Funny events in anti-woke world

Phoenixmgs

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College is a racket. As much as I appreciate the growth of human knowledge and respect the people who genuinely want tot take part in that, the go to college -> get a better job formula is complete and utter trash. Honestly, if we could stop doing that, if companies would stop using degrees to gatekeep jobs that require no education and will teach all the required skills on site, it would dramatically improve the college experience. Imagine a university where you've cut out all the people who are there only because they might make more money? It'd be a much better place.

The thing I really want to address though is the "making students liberals" part. You are correct, education does not make people more left-wing. There is no evidence that I have seen that people exit higher education with significantly different politics than they went in with (except for specifically Fidel Castro). There is, however, a correlation in the US between level of education and left-wing politics. It isn't because college is turning kids into Democrats, but rather because more Democrats are entering college to begin with. Interpret that however you like.
College is like the least efficient way to learn things, at least US college. At least half the classes I took in college was shit I already learned in high school. The fact that you are forced to take classes you don't need to be "well-rounded" just makes learning stuff take way too long, and it's just a way to get more $$$ out of you. And the lack of basic skills the younger guys at work don't know is astonishing and they have basically 0 problem solving skills.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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Large part of the blame for a *lot* of things is standardized testing in the US. Terrible media literacy and critical thinking? We taught kids there was one objectively correct explanation and everything else was wrong. Practical skills? Can't get tested on a scantron form. Arts? Cut because schools with bad test scores got less funding, because making a job harder is somehow the way to fix the problem. To rational people it looks like blatant sabotage, but apparently punitive incentives are what this backwards ass country believes in
 

TheMysteriousGX

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In which a Japanese game developer bodies some reply guy



The inciting incident:




Incidentally, kinda disturbed at the idea that USA localization is the reason the non-binary character has he/him pronouns instead of, like the creator said, they/ze. Don't really like being the country that LGBT stuff gets changed to cater too, you know? (Marco doesn't have pronouns in the dialogue in Japanese because they aren't as central to the written language like in English)

Incidentally, weird weebs (well, weirder weebs) on the internet are probably be going to have At Time with trying to reconcile this with their "Japan doesn't care about that stuff" stance. Which is going to be hilarious moving forward
 
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Gergar12

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College is like the least efficient way to learn things, at least US college. At least half the classes I took in college was shit I already learned in high school. The fact that you are forced to take classes you don't need to be "well-rounded" just makes learning stuff take way too long, and it's just a way to get more $$$ out of you. And the lack of basic skills the younger guys at work don't know is astonishing and they have basically 0 problem solving skills.
It's funny you say that in my college(OSU) only business majors learn in-depth excel formulas(for the most part), and only programming and data analytics learn in-demand languages like Python, Java, Javascript, C++, and learning R, Stata, and Python are optimal for social science majors. Guess what a lot of the work at my job was excel, python, and Microsoft access. My college however loved citations, citations, citations, and not the fun type where you post the link and hyperlink it, no it's the one created by English majors to be as annoying as possible. (MLA9, Chicago Style, etc.) I spent half of my assignments writing them, and many students outright used fewer sources in order to create less of them making their papers less academically rigorous.

Had I not taken an excel/access class, learning python on my own I would have no applicable technical skills other than accounting, and bookkeeping that I learned in an accounting internship where I had to show them I used excel to get into it.
 

Avnger

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It's funny you say that in my college(OSU) only business majors learn in-depth excel formulas(for the most part), and only programming and data analytics learn in-demand languages like Python, Java, Javascript, C++, and learning R, Stata, and Python are optimal for social science majors. Guess what a lot of the work at my job was excel, python, and Microsoft access. My college however loved citations, citations, citations, and not the fun type where you post the link and hyperlink it, no it's the one created by English majors to be as annoying as possible. (MLA9, Chicago Style, etc.) I spent half of my assignments writing them, and many students outright used fewer sources in order to create less of them making their papers less academically rigorous.

Had I not taken an excel/access class, learning python on my own I would have no applicable technical skills other than accounting, and bookkeeping that I learned in an accounting internship where I had to show them I used excel to get into it.
If you "spent half of your assignments writing [citations]", that's entirely a you failure, mate. Tools like Easybib have existed for over two decades now.
 

EvilRoy

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If you "spent half of your assignments writing [citations]", that's entirely a you failure, mate. Tools like Easybib have existed for over two decades now.
Ten years ago when I was in school they weren't amazing tools honestly. I used Zotero, and that would just periodically grab incomplete or disorganized information causing you to have to fix it yourself. That's setting aside the fact that even only a decade ago online libraries like science direct and such were still rough around the edges and often lacked information in areas that were less popularly studied - which is unfortunately where grad students spend all their time. I had to pull around 20 physical documents for my thesis and it took on the order of hours to copy out the information, and days to confirm it by hand. You always had to write out or photocopy most of the first few pages just in case something was missing or lost. I ended up having to pull good documents out of my work because they were from a university in Egypt and translated to English by a prior student for her thesis. Problem was she seemed to have mis transcribed a name, either an author or the name of an institution, and we couldn't confirm the source so it was rejected.

So yeah, citations are important, but they used to be absolute hell to write out. I had pages of them and even after all my own double checks I had to pay some hapless postgrad to go through and reconfirm them all so the people reviewing my thesis wouldn't outright reject it if they found a misspelled name.
 

Avnger

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Ten years ago when I was in school they weren't amazing tools honestly. I used Zotero, and that would just periodically grab incomplete or disorganized information causing you to have to fix it yourself. That's setting aside the fact that even only a decade ago online libraries like science direct and such were still rough around the edges and often lacked information in areas that were less popularly studied - which is unfortunately where grad students spend all their time. I had to pull around 20 physical documents for my thesis and it took on the order of hours to copy out the information, and days to confirm it by hand. You always had to write out or photocopy most of the first few pages just in case something was missing or lost. I ended up having to pull good documents out of my work because they were from a university in Egypt and translated to English by a prior student for her thesis. Problem was she seemed to have mis transcribed a name, either an author or the name of an institution, and we couldn't confirm the source so it was rejected.

So yeah, citations are important, but they used to be absolute hell to write out. I had pages of them and even after all my own double checks I had to pay some hapless postgrad to go through and reconfirm them all so the people reviewing my thesis wouldn't outright reject it if they found a misspelled name.
Oh, definitely. They were more of an "easier formatting once you'd found all of the necessary info" than "do it all for you" tool back then. As an undergrad around that time, it didn't eliminate all of the work, but they did handle the most tedious portions*.

Nowadays, though? I had to write two 20-pagers as finals for this summer grad school semester, and it's as easy as popping the ISBN into the tool and double-checking the output for any missing required fields. It even creates the inline citation for you if you want. You can easily cite ten books in as many minutes.


*I'm sure you, as a grad student, required more niche sources than I did though.
 
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EvilRoy

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Oh, definitely. They were more of an "easier formatting once you'd found all of the necessary info" than "do it all for you" tool back then. As an undergrad around that time, it didn't eliminate all of the work, but they did handle the most tedious portions*.

Nowadays, though? I had to write two 20-pagers as finals for this summer grad school semester, and it's as easy as popping the ISBN into the tool and double-checking the output for any missing required fields. It even creates the inline citation for you if you want. You can easily cite ten books in as many minutes.


*I'm sure you, as a grad student, required more niche sources than I did though.
Yeah, its just frustrating annoying work most of the time. I'm glad its easier, and I hope those kind of tools are available most places. Translations are still probably an issue, but even those are becoming official in some places so maybe it isn't as bad. A guy told me some German universities are requiring students to publish their thesis in both German and one other language, usually English, for the sake of helping disseminate new knowledge which is pretty cool if true. The Americas could definitely be doing that with Spanish/English/Portuguese or whatever to get the continents working together a bit more. Nothing more heartbreaking as a grad student with no money than finding out a really good paper exists on exactly the topic you want, but only the title is translated and you gotta hire someone to do the rest.
 

Gergar12

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If you "spent half of your assignments writing [citations]", that's entirely a you failure, mate. Tools like Easybib have existed for over two decades now.
I like to take research from lots of sources. I had a student sub or access to NYT, Wapo, WSJ, the Atlantic, and JSTOR. I do it because when I was taking environmental science gen-ed I almost used uncited research from Saudi Arabia on climate change when I knew a small amount of information on climate change.
 

Agema

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It's funny you say that in my college(OSU) only business majors learn in-depth excel formulas(for the most part), and only programming and data analytics learn in-demand languages like Python, Java, Javascript, C++, and learning R, Stata, and Python are optimal for social science majors. Guess what a lot of the work at my job was excel, python, and Microsoft access. My college however loved citations, citations, citations, and not the fun type where you post the link and hyperlink it, no it's the one created by English majors to be as annoying as possible. (MLA9, Chicago Style, etc.) I spent half of my assignments writing them, and many students outright used fewer sources in order to create less of them making their papers less academically rigorous.

Had I not taken an excel/access class, learning python on my own I would have no applicable technical skills other than accounting, and bookkeeping that I learned in an accounting internship where I had to show them I used excel to get into it.
Well then, your degree worked.

I think a lot of people have this idea that a degree is there to prep them to walk into any job as competent. It is not. A degree in large part is to increase your intellectual self-sufficience: to give you tools to sort your own stuff out. To see something (like a programming skill) could help you do accounting and going off and doing it is learning exactly the right sort of message to take from a degree, rather than expecting the accounting degree to teach you computer programming.

That's why degrees care about research. Research is the way you sort stuff out: go away and research what the issue is and what people say about it, and then apply that mass of knowledge to solve your own task. I read someone discussing an interview with David Bowie: when asked about his innovativeness, Bowie replied that he listened to huge amounts of music. Bowie is describing research: seeing what lots of other people do and developing ideas from it. Certainly that's what your boss will expect from you as a professional worker, rather than you ringing them every 30 minutes asking them how to do X, Y and Z because you don't know how to look it up or work it out yourself. Degrees then care about citations for two reasons: proof that you did research and showed sufficient application (because that's what you're being taught to do), and secondly to give credit where credit is due for intellectual output.

I appreciate many students don't get this and possibly don't want to get this, even when their tutors explicitly tell them that's what a degree is about. A lot of them just see it as a superficial tick-box exercise to get a piece of paper that gives them access to certain jobs. The deep down, biggest value stuff doesn't get through to them, and they will probably be mediocre students / workers until maybe one day something does click in their heads.
 
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The Rogue Wolf

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Kinda surprised this hasn't been mentioned (at least that I saw):


Yep. Cracker Barrel dared to put a meat substitute on its menu (not even replacing anything, just adding), and the anti-woke crowd threw their bibs on the floor and screamed. One comment: "YOU CAN TAKE MY PORK SAUSAGE WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS. DON'T TREAD ON MY PORK!" (With that kind of reaction, having a coronary while downing pork sausage seems an eventuality.)

Of course, we all know what the real outrage is over: catering to someone else.
 

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The Rogue Wolf

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Right-wing clothing retailer Lions Not Sheep fined just over $200,000 dollars for removing 'Made in China' tags from its products and replacing them with phony 'Made in the USA' tags.
It honestly would not surprise me if the "Made in USA" tags were made in China. Just for that extra dollop of hypocrisy.
 

Trunkage

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Kinda surprised this hasn't been mentioned (at least that I saw):


Yep. Cracker Barrel dared to put a meat substitute on its menu (not even replacing anything, just adding), and the anti-woke crowd threw their bibs on the floor and screamed. One comment: "YOU CAN TAKE MY PORK SAUSAGE WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS. DON'T TREAD ON MY PORK!" (With that kind of reaction, having a coronary while downing pork sausage seems an eventuality.)

Of course, we all know what the real outrage is over: catering to someone else.
Yeah, it's the same problem with most things. They keep pretending pride month means THEY have to be gay.
 
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BrawlMan

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The anthropomorphic personification of death is a black woman now! This is clearly a conspiracy! Dream is not woke because he's sleeping but the rest of the are totally woke!
*Angry idiot noises*
I find it funny the guy the DT Crew are calling out on, never read the source material. I only know little of Sandman through crossover fanfics and DC fan art, but fuck this guy! How it can be a distraction of diversity, when you never once read the comics?! Racist, homophobia, and sexism much, you asshole? You want everything straight white male? Start sucking the CEO of WB Discovery's dick for a 1000 hours. He's pretty much doing that. Netflix has been way more open with LGBQT and interracial relations for years. Why the hell is this dumb mother-fucker only now noticing? @Dalisclock, I think we have another fake or wannabe hardcore fan here.
 
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Agema

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College is a racket. As much as I appreciate the growth of human knowledge and respect the people who genuinely want tot take part in that, the go to college -> get a better job formula is complete and utter trash. Honestly, if we could stop doing that, if companies would stop using degrees to gatekeep jobs that require no education and will teach all the required skills on site, it would dramatically improve the college experience. Imagine a university where you've cut out all the people who are there only because they might make more money? It'd be a much better place.
Employers were happy to hive off education to universities. Otherwise they spent money training people themselves, and of course those apprentices might take that investment and sod off to a new firm - more so of course these days, because that whole "job for life" thing where people spent their careers at the same company have long since gone. However, companies also therefore train people to what the company needs. That's not necessarily the same as a university education, which is likely to be broader in scope, and more based on developing certain mindset and flexibility. Degrees of course do other things, as well though: they indicate a certain amount of aptitude and hard work, irrespective of subject. Employers are happy to receive evidence people can get on with work.

I would suggest there's a certain type of job, often more along vocational lines, where a degree may be overrated. In a sense, I think something like an up to 2-year "sub-degree" is not a bad idea: load kids up with requisite transferable skills and basics of academic practice, plus a bit of specialism in what they think they want to go on into. Then the conventional fully academic degrees can be done for those people and subjects more suited.

There's an argument too many people getting degrees. In the UK, around 50% of school-leavers go on to get degrees. One might argue 35-40% might be preferable, on the basis that probably a quarter of them aren't really getting their money's worth. The students that in my view most need to be removed are the ones doing it not for the money, but because they think they should despite not having the right sort of academic mindset. On the other hand, this also ignores some of the benefits of university, which is a sort of socialisation, experience and networking in the wider world that are other form of expanding one's mind and horizons as well as the intellectual. I do not think a company training scheme would replicate this.
 
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The Rogue Wolf

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LegalEagle goes into just what a shitshow Alex Jones's defense was, and the pathetic attempt of his lawyer to have a mistrial declared because "disregard that" was supposed to fill in for an actual legal motion.


Some people are theorizing that the whole thing was intentional, as an effort to provide grounds for a mistrial declaration if Jones lost. Judging by the absolutely demolished expression on Jones's face when he realized just how fucked he was, at the very least I don't think he was in on the scheme- and it all turned out for naught, as the judge denied the motion. And now those texts have been sent to the January 6th committee.


It took a lot longer than it should have, but seeing that ambulatory pustule finally get nailed for his lies is worth every minute of the wait.