Great! So glad I’m responsible for building schools, teaching, paving roads, making baby formula, developing vaccines, providing neonatal care, being a pediatrician, providing daycare, being a dentist, being a pharmacist, growing food, being a bus driver, and more!
Or does the word ‘infrastructure’ not exist in your vocabulary?
I think these kinds of comments are harmful to the discourse because there a good deal of nuance missing.
For one, it’s pretty reductive to call them ‘Japanese who’ve done bad things’ when who you’re talking about is dead or on their death beds. That’s not who the monument is for or about.
Historical monuments aren’t for attributing the sins of grandparents to their grandchildren. It’s about humanzing the victims and teaching people of this generation what was allowed to happen in the past. It’s about teaching them the dangers of complacency and the complicit nature of being a bystander.
If it’s worth anything, 4,300 people signed a petition against the removal and many protested in person.
Yes, Japanese people as a whole are severely lacking when it comes to acknowledging the atrocities committed by their country. No, Japanese people today are not personally responsible for them. The better we are at separating acknowledgement from responsibility, the easier time we will have convincing people to remember them.
True. It could be far better, but one thing China did vastly improve on since the 1950s is bringing women into the workforce and providing them with a far greater degree of autonomy and access to real education than women previously experienced.
This might not sound like much since this has happened to varying degrees in many countries, but it’s understated how socially regressive Chinese views on women historically were (and still are). Not saying things are good now, because China is still rife with gender inequality issues. Just pointing out how disgusting and ingrained Confucian views on womanhood are and how much of a stain it has left on Chinese society.
Academic performance is dictated by access to good educators which has always been dictated by wealth.
The facade of merit has always been used to justify casting away ‘lazy people who don’t study enough’ when the reality is that not everyone can afford private tutors, exotic sports, cram school, travel experience, and every other paid tactic to overstuff kid’s resumes.
True, but I do like the discussions kids have about the lore and how they interpret it, almost like abstract art in a way.
Is it though? I feel like us millennials aren’t any better for watching shit like Charlie the unicorn, annoying orange, salad fingers, jackass, and other disturbing or brainless content.
Not saying skibidi toilet is a great show for kids, just saying that we weren’t any better and I feel like we are encroaching on boomerism when we gatekeep kids these days for watching almost the same trash we did as kids.
I was only asking you to be mindful about high cost of living in some cities and how high spending habits aren’t always a product of moral failure. Not sure how that is constituted as looking to have an argument, but you do you.
I’m not sure how I became the one making assumptions about OP’s lifestyle. I was asking you not to make assumptions because you said that spending $200 on groceries was a choice to overspend, and now you’re saying it’s due to ignorance. Even if it can be improved upon, I don’t think either is necessary true and really depends on OP’s living situation.
I don’t think it’s as simple as coming down to choice. Planning, shopping, cooking, and cleaning takes a non-trivial amount of time and effort that not every person can afford even if they can afford ingredients. It’s not uncommon for people in the city to come home exhausted after 70 hours work week and hour long commutes.
Sometimes it’s not physically or mentally possible to sustain the kind of min-maxing lifestyle of cooking under a tight budget. Cooking is hard, cooking affordably is even harder. Sometimes, having a steak for dinner is one of the few things that keeps people happy enough to not kill themselves in an exploitative work culture while being crushed by unaffordable housing.
I don’t think OP is necessary overspending because it really depends on where they live, how many hours they work, what their living situation is like, how much of their own mental load they carry.
I’ve lived on a tight budget before. For a time I made do with $30 a week in an expensive town, albeit almost a decade ago. I skimmed on everything I could and bought as many $1 bags of spoiled vegetables as I could, trimmed off all the moldy parts, and just made whatever vegetable soup I could every week. This is one of like 50 other things I had to do to get by. And it wasn’t great for my mental health. It sucked to have to spend so much time and energy when I had so few hours left in a day to do all this.
Living cheap has a cost too. I don’t think it’s fair to assume that OP is necessary choosing to waste money when we don’t know where they live or what else is going on in their life.
It really depends on where you live. $200 doesn’t get you that far in places like Manhattan or San Francisco. Especially if you’re cooking for every meal for more than one person for a week.
Like I said, this was something I’ve observed across public schools without and without uniforms, and they were of similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
I think we are going in circles here. You seem to be adamant in your stance of “I didn’t see the bullying and therefore it wasn’t a problem”. I can’t convince you that a problem exists if this stance overrides any evidence presented to you.
The best I can do is make my point and hope that someone else can empathize with it. Have a nice day.
Have you been to both schools that have a uniform and schools that do not? I feel that a lot of people in this thread are speaking from one side of their experiences without regard for the other and then claiming it is some kind of propaganda. I don’t know what you want me and others to say other than that we’re not paid by Big Uniform to say anything.
I’ve unfortunately been to more schools than I’d like to, and there is a stark behavioral contrast in ones that do have a uniform, especially for public schools. The only ‘individuality’ that students are stripped of is the frequency of bullying, knife fights, truancy, and other behavioral problems. People in uniforms are just less of a jerk and more of a member of the school community. I’m not sure what phenomenon in behavioral science this is, but people are easier to discipline in uniform and it shows.
I’m giving school uniforms the appropriate amount of credit based on my own experiences with it. Like I said, not every school I went to required one, so I didn’t have to change uniforms every time. For the schools that did, I often bought mine discounted or second hand, and still I’ve yet to be bullied about my clothing compared to when I only had my dilapidated wardrobe that made me stick out like a sore thumb in schools without uniforms.
You say you ‘totally understand’ in one breath, and then tell me in another how you’ve only seen it once which means that uniforms cleaely don’t matter. Have you ever been a school that wears uniforms before? I feel that we live in two different worlds here and I’m not so sure that you see the big picture.
I’ve been the new student more times than I’ve wanted to, and there were a myriad of things to be bullied about each time. I’ve been consistently bullied less often in schools that have a uniform, regardless of the topic. This is particularly true among American schools, which often did not have a uniform. The one that did (a public charter school), had far fewer bullies. You could argue that this is correlation and not causation, but that’s hard to believe when I’ve been repeated bullied for my clothing. The only additional ‘individuality’ I’ve seen in these people is the unearned confidence to say what ever they’d like about other people with no qualms about their feelings.
For the vast majority of the world, uniforms are the norm and even mandatory in many countries. Ironically, most school systems allowed me to choose my own backpack and only US public schools require specifically transparent backpacks due to mass shootings. It’s just wild the things this country would sacrifice in the name of individual freedom.
Uniforms aren’t the infringement on individuality people think they are. If it were true, most people in the world would have no individuality because they have uniforms. There is a reason why schools, hospitals, soldiers, and prisons have uniforms and it’s not just to look good, it’s to legitimize an institution and instill discipline. Schools with poor discipline is where rampant behaviorial issues develop. When schools are already understaffed and underfunded, the lack of a uniform makes it even harder to keep students in line. When students wear uniforms, their individuality stops being just about how they look and starts being about how they want to be perceived by others through their actions.
I think you are making a blanket statement about uniform systems and attributing all the bad things from a few to all of them. Uniform systems come in many varieties including gendered/ungendered, seasonal, school supplied/outsourced/local distributors, half uniforms (assigned shirt with unassigned but color coded pants), optional outerwear, regulations on haircut/makeup/accessories, and more.
Bullying absolutely happens to people who are not as well dressed, particularly people who have to wear the same days several days in a row in the absence of a uniform code. It may not have happened to you, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t for others. I would know because I spent a good 5 years living on just two suitcases drifting from home to home, and my limited and undersized wardrobe was often a point of ridicule.
Saying “there will always be something to bully” as a counterpoint to how bullies will always find something to bully is pretty dismissive to how much it hurts to be bullied for one’s appearances. If you think that what you wear makes no difference to bullies, try wearing a clownsuit to school everyday. It’s like you’re saying “bullies will bully you anyway, so why not give them one more thing to bully you about?”
I get that being bullied for your clothes may not look a big deal to you because you’re a grown adult. But that’s not how many teenage minds work. Small things like that can be detrimental to their self esteem.
Uniforms are not exactly a conservative idea. You could argue that it is a return to tradition, but uniforms are functionally more progressive if anything.
I have been to, no joke, over a dozen schools in several countries, some with uniforms and some without, and I find uniforms to be a far better option. Yes, uniforms aren’t cheap and you don’t get to pick what to wear, but I here are some reasons why it is still very worth it:
Yeah, I suspected it’s the kind of work place environment that normalizes this kind of shit. It sucks that these jerks aren’t held accountable.
That’s awful. Coughing on someone especially those at high risk for covid is literally assault and a fireable offense.
No. It’s not a selling point and you don’t want it. I have a condition that puts every part of my body in pain continuously. It’s been 4 years and I’ve forgotten the sensation of painlessness. Many people with my condition kill themselves, not only because the pain alone is intolerable, but because every step of the way somebody will tell them they are being lazy or faking it.
Goldenberry (gooseberry). It’s like mango, passion fruit, pineapple all packed into a single berry.
Tell me you understand nothing about the risks of pregnancy without telling me.
Natural miscarriages =/= abortions.
One is planned, controlled for, with after care. The other one can potentially lead to sepsis and death.