I was taught that the market solves everything. If people are needed for a labor, employers will pay more so that people will do them. If people do not want to pay for the labor, then the problem is not really there. The money will follow a different path. So where is the problem?

I am 45 and I have programmed computers since I was six.

I never had a problem with my neck or back until last year, and since I have had two cases of debilitating pain that took two months to recover from- so that is four months of not being able to work, not being able to use computers for longer than a few minutes at a time.

During my first episode I dramatically improved my ergonomics under the guidance of my physical therapist. I still had a second episode about 9 months later.

This is NOT anything you want to encounter- the pain can get so bad that - especially near the beginning of my two month recovery cycle, the only way to get to sleep for a couple weeks is to just crash.

I look around and everyone I see has poor posture. The neck hunched over. Looking at phones or laptops. Even with the screen positioned at eye level- I donâ(TM)t think that that is the solution that people think it is. It is taking me serious retraining to learn to push my head back and it feels deeply unnatural to me.

I would not think that this is just an illusion or a fantasy or other peoples problem.

That is a popular misunderstanding. The plank length does NOT mean that the universe is digital. We do not have any evidence whatsoever that space is not infinitely subdivisible, or that coordinates are on any kind of cellular arrangement.

Many of them DO work- working at a convenience store, or some other part-time Freeter work. Whether they do or do not, they often live in the same bedroom they had as a child, under the support of mom or dad.

So we need to go back to making joints and tendons like they did in the 1970s..?

Why are we worried about astronomers? In fifty years time, I bet most telescopes would be in outer space, and astronomers would talk to them via the solar systems Internet.

#SEKKUNDAMENDMINT, amirite?

So, I'm rewatching, just for you. (How's that for work?) And I'm about 45 minutes into Alien, and I'm not seeing what you're alleging is there. There *is* a chain of command, but I don't see that anything is particularly distinguished on sex. For example, while the superior gets mad at her for judging that they should leave the guy outside, he also gets mad at the two guys complaining about their pay all the time. One woman slaps Ripley for wanting to have left them outside. But there's nothing, nothing at all, to indicate that any of this behavior is about sex or motivated by sexual discrimination. So in answer to "Riply's male superiors are constantly talking down to her in both movies" -- what I see so far (A) doesn't match that -- mostly I see arguments on principle, and (B) to the extent that male superiors "talk down" to her, they talk down to *everyone.* What I see, is that Ripley is being treated just like any other member of the crew. That's what I see, and if you see something different, I want you to present your evidence.

Now as for "Progressive" -- Progressive is not the same as Woke. "You know this idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're always politically woke and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly." -- Barack Obama

I'm all for progressive causes. I voted for Biden, and straight blue in the mid-terms. I'm 45, I've been a US citizen my entire life, and I've voted for Democrats in every single election since I turned 18. I have served as a poll observer, participated in phone-in campaigns, and participated in caucuses. In my opinion, Barack Obama is the best president we've had in my lifetime. You never hear Obama stating this woke nonsense. If he's not progressive, I don't know who is.

"Woke" and "Critical Race Theory" are a collection of ideas that are racist bullshit nonsense. They're un-American. They're completely out of step with what Frederick Douglass taught in his speech: The Composite Nation. "Woke" teaches that "yt" (or "whiteness") is a particular race of evil, the common enemy of the "People of Color." When the woke are challenged on "Well, why do Asians seem to be doing so well, if white people are so vested in oppressing everybody?", they respond with "Asians are white-adjacent." It's an ugly, nasty, racially tribal way of looking at life and the world, and it has no place in Frederick Douglass' vision of what would fulfill American promise.

Of course there are ethnicities and of course people share traits with people who share a culture. But we must never make racial categories something that the State obliges itself to discriminate on. That is a true and genuine meaning of: "Systemic Racism." There's nothing more systemically racist, than creating laws that treat people differently based on their race. While individuals may behave in racist ways, and they will, the remedy to that cannot be to bake racism into our government.

*This* is the progressive direction. Not this racist nonsense claiming the banner. Just because someone is saying "Hey, look at the plight of black people," it doesn't mean that they aren't racist. You already know if white people say "Hey, look at the plight of poor white people," that it doesn't mean that they aren't racist. What you need to realize is that racism is something deeper than whether somebody has suffered or not. Racism is when people look down on other people because of their race or ethnicity, and this is true regardless of whether they "have power" or not. A person could be powerful, or powerless, and not racist. And a person can be powerful, or powerless, and racist. What's important is to not be racist, and that means standing against racism, whether it comes from the "powerful" or the "powerless." Every person has a power. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

There is in every struggle for rights an inner division. There are always people who are moving forward, and people who are moving backwards, within the very same movement. Woke jerks mis-cite Martin Luther King's Letters from a Birmingham Jail, all of the time. If they read more than a cherry-picked and non-transferrable sentence from it, which was about white people who opposed his non-violent civil resistance movement, they would see that he spent as much time in that essay writing about black nationalists -- the people who were the "woke" of his time, and more properly share the "woke" ideology.

Here's the Letter from the Birmingham Jail that the woke don't want to look at:

"""The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood.""" -- Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963

As for Ripley and her uniform:

I think it is a great thing that Ripley wore the uniform that was shared with her compatriots. That wasn't "woke." That was progressive. But not woke. AND EVERYBODY LOVED IT. All these Gen X nerds that are being called "racist" because they rightly know that woke sucks -- because they learned that segregation is wrong and not the American path -- they all loved Alien and Aliens and T2. They're not the sexist racists that they are accused of being by the self-proclaimed woke. That's just a downright dirty lie.

The very same people who enjoy women in sexy outfits! Who knew that being a sexual person, and being a human being, could exist in the same body? There's nothing wrong with movies made for men, that present women in a sexy way that men find attractive, just like there's nothing wrong with romance novels made for women, or movies made for women, that look with the female gaze, and portray Darcy as a rich man to court, or Andie going for Blane in 16 Candles. People get to want who they want, and what they want, and people get to share their ideas in movies and writing and TV and in every form. If it were not that way, then we would not have freedom of the imagination and freedom of desire, and I think that freedom of imagination and desire come before even the freedom of speech.

If all of the movies are presenting women in a sexy way that men like, and somebody notices this, the thing to do isn't to try and regulate the media, or attack men who like sexy women for wanting those movies. No: The proper course of action is to write Alien. There's room enough in this world for all of the things that people like.

These are important topics. If you think you've got some better argument, I'd like to hear it. But if the work is too hard, by all means, go play. But I am calling you onto my lawn. "Get on my lawn!" I want to talk with you about important things that matter.

C'mon man. Not everything is about money.

Anyone with a bigass weenie-compensating SUV or pickup truck needs $12/gallon fuel. VROOOOOOOOM

I hear your claim, but I disagree. Just because the main character is a woman, it doesn't make it woke. Main characters are frequently surrounded by incompetents.

You could *make* it woke, if you had Ripley complaining about the men, making it about their sex. Alternatively, the male characters could be shown complaining about Ripley, making it about *her* sex. But that's not what we see -- When Ripley argues with Dallas and Ash, about the decision to bring Kane on board and the danger that represents, it's entirely a principled argument -- it's not about anybody's sex. If they were female or she were male, the argument would make just as much sense. There'd have to be some kind of gender-politics coding to it. But if there's a gender-coding to those conversations, I have a hard time seeing it. The only thing is that she is a woman. That's the sum total of it.

Captain Marvel, on the other hand -- simply doesn't make sense without direct reference to sex, which it's constantly putting front and center. That's woke.

I can't guarantee that you'll like it, but I highly encourage you to give Star Wars: Andor a try.

I would not fault you for one second for thinking, "How could it possibly be good?"

And I can't guarantee that you'll like it -- It's definitely not like Star Wars movies 4, 5, 6. It feels very different.

But I encourage you to try it and see if you like it.

I'm going to explode your mind with another fact:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse -- **also** not Woke.

See, it's possible to make a movie that's not about white people, and ALSO *not* woke.
Take some time, and think about how that might be.

Woke means "Going out of it's way to lecture and chastise men."

For example: When you're watching a show, and the appearance of a white male character automatically means that that person is an idiot -- that's "woke." When you're watching a show, and there's a diatribe about the superiority of women and the fundamental oppressiveness of men, -- that's "woke."

It's a bad thing.

Alien & Aliens & Terminator 2: Not Woke.

Captain Marvel, Last Jedi: Woke.

Check out Andor.

Seriously -- check out Andor. It's surprising it was even put out by Disney. But it's incredible, and not like anything else they've done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

It's not woke.

The Critical Drinker has spoken for it. It's worth investigating.