VOTE ANYWAY.

How can I convince a bunch of brainwashed conservative anti-woke pro-trump blue collar rednecks who operate and maintain my combined cycle power plant that unions aren’t just bullshit where you’re not allowed to get anything done and you wind up making less money due to union dues and with no new benefits to show for it? We already make good money and have good benefits and mostly have it pretty easy, but we lack support in terms of training and managers and coverage personnel. I don’t think they’re aware that it could be a lot better. I for one am not a fan of frequently rotating 12 hour shift work in addition to the hour commute each way, and that commute length is par for the course because of the cost of living any closer to the plant. They don’t want a union because they “already know that a union is a scam” and will tune out if I try to explain that some unions are really great, some are meh, but there is a propaganda campaign run by companies that stand to lose a lot from unions winning good contracts for their labor force, and that propaganda exists to convince people like them to cede power to these companies.

I’ve tried to explain lots of progressive and innovative ideas, but they’re stuck in chasing how great shit was in the 80s and 90s. They don’t even want to learn how to use a computer, despite some of these guys literally sitting in front of computers for those entire aforementioned 12 hour shifts. I’ve even automated populating in a solid chunk of our shift reports, and they just whine that I changed it. But it takes two mouse clicks.

There so goddamn frustrating.

@jalefkowit Ah, good catch.

They were already headed there. Private equity already removed everything that made them a unique cool airline. Now they’re the same as the big three but more limited and not as good.

Kids can easily believe and accept anything, even that a boy can transform into a dragon; that so-called adults instead can't is astounding.

This is how it went with my autistic toddler. He’s always known his brother as his brother, but he didn’t start transitioning until 2 months ago. We just told him big brother is a boy on the inside and soon he’ll match on the outside. Kid went “oh, ok” and went back to playing. It’s not complicated, it’s their hatred that makes it complicated for them.

Reaching conservatives is very difficult, so I totally emphasize with your situation. From my experience, we can’t reach them by talking about high minded ideas, we have to keep things related directly to their personal lives. We also need to spend much more time to flip them, so I’d start with people that are more empathetic to the cause so you can build an organizing committee, and then try to flip conservatives. An Organizing Committee isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s absolutely necessary. An OC will allow for people the conservatives know and like to try to flip them, rather than you doing all the heavy lifting. OC’s should aim to be roughly 10% of the workplace, but that’s just a goal, not a requirement.

Organizing is also 70% listening, 30% talking. If you’re doing all the talking, then you’ll have a harder time reaching people, and it will be especially hard to reach them. Ask about what they want to see changed at work; ignore the con bs they will likely spew, and then ask more about the actual work grievances they mention. Ask what they think it would take to change things, rather than using the “U” word; it’s like a pavlovian response to them. You will probably need to have several conversations with them before you can even name collective action.

Good luck and god speed!

@ahimsa_pdx

That looks like it might be an image for which there's no cached version stored on your server, that's why it works when you view it on its original server.

Servers may restrict how long they store images from other servers, in order to reduce their storage costs. Most old posts are never viewed again, so most of the time people don't notice if the image isn't stored.

Normally if you view an old post it fetches the image again, but sometimes it shows "preview not available".

@computerchronicles I wonder if whoever wrote the description didn’t get confused. Meier co-founded MicroProse with Bill Stealey, but that was long before the timeframe this video covers. However he co-created the original Civilization with Bruce Shelley, who’s all over the beginning of the video.

@arstechnica
When Comcast/Xfinity goes bankrupt, I am going to have a celebratory party. Karma will catch up with them some day.

I was obviously including vietnam for Dems when I said 60 years. So in generations they have all been started by republicans. As much as you would like, none of the ones you mentioned were wars. Interventions yes, and republicans have been involved in many as well. But wars? Only the war mongering gop. With a shiny new Iran war to get the gop’s heart pumping again.

it does though? I’m not turning on location services for it, but it shows me the path and the start button.

Heaven forbid your kids should be as informed about the world around them all possible before they have to go adult in it. Or are we just afraid conversation with them over this topic will wind up showing how irrational a position you hold, and how much of an insensitive monster you are?