Wise words and informative comment.
I don't know where I stand on this issue but despite Snowden's revelations part of me says the danger is already being implemented in our media and cyber-world by nefarious characters including the Russians through the GRU and their Repubican enablers with the myth of Ukraine. (But then I repeat myself.) So all we have left is censorship. We do have an example in German policy on hate speech. I don't know how well that is done and it is a different culture than ours although they certainly have plenty of skinheads.
People's experiences are different. I was lucky to live in a mostly black immediate neighborhood which was probably on the edge of poverty next door to a larger, mostly black district which was our prime ghetto. Through politics, I came close to marrying two women (separately) who are African American and was welcomed by each family, so I became accustomed to being around people of color in normal relationships. At one time I had a chat with two leaders of Sac State's Black Student's Union and said as I've recounted earlier in response to one's statement, "you're racist." They laughed at my naivete, "Of course we're racists." We are all racists. To quote Mulvaney, "get over it." Have a conversation with someone of color about racism. An advice, don't say you're not a racist. Don't say "you folks." There are others, but just remember the person of color probably knows a lot more of this subject than you. Advices. Listen without prejudgment if you can.
I don't think we shall ever get over color divides without deep positive emersion. That will not happen in general until we irradicate poverty. I think the Scandinavians have done a good job but now are having similar forces due to immigration (largely as a consequence of our foreign policy).
How does the German example inform us? The Finns have done a great job at educating their citizens in how to resist issues the Russians tried to interject into their discourse. If I remember correctly the Russians have given that up. Here we have a party under its control. My advice for responsible Republicans and Democrats alike, do something about it!
I grew up in a very ethnically mixed neighborhood and never went to a school with more than 15% white kids. I was just thinking the other day that most of the blond kids I knew growing up had Hispanic surnames. There were not many African Americans around, but a lot of Asians, Hispanics, and for some reason Armenians.
Possibly because of my background I don't grok racism. Some people are scum and where I came from most of the scum were Asian or Hispanic, but that was because most of the people I knew were Asian or Hispanic. On the whole, most people I knew were decent folk, whatever their skin color.
Ultimately what breeds street crime is poverty and skin color doesn't matter. Go to the poor parts pf Glasgow Scotland and you'll find kids who committing the same crimes as any US inner city, the only differences are their accents and skin colors.
Universal Basic Income is something that has a lot of resistance right now, but it almost became law in the US during the Nixon administration. The bill died in the Senate because Senate Democrats couldn't agree on how much to pay people. I recommend
Utopia for Realists to anyone curious about whether it will work or not. I went in very skeptical, but the author cites study after study that has shown that UBI goes a long ways towards helping alleviate the ills of society.
It would only help me a little to have an extra $24K a year, and for most people making more than I am, it would mean virtually nothing. But for those below the poverty line, it would make a massive difference and it would likely bring in more in taxes and savings than it costs in the long run.
The poorest in society don't have enough to pay for everything, so they are a net drag on society. They are driven to steal to make ends meet, they have higher incidents of domestic violence and child abuse which gets police and social services involved. They skimp on bills which forces the utilities to cover the shortfalls charging the rest of us a little more. They don't spend much money on anything and what they do spend money on is the most basic things.
Give that segment of the population money and they will use it to pay their bills, and buy things instead of stealing them. That money goes into the cash registers at stores and into the coffers of utilities who in turn pay their employees with it. Then those employees go out and buy things. All those transactions and incomes are taxed which goes into government coffers.
At the same time crime rates go down as well as need for social services which saves the government money. In London, UK they did an experiment where they took 13 or 14 of the worst homeless people. It was estimated these 13 people were costing more than 100K a year in policing and court costs. In this pilot program, they gave each of them 50K (pounds) a year to spend as they wish with just one social worker to make the payments. All but one of the homeless people got clean and off the street and policing costs dropped to zero. None of them spent the entire 50K.
A conservative government came in (I think it was Boris Johnson) and canned the project.
Today there is about 10-20% of the population who are pretty much unemployable. They are unable or unwilling to learn modern job skills and what they once did is obsolete. That percentage is going to skyrocket in the next 20 years. If the pundits are right and autonomous vehicles really do become a reality and legal, it will put millions out of work. Many other jobs are becoming more automated which will make even more jobs obsolete. If 40-50% of the population is unemployed and unemployable what will happen to society? The US had over 300 million guns in circulation, do you think that's going to end well?
Back to racism and it's connection to immigration. Many countries with an anti-immigrant movement are people against immigrants who don't look like them. Trump has wondered why Norwegians aren't immigrating to the US and why it's mostly brown people.
A study on the resistance to immigration in Germany found that the resistance is highest in areas with large poor white populations. They don't understand why immigrants are coming in and taking "their jobs". The areas with affluent white populations have low resistance to non-white immigration. The affluent whites are probably more worldly, possibly traveling to non-white countries or having non-white coworkers. They also don't feel their jobs are threatened by a Syrian refugee.
My uttermost condolences on your condition, and sorrow for the loss of your Model S. At the same time, I hope I speak for all in saying we're delighted the two of you got away with only the mishaps you had. PLEASE be as careful as you can be with that demon Oxycodone - it has felled many who get over-used to it.
Neroden about a year back mentioned that the trick to taking oxycodone and not getting hooked is to only take enough to take the edge off the pain and not to actually take it all away. Having known some people with ADD, the same is the case with Aderall. Take just enough to reduce the ADD symptoms and you don't get high at all and you also don't get hooked.
I don't have any first hand experience with opiods or opiates (I have a weird thing with pain, I don't feel chronic pain, but do feel acute pain, my sister and father are the same way). Everyone I've known with those sorts of pain killers either can't take them because it makes them too ill, or they got hooked, so I don't know how the "just enough to take off the edge" thing works, but Neroden was fairly well educated about things.
