Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
However, as an American, I am well informed because I know that New Mexico is not a foreign entity. That puts me ahead of about 46% of the American college age kids, the last time I checked. (I have never lived near New Mexico so I don't have an unfair advantage.)
I realise that Americans do not have the best reputation for geography but do you have any evidence at all to back your claim other than hearsay and populist (non-scientific) surveys designed to grab attention. Hint: if you heard this on a late night right wing radio station it probably is not based on real research.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
I'm somewhat well informed because I can see around me that those in their 20's can't add 9 and 6 without a calculator or don't know what half of $2 is and realize that something is wrong with how we are educating our children. The current push for more testing and less teaching is going to exacerbate the problem.
Is it not the case that such issues are much stronger in red-state schools, particularly those that have introduced a push for teaching creationism in science classes? Again, I do not know the statistics as to whether the innumeracy rate has really increased or not. There is very often an appearance of sliding values in education that has little or no bearing on reality once one actually looks more closely into the statistics. What is clear is that there are "haves" and "have nots" in the American school system, so that it is extremely difficult for some schools to hire and retain the best teachers. That would certainly be a good issue for politicians to address but would of course most likely lead to complaints from the "have" schools and their communities that their standards are being eroded.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
That likely puts me in front of the 80% or so of conservatives that think that almost all liberals are uninformed libtards and the liberals that think that conservatives are a bunch of racist hicks who think all blacks should be sent back to Africa.
93.8% of statistics quoted on the internet are made up on the spur of the moment. Your 80% figure appears to be within that 91.4%.
You very much show your right-wing bias with commentary like this. People are not so black and white as you make out and the vast majority are to be found in the middle and not at the extremes.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
I am somewhat well informed because I share neither the left wing view that Islamic terrorism isn't a problem, nor the alt right wing view that we should send all Muslims back to the Middle East and then bomb the entire area.
Outside of right-wing propaganda I doubt you will find many who say that Islamic terrorism is not a problem at all. The question is more about which values are worth sacrificing to address it and whether rhetoric such as your "right wing view", which I have to admit I have only actually heard from DT amongst senior Republicans, is more of a negative than a positive in alleviating the issue.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
As a conservative, I am in theory (probably in your opinion) a hateful bigoted Muslim hater.
You may well be but I would not personally label you as such just from being right-winged. You may also be racist, sexist or a serial killer for all I know.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
I believe that all Americans should have the opportunity to feel good about themselves, and be productive members of society. This is more likely to happen under a system where small businesses can flourish and not be burdened with massive regulations - even knowing all the different regulations from all the levels of government can be so challenging for a new business that the prospective entrepreneur gives up before he starts, meaning there are less jobs for people and more people on the dole, which makes them feel less good about themselves and ticks off the people who support them. Now, this is a conservative position.
In many countries this would be a Liberal position, the promotion of individual rights and small businesses. I am not sure if it says something about you, the right wing media or America in general that the term over there gets warped to such a degree.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
A lot of the problem of health care is the rising costs.
The way to reduce costs in a national health service is generally to move over to a single payer model. It is nice of you to agree that the idea behind Obamacare is a good one and that it should probably have gone much further than it did.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
College costs are outrageous. One of the reasons is that the government loans everybody and their brother money for college and there is too much demand. Consider that the average kid might be better off forgoing college for four years of experience, and if he had any talent at all, he will probably be the boss of the new graduates coming out of college.
Have you seen any statistics about the way the job market is going? Increasingly a degree is required for even fairly basic positions. The chances of someone coming out of school and rising to a position managing graduates within 4 years is very small. It is extremely bad advice for the vast majority of school-leavers that they should forego going to university (or an equivalent post-school training) if they have the opportunity to do so.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
I think the federal government's job is mainly defense, there is no reason for many of the agencies. For example, education should be handled at the state, if not local, level. If Kansas wants to teach creationism while California wants to teach 26 gender identities, I see no reason not to let them, and each set of parents can try to relocate to a state whose ideas align with theirs (easier now that many jobs can be done remotely.) There is no reason for a federal Department of Education.
You are joking, right? You really cannot see a reason for a country insisting that all of its children are given a reasonable and equal education? How about if Louisiana decided that schools for "above average" students should get taught maths and science and schools for "below average" students should teach how to be a manual labourer. Oh yes, and just by chance all of the white children are in the first group. No problem at all, right? I think you should seriously think about the possibilities that would result from your position. While security is clearly the number one priority for a government, education is not far behind and absolutely essential for any "advanced" economy.
Kaitlyn S, on 2016-October-25, 12:42, said:
The above content represents my own thoughts and I hope you can see that I am not parroting a random conservative organization. If you still believe I am an uninformed dittohead, then I will never change your mind. However, I hope I have proven you wrong about that allegation.
I think you get far too many of your thoughts and ideas from right-wing sources and this severely colours your world viw, far more than you yourself realise. That you think having slightly modified positions from the most extreme right wing viewpoints on a few issues makes you something different is worrying. That you seem to think you understand the world so much better than other educated people who have also considered these topics is a little sad. That you also appear to believe in conspiracy theories with no evidence behind them is worrying and, sadly, affects my opinion of you more generally. That probably says something about me though...
Help
I didn't think a forum could have a higher percentage of liberal posters than BGG's RSP but have found it here. Your advice is well taken. However, TBH, I don't find any of the posters here trying to be evil (they are worse on RSP) and some of them are trying to educate me.