During an appearance on "Morning Joe" on Wednesday morning, MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend expressed shock that another damaging video of Republican Party vice president candidate J.D. Vance has surfaced which will force the campaign of Donald Trump to remain on defense.On Tuesday another clip o...
  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    My issue is not solving economic injustice, however, it’s getting to a functioning democracy.

    Very hard to function as a democracy when a single wealthy patrician can command the economic future of millions of registered voters.

    people should be allowed to decide for themselves what their own interests are

    Deciding what to do matters little without the means to accomplish it. It means even less when you’re deprived of the education and opportunity to know what your options even are. That goes beyond simple critical thinking. You need a real vibrant economic community, one in which “freedom” means the ability to pursue a career and a station irrespective of ethnicity or gender or religious affiliation.

    What if the MBA guy cheated through most of his schoolwork to get his MBA? That would not necessarily be merit anymore.

    At some point, you get what you measure for and the degree becomes the definition of merit. But I’m less worried about a guy who cheats on a midterm than I am about the capable student who is never admitted in the first place, on the grounds that they aren’t of the correct pedigree.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Again, perhaps, but I think you’re again grossly exaggerating the problem in order to justify some kind of dramatic change. Not that significant change is not necessary, but I do not see economic reform fixing our country if basic critical thinking is not addressed first.

      There’s going to be no revolts seizing the means of production any time soon, which means we require voting for politicians that an American will find amenable. Nobody can perform any positive economic reform if we cannot get our facts straight first. Nor would we be effectively coordinating very much civil action.

      Sure. I was just pointing out that when you said the following it was utter hogwash:

      Aligning the ideals of the cook with the crook means establishing certain long term social expectations and assumed rewards. “Oh, one guy has an MBA from Wharton. They must just be better than the other so that’s why they get more stuff” fits within a rigorous critical analysis wherein elitism is considered a function of meritocracy and certain human lives have more value than others. The executive can go to the grave thinking they deserve the surplus profit extracted from all the base-pay line cooks under their thumb. The mere capacity for critical thinking doesn’t change that

      It doesn’t actually work that way, and nor should it. A degree is not a guarantee of merit, it cannot be and thinking it is one is foolish. You cannot engineer a system reliably enough to genuinely make that consistently true. There will always be far too many independent variables that cannot be accounted for. Additionally, there are logical, self-serving reasons to engage in more pro-social behaviors that sufficient critical thinking training can help you arrive at.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        There’s going to be no revolts seizing the means of production any time soon,

        We’ve had a unionist revival threatening the foundations of dozens of industries.

        • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          I don’t know about the foundations, but yes, I have been glad to see the strengthening position of labor in recent years.