Phoenix_person

As I said, I've never worked any place where qualifications would be a deal-breaker. The thing is, DEI specifically was never strictly about hiring practices, that was affirmative action. The latter was a precursor to the former. DEI sought to ensure that hiring practices were fair and that the people who were hired were treated fairly and set up for success. As you said, it wasn't a perfect system in practice. But in a country that still has some very racist pockets and that is trying to erase an entire demographic of 2M+ people (the trans community), I think there's still a need for DEI. You may not agree with trans people being trans, but I would hope that you can agree that being trans shouldn't be a barrier in obtaining or keeping a job that the person is fully qualified for. DEI exists to protect the most vulnerable among us, which might be why people from privilege struggle to see its value. I guess I'm just not seeing the reasoning behind axing DEI altogether instead of trying to reform it. I think both sides of the aisle get overly stuck in "all or nothing" thinking sometimes, and it's giving some of us whiplash.

You should ask Minneapolis leftists what they think of Tim Walz. Some of the answers may surprise you. My impression of the Dem response to George Floyd was that they wanted solidarity and justice without violence. There were far more cities (like mine) with peaceful protests led/attended by local political figures than there were ones that saw violence, and I never saw any Dems condoning or encouraging the violent protests. I've seen elected Republicans push hateful WRT-fueled views. Yes, the photo above is cringe-worthy. I wouldn't call it hateful, personally. Pandering, absolutely. And maybe that's all the Gab folks were doing. Personally, I don't trust people who pander to racists and nazis. Can you be more specific? Cringe-worthy, to say the least. But I don't know that I'd compare it to people pandering to literal Nazis. This place isn't hateful or a cesspool, but it does stress me out sometimes. 😅

I'll concede your point on this one. I'm not going back for screengrabs, and it's been over 3 years since I've been active there. I was there to stir the pot. The politicians I saw there were not. That much was clear to me. If you want more than that, feel free to swim in the cesspool yourself. As for me, I'm perfectly capable of observing when political figures are overly welcome in nazi spaces and when they are not. I don't expect you to take my word for it, but that's going to be all you get from me. I turned my back on that particular online activity for a reason. That place is vile, hateful, and not worth my time. But I know what I observed there. Sometimes you have to get in the mud to see the dirt. I'm done playing in mud.

This might be a tomato tomahto thing, but I'm curious what you would call it. Reaganomics was about more than tax cuts, sure, but the tax cuts were a crucial part of it.

I'm not sure that I quite understand what you're asking. If I've ever found myself spread thin at work in the past, it's been because of a lack of qualified employees and completely unrelated to DEI. This was highlighted during COVID when a lot of service industry workers left the industry altogether. People burn out easily in that line of work when there isn't a global pandemic. The restaurant I worked at ended up hiring virtually anyone who'd ever worked a summer job at McDonald's. It was messy, but restaurant work often is. At my most recent job at the now-shuttered Spectrum call center in town, *I* was the DEI hire. I had no prior experience or qualifications for that job, they were clearly trying to fill a quota for veteran hiring. To their credit, they had an excellent training program, and I think I could have done well there. I ended up leaving because the promise of a schedule more favorable to seeing my son ended up being fruitless, and it turns out I would have been laid off anyway. FWIW though, that was culturally one of the best workplaces I've been in, lots of terrific people from a very wide range of backgrounds. I just wish the hours had been more favorable. It's hard to justify less time with my son for a job when I already get $4k/mo from the VA. Keep in mind, I've never worked a job where a college degree was required (because I don't have one). A lot of the work I've done in the past can be taught to virtually anyone with a GED and a decent head on their shoulders. As I said, work shortages in my workplaces were usually related to lack of applicants.

Also, now that I think about it, one of the elected officials over there on Gab is none other than Trump's favorite frat boy, Matt Gaetz. Those fringe extremists were a sealed ethics report away from having an AG in their pocket.

You don't think internet Nazis have day jobs? And as I said, the reason Gab had my attention at all is because it had attracted elected officials and Trump chums like Roger Stone. If your congressman or state senator was hanging out in Nazi cesspools, I assume you'd have thoughts on that, correct?

Gab's founder is a white nationalist who proudly wears the label of anti-semite. He pushes "white replacement theory", a racist fear campaign I've seen parroted by elected officials. White nationalism has its foot in the door of your party. It's in DC. It's in multiple state legislatures. You know why qanazis vex me so much? It's because of stuff like this:

And I don't know that I've ever met a leftist who honestly believes that merit isn't important at all. That's the point I was trying to make. Because yes, the conservative views I mentioned are very extremist, and a dime a dozen on places like Gab, which is used by current elected members of our government. I misread your post as saying that compound interest was the reason for the entire attack, not the reason for the specific target. My mistake. FWIW, I am very aware of the Muslim beliefs about interest. It's come up in some of my organizing work, spearheaded by Somali residents and mostly in the context of housing. So yes, there's work being done around it. But I suspect that marginal, regional progress is probably the best we can hope for.

I've encountered conservative circles that think women and ethnic minorities have no place in civilized society. It's a good thing I don't limit myself to interacting with only one field of conservative thought.

The idea that merit has no place alongside DEI is a conservative lie. There's plenty of room for both to coexist. It doesn't always work put that way because humans are flawed, but I suppose having Fox News personalities in high government positions goes to show that traditional meritocracy isn't immune from human error either.

I think 9/11 was about a lot more than compound interest.

Dems had a good reason for getting vocal about corporate taxation starting in the 80s. We've had 40+ years of Reaganomics, and this is where it's gotten us. From the article: And that $181B is just at the federal level. The two main state-level issues that we're working on are 1) Opposing tax incentives for new data centers, and 2) Eliminating state funds from the reinsurance pool that health insurance companies use to help cover high cost claims without jacking up premiums. It's basically additional insurance for insurance companies. As someone with a multi-million dollar skin repair job, I can certainly appreciate the need for such a fund. I just don't think taxpayers should be footing the bill for a multi-billion dollar industry, and Minnesota is one of the few states that has it set up that way. Most states don't have a reinsurance program at all, and most of the ones that do make insurance companies pool their own money.

I agree with you, to be clear. I just don't think eliminating compound interest is a realistic goal right now. Greed is too deeply entrenched in every aspect of our financial system, and the people who benefit the most from compound interest have themselves deep in the pockets of politicians of both parties. You'd have just as much luck abolishing credit cards altogether.

FWIW, CATO could most accurately be described as Libertarian, though I find that their economic analysis tends to be overall very balanced and well thought-out. Generally speaking, the conservative playbook is to cut spending programs that benefit the poor to enable tax cuts for the wealthy, the leftist playbook is to do the exact opposite, the liberal playbook is to try to subsidize both classes, and the libertarian playbook is to subsidize neither and eliminate taxes altogether.