
The Silence of the Never Facebookers - tekdude
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/facebook-silicon-valley-trump-silence/612877/
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jseliger
Normal people really like Facebook and so far we can consistently see that in
Facebook's usage metrics; the media, however, hates Facebook:
[https://jakeseliger.com/2018/11/14/is-there-an-actual-
facebo...](https://jakeseliger.com/2018/11/14/is-there-an-actual-facebook-
crisis-or-media-narrative-about-facebook-crisis/)

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dvfjsdhgfv
I read your post - it looks like you equal the expression "normal people" with
"me".

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dnissley
He doesn't say so precisely but like many invocations of this phrase it
probably means something closer to "people not part of the intelligentsia /
chattering classes." Of which it appears he would not be one of these normal
persons.

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cafard
"Even among American citizens, some tech workers are in the business simply to
make money, gain power, and solve problems—even if they create just as many
new ones in the process."

Even among, I don't know, bartenders and schoolteachers, some are in the
business simply to make money.

Back in the day, one heard of students who went to law school to right wrongs,
and came out to bill hours.

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smacktoward
Schoolteachers (in the USA, anyway) get paid next to nothing, and frequently
have to buy classroom supplies out of pocket because their school system
doesn't have the budget to buy them.

Nobody becomes a schoolteacher to get rich.

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MintelIE
As the amount of administration support staff and special needs
paraprofessionals skyrocketed, the resources allocated to regular students and
teachers have dwindled. People feel good about having students with special
needs included in regular classes but it has caused an enormous reallocation
of resources, shifting massive cash and attention to the lowest performing
students.

There was a book about this once, Harrison Bergeron.

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sharkmerry
Is it entirely due to re-allocation to special needs education?

Seems like with population growth, we are trying to educate more and more
kids, and unlike in the past, we dont just discard that parts that would be
expensive or difficult.

In the past, we ignored the problem so it wasnt factored into budgets, head
counts. There needs to be more money overall for education. It returns more
than $1 for every $1 invested over the long term.

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MintelIE
It varies by district but my wife is a teacher (now) and she has worked in
several schools where the special education budget met or exceeded the non-
special, while serving only 3-5% of the school's enrolled children.

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sharkmerry
I understand that. but what is the suggested alternative? These students
simply cost more to educate, is that the students fault though?

Leave them behind and underfunded like in the past? Lock them up?

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thejynxed
My wife also teaches these sorts of children and the vast majority of them
seldom improve beyond a 5th or 6th grade level, and many of the "smarter" ones
with milder disabilities end up in jail at some point after being graduated
(most typically for sexual, theft, violence, and drug offenses) out of the
system since they can no longer be failed, yet they basically can't truly be
taught how to properly function in society since they can't even properly
comprehend laws or how they work, as they only have basic reading capability
and comprehension of even simple children's books.

Closing institutions insteading of reforming and modernizing them for these
sorts of people was indeed a mistake.

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alexandercrohde
I find this article insufficiently neutral to be read as objective news.
Seeing the articles suggested at the bottom, my opinion is more than
redoubled.

Even if I happen to agree with a message, I still think non-emotional and
nuanced takes are necessary.

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KarlKemp
You're 16 and have just discovered Ayn Rand, right?

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6gvONxR4sf7o
> Some workers don’t want to rock the boat for fear they might get
> blacklisted, McCarthy said.

Has anyone here ever heard of someone getting blacklisted? I could imagine
someone who does something really shitty in an interview at SomeCorp being put
on a do-not-hire list at SomeCorp, and the same for being fired there, but
blacklist to me implies preventing employment across multiple companies.

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ajzinsbwbs
I don’t think an explicit blacklist exists, but I figure employers will google
you, so they will know if you did anything that got you on the news or if you
wrote an article attacking your employer’s politics. If this search isn’t done
by someone in the company, it’s probably done by a background check company
they hire.

Also, there is the concept of a back-channel reference, where someone from the
hiring company will reach out to contacts at the candidate’s current and/or
former employer and ask for opinions.

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jariel
"The vast majority of people I know at the director-and-up level, when they
are leaving a company and looking for a new gig"

And where are they going to go? Outside of FAANG they might find the pay is
substantially less.

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mc32
I heard around the 2015-2017 timeframe a lot of those types hopped to AB&B,
Ueber and do on... you know, the great gig economy (whatever’s).

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und3rth3iP
It's also worth noting how many people get most of their local news (for
better or worse) from Facebook these days, like social accounts of the
decimated small town papers and some superficial TV news stations, and
community groups. If you live in a tech-savvy larger market, it's easy to take
for granted how smaller communities use the platform.

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buboard
i think its called "Exit vs Voice" instead of "nextplay" or whatever

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Simulacra
IMO righteous indignation is easiest for those with the largest paychecks.

