Anybody buying this media fueled COVID-19 bull schitt?

[Burkey]

Perhaps "indoctrination" is a bit harsh. Influence, is likely a bit more fair, I suppose.

My answer may fail to satisfy your curiosity, so I will try to keep it short.

I have experienced this influence first hand. For myself, and my kids as they went through our public schools (in a few different States due to moving for work over the years). My father-in-law was a professor of economics (in the Bible Belt), and a devout socialist, that even sported a bust of Karl Marx on his work desk at home. He himself confirmed that our educational institutions were loaded with left-leaning educators (note that I am not saying Far Left... though of course, there are some). Small sample size though I admit.

People of the left-leaning variety tend to gravitate towards educational institutions in higher numbers than those conservative. I believe this is true (likely fact), but am not going to take the time to try and dig up cited studies (at least for now).

Humans are biased.. some more than others. Youngin's can be rather gullible. Mix that with education, particularly at the collegiate levels, and you may see why I believe this so.

I appreciate the response, I probably should’ve worded my question more succinctly.
I agree with most of the sentiment you’ve expressed above.
My question would be, what are the ideals that these lefty’s are promoting?

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[Jimmy Dean]

I appreciate the response, I probably should’ve worded my question more succinctly.
I agree with most of the sentiment you’ve expressed above.
My question would be, what are the ideals that these lefty’s are promoting?

The largest is that of equality, that people should have equal results, whereas the conservative viewpoint is that everyone should have more equal opportunity. And this view is certainly different in different colleges in a university. the Arts department espouses equality of results, where the average results for those degrees is very poor. whereas the engineering and other STEM colleges promote equality of opportunity, because results vary greatly based off of ones skill ,determination and application.

Equality of results or equality of opportunity can certainly be broken down into a number of different sub arguments, such as reparations or other 'freebies' for 'repressed/disadvantaged' groups. quotas on racial or gender lines, including such programs/directives like affirmative action.

In an effort to push equality of results but not just 'give' the results to groups, I have seen many attempts to screw with equality of opportunity, such as requesting that PoC be given extra time on exams, or to be given a certain amount of base score or curve separately. This is to provide them more opportunity looking to achieve similar final results. Our system already has some of this built in, we do not need more.

Then you can look at the ridiculousness something like title IX have been taken, the #METOO and #BELIEVEALLWOMEN completely ruining peoples lives without even bothering to perform investigations, and in the best cases messing up lives for years before finally resolving issues.

 

[key01]

wow, real estate is expensive in Seattle. I sold my 5,000 SF house in the Chi-burbs, but didn't get $7M.

 

[Flimflamman]

I appreciate the response, I probably should’ve worded my question more succinctly.
I agree with most of the sentiment you’ve expressed above.
My question would be, what are the ideals that these lefty’s are promoting?

One example, I would say is the types of courses that are offered at colleges, such as "Inequality and Social Justice", "Marxism", "Queering the Bible", and "The Power of Whiteness", to name a few.

Social justice, political correctness, and equality (like mentioned above by BlackandBlue and Jimmy Dean), off of the top of my head, would be the main ideals promoted.

Political correctness is one that honestly drives me up the wall. For example (WAY to many to list), hurting peoples feelings intentionally is one thing, but dragging it out into other things, such as "everybody wins" or "nobody loses" scenarios. When I played baseball as a kid, there were teams I played on that never won a game all season. We sucked. But we still had fun and moved on. Nowadays, everyone gets a trophy. They hand out "participation" trophies so nobody feels left out, or GASP... feels like a loser. Life is winning and losing... especially in the real world that the young need to be prepared for.

Equality... of course we are all equals and should be treated as such. Racism is real, and has always been a problem across the world, let alone the USA. The problem with trying to fix it is it gets out of hand far to often. People are too quick to judge. Innocent lives/reputations are ruined or severely damaged far to often, typically fed by the main stream media, which basically gets a free pass, even when they end up being wrong. Some people and things do and should be called out. Some things accomplished are just. Obviously, it is a difficult thing to totally solve without ruffling feathers.

Social justice... such a deep topic. This is a big one for the left though. But one they are going to continue to lose with in the USA. Bottom line, IMHO, is that there will always be rich, poor, and everything in between. The rich (including corporations) are an easy target, because they are so few, and obviously very powerful. And there are many rich that are of leftist ideology. Some publicly state that they are more than willing to pay more taxes. "Please raise my taxes", they say. And some of them are even more pathetic when it comes to being charitable. It's a game... they know that isn't going to happen. At least not on any meaningful level that the social justice warriors demand.

As with many things, such as corporations, racism, and equality, there needs to be oversight. It is all kind of a double-edged sword. Sometimes it goes to far, in either direction.

I can see where America is fascinating, and even funny at times, to watch from afar. Such drama queens at times (Oops... is that not PC to say?). Our political pendulum is ever swinging. One party gets control (Super-Majority in some cases), feels emboldened by it, and tries to jam their ideals down our throats (sometimes successful in doing so), only to piss off enough of the electorate to be shuttered back to a minority body. It's a vicious cycle... LOL.

 

[Flimflamman]

wow, real estate is expensive in Seattle. I sold my 5,000 SF house in the Chi-burbs, but didn't get $7M.

It is off the charts and has been for a while. We looked into moving out there back in 2010, and it was just too much and too difficult even to find a place to rent so we could scope the place out better for our own home. It is a beautiful part of the country no doubt. I'll stick with "fly-over country" though. Much more life for my hard-earned money.

 

[Flimflamman]

What scares me is appears to me in the USA our strategy is for herd immunity. Is that the only way to deal with this? Eventually we all get exposed? Guess that is one way to thin the herd. Until there is a vaccine, which could take years, do we take our chances of getting exposed, hope for the best and pray there is room in your local hospital, or avoid being exposed. And it's not just your behavior. One of your trusted friends or family can get exposed and then expose YOU. I hate wearing a face mask. It fogs up my glasses and makes it challenging to breath. But wearing a face mask is my statement that I recognize we are all in this together and I am trying to protect YOU. Please try to protect me.

The normal we knew is GONE. We must embrace a new normal to protect ourselves, our community and our country. But what is this new normal? Shouldn't we all be on the same page reading from one set of recommendations? This is not the time for individual interpretations. Leaving it up to each state is spreading the virus. We are at 125,000 deaths right now in the first six months. At this rate of growth we could be at a 1,000,000 deaths by year end.

I heard a panel discussion last night on this topic. One of the panel said what she is afraid of is if the US doesn't get this under some kind of control, meaning the spreading slows down, we are going to be shunned by the rest of the world. Canada and Europe have travel bans from the US. The US has travel bans from a number of countries. Long term that can be a huge financial issue to our economy. Why have we given up our leadership in the world? That alone is going to have a long term impact on our economy.

We have to take this seriously. A virus does not care if you think it is a hoax. Pretending this virus is not an issue is not a good long term strategy.

I disagree with the "new normal" part. No way... we'll get back to the regular normal in due time. Might be a couple years though.

I hate wearing a mask as well, but will do so at work and if I get in situations where social distancing is not taking place. But I avoid crowds anyways.

Our country is VERY large, and solutions to the virus are not a one-size fit all for it (add into that politics and the economy)... except for a vaccine, which nobody really knows when that will happen.

We have not given up our leadership in the world. Republican administrations tend to say f*** off to some of the bullshit, then Democrat administrations come in and apologize for what those nasty Republicans have done. Rinse... repeat.

 

[watisthis]

Guys, the heat will kill the coronavirus what are you worried about?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-fox-news-interview-today-covid-a9596631.html

More and more outrageous things this man keeps saying. Our country is a laughing stock because of how poorly we handled this. Rwanda did a better job than we did. We literally could not have had a worse person in charge from the 2016 election field to handle this.

At least someone like Jeb Bush would have pleaded with people to stay inside and clap for him.

Moreover, new data from Arizona is showing a 28% testing positive rate over the past day too.

 

[Flimflamman]

Guys, the heat will kill the coronavirus what are you worried about?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-fox-news-interview-today-covid-a9596631.html

More and more outrageous things this man keeps saying. Our country is a laughing stock because of how poorly we handled this. Rwanda did a better job than we did. We literally could not have had a worse person in charge from the 2016 election field to handle this.

At least someone like Jeb Bush would have pleaded with people to stay inside and clap for him.

Moreover, new data from Arizona is showing a 28% testing positive rate over the past day too.

Are you saying we're a shit-hole country?

 

[watisthis]

Are you saying we're a shit-hole country?

What? No, what the hell are you talking about?

 

[Flimflamman]

What? No, what the hell are you talking about?

Pardon me. I was being a smart ass. I heard Trump call some country a shit-hole country a while back. Can't remember which it was. So it kinda seemed like something funny to say at the moment. I have an odd sense of humor at times. No offense intended.

 

[watisthis]

Pardon me. I was being a smart ass. I heard Trump call some country a shit-hole country a while back. Can't remember which it was. So it kinda seemed like something funny to say at the moment. I have an odd sense of humor at times. No offense intended.

Oh, sorry, I wasn’t sure if you were poking fun or being serious. I almost assumed you were joking but it’s sometimes hard to tell on forums.

 

[Bikeman315]

Oh, sorry, I wasn’t sure if you were poking fun or being serious. I almost assumed you were joking but it’s sometimes hard to tell on forums.

That’s why we have these.........

 

[Burkey]

One example, I would say is the types of courses that are offered at colleges, such as "Inequality and Social Justice", "Marxism", "Queering the Bible", and "The Power of Whiteness", to name a few.

Social justice, political correctness, and equality (like mentioned above by BlackandBlue and Jimmy Dean), off of the top of my head, would be the main ideals promoted.

Political correctness is one that honestly drives me up the wall. For example (WAY to many to list), hurting peoples feelings intentionally is one thing, but dragging it out into other things, such as "everybody wins" or "nobody loses" scenarios. When I played baseball as a kid, there were teams I played on that never won a game all season. We sucked. But we still had fun and moved on. Nowadays, everyone gets a trophy. They hand out "participation" trophies so nobody feels left out, or GASP... feels like a loser. Life is winning and losing... especially in the real world that the young need to be prepared for.

Equality... of course we are all equals and should be treated as such. Racism is real, and has always been a problem across the world, let alone the USA. The problem with trying to fix it is it gets out of hand far to often. People are too quick to judge. Innocent lives/reputations are ruined or severely damaged far to often, typically fed by the main stream media, which basically gets a free pass, even when they end up being wrong. Some people and things do and should be called out. Some things accomplished are just. Obviously, it is a difficult thing to totally solve without ruffling feathers.

Social justice... such a deep topic. This is a big one for the left though. But one they are going to continue to lose with in the USA. Bottom line, IMHO, is that there will always be rich, poor, and everything in between. The rich (including corporations) are an easy target, because they are so few, and obviously very powerful. And there are many rich that are of leftist ideology. Some publicly state that they are more than willing to pay more taxes. "Please raise my taxes", they say. And some of them are even more pathetic when it comes to being charitable. It's a game... they know that isn't going to happen. At least not on any meaningful level that the social justice warriors demand.

As with many things, such as corporations, racism, and equality, there needs to be oversight. It is all kind of a double-edged sword. Sometimes it goes to far, in either direction.

I can see where America is fascinating, and even funny at times, to watch from afar. Such drama queens at times (Oops... is that not PC to say?). Our political pendulum is ever swinging. One party gets control (Super-Majority in some cases), feels emboldened by it, and tries to jam their ideals down our throats (sometimes successful in doing so), only to piss off enough of the electorate to be shuttered back to a minority body. It's a vicious cycle... LOL.

Ok, so in your reply you’ve covered a LOT of ground so I’ll attempt to focus primarily on the key points of “disagreement” (I’m using that term loosely because I don’t think we’re THAT far away from each other, rather the language being used and the format available).

Straight up, I’ll state that I sit very much middle or ever-so-slightly left of Aussie politics, although that changes depending on the issue at hand, because I don’t hold EITHER perspective to be 100% right when measured across multiple domains. Call me weird.
I’ve voted in both directions over the years, typically based on key policies. This might put me on the left in the US? I can’t say for sure but that’s how it appears.

Ok, so what’s inherently wrong with the courses you mentioned? Are they teaching the kids WHAT to think or simply presenting them with some ideas that they might attempt to dissect?
“Querying the bible” was one of the courses you mentioned. Why should people NOT query the bible or ANY book that purports to offer absolute truth? I simply don’t understand how anything can be above scrutiny.

You mention equality. Fine. I’m all for equality of opportunity. You’ll never get equal outcome and the reasons for this are obvious. I’ve spent enough time listening to Jordan Peterson (who I appreciate, agree and disagree with simultaneously) to understand the issue at hand through a certain lens. To suggest that “equality of outcome” is a leftist ideal is to assume that all leftists hold that view. They don’t. SOME lefty’s will support it, but that doesn’t make it a leftist ideal.
It would be like asserting that religion is the premise of the right because some on the right support the notion or that because SOME atheists are humanitarians, that ALL humanitarians are atheists. It’s clearly wrong.
While we’re talking “equality of opportunity”, wouldn’t socialised healthcare come under that banner? Why should a child be denied access due to the life choices (or in many cases misfortune) of their parents?

Everybody gets a trophy. Yep, that’s just crazy. Agreed. Did the left ask for this or was this just soccer mums feeling pissed that little Tommy didn’t win a prize? How this is linked to the left is beyond me.

I agree that there will always be the rich and the poor. The aim might be to reach a point where 10% of the nation don’t hold 80% of the wealth (I’m making up numbers here).
If you design a system, not knowing where you might reside in it, you’ll usually come up with a fairer system. Yes, employers need to make more than their employees. The disagreement becomes simply how MUCH more? What do we do with those who are disabled either from birth or injury? Should they live an impoverished life due to circumstances beyond their control? How much is “enough”?
I can’t answer those questions, but I’ll probably keep asking them until the day I stop breathing.

Based on the responses you’ve provided to date, I’m hoping that you can see some logic (along with some disagreement) in what I’ve written above. I’m also hoping that my use of language hasn’t obscured the nuances of the points I’m trying to make.

 

[watisthis]

That’s why we have these.........

Agreed. But the emoji is kinda in the middle wouldn't you agree? That's why I wasn't sure, lol.

Unfortunately I just don’t see any other way this could be. In the perfect scenario of contact tracing and mask wearing, we would be in the same situation come wintertime.

New York is reaching a plateau. They are in the situation that they can either keep things closed and flat or open back up and have cases rise. The consensus is a vaccine will come to keep us safe but ignoring the history that the fastest vaccine ever produced took a decade and another decade to make effective.

Sometimes in life we battle a foe that’s just better. Is also pointless to quote virus numbers in the world. Look at the testing numbers. What do we think Mexico’s real numbers are? 5.3 million? They have a testing rate that is 4.2% of ours. Also check out Egypt.

I am not defending the complete and udder failure of our government on this. I just don’t think it is going to matter in the long run.

Did a good job of explaining what could/would have happened. If you haven't watched the first episode yet I would highly recommend it.

 

[Bikeman315]

Unfortunately I just don’t see any other way this could be. In the perfect scenario of contact tracing and mask wearing, we would be in the same situation come wintertime.

And here in lies the real problem. Our healthcare system cannot withstand a late fall winter hit. I do not see anything being done today to prepare for it. Everyone is in panic mode now because of the upswing in cases. God help us in the fall.

New York is reaching a plateau. They are in the situation that they can either keep things closed and flat or open back up and have cases rise. The consensus is a vaccine will come to keep us safe but ignoring the history that the fastest vaccine ever produced took a decade and another decade to make effective.

NY is way past their plateau. That said as every state reopens there is going to be an increase in cases. That's why testing is so critical. We need to find the super spreaders and quarantine them. As far as the vaccine we may see it as soon as next Spring. We call only hope.

Sometimes in life we battle a foe that’s just better.

I hear you but we cannot afford to have a defeatist attitude. We just all need to get on the same page. Unfortunately that's not going to happen until the fireplug in the White House gets pulled.

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