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While I agree. I think there are great life experiences gained by "debating" a teacher and countering a discussion with facts.
We had a mock debate in 8th grade World Studies. At the start of the debate on whether "The US should have dropped the Atomic Bomb" I was the only yes vote. During the debate I provided reasons for my position. By the end of the debate everyone but two of my classmates; who came from a culture of zero violence acceptance, had switched to yes.
My teacher wrote a letter to my parents saying how dangerous I was. That I was Hitler like in my ability to get "otherwise good people to believe awful things". My parents were honored. Not that I battled a teacher. But that I used logic and analysis to reach and defend a position.
I went to a highly ranked International Private MS/HS. I guess its unfair to expect a public school here to offer the same environment (sadly). And that MS/HS experience I wouldn't change for anything. Diversity of thought, and yes, critical analysis of that thought, are healthy things.
The irony of this story is the teacher in question, ended up being on the FBI most wanted list and was, at the time of his suicide, the most prolific child molester the FBI had ever seen (there is a guardian expose on him if you are so inclined to search for it and don't believe my anecdote).
Hah, wow. Yea, I dressed up as Hitler for a biographical report. The thing is, if you'd spoken in favor of bombing Japan today, you'd probably be called a racist. God knows if I ever ran for office, a picture of me dressed as Hitler in the 6 grade would make the rounds. That's my point is debates like that are getting harder and harder to have because they are seen as not inclusive and make people "unsafe." If you had a Japanese classmate, they'd go to the school's DEI officer, who is a bureaucrat who would raise a stink and make sure nobody involved in the debate ever bothered to do that again. I've seen this sort of thing play out with my own eyes. And so it actually hurts education because nobody would get to consider whether dropping the bomb on Japan was the least bad outcome.
I'm curious, how do comparable cities run by loony repubs stack up?
Thanks!
Owen
Let's look at some numbers from 2019. Of the 100 most populous U.S. cities, 64 had Democratic mayors and 29 had Republican. Aggregate totals per 100,000 people for categories of crime by party affiliation of Mayor are as follows: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault were 13.74, 63.55, 234.29 and 512.85 respectively for Democrat, and 5.43, 53.07, 106.15 and 290.54 respectively for Republican. You're welcome, Owen?
Let's look at some numbers from 2019. Of the 100 most populous U.S. cities, 64 had Democratic mayors and 29 had Republican. Aggregate totals per 100,000 people for categories of crime by party affiliation of Mayor are as follows: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault were 13.74, 63.55, 234.29 and 512.85 respectively for Democrat, and 5.43, 53.07, 106.15 and 290.54 respectively for Republican. You're welcome, Owen?
Ummm, I guess you missed the word "comparable"? The largest city in the country (NYC) isn't remotely comparable to the 100th (Spokane).
Ummm, I guess you missed the word "comparable"? The largest city in the country (NYC) isn't remotely comparable to the 100th (Spokane).
These are the aggregate totals for the country's 100 largest cities according to FBI crime data. And the results are per capita. Per capita. Don't tell me: percentages don't matter, false narrative, alternative facts? Systemic racism, fake news, vast right wing conspiracy? Space aliens? Seriously, you've actually deluded yourself into believing your own foam finger blather. This is how democracy dies.
Ummm, I guess you missed the word "comparable"? The largest city in the country (NYC) isn't remotely comparable to the 100th (Spokane).
Discounting the largest 20 cities, the disparity is even more pronounced. And since so many are grouped so closely in population, aggregate per capita numbers offer us the most conclusive findings. And are you genuinely surprised? Tell it true. Why do you need so desperately to believe that "your side" alone holds a monopoly on truth and wisdom? That they alone are the defenders of democracy? It doesn't even pass the common sense test.
Discounting the largest 20 cities, the disparity is even more pronounced. And since so many are grouped so closely in population, aggregate per capita numbers offer us the most conclusive findings. And are you genuinely surprised? Tell it true. Why do you need so desperately to believe that "your side" alone holds a monopoly on truth and wisdom? That they alone are the defenders of democracy? It doesn't even pass the common sense test.
As you well know, you're putting words in my mouth and entirely making up my position. I don't "believe" any of those things. You're just hoping for a juvenile fight at your level but you won't get it from me.
Hah, wow. Yea, I dressed up as Hitler for a biographical report. The thing is, if you'd spoken in favor of bombing Japan today, you'd probably be called a racist. God knows if I ever ran for office, a picture of me dressed as Hitler in the 6 grade would make the rounds. That's my point is debates like that are getting harder and harder to have because they are seen as not inclusive and make people "unsafe." If you had a Japanese classmate, they'd go to the school's DEI officer, who is a bureaucrat who would raise a stink and make sure nobody involved in the debate ever bothered to do that again. I've seen this sort of thing play out with my own eyes. And so it actually hurts education because nobody would get to consider whether dropping the bomb on Japan was the least bad outcome.
Well there was nothing then or nothing now, racist about the position I was debating from.
There is a key difference however. The school I went to had kids from 92 countries represented at it. All the religions were represented. There were straight kids and non straight kids. Everyone checked their "cultural ego" at the door. No ones home country was better than someone else's. No ones religious beliefs were more important than someone else's. They were all equally respected and championed. Not because they were forced to, because that is organically how it happened. It was at its essence a "little bubble of the world" and everyone gravitated towards it. And yes one of my best friends from was Japan. He took no offense to the debate because it was understood the reasons I was stating my position from.
We didn't have DEI officers. We didn't need them. We were DEI at the core. All of us. We self regulated because we all wanted the feeling we felt about our experience to be shared feelings. There was a kid from Wyoming I went to school with who used a racial slur against a South Korean classmate during a soccer game at lunch. The teachers didn't have to get involved. There was no DEI officer that came in to police it. The kids did. And that's the difference.
For a country that is a melting pot, for whatever reason, subsets of our country resent differences. Religion is a weapon to be used. Ethnic heritage is something that is weaponized. People like to question my love for the US because of my upbringing and that I can speak critically about things we have done as a people in our history, while ignoring my ancestral roots on my mom's side go back to a time before the US was even a country. I was literally American before there was an America (again, in one line). They also forget that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I had the US "taken away" from me for 8 years. That time abroad made me appreciate things about the US far more than if I had never left (I got to see some real ass chit in my time overseas). Granted I am not saddened by that. My life was immensely richer as a result of the experience. But uncritical love doesn't exist. Anyone who is a parent or has parents knows that to be the case.
So maybe it gets back to the point you made a few pages back. What I experienced was organic. Sure it was forced; i.e. everyone I went to school with "had" to move to Jakarta. But while we all mostly came from somewhere else, and our parents all had their own cultural upbringings, we kids created our own culture from all of the cultures we had left. It just "happened". Here, DEI is "forced" in part because of our country's legacies. And that forcing causes resentment because people don't like being told what to do.
I find it all pretty weird, because the fear doesn't match the outcome (the outcome being a diverse experience I had). You just have to be willing to admit that in the grand scheme of things, the lines of a map you were born within don't make you one thing or the other. These lines aren't better than those lines. Its the quality of character, which exists beyond and within all the lines of the map, that creates righteousness.
YMMV
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