rruff
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2019
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I agree on all your basic points - as well as some others recently posted. To add or contrast I suggest the following.
1. Sure, there are individuals that can rise above others with the same opportunities. But the greater majority will not achieve nearly as much as those with greater opportunities. Pointing out outliers is but another way to claim we don't need to do better.
2. It's true this country has better opportunities than many others. But most of our undocumented immigrants come from pretty bad places. And not just economically. I don't see us wanting to building walls today to keep the throng of EU citizens seeking more opportunity. Even Trump admitted that when he said he wanted more Europeans and fewer people from s**thole countries.
3. Discrimination has always existed in the US and it still does. But today it is directed more at brown and black people. Anyone that can't see that needs to talk to a few racial minorities now and again. Failing that, check the statistics. Even if we are starting to clean up some of the worst of it, the effects will take generations to overcome. Wealth, opportunity, education, and culture are all inherited and the results, both good and bad, stay with people for generations.
I especially want to agree with Rruff on (Honestly I think both "sides" are simply reacting to the intense manipulation going on. If we actually had a true dialog rather than a fake/manipulated one there would be no problem.) While I may think one "side" is much more manipulative that the other, I agree that both are guilty of keeping us in our respective tribes. How any of us are not outraged when the politicians admit to not passing needed legislation that would be good for the country because not to do so would be better for their political ambitions escapes me.
OK. That's my one daily post. I find I am a happier man keeping my participation to a minimum.
We've steadily made progress, and at this point poor blacks are happier with their lives and prospects for the future than poor whites. Even though the data should be available in the surveys, I wanted to find happiness by both race and income across the board and failed... but I suspect blacks are happier than whites at other income levels as well. Overall, If you are concerned about racial prejudice and want to do something, at least take your lead from the consensus of the race you believe you are supporting! BTW... by "you" I don't mean you personally!
"Drop in Racism Explains Happiness Increase David Leonhardt writes, "The most obvious [cause of the shift] is the decrease — though certainly not the elimination — in day-to-day racism. 'The decline in prejudice has been astounding,' says Kerwin Charles, a University of Chicago economist who has studied discrimination."
https://www.theatlantic.com/nationa...ericans-are-happier-and-whites-aren-t/344172/
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-are-black-poor-americans-more-optimistic-than-white-ones/
https://www.xminstitute.com/blog/us-wellbeing-fluctuates/
A major issue with this divisive fear-mongering rhetoric, is that both "sides" are letting the most extreme fringe dominate the message and grow. So we have both sides fighting the fringe of the other, and no one is stepping back and saying to their own idiots "whoa there, that's nonsense... chill out and have a beer."
The "right" fanatics are preparing for a civil war. They believe that the "communist left" fanatics are cramming a bunch of things down their throats that they don't want, and they are getting close to the breaking point. The lefty fanatics believe that they should be free to angrily shame, cancel, and censor anyone based on their perception of morality, and pass laws in support of their ideologies. And if you don't like it, you are evil. The "right" are mostly religious, and have their own ideas about morality, which are not going to change in a hurry. And these are things they will fight about violently if pushed... and they have all the guns.
We have made great and steady progress towards social equality and freedom for all, that seems to be completely ignored by the left these days. For instance the recent trope that the founders were immoral because they didn't abolish slavery. The truth is that they were not idiots and knew they needed a consensus to even start a country, and the southern states would have never joined. Social progress takes time. We did eventually fight a bloody and horrendous civil war over the subject of slavery... something I don't think any other country has done. The reason why it was difficult to abolish slavery in the US was because a large part of the country relied on slaves for manual labor, and they were right in believing that abolition would devastate their economy. Also, the Bible condones slavery (even in the NT), so it's really tough to convince a Christian that it's inherently evil.
We are being manipulated into a conflict that will accomplish nothing but the establishment of a totalitarian state. The oligarchs would love that since they could do away with the pretense of democracy. Oops! No, that isn't what we wanted! Too bad, you blew your chance... and it's only going to get worse from here....
