Know a guy.
I am the guy with the truck.
The truck is proof that Americans can and will accept socialism.
It’s brocialism.
A.k.a. community
"What if we had a system where people could get the assistance they need. We could call it… Communityism.
But see, it’s not fair if people just get what they need! You need to make sure people are paying for it!
We can make it part of the system that each person gets help according to their needs, but each person also gives help according to their abilities. Yes yes. This is now definitely capitalism because it’s transactions.
This is now definitely capitalism because it’s transactions.
Capitalism has nothing to do with transactions. Capitalism would be if the truck was owed by Benny, who would not show up, not fill it up with gas, not repair it, but would still receive half of pizza and 2/3 of beer.
You are correct that I was not describing capitalism.
I was participating in the silly by creeping closer to full communism and still saying it’s something else.And I’m not sure why Benny would only get half and 2/3s respectively. They owned the truck, so they’re the one that did the moving. The others are just employees.
I’m pretty sure they were referring to From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs which most definitely is not capitalism lol, it’s a joke
This is now definitely capitalism because it’s transactions.
I get the rest of the comment dude, its the last sentence that is problematic.
the last sentence is a joke… because what is being described is socialism. How is that problematic? lol wat?
It’s not really capitalism without the involvement of capital, is it? It’s more akin to a trade-and-barter-economy/society, where everyone involved should have a high level of faith in others
I’m pretty sure they were referring to From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs which most definitely is not capitalism lol, it’s a joke
TIL, thx
Is it not what anarchy is really about? Low-level self organization.
We do socialism all the time.
Neighbors bring each other gifts. Friends feed one another. Someone is struggling and we give them what they need, no questions asked.
That’s not really socialism, given that it is not universally distributed but depends on one’s social connections. A socialist system would have impersonal mechanisms for catching those who fall through the cracks due to not knowing enough people to ask for and repay favours. (And those people do exist: “everyone knows a guy with a truck” except perhaps for a socially isolated shut-in or someone who does not speak the language, or someone who does not fit in with the community in their truck catchment radius.)
I am also the guy with the truck. But I do not drive 5-speed manual very well. So the truck lives at the house of my friend who is good at driving manual. He’s kind of my Tony, I guess. The truck is indeed a community resource of anyone we are decent friends with.
Ease the clutch out at the same rate you put on the gas. Just a nice smooth up and down with both feet at the same time, like you are pedaling a bike, but with 2 tons hammering around you.
No matter where you come from , once you can say “I know a guy” you’re an American.
I may not know a guy, but I know a guy who knows a guy
You got a guy guy? Nice
It’s amazing how many different species of Knowaguy there are. I recently was introduced to a friend’s “Bridge Guy” - a dealer in surplus bridges who will cut you a suspiciously good deal if you seem cool. Not the most immediately useful, but like… Could be damned handy to have in my back pocket should the right circumstances arise.
I’ve needed a bridge guy twice in my life.
Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that its happened twice.
Be careful acquiring bridges from a guy. I’ve heard that can go horribly sweet awry and quickly.
I am that guy
It still counts!
I say “I know a guy” and if said guy were american he’d be in prison lmao
Societies that run on favors are corrupt societies.
Societies that run on neighbours, friends, acquaintances, and that guy over there helping each other out in exchange for sharing pizza and beer afterwards are wholesome societies.
I think I didn’t say it how I meant to say it. I meant in a political sense, there’s no law, just who you know.
I think what you originally said makes sense in the strictest sense. Technically, not favors. The payment was pizza.
In Frieren, the main hero would always charge a “fee” even to the poorest people who needed help. Often at the cost of totally worthless items because “now they don’t owe me”. The transaction is complete, no furthur obligation. Even “token” fees are better than ambiguous favors imo. Thats where I usually charge the friend price of a meal for most of my services.
Depends on the favors. Moving furniture for others in exchange for a portion of a pizza isn’t a problem.
No not that
A society that operates on an assumption of mutual support is generally just called anarchy.
And societies ran on capital with different tiers of classes based solely on the situation a person is BORN into is certainly the more just and appropriate way to organize a society? It definitely couldn’t be one based on mutualism and equity, no sir.
/S
Favours need to be paid back. This story is about paying it forward.
The Truck guy receives no financial reimbursement for his time, fuel and wear-and-tear, but the helpers are not paying back someone for the help, they are paying forward.
Corruption is where someone is collecting financial gain without a commensurate amount of effort. A contract “Man with a Van” who gets paid to move goods is more able to abuse their role for extortion or corruption than a loose social group of “Bloke with a Ute”.
Thanks for explaining
The American lower-working class economy is predominantly favor and goodwill-based, yes. Pain in the ass sometimes but also more fun imo. Community is important to keep alive.
Not just American. It’s poor people’s economy everywhere. American working class has more in common with working class in every other nation than American wealth class. The real division in the world is class division, everything else is distraction.
This exactly. There’s an inversion when having money is more convenient than having contacts and doing small favors, and that inversion turns people into lonely cunts.
Incredibly wealthy people also run their society based on favors and unspoken fees. The difference is, one of them could, under unusual but not impossible circumstances, help a friend and a guy move a fridge and share a pizza and beer. But nobody who’s not part of the incredible-wealth society can participate in its favors. And we all pay the fees.
I don’t see what about this that makes it a “working-class” thing? I thought it was common practice to help each other out in exchange for pizzas and beer in any part of society where people have friends? I see it primarily as an excuse to hang out while doing something together.
Whenever you can afford to pay to have a problem of yours solved, it’s often the most convenient way of solving it.
Anyone who makes their living by working, either for salary or hourly rate, is working class. Let’s just be on the same page about that.
A working class person basically survives by converting their time and energy to cash. So paying cash is also paying with your labour, indirectly and often inefficiently. It’s always a matter of “is it worth it”? Hiring movers for moving your entire home may be worth it, just one piece of furniture often isn’t.
A wealth-class person gets their income from what they own. Its “passive” from their point of view, the money just appears as profit or capital gains or whatever. It’s still a limited resource, but often way more available. Any kind of favours you do or ask for at this point is purely for fun/social purposes since hiring someone to move that sofa, or even just buying and having a new one delivered is way more convenient and time-efficient, since your money is not literally your time.
Anyone who makes their living by working, either for salary or hourly rate, is working class. Let’s just be on the same page about that.
Aha! That’s where you got me! I was thinking “working class” in the more classical sense, referring to typical lower-paying jobs. I work for a living, but I’m definitely closer to what is typically considered “middle-class” in the sense that I make enough money that I feel well-off, but not enough that I could buy a new sofa just because moving the old one is too much hassle.
Obligatory “Fuck the wealth-class”. “Passive income through ownership” is a convoluted way of saying “parasitic”.
Congratulations, you’re part of the working class. Your wealth comes from work you do with head and hand. The epstein class want you to think of yourself as middle class, so you’ll feel threatened by the working class. There is no middle class. They take, and we pay. That’s what class is.
I agree with pretty much everything you’re saying here, I still want to comment on
Middle class does not exist
I do think it’s a reasonable term to separate those that actually make a decent salary, are self-employed, own their own company (at which they work) together with others, etc. from the more clearly exploited workers that have far too few rights and are not compensated fairly.
I have no problem with selling my labour for money as long as I’m fairly compensated for it. Historically, the working class has not been.
I have no problem with selling my labour for money as long as I’m fairly compensated for it.
If you are working for a salary, you are never fairly compensated. If you received the value you actually produced, your boss can’t make a profit. Profit is only possible by a exploitation.
The intensity of said exploitation is a spectrum, there is a huge difference between having some savings and disposable income versus barely surviving. I also make a decently comfortable living as a software engineer but I’m still a crippling accident away from losing it all and depending on disability benefits.
Even if life is good for you at your income level, you’re still getting scammed to a (much smaller) extent. And the Epstein class use the money they scam off you, to control society. Money has this mathematical effect where it wants to accumulate in one place. It’s like a kind of economic gravity. Any inequality will magnify itself over time if it isn’t carefully controlled by government.
Social democrats think good enough regulation can preserve that very-slightly-inequal system forever. But I say that kind of setup is inherently unstable. Capitalism will always trend towards inequality over time. Instead of trying to control money and make it go against its nature, we should abolish money. A gift economy would be better.
There’s an Spanish song about that: El vals del obrero (the worker’s waltz)
(Translated with Reverso. Sorry for the possible mistakes)
Proud to be (Proud to be)
Among the proletariat (Among the proletariat)
It’s hard to make ends meet
And have to sweat and sweat
To earn our bread
And this is my place, these are my people
We are workers, the preferred class
Therefore, proletarian brother, with pride
I sing you this song, we are the revolution
Yes, sir! , the revolution
Yes, sir! , Yes, sir! we are the revolution
Your enemy is the master
Yes, sir! , Yes, sir! we are the revolution
Long live the
I’m sick to death of leeches
Those who steal my dignity
My life is consumed by enduring this routine
Who drowns me more every day
Happy businessman, more calluses in my hands
My kidneys are going to burst
I don’t have a fucking buck, but I’m still paying in
To your welfare state
Up!
In this democracy, there is a lot of smart money to be made
Squeezing our social class
They don’t give a fuck if you have fourteen children
And grandma can’t be operated on
We are the workers, the basis of this game
In which he always loses the same pringao
A well thought out game, in which we are kept quiet
And they fuck you if you don’t want to play (Up!)
That was the ancient economy, before money even existed. You gave stuff to people. Bread, pots, meat, build a cabin. They gave stuff back that you needed, roughtly about the same value, but never exactly the value. Everybody has to be a little in debt to anyone else. If you gave back exactly what it’s worth, it means you don’t want to deal with that person anymore.
Yeah, this is the gift economy. And when the only economy is the gift economy, that’s called communism.
Shh dude, don’t tell the american working class that they are doing communism, because communism is bad, you know.
This was surprisingly funny and surprisingly positive for something to do with Americans.
Americans are a very friendly people, all things considered. The whole smiling at everyone you see, helping out strangers for fun thing is not universal. Thus, this post.
My partner is from America, and visited Australia for two weeks to see Me. We spent two weeks going on dates together, visiting cool places like the museum, the zoo, a local pirate bar, an escape room. My partner says Australians are much friendlier than Americans and we smile more.
I could believe it. It’s not that it’s unique to America, or anything. But like I’ve read stories about Dutch people for instance thinking Americans on public transportation were simple, due to all the smiling and the like.
There are a lot of ‘good cunts’ in Aussie, for sure.
Its tricky when grumpy or upset but that’s a human thing - often they’re better at expressing it
(Bear in mind, this is all coming from a kiwi male - I’m scared of my feelings or expressing stuff generally)
it’s hard to remember that the average person is a human just like yourself
That ending was damn near wholesome. Also I think my favorite part of the whole thing was “the pizza is not negotiable.”
As a Canadian who owns a truck, I think this may just be a North American thing. I am the guy that is referred to when one says “I know a guy”.
In central Europe it’s just like “I know a guy with a trailer” or a hitch and you rent a trailer. Or as a last resort or maybe an urban thing, you hire a moving truck and still call upon your friends to load and unload and pay in beer and pizza/döner.
Ignore religion, politics, and hard drugs and this is just normal.
I miss work for trade…
You just took care of a guy and when the time came, he took care of you.
“Today you… Tomorrow me…”
You just took care of a guy and when the time came, he took care of you.
I mean, thats just how it still is in my village. It does not seem to be a particularly endangered way of living and rather the norm in rural areas.
This is the way
Non-toxic Masculinity
Except women also have those connections.
The price may be different, like a baby blanket for their neice.
Men doing something negative is readily called toxic masculinity. Men doing something positive however can’t be non-toxic masculinity because women do something similar but different…
Is it really that hard for you to admit that masculinity can be associated with positive things?
Some people just hate men and can barely contain that. They may not even know it themselves.
I don’t hate men, but masculinity is a millstone.
There’s a difference.
Elaborate, because your eagle-eye poetic view just seems like a rewording of misandry.
Men are fine. Masculinity in 2026 as an ideology or a cultural institution is a problem.
Men exist in concerning numbers who submit to the manosphere logic, who follow the far-right influencers I’ve mentioned, who vote R because letting the libs win is effeminate. And curiously, conservative, tradwife-minded women don’t like them much either.
Manhood as expressed in media isn’t much better, with scriptwriters diegetically presuming the alpha male model is a valid theory. (It’s been debunked even for wolves.)
There are plenty of men who do not submit to these notions, and generally they tend to not be concerned about expressing their manhood or being seen as inadequately masculine. They are more concerned about being adult or being functional than being manly.
Men are fine. Masculinity in 2026 as an ideology or a cultural institution is a problem.
Is this more or less stating “Men are fine as long as they aren’t masculine?”
You’re going to have to define what “man” “woman” “masculine” and “feminine” are in your mind then, because that statement doesn’t logic with any of those definitions that I agree with; it’s like saying “water is fine as long as it contains no H2O.”
All the virtues associated with manhood in the 1970s and 1980s turned into general adulting in the 1990s and aughts.
In 2026, what it is to be a man is asserted by social media personalities like Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan, the Tate brothers. The conversation on masculinity is dominated by the manosphere on social media and far-right television.
Expressions of manhood are on full display when Josh Hokit disparages Michelle Obama, when Trump intervenes in the world cup to cancel a red card and lift the one game penalty on Folarin Balogun. Or when US Representative Max Miller doubles down on his innocence in a video making common DV gaslighting arguments in the face of credible abuse allegations, on the presumption that his MAGA base won’t care and will still vote for him.
Masculinity in 2026 is demonstrated when you discharge your strength in malice or cruelty or bad taste to show the world you are beyond the reach of consequences, or do not care what consequences occurr.
But sure. I’m AMAB and have been criticized for half a century for being inadequately masculine. I’ve been repeatedly bullied and disregarded because I’m a wuss or a wimp. But I’m still game. I’m still open to an argument:
Tell me of a positive human trait that is particular to men that is not also expected of women by our society?
I’m not saying good men don’t exist. To the contrary, there are plenty. But I am saying what makes them good is not a feature of their masculinity, rather it’s a feature of being a functional adult in a (rapidly deteriorating) liberal society.
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, you’re right lol. My only sticking point is that your phrasing kind of implies masculinity being characterized by dominance is a more recent development. bell hooks had a whole book breaking this down in 2003, and there were mens rights movements (that develolved into the proto manosphere) in the 70s and 80s who noticed this and tried/failed to redefine masculinity. Early feminist works identified domination and “whatever a.woman isn’t” as defining features from the jump. Nothing you’re saying is new or controversial, and there’s decades of rigorous, scholarly work validating it
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were traits that were positive traits characterized as masculine. Only with time as the workforce got integrated, and as women got more personal autonomy (such as property rights), we noticed women, too, could man up and take responsibility. In fact they had to.
Through my thirties, my model was Captain Jerry Lawson in Wargames, (here on YouTube) an air force missileer who was run through a surprise missile drill, and refused to turn the key and launch a nuclear strike against the USSR. The capacity to hold vast power and not use it (or to use it judiciously and proportionately) was highly prized during the cold war.
See also, The West Wing s01e03, A Proportional Response (also featuring John Spencer!). Bartlett is emotionally caught up when an attack by Syria kills someone he knows personally, and his cabinet has to reign him in.
See also To Kill A Mockingbird, specifically when Atticus Finch has to put down a rabid dog at range with a rifle.
Women are also capable of holding responsibility and not using it, so I still hold the capacity as a virtue, it’s just no longer a man thing.
And then in the Trump era, we’re seeing an awful lot of men who have immense power and clearly should not be trusted with it. Trump’s fire and fury speech regarding the conflict in North Korea was an early portent to the rest of us of his later decisions to misuse US military might.
Indeed, after Trump’s first term, we learned that he had called to use nuclear weapons more than once, and his military cabinet deflected his orders every time.
During his second term, I don’t know if those safeguards are still there, or if he’s still as eager to use the US nuclear arsenal.
Tell me of a positive human trait that is particular to men that is not also expected of women by our society?
Tell me of a positive human trait that is particular to women that is not also expected of men by our society.
Ultimately there are things that men tend to do that are positive and there are things that men tend to do that are negative. This post is an example of the former.
In other words, you’re over-complicating things because a handful of jackasses want to redefine what being a man is, and you declare that because they exist there cannot be anything (left) that is masculine. That makes no sense and is caving to their whims.
That handful of jackasses dominate social media in contrast to their opposition counterparts, and it’s creating a public divide between the sexes, hence the 4B movement and the choose the bear thought experiment.
I don’t know to what degree this factors into the observable trend that zoomers are having less sex and less romance than prior generations at their age. (I’m sure the affordability crisis is a major factor.) But in the US in 2026, our exemplars of masculinity are demonstrating they are entirely transactional and only understand the power of brute force.
And it’s going to be a long, long time before stereotypes of masculinity change for the better.
Feel free to set a counterexample. Plenty of men do. And we need more of them. But when they do, they’re not demonstrating what it is to be a man. They’re demonstrating what it is to be a functional adult in a cooperative society.
I also think society gender roles should be abolished, and that every gender identity (including non-binary ones) should be respected.
You’ll have no disagreement from me that there’s far more profit - and a resulting niche of people capitalizing on that - in teaching kids how to be masculine in a toxic way.
My point is it simply doesn’t follow that all forms of masculinity are toxic any more than all art is AI because AI art is on the massive rise.
I will grant you I’m referring to what popular culture teaches us masculinity looks like. I’m taking my cues from what social media is popular, what US cinema has to say about masculinity. But that’s because it’s also about the expectations of displays of manhood, what we are obligated to do if we’re real men.
There’s also this video (on YouTube) from J. Draper and PBS which asserts that there’s been a masculinity crisis for about as long as there’s been a moral panic about new fads corrupting our kids (id est, always), that there have always been pundits and editorial correspondents saying that men are becoming too effeminate.
One source I haven’t yet been able to tap is what trans men have to say about masculinity, because to them social expression of their gender is super important. But I don’t know any trans men well enough to stop and ask them.
If you don’t know a Kevin, you definitely know an Ashley. And Ashley knows everyone who has a grandma with a group of retired friends who are itching for something to do.
Men can also do feminine things. What’s your point?
Absolutely
If the guys that frequently move furniture describe you are “strong for your size”, that is a powerful compliment.
I love positive masculinity.
It’s so refreshing to see goodvibe things from the US :D
This is the way.
You engage in the economy of helping people to move stuff. One person has a dolly, another has a truck, they come, they move the thing, you pay in pizza and at least one IOU of “I’ll be there for you next time”.
When the time comes you are enlisted, you go, you help, you recieve pizza.
The cycle continues.
This is the way.
This is the only way.
I am “the guy” at my kids’ schools. I love it. When they need a last minute volunteer for something, they know how to reach me.
Clay pigeon signal hits the night sky
PULL!
Fyi, if you are moving one piece of furniture, sure get the truck guy and a couple buddies. If you are moving ALL your stuff, hire movers. (Unless you and your buddies are in their 20s)
If you are moving ALL your stuff, hire movers.
In my experience, that’s what Dad is for.
It starts with Dad moving you to and from dorm rooms. Then apartments.
When my wife and I moved to our house I hired movers. It was a lot easier and not terribly expensive.
When my wife moved her business to a new building, my mom told me my dad insisted on helping us move, so I didn’t hire movers as I had planned. When we were moving the tons of furniture, cabinets, and massive boxes stuffed full of files, my dad mentioned that my mom told him I had asked him to help me move. I have never been able to determine why my mom manipulated us into nearly killing ourselves.
Now I’m the dad. I’ve moved kids to and from dorm rooms and apartments. I’ve rented trucks for huge moves. My daughter and I are moving a couch, a dresser, an end table and all her cooking utensils on Saturday.
Not only do I have a truck, I also have straps, furniture dollies, moving blankets, mattress bags, etc.
My most recent purchase was a shoulder dolly. If you haven’t seen one, picture two harnesses with a wide strap running between them. Two people squat on either end of the item being moved with the wide strap running under it. You take up the slack in the strap, and just stand up to lift it off the ground. It’s a game changer.
I’ve become my own moving company.
You are the exception, and bless you. Yea shoulder dollies are cool as hell, I only know cause I hired movers a time or two.
Youd get along with my older brother. He is also a one man moving company, even having worked for moving companies and having his own side hustle as a mover/guy with truck/guy with plastic wrap and dollies etc. Id use him when moving, but when it comes to chores he is a fuckin nazi ill never ask him unless its important.
There’s a point in your life where “all your stuff” is maybe two non-IKEA pieces of furniture that your parents forced on you when you moved out. And then there’s the point at which “all your stuff” fills a 1600 sqft ranch house and half of it is made out of granite for some reason.
Just, baseline, ignore the meme. If you have to move a refrigerator down a flight of stairs, this is no longer a “buy me a pizza” tier work.
Moving a fridge down a flight of stairs is easy enough – who’s your dolly guy?
This reminded of the time my family used me as the mover in my teens. We moved to an old apartment and I had to move almost all the furniture 5 stories without an elevator. If I try that today I’ll most likely give my last breath on the first stairs.
I fucking love these.
My favorite is the Waffle House: https://wandering-nobunaga.com/stories/a-waffle-house-at-three-in
There is more?! Thank you for linking this!
My friend is a ring leader for these types of guys. He knows like 15 guys with a truck and at least another 30 with arms. He’s able to get a lot of projects done around the neighborhood.
Yeah, I was Tony last week. But instead of pizza I was paid in beer. Good deal, would do again
I fix people’s computers in exchange for food.
Printers, I execute for free.
Me too! I trade repairs for food all the time If it’s a big job, I do it for the price of parts and a trip for ice cream. It’s a good deal.
I am not sure what executing a printer means and it seems the other commenter has the answer or is equally confused.
Printers are of the devil and must be purged
I genuinely don’t understand why printers are so shit. Like we have a 3D printer that looks like a pile of bolts put together by a drunk person (which is was) that creates pretty much any object you tell it to with seemingly no trouble at all. And those are a relatively recent invention. Meanwhile, the 2D printer has decades of advanced technology behind it and looks like a sleek white sci-fi cube, it’s only job is to put words on a fixed-size sheet of paper (the thing that the Gutenberg press was doing in the 1400s) and it fucks it up about 60% of the time.
I was always the guy with the truck. For a couple years I was the guy with the minivan with no back seats in lieu of a truck, but now I’m back to being the guy with the truck amongst my circles. I didn’t know how much I liked being that guy until I wasn’t.
I am the guy with a ute (Australian for truck) but I dont come with. You can borrow it for as long as you need, it comes with a full tank and it comes back with one.
Its a bit of a heap but it starts every time and runs all day. I cant justify the yearly expense to keep it around for the dozen or so times a year I need it. But my friends and neighbours get great value out of it so I do.
