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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 13th, 2023

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  • I just first want to say kudos for having a well reasoned point that you’re defending with logic, patiently and consistently, with respect for all.

    That’s rare on the Internet, and Lemmy in particular, which is severely prone to the group generally deciding on one “right” position and mercilessly punishing dissent.

    All that said, I think I broadly agree with you, and further, think that all of this DEI stuff is essentially “affirmative action for a new generation”.

    It’s so hard to nail it down and defend it because (it seems) proponents don’t like to explain so much of how it works (and how it works differently from not incorporating it), and rather tend to answer with what it accomplishes. In theory at least.

    The problem, of course, being that this subtly shifts the criticism and defense from DEI itself to its goals.

    You can say “DEI means that the company is better by getting the best employees and also helps historically disadvantaged demographics get better jobs” without at all describing how that happens, and suddenly disagreeing on the merits of DEI gets misconstrued as “companies should only hire white guys and maintain the status quo”, at which point they’re more easily targeted with ad hominem and lumped together with true bigots and racists.

    Regarding the issue itself, from everything I’ve seen, DEI should be less “this is an initiative we’re doing and have a team on it and track it’s metrics” and more just, “We’ll hire the best person for the job.”

    Because ultimately, anything other than “We’ll hire the best person for the job.” means, by definition, “We’ll pass on the best person based on their, or the other candidates’ race, gender, religion, etc.”

    If that means an overwhelmingly white male workplace, that’s a social indicator, not a problem for the company to fix. Also, hypothetically, what’s the desired end goal in terms of workplace diversity? To match the local area as closely as possible? If so, what happens when the most qualified candidates happen to be overwhelmingly from a minority? Are they going to start hiring less qualified white guys to balance it out? They shouldn’t. But they also shouldn’t hire a less qualified woman just because they only have one other woman in the whole building.

    Ultimately, the only extent I could see a DEI policy actually having merit and being worth talking about would be something sort of like the Rooney Rule. A company saying, “For any position we post, we’re committed to interviewing at least X candidates from historically underrepresented minority demographics. We may still end up hiring a white guy…but this will ensure that we don’t get so used to seeing nothing but white guys that we forget to look elsewhere.”



  • Same picks for the same reasons.

    … although I’m less proud to admit that I read it as “Known Father” the first time, didn’t catch it until I came to the comments, and he still didn’t make the top 2.

    I just kinda figured that “Known Father” meant he was always talking about his kids and experiences with parenthood, and that was enough to eliminate him.







  • It’s also easy to say that when you’re the living embodiment of the luxury and excess of the establishment/status quo.

    Like… dude…of course you don’t want to see revolution… every single fucking element of the system tilts not only in your favor but also in favor of perpetuating and furthering your absolute stranglehold on wealth, power, security, etc.

    The more interesting answer would be to the question: if, as a society, we became so united in our acceptance of this that it literally became commonplace for CEOs to get whacked and then for juries to nullify the charges and for the killer to walk free…and it was happening dozens of times every year, or month

    …would you support a revolution to change the status quo that was literally killing people like you with zero repercussions?

    If not, you’re an absolute idiot, or you’re actually on our side in this.

    If yes, then you know damn well what’s going on and, shocker, you’re playing dumb for a cheap attempt at sympathy.



  • This is the thing.

    While I doubt it’ll have any actual difference being seen by anyone anywhere, if this killing were followed up by a few more, or even a dozen more in short order, you would see change.

    Most of it not the kind we’d hope for (tightened security, lockdown corridors for high profile individuals, even less access and interface with these people, etc…not concessions to decency, honesty, civility, humanity, etc.) but you bet your ass that it’d be living rent free in the back of every CEO and billionaire on the planet for a long time.




  • Yes it was longer than that.

    My main thing is that, then and now (based on discussions I read between users), most any user experience that I relate to seems to be equal parts:

    “try to figure out the Linux equivalent of what you were doing in Windows and hope it’s compatible with the rest of your needs”

    “Try to figure out how to get Linux to behave like Windows to accomplish something you did with that os”

    “Become a hobbyist…programmer? IT specialist? And get familiar with tweaking and adjusting the details of how your computer works just to get it to do things you want”

    Like…for people who enjoy it, I’m happy for them. Really! But I don’t want to have to familiarize myself with commands, learn how to boot things up, or learn a whole list of things just to get the simple mindless functionality I have with Windows from decades of time in the system.

    I think back then I tried Debian, Ubuntu, and…is ‘OpenSUSE’ a thing? I even had a group of three friends who were all super into Linux encouraging me and helping me every step of the way, and I was young and technically inclined and happy to have a challenge…and in the end, I went right back to Windows after a semester or two of that, because I just found that my experience was, broadly speaking, “Enjoy a problem solving exercise in software management every time you want to do something, just to get to a basic level of function, with added quirks that you’ll just have to deal with…and little real benefit for the order of magnitude of extra effort”.

    And while I’m sure some of that would have had to get better in the years between, most of the conversations I still see about Linux are enthusiasts enjoying coming up with solutions to the issues of using their chosen system. Which again, that’s fine, but I don’t want to have to become an enthusiast of an OS.

    Given a choice between, “have to learn how to get the OS to do everything” vs “put up with data collection and some intrusive ads once in a while”… I’m happy to go with the latter to have things just work without having to learn a new skill set just to get the same level of functionality.

    I’m happy to use W10 well after its official support ends, though I strongly suspect there will be significant extensions to that timeline. Even then, I’m happy to use it until it’s no longer the path of least resistance, at which point, I’ll reevaluate my options. When we get there, if it seems reasonable, maybe I’ll dip my toes into the Linux pool again.




  • They absolutely will.

    Either directly, because those goods are now more expensive to Best Buy and they’re not about to eat that, so it’ll get pissed directly on to the consumer (with a mark-up)…

    …or indirectly, when any one or more of the corporate entities involved in the domestic supply chain sees that domestic goods are now cheaper than imports for the consumer, which means that they now have an opportunity to simply raise their prices to match and pocket the difference.

    Nevermind that domestic supply chains often have roots in China anyway, so it’s not like the domestic electronics are going to be able to hold price either, since their imported components will still be getting hit with the tariff.

    My favorite part of this aspect of it in particular is that while electronics are no doubt ubiquitous, most electronics purchases are more discretionary. It’s not like a car where if yours dies you are definitely buying another one. Most times, people are getting a phone because a new model came out, or they decided theirs was too slow. They’re getting a new TV because they want to upgrade or found a good deal.

    So when these tariffs hit and prices lurch up, expect sales to plummet as people decide they can keep going with their current electronics just a bit longer.

    So congratulations, domestic beneficiaries of an electronics tariff, any profit increase you might have gained will now be more than gutted by the nosedive in overall sales!



  • For a few years, it seemed like everyone I knew who has having a little girl was naming them after old presidents.

    So many Kennedys and Reagans and Madisons…

    My girlfriend at the time did really like “Madison”, but I told her if we were ever to have a little girl and we’re gonna name her after a former president, we’re gonna have a little Eisenhower running around.

    She laughed (as was the intention) but agreed the trend was a little ridiculous.


  • It shouldn’t be concerning, it should be enlightening.

    But it won’t be. Not for the party leadership.

    Over the past 40 years they’ve gone from being the champion of blue collar and union workers nationwide, and being able to take those votes for granted…to having the rust belt become the biggest swing region in the country (which their opponent swept this month). Did they take this as a wake up call and do more for the blue collar voters to win their loyalty back?

    Nah, they just blame them and talk down to them, and tell them they’re too stupid to know what’s best for them.

    In that same time frame, they were seen as abandoning the blue collar worker to court the minority vote, talking their efforts at helping factory workers and turning them toward helping minorities in race and gender. While they were actually doing this they did indeed appear to gain that loyalty at the ballot box. Of course once they had it, they felt no need to keep up the good work for these people and have slowly become a party who does nothing for anyone, and runs on a platform of essentially admitting they do nothing, but that their inaction is better than the other side, so they should still be owed votes.

    Once again, this isn’t working out for them, and once again, rather than take it as a rejection of what they’re doing, no…it’s the voters who are wrong.

    I despise the GOP as much as any reasonable person, and I firmly believe that many of their voters won’t like what they voted for once they start to get it…but there’s no denying that the GOP has a message, goals, and demonstrable progress toward them. And to counter that…the Democrats have…“I think things are good and I wouldn’t change anything. You should vote for me because I’m not MAGA aligned, and if you don’t, it’s your fault not mine.”

    Arrogance is off-putting, and it appears it’s going to take at least a half century for the Democrats to figure that out.