At the lowest level, it is possible to pull people in your peer-group out of shitty world views. It’s slow and difficult. But like I got an old coworker to be way less homophobic through our chats at work.
At the larger level, nah, fuck em.
WTH is a beat cop going to do though?
Enforce hierarchy
I remember once on a forum a big cis het guy was saying that he’s never seen cat calling on the street. Never him, and never at any of his friends. Someone pointed out that since he’s a big dude, he’s probably not going to be catcalled, and other shitty dudes are likely not going to bother people near him because of patriarchy.
To everyone’s surprise, he came back and was like “ok that makes sense. And I asked my women friends and they told me a lot of stories”
Rare to see someone change their mind like that.
I thought the conservative stance was that there’s no systemic racism.
I mean, there’s no limit to how stupid people can be. But I think a lot of conservatives like to say that the racism of the past doesn’t matter anymore. That a family that was enslaved 160 years ago (just beyond living memory now, but potentially someone’s great-great-grandparent), and then subject to Jim Crow and other cruelties through… generously the 1960s but realistically the 1980s, that family has no long lasting effects.
But really it’s important to remember that conservatives just say things. They don’t care about facts or truth. They care about power, and their emotions. So even if you proved that racism was systemic and had measurable effects (eg: The Color of Law), it won’t matter. They don’t care about facts. They care about feelings.
This is funny because many conservatives say things like “facts don’t care about your feelings”, but it’s well known that conservatives project more than movie theaters.
I was just told today that ai usage is a factor in hiring and promotion. They didn’t say the AI usage had to be smart.
My boss, to his credit, reportedly said something like “well, if someone is already good at python they might not need as much AI to do a task than someone who isn’t”. I don’t think management cared.
People are stupid emotional creatures. They don’t calmly evaluate if the thing is useful or practical. They see the in-group doing it and don’t want to be left out.
This was probably an advantage in pre-history. Our brains haven’t kept up with our changing environment.
Usually they have
So the game might say “get the laptop from the 2nd floor office”. An immersive sim will try to allow as many things as you could imagine doing in real life to achieve this
Contrast this with a more traditional game like Mass Effect. There’s typically going to be like one path, with maybe like one choice. You go in where they want, shoot the baddies, and get the thing.
I see this sometimes from a distance, even with children. The boys are wild and loose, the girls on a tight leash.
Unfortunately, trying to address that with the sledgehammer of The State is not easy to do safely.
I have a somewhat vivid memory of sprinting through NY Penn Station around midnight to get the last train home, back before I lived in the city. Was a deciding factor in me moving. Had to leave my friend’s Halloween party at like 10 to get the last train.
But public transport won’t make a handful of people rich, so that’s a non starter for many.
And you might have to reckon with living in a society, with other kinds of people. You’d really ask someone to ride a bus with a {slur of your choice} just sitting there, like they’re entitled to peace and dignity?
In other words, conservatives are fuck heads who make the world worse for stupid reasons.
Edit: fix autocorrect mistake
Also your local public library has a lot of stuff
I (a man in his 40s) pronounced Lathe wrong the other day in a meeting when referencing the le Guin story “the lathe of heaven”. Someone privately messaged me after to say “great book. BTW, it’s pronounced…”
That sounds like something out of Idiocracy. Just… it can’t all be highlights. Some things need to build!
I’ve encountered a surprising amount of seemingly intelligent, successful, people recently who of their own admission don’t read books. They just watch short videos, maybe a movie, and read social media.
I’m not a researcher but I expect that their vocabulary is stunted as a result.
But they’re so weirdly proud about it. Like a defiant 12 year old who doesn’t want to do his homework.
Some people are just… not okay. Something in them in broken. Perhaps it could be fixed, but we live in the bad place.
If it’s like before, eventually it’ll be just a vague “things were bad” like the gilded age or great depression. Humans aren’t great at learning big picture things.
The doing it doesn’t bother me so much as the “Hey so I was browsing through my downvotes and noticed you downvoted me. Justify your actions to me!” PMs.
That is not healthy behavior.
Well that’s consistent, if you accept their belief as true. Who cares about the mortal body when it’s a blink of an eye before eternal heaven?
Unfortunately, they are almost certainly mistaken. This is probably all they get.
A politician having a reputation for corruption and self-dealing is one of the few things that voters uniformly don’t like, and will actually act on at the polls.
I would have agreed with you before Trump. The power of conservative in-group solidarity is powerful, especially when multiplied by media support.
This is a joke, right?