m just glad Sarah isn’t doing what I feared she was going to do for a bit: out Liz as an atheist and so it ends with her losing her tuition money. I’m not sure why but it was kind of bubbling in my mind as a possibility. Like I didn’t think she’d do it with the desire for her to lose it or anything but I wondered if that would happen.

    Kind of sad that Sarah’s dad doesn’t care about her it seems. But then Liz I guess in some ways probably learned to play the game and Sarah didn’t. Maybe Liz is pissed and angry at having to play the game itself. (My guess is being the ‘easier one’ and keeping the stepmom happy with being a Jesus freak is part of that).

    Wonder if rather like Dorothy probably going to find issues when she attempts actual politics due to failures to play the game Sarah might find the same thing with being a lawyer. That did in some ways come up in the Dana flashbacks and all didn’t it.

    1. C.T. Phipps

      I am curious what the story about that is re: Sarah’s tuition.

    2. Spencer

      Specifically, Sarah and Liz have separate dads. They don’t live together, and Sarah is here on scholarship for financial reasons.

      1. Heather

        Oh so they share a mother? Damn I got mixed up.

        1. Spencer

          Yes, and Liz doesn’t live with her, since she has a biodad and a stepmom (the latter of whom she’s pretending to be Christian for).

          I think Sarah lives with her mom, was with Liz for a few years, and then a second divorce occurred where Liz’s dad took her and remarried.

  19. Juanoku

    Hey, alt text?
    Piss off

    1. Needfuldoer

      But it’s been a long road, getting from there to here.

    2. David M Willis

      react with integrity

  20. Rose Red

    Aw, I guess I have to continue waiting fora Dina/Joyce or Dina/Becky conversation re: Joyce’s atheism.

    Liz is being a brat here. Sarah’s doing her best to help you out. If there’s something else going on, just tell her already!

  21. Archieve

    So Sarah has to worry so much about keeping her scholarship because her step parent won’t pay for her…sounds likely to be a toxic family, if so it’s a low blow from Liz acting like her being the ‘favorite’ is perfectly fine.

    1. Swissaboo

      Since liz has stepmoms plural I’m pretty sure Liz’s father is not currently sarah’s stepdad. So not “stepdad won’t pay for her” but “someone who was a stepdad at some point in the past won’t pay for her”

      1. Archieve

        Hoping Sarahs situation in her family gets clarified soon. Either way Sarah seems to have gotten the short end of the stick.

      2. King Daniel

        I have been told for what it’s worth that Liz appending an “s” to “stepmom” is apparently just A Thing Some People Do, and not in fact meant to indicate that Liz in fact has multiple stepmothers.

        1. milu

          Yeah so i hadn’t looked into it before and just now did some quick research and did find some occurrences on twitter, mostly from black folks using AAVE e.g.:

          lmao when zeke found out his moms was mary j blige ????????

          Me and Moms! Extra happy❤️❤️❤️ [photo of guy with 1 mom]

          I love this plant, I think this window is perfect for it. She gets a haircut spring and fall and rotated weekly. Parts are over 50 years old, cuttings I took from my moms that she had when she took up housekeeping.

          I been working so damn hard for this day I know it don’t seem like much to some people but ever sense my moms got sick I promised myself that I would find a way to grow and create New opportunities.I started from nothing end of last year and I just want to give thanks 1k at 99%

          My moms likes having a burger night at the house sometimes pls look at these [photo of burgers]

          GUYS MY MOMS LIKES BTS NOW GUESS WHOS FINNA BLAST THAT SGIT AROUND THE HOUSE NOW BLACK ARMYS ITS A WIN

          My moms likes everyone, so if she don’t like you you really gotta go ?

          and also found this reddit post where besides a few linguists just speculating, has 1 person acquainted with the usage explaining it, here’s a quote:

          I’m African American and speak AAVE. I’ll answer this to the best of my ability, though it might vary by region. …

          I just think of “moms” as an affectionate term and “mans” as a part of the expression “Come get ya mans”. But also, if I said “get ya man” or just “ya man” (as in “your man”), I’d probably mean “your boyfriend or husband”. Contrarily, “ya mans” is more like “any man with whom you are associated”.

          So, there’s also the form “my mans” that i didn’t know about.

          anyone actually know about this usage first hand, i’m interested! for the record Liz’s sentence was (in response to why she was a member of the campus crusade for christ) “Yeah! keeps my stepmoms off my case. But once you leave home and see the bigger world, you don’t have patience anymore for all that shit.”

        2. milu

          ok i’m invested (although i got places to be goddammit brain) so now i’m trawling for twitter examples using stepmoms, some of these are a few years old, honestly it seems like this usage was more common in the 2010’s and i can find less recent than old examples for whatever reason. also some of these may be from actual plural stepmoms although probably not

          No CANTU. My stepmoms says that isn’t good for ya hair lol

          My Stepmoms dont speak to a N***a…Went downstairs only my Pops said goodmorning [asterisks mine]

          I can’t imagine my stepmoms telling my pops to tell me “call me this because you are not my equal”. You not even an original shorty, you a guest.

          My stepmoms making me do soccer hell nah

          my stepmoms decided to start selling all of my dads stuff ?

          tell me why my whole entire family kept hitting me with “y la novia” and my stepmoms goes “se ve mejor sin ella de todos modos” OK MOMMA SHUT THEM UP RQ

    2. Needfuldoer

      Sounds like Sarah never bonded with her stepfather, and maybe he even resented her a bit growing up then cut her off at 18. (It’s a common refrain in family drama subreddits.) Liz called Sarah their mother’s “child from a previous relationship”, hopefully that hasn’t been the line their whole lives. Maybe Sarah’s biological father isn’t in the picture, or he doesn’t have the means to help her pay for college.

      Hopefully we’ll get more insight into their family situation as this chapter plays out. It would really explain their affectionately adversarial relationship.

      1. milu

        so, you hang out in family drama subreddits….?

        1. Needfuldoer

          I have to admit that /r/amitheasshole and /r/raisedbynarcissists are guilty pleasure reading… I only lurk though, never participated.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Okay that came out wrong.

          It’s not that I read boards like those just to sit there thinking “I’m glad that’s not me” or “ha ha those people are a pile of misery”, like they’re the text version of daytime shock doc shows like Jerry Springer or Dr. Phil. I feel like I’ve gained a lot of perspective from reading about the experiences of others that are different from my own.

        3. milu

          haha, no worries i get that. i’ve never hung around those parts but i totally get the both somewhat voyeuristic and actually humanizing pleasure you get from the sort of stories. it can be both!

        4. milu

          i guess i meant to say “voyeuristic pleasure, and humanizing perspective” or something

        5. Sam

          AITA threads always introduce to me absolutely new ways in which people can be horrible to each other.

        6. Delicious Taffy

          “AITA for for being naked in my girlfriend’s shower?” And then the actual post is 5 paragraphs to the effect of: “So, I was in my girlfriend’s house without her knowledge while she was at work, jelqing and looking through her photo albums in the shower. She walks in unexpectedly and I get startled and drop her photo album right into the water. It was an accident, but she shouted at me for twenty minutes! Did I do something wrong???”

          Every time I glance at that subreddit, it’s either that or the opposite: “AITA for throwing my boyfriend’s mother off a cliff because she said she didn’t like cinnamon all that much?”

        7. Sam

          The second one would then be like: ‘I don’t like my MIL but when she fell off a literal cliff, I tried to save her life. She complained the whole time that I had cinnamon breath while I TRIED TO SAVE HER LIFE. She ended up falling and broke her leg and both her arms and is in the hospital. My boyfriend is accusing me of letting go on purpose and saying I shouldn’t have eaten cinnamon cookies before we left. AITA for eating cinnamon cookies?’

          And then you get the rare ones where two lines in you don’t need to read any more, you know the answer.

  22. Bagge

    The ZoomR driver is slowly increasing the volume of the radio.

  23. Barf Ninjason

    I’m not a big fan of Surly Sarah and her omnidirectional sniping, but hot damn am I on her side here. The idea of someone getting a free ride college education and not appreciating it to the point of dropping out or barely attending is….frustrating, and when it’s someone who she must be thinking something like “one little tweak of a detail of fate and that would be me,” I imagine it must be Infuriating with Extra Cheese

    1. Sev

      I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of both surly Sarah and her omnidirectional sniping, and usually kind of on her side even when she’s objectively in the wrong purely because I like her! In this case I sympathise with her more on ‘older sibling who is fed up with their younger sibling being a percussive instrument’ context rather than the ‘you don’t know how good you’ve got it’ angle though, and I do think her trying to forcibly drive Liz back without even a conversation about why she wants to drop out is a bit iffy.

    2. Axel_Grease

      I see it as a product of how dysfunctional our society is that higher education funding is bestowed so randomly, that those who have it are required to appreciate it even if it makes them miserable.

      1. C.T. Phipps

        Privilege is something those without it actively resent even it comes with its own worries and downsides.

  24. Sombrero

    Beware of the mighty truck, ZoomR driver.

  25. Ste

    Sure, but college isn’t for everyone and it shouldn’t be mandatory just because someone’s offering to pay for it

    1. Delicious Taffy

      No. If someone offers you anything at all, ever, you have a moral obligation to accept it and also follow through on it exclusively on their terms. /S

  26. Amós Batista

    I see: Liz got the same Sarah’s claws.

  27. Rabisch

    Sarah is a great elder sister♡. Liz now is angry, but she will thank her in future. At least, this is what I hope.

  28. Deanatay

    Aww! That’s so sweet!

    They hate each other!!

    1. milu

      muh widdle baybees <3

  29. Geoffrey Moyer

    god their poor driver

    1. Spencer

      He’s annoyed, but he never has to worry about the craziness of his last job, where some nuts on a motorcycle leapt in front of him and caught someone out of midair.

  30. Deviant

    *looks up from oh-so-many-thousands-in-student-debt*

    Thats rough. I feel for you.

  31. Axel_Grease

    Wow, this is toxic on so many levels.

  32. BBCC

    I don’t know why my comment didn’t go through last night. Thanks for that, Internet.

    Anyway, yeah, sounds about right for siblings. I’m looking forward to seeing how this shakes out.

  33. RedCat

    Ok, so, on one hand, I get that Sarah is angry. On the other hand, you can’t make anyone do anything by yelling at them. Especially not your sister. Maybe listen to why Liz wants to leave? Like, seriously? I know they have to get to that yet, but I hope they figure it out.
    Sarah cares about Liz, but seems super annoyed by her, too, which… typical sibling-thing, I guess? idk

    1. C.T. Phipps

      I think Sarah’s anger is driven by how much college means to her and how much she’s sacrificed and struggled to get as far as she had. Liz is acting like college is about sex and partying versus getting an education.

      Which Sarah desperately thinks it is.

  34. C.T. Phipps

    Sarah is wrong to tell Liz how to do her life. Mind you, if Liz wants to drop out then she should woman up and tell her father that rather than tanking her GPA and possibly wasting money that could be important sometime in the future.

    1. DudeMyDadOwnsaDealership

      Liz also outgrew her ability to express her resentment with “I hate you! You never let me do anything!” without sounding like a woman-baby when she was, like, twelve.

      Those two need to learn to communicate much like Liz needs to learn the free-spirit approach of ‘run far away and seek distractions’ when it comes to dealing with problems, like whatever hell is waiting for her back at Ball, are now going to be even less reliable now that she’s an adult. Liz’s actions thus far scream “coping” to me

  35. Laura

    All this drama within Dumbing Of Age about fathers who pay and fathers who don’t pay. Amber’s mother even went so far as to basically tell Amber that she was marrying Joe’s father for money. (https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/boundaries-2/)

    It shows how much abuse and dependency and mental distress the US educational system is extracting from families. It requires students to list their parents’ incomes while applying for financial aid, even though many families (and foster programs) cut kids off at age 18. Many student loans require parents to co-sign, resulting in better interest rates for families with wealth as collateral. And it’s wild that education costs so dang much anyway!

    It really enforces social stratification — an “educational overclass” and an underclass.” I was reading the other day that for many African American families, they come out of higher education poorer rather than better off. Their higher educational achievement does not translate to higher salaries, the way it does for European American grads. Black grads have to shoulder similar or higher student debt burdens with less earning power to put towards it. So the incentive to leave school and start working earlier to support their families can be more heavily tilted toward joining the workforce younger.

    The US educational system seems to be all about class — about the haves and the have nots. And the current attacks on public education just make it worse, to where kids and teachers can’t feel safe in schools.

    It’s wild, though… of course Cuba is dealing with bloody social turmoil right now, and the people are suffering badly. But when I visited there about 12 years ago I met many everyday people with PhDs in all kinds of things — primarily sciences, but also literature and mathematics. It was free to continue their education for as long as they wished to do it, but there was no obligation later to work in the field they had studied, if another job paid better or appealed to them more. I met one man, a veteran, who had a PhD in chemistry but decided to become a boxing teacher instead. Just because he enjoyed it more. There was even an early program to read classical literature aloud in cigar factories, so that the cigar rollers could benefit from education and culture while working.

    So it’s not necessary to treat education like some limited commodity available only to the select few. It is possible to have an entire population that is highly educated, even although some people (even with all that education) do take on more traditional “working class” jobs.

    1. Clif

      Indeed, Cuba is paradise from which no-one would want to leave.

      1. Laura

        I didn’t say that. I wasn’t saying that Cuba is a good place to live. Of course I stand in solidarity with the Cubans who are protesting for democracy and an end to the blockade. Of course I condemn the police violence against demonstrators and the suppression of free information, and the “vigilancia”, and so many awful things about the Cuban government. I only meant that Cuba’s experiment shows that it can be done. If they can make education free for everyone, so can we.

  36. Spencer

    …

    Holy shit, what if Dana’s at Ball State? That probably makes more sense than going back to IU.

    1. Clif

      That’s a thought.

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