I get my view of how the lower class is treated by the cops, from watching the TV show "Cops". Like I am right now. If you're lower class, don't show it, and certainly don't act it, to the cops. Drive a well-maintained car, and be very respectful.

I'm shocked at how things go down on that show. If I was treated like that in a traffic stop, I'd be livid. But somehow cops can sniff out who the troublemakers are. These people have illegal drugs and unregistered weapons in their car, and prior records.

Generally the poor are poor because they make bad choices. Generally. Fix the wealth gap "problem" and it changes nothing, because lower class is the person, not whatever their current economic conditions are.

People who have bills to pay and have to go to work in the morning don't have time to be out causing trouble. Cops get a read on what kind of person you are.

So we are a classless society, in that you're not stuck in one socioeconomic class no matter how hard you work. But you can never have a classless society in the sense that there'll never be equality in other ways, because people are different.

People are stupid and mean. I hate my species with a passion. It's a good thing I have a religion, that puts stipulations on me and things in a context. As an atheist I'd be a bad mofo, and not in a cool way. So working with tons of people, esp. the public in general, is definitely out for me. I can't afford anymore fuel on the fire.

I didn't work in any sweatshops during the dot com era nor know anyone who did. Rich people weren't trying to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of us at the time, they wanted us to rapidly build up things that would make them insanely rich. Accomplished software engineers who also had a good idea of what this new (to them) Internet thing was were their E tickets to building them wealth, they thought.

I really miss the optimism, however misguided it was, of that time. The positiveness. They didn't look at you when you came in for an interview like you were some nitwit fraud, they at least acted impressed. And they threw money at me, to the tune of 20% and 30% raises over prior positions. And they were happy to have me, I was happy to be there in that kind of positive and energetic environment, and to be well-compensated, and I worked hard. (Granted you may have had different experiences.)

I have to agree of course that one difference definitely between IT and other fields is the easy transferability of the work. That's a factor that sets us up for being treated less well that other occupations don't have. But I've heard that nurses are treated like shit, same for pharmacists. Even doctors are going to have worse treatment in this country, as we move on to a single-payer system and it's all about the race to the bottom in cutting costs and services to a minimum. In my area I believe dentists, once a path to a good life, are even struggling, for various reasons this is getting too long to go into.

TL;DR: I guess you're basically right about this, IT probably is worse than other fields. I just don't want to believe it, because it was so good before.

I think in the U.S. we're more polarized than ever. The rhetoric seems to get nastier and nastier, and the tactics sleazier and sleazier. Piling on more and more rules doesn't seem to be helping us to get along at all. To me you already contradicted the claim that it's about us all getting along, with the whole, there's nothing universal, so we have nothing in common, so either we agree, or the stronger forces it on the other. I guess without (a Being giving us) a moral standard in the universe, that indeed would be how "morality" gets set. To me you've partly described Hell.

You know nothing of my family or where I came from.

So here it is in a nutshell:

I worked my ass off working shitty fast food jobs to pay my own way through college, got a degree, and a good job. Had nothing to do with my "family connections" or "white privilege" or any other lame ass excuse used by people that don't have any success.

YOU are to blame for your failures in life. Not your family upbringing, not your race, or any other secondary attribute.

Considering I'm originally from Toledo, Ohio -- not far from Milan, Ohio, and seeing as how Thomas Edison was able to put his gifts to good use despite being born into a poor family and having health issues, I'll take those odds.

I have earned everything I have. I would have no problem doing that in any era.

Roll it back to 1911. Not just because an iconic firearm was born, but roll it back to before the first Fascist American President, Woodrow Wilson, took office.

Part of my problem is that I dislike people. Of course I like the people I know; I'm talking people in general. So that kinda limits me to working mostly with machines.

And then there's the issue with my almost complete lack of physical coordination. Which pretty much then limits me to only working with machines that I can work with with my mental dexterity.

And finally, while I've definitely noticed us in this field being treated worse as the decades have progressed, for all I know it's not just an IT thing, but a simple labor supply and demand effect; we were treated well in the dot com surge, when we were hard to come by, and now that there's a glut of labor (not necessarily a glut of skill!), not so much. I.e. I'm not sure what field of work isn't a race to the bottom yet.

Then more and more divergence from the Leftie religion will be criminalized. "Discriminatory" is just a Leftie code word for resisting something the Left hath pronounced thou shalt accept. Other discrimination is fine, of course. It's not about what's right, it's simply about what the Left favors, and what they don't, because they have the power. So please spare me your moral high horsieness. The Left isn't teh side of teh Good, it's the side that has certain stances on things, with complex origins, some based on a twisted sense of morality, and some just to be contrary to Good.

Religions (vice sects of them) are about moral absolutes. Because you see religion drifting further away from you, does not mean that religion is moving. It's the world of the lost that is constantly decaying.

With all this said, I will say that, my ilk if you will, the Religious Right, are very sinful in how others are treated. God turns away no one, who doesn't turn away from Him. Whatever we don't understand or may even gross us out, my kind should remember that Jesus died for all. It's not religion that pushes people away, as the Bible is (among other things of lesser importance, to the Christian) the Good News about God's deal He's offering us. It's misguided followers of religion who push people away, by not really appreciating what God's holy book is mainly about. In short, people are weak, and sin against one another. Thankfully you seem to have, if I may characterize it this way, a Christian heart about it, by recognizing it as evil and declaring it so, and then forgiving them to whatever humanly extent possible and moving on.

No, because the system has been corrupted. ABET should look at the engineering faculty and their programs, and parents and students should look at the administrators and their policies.

Well there's another part of the problem right there. I'm growing furious, but I'm keeping it contained.

That's a nice opinion. I could hold the opinion (I don't) that you can talk about your gender issue all you want when you're not on Slashdot. So fucking what. There's no actual justification for either. I'm saddened that you can't seem to see the subjectiveness and arbitrariness in these opinions, beyond one of them you likey and the other you don't.

Let's not, Mr. Moral Relativizing there. Winners in capitalism are largely picked by making good choices and who's willing to work harder. It brings about greater comfort and happiness in most people's lives by harnessing human nature. Socialism is a soul-sucking system not based on merit at all.

And if you're talking about political rulers, I still say you're wrong. Socialism already requires rule by an elite clique, since it goes against the grain of human nature. And capitalism is just a free market, and is orthogonal to the political system. If you don't like there being a ruling class in this country, talk to the voters. If you mean captains of industry by ruling elite, then you've fallen prey to Leftie hyperbole; no one can force me to buy an Apple product, for example.

TL;DR: Capitalism doesn't collapse power into the few, an apathetic citizenry does (in which case it's fine, because it's deserved).

Should you take picture of the front and back of your credit and debit cards?

Rarely a month goes by without someone's debit card pic getting retweeted 1000 times.

Some stuff is private. You don't need to make a record of it.

I didn't say it was their fault. I said that the conventional societal wisdom, as puritanical as it may sound, of "don't take picture of cum all over your face" would have probably served some people well.

Eat a dick you sanctimonious jackass.

RFK rode his brothers coattails. Are you suggesting that when Moochelle "Lt. Commander Worf" Obama is elected that we can start using BHO?

And since when are you the guy who apparently makes all the rules for posters on Slashdot?

Presidents whose last names have occurred only once in federal politics have been referred to by their last names. Ever hear anyone talk about RWR, RMN, DDE, HCH, or GRF? No, of course not.

Apparently you've never heard of JFK.