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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • This is a story about how someone from the Westboro Baptist Church left because of the way that people engaged with her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVV2Zk88beY

    What’s worth noting from this story, people that were hostile in their interactions with her only served to entrench her further in her ideals.

    What caused her to change her mind were the people that had “friendly arguments” and made an effort to learn where she was coming from.

    She listed out 4 key points when engaging in difficult conversations. I extracted/paraphrased some of what she said below:

    1. Don’t assume bad intent (assume good or neutral intent instead) - Assuming ill motive almost instantly cuts you off from truly understanding why someone does and believes as they do. We forget that they’re a human being with a lifetime of experience that shaped their mind and we get stuck on that first wave of anger and the conversation has a very hard time ever moving beyond it.

    2. Ask Questions - Asking questions helps us map the disconnect. We can’t present effective arguments if we don’t understand where the other side is coming from.

    3. Stay calm - She thought that “[her] rightness justified [her] rudeness”. When things get too hostile during a conversation, tell a joke, recommend a book, change the subject, or excuse yourself from the conversation. The discussion isn’t over, but pause it for a time to let tensions dissapate.

    4. Make the argument - One side effect of having strong beliefs is that we sometimes assume that the value of our position is, or should be, obvious and self-evident. That we shouldn’t have to defend our positions because they’re so clearly right and good. If it were that simple, we would all see things the same way.

    You can’t expect others to spontaneously change their minds. If we want change, we have to make the case for it.








  • I think the vast majority of unions out there are good, but there are definitely a select few that give the rest a bad reputation.

    At one of my previous jobs, our union was one of those that gives others a bad reputation.

    It was a seasonal job, we had to pay the union whether we wanted to be in it or not. If we had an out of season work meeting for training, all of the money that we earned would go straight to the union and we might end up with a $2 check (if that).

    We tried working with the union reps, but they just seemed so out of touch with our group. They would give themselves a big pat on the back for getting everyone a 2% raise and then raise the monthly dues… We barely made minimum wage so a percentage increase like that meant nothing to us.

    10 years later and most employees working there are still just earning minimum wage while similar jobs in other cities nearby are earning twice that (at least).



  • While this is definitely something people should be doing, doesn’t the attorney general only act out if they get enough complaints, or if the complaint stands out in some way?

    Will they actually work with someone to resolve their specific complaint every time?

    From what I’ve seen, at least the BBB will try to specifically address your issue with the company and is probably a much easier process to carry out before trying to take things further.

    Or is there something about using the BBB that would prevent you from filing a complaint with the attorney general, or prevent you from going further with something like a lawsuit?








  • “Always” is a pretty strong word here. In some cases this is true, but in others it’s not.

    For example, if you live in an area where all of the public schools are terrible, you’re going to want to look for other options. If the private schools in your area are way better (and hopefully affordable) then you would want to send your kids there. Public schools can also compare/see what private schools are doing that’s working, and update their policy/curriculum to improve themselves.

    Privatizing public libraries is a terrible idea and is currently happening at an alarming rate in the U.S.

    Removing all privatization from the entire economy is where we end up with command economies or communism which means that we end up with a lot of monopolies. There isn’t much of an incentive for innovation in those economies. Then you’re either living under some crazy dictatorship, or the country is falling apart and they are forced to change how their economy works.