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From Apple To Xbox, Tech Companies Lean Left
Velcroman1 writes "Only a week to election time! How does tech feel about politics? If you guessed liberal, you're right: Big Tech leans left. 'They're dominated by coastal people who tend to be more liberal,' says Jim Taylor, a management consultant who writes about the business of psychology. 'Also, those in Big Tech tend to be educated in the better schools, which lean left. Big Tech skews younger and hipper [and favors] social and environmental issues. Their political values trump financial concerns at the organizational culture level and the missions of many firms, especially those that are new media.' For example, Marissa Mayer, known as 'the face of Google,' gave $30,400 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2009. In fact, of the top 10 contributions made by Google in 2009, only one — by CEO Eric Schmidt — was to the Republican National Committee. Facebook has donated almost exclusively to Democratic candidates, according to Transparency Data, including $1,000 to California Sen. Barbara Boxer a year ago, and more recently, almost $5,000 to Richard Blumenthal, who is running for senator in Connecticut."
The revelation that California and the Seattle area, where most of these companies are based, tends to lean left is a complete revelation to me. You see, I have been living under a rock on a desert island for the last hundred years and didn't realize that every state in the Union was not, in fact, like my home state of Alabama. I am shocked to learn that executives from these tech companies live in a place where each public school-day DOESN'T begin with school prayer, a mandatory salute to the Confederate flag, shooting practice, and a discussion of why America would elect a satan-worshiping negro marxist as President. I had always assumed, on my desert island, that America was a homogenous place, and that no region had its own unique political leanings. Now, I know that there are actually areas in the U.S. where it's not okay to beat down anyone publicly admitting to supporting fag rights--where even *calling* someone a fag is considered somewhat offensive (even if they are). I guess I can understand these executives' leftist points of view, considering that they come from a place where it's considered impolite to burn down the houses of non-Christians. Thank you for enlightening me.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Next thing you know, they'll be telling us that energy companies leans to the right.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
They tend to hire youth, and they are often based out of California. Youth tend to lean liberal, and Calfornia is often seen as the most liberal state. This is a shocking correlation!
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
The vast majority in tech I know lean more towards the libertarian side of things. These kind of tests, due to their flaws of being linear, usually fail to capture that. ("Left" comes up more commonly than "right" for many libertarians because of how self-extreming "right" has become lately.)
Seriously -in the US we have two parties. The far right party, and the psychopathic kill-and-censor-everyone-in-the-name-of-patriotism party.
In practical terms, we have no left. This article is BS.
Lean is the key word. A lot of tech people are libertarian and republican. This post is just trying to trump up vitriol due to the midterms.
Remember that liberals are usually the loudest, so you think there's more of them.
if the donation is made by an individual, no matter how high ranking, then does it really indicate how the company would behave?
It's funny: in the USA, "liberal" means left. In Europe, "liberal" is right-wing, "socialist" is left.
a satan-worshiping negro marxist as President.
I understand you're just being a dick here (what leftwingers do best), but to make it accurate it would be "a Satan-driven oreo Marxist as President".
From a perspective of political climate in European social welfare states, these companies actually lean towards perceived ultra-capitalist right. Such is the divide between the US and the old EU countries. I've never quite grasped of either perceptions; I actually think these companies are, in most matters, much more sane than average attitudes of either systems.
why is foxnews propaganda on slashdot?
So, why don't I feel liberated?
There are some people who will be surprised by this news...
Or they would be if they could stop brutally assaulting people they disagree with just long enough to hear it.
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as a stand-alone adjective relative to political ideology, "liberal" means NOTHING.
consider a group that wanted nothing but the eradication of all "liberals"... that group themselves would be extremely liberal towards eradicating "liberals".
it's hypocritically ignorant.
I don't know who pissed in your Corn Flakes this morning but I'd like to apply for the job just in case there's an opening.
Come on editors, i know you desperately want to talk about american politics, but isn't that what the poll to the right is for?
Who needs a big stupid flamewar? No one but Ralph Nader leans LEFT in the usa ANYWAYS!
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
In Alabama we still subscribe to the One Drop Rule. Surely at least that basic principle is universally accepted, right?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Unfortunately they are unwilling to use their corporate power (i.e. money) to create a media campaign in the way that corporations that lean right do. It's sad that only the right has the courage to anonymously funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into non-profits like Americans for Prosperity that were created for the purpose of supporting Right Wing candidates. According to their tax filings these non-profits have a primary purpose that is not political. Education, I suppose?
But the Supreme Court has decided that anyone with any moral fiber or system of ethics is unsuited for political office. The next 20 years are going to be pretty awful.
Support SETI@home
Note I said "liberal", not "progressive", not "Democratic Party", not either libertarian or "Libertarian".
The problem is that too many people confuse "fiscal responsibility" with "conservatism". Fiscal policy is separate from "liberal" and "conservative". I am *EXTREMELY* fiscally 'conservative'. But I'm also *EXTREMELY* liberal.
In fact, one could even argue that fiscal responsibility is, itself, liberal by definition.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Big Tech employees lean left. Big Tech is still Big Corp and usually root for capitalism, free market and all that right stuff
You see, I have been living under a rock on a desert island for ...
Ah-ha! Your post would have been believable if you had lived on a deserted island.
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
... this means left in the US. For the rest of the world it still to the right.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
wtf? how does donating to democrats count as liberal?
It was both.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The TV companies are dominated by "leaning left" liberals, and therefore their reporting is also left-leaning. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN.
Fox is the only exception, and
that's just a recent development.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
They should focus on remaining a shabby tech site.
Why classify people this way? I'm an engineer and programmer with a graduate degree (not ivy league) and I lean libertarian, meaning I'm not looking for government solutions and handouts to solve every problem. I have voted for Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, and various other parties from time to time based on issues and the character of the politicians running for office. You simply can't classify people in little boxes like this. Not that I expect Fox News to know better.
...in other words, the Democrats are neither liberal in any proper sense of the word, not "left" except in relation to the Republicans. From a European perspective, both big US parties used to be barely distinguishable, far off in the mist on the the right. Of course, the NeoCons and the Tea Parties have dragged the Republicans even further away, and the Democrats have followed more slowly, thus widening the distance. But that does not make the Democrats "left".
Stephan
Telling me that only one donation was to the RNC or that so-and-so donated $5,000 to the Democrat is completely and utterly useless. It's a single number without context, people. (Yes, I know it's FOXnews. Doesn't mean Slashdot has to waste space repeating it.)
Where did the OTHER NINE donations go? The RNC is only one part of the Republican political machine to which one can donate: there are candidates and PACs, for example.
How large were they by comparison? One donation of $10,000 is surely more significant than 10 of $500, isn't it?
Because corporations cannot contribute to political candidates (though they can expend independently to support or oppose them), and because employees can and these donations are required to be publicly disclosed, its a fairly common (but, as you point out) misleading method to describe the political leaning of a corporation by the aggregated contributions of its employees.
For any business, since they exist to serve the interest of their owners not, except where this is the same thing (as in labor coops), their employees, it would make more sense, if you were going to judge a corporation's politics by looking at individual donations, to look at the donations of their shareholders, weighted by the proportion of ownership.
Last I checked, it was a product produced by Microsoft.
Want to get money and influence peddling out of the hands of feds? Pass a Constitutional Amendment to strip Congress of the Commerce Clause, relying on state's rights instead.
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
This article has little to offer other than to highlight the most prevalent problem with our electoral system. Leaning left, leaning right, either way, a country whose leaders are funded by wealthy corporate donors tars the very notion of democracy.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
Conversley here in South America, everyone claims to be be of pure European descent(I guess they have been fucking their cousins for the last three hundred years to keep the race pure. So the one drop rule here means if you have one drop of European blood, you have to be white. I am a Colombian Cajun mix(cajun side being Sicilian settlers in Thibodaux) and before I excepted my present employment here in Colombia I was offered a relative high paying job in the Bay Area, but turned it down. I kept being accused of being a southerner when I spoke English and when I spoke spanish it was "you speak great english for a Mexican". I found everyone on the West Coast assumed every Latino was a Mexican.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Bill Gates never used to give anything to candidates. He figured, rather naively, that there was no reason to do that.
Then, a little company called Sun that gave a lot of money to the Democrats made a few phone calls and got some anti-trust action going.
So yeah. Pay up or else!
Exactly how many of these supposedly "left" tech companies have unionized workforces?
You forgot "Muslim."
So far in 2010, the oil and gas industries have contributed $12.8 million to all candidates, with 71% of that money going to Republicans. During the 2008 election cycle, 77% of the industry's $35.6 million in contributions went to Republicans, and in the 2008 presidential contest, Republican candidate Sen. John McCain received more than twice as much money from the oil and gas industries as Obama: McCain collected $2.4 million; Obama, $898,000.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_05/023945.php
Sure, you can single out Exxon and Obama in 2008, because that's the exception to the rule you're pretending doesn't exist.
People complain that our universities, urban elite, etc. 'lean left'. Now let's see, the smarter and better educated you are, the more liberal you are. What does that suggest to you?
It suggests to me that we have too many ignoramuses, who lack the education and experience to learn to deal with different kinds of people, to understand how progress is made, and to be informed or to deal with complicated policy issues like global warming. And those ignoramuses are called "conservatives".
You forgot to mention that Fox News didn't tell you about this either... although that goes without saying, doesn't it?
That is all.
Educated people do not believe Obama is a communist Muslim.
Who'd have thought?
93.8% of all statistics are false.
If I were inclined toward conspiracy theories, I would ponder whether this article is a preemptive strike against the people who, in the coming months, will expose voting machines for the absurdly hackable toys (and very convenient vehicles of corruption) that they are. Probably with more frequency and publicity than has been employed in the past.
Your insightful post is based on a completely unsupportable assertion.
You write:
"If you dump labor rights and issues then you are not a left leaning people."
All you are doing here is basing your analysis off your own personal definition of "left." Surely you can see how this is meaningless (to others, anyway).
John Podesta's brother, Tony Podesta is BPs lead lobbyist. John is the founder of the Center For American Progress and the former Clinton chief of staff. I know it is from Beck. But DAMN.
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/42150/
Loved this!
I'm educated enough to see a logical fallacy when I see one.
College graduates also tend to come from higher income families. Therefore, according to your logic, the more money you accumulate, the more liberal you are. Obviously, the Democratic party is the party of the wealthy!
Learn about Photography Basics.
1. Donations to campaigns don't actually require the candidate to do anything in return. There is usually the perception that large donations imply some sort of tit-for-tat, but it isn't always the case. In Obama's case, individual donors, that is, those unaffiliated with any major corporation, contributed more to his campaign, both proportionally and in total than to any other national candidate in history, so if politicians truly are bought purely through money, well, guess who owns him?
What you really have to look at is the secret money, the stuff you don't get to see on campaign disclosure forms. Here I'm talking about all these secret super-PACs and lobbyists and such, where the money and who's donating it tends to get obfuscated by the system. That's where the influence peddling goes on; the stuff made in the public eye is usually for advertisement purposes ("Hey, look at me! I'm supporting Candidate X! Aren't I a good little corporate citizen?").
2. There definitely are differences between Democrats and Republicans. The problem is that Democrats aren't really liberals, and the Republicans aren't really conservatives. sure, they each pretend to lean left or right, to get their respective bases to pay attention, but in reality the Republicans work for the rich, who funnel massive amounts of secret money into their campaigns and bank accounts, and Democrats work for the unions and lawyers, because they're stupid and don't realize that the unions have had all their money taken away over the last thirty years and the lawyers are becoming rich, and therefore turning to the Republicans because the Republicans are pro-rich and anti-everyone else.
Who's Smarter? by Cindy Osborne The Hollywood group is at it again. Holding anti-war rallies, screaming about the Bush Administration, running ads in major newspapers, defaming the President and his Cabinet every chance they get, to anyone and everyone who will listen. They publicly defile them and call them names like "stupid" , "morons", and "idiots". Jessica Lange went so far as to tell a crowd in Spain that she hates President Bush and is embarrassed to be an American. So, just how ignorant are these people who are running the country? Let's look at the biographies of these "stupid", "ignorant" , "moronic leaders, and then at the celebrities who are castigating them: President George W. Bush: Received a Bachelors Degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He served as an F-102 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard. He began his career in the oil and gas business in Midland in 1975 and worked in the energy industry until 1986. He was elected Governor on November 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. In a historic re-election victory, he became the first Texas Governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms on November 3, 1998 winning 68.6 percent of the vote. In 1998 Governor Bush won 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, 27 percent of the African-American vote, 27 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of women. He won more Texas counties, 240 of 254, than any modern Republican other than Richard Nixon in 1972 and is the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win the heavily Hispanic and Democratic border counties of El Paso, Cameron and Hidalgo. (Someone began circulating a false story about his IQ being lower than any other President. If you believed it, you might want to go to www.urbanlegends.com and read the truth. Vice President Dick Cheney: Earned a BA in 1965 and a MA in 1966, both in political science. Two years later, he won an American Political Science Association congressional fellowship. One of Vice President Cheney's primary duties is to share with individuals, members of Congress and foreign leaders, President Bush's vision to strengthen our economy, secure our homeland and win the War on Terrorism. In his official role as President of the Senate, Vice President Cheney regularly goes to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators and members of the House of Representatives to work on the Administration's legislative goals. In his travels as Vice President, he has seen first hand the great demands the war on terrorism is placing on the men and women of our military, and he is proud of the tremendous job they are doing for the United States of America. Secretary of State Colin Powell: Educated in the New York City public schools, graduating from the City College of New York (CCNY), where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in geology. He also participated in ROTC at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958. His further academic achievements include a Master of Business Administration Degree from George Washington University. Secretary Powell is the recipient of numerous US and foreign military awards and decorations. Secretary Powell's civilian awards include two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the President's Citizens Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal, and the Secretary of Energy Distinguished Service Medal. Several schools and other institutions have been named in his honor and he holds honorary degrees from universities and colleges across the country. (Note: He retired as Four Star General in the United States Army) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: Attended Princeton University on Scholarship (AB, 1954) and served in the US Navy (1954-57) as a Naval aviator; Congressional Assistant to Rep. Robert Griffin (R-MI), 1957-59; US Representative, Illinois, 1962-69; Assistant to the President, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Director of the Cost of Living Council, 1969-74; US Ambassador to NATO, 1973-74; head of Presidential Transition Team, 1974; Assistant to the
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
Well, strictly by the numbers, the country of origin ratio for west coast spanish-speaking hispanics really is up in the 90% range...
just to balance things out for the righties. Bubba's microchips and fried chicken in Tupelo, Ms., soon to be expanding to Tuscaloosa.
No it would be "Zebra". See Zebra is exponentially more correct because George Jefferson, a black man, called his son's mixed race wife that all the time.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
I'm smarter than Cindy Osborne because I know how to use paragraph breaks to increase legibility.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Annoyances of the article's quality and purpose aside, there is the fact that computers, technology, and "New Things"(tm) are often viewed with untrust, fear, and outright contempt from the various demographics. The older, conservative, stick-in-the muds sort who don't like change. Kind of like the ill-will those on the far right show towards academia and intellectuals. It's a social trend that I hardly ever see, but when it does rear it's ugly head I'm always shocked and saddened.
One part of me wants to smack them upside the head and yell at them to put down their buggy whips. But that would be wrong. Another parts is glad that they're "missing out" on the awesomeness of the future. But that's also kinda wrong of me. So usually I just end up being befuddled and move on with my life as far away from them as I can. Technophobic Luddites.
How about a dessert island?
that corporations lean to the left or to the right based on some moral principles. Corporations butter whoever is in charge and whoever reciprocates them the most, that's all. The rest of this "younger, hipper, educated in better schools, etc" is anecdotal. Corporations support whoever lets them get away with "patriotic" activities like tax-evasion (hello Google, Facebook, Micro$oft, etc), in this case its the present administration.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
We need a new classification system. Old words like "liberal" and "fascist" are insufficient. I propose a new classification system with 3 variables (sliders) from a range of "none" to "full". The 3 variables are:
* Economic Control - How involved is the government in economic decisions and wealth distribution.
* Bedroom & Pleasure Control - Involves sexual and reproductive behavior, and recreational substances. How involved is the government in regulating these.
* Political Control - How much does the government control the political process. On one end you have highly democratic societies with freedom of political speech, on the other you have governments that allow little or no citizen participation in political decisions. Economic and political control used to go hand-and-hand, but Asia put that model on it's head. (Even in the US, the Supreme Court can overrule the will of voters.)
Each of these could be sub-divided further, but as a quick description to replace existing terms, it's good enough. Patent Pending ;-)
Table-ized A.I.
I didn't vote for a third party candidate because not voting is just as effective.
And the Republicans and Democrats both thank you for continuing to prevent any competition.
I'm always amazed at people who believe the "voting for a 3rd party is like throwing your vote away". Are you really saying that because your particular candidate didn't win, that you wasted your vote?
I had a conversation with a co-worker about our recent vote. I said that I had voted Libertarian (Bob Barr) for president. He laughed and claimed that I wasted my vote. I then asked him who HE had voted for. He then stopped laughing and quietly mumbled, "John McCain". I then proceeded to laugh, as we live in California, and Barr and McCain had roughly the same chances of winning the state (about 0% chance). Was his vote for McCain a "wasted vote", simply because McCain didn't win? Or was his vote OK, since it fell into your acceptable category of being a (R) or a (D)?
Jus cuz they done goed ta a fancy schol don't mean shit. Fuckin librels is a stupeder than shit, fuckin latay drinkin fagit commie mother fuckers.
(1) It is very common for people to say they are socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. It has been pointed out many times, however, that this distinction falls apart when you start asking about details. Which extremely expensive social programs/entitlements are these people in favor of cutting? Davis-Bacon? Protectionist tariffs? EEO programs? Funding for the arts? Taxpayer support for abortions? Head Start? The Department of Education?
Not saying anything about you. Perhaps you are indeed one of the very few people who could accurately be described this way. But the fact remains: Social spending is *expensive*, and that money has to come from somewhere.
(2) This whole "reality has a liberal bias" thing to me just strikes me as bizarre.
Just 10 years ago, liberals would have cheerfully and forthrightly asserted the opposite. Remember this? -- "A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged."? Indeed, that was the whole point of contention between liberals and conservatives. The liberal vision was *aspirational and visionary*. It was not based on how things *are*, but how they *should be.* The progressive belief is that we can "progress," in the process change human nature to be more collectivist, less selfish and more aware of social justice issues. Cultural attitudes can be adjusted if we just hit on the right combination of levers, after which we will all link arms and march into the future together.
The conservative critique was that this was all pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking; that you can't ever really change human nature; that people act out of enlightened self-interest, not selfless concern for their fellow man; that you can't legislate away things like the law of supply and demand; and that government policies should take these things into account.
So now, it just strikes me as total revisionism to claim "reality has a well-known liberal bias." I mean, that's not what liberals of previous generations said. If you accused them of being visionary and aspirational, they would have replied, "Damn straight." So, why are you right and them wrong?
- Alaska Jack
The younger you are, the more you tend to lean left. There is truth behind the saying "If you're not liberal when you're young, you have no heart". I would expect an industry that leans young would tend to lean left.
But I also have to wonder how much of it is self-loathing. You sometimes find that amongst people who acquire sudden wealth and aren't sure they deserve it.
Another factor is the development of an elitist mindset amongst sudden wealth. It puzzled me for awhile how the head of a family of four living on five acres with six vehicles could utter the phrase "live simply so others can simply live", and appear to mean it. But I realize now that he mean for me to do this, not (God forbid) himself. Another acquaintance is a big fan of raising taxes to fund mass transit, but has never stepped on a bus or train herself, because of that thing about rubbing shoulders with stinky people.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
ahahahah as if anyone would be as insecure as that and choose to live in the goddamn Colombia, especially over the Bay Area.
oh wait, you're serious? let me laugh even harder.
p.s. it's spelled 'accepted'.
I don't understand something.
Would you agree that the clash of conservatives vs liberals is often cast as a clash of rich vs poor?
Now, would you agree that wealthier people are more likely to be better educated?
Given these, it is not clear at all to me that "the smarter and better educated you are, the more liberal you are."
It also seems to fly in the face of the fact that, while it is very common for people to get more conservative as they get older, it is comparatively rare for people to get more liberal.
Also, let me add one more note.
You write:
People complain that our universities, urban elite, etc. 'lean left'."
Now, wait a sec. By saying "people complain" you seem to imply that it's not true. But then you go on to seemingly accept that it is. So why did you include the "people complain that" part? Why not just say "Our universities, urban elite, etc. "lean left"? Are you disputing it? I don't get it.
- AJ
Dude, come on, I mean it's bay area where Immigration guys keep trying to nail you for being a mexican, or Columbia where you can get as much blow as you need either for snorting off a hookers ass, or for getting her to snort off your cock. Sounds like a Win-Win situation to me.
It's not voter apathy. It's voter impotence.
Unable to satisfy your vote?
Buy vi@gra from can@d1an pharmarcy!
New technology trusts in its inherent value to succeed in the marketplace, and doesn't need government protection and bailouts. Old establishment technology and entrenched financial institutions bring no value to the marketplace, and need protection.
The cornerstone of the free market is *competition.*
Businesses don't want competition. They want a steady, predictable supply of government-guaranteed income.
Fighting for customers is hard. It is comparatively easy to hire an experienced lobbyist to lobby government to craft regulations that provide barriers to entry, limit competition ultimately transfer wealth from taxpayers to themselves.
That's why it is foolish to consider big business "conservative." The only thing they seek to conserve is whatever status quo made them big to begin with.
- AJ
This "psychologist" can't see that people at these companies are more liberal than average simply because they're smart. Not just any kind of smart, but the kind of smart that knows how to communicate with lots of other people, even if just in the abstract, technologically, not just with their hillbilly brother-cousins. Which is why they leave those hillbilly hollows to go places where companies like Apple and Microsoft can function. Back in hillbillyland they'd be burned as witches, or worse as homosexuals.
"Reality has a well-known liberal bias." - Stephen Colbert
--
make install -not war
"Oreo" means black on the outside, white on the inside. I believe the chinks use the word "Banana" to mean the same thing.
You spelled way too many words right to be a teabagger - try huffing some paint first next time to get into the proper headspace.
Oh, that's where you and your friends get to drink, smoke, and turn into donkeys and then escape and get swallowed by a big whale.
with Google dodging billions of dollars in taxes by funneling profits through overseas shell companies. I guess if you're filthy rich like Google, Obammy instructs the IRS to ignore that sort of thing. However, if I were to try it, I'm sure the IRS would take everything including the shirt off of my back. Land of the free, indeed!
Yet now, after our nation has been attacked on its own soil, after 3,000 Americans were killed, by freedom-hating terrorists, while going about their routine lives, they want to hold rallies against the war.
See, this is the kind of stupidity that you just can't reason with; our nation is attacked on its own soil, so halfwits think an appropriate response is to attack another country that wasn't actually the attacker. How can you even negotiate with this kind of vacuous mindlessness?
I'd probably agree with you on many things, but...
tl;dr.
Republicans and Democrats are 2 wings of the same corporate party...I fear he is correct. When you look at the causes of the financial meltdown we experienced, there are policies by both R and D congresses and presidents that all made it possible. I hate to over-simplify, but it appears they both suck.
And Jesse Ventura said he would be against Independents forming a 3rd party because you would have a 3 headed monster instead of a 2 headed one...I fear he is correct as well. His idea of disbanding all political parties sounded interesting, though.
Who knew that giving control of our money supply to private corporations was a bad idea? I mean besides Ben Franklin.
http://www.slate.com/id/2271828/
"The Fed makes money ex nihilo, pulling it out of thin air rather than taking it from its coffers. Then, it pushes the money into the economy by buying up assets from banks."
But the funny thing is, Democrats have been in control of the Alabama legislature for the past 136 years, and were in control of all politics in the state between the time of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement.
These were fairly conservative Democrats, mind you... but they still swing in the liberal direction on many issues.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Wanted to post the same myself, but you put it so much better. (and all my mod points are gone, so providing just moral support ;) ).
People who insist on voting for the lesser of two evils (or, worse, voting just to say that he voted for the guy who won) really surprise me if there is a real, even if long-shot, option available.
But then, we already know it (even judging from our signature lines :) ), but how do we really make others understand it?
As a side note, an alternative semi-scientific approach to get "political leanings of geeks" result would be to analyse signature lines of /.ers for bias. :)
Hmm, is there an API to download sig lines of all /. users? Anyone up for this project?
Paul B.
Maybe not on paper. But let's be realistic - corporations don't just spend megabucks because they like a candidate. I think any successful long-term candidate understands in a gentleman's-agreement way that his large donors' concerns are to be treated with the utmost consideration. Otherwise those donors are likely to go the opposing side as soon as possible.
And I really took issue with this statement:
I understand we're reducing things in simplistic terms, but this is just not true even as a generalization. *Both* Democrats and Republicans work for the rich. It's just that the rich people the Democrats work for tend to be more comfortable with regulations, social programs and infrastructure as a long-term investment in America that benefits everyone - including the rich. Whereas the rich people the Republicans work for would rather get a larger own short-term personal cut of the pie for themselves, and don't believe that the long-term investment will benefit them enough as individuals even if it benefits the nation as a whole.
As for unions, Democrats support them for the same reason that Republicans support the goals of Christian conservatives - shared values and get-out-the-vote efforts. And as for lawyers turning conservative as a class due to wealth, that also isn't supported by any study I know of. If anything, lawyers are more likely to vote Democrat no matter what their wealth, because they daily see the effects of republican policies on the actual justice system.
Just my $.02 .
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
Plus, companies like Google that have wet dreams about providing all of the IT services needed to run an authoritarian state have an interest in bribing the party of Big Government. How many of you retards were quoting George Orwell during the Bush years, only to act deaf and blind when Obama CONTINUED the Bush policies of warrantless wiretapping? How many of you were screaming "Teh shrub = Hitler," but sat by quietly while Obama ran roughshod over bankruptcy laws, took over two auto companies, screwed the bond holders, and gave majority ownership of the companies to his union buddies? How can a company raise capital if bond holders can no longer be assured of having first crack at a company's assets should they go belly-up? Companies like Google and Facebook are making Orwell's vision of the future more real every day. Before too much longer, Big Brother will be able to watch you on the toilet in your home on his iPhone via Google X-Ray cam. And God help you if he catches you not saluting his image first thing every morning! http://www.thelastminuteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/obama_hope-poster.jpg Since when do we plaster a giant poster of our Dear Leader's face on every surface? Didn't we just overthrow two countries where this very practice was commonplace? WTF is wrong with you people?
It's really too bad all these overpaid coasties can't lean CENTRIST and INDEPENDENT and STOP supporting either of the two "wings" of the establishment Corrupt Party.
Is there something about the US and most of the states being dead broke they just don't get? Do they fail to see that beggaring your non coastal neighbors with offshoring and outsourcing and throwing money at wall street has been an utter failure, and that the feds can't run a dad blame thing in the black, anytime, anywhere, just another failure, no matter if their sock puppet has a D or R next to their name? How much of TRILLIONS in debt already do they fail to comprehend?
Why do you have to call him black? He's just as white as he is black.
First black president? Pshaw! He's just the 44th cracker in a row.
You forgot "and lose more American soldiers than civilians were killed in the initial attack." 3,000 dead from 9/11, 4,400+ combat deaths in Iraq.
"See here: For every American you kill, we'll waste 1.3 American lives attacking that guy over there! You've been warned!"
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
"1984", by George Orwell
http://www.thelastminuteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/obama_hope-poster.jpg
Odd that the summary neglects to mention two very high profile elections that have former major tech CEO's running as Republicans for this election cycle.
"social and environmental issues. "
Tell that to the thousands of people they've laid off in favor of off-shoring and abusing the H1B loopholes.
They're no more left-leaning than any other corporation. Now their employees? Yes. Maybe but as a company? Not even close. They may, perhaps, donate to a few pet projects each year in order to look good but their actual actions speak much, much louder.
Also, it's always amusing that when MS is supposed to be one of the good guys, they're Xbox but when they're evil, they're back to Microsoft.
To be fair, if you voted Obama you pretty much wasted your vote too.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I'd recommend understanding how HTML formatting works before trying to claim someone is smarter than someone else.
In what way does spelling acumen limit your ability to stuff testicles in your mouth?
Honestly...if you're gonna say "teabaggers", at least have the cojones to not post AC...it's not like /. is a bastion of conservative thought.
Ahh, shit. IHBT
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
Then there's amazon.com, which in addition to their ground-breaking aggressive use of an inane software patent, was also donating money to the Republican party during the rise of the Bush Jr. regime... in contrast to Barnes and Nobles, which has been solidly blue, all along.
As a european with many pre-conceived ideas about the USA, wouldn't it be "Satan-driven racially-challenged-african-american Marxist"? Isn't the rest completely un-PC?
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
As a european with many pre-conceived ideas about the USA, wouldn't it be "Satan-driven racially-challenged-african-american Marxist"? Isn't the rest completely un-PC?
Whoa there - American? Make that "Satan-driven racially-challenged-African Marxist"
Fandroids hate facts.
"I am shocked to learn that executives from these tech companies live in a place where each public school-day DOESN'T begin with school prayer, a mandatory salute to the Confederate flag, shooting practice, and a discussion of why America would elect a satan-worshiping negro marxist as President."
Uh, I live there, went to high school and college there, and none of my days in public school ever began with a prayer or a salute to the Confederate flag. It always began with a pledge of allegiance to the stars and stripes.
If you were trying to be funny, you failed. If you were trying to paint a picture of the state, you failed miserably.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Seriously, I've been to the Bay Area, and given the state of Mexican food there I don't think they've even seen a Mexican since the territory belonged to Spain.
If Google is earning that money from investments overseas and spending it overseas, then there really is no problem.
The problem is companies that pretend to do that, but are really expatriating domestic profits, or failing to repatriate revenues on domestic products.
Change the rule to allow taxation on foreign investment, and you will simply kill multinational corporations in America. They'll all split into subsidiaries of a foreign holding company. There will be a Google America and a Google Everywhere Else.
Just not of the truly wealthy.
Do you really want to see what that would look like with all the formatting intact? Because I'm guessing it's all centered, in four rotating colors, has a textured background that camouflages the text, any number of graphical manipulations, and more than one instance of blinking bold italics.
I'm forgetting the actual word for the shape (not "bathtub", there's a good word for it), but basically the conservatism vs. education curve is not monotonic, while generally the education vs. wealth one is.
Conservatives tend to quit school after they get their BS or in some case MS, since they tend to focus on money from birth. Few Ph.D's are conservative. Very few who are using their doctorates at universities.
The thing about the "educated elites" argument is that they're basically saying they don't value smart people. And it works politically because they don't care if they're telling the truth, just as long as they activate the jealous hatred nascent in the voting public. Conservative politics is very tactical and highly specious. They utterly mastered the trick of putting a heinous proposition on the ballot, one they'd never put in as a party platform plank, which nonetheless brings out the sociopaths who, since they're already there to declare homosexuals non-persons, might as well vote for that nice dumb guy from Texas, because they're sure he's on their side.
Ignorance is contagious.
Thanks to years of social programs, and other unconstitutional spending, the US is over 100 trillion dollars in debt, counting the unfunded liabilities to Social Security and Medicare. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the current levels of spending can't be maintained. Maybe Bill Gates and the kind liberal folks in Silicon valley won't mind bailing us out? Why don't we nationalize their businesses, and confiscate their wealth? It's the liberal thing to do, right?
Blow up the world!
Try writing in one language while peaking in another. English is my first language, but Spanish is heavily phonetic, so there is crossover if I am using both simultaneously. I was gabbing with a coworker while writing the post. I am not insecure, I just found California not as liberal as people claim it to be.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Google doesn't do IT services.
You're thinking of IBM, EDS, SAP, Oracle...
replace tech with 'intelligent" and it all makes sense.
Ahhh, so you're from my wife's side of the family....
I know the feeling, my GF is half Indian (Navajo to be exact) and when we are out the locals will sometime just start speaking Spanish to her thinking she is Mexican. She just blushes and says no habla but I just love how her brother handles it "Me no Mexican, me Indian. Me scalp your kind!" . Maybe it's different here (north AR) surrounded by the military bases, but we always laughed our asses off at the idiot racists like the klan, who last I heard are hiding out on a hill in Boone county, because the thought that anyone here was "white" was about as stupid as saying my dog was anything other than a mutt. Here every race has mingled with every race (or as I like to call it "Forget fighting, let's just screw") so much there isn't a pure ANYTHING anymore. I look white but am actually Irish, English, German, Two kinds of Indian (Comanche and Creek) and Cajun, which of course is pretty much any race that ever stepped through Louisiana. My girl looks Mexican but is just as much a mix as me, so the thought that anyone still judges based on "race" is kinda just silly to me.
As for TFA, it is nice to see that some put their money where they believe, and not just on the bottom line. We have had pretty much constant tax breaks for the top 3% for the past 30 years, and are worse off than ever before. I can drive through entire towns nearby that are nothing but empty factories and boarded up homes, The level of unemployment is frankly just insane, and if it wasn't for the dems extending unemployment benefits I know quite a few that would be living in their cars, not because they don't want to work, but simply because there isn't any work to be had while they push for more and more education while at the same time expect us to be able to compete with someone who paid $5k for their degree compared to our $70k, it is just nuts. It is just simple math folks, you can't have these ever growing huge masses of unemployed without it blowing up in your face. Just look at what happened to Germany in the 30s, the fascists basically came to power by offering "bread and jobs" and the people went along. Right now you have huge masses that simply don't believe in the American Dream anymore, and they grow more numerous every day. Things simply have to change, period.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Corporations love big government instating a bunch of rules to freeze out their competitors. Corporations aren't Marxist entities. But they don't have problems with leftist governments. Or right. It really just depends.
Corporations compete and aren't in agreement about anything.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
why so messican dawg?
One thing is for sure: the Democrats are better at managing their image and negatively impacting the competition's image. Most people don't really know anything about politics, but the "average" American believes "Democrats = good, Republicans = evil". And, like it or not: "perception is reality"
Fail:
Nice try for factual inaccuracy. Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Alabama ranks 32nd in its percentage of whites and 7th in its percentage of Blacks. It's one of the most racially diverse places in America.
Isn't tarring everyone with the same brush, based on nothing but skin color, actually racism? Are you a self-hating white racist?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
If you want to find the highest level of cousin fucking in the world, you'll have to visit the Middle East. There are a few countries where the percentage of marriages to cousins is at 50% or higher.
a satan-worshiping negro marxist as President
Should be:
a satan-worshiping atheist muslim negro arab marxist fascist anarchist as President
You'd better get back to class, Billy-Bob; you'll make us look foolish.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
OMG, if you couldn't see that he was joking, you've got serious problems...
Fail:http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/datbus/article.php/3895226/Googles-Government-Deal-Shows-Cloud-Promise-Challenges.htm
Yes, the certainly don't represent the likes of George Soros, Warren Buffett, Paul Allen, and Steve Jobs.
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I know it's second nature to tar both major US political parties with the "whores for business", and I've done it myself. However, in the 30 or so years since I started to pay attention to politics, this much has become crystal clear:
Luke, help me take this mask off
I don't get it.
You must be conservative. Are you?
Diverse would be a place like Miami, where 60% of the population wasn't born in the United States, and the largest ethnic group(Cubans) makes up only 30% of the population.
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill
Note, I'm "Right Wing" by international standards, the USA's main two parties are Right, and Ultra Right, why can you not simply have Centre Left and Centre Right like the rest of the world? And also colour them correctly, Red is for "left wing", Blue for "right wing"! You know, like, "The Reds are invading..."?
Things America needs to change reason #42 the Metric System....
---
There was a time, in the PC tech boom where this wasn't the case. Most of the tech people were more libertarian than anything else.
I remember all the east coaster coming in in the late 80's and early 90's, I remember them all telling me how screwed up California was and how much better the East Coast was and
how they had to change everything to there way.
I know the feeling, my GF is half Indian (Navajo to be exact) and when we are out the locals will sometime just start speaking Spanish to her thinking she is Mexican. She just blushes and says no habla but I just love how her brother handles it "Me no Mexican, me Indian. Me scalp your kind!" .
Best. Family. Ever. Marry her!
His vote wasn't a wasted vote because the result of the current Republican candidate has an impact on the chances of future Republican candidates, which are real. Your vote however was entirely wasted because the next libertarian candidate's chances will be as non-existant as Barr's. I wish it were otherwise but that's the system. At least you didn't end up voting against your own interest, like Nader voters in 2000.
first, democrats are left ? haahahahaha hahahahahahaha hahaahahahah...... that was a good laugh.
and
"Their political values trump financial concerns at the organizational culture level", and, they are phenomenally successful ? maybe we should all have our political values trump financial concerns.
Read radical news here
Now it's Main Street vs Wall Street or people vs corporations. And thanks to Supreme Court corporations have now unlimited powers to funding campaigns of both politicians and judges. This is significant difference between previous elections and this one. Wall Street is clearly winning on all fronts and ordinary people are basically f**cked at this point. If Gulf oil spill / fraudclosure fiascos doesn't tell it clear enough, I don't know what will. And I have no idea what could be done to stop this process.
The problem is that politics are not a simple left-right. Look at the Pournelle Axes on Wikipedia - they make a lot of things come clear. There are really two questions to ask:
1. Do you believe in big government? If you do, on the Pournelle Axes, you are on the right. If not (e.g., Libertarian), you are on the left. Both Democrats and Republicans have become "big government" parties.
2. Should the government drive social change? The democrats tend to say yes (Obamacare, New Deal, welfare programs, etc.), placing them in the top of the diagram. The Republicans tend to say "no", and hence are in the bottom half.
The problem in American politics is that there is no credible movement anywhere in the left half of this diagram. With any luck, maybe the Tea Party will change that - but this is not yet clear...
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
You forgot 1 factor...age.
When you're in your twenties, come from a wealthy family and don't really have any serious cares in the world, you can afford to look around, see the state the world is in and go "What the fuck? What in the name of all that is holy have the idiots that came before been doing? Surely some intelligent dedicated people could do a better job?"
Then as you grow up, you discover that intelligence is overrated, ignorance rules and you settle down to worrying about mortgages and putting your own kids through college.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
He's WAY too out of touch with reality to be African. Say what you will about food shortages, but they do absolute wonders for one's sense of reality.
It takes being a filthy rich American, never having even been in the same country as anyone actually suffering to actually advocate leftist solutions to the world's problems. Because, if there is one thing every black African knows : whoever's going to solve this mess, it sure as hell ain't going to be the government. African governments spend their time between genocide, religious genocide (well, the northern african ones), and raising taxes to 20000% (and you get a free lead supply with that, delivered at bullet-like speeds to anyone who accomplishes anything).
Here's the other side of that problem.
It's the left that gets to define "better educated" in most cases - particularly in light of degrees that don't produce much (liberal arts). Techies are notoriously more libertine on financial matters than the academic left.
The other side of that issue is that there are plenty of producers - small businesspeople, regularly employed - who don't have as much college education but more experience making money.
WOOSH
You might not be able to change the system, you might not be able to make a huge impact, but at the very least you will have your vote as "none of the above" registered.
What I want to see is a legally binding 'none of the above' on every ballot.
If 'none of the above' wins, then the election for that office is re-held and none of the previous candidates may run again.
The ballot needs a reset button.
"You have liberated me from thought."
Hmmm....
Marissa Mayer, Jew
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Jews
Mark Zuckerburg, Jew
Eric Schmidt, not a Jew
Seeing a pattern here?
"Oreo" is incorrect terminology. A person with one white parent and one black parent is a mulatto. An "oreo" is a person with two black parents who is "black on the inside, white on the outside". It's an insult hurled at blacks by other blacks who they think "act too white".
And he's not being a dick, he's making a funny parody.
Free Martian Whores!
I've always said that kids should study more of Jefferson's work.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
TV Companies are also like Tech Companies
The TV companies are dominated by "leaning left" liberals, and therefore their reporting is also left-leaning. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN. All pro-"make the government bigger" biased as a reflection of their liberal workers.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
TV Companies are also like Tech Companies
The TV companies are dominated by "leaning left" liberals, and therefore their reporting is also left-leaning. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN. All pro-"make the government bigger" biased as a reflection of their liberal workers.
You make it sound as though big media companies are structured like some sort of collective, with the organisation as a whole representing the beliefs of its individual members. Remarkably, that's not how capitalism works.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I understand you're just being a dick here (what leftwingers do best)
GP is engaging in parody, which is part of the arsenal of weapons available with free speech, something that rightwingers always say is important when defending murderous racism, sexism and homophobia, but get pissy about when used against them.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Only 2% of blacks crossed race lines when they voted? Sounds like they're part of the problem.
I'm afraid my little Indian princess is scared to death of marriage at this point. She was married twice in the past and both were horribly physically abusive to her, which also gave her serious self esteem issues. Just the fact that we live two hours away from each other (due to the fact that we both have elderly parents we need to be close to in case of emergency) has my poor little princess worried sick I'm gonna "get tired of her" and find someone else.
Lucky for me even her grown kids just love the hell out of me, because they know I would NEVER raise a hand in anger or be abusive to a woman, and my family already considers her part of the family, so slowly but surely I'm working on building her back up. I never knew the long term damage physical abuse could cause until I fell in love with a woman who had been abused. What it did to her self esteem was worse than the broken bones IMHO, and definitely will take longer to heal. But they say time heals all wounds, and she is finding out I'm one seriously stubborn bastard when it comes to getting what I want.
Having to be apart these past 90 days due to illnesses in the families has been a perfect chance to show her she has nothing to fear, and I won't cheat on her or mistreat her when I don't get to be with her as much as I like. Of course when she shows up next weekend I have a feeling I won't be leaving the bed for a couple of days, but it is comfy and I like it there ;-) But yeah her family is a hoot, half Indian and half redneck makes for a hell of a combo. Just don't ride with them! Good Lord, if they are going less than 90MPH it is a miracle, crazy!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Islam has destroyed USENet?!?!?!?!11!!1OMGBBQ!
and you waste oxygen.
It's the left that gets to define "better educated" in most cases - particularly in light of degrees that don't produce much (liberal arts).
That's right, advanced degrees are handed out by a left-wing conspiracy, and people with liberal arts degrees don't produce much, except the bulk of the world's economic output and leadership. Very persuasive.
Techies are notoriously more libertine on financial matters than the academic left.
Heh heh ha. That's priceless.
The other side of that issue is that there are plenty of producers - small businesspeople, regularly employed - who don't have as much college education but more experience making money.
Hmmm ... who do you think makes more money, those with college degrees or those without?
Reminds me of a funny story about my uncle.
Now my uncle is blond-haired, blue-eyed, turns-red-on-contact-with-sunlight, 100% white, but his family has lived in the Caribbean for generations, and he lived there as a child. For context this took place in Ontario sometime in the mid 80s.
So, he had some guests over for dinner, and as they're about to leave he's discussing his childhood in the Caribbean and his family's roots there. One guest is shocked at this and exclaims:
"Why Chris, I never knew you were black!"
They also assume every black person they meet is African-American, even when they're not in the US.
it is nice to see that some put their money where they believe, and not just on the bottom line
That depends on what factors influence the bottom line. Under Republican policies, which I've been assured many times are extremely "business friendly," we deregulated banks and finance companies and allowed the lines between them to blur (some of this was supported by President Clinton). Under President Bush we also depopulated the SEC, which was charged with the oversight of these businesses. In other words, we did exactly what banks and financial institutions were asking us to do. And it turns out that doing exactly what these businesses wanted was not as "business friendly" as we'd imagined, as the crash of 2008 demonstrates. It turns out that if we'd kept post-Depression era policies in place, all of the companies that lobbied for deregulation in the 1990s and 2000s would have been much better off, millions of jobless Americans wouldn't be jobless, and a lot of the tech companies that TFA mentions would be selling more cloud services and shiny devices than they currently are. The bottom line suffered tremendously for our "business friendly" policies. So these people are putting their money not just behind what they believe, but also on the bottom line.
I'm educated enough to see a logical fallacy when I see one.
College graduates also tend to come from higher income families. Therefore, according to your logic, the more money you accumulate, the more liberal you are.
You may be educated enough to see logic, but not to use it.
Do tech companies support trade sanctions against China? Are they diehard supporters of labor unions? Affirmative action? Do they support $500 recycling fees for computers? Do they support increases in welfare? Greater government regulation of business? If the answer to all these is no, then tech companies are right wing indeed.
Ummm....CEO's of Fortune 500 companies don't walk around with degrees in Psychology and History.
The WORST economics people that I have seen are theorists and Keynesians - economic leftists. I'm not any sort of strict Austrian or monetarist by any means, but I keep wondering how they keep getting influence after what they said couldn't happen - inflation AND high unemployment - occurred in the 1970s. Techies are fiscally conservative. How is that wrong?
College degrees get paid more - true - but you don't have to have one to be a successful businessperson. Bill Gates?
Here in the Bay Area we still have *actual* Socialists and Communists. You can even walk up and talk to them! Ask them if Obama's one of them (yeah, what bullshit.) And, ok, most of the ones who call themselves "Communists" will tell you to get off their lawn, but there are a lot of Socialists around, and I knew a number of them back in NYC as well.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I read a piece by a guy arguing that evo-bio programs are biased against the religious. Because they don't teach ID. :(
More informed = less religious. Sorry, not a bias it is just reality.
Almost all the daily news is variations on that. The rest is accident, or made up. Like the idea that there is some difference between Democrats and Republicans, that one side is morally superior, ...
"The Constitution, the WHOLE Constitution, and nothing but the CONSTITUTION."
The fact that you can count liberal billionaires on one hand negates your implied premise.
...the result of the current Republican candidate has an impact on the chances of future Republican candidates, which are real.
So by your logic, I we SHOULD vote for our third party candidates, as the higher their vote total is, the better their chances in future elections.
And the next (R) candidate is NOT going to win California. I mean, we are about to elect a crazy old man (Jerry Brown) to run our state, simply because he has a (D) next to his name. If we'll pick him over ANYBODY simply because of his party affiliation, then there is not a chance for any (R) to win the state.
I know the feeling, my GF is half Indian (Navajo to be exact) and when we are out the locals will sometime just start speaking Spanish to her thinking she is Mexican. She just blushes and says no habla but I just love how her brother handles it "Me no Mexican, me Indian. Me scalp your kind!" . Maybe it's different here (north AR) surrounded by the military bases, but we always laughed our asses off at the idiot racists like the klan, who last I heard are hiding out on a hill in Boone county, because the thought that anyone here was "white" was about as stupid as saying my dog was anything other than a mutt. Here every race has mingled with every race (or as I like to call it "Forget fighting, let's just screw") so much there isn't a pure ANYTHING anymore. I look white but am actually Irish, English, German, Two kinds of Indian (Comanche and Creek) and Cajun, which of course is pretty much any race that ever stepped through Louisiana. My girl looks Mexican but is just as much a mix as me, so the thought that anyone still judges based on "race" is kinda just silly to me.
I have the same experience. I'm half Indian (Lumbee) and half (mostly) Scot-Irish. The Lumbee is the remnants of several tribes, escaped slaves, and Scot-Irish...basically, anyone that was rejected from polite society was chased into the swamplands of southeast North Carolina. Red-headed Native Americans? REALLY? With a brother that has a flat nose and black curly hair (curly as in "of African descent"). Yeah! There's a lot of pure blood there.
But Mexicans will occasionally speak to me in the native tongues, and I just look at them with a "What the hell did you just say to me?" look ('cause I'm wondering what the hell he just said to me). My bond haired, blue-eyed wife and my dark-skinned, fair featured sons all think it is a hoot.
We don't live in a post-racial society, yet, but the "check your race" on the government forms are getting sillier every year.
As for TFA, it is nice to see that some put their money where they believe, and not just on the bottom line. We have had pretty much constant tax breaks for the top 3% for the past 30 years, and are worse off than ever before. I can drive through entire towns nearby that are nothing but empty factories and boarded up homes, The level of unemployment is frankly just insane, and if it wasn't for the dems extending unemployment benefits I know quite a few that would be living in their cars, not because they don't want to work, but simply because there isn't any work to be had while they push for more and more education while at the same time expect us to be able to compete with someone who paid $5k for their degree compared to our $70k, it is just nuts. It is just simple math folks, you can't have these ever growing huge masses of unemployed without it blowing up in your face. Just look at what happened to Germany in the 30s, the fascists basically came to power by offering "bread and jobs" and the people went along. Right now you have huge masses that simply don't believe in the American Dream anymore, and they grow more numerous every day. Things simply have to change, period.
Those jobs aren't coming back, not matter how well educated you are. We just had a person "given the opportunity to find another job." She was replaced by a shell script. Seriously, we automated her out of a job. The History Channel (Modern Marvels, I think) was doing a special on cotton, and was talking about the mills. The showed a machine and talked about how one machine replaced THOUSANDS of workers. Secretaries are quickly becoming a dead profession. The list goes on.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Ummm....CEO's of Fortune 500 companies don't walk around with degrees in Psychology and History.
The WORST economics people that I have seen are theorists and Keynesians - economic leftists. I'm not any sort of strict Austrian or monetarist by any means, but I keep wondering how they keep getting influence after what they said couldn't happen - inflation AND high unemployment - occurred in the 1970s. Techies are fiscally conservative. How is that wrong?
College degrees get paid more - true - but you don't have to have one to be a successful businessperson. Bill Gates?
C'mon, admit you have no idea about any of that, from what degrees CEOs have to the meaning of "libertine" (at least look it up; geez).
For people who aren't Bill Gates, college teaches them to think critically for themselves, and not mindlessly parrot disingenuous arguments designed to manipulate the ignorant. That is, the arguments spread by many conservative leaders to convince the sheep to do their masters' bidding.
Hmmm ... I wonder why those with college degrees, and know more about economics and critical thinking and many other things, are less conservative.
Whether someone gets 1% or 3% is not going to make any difference for his party's chances, there's no hope for election in sight. Given that California has voted in Repubs before, future Republican candidates' chances are greater than 0.
You'd THINK college would do that, but I have seen a bit too many college-educated leftists doing the parroting, and you just have to look at the voting record of uneducated minorities to see that there are sheep on both sides.
We're currently dealing with mistakes by those "less conservative" economists as well. Sorry, I'm just REALLY disillusioned with modern Keyneseists.
And yeah, I should have used "libertarian" than "libertine." Overthought that one.
Actually, I just looked at a top 25 list and pulled out the ones I thought the Slashdot crowd would recognize. The top earners in America are actually somewhat mixed, and money seems to have little or no impact on politics.
In case you missed it, my original point was to point out a logical inconsistency, not to claim a causal relationship between wealth and political viewpoint.
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