I should prune my box-o-cords, too.
“I haven’t read the thread, but just wanted to pop in to remind everyone that I’m a bigoted moron.” Thanks for the reminder.
I’d be ashamed to show my face in my profile pic if I posted crap like this, too.
I read it as “but just wanted to pop in to remind everyone that a lot of the electorate
are bigoted morons.”
I’m a constant culler. I don’t have any obsolete cords and only like one extra of cords that could be used. No extra A->B cords though. There is one in my printer that is rarely used and one attached to an old big brick external drive. Eventually the Lightning cables will go but not quite yet.
Same here. You can report on the state of things without endorsing it.
It’s not bigoted to say that people who are not CISHET white males have difficulty getting elected. It then becomes a philosophical question of judging risk, whether it is better to nominate people who are demographically more electable in order to have greater political power to enact good policy, or to nominate someone who might be less electable but whose election (or even just running for election) can help advance diversity. Arguing for the former does not immediately make you a bigot and certainly isn’t moronic. It’s also not fully right or wrong, and it’s a valid topic of debate.
I’d rather say that shaming someone for trying to have that debate is moronic.
That just doesn’t make any logical sense. How in the world do you expect to amass a large supply of back-up cords that you’ll probably never use? What if you get back intro stereo separates some day? What happens when your great aunt needs an obsolescent optical cable that she only trusts YOU to supply? What if you decide you need to randomly charge that old phone that pre-dates USB-C? Huh? What then, smart guy!?!?
You should have seen the big box of old HDMI cords, stereo connects, speaker cables and other assorted detritus I cleared out a few months ago when I was getting new carpeting. Had to empty out the drawers of all my furniture so it could be moved, including a TV stand. The two big drawers were literally stuffed to bursting with unused electronic junk that I had to untangle, sort and largely delete from my life.
By and large, you’re doing the right thing 
.
This guy gets it. If I ever need to daisy-chain 20 monitors together with HDMI cables, I’ll be all set, and I’ll laugh in the face of you cord-cullers when you come crying to me.
Considering I can just order one on Amazon and have it the next day, it’s worked for me. One thing that always irks me is when people show all of the old phones or other tech that I they have. I don’t keep my old tech, I give it to people are in need and enjoy it. Why store it in a drawer?
To be serious, I wish there were places like Portland’s Free Geek everywhere. It’s a nonprofit where you can donate old technology, and a bunch of nerds will refurbish it or cannibalize the working parts and give it back to the needful community at low or no cost. Anything that can’t be reused, they recycle in an environmentally responsible manner. It’s a fantastic group.
In fact, it is, if you don’t have any data to back up the claim. It’s only supportable using selective logic, old data and small sample sizes. Kamala Harris almost won the popular vote, and would have won the election if she’d done only a tiny bit better in the swing States. Hillary Clinton DID win the popular vote. To say that someone who came that close “never had a prayer” is just lazy motivated reasoning. And given that they were both pretty crappy candidates, it’s doubly infuriating when people use their failures to cast shade on political superstars like AOC.
And nothing could be possibly be more stereotypically bigoted than dismissing the MOST obvious counterexample, two-term President Barack Hussein Obama, by saying “Well, he’s an exception; he’s one of the good ones, but most of them aren’t like that.”
I consulted in a similar industry. I trained people on equipment all over the world for refurbishing tech. This was for profit companies who did this by the tens of thousands for warranty returns and also for very large companies well known companies that did this in house for line rejects.
This is such transparent, bullshit projection on your part that it becomes a self-Pitting.
Literally everything after “Well, he’s an exception” is completely made up by you.
You’d have a more compelling argument without diving headfirst into fiction, especially for someone who is trying to argue that a person’s claims should be backed up by data.
She literally said “Obama was a once in a lifetime superstar”. Apparently, the idea that his election disproves her assumptions about the bigotry of the electorate can’t be considered seriously, but must be considered a black swan event that, by definition, can never be repeated. That’s exactly how bigotry works. Facts won’t change her mind, because her opinions were never based on fact in the first place.
Damn, you’re already resorting to ad hominem attacks and begging me to stop. Seems like I hit a nerve.
I’M resorting to ad hominem attacks? Talk about “transparent, bullshit projection”!
Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here; this is the War Room.
[Disclaimer]
I just wanted to use the quote; you two can have at it or not as you will. I take no actual position on that.
[/Disclaimer]
There is a massive difference between that, and just saying, “You’re too dumb to talk so be quiet.” The latter is an ad hominem, which (in case you aren’t aware) means attacking a person rather than their arguments.
I have not yet attacked you as a person, and don’t feel that I need to here. I’m absolutely comfortable with attacking what you’re saying, because I don’t need to do any more than that.
Oh, I understand what you’re on about. Sorry about that actual personal attack I posted and then thought better of and edited away like 30 seconds later. That was uncalled for and I apologize to you and anyone else who saw it.
Your argument, and ThelmaLou’s, are still wrong and dumb, however.
That’s fair.
I’m torn on whether this deserves to be here, but the OP is in FQ and my response is very much IMHO (bordering on WTF?), so here it goes:
I’m sorry, but no. Systemic failures are not a #bothsides problem. It is a systemic problem. This framing is particularly detestable:
“partly a situation where many Roma see no benefit to engaging in the bureaucracy of the country they live in”
…and…
“There is ‘othering’ on both sides, it’s not as simple as a ‘them’ being denied citizenship, it’s a group of largely former undocumented refugees who either don’t have the required knowledge or information or -often justifiably- are unwilling to engage with the system.“
…and…
“but if they can’t provide any proof at all of that, it’s going to be difficult. This is especially likely to be the case for those living a nomadic lifestyle with no record of residency or bills.”
No. Fuck that. These are entirely problems of the state’s making, and could be solved unilaterally through state action. Laws on citizenship and nationality are not derived from some natural, immutable truth. States choose what qualifies someone as a citizen. States choose what evidence (documentary or otherwise) will be required for someone to prove their citizenship. States choose what rights will be granted to citizens and denied others.
This is a particularly pressing concern in the United States right now because one of the best remedies to this kind of systemic statelessness and permanent marginalization that has affected groups like the Roma is to adhere to a regime of jus solis birthright citizenship. It’s one of the few things the US got right after the Civil War, and that a bunch of fascists are trying so hard these last few years to undermine it now should horrify us all, not get repeatedly sane-washed by news media as a matter for debate.
We in the United States are totally fucked if the wrong Supreme Court Justice dies in the next 2.5 years (at least). (ETA: ok, we are even more totally fucked if the wrong Justice dies).