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I've really liked a lot of what I've read from Sam since he has taken the reigns, but I really don't like the jingoism in the immigration language. The United

I've really liked a lot of what I've read from Sam since he has taken the reigns, but I really don't like the jingoism in the immigration language. The United States needs to stop trying to be "the greatest nation in the world", and we need to participate in a globally and locally aware economy. I'm certainly not against all immigration, but the problem is, an essay like this is better used to support that argument than to make any substantive change to education. I started training for my craft at 12 years old, under the direction of my grandfather, who was the Director of Engineering at one of the largest research institutions in the world. Having all that going for me, he still used the fact that my poor, stupid parents had to ask him for help to cover the cost of raising me to discourage me from developing the skills that actually made me employable - he was adamant that I become Microsoft certified instead of learning Linux. A bit of a tangent intended to illustrate the american exceptionalism, the greatest generation. This old fart wanted me to work with Windows, and work for the NSA, at 15. For friendship, mentorship and often employment, foreigners were my greatest resource, in their home lands, over The Internet. Why do all the "smartest" and "best" need to live here, on land that's already stolen? It's been a great struggle over the past 21 years to continue educating myself and to find opportunities to cover my living costs that wouldn't forcibly detract from what I would learn. I lived in SF for nearly ten years under the poverty line, sometimes working for entrepreneurs for under minimum wage. People in the Bay Area tend to stop looking for workers in the US when they reach Fremont, sometimes when they reach the end of their own driveway.

ojbyrne 12y ago
s/reigns/reins/
- justizin 12y ago
  Totes respect and thank you for your poignant correction. [EDIT: this has to be the randomest rant in response to a grammar correction of all time, but I was surprised to find no ideological responses at all, and I wanted to pontificate ;d] I read at college level in elementary, but I think it's easy to see how that might also lead to having some softened edges, because education was rarely available to me when it was relevant. I assume this to be true of most people, I think there is one thing people resent about tech that is kind of a revenge of the nerds thing, and part of that to me is like, look, even colleges didn't have room for a lot of the nerds. Where the hell do you go if you are a poor, chronic nerd who can't get into college? Obviously, I assume my experience with this to be acute compared to a similarly talented person who is not white. There are a lot of smart people in the USA. I know it is important for us to be a place where some smart people who would be oppressed to migrate, as we are a nation of immigrants. I adamantly think we should look to the children of immigrants who pick food, clean homes, offload ships, plumb toilets, fix elevators, etc.. before we look to foreign adults. I strongly feel the USA economy will be the most healthy in a world where people in other parts of the world have a healthy local economy and a proportionate ability to ours to participate in the global economy. I think global information economy makes more sense than global economy which tranfers things like food between continents, while creating harmful pollution. If there is American Exceptionalism, I think it should make what is supposed to be right about the west present everywhere, without military force, but instead by empowering the working class to become knowledge workers. And we should stop absorbing into western culture what is inherent to fascism.
deleted 12y ago
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ojbyrne 12y ago

s/reigns/reins/

justizin 12y ago
Totes respect and thank you for your poignant correction. [EDIT: this has to be the randomest rant in response to a grammar correction of all time, but I was surprised to find no ideological responses at all, and I wanted to pontificate ;d] I read at college level in elementary, but I think it's easy to see how that might also lead to having some softened edges, because education was rarely available to me when it was relevant. I assume this to be true of most people, I think there is one thing people resent about tech that is kind of a revenge of the nerds thing, and part of that to me is like, look, even colleges didn't have room for a lot of the nerds. Where the hell do you go if you are a poor, chronic nerd who can't get into college? Obviously, I assume my experience with this to be acute compared to a similarly talented person who is not white. There are a lot of smart people in the USA. I know it is important for us to be a place where some smart people who would be oppressed to migrate, as we are a nation of immigrants. I adamantly think we should look to the children of immigrants who pick food, clean homes, offload ships, plumb toilets, fix elevators, etc.. before we look to foreign adults. I strongly feel the USA economy will be the most healthy in a world where people in other parts of the world have a healthy local economy and a proportionate ability to ours to participate in the global economy. I think global information economy makes more sense than global economy which tranfers things like food between continents, while creating harmful pollution. If there is American Exceptionalism, I think it should make what is supposed to be right about the west present everywhere, without military force, but instead by empowering the working class to become knowledge workers. And we should stop absorbing into western culture what is inherent to fascism.

deleted 12y ago

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