Ontopic Poo-litical Thrad

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and? That note tho.
 
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I have to wonder if negotiating rates for medical procedures wouldn't be easier if we removed payers and middle men altogether.
I started to type up a big long thing here to "yes, and" what you said, then it got way too long so I decided not to finish it, but if I don't post SOMETHING now that I've started it, the novel I began will keep showing up in my reply box and I'll accidentally post it half-done next time I try to reply to something else here, so here's my "yes, and" without the and :lol:
 
I started to type up a big long thing here to "yes, and" what you said, then it got way too long so I decided not to finish it, but if I don't post SOMETHING now that I've started it, the novel I began will keep showing up in my reply box and I'll accidentally post it half-done next time I try to reply to something else here, so here's my "yes, and" without the and :lol:
You should be less self conscious.
 
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Won’t someone please think of the snowflakes, I mean white people.




The bill offered the following 12 examples of "divisive concepts."

1. One race, religion, ethnicity, or sex is inherently superior to another race, religion, ethnicity, or sex;
this one's not so bad by itself, I'm actually fine with it, but I'm confused and bemused because based on the full list of "divisive concepts," I think the people writing this think that teachers are teaching that people who aren't white dudes are superior & tbh while there are some people who think so, that's never really been a big part of any of the stuff they get into further on. alternatively, this these first parts may have been included to make it seem like the point of the whole thing was to be egalitarian, rather than about protecting white men's feelings, which the list goes on to make fairly apparent it really is.


2. An individual, by virtue of the individual's race, religion, ethnicity, or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;
people aren't inherently any of those things by virtue of the group they belong to in the sense that someone born that way in a vacuum is no more or less likely to be a whichever-ist. but, we're not born into a vacuum, we're raised and subjected to influence from families and friends and media and institutions and society. people who are born into a given society are not born with a predisposition toward the -isms that prevail, but many people learn them, consciously or "unconsciously." this one is DEFINITELY about protecting white men


3. An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual's race, religion, ethnicity, or sex;
like #1, this one is fine prima facie but given the full context it makes me think it's 50/50 they're fearmongering or covering their asses


4. Members of one race, religion, ethnicity, or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race, religion, ethnicity, or sex;
refer to items 1 and 3


5. An individual's moral character is necessarily determined by the individual's race, religion, ethnicity, or sex;
refer to items 1 and 3


6. An individual, by virtue of the individual's race, religion, ethnicity, or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, religion, ethnicity, or sex;
this is the second one where they drop any pretext about who they're looking out for here, because it's clearly referencing this weird idea people have that discussing the effects of historical racism to understand how they have affected society and how we got where we are today is about shifting blame to today, and that's not it. like, despite my extremely tenuous grasp on temporal constraints, I am fully in understanding that someone born today bears no responsibility for the things that came before them. what they think is happening is, "white people used to own slaves, and you're white, therefore you are responsible for slavery." what is actually happening is more like, "some white people used to own slaves. that had lasting and cascading repercussions on many Black people that are still felt today. we are all responsible for doing what we can to not perpetuate this, and understanding how we got here provides the necessary context to do that." obvs super simplified, but their whole thing here is a strawman.


7. An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual's race, religion, ethnicity, or sex;
see #6, but exchange the responsibility bit for the idea that they're teaching "white guilt." this also ties into discussions on privilege, which is frequently misunderstood as (or intentionally twisted into) being about things you're given based on your {group} and that you should feel bad about it, but it's actually more like, some people have been subjected to bad things because of their inclusion in {group} that you may not have (and if you have, it likely hasn't been because of inclusion in dominant {group}), and you should be aware of it because it's easy not to notice if you haven't been personally affected; and these all exist on axes that can overlap. I'm going to get more specific here with some examples because it is getting confusing trying to keep it general - in most places in America, white people don't have to wonder if they're being followed around the store by the LP person because they're white - they may still get followed around the store by the LP person, but it's unlikely that their whiteness was the impetus for that. if they are visibly poor, it's possible that their visible poorness was the impetus. in this case, the person may have "white privilege" (which is really more like "not-being-Black privilege"), but they do not have "class privilege" (which is really more like "not-being-poor" privilege). having any particular privilege does not insulate one from the other oppressive axes, and it does not mean they can or will never suffer from any of the same things, but if and when they do, it's unlikely to be solely influenced by their inclusion in the privileged class.


8. Meritocracy, punctuality, proper language usage, free markets, and traits such as strong work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race;
lmaoooooooo some of these are just so fucking obvious, like they got to #8 and they just decided to drop any pretext at all, especially the punctuality, "proper language usage," and work ethic ones. Jesus wept.


9. The ideology of equity of outcomes is superior to the ideology of equality, a concept enshrined in the Constitution of the United States, of opportunities;
... so we can only talk about equality in terms of equal opportunities, but we're not allowed to talk about the disparity in opportunities (see: several other items on this list). k.


10. Mathematics and scientific empiricism are products of western civilization and thus are rooted in racism;
lmao what? first of all, math predates western civilization & the earliest evidence of mathematics comes from ancient Mesopotamia & Egypt, and we use Arabic numerals. I feel like the people this whole thing was geared toward punishing would be more likely to teach that "western civilization" doesn't have the monopoly on these and didn't invent them. there are definitely ways we have used them to push an agenda of -isms, like phrenology, and understanding that is actually super important for developing an understanding of how science and data can be misunderstood or manipulated.


11. The Commonwealth or the United States is fundamentally or systemically racist or sexist; or
:oopsie:

12. Capitalism, free markets, free industry, and other related economic systems are inherently racist.
they're not inherently racist, they inherently benefit the ruling class, it just so happens that the ruling class in America is and always has been predominantly rich white dudes, but we can't talk about any of that bc #11 and every other number on this stupid fucking list.