Fauci is either a liar or a fraud

[_Some Schmo]

And you know, to the idea that if it's safe to protest, it's safe to go back to work...

I kind of think racial inequality and injustice is as much a public health issue as the pandemic. They seem to be exacerbating each other.

[_Analytics]

People don't like being cheated.

Tell me about it. From that book...

"According to the Tax Foundation, with the exception of Florida (and Texas, if you count it), no southern state contributes more money in federal tax revenues than it receives back in government assistance and entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, welfare block grants, disability payments, food stamps, housing assistance, and other programs. For every $1.00 Mississippians pay in federal taxes, for example, the state’s residents receive back $2.02 worth of federal aid. West Virginians get $1.76 for every $1.00 they contribute to the national coffers. Kentuckians and Virginians get $1.51 return on their dollar. South Carolinians $1.35. Tennesseans $1.27. And so on. Despite its collective caterwauling about government entitlements, the hard fact is that the South simply does not pull its own weight when measured against other states."

If West Virginia and the rest of the South want to be a part of the United States, they should pull their own weight.

[_Res Ipsa]

And you know, to the idea that if it's safe to protest, it's safe to go back to work...

I kind of think racial inequality and injustice is as much a public health issue as the pandemic. They seem to be exacerbating each other.

I think it makes sense to approach it as a public health issue. I was reading some literature the other day on the possible relationship between the stress of dealing with racism and health problems in the black population. It made me think that approaching the problem as one of public health is an approach worth trying.

I always have to remind myself that others do not experience the world the way I do. I had a kind of epiphany about this back in college. My best friend once described to me how she held her keys in a way that would allow her to use them as a defensive weapon when she walked to her car in a parking lot, especially at night. I was flabbergasted. I would never in a million years even thought about having to do such a thing. That was the first time it really hit me that her experience of the world was much different than mine. My brain wants to tell me that my experience is "normal." But that's simply not true.

The other time this notion really smacked me in the face was reading Neil deGrasse Tyson's autobiography. I went to pretty liberal university and a very liberal law school. Minority hiring was a huge issue in my law school at the time. Still, I expected academia to be one of the areas of society that was working hardest toward eliminating racism. But when I read how Neil was treated a a black man who wanted to be an astrophysicist, I was stunned. He and I are about the same age. But his life experience was so different from mine in ways that I'd never thought about that I was embarrassed for not understanding at all what his experience of the world looked like.

So, when I read about and listen to black folks describe their experience of the world, I find it absolutely believable that they are subjected a systemic stress that I am not. And approaching that as a public health problem sounds appropriate to me.

[_Some Schmo]

I always have to remind myself that others do not experience the world the way I do. I had a kind of epiphany about this back in college. My best friend once described to me how she held her keys in a way that would allow her to use them as a defensive weapon when she walked to her car in a parking lot, especially at night. I was flabbergasted. I would never in a million years even thought about having to do such a thing. That was the first time it really hit me that her experience of the world was much different than mine. My brain wants to tell me that my experience is "normal." But that's simply not true.

I can completely relate. My first experience with this epiphany was probably most profound after my daughter was born (probably because it wasn't until then that I had as vested an interest in understanding the female experience). I remember having a discussion about date rape with a woman and thinking that I'll never really understand what it is to be female, to live a full life in those shoes, and that it would be moronic of me to insist that my perspective on female issues was more accurate than theirs.

To be honest, I feel like I have a much easier time understanding what it must be like living with the extent of racial discrimination in the US than I do the female experience, and I'm not an African American. I suppose I've had enough American African colleagues and friends to at least get a sense of it, but even then, I wouldn't pretend to fully understand what it's like to live life with the constant fear they must endure.

[_ajax18]

I can completely relate. My first experience with this epiphany was probably most profound after my daughter was born (probably because it wasn't until then that I had as vested an interest in understanding the female experience)

I feel very blessed that Heavenly Father gave me a beautiful daughter and a chance to see life from that side a little better.

But carrying this a little further, I know how terribly difficult it can be to raise children. I'm a better parent knowing she's my own flesh and blood. And I have actual authority over her. Think about how difficult it is for a school teacher to "police," and discipline other peoples kids all day every day. It's a no win situation that often borders on impossible.

I've begun to think about how far back Brown vs. Board of Education has set back the struggle for racial harmony and well, law and order. Had separate but equal continued we would have black police officers policing black communities. Black criminal offenders would go before black judges and black juries. Black legislators voted in by black people would make the laws. Black school teachers would discipline black kids and then argue with black parents about it. And ultimately if they want, black revolutionaries would burn black owned businesses. This entire issue of systemic racism would be gone.

[_Jersey Girl]

My best friend once described to me how she held her keys in a way that would allow her to use them as a defensive weapon when she walked to her car in a parking lot, especially at night.

I've done that for decades though with the new key fobs I tend to carry keys in such a way as to set off the car alarm if I need to. I can also turn on my car alarm from inside the house. Go figure, right?

[_Jersey Girl]

Think about how difficult it is for a school teacher to "police," and discipline other peoples kids all day every day. It's a no win situation that often borders on impossible.

Police and discipline? You mean observe, foresee and guide behavior using a series of steps that lead to reasonable consequences if needed?

It's called behavior guidance. You think it's near impossible because you aren't skilled and probably don't recognize it as a skill nor are you aware that building a sense of community is part of it. I'd go so far as to guess that you don't know what a sense of community actually means.

Seriously. What world do you live in?

[_honorentheos]

I've begun to think about how far back Brown vs. Board of Education has set back the struggle for racial harmony and well, law and order. Had separate but equal continued we would have black police officers policing black communities. Black criminal offenders would go before black judges and black juries. Black legislators voted in by black people would make the laws. Black school teachers would discipline black kids and then argue with black parents about it. And ultimately if they want, black revolutionaries would burn black owned businesses. This entire issue of systemic racism would be gone.

Explicit, codified racial division in society would result in "(the) entire issue of systemic racism (being) gone"?

Seriously?

[_Some Schmo]

I've begun to think about how far back Brown vs. Board of Education has set back the struggle for racial harmony and well, law and order. Had separate but equal continued we would have black police officers policing black communities. Black criminal offenders would go before black judges and black juries. Black legislators voted in by black people would make the laws. Black school teachers would discipline black kids and then argue with black parents about it. And ultimately if they want, black revolutionaries would burn black owned businesses. This entire issue of systemic racism would be gone.

Explicit, codified racial division in society would result in "(the) entire issue of systemic racism (being) gone"?

Seriously?

Yeah, this is what I meant when I said he's shackled by belief induced ideas that prevent his ability to see reality. This is off the rails f-ucked up. It's like claiming there would be no slicing if we just sliced everything up.

Racism is synonymous with willful idiocy.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Ajax18 is just parroting the alt-right messaging for American balkanization and ethnostates. Foundations of Geopolitics for the win.

- Doc