Please read this! SLC Dunk- Black Lives Matter

[DasJazz]

I never even came close to calling you a racist. Not even close. I also didn't discount you helping people, but I don't consider employing people to be "helping" them. It's a business arrangement in which both parties should benefit. Please don't pat yourself on the back as some sort of philanthropist because you hire people. Capitalism is not charity and it shouldn't be. You, as an employer, should gain more from needing to hire people to make it possible for you to make more money than they should be able to make from you in payroll. If you're paying your employees more than they allow you to increase profits then you'll eventually go out of business. So it's sort of a known deal, the employee works for you for a guaranteed income. It's predictable, stable, and if the employee doesn't like it or has a better opportunity they can take their talents to another employer. But the employer should always be making more money from the work their employees do than they pay those employees. If they don't they are capitalism-ing wrong. So don't pretend you're doing people favors. Don't pat yourself on the back as if you did an act of charity. That's insulting to the people who give their time, their skill and their labor to you for a portion of the money you make off of it.

Never considered it charity, nor did I pat myself on the back about it. I consider my actions something that betters each individual and their respective communities in the long run. As I said before, I came from very poor and humble beginnings and a lot of these people were too. Now, they are able to not only take care of themselves better but help their communities out as well as we are huge into community outreach and volunteering.

My favorite thing in the world is when I used to get visited (newly retired) by these young men and women at my spoke office and they tell me about all of the great things that they have accomplished and I always encourage them to always be better tomorrow than they were today. That is my individual challenge to each of them, and I think in most cases, these wonderful individuals take it to heart and strive for greatness.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

Never considered it charity, nor did I pat myself on the back about it. I consider my actions something that betters each individual and their respective communities in the long run. As I said before, I came from very poor and humble beginnings and a lot of these people were too. Now, they are able to not only take care of themselves better but help their communities out as well as we are huge into community outreach and volunteering.

My favorite thing in the world is when I used to get visited (newly retired) by these young men and women at my spoke office and they tell me about all of the great things that they have accomplished and I always encourage them to always be better tomorrow than they were today. That is my individual challenge to each of them, and I think in most cases, these wonderful individuals take it to heart and strive for greatness.

So I must owe every employer I’ve ever had a thank you? After they thank me for wanting to work for and making him or her money.

 

[silesian]

Call me what you want #All lives matter

If you believe all lives matter then you believe that black lives matter.

 

[silesian]

So I must owe every employer I’ve ever had a thank you? After they thank me for wanting to work for and making him or her money.

I kinda sorta agree with this.

Gratefulness should not be owed but just given when it is authentically felt between people. So if an owner or a boss or a colleague took the time to help you and be supportive, a thank you seems nice.

However, between you and the company who employs you, you are providing them a service that creates value for them and they are putting money in your pocket. I pride myself in creating value far beyond my salary, so I'm not going to bitch about that. It is part of negotiations for raises and incentive compensation, etc.

 

[silesian]

When your white its easy to not understand the BLM movement . It's easy to state All Lives Matter and think that your doing no harm to BLM because your obviously in support of All lives Matter, and how can anyone think that the statement "all lives matter" is offensive?

If after the bombing, someone were to say to you "Boston Strong!" would you be supportive and retweet this, expressing empathy towards the suffering and loss, or would you respond by saying "All Cities are Strong!" and list how other cities have had similar pain? Most humans would do the former. Some may understandably interpret and "All" as petty and jealous, questioning why Boston gets special treatment. The clear implication is "you're not so special"

If my daughter comes up to me and says "I'm really sad because I did not win in gymnastics, I tell her I understand why she would be sad and ask her how I can support her. I don't respond by saying "there are a thousands of athletes around the world who did not win"

 

[silesian]

"Black Lives Matter" clearly means "Black Lives Matter, TOO"

Anyone who interprets this as "ONLY Black Lives Matter" may have issues.

 

[AlaskanAssassin]

If my daughter comes up to me and says "I'm really sad because I did not win in gymnastics, I tell her I understand why she would be sad and ask her how I can support her. I don't respond by saying "there are a thousands of athletes around the world who did not win"

So we need to treat the BLM movement the same way we would treat a small child?

Instead of providing information, statistics, and perspective, we are supposed to purely tend to the emotional needs of a specific group?

 

[One Brow]

So we need to treat the BLM movement the same way we would treat a small child?

Instead of providing information, statistics, and perspective, we are supposed to purely tend to the emotional needs of a specific group?

So, responding to suffering with empathy is too hard for you?

 

[AlaskanAssassin]

Has anyone listed to the recent Joe Rogan podcast with Bret Weinstein? Bret has some excellent insight and thoughts on BLM, and the general state of our country. He makes a lot of connections to what is currently brewing in the USA to the beginnings of the Cultural Revolution in China. If you have never read about what happened during the Cultural Revolution, I would highly recommend it. There are eerie similarities between what is happening now in our country. Very insightful and I'd recommend giving the podcast a listen if you have time. I've always liked listening to Bret Weinstein, as he is a very progressive person but manages to stay grounded in reality regarding what the many things great about our country (freedom of speech, civil liberties, intellectualism, etc). He proposed an interesting idea of electing a center left and center right person to serve as President and Vice President (Andrew Yang and William McRaven).

He criticizes BLM (for a variety of reasons), while also acknowledging that major government efforts need to be made to help uplift Black communities to help free them from the poverty.

One point he made, that I thought was spot-on, related to the issues that stem from mass-incarceration occurring in our country. He makes this point as an evolutionary biologist, which of course I am not, but I'll try to paraphrase. Essentially, because our country has such an aggressive approach to incarcerating people, and because that incarceration naturally will have a greater impact on impoverished groups (Black Men), this leads to higher instances of single motherhood in the Black community. Not only that, he points out that when males are removed from a group of mammals, the remaining males are much less likely to settle with a permanent mate due to their high demand. Thus, this leads to extremely high single motherhood rates for Black women (75% ish). As being raised in a two-family household is one of the key indicators to avoid poverty (along with finishing high school and avoiding pregnancy before marriage), the cycle repeats itself.

In other words. We need to stop incarcerating such a high percentage of our citizens if we truly want to get people out of poverty, specifically Black Americans.

 

[AlaskanAssassin]

So, responding to suffering with empathy is too hard for you?

Responding with empathy is the easy part, and I've always offered it when appropriate or needed. Responding with truth, facts, and knowledge, especially in circumstances when someone is struggling, that is truly challenging. It may not be what they want to hear, but by doing so you are potentially providing someone with the tools necessary to better their life, and the life of their loved ones. Empathy mostly only makes people feel better in the short term.

 

[One Brow]

Responding with empathy is the easy part, and I've always offered it when appropriate or needed. Responding with truth, facts, and knowledge, especially in circumstances when someone is struggling, that is truly challenging. It may not be what they want to hear, but by doing so you are potentially providing someone with the tools necessary to better their life, and the life of their loved ones. Empathy mostly only makes people feel better in the short term.

So, you think you're qualified to tell other people what the problems in their life are, and how to better it? You think you have such a command of the truth, facts, and knowledge that you can apply it universally?

 

[One Brow]

Bret has some excellent insight and thoughts on BLM, and the general state of our country. He makes a lot of connections to what is currently brewing in the USA to the beginnings of the Cultural Revolution in China.

You contradicted yourself in two consecutive sentences.