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Off-Topic and Low-Effort CW Thread for the Week of July 13, 2020 by rwkasten in CultureWarRoundup

[–]BothAfternoon 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

To which my reply is "well, duh".

You will never solve the problem of homelessness by simply scooping up people and putting them in a room of their own. Some people who are temporarily homeless due to bad luck? Sure, give them a place to stay where they have a permanent address to put down on job applications and where they can wash themselves and their clothes and have a bed to sleep in without fear of being robbed or worse, that will definitely work for them.

Most homeless people have other problems, often a shit-ton of problems not limited to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and mental illness. They need supervision and intervention and somebody there to make sure they don't overdose, stab one another or the rest of it. Why the fuck do you think hostels have rules on drink and drugs and women-only and so forth? But social workers and mental health counsellors and probation officers and all the rest of it cost money, which is the fly in the ointment of these grand plans. Dump a load of homeless on their own with nobody in charge to make the rules stick or have the authority to boot them out for breaking them, and this is exactly the outcome you are going to get. Institutionalisation is its own real problem, but doing away with the old-style mental hospitals and other places and letting people free for 'care in the community' requires that you do support them with care, not cut services because the budget is tight.

And there's the small but persistent minority who are just petty criminals and/or shiftless who will take advantage of any do-gooder, private citizen or public servant, and break open the walls to strip out the copper piping to sell. What those need is jail not hotels or hostels.

Off-Topic and Low-Effort CW Thread for the Week of July 13, 2020 by rwkasten in CultureWarRoundup

[–]BothAfternoon 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Immediate reaction: boilerplate "Let's do something! (so long as it doesn't cost us any money)". I can see the "4 days off a year" thing come crashing down in flames due to (1) people taking advantage of 4 days to go do things they want/need to do that are not remotely involved with social justice (2) "we are not paying you to take days off" (3) "damn it, where is everyone? we need them to cover this shift/work overtime/there's a crunch on!"

The only thing that makes me vaguely concerned is the mandatory Diversity'n'Inclusion training, and that's because of the "we'll teach you how to be snitches/use our fair and unbiased and certainly not a kangaroo court system to get your rivals in trouble!" bit about reporting. Otherwise there's nothing there that anyone who has worked in any workplace for longer than ten minutes can't get around with a mixture of "sure thing, boss!" and head-nodding along while tuning out listening to the Woke Lecture on Not Being A Racist.

Off-Topic and Low-Effort CW Thread for the Week of July 13, 2020 by rwkasten in CultureWarRoundup

[–]BothAfternoon 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Er, "Scholar and consultant"? Is it now mandatory to be actively stupid in order to become an "adjunct faculty member at a community college" (which, the impression I've got of American higher education, is not all that high in fact?)

Let's go out and cut down all fruit trees, currant bushes, and heck even strawberry vines (because you can't get any more low than 'on the ground') in the name of anti-racism!

Can I get one of these soft sinecures? I promise to be performatively aggravated about anything and everything at the drop of a hat 24/7 and willing to fire off long screeds about how a common phrase is not alone a microaggression, it is actively encouraging people to join the Ku Klux Klan. Take that "proverb" about pots and kettles - very suspicious with its mention of blackness in a derogatory manner! Will Rant For Money!

Out of sheer curiosity, I tried looking up who this Professor Mae Hicks-Jones is, and I'm rather confused. There's a Mae Jones in the Elgin directory as "Business Unit Adjunct I Faculty" who is either on a tiny salary or only does this part-time ("Principles of Management" class), and is she the same as Mae Hicks-Jones above and is that the same Dr. Mae Hicks-Jones who does some HR Consulting in Advanced Diversity and Inclusion who is also something in banking and that may well be the same Dr. Mae Hicks-Jones who is also an authoress whilst being the Diversity and Inclusion Consultant for the City of Elgin starting before the pandemic?

Dr. Mae Hicks Jones was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, by a single parent of four children. She has been a Human Resources professional at one of Chicago's premier financial institutions for over twenty-eight years. She is a community activist, mentor, mother, and wife with five college degrees.

Five, you will note. So this is how she gets to invent new words like Inspirmaetions (I'm presuming, in my ignorant effrontery, this is a portmanteau of "inspire", "inspirations" and "affirmations") for her collection of inspirational poetry.

(Actually, it's freaky how much info you can dig up on someone with some minor and very quick searching).

Anyway, my point with all this rambling is that complaining about low-hanging fruit and grandfathers looks like the good old "diversity consultant" grifting, after all she's newly minted consultant for the city of Elgin, she needs to produce something to show they're getting their money's worth!