Well quite.
Your response highlights one of the hundreds of fallacies in these arguments (I’m 45, parent of a six-year old, son of two 70+ year olds - where do I fit into this?)
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Well, less education sure doesn’t help the problem. But a lot of Turmp supporters received a pretty generous public education, and even a shitty K-12 education represents (by American standards) a pretty big chunk of public money. Which leads me to an axe I have been grinding since 2016, which is: why do we all talk like voters have a right to behave like someone who couldn’t graduate third grade?
Isn’t the entire point of public education that, in a democracy, it is compulsory for every citizen to at least try to be smarter than an animal? We pay for it precisely so that, if someone makes Turmp-level arguments in the public conversation, we don’t have to tolerate it, because we have made sure they don’t have an excuse for being that dumb. In short, we pay quite a lot of cash to make sure we don’t have to pretend morons are our equals. I wish people who work for the New York Times could grasp that.
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Education in America isn’t about education; it’s about childcare, esp for the laborers who serve plutocrats (in many cases, laborers without proper Immigration Status) and it’s also the only place any vestige of the American welfare state exists – food for kids, medical supplies, etc. Educating children is, regrettably secondary to warehousing them in the name of giving their parents time for several minimum-wage or lower jobs that won’t support a family.
If you gave high school students a Civics education, parents would complain. And that means lawsuits, which is the final problem with the Public school system: Educating students is job #2, after “Avoiding Lawsuits.”
You could fix education in America, but the amount of money, effort, and responsibility it would ask of voters would never let it happen.
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I’m surprised that you think people know what an ‘astroturf campaign’ is.
We’ve had a few on Nextdoor agitating for reopening–at this point the majority of the most vocal ones have been exposed as not local.
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Well, there’s your problem. I tried Nextdoor, and after the fifth or sixth thinly-veiled (at best) racist rant in a week, I gave up. I do miss the twice-daily entreaties regarding lost dogs, but somehow I’ll soldier on.
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One of the prominent Michigan protesters was doxxed as a proud boy, so of course this is an organized effort non-grassroots effort. This is the ur-fascist mirror universe version of the freedom riders.
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In TV crime dramas, they always look for the killer returning to the scene of the crime.
In these protests, you can instead rule out attendees as the organizers. The responsible are far away in secure isolation.
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Been looking for that Treme clip! Thanks for posting it. So sadly useful these days.
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Already knew this the moment they showed up. It was Americans for Prosperity Charles Koch and a few other ghouls.
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I’m not surprised by that. What I’m surprised by is the fact that the site where that article has been published is Forbes. The site carries water for so many pro-capitalist and pro-Trump causes that it’s mind-boggling that that got put on the site, let alone past its editors.
Hey! That’s my idea, almost. I say set the age of retirement -10 years; here in Canada, I think it’s currently 65, so every 55 and older can retire now with no penalties. Calculate all benefits, retirement savings plans. etc. as if those 10 years have actually transpired.
Voluntary? Mandatory? I dunno. Maybe additional bonus incentives to increase participation. Cost? I dunno. Someone smart with the accounting skills might be able to do a SWAG calculation.
And 45-54 year olds can retire as if they were 55 now; clawbacks & etc. for early retirement. But still possible.
If lots of people take this early retirement, many jobs are freed up for the younger generations. I hear they weren’t too happy with their socio-economic position pre-COVID-19; I doubt it’s improved things any.
Newly retired can teach or mentor the younger generations as they restart the economy in a slow, orderly fashion. Maybe we olds can even let them figure out how the economy should work. It’s their future, after all.
Note: I’m just a random idiot on the 'tubes, un-educated beyond dropping out of college. So the above is probably unworkable for many reasons. I’d love to hear them.
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These days, lot of Forbes is basically Medium with a nameplate: blogs of uneven quality.
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I did a double take a couple of years ago when I searched for help with some esoteric mechanic in Pokemon Go, and the most helpful result was an article in Forbes. Happens all the time now. I have no idea what’s going on.
Forbes has basically become a content mill. Anyone who pays can get an article under their brand name. Some articles are helpful, some are BS, all are surfaced on Google because SEO has transcended editing and curation as the company’s core competency.
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