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I don't know, but maybe if we asked a Muslim how well they might do trying to make it in Hollywood, we might better understand if the issue is "coordination" or something else perhaps...
PS: Glad we can have such a conversation without it turning into a bunch of "creepy noise" related to antiSemitism. Refreshing! Though I do think we've gone a bit off topic. Or have we?
How would the Muslim know? Perhaps they would bring their own bias into answering that question. Given the fact that it is extremely hard for just about anyone to break into Hollywood, how would they know what was the limiting factor? There aren’t that many Indians or East Asians either. Maybe the reason for that , and Muslims, is because they are still relative newcomers in this country. Given time, they will likely have more of a presence. It’s not like any of these groups are completely non-existent either.
Again, I've really got to sign off now, but I saw your comment as I was just about to do so, and you remind me of another "blind spot" that lots of conservatives seem to have, the size of Texas...
You think I'm a conservative because of a single datapoint, and you say that I have a blindspot? Oh man, that's the ironic post of the day.
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All you say is true about how there is a good deal more to success, making money and all the rest well beyond or aside from having connections. Sure, but the fact is that being successful and/or making money is not all about being smart or hard working either. You really don't need to be that smart of that hard working to make money. Not "rocket science" after all.
Sounds like you've really got it figured out. You should write a book. You could call it, How To Get Rich Without Working Hard For Dummies.
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Consider the other factors that tend to foster the opportunity to be successful and/or make money, and how connections make a difference begins to come into better focus. Or perhaps easier to understand is how lack of connections and other important success factors tends to make success all the less likely. How you and others can't recognize how these factors really do matter statistically speaking is hard for me to understand, but I've truly come to believe this "blind spot" is born of ego and/or the inability to recognize what good fortune we have enjoyed for reasons we take for granted that are simply not true for all who have not done as well.
What connections are you speaking of? Got any personal examples? The only connections I ever leveraged were ones that I cultivated over the years by getting a reputation for dependability and good work. Were you born with connections? I certainly wasn't. Did AnesthesiaMD leverage his Jewish connections to get through medical school? Is that what you think? I'm guessing not. Getting thru med school requires a lifetime of academic achievement and hard work. "Connections" don't help with that.
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Mind you, I used to work as a paid professional Executive Coach, and always the effort involved helping people overcome their challenges to achieve their potential. No matter the challenges, the idea is to focus on how to overcome them. Yes, and some people are better able than others. No doubt.
However, I can tell you from experience helping hundreds of working professionals to do exactly this, what advantages we have going for us and/or what significant challenges others must overcome instead -- having absolutely nothing to do with our "innate abilities" -- makes a difference. A big difference, statistically speaking.
There is a very strong correlation between level of income and level of education, for example, so what happens when someone doesn't start in life with the benefit of a good education? Whether at home or at school. One example of many that ALSO makes a big difference with respect to who enjoys success and who doesn't.
Newsflash: successful people tend to breed successful people. It's more from a role-model standpoint than anything.
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Might be why all these rich people paid to have their kids attend top universities regardless whether their kids were qualified, and why with that degree from Stanford, these kids also get a huge "leg up" compared to kids struggling to even get through high school because of family financial difficulties. I mean right?!?
No, I don't believe that. The movie stars that just got busted for bribing their kids into college did that for prestige, not to make their kids successful. If they want to make their kids rich, they give them money. You know, like Trump. Even if a parent bribed Stanford into admitting their loser kid, the kid still has to get their degree and become successful in the working world. They're likely to be less successful than kid from a poor family who earned his way into college on a scholarship. But I digress. This is getting pretty off-topic. The point is Jews are no better or no worse at "connections and nepotism" which is the post to which I originally responded. To say otherwise is just racism.
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See you tomorrow perhaps. Meanwhile, a good clear-thinking day to you...
You think I'm a conservative because of a single datapoint, and you say that I have a blindspot? Oh man, that's the ironic post of the day.
Sounds like you've really got it figured out. You should write a book. You could call it, How To Get Rich Without Working Hard For Dummies.
What connections are you speaking of? Got any personal examples? The only connections I ever leveraged were ones that I cultivated over the years by getting a reputation for dependability and good work. Were you born with connections? I certainly wasn't. Did AnesthesiaMD leverage his Jewish connections to get through medical school? Is that what you think? I'm guessing not. Getting thru med school requires a lifetime of academic achievement and hard work. "Connections" don't help with that.
Newsflash: successful people tend to breed successful people. It's more from a role-model standpoint than anything.
I sensed you were a conservative based on much you write, not just a "single data point," but if I am wrong about that, duly noted. Maybe you give off more conservative vibe than you are aware, but also of course there is much else that ultimately determines whether we are conservative or liberal leaning. I'll take your word for it in any case. The "blindspot" seems to be there regardless. Not sure why pointing this out should seem "ironic," but it's the same sort of thing that most conservatives seem intent on ignoring...
I've been in business all my life. I'm not suggesting that hard work isn't part of getting ahead. Certainly does help more than being lazy. Of course. I'm just pointing out there is much more involved in the way of advantages and/or disadvantages that makes just as much a difference if not more. Connections is just one of many such advantages. Good fortune vs bad fortune. I've known lots of people who work awfully hard without necessarily knowing any real success, sometimes the opposite in fact. Also people who aren't that hard working or particularly smart who do quite well. Anyone who doesn't notice all manner of variety in these regards is simply not "seeing the forest for the trees." I could point to countless examples of people who I know personally and worked with professionally all across this spectrum.
Always seems to me that some people are simply more humble in terms of recognizing their good fortune compared to others who have only an ego-driven perspective related to their success. Also seems you are focused on me vs you with your questions about connections and here too I don't know you from Adam! Maybe you can rightfully take credit for all your success without one "leg up" advantage compared to other people. All due to your "innate abilities." I'm not suggesting there are not lots of legitimate "rags to riches" stories having little to do with advantage. I'm simply pointing out how advantage vs disadvantage makes a significant difference STATISTICALLY SPEAKING.
Your "newsflash" might be one prime example of what I would call one of the most significant "connections" one can have in life, as I've commented before. "Connection" to a good family in a positive environment just for starters. UUGE! Trump might be another good example in terms of how advantage, being born into advantage, makes a big difference with lots of people. Not sure Trump is all that hard working or smart. Can't know if he would have achieved any success had he been born other than with a "silver spoon in his mouth," but either way, would you say he is a billion times harder working or smarter than you are? Not sure we're always so accurate to gauge the measure of a man or woman by the size of their bank account...
Newsflash: not all success is a function of hard work and smarts, and being born with any number of significant advantages and/or enjoying any number of ways we can benefit from good fortune is also a very significant part of the equation. This part of the equation is the significant "blind spot" lots of conservatives fail to appreciate.
I sensed you were a conservative based on much you write, not just a "single data point," but if I am wrong about that, duly noted. Maybe you give off more conservative vibe than you are aware, but also of course there is much else that ultimately determines whether we are conservative or liberal leaning. I'll take your word for it in any case. The "blindspot" seems to be there regardless. Not sure why pointing this out should seem "ironic," but it's the same sort of thing that most conservatives seem intent on ignoring...
I've been in business all my life. I'm not suggesting that hard work isn't part of getting ahead. Certainly does help more than being lazy. Of course. I'm just pointing out there is much more involved in the way of advantages and/or disadvantages that makes just as much a difference if not more. Connections is just one of many such advantages. Good fortune vs bad fortune. I've known lots of people who work awfully hard without necessarily knowing any real success, sometimes the opposite in fact. Also people who aren't that hard working or particularly smart who do quite well. Anyone who doesn't notice all manner of variety in these regards is simply not "seeing the forest for the trees." I could point to countless examples of people who I know personally and worked with professionally all across this spectrum.
Always seems to me that some people are simply more humble in terms of recognizing their good fortune compared to others who have only an ego-driven perspective related to their success. Seems you are focused on me vs you with your questions about connections and here too I don't know you from Adam! Maybe you can rightfully take credit for all your success without one "leg up" advantage compared to other people. All due to your "innate abilities." I'm not suggesting there are not lots of legitimate "rags to riches" stories having little to do with advantage. I'm simply pointing out how advantage vs disadvantage makes a significant difference STATISTICALLY SPEAKING.
Your "newsflash" might be one prime example of what I would call one of the most significant "connections" one can have in life, as I've commented before. "Connection" to a good family in a positive environment just for starters. UUGE! Trump might be another good example in terms of how advantage, being born into advantage, makes a big difference with lots of people. Not sure Trump is all that hard working or smart. Can't know if he would have achieved any success had he been born other than with a "silver spoon in his mouth," but either way, would you say he is a billion times harder working or smarter than you are? Not sure we're always so accurate to gauge the measure of a man or woman by the size of their bank account...
Newsflash: not all success is a function of hard work and smarts, and being born with any number of significant advantages and/or enjoying any number of ways we can benefit from good fortune is also a very significant part of the equation. This part of the equation is the significant "blind spot" lots of conservatives fail to appreciate.
No, I don't believe that. The movie stars that just got busted for bribing their kids into college did that for prestige, not to make their kids successful. If they want to make their kids rich, they give them money. You know, like Trump. Even if a parent bribed Stanford into admitting their loser kid, the kid still has to get their degree and become successful in the working world. They're likely to be less successful than kid from a poor family who earned his way into college on a scholarship.
What you believe and what is reality may not always be one in the same thing...
It isn't just the movie stars who got busted and how you can claim knowledge about their motives, all of them, is beyond me, but we all know how important it is for any parent to see their kids get a good education. This is why some parents will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their kid's education, to attend a university of prestige, with hopes this will give their kids the "leg up" over others. Right?
Thing with these people/kids, however, is more money was needed to cheat the system in order to get their kids into the same schools while other kids were earning their way in like everyone else, most with parents who couldn't possibly consider the extra money these parents were ponying up to grease the way for their kids. Here too, what connections?
Ever looked into how schools like Princeton and Yale subsidize tuition costs for their faculty members' kids? Good for them, again of course, but to ignore what an advantage this provides their kids compared to others? Other kids simply have their college tuition/expenses paid for them by their parents, even at these very expensive universities. Compared to all other kids with parents not also able? No matter or significant advantage far as you are concerned?
You suggest parents like this will simply give their kids money if they want to make them rich. Not sure that's true either, but I think many do that too. I just went to my nephew's high school graduation. A high school that tends to attract kids from wealthy families. Some driving Porches WHILE IN HIGH SCHOOL.
You BELIEVE "they're likely to be less successful than kid from a poor family who earned his way into college on a scholarship."
Statistically speaking, I really don't think so. Wealth tends to beget wealth -- statistically speaking -- and only the fool can somehow think otherwise simply because there are exceptions to the rule.
But I digress. This is getting pretty off-topic. The point is Jews are no better or no worse at "connections and nepotism" which is the post to which I originally responded. To say otherwise is just racism.
Just like with antiSemitism, I believe it is important to sort through the truth related to these matters rather than base our beliefs and assumptions on false premise...
Hard to say what any one group of people may be better or worse at doing, but in this thread there have been many comments about how Jews are better at many things (like being doctors and lawyers), so why not also what tends to be a basic human inclination? To help our own?
Nepotism isn't all around us alive and well? Yet another advantage of many enjoyed by another countless number of people?
If recognizing these simple human dynamics going back to the stone age is "racism," then all I can say is do think again.
Just like with antiSemitism, I believe it is important to sort through the truth related to these matters rather than base our beliefs and assumptions on false premise...
Hard to say what any one group of people may be better or worse at doing, but in this thread there have been many comments about how Jews are better at many things (like being doctors and lawyers), so why not also what tends to be a basic human inclination? To help our own?
Nepotism isn't all around us alive and well? Yet another advantage of many enjoyed by another countless number of people?
If recognizing these simple human dynamics going back to the stone age is "racism," then all I can say is do think again.
My point like always is to point out what I think is the truth vs fiction related to the topic/comment at hand. Beyond all along those lines I have attempted in this thread, directly related to antiSemitism or not, I'd like to think my words speak for themselves and to whatever extent anyone care for clarification, simply say so, and again I'll do my best to oblige.
My point like always is to point out what I think is the truth vs fiction related to the topic/comment at hand. Beyond all along those lines I have attempted in this thread, directly related to antiSemitism or not, I'd like to think my words speak for themselves and to whatever extent anyone care for clarification, simply say so, and again I'll do my best to oblige.
So not at all related to the topic of the thread. Or if it is, then in what way?
So not at all related to the topic of the thread. Or if it is, then in what way?
Some yes, some no and some more or less...
If you want to get more specific one way or another, about the topic of this thread and/or any comment of mine, please do be more specific about what needs further clarification beyond what I've already written, and again, I'll be glad to oblige.
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