It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you!

Stargate, obviously.

The invisible IT department is right next to the shadow IT department.

Next week they’re both being outsourced.

A lot of advertising is built around making consumers feel good for buying particular products, not convincing them to buy in the first place. Debate in this context would be useless because it’s more about confirmation bias than coercion.

Bookmarks are where projects go to die.

If you want your tea to actually be drinkable and not taste like just bitter water, you don’t use boiling water. A proper electric kettle allows you to set the water temperature to 85, 90 or 95°C.

And taste like a decade of old, burnt, low grade hotel coffee.

Also, Chinese tourists everywhere.

And god forbid you ever have to be near any of the Saudi royal family.

All the rules are written in blood.

I went down to the beach and saw Kiki…

Nice save, and a fantastic PSA.

Also I’m a big fan of sleeping on a problem as a path to a solution. I’m not sure how exactly that skill develops, but it’s definitely something that I’ve done a few times over the years.

What are you going to do with half a pirate flag?

3-2-1

3 copies, 2 onsite, 1 offsite.

Personally I think that every mistake is a teaching opportunity. In this context, rather than try to sweep the racism under the rug of history as quickly and quietly as possible, I think changes should be made but in a way that invites people (especially children) to ask questions about the background of the traditions and why those representations of persons of color are problematic and should be changed. Without this it just looks like an attempt to cover up and deny the existence of the past forms of discrimination, which especially does a disservice to people experiencing present forms of discrimination.

And also, maybe, dealing with these things should not be fast or easy.

Nothing about this is imaginary, because in some ways these problems haven’t changed much. There is value in spending time on it in the present.

All of that said, I am a white guy from North America, not a POC from the Netherlands, so my input is just an opinion.

the last twenty years or so there is a different battle going on between team “Dutch tradition” and team “kick out zwarte Piet”. Both of these last two teams are obnoxious, and would choose confrontation over dialogue every day of the week. This has resulted in a conflict with no end,

Social conflicts like this are never about solutions but about performance, for the sake of getting attention. Ending the conflict would end the attention.

where it would have been easy to phase out the blackface character with no fuss in a short time.

Hmm, by removing Piet and thus hiding the traditional racist representation of black people, or by whitewashing him?

The other leg is AWS. If both go down, it’s stone knives and bearskins.

*edit: somebody beat me to it

Teflon Don, even semen won’t stick to him.

The statement in your posted image frames the interaction in question (“small talk”) as purely transactional. I am working inside that context. You seem to be drawing “understanding” from some external context which has not been presented here.

people who value small talk assume every stranger is someone to value and attempt to connect with

Strictly based on OP, people who value small talk assume every stranger is someone who needs to be assessed as a possible threat, and must “prove that we can get along”. They might be someone to value and attempt to connect with, but that is indeterminate until tested. The small talk is the test.