Why is this unfortunate? Your attitude seems akin to saying it's unfortunate that automobiles replaced horse drawn carriages because that would put buggy whip makers out of work. Folks will retain for better work or be left behind. Just like buggy whip makers. There going to have to change their attitude toward education and serious vocational training.
Originally Posted by TexTushHog
Oh, please don't be mistaken; I don't personally think these events are unfortunate. I only meant unfortunate from the standpoint of wanting more Americans in the factory labor force. Unfortunate in a sense that this issue may not have a solution at all because of other factors. Automation and benefits from technological advancement is something I think we should embrace and foster. I'm just worried that policy and society will be slow to adapt to it leading to complications.
It's hard for me to come to terms with Trump and his values because there might be just too large of an ideological gap. Not to pick on anyone, but lets take what Fishy said:
I Many in America have chosen Trump to restore what they consider to be our founding principles. American peace through strength. Capitalism. Self reliance. Morals. Belief in God. Law and Order. America First.
The problems is, I just can't agree with most of that. American peace through
strength? To take the words of Einstein, "peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding." Using power as a motivator for peace is one that relies on fear. The fear of the consequences and the ability to impose one's will on another. Problem is, what happens when you come across those that do not care for those consequences? Personally, I feel this is a reason why terrorism is such a problem. We can be the most powerful country in the universe, and they wouldn't care because the consequences mean nothing to them; achieving peace through power has no hold over those who don't care about the consequences that follow attacking a stronger power. Even if that power is used to dominate and suppress the hostility, I can not say that would be a good thing. At what point does using force to keep the peace become oppression and tyranny? Not to mention the possible hatred it could foster in those subject to it. Never ending fear and hatred in the name of peace.
Capitalism. Nothing wrong with that. Again, my ideals are, of course, dissimilar, but not relevant as I have no problems with this.
However, I do take an issue with the idea of self-reliance. I hate to bring up the whole robot shenanigans back up, but the popularity of that idea is why I am worried about the arrival of wide spread automation. We may very well be moving into a world where machinery and technology can and will take over many jobs in society. We simply won't need everyone working. Maybe even most, who knows. I may be interpreting you incorrectly, but I worry about how we take care of society when many people won't have a job because they simply won't need one. How will they take care of themselves? There are other problems as well. There are societal issues, problems that plague classes of people rather than just individuals, that makes the concept of self-reliance hard for me to prescribe to. Groups of people live in an inherently disadvantageous situation based on where they live, their color of their skin, access to healthcare, quality education, and so on. Of course on an individual level some people may have these problems and survive fine, and others may not even have them, but that is the distinction between a societal problem and a individual, personal issue. The problem is, I don't think it is reasonable to act under the assumption that everyone is on an equal standing and can rely on themselves to live life to the fullest.
As for morals, I'm not sure what you mean. Everyone has different morals, different values, I'm sure we all know this. However, I think this is a category to have too high of a variance to be a reasonable criteria.
Now, religion is a big one. The idea that belief in god is a founding principle to me is not reasonable. The founding fathers have said as much themselves. Regardless of their own personal beliefs, there is a lot of documentation and quotes representing the idea that they thought religion should have no part in the country in any manner. Still, they range from saying good character can be developed through religion to people like John Adams who said "The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity."
Of course you can find belief in god as a value in some of the founding fathers, they made it very clear that that belief is not a foundation of our nation (separation of church and state). It is important to remember that many early colonists were actually religiously prosecuted in Europe and fled to America as a result. For example, when England became protestant due to King Henry VIII in 1534 which led to a fair deal of misery for people. Many of colonists suffered and had to abandon their homes specifically because their original homes chose to use belief in god as a ruling value. I'll leave this section with just a few more quotes:
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” -James Madison
“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” -Thomas Jefferson
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.” - Thomas Jefferson
“The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State.” - James Madison
“When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obligated to call for help of the civil power, it’s a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.” -Benjamin Franklin
“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” -Thomas Jefferson
“If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” - Geroge Washington.
So, I mean, regardless if the founding fathers were religious or not, to me it's pretty clear that their intent was to separate the idea of religion from government completely and that it should not be a basis or a value for how the nation should proceed. The very people that wrote the deceleration of independence the constitution were so vocal against that very value. That's how I see it, at least.
I've already made this into a winded post which wasn't my intent. I'll skip over law and order as I got nothing really to say there.
America first. That isn't the first time I heard or seen that phrase. To be blunt, that same line of thought was used to prevent Jewish refugees from escaping the holocaust. Congress denied botloads of them, thousands, for the very ideas that tie into the value of 'America First' (hell, Anne Frank died because she was denied entry into the US). I simply can not prescribe to a line of thought that boils down to 'Us vs Them.' And, the reason why I've seen that term used before was because it appeared in a political cartoon long ago
I never was aware of it, but Seuss beat us all to the punch and made several political cartoons specifically using the term 'America First'. And also, please don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to tie anyone or anything specifically to hitler or nazis - that's just a consequence of good ol' Seuss.
Now I didn't mean to pick on Fishy, but what he said was a good example for me to demonstrate the sheer difference in ideologies. I can't support Trump at all because, well, my values just don't overlap. Anywhere. Not to say your values are wrong, I just can't agree with them as I explained above.