#NeedsMoreLikes

[popobawa4u]

Definitely speaks truth to the paradox of superficial multiculturalism in a market/nation landscape.

@fuzzyfungus

Have you noticed how many of our ‘cultural identities’ require deeply not cooperating with some specified groups, internal, external, or both?

As long as ‘culture’ is just about everyone’s peculiar traditional food and funny costume, nobody has to get hurt(and sometimes not even then: if your traditional food involves breaking my purity taboo or is made from my sacred cow, literal or otherwise; or your funny costume is deemed deeply immoral); but that’s sort of the elementary-school show-and-tell version of culture. In the wild, culture always ends up having strong opinions on cool stuff like the legitimate foundations of power, preferred allocation of violence; and similar topics that are both deeply dangerous and don’t make for good compromise material(‘we can all just do our thing in parallel’ works for holidays; not so much for codes of law).

[chgoliz]

Congressperson admits he only works for himself

I noticed you did not end your post with a “/s” At first, I thought that was an oversight, but looking back, I think I would like to respond as if it were not. To re-parse Congressman Mullins’ remarks in the most charitable way possible, I’m going to pretend he said:[quote]Because I am a prosperous business owner, I am a net payer of federal revenues, even after you take into account my Congressional salary.[/quote] That is possibly, factually true. It would be the subject of an entire diff…

[milliefink]

California's charter schools: hundreds of millions of tax dollars for wasteful, redundant, low-quality education

I have taught for 16 years as a kindergarten teacher. I’ve talked to a lot of teachers that have worked at a charter school. Charter schools simply divert money from student services to charter school companies. All corporate charter schools siphon money from the schools they run. Charter schools have less money than public, so they have less resources for kids. Charter schools are a way to remove teacher unions and thus eventually be able to pay teachers less money. Paying teachers less i…

[orenwolf]

The sorrows of the US restaurant industry

Very, very high over head. And the tipping economy. Basically. Most restaurants rent their space, and commercial rents are always higher than residential. In NYC they can go as high as a million dollars a month. More typical is in the 10-50k range. To serve liquor you need a license, which is often expensive. But also pretty hefty liability insurance. Heating, and especially cooling restaurant buildings (you’re pumping tons of heat in there between cooking equipment and refrigeration) is crazy…

[Nightflyer]

Lawyer of Dr. David Dao schools United Airlines in fantastic speech

This really needs to be said. Over the past 15 years or so overall social control has tightened dramatically and become even more brazen. We’re constantly being monitored, being compelled into licensing agreements that require us to sign our rights away; what were previously considered benignly eccentric behaviors now summon the police as a matter of course; online hate mobs ruin the lives of people who express themselves in ways they don’t like; businesses treat their employees like ungrateful…

[nimelennar]

@Donald_Petersen

Anyway, this strikes me as a strange mixture of messages. For ages now, we’ve been encouraged to participate in the community by flagging. That implies that somebody wants us to take enough pride and ownership in the community to keep the sidewalks clean of dog turds and offensive flyers. At the same time, we’ve lately been discouraged from harboring any illusions that we have any actual stake in the place, that our presence is appreciated, that our care for the community matters.

Ain’t gonna have it both ways. The 2-tiered structure isn’t the important issue here. Keep it or junk it, whatever floats the landlord’s boat.

But if you want the community’s help in keeping this an awesome place, then how about encouraging people to appreciate the members who consistently bring the awesome. They don’t need stupid badges. They don’t even need super-exclusive treehouses.

A modicum of respect sure would be great, though.

QFT.   

[Auld_Lang_Syne]

And from reading a bit of that thread i see this one is also great:

Transparency - changes to the BBS

I feel like I should chime in here, as someone who has never made regular but still been part of the community for a long time. Right? Posters here have some vague familiarity with me? Fine, whatever, but I think someone should try to offer a tl2 perspective. And if that’s me, well, I’m not sure what this is fixing. There’s no question you’re right that I’m left on a lesser tier. But while I can say I’ve been interested in the regular areas, I’ve rarely resented them, not when access is plainly…

[Nightflyer]

Transparency - changes to the BBS

This. Potentially anybody could reach that level (or it could have been made possible for anyone to potentially reach it without favouritism by tweaking the criteria), but it took effort. People felt safer sharing because not every random troll could see those posts and anyone who wanted to do damage based on those needed to play a long game. I wasn’t on the “inside” for long, but what I saw was a supportive, welcoming group of people who cared about each other, even if they didn’t all like ea…

[Kimmo]

Young boy demonstrates intricate Lego safe to store his money

Young Billy’s Friend: THE ICE CREAM MAN IS HERE! Young Billy: I’LL BE RIGHT THERE! Young Billy spends 10 minutes retrieving money from Lego safe Young Billy’s Friend: He’s gone now. Young Billy: SON OF A #@&$%!!!

[TobinL]

Transparency - changes to the BBS

Agreed. Aside from the initial shock and sense of up-heaval, it seems to me that a helluva lot of all the sniffling and huffing on the part of some individuals who claim “the lounge was elitist” is just straight up sour-grapes that they didn’t/don’t bond well with certain groups of specific individuals; and I gotta say boo-fucking-hoo to them. It’s not anyone else’s fault if you ‘don’t play well with others’ or if your persona is somehow repellent, and blaming your feelings of rejection on t…

[redesigned]

Transparency - changes to the BBS

So many huge losses though. This is the Red Wedding: BBS Edition

seriously. this.

[anon68287401]

Request list to be deleted from partially, welcome thread, lounge archive

Can I just request that the pics I posted of me doing vodka shots with Trump and Putin be deleted? The ones of me, Putin, and Flynn can stay; I think the Times has those already, anyway.

[TobinL]

Transparency - changes to the BBS

I think people are noticing some cognitive dissonance between: Instead of “regular” being handed out according to public, algorithmic rulesets based on participation over time, it is now handed out based on private criteria determined at the whims of an individual? Instead of communicating in a “lounge” category which is visible to anyone who attains “regular” by the public, algorithmic rules, there is now a group of @regulars who communicate only in hidden PMs? At least in these two de…

[Melizmatic]

Brewers Association to "crack down" on sexist beer ads and labels

[image]

[davide405]

Interesting shirt from this weekend's Trump rally

Yes I am. I’m heavily involved in WolfPAC and other groups, and regularly meet with my state representatives. They’re probably sick of hearing from me by now, and if you give a damn about what’s happening to this country, yours are sick of hearing from you too. Well, yes and no. I can’t help being outraged on the internet, or in meatspace either, because this country just went tits up. It was actually tits up long before November 8th, but nobody listened to me then, and now that Donald Trump i…

[moosemalloy]

How can you live like this?!

Honestly? Bullying. I think you’ll find that capricious, powerful bullies, especially those getting their comeuppance are a regularly pilloried baddie on the bbs. Think about how wild the discussion was, especially on Reddit, when the United debacle went down. I think maybe half of the top 25 threads were on the topic. Everyone, pretty much, has experienced it during their lives and I guess we become fairly inured to the experience as we grow older, “dignity comes from within” and all that, s…

Great idea for a thread, and a great answer. So many of our social ills can be traced to bullying, and the tolerance (heck, often the overt celebration) of bullying.

[TobinL]

Man forced to surrender his "offensive Star Trek license plate

How about this conversation? Offender: [something someone takes offense to] Offendee: hey, that’s offensive! Offender: oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to be, why is it offensive? Offendee: [explains why it’s offensive] Offender: oh, I see. that’s understandable, but I was actually referring to [thing that isn’t offensive] Offendee: oh, I see. that’s understandable, but you might want to avoid that phrase now that you know people are offended by it. Offender: I sure will! People who say offensiv…

[Melizmatic]

Man forced to surrender his "offensive Star Trek license plate

[quote=“Bert_Difig, post:135, topic:100214”] I think assimilation is preferable to the previous current and historical reference of “Ghettos” where each sub-group lives separately. A lot of the anti-Jewish sentiment was driven by this lack of assimilation, moreso than any other single factor. [/quote]OK, I’ve weighed how to respond to this in a way that’s remotely acceptable socially and might not violate message board rules. Because my initial intended response … wasn’t, and would. What you…

[SenorSchaffer]

Code Pink activist laughed at Jeff Sessions, now faces a year in prison

It just amazes me that this makes it past people’s smell test. Some of the same people who were defending Coulter’s right to “free speech” (as interpreted as her right to be paid by a private entity to give a speech to a particular assembled group of people in a particular place) can say, “Well, Fairooz broke the rules so them’s the breaks.” The first amendment grants freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom to petition governments to address grievances. The law always cares more abou…

[anon26304152]

Death is freedom: Republicans pass Obamacare repeal bill

Truly they are “The Stepford Wankers”.