Kansas Crimson

BasketballJayhawk wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 6:40 pm

MJ23 wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 6:14 pm

MICHHAWK wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 2:07 pm i blame the lazy people.

this is the greatest country on earth. by a wide margin. any person can accomplish anything they set their mind to. if they want it. and will work for it. they can have it. go AMERICA.

I have a unicorn I will sell you cheap. Are you interested?
Up until my early teens I set my mind to be a professional hockey player. While highly doubtful it would happen, that was my goal. No pun intended. I worked my ass off because I wanted it. Then I blew out my knee. I never accomplished my goal.
Now use me and my story as an analogy for MANY people in this country and is it not true? So please spare me the bullshit that anybody can accomplish whatever they want to if they work hard to achieve it.
Be honest, what do you currently do for a living and if you could do or be anything in the world, is your current occupation what you would ultimately choose? For the majority of Americans it is not.

You didn't achieve it, but you had the opportunity to achieve it.

That's the point.

We can't all be CEOs and professional hockey players....but we can all try to be whatever we want.

Good points! Well, maybe.

Yes, I had the opportunity to achieve it but let's be real and honest here.
I was an upper middle class white kid growing up on the North Shore of Chicago.
My parents could afford to buy me hockey equipment, drive me to practices and games, pay the excessive fees for me to play on hockey teams, etc.
Now tell me about the kids who grow up in poverty in this country - that could never even dream of playing hockey.
Here is something else I ponder, I realize and appreciate that I was extremely fortunate to experience many things that I would not have experienced if my parents were poor. For that I am forever grateful - to a degree. It was probably more a blessing than a curse but I'm someone who went from believing I will be financially successful and live happily ever after - to being a completely desolate drug addict who thought for sure he would die a broke man. I have seen and lived the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Is that a good thing about living in America? I'm probably foolish but I'll say I'm undecided.

Forgetting all that, it doesn't take a genius to realize that not every one in this country is afforded the same opportunities and because of it, I feel it's complete bullshit that EVERYONE can "accomplish anything they set their mind to. if they want it. and will work for it. they can have it".

On a semi-related note, I smirk and cringe at the same time when I think about what our founding fathers felt was important to write in the second "paragraph" of the Declaration of Independence.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
Yes, perhaps we are all CREATED equal but after that, like I said earlier in this post, it's all uphill or downhill from our birth to our death.
When the D.O.I. was written those with Black skin were hardly considered equal - and let's not forget that women were far from being equal to men too.
Thank God I wasn't alive then because I would be an even bigger cynical asshole than I am now in terms of how "great" this country is.

I just got caught up on this thread.

Keep clown suiting everyone, ousdahl. Brilliant work.

Wipe that cum off your face and get off your knees. My lord.

BasketballJayhawk wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 10:07 am Wipe that cum off your face and get off your knees. My lord.

lol, keep trying

Cascadia wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 10:08 am

BasketballJayhawk wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 10:07 am Wipe that cum off your face and get off your knees. My lord.

lol, keep trying

Honestly, I’m not trying to clown suit anyone.

But I guess some folks will inevitably be made uncomfortable when my end game is not much less than overthrowing the system.

Maybe it’s cuz it’s obvious we need to. Maybe it’s cuz I listened to too much rage against the machine growing up.

LOL @ "overthrowing the system". Whatever that means.

that’s exactly what the system wants you to say.

MICHHAWK wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 2:07 pm i blame the lazy people.

this is the greatest country on earth. by a wide margin. any person can accomplish anything they set their mind to. if they want it. and will work for it. they can have it. go AMERICA.

The notion that you can be "whatever you want" is silly. If I want to be the center for the Boston Celtics, it doesn't matter how hard my 6'2" body works. It isn't happening. Some people, no matter how hard they try, are not equipped to achieve certain things.

Who, twocoach is 6’2”...bro what’s your wingspan?


But yeah, pro athletes aren’t the best example, cuz it takes a fairly obvious athletic virtuosity.

But even more than pro athletes, most good opportunities in life come at least in part cuz of luck. You just need some good breaks to go your way.

There’s a lot of truth, too, to “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I’ve missed out on several good jobs and stuff cuz, as it turned out, so-and-so’s son or whoever got the offer instead, actual qualifications and experience be damned.

i got a shot at my current gig because of who i knew

i actually got the job because of what i know (damn that flawed education!!)

In this thread i learned (again) that ousdahl doesnt know what socialism is....but it sounds utopian so he puts 100% into it

How do I not know what socialism is?

Go read your posts and then read about socialist societies and see if you can spot the difference. Its a fun way to use your education

twocoach wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 11:13 am

MICHHAWK wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 2:07 pm i blame the lazy people.

this is the greatest country on earth. by a wide margin. any person can accomplish anything they set their mind to. if they want it. and will work for it. they can have it. go AMERICA.

The notion that you can be "whatever you want" is silly. If I want to be the center for the Boston Celtics, it doesn't matter how hard my 6'2" body works. It isn't happening. Some people, no matter how hard they try, are not equipped to achieve certain things.

Again. Opportunity vs outcome.

You can try to be whatever you want.

I had no connection to the school that hired me. Didn't know anyone here until I interviewed. Same with my previous gig.

Ive never been hired through connections. Probably because ive never had connections. In my industry its fairly easy to see if youre qualified or not though, so that might be part of it (yes, even the office portion of the industry)

TDub wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 11:30 am Go read your posts and then read about socialist societies and see if you can spot the difference. Its a fun way to use your education

Ok.

So short of boogeymanning everywhere else that’s been labeled as failed socialism, is it inaccurate of me to think that socialism at least in theory is empowering workers over hierarchies, all stakeholders vs. just the shareholders, the very stuff in my posts?

Cuz if you read my posts and your takeaway is about some other counties I wasn’t even posting about, isn’t that sort of moving the goalposts?

ousdahl wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 11:44 am

TDub wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 11:30 am Go read your posts and then read about socialist societies and see if you can spot the difference. Its a fun way to use your education

Ok.

So short of boogeymanning everywhere else that’s been labeled as failed socialism, is it inaccurate of me to think that socialism at least in theory is empowering workers over hierarchies, all stakeholders vs. just the shareholders, the very stuff in my posts?

Cuz if you read my posts and your takeaway is about some other counties I wasn’t even posting about, isn’t that sort of moving the goalposts?

Socialism doesnt empower the workers. It empowers the government and its even more ripe for corruption than your hated capitalism

Sounds to me like you were both hired because of your abilities and hard work -- the way it should be.