I was corpo brainwashed when I was younger by Walmart, my malleable brain bought into the anti union propaganda and I was at a friend’s house and said something anti union and his dad, a proud union member shot me the fuck down which caused me to actually go out and research what unions do and the history and everything and now I’m a progressive.
I’m in HR and am fascinated by the fact many union workers voted for and will likely again vote for Trump, despite it being so fantastically clear it’s against all their economic, legal, medical, safety and employment interests. The UAW is focusing on these voters right now, something like 50%(!) of UAW union members support Trump. Outside of misinformation, racism, xenophobia, or misogyny, I can’t see why they would vote for him or how their interests would align. Religion is an answer but of course, Trump is as religious as he is coherent.
I think the vast majority of unions out there are good, but there are definitely a select few that give the rest a bad reputation.
At one of my previous jobs, our union was one of those that gives others a bad reputation.
It was a seasonal job, we had to pay the union whether we wanted to be in it or not. If we had an out of season work meeting for training, all of the money that we earned would go straight to the union and we might end up with a $2 check (if that).
We tried working with the union reps, but they just seemed so out of touch with our group. They would give themselves a big pat on the back for getting everyone a 2% raise and then raise the monthly dues… We barely made minimum wage so a percentage increase like that meant nothing to us.
10 years later and most employees working there are still just earning minimum wage while similar jobs in other cities nearby are earning twice that (at least).
When Covid hit my wife was super afraid of Long Covid but I thought that shit wouldn’t get it. Now I’ve been living in my bed for two years because I’m too weak for much else. Yeah, changed my mind about that one.
A friend of mine was in a similar situation. He’s by no means an antivaxxer, but he was skeptical about the covid shot due a lot of public misinfo (rushed, mRNA vaccines not having a proven track record, etc), and his stance was in effect “At some point, but right now we don’t know enough about the long term effects”.
Then a friend of his ended up with long covid, and I think it dawned on him that we don’t know the long term effects of the illness itself either.
I’m happy to share that he’s now up to speed on all of his vaccines, covid and 5G included.
I used to say ‘people can learn anything online but they might be too lazy’ which is partially true. Then, when covid hit, I realised my brain did not have the capacity to learn for too long when watching a screen; I had just been lucky with having blended modes that aaccomodated well.
I think that it’s more of a type of content issue rather than the method of learning.
Think online university lecture vs a random dude doing crazy experiments on YouTube
Sure, the lecture covers more content and does it in a more comprehensive way, but you will probably still learn some stuff from the crazy YouTube dude
Yeah, partially. There is amazing content out there (Jenny explaining relational algebra in YouTube shout out!).
But I also discovered that my brain has a limit for how much information I can process in that way. So blended works better for me… But I will never fault anyone for not being able to make online education work for them.
A few years ago deciding I actually didn’t owe my dad my participation in our relationship.
I used to be what Americans call libertarian. Capitalism and free market ftw. I thought it would lead to a freer society.
At some point I understood that the consequences of capitalism lead away from what is actually my real goal - maximizing the liberty of each individual. If someone is afraid if they can afford food and housing they can’t really be free.
Now I support certain types of socialist policies with the same goal.
I personally split the difference now. I think if the hive mind was completely rational, liberty/ancap must work in principle.
But propaganda, and moreover just how much violence people are raised with even still on average in western households, let alone the insane variance in parenting quality from China to the hyper religious Middle East to the current lead-filled (or micro plastic filled?) brains of Trumpers to the insane gang violence of Mexico and South America to the total rape of the continent of Africa… prohibits there from being any volume of rationality required to make it possible for at least another 200 years.
…except before 200 years we will have needed to solve for all of our global crises anyway to avoid extinction (at least there is a non negligible chance)—and thus some mix of socialism via the state, and the “market” AKA Earth dying, with the occasional bout of rational zeitgeist, is the only way to save Earth and explore the stars.
