Privilege and Responsibility

[ashbury]

Yup, broken.

If that's the way to describe it, it's been like that since before my dad was born, and he's almost 100. The sly jokes about Harvard vs Yale by Mr Howell on Gilligan's Island did not go over viewers' heads.

 

What's changed lately is the unrelenting pressure on all students to get into that one Dream School.

[TheLeviathan]

 

If that's the way to describe it, it's been like that since before my dad was born, and he's almost 100. The sly jokes about Harvard vs Yale by Mr Howell on Gilligan's Island did not go over viewers' heads.

 

What's changed lately is the unrelenting pressure on all students to get into that one Dream School.

 

I'm just saying, there is nothing about college right now that's not broken.  Some things have been broken a long time, we've just found some interesting ways to make it worse.

[ashbury]

I'm just saying, there is nothing about college right now that's not broken.  Some things have been broken a long time, we've just found some interesting ways to make it worse.

It definitely is a complex issue. Dirty hands all around. I'm expecting a lot of focus on these Hollywood Elites, when the problem goes so much deeper.

 

One of the "duped" schools has already issued an advisory that one of the sports coaches has been fired and all others will be scrutinized. All that was missing was a statement from them that they were shocked, SHOCKED.

 

[TheLeviathan]

 

It definitely is a complex issue. Dirty hands all around. I'm expecting a lot of focus on these Hollywood Elites, when the problem goes so much deeper.

 

One of the "duped" schools has already issued an advisory that one of the sports coaches has been fired and all others will be scrutinized. All that was missing was a statement from them that they were shocked, SHOCKED.

 

 

Right, the Hollywood focus is going to be the wrong angle.  The colleges were all to willing.

 

The best they can say is that they are utter morons.  And they might be that for how ridiculous this is on a number of fronts, but we have a ton of corruption going on with colleges and much of it surrounds athletics.

 

Might be time to just do away with that connection.  Or divide the academics and athletics much more cleanly.

[TheLeviathan]

 

At no point was Westbrook threatened. For him to threaten the man AND HIS WIFE is out of control.

Westbrook doesn't take a word back. He claims to have "defended his family"

Make me understand how that is a rational though

 

Westbrook probably wasn't being rational.  He shouldn't have said that.

 

He also shouldn't have dealt with that clown at all.  He should've been tossed and I hope whatever lawsuit he brings he ends up paying the legal fees for Westbrook.

[LaBombo]

 

 

What's changed lately is the unrelenting pressure on all students to get into that one Dream School.

 

This is one of the more confusing things to me about where things stand today. There are a bunch of great schools out there and yet there are relatively few instances of a particular degree from a certain school making anyone a lock for a highly sought-after position.

 

On top of that, social media and employment websites have leveled the playing field at least a bit (and in some cases dramatically) in terms of making connections and getting those first internships/interviews/etc.

 

Given those factors it makes me wonder how many entrance chasers really have their heart set on what a certain school can teach them, and how many are just looking for the prestige and the bragging rights that go with being able to say "I/My kid got into _____"!

[LaBombo]

 

Westbrook probably wasn't being rational.  He shouldn't have said that.

 

He also shouldn't have dealt with that clown at all.  He should've been tossed and I hope whatever lawsuit he brings he ends up paying the legal fees for Westbrook.

 

Unfortunately for Westbrook, even before this incident he had made it hard to give him the benefit of the doubt. He blew up at a fan just trying to take his picture after a game vs the Jazz last season.

 

Well, one answer would be to just leave the seats in a 30 foot radius around the players unsold, and let the owners, players, and fans share the burden of the lost revenue...

[Mr. Brooks]

Westbrook probably wasn't being rational. He shouldn't have said that.

 

He also shouldn't have dealt with that clown at all. He should've been tossed and I hope whatever lawsuit he brings he ends up paying the legal fees for Westbrook.

I'm not taking either side, but why is the fan required to act rationally and not Westbrook?

"He started it" seems a little too elementary school to me.

[TheLeviathan]

 

I'm not taking either side, but why is the fan required to act rationally and not Westbrook?
"He started it" seems a little too elementary school to me.

 

Neither of them acted well.  And several players are siding with the taunts being racist.  The dude's twitter also says Westbrook should "go back where he came from"

 

Paying for a seat doesn't entitle you to act like an *******.  No human being is perfect when taunted and Westbrook should've just had the guy removed and not taken it into his own hands.

 

But we use "who started it" in a legal sense all the time.  It might feel elementary school, but it matters.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I’d say things have been broken a long time, but more recently it’s been a special kind of broken.

 

In the 1980s, the NCAA gave SMU the “death penalty” because the football team was paying the most talented poor kids to come play for them.

 

More recently, schools like Penn State and Michigan State were harboring child molesters in their athletic departments that for decades the schools pretended not to know about. The NCAA punishment for those schools was, what was it again, exactly?

 

So many people in so many of these institutions nowadays have no souls, no intelligence, or none of both. Not talking about the perpetrators; talking about the leaders. Universities, media, corporations, government, sports teams, you name it. People leading these institutions are certainly not where they are because of merit. It’s gotta be be something else. Privilege is as good an explanation as anything else.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Also, I’m great at parties.

[PseudoSABR]

 

This is one of the more confusing things to me about where things stand today. There are a bunch of great schools out there and yet there are relatively few instances of a particular degree from a certain school making anyone a lock for a highly sought-after position.

 

On top of that, social media and employment websites have leveled the playing field at least a bit (and in some cases dramatically) in terms of making connections and getting those first internships/interviews/etc.

 

Given those factors it makes me wonder how many entrance chasers really have their heart set on what a certain school can teach them, and how many are just looking for the prestige and the bragging rights that go with being able to say "I/My kid got into _____"!

It looks like cult-like motivation to me.  Members of a cult aren't rationale about that membership or signing their children up for that cult.

[TheLeviathan]

Cult-like is probably right about college.  Many of us were hammered on that point in high school - higher wages, "have to go to college", taking tests for it, taking classes for it, etc.  It's only gotten worse, now many schools (including my own) use programs like AVID that hammer college readiness to kids in kindergarten.  

 

This problem is only going to get worse unfortunately.

[Badsmerf]

No universities being charged is a joke. Ignorance is a terrible lie. They should be held accountable too.

[PseudoSABR]

 

No universities being charged is a joke. Ignorance is a terrible lie. They should be held accountable too.

They may face some liability for students who weren't admitted, especially those who may had their admittance withdrawn (such as an actual athlete who was set to make whatever team).

 

The universities are the victims of the fraud (as BS as that might be), if they had known, they're might not be any fraud/crime here (beyond the bribes obviously).  (It'd be like the donor giving a building in exchange for favorable admission; unseemly but not illegal).

[PseudoSABR]

I'm not sure I buy into this chart, but I think it's compelling in that it implicates indifference as part of the problem.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I'm not sure I buy into this chart, but I think it's compelling in that it implicates indifference as part of the problem.

I don't think it's particularly helpful but I'm not sure, either. We need to draw a straight line from indifference to hate but I don't think this graph really does it convincingly. 

 

Also, I don't have a better graph on hand so I'll shut up now.

[PseudoSABR]

 

I don't think it's particularly helpful but I'm not sure, either. We need to draw a straight line from indifference to hate but I don't think this graph really does it convincingly. 

 

Also, I don't have a better graph on hand so I'll shut up now.

I think for many on the right, they refuse to see privilege or racism as a spectrum and only want to acknowledge it at it's most extreme.  If they don't 'hate' a group, they believe they should be insulated from being called racist, even though with every vote and every talking point they seek to diminish policies that help disenfranchised groups.   That's broad brush, but for my part, the indifference and the self-centered policy choices are a huge part of the systemic problem.  

[TheLeviathan]

 

I think for many on the right, they refuse to see privilege or racism as a spectrum and only want to acknowledge it at it's most extreme.  If they don't 'hate' a group, they believe they should be insulated from being called racist, even though with every vote and every talking point they seek to diminish policies that help disenfranchised groups.   That's broad brush, but for my part, the indifference and the self-centered policy choices are a huge part of the systemic problem.  

 

I'm not a fan of that chart, but I agree with this.

[Mr. Brooks]

And now those two men are innocent of assault and Smollett was an "active participant".

 

False victimhood has been around for awhile, but social media is gas on that fire. This was outrageous and an insult to real victims.

All charges against Smollett dropped.

Another example of rich people getting away with whatever they want.

[TheLeviathan]

 

All charges against Smollett dropped.
Another example of rich people getting away with whatever they want.

 

What in the ever loving hell?  Reading the article in the Chicago Tribune was....baffling.  I can't make sense of any of the reasoning.  They dropped all charges so they could get 10 grand and "fight the gun problem"?  WTF?

 

I'm always battling where the lines get drawn between the role of poverty and race in holding back so many people.  Then stories like this happen and it makes me wonder if money is the end all, be all.

[LaBombo]

 

What in the ever loving hell?  Reading the article in the Chicago Tribune was....baffling.  I can't make sense of any of the reasoning.  They dropped all charges so they could get 10 grand and "fight the gun problem"?  WTF?

 

I'm always battling where the lines get drawn between the role of poverty and race in holding back so many people.  Then stories like this happen and it makes me wonder if money is the end all, be all.

 

On NBC's "Today" Show, his attorney reconciled Smollett's account of his attackers' whiteness and the Nigerians' known involvement by helpfully suggesting that they could have been wearing whiteface under their masks.

 

So... that pretty much cleared it all up for me.

[ewen21]

Rahm Emmanuel blames Donald Trump for the Smollett saga. Says he created the climate for this kind of thing to happen.

 

Funny how that works. Wear a Make America Great Again hat and somehow you're a purveyor of hate, looking for trouble. People are getting Jays snatched and kicked out of establishments for "Make America Great Again"

 

It's actually astonishing

[PseudoSABR]

 

Rahm Emmanuel blames Donald Trump for the Smollett saga. Says he created the climate for this kind of thing to happen.

Funny how that works. Wear a Make America Great Again hat and somehow you're a purveyor of hate, looking for trouble. People are getting Jays snatched and kicked out of establishments for "Make America Great Again"

It's actually astonishing

I know MAGA's wholesome message has totally been misconstrued!  

 

I don't agree with any one-to-one assessment. But since Trump's presidency, things have gotten a lot more divisive and extreme.

[NumberThree]

 

Rahm Emmanuel blames Donald Trump for the Smollett saga. Says he created the climate for this kind of thing to happen.

Funny how that works. Wear a Make America Great Again hat and somehow you're a purveyor of hate, looking for trouble. People are getting Jays snatched and kicked out of establishments for "Make America Great Again"

It's actually astonishing

 The way I look at it is, there is a subset of those wearing MAGA hats who are purveyors of hate, who have miscontrued the message to mean something far more heinous. Not everyone who wears a MAGA hat is a purveyor of hate, and shouldn't automatically be suspect, ever. However, when someone who is wearing one is standing outside my polling place, chiding me as I enter ... it's going to make me wary from which subset they come.

 

What I want from Trump ... and should be automatic from any president ... is a denouncement of that hate and heinous activities. I want him to say, 'If you are going to wear my hats, do not behave that way because that is not what my hats stand for.' He has yet to do so. Furthermore, he has normalized and equalized those who partake in such crimes against humanity. While I am a fairly tolerant person, some things should never, ever be tolerated.

 

And since you threw Rahm Emanuel's name in there as some sort of comparison to Trump ... he is no saint either and has quite a lot himself to answer for.

[TheLeviathan]

I hope this case gets blown up. The after-the-fact interviews with the lawyer have me wanting Smollet put on a witness stand in a court room. I could have accepted a guilty plea and a chance to make amends. Now I want this toolbag and his terrible lies punished furtheror exposed with evidence. He doesn't get to hide from this act for ten grand and then flaunt publicly.

 

Feds had reason to look into his phony letter, time to let them look at that and prosecutorial malfeasance.

[ewen21]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2019/03/27/school-bus-aide-suspended-for-snatching-maga-hat-off-teens-head/amp/

 

Why are people emboldened to do this? WHY should anyone need to feel guilty (or even explain themselves) for wearing that particular hat?

 

Specific to the link I posted, I'm seeing WAY WAY more of these kinds of incidents than I am any wild eyed reactionary MAGA hat wearing guys preventing anyone from peacefully going about their business.

 

This assumption that it's "racist" is problematic to say the least

[PseudoSABR]

 

Feds had reason to look into his phony letter, time to let them look at that and prosecutorial malfeasance.

I agree the Smollet case is fishy, but if this the case where the Feds start looking into prosecutorial malfeasance, I'll be pissed.  Prosecutors have been playing loose and fast for decades, and many of those who crying bloody murder, didn't give one wit, because it merely disadvantaged the poor and the disenfranchised. 

[PseudoSABR]

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2019/03/27/school-bus-aide-suspended-for-snatching-maga-hat-off-teens-head/amp/

Why are people emboldened to do this? WHY should anyone need to feel guilty (or even explain themselves) for wearing that particular hat?

Specific to the link I posted, I'm seeing WAY WAY more of these kinds of incidents than I am any wild eyed reactionary MAGA hat wearing guys preventing anyone from peacefully going about their business.

This assumption that it's "racist" is problematic to say the least

Because you're running in circles/visiting websites that purvey in the MAGA-as-victim is why you are seeing more.  Are you denying MAGA associated hate? Do you find Trumps message and rallies wholesome?

 

I'm really tired of the conservative white man as victim theme that keeps being brought up at every opportunity. 

 

Honestly, I've said this before, if you condone policies that disadvantage disenfranchised people, if you don't speak out against white supremacy, if you support a President who has said racist things and makes a war on refugees, well, in my book, you are a racist.  If you want to romanticize a time where women and minorities had less rights, less power, less influence, your a racist/sexist (what else does MAGA mean, other than this?).  Maybe not the worst kind of racist (hate, violence) but one who through either silence or implicit support helps keep inequities systemic and divides in our society deep. 

[ewen21]

 

Because you're running in circles/visiting websites that purvey in the MAGA-as-victim is why you are seeing more.  Are you denying MAGA associate hate? Do you find Trumps message and rallies wholesome?

 

 

Wrong.  I found this one just logging onto my computer (I think my home page is the generic Microsoft).

 

As far as his rallies go, whatever.  I have not had one swing through my neck of the woods, nor have I felt compelled to attend one.