POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[Motown Bombers]

3 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Back in your bad old day, a high school dropout could walk in the front door at Ford's or Chrysler's and get a job that would support an entire family. 😉

My father showed up to the Ford plant in Shelby Township in 1973 hungover and got a job and retired in 2003. He's been collecting a pension almost as long as he was an active employee. 

[gehringer_2]

13 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Back in your bad old day, a high school dropout could walk in the front door at Ford's or Chrysler's and get a job that would support an entire family. 😉

there is a definite tension over this kind of issue on a larger scale which I think drives a lot of middle/lower class frustration that has led to Trump. Society has both an obligation to the individual's rights, but also to social order, and I think there is strong undercurrent of feeling that we too easily sacrifice the social order rights of the many for the sake of the liberty of the few, who too often don't benefit anyway. That we have lost the 'ordered' part of the 'ordered liberty' concept of the founders. I don't necessarily want to litigate the truth of falsity of that sensibility, but just to recognize that it's something with a pervasive presence out there.

It's the lower classes that have to deal with the social dysfunction while the upper classes can go live in their gated communities and send their kids to private or gilded suburban schools, ergo  unpopularlity/resentment about politics considered liberal/progressive 'preaching.'

Edited March 25 by gehringer_2

[oblong]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

My father showed up to the Ford plant in Shelby Township in 1973 hungover and got a job and retired in 2003. He's been collecting a pension almost as long as he was an active employee. 

A friends dad wasn’t even a US citizen. He was born in Canada, never became a citizen, joined the army, got out and slipped through the cracks somehow. The UAW guy either did some paperwork shuffling or nobody cared.  Worked 45 years and is still going strong in his 90s. 

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

A friends dad wasn’t even a US citizen. He was born in Canada, never became a citizen, joined the army, got out and slipped through the cracks somehow. The UAW guy either did some paperwork shuffling or nobody cared.  Worked 45 years and is still going strong in his 90s. 

Careful, now ... you don't want to out the guy and get his busted and deported ... 😉

[LaceyLou]

25 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Careful, now ... you don't want to out the guy and get his busted and deported ... 😉

I know a couple of people who are going through that now. Both have been in the country for decades.

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Tigermojo]

45 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

After immigrants, who's the next target? It won't be billionaires.

[Tiger337]

19 hours ago, LaceyLou said:

I know a couple of people who are going through that now. Both have been in the country for decades.

I have got a whole bunch of international students who may be going through somethig similar soon if they can't get jobs quickly after graduation.  They have only been here a short time, but these are hard working, motivated students who could definitely help employers.  Many of them are from war torn countries, some are on asylum, so I have a lot of very anxious students this semester.     

[Tiger337]

27 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

After immigrants, who's the next target? It won't be billionaires.

People with disabilities? Elderly people?  They are not useful to billionaires.  

Edited March 26 by Tiger337

[oblong]

on the fringes of the conservative movement are people who think euthanasia will be an acceptable outcome for those who take too much from socieyt.

[Motown Bombers]

3 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

People with disabilities? Elderly people?  They are not useful to billionaires.  

To be fair, they publicly offered up the elderly for sacrifice during COVID. 

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Motown Bombers said:

To be fair, they publicly offered up the elderly for sacrifice during COVID. 

yes, they did. 

[gehringer_2]

6 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

To be fair, they publicly offered up the elderly for sacrifice during COVID. 

Got a point there.

[smr-nj]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

To be fair, they publicly offered up the elderly for sacrifice during COVID. 

Did they ever…. 

[chasfh]

Before they get to the rest of us, they have to dispose of the independent media, academia, community leaders, and opposition politicians—you know, troublemakers.

[chasfh]

Take THAT, stupid sexy libtards! 

 

[Tigerbomb13]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Take THAT, stupid sexy libtards! 

 

Fancy libtards with their fancy teeth

[smr-nj]

16 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

Fancy libtards with their fancy teeth

Ok, that just made me snort-laugh. 😂 

Post of the day. 🏆

[chasfh]

This is political and cultural not just because of the decrepit state of the US health system, which is bad enough taken on its own, but also, this is related to both a cultural anti-intelleculism that practically shames people for knowing about and embracing concepts like good nutrition and exercise, and to a culture that stresses individualism over community, a word too close to communism for some. 

 

[gehringer_2]

26 minutes ago, chasfh said:

This is political and cultural not just because of the decrepit state of the US health system, which is bad enough taken on its own, but also, this is related to both a cultural anti-intelleculism that practically shames people for knowing about and embracing concepts like good nutrition and exercise, and to a culture that stresses individualism over community, a word too close to communism for some. 

 

I could be wrong, but I'd estimate the two things killing Americans at XS rates in recent years have the opioid epidemic, and the fact that Americans are epidemically obese. Not sure why it's so much worse here than in other developed countries, but we are a stunningly overweight nation, and right down to the elementary schools now.

[chasfh]

51 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I could be wrong, but I'd estimate the two things killing Americans at XS rates in recent years have the opioid epidemic, and the fact that Americans are epidemically obese. Not sure why it's so much worse here than in other developed countries, but we are a stunningly overweight nation, and right down to the elementary schools now.

I might hypothesize in response that the opioid epidemic is strongly correlated to the individualism issue, and the epidemic obesity is strongly correlated to the anti-intellectualism about diet and exercise.

[oblong]

Our portion sizes are too large and we're a consumer culture.  There's also an element of not being wasteful and "eat everything on your plate" as a thing of honor instead of eating until you are full.  "Starving kids in China" etc.   My special needs son will eat anything you put in front of him, especially vegetables, but is good at stopping when he's full.  But if you tell him to eatmore, he will.  Plenty of times we've had to correct my mohter in law for trying to make him "eat all of his fries"  No.  He's fine. 

We have too many restaurants and other eateries and they have to compete with each other.  Even when I was a kid 40 years ago eating out was a rare thing.  I admit it myself, I get lunch on Tuesday from my favorite local deli, a breakfast on Friday morning from our bagel place.   We go out as a family most Saturdays, and when I visit my mom on Sunday I get her Taco Bell because she's 95 and needs to eat something hearty and their power bowls are good for her.   I walk across the street to KFC and get a chicken sandwich.  Mobil apps are awesome.  But now we have door dash and uber eats teaching young peole they can get anything they want whenever and it'll cost more but they've normalized that cost.  So they're being wasteful and unhealthy for a barely warm meal from Chipotle.

 

[Tigermojo]

Processed food. Too many calories packed into a little cube.

[gehringer_2]

35 minutes ago, chasfh said:

epidemic obesity is strongly correlated to the anti-intellectualism about diet and exercise

If there is reasonable correlation between educational attainment and obesity that would go toward your case. The confounding factor would be that in the US, cheap food tends to be unhealty food and you get a cross correlation with income.

[chasfh]

6 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

If there is reasonable correlation between educational attainment and obesity that would go toward your case. The confounding factor would be that in the US, cheap food tends to be unhealty food and you get a cross correlation with income.

Anti-intellectualism is less an educational attainment issue and more an general American cultural issue. You know that. You live here.