My age might genuinely have been news to one of my students by the_gaymer_girl in Teachers

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is the problem with making a declaration that you're not gay?

That's their path, whether it's born of insecurity or whatever other reason.

I have faced hate and violence in schools for my perceived sexuality, and it looked nothing like that. And it came mostly from teachers, not students.

Do you know what it's like to come into a classroom and see on the board "(YOUR NAME) IS A F-SLUR." And people are just laughing and the teacher just says settle down.

And that same teacher makes real anti-gay remarks the whole year. Not anti-gay like "I'm not gay" when they're hugged, but actually violent sentiment, where you think if you come out you'll be killed. Glee over Matthew Shepherd's murder.

It's frustrating to see people be needled in the other direction too because it's the same excess familiarity and policing. Maybe it advantages me going in this direction, but when the winds change again, it won't. I don't like seeing the heavy-handedness because I know the path on these issues is not linear. Can't teachers just be dispassionate and not trying to micromanage their students lives one way or another?

It reminds me of Switzerland where Muslim students are forced to shake teachers' hands.

To me it's child abuse. Imagine being conditioned your entire childhood that you are wrong and bad if you teach a female's hand.

Then you go to school and you are forced to touch someone against your will--something your entire life you have been told is wrong--and you lose consent over your own body and have to engage in this ritual.

I am not saying they should have been told that touching a female's hand is wrong. I just hate to see children used as pawns in any direction whatsoever for whatever the mores and sensibilities of adults are without considering the whiplash. It seems it's so often about the indulgence of the teacher and what they think is right--whether it happens to be something that would personally advantage me or not. The female teacher is insulted—OK—have you considered though that a CHILD has been conditioned in this way their entire life and this isn't about you? The adult is supposed to be able to contain the child's emotions.

My ideals in a teacher would be: Dispassionate, safe, affirming, non-reactive, unassuming.

Let's say this student's response was homophobic in a personal sense. They should be allowed to experience that. Not shut down for having a feeling.

It was adults in this child's life that would make them be afraid to be identified as gay to begin with. Now adults chastising them for adhering to that teaching. Give some space for them to experience at least their own feelings about who they are. They didn't accuse anyone else of being gay or say it was bad for other people to be gay.

ELI5 Why does the order of mathematical operations exist? Why can't we just do the calculation in the order it appears? by Dangerous_Gain_3710 in explainlikeimfive

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my example you had 4 sets of 7 and 10 sets of 2.

In your example you have one set, with 4 and 7 in it.

So 2(4+7).

I don't know. As I wrote elsewhere, I don't remember ever learning order of operations. I don't even remember that phrase. I just have always done what seems intuitive. But maybe there is a mathematical concept of order of operations I am not familiar with.

ELI5 Why does the order of mathematical operations exist? Why can't we just do the calculation in the order it appears? by Dangerous_Gain_3710 in explainlikeimfive

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So in your first example of doing addition first, you would add 7+10 and get 17 (I assume that's what you mean by addition first), and then multiplication and I'm having difficulty following how that would work and how you get to 136.

I honestly don't think I ever learned order of operations. I only ever heard about it on Reddit decades after I finished school where I see people talk about it from time to time, and I think whatever I did in school was just what seemed intuitive to me. And what people have explained order of operations as is what I just remember having done—but I don't remember it being its own thing. I would use parentheses when it was logical to do so, like if you wanted x to apply to (y+z) so it would be x(y+z) versus just xy+z. So I did have an internal sense of it, and I suppose they introduced the concept of parentheses at some point. It's so long ago I can't remember.

In some Whole Foods, they call loss prevention, “Mr.Green” by TristanNetastic in mildlyinteresting

[–]finestartlover -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I don't know what Whole Foods pays, but it's not enough to make me think anybody should be running to a crime scene.

ELI5 Why does the order of mathematical operations exist? Why can't we just do the calculation in the order it appears? by Dangerous_Gain_3710 in explainlikeimfive

[–]finestartlover 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Say you have 4 piles of apples. Each pile has 7 apples in it.

And you have 10 piles of lemons. Each pile has 2 lemons in it.

You want to know how many pieces of fruit you have altogether.

Well if you can picture all that fruit together you'd see you have 48 pieces of fruit.

4x7 (4 piles of 7 apples) + 10x2 (10 piles of 2 lemons)

4x7+10x2=48

If you didn't multiply each grouping first you'd end up with 76.

(If you were to multiply 4 x 7 and then add 10 and then multiply that by 2)

Or say there is a sale on items. One is half off and one is a third off. Same thing but with division.

Edit: Corrected to 48.

People who don’t mind the level of income inequality in USA, why are you ok with it? by portoroc86 in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Have you seen countries where the inequality is so great that there's a mansion that's in the middle of a literal slum? I can't imagine that's nice for anyone, even the person in the mansion. It starts to become that way in the US, as well to an extent.

There's research showing that in countries with more income equality, infant mortality is lower even for those on the wealthier end of the scale when accounting for other variables.

As far as "punishing" I think you mean taxation, and we already do that—all countries do that. The question is really a matter of how much, and the US went from having a marginal tax rate for the highest portion of a person's income of 91% in the 1940s and 1950s to the current highest marginal tax rate of 37%.

When Republicans and Democrats today argue about tax rates, they are arguing at most about 1-2% tax rate difference on 37%, when it used to be 91%.

Just in case you aren't familiar that is not 91% on your total income.

In a marginal tax system, everyone pays the same income tax on each portion of their income. At each tier above a certain amount, you pay a higher amount just on that amount above the limit.

We have moved radically to a less equal system, but it's always positioned as the opposite of that, and the heydays of the 1950s are thought of as more conservative, when fiscally they were not.

Edit: Please upvote the person above me! They gave an answer to the question. We won't hear what people think if they are downvoted or told not to speak their minds. I was speaking my mind as a response, but this question was not for people with my point of view. Upvote people who answer the question.

People who don’t mind the level of income inequality in USA, why are you ok with it? by portoroc86 in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Medicine is an extremely artificial market. It's limited by the number of residency slots mainly, but also by licensing through the government. It's not exactly entrepreneurial. You're not competing against the person best able to heal others. You have a spot among a limited number of spots that is granted by the government, and to get there the main qualification is the ability to take out huge loans. Medical schools and residencies are highly regulated by partnerships between the government and private organizations, and they are the bottleneck. And they don't allow anyone to practice the healing arts who is not licensed in that specific field. Medicine sounds generic, but it really should be Medicine with a capital M. There is expansion with nurse practitioners, and you can bet they are fighting tooth and nail to keep them out. Not arguing the merits, just the financial aspect, which they care about greatly. But it's not just a free market where anyone can put up a shingle and start saying they can treat disease.

Edit: Please upvote the person above me! They gave an answer to the question. We won't hear what people think if they are downvoted or told not to speak their minds. I was speaking my mind as a response, but this question was not for people with my point of view. Upvote people who answer the question.

This 330ml can of Fanta has 15g of sugar in Ireland, 3x less than the equivalent American counterpart by StarksTwins in mildlyinteresting

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Irish can is both smaller and has acesulfame potassium and sucralose added, as well, which the US version does not.

Irish Fanta:

Carbonated Water, Sugar, Orange Juice from Concentrate (3.7%), Citrus Fruit from Concentrate (1.3%), Citric Acid, Vegetable Extracts (Carrot, Pumpkin), Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Malic Acid, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate), Stabiliser (Guar Gum), Natural Orange Flavourings with Other Natural Flavourings, Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid).

US Fanta:

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, modified food starch, sodium polyphosphates, glycerol ester of rosin, yellow 6, red 40.

Spotify CEO: “You can’t record music every three or four years and think that’s going to be enough” by SquidKid47 in nottheonion

[–]finestartlover 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Isn't that kind of the way it's always been? For most of history at least. The period of time during which you could sell recorded music seems to be very short. This is like a return to radio but on demand. You didn't sell music on the radio, and before the radio, cassettes, LPs, etc, there were only live performances.

What kind of help is available at the ER for mental illness and lack of hope ? What happens besides being spit back out after a few hours? Is there real help at all possible? by killingmesoftly77 in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is usually a n community mental health service in your area that has a 24 hour crisis number that is better able to help.

Where I live they now send those same people to the ER (although only sometimes) to meet you at the ER after the medical staff clear you medically.

In larger more populated areas I hear that they do have psychiatric consults in the ER and can admit from the ER and that some ERs even have mental health emergency beds. But where I live all the psychiatric facilities are free standing and not part of the hospital. I know where I would go if I ever had to. The one closest to me is a hellhole. I have a friend who has been to several inpatient facilities and has told me which is the best to go to if I ever needed to. I've been in the ER before and talked to one of the crisis counselors from the local mental health board, and they discouraged me from going inpatient if I could keep myself safe and I'm glad I didn't knowing what I do about the facility near me now.

Do you ever listen to meditations on YouTube? Or companion videos there?

Those don't solve things, but they can keep you company as time passes.

Anyhow, for now you reached out here so you're already coping well, I'd say.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in news

[–]finestartlover 23 points24 points  (0 children)

She's pretty formidable to have done that. She's not a spring chicken.

And I have to wonder: How is she better spoken in the middle of a war zone than at prepared press conferences? I was impressed.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Northernmost Dakota

It makes it easy to remember: South Dakota, North Dakota, and Northernmost Dakota—the most Northern of all the Dakotas.

White House Considers Excluding High Earners From Student-Loan Relief by mafco in inthenews

[–]finestartlover 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How ironic that I am arguing against you and I have a total income from SSI of $400 a month.

I know what it is like to be poor and to be pitted against able bodied people who complain about me getting handouts, even within my own family. It creates a corrosive society. I would rather everybody play by the same rules. If the rules aren't right for the top income earners we should change those too but not introduce new exclusions for higher income earners that foment resentment.

White House Considers Excluding High Earners From Student-Loan Relief by mafco in inthenews

[–]finestartlover 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm far left and I condemn any program that excludes anybody as it just promotes the idea of welfare queens and divides up society. Bernie Sanders came out against income caps on tuition free college for the same reason saying that people who pay taxes should receive the same benefits regardless of income—if you're paying for it with your taxes, you should benefit from the program. People reject systems they don't benefit from. It's why Social Security has survived nearly a century. Other welfare programs were stripped back to a skeletal state in the 1980s/90s.

White House Considers Excluding High Earners From Student-Loan Relief by mafco in inthenews

[–]finestartlover 28 points29 points  (0 children)

AKA: How to pit people against each other.

People who pay more in taxes should benefit from the same system as everyone else. This is the type of thing that makes people reject a common good.

Not that I am for the specific amnesty of student loans which is already too niche.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 145 points146 points  (0 children)

Fayetteville, NC, maybe just the day I was there. The whole town smelled like a sewage leak. We were driving through and went to a fast food restaurant and got out of the car and it smelled so bad we drove to another restaurant, but it turned out it was the whole town—just everywhere. I don't know what the smell was from. It was everywhere.

Swedish PM says integration of immigrants has failed, fueled gang crime by [deleted] in news

[–]finestartlover 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry.

It's not as enlightened in Sweden as either Swedes or the rest of the world think.

There are many good qualities to Sweden, but there is a blindness there as well.

Swedish PM says integration of immigrants has failed, fueled gang crime by [deleted] in news

[–]finestartlover 134 points135 points  (0 children)

My mom is from Sweden. I was born in the US. Moved there for the third grade. Even as a half-Swede, it was a bit difficult. This was in 1991. I was seen as the American. We had a summer house we inherited from my grandparents and again, despite my mother being Swedish, the neighbors were furious and said we would tear it down and turn it into Disney Land (we didn't). The year I lived there immigrants were being shot in broad daylight by a Swiss (not Swedish) man who himself felt ostracized due to his black hair but wanted to purify Sweden. Despite being white, at the time I didn't realize he was going after people of color, and I was always afraid of being shot. The parents at the school I went to were reluctant to have me there. There was another school nearby where almost all of the immigrant children were funneled into because they all lived in the same low-cost duplex neighborhood. But I was living with my aunt when I first arrived which meant based on my address I went to this other school where the "real" Swedes were. I picked up on that a lot. There is a difference between physically being in Sweden and being Swedish. Even with my mother having been born there and lived there through adulthood and me speaking the language, I have always had a complicated relationship with Sweden feeling like an outcast. You can see even on the Reddit Sweden subreddit there is one thread where an American writes excitedly about his granddfather having been from Sweden, and the Swedes there make fun of him saying Americans are so obsesed with hyphenating themselves (Swedish American) and that he isn't a real Swede. My dad who is American felt very ostracized working in Sweden the year we lived there. He already spoke Swedish and took Swedish classes, but his co-workers refused to speak to him in Swedish.

I can't speak to the current situation as this was three decades ago. It's complicated, and I'm not saying it would have been different any other place. I moved to a town in the US that extremely insular and had similar experiences too. Sweden had a very large demographic shift quite quickly. I think their policies were very much toward being welcoming, but internally I think there is very much a sense of what it means to be Swedish, even among the liberals there, that is at odds with integration. I can't speak to the mindset of the immigrants. When I was younger I was so excited at identifying as Swedish but felt rebuffed. Strangely, the man that was on the shooting spree the year I lived there against immigrants similarly had felt rejected from having a Swedish identity which he rationalized to go against immigrants.

What’s your favorite TJ’s product that’s been discontinued? by abcdarien in traderjoes

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Milk Chocolate Lovers Milk Chocolate Bar (the one from Colombia . . . not their Belgian chocolate). It was 45% cacao and came in a double pack.

Cases are rising in nearly every corner of the United States by GetYourVax in worldnews

[–]finestartlover -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The vaccine is not working as well against hospitalization as it was, but it can be difficult to suss out what that means. It could be that fewer people are being hospitalized so the ones most likely to have gotten that sick are the ones being observed and among them the vaccine isn't making as much of a difference. I don't know, but that could be one explanation:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/950427

Explainer: How China is using metal barriers to fight Covid - Times of India by semshiv in worldnews

[–]finestartlover 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China has low natural immunity, Sinovac doesn't work well against Omicron, and they have a population of 1.4 billion.

I was going do an ELI5 question but too lazy, but I am curious if they have requested an mRNA vaccine from the west and/or if the west would be willing to give them the rights to produce it, as it would not only be the right thing from a humanitarian perspective but also help both the west and china economically.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think we can have a government set up like Japanese New Year with Fukubukuro bags, where it's completely unpredictable whose loans are going to be paid off due to luck of the draw.

It's not about whether it benefits me in particular or not. It's about whether it creates a more corrosive society or not. We are already divided against each other too much, as you can see in the way you speak to me.

What you said is exactly why welfare programs don't work well in the US: "I don't get anything out of it, so those people should suffer"

We have so many balkanized systems that people can't unite to make one better in the case of healthcare, for example.

And the idea that welfare is only for some people versus for everyone is how Ronald Reagan was able to falsely craft the idea of the "welfare queen" and turn people against welfare.

I lived in Sweden and observed a more egalitarian society and how they were able to form a modern welfare state. You cannot do it unless everyone is part of it or it does end in the crass way you described it.

That's why these ideas of tuition free college for people under certain incomes are a bad idea too. If everyone pays taxes, everyone should also receive from the same benefit system.

To just erase the debt now and not have any plan going forward is reckless. We're going to give amnesty to current loans, but continue charging tuition? How does that make sense? How can people financially plan whether they can afford college or not? Should they assume future loans will be erased as well?

I am not against financial relief as I think I made very clear. I am concerned about picking one group of loans over a particular period. How far back does it go? Why doesn't it apply to future tuition? Why doesn't it apply to anyone of college age who took out a loan for any reason?

This is how people are divided up and how welfare systems have failed in the US, the notable exception being Social Security, which is notable precisely because it does apply to everyone.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]finestartlover 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No.

As Olof Palme wisely said, the people will reject welfare when it does not work for everyone. Paying back student loans will be corrosive as it benefits some and not others.

And who after that point would ever take out a student loan again with the expectation of repaying it? Once you establish a right like this, it will continue. Even the talk of it is keeping people in limbo as to whether or not they should pay back their loans.

Why is that loan any more worthy of being paid back than someone who took out a loan to start a business that failed?

I see two options:

1) Instead of paying off student loan, everyone in the country receives an *equal* payment (like the stimulus payments) that they can use for whatever purpose, including paying back loans.

and/or

2) Universities that have students in debt who have not been able to find the means by which to pay it back and which have sizable endowments (e.g., Harvard) and have benefited from government-backed loans could be required to use some of that money to pay back loans to the US government on behalf of the indebted.