>Since Mr. Rogers Neighborhood first aired in 1968? No, race relations are much better now.
I disagree. I think they never improved or went anywhere. We had Rodney King in the 90s and Michael brown recently (among others) nothing has changed, nothing has improved and it never will.
Who are the white supremacists? Would a nation run by white supremacists ever have white poeople become a minority? America has the most bungled "institutionalized racism" I've ever seen. They racismed a black president and then white supremicied themselves into minorities in many major cities and an absoulte minority within 50 years. If that's white supremecy then you should hope they stay on track.
Mr. Rogers says that feeling are important and you should be able to discuss your feelings, hmm I hope you have the right feelings or you probably shouldn't discuss them.
Mr. Rogers was a lovely caring man who couldn't exist today. There are no Mr. Rogers out there right now, society is polarizing and cynical and hateful (in many directions) a Mr Rogers cannot exist in that environment. Mr Rogers comes from an essentially homogeneous cultural and ethnic environment which doesn't exist today. The America Fred Rogers grew up in was Christian and >90% white, that America is gone. His lovey philosophy and outlook can only come about in the particular time in which he lived.
The opportunity for trolling is endless, people looking to smell "strawberries" would instead end up smelling other things... B.O. , farts you name it. I wish the iSmell actually had succeeded, too bad.
I don't think it would be possible to prove to you that race relations have deteriorated. I could very well be wrong that's true, I can only state my opinion after all. I don't think I am wrong though (obviously) and I think that race relations are going to get very much worse within our lifetimes. It's no more stupid to believe they got worse without evidence as to believe they have improved without evidence. I think if you were to poll black americans today I don't think that many of them would have a super high opinion of white people right now (not that they ever did to begin with) but especially now.
I disagree that internal conflict would become external as you say. I think that the reverse would happen, we could coexist more peacefully as no groups feel controlled or exploited by the other.
Also I'm not sure what the reason you insist that people you clearly hate must continue to live with you. There is the obvious fact that you can continue to control them and demographically dominate them at the polls (thanks to immigration). If they separate from you then you cannot do that, also you would become a very tiny minority in the multicultural society that remained, I think that doesn't sit well with you. My assumption is that you are white.
I suspect the opposite, the trend is getting worse and relations are becoming a powderkeg. I suppose time will tell who is correct.
I know what his name is and how to spell it I just reflexively spell it that way. Why don't you just write that you think I'm stupid rather than hide behind this trivial spelling error comment?
The poster is literally talking about my language, but implying something about me, which is ad-hominem. What they should do is say why I am wrong if they believe Im wrong. If they dont say why I'm wrong because the scope of it is beyond their ability to convey in a HN comment, then fair enough. But they're essentially hand-waving away me and what I'm saying because they've declared it racist (and indirectly me).
Actually everyone is racist so the term is redundant. La Raza (now renamed for PR reasons) is not protesting admissions discrimination against Asian applicants in academia for example. They exclusively advocate for the rights of their own ethnic group, the only reason they advocate for other groups is where such advocacy also directly benefits themselves.
You're quite disingenuous, I made a comment that slavery is expensive and slaves have to be fed and housed so slavery is not very useful, and actually more expensive that just having "free" people.
The reason you choose to cherry pick something to say about "oppression of white males" (which I would never use a phrase like that) is you know the negative sentiment that surrounds that phrase here on HN, so that's why you use it and attach it to me.
Oh so Mr. Rodgers winked into existence in 1968? I suspect that instead that he was born much earlier than that, and he lived and grew up in a very different USA than the one you live in now, and even a different USA from the one in which he began broadcasting in 1968.
>"Low-trust" "multicultural" "society" is race-war code language, isn't it?
Says you, they're just words. If you don't agree you can go ahead and disagree. I won't comment about your rhetoric other than to say it's functionally ad-hominem. Calling something a trope is a also a pretty easy way to hand-wave away anything you don't want to think about.
>and spark a whole unproductive discussion about what it is we "trust" or "don't trust" about people
I would say that trust has not improved, I would say that race relations have not improved (probably deteriorated). Even you can probably agree with that?
Mr. Rodgers prescriptions for life are lovely but impractical, and they haven't helped society at all I would say.
Mr Rogers came about in a homogeneous high-trust society. IMO that's not what todays society is. Today I would say we we have a multicultural polarized low-trust society, so Mr Rodgers model for masculinity does not apply today.
SQL vocabulary is better than functional vocabulary as for many people lot of understanding (and actual use) of set manipulation and transformation starts with SQL. Why have one set of terms for code and a different set on the DB? Thats like saying why is there English, Spanish is functionally equivalent etc. Except that I already learned English (SQL) so why don't you just let me speak English (SQL) in my code?
The guy was unstable yes, but he also looked super liberal. It's tough to articulate, but it exists nonetheless, it's like asking what strawberries taste like. Perhaps I can't articulate it but that doesn't mean nobody can taste them or the taste doesn't exist. Some facets about him that I don't care to enumerate gave me that impression. He was trying to appear crazy yes and he did brandish a knife as well.
You are being far too charitable with him. He essentially committed assault by creating the impression that andy was not physically safe and that he may use a knife against him.
I saw another one where somebody sent arab andy a clip of the n-word being repeated over and over 50 times while he is on the bus. A very liberal looking white guy in his 40s threatened to stab andy so he got off the bus immediately.
>But countries like the US could absolutely be doing more
They could do more for sure. But it's a bottomless pit. The more you invest the more "poor" people are "pulled" into orbit of the programs requiring more spend, which brings more poor which requires more spend ad inifinitum.
> I am fine with spending "other people's money" (AKA money belonging to people who don't need it)
Oh ok then, I just decided that you don't need your money and I will spend it on the poor. Since I am "good" and I have everyones best interests at heart because I said so, then there's no problem. I will also decide who does and doesn't "need" their money. What an awesome power to wield.
What weasel word language you're using "life for those with the least advantages" just because you are poor doesn't mean you didn't earn it or don't deserve it. What simplistic logic you are using, what gigantic and awesome powers you propose to wield with such little thought.