I've responded to a few posts about Reich recently. He's lost whatever credibility he had left with me. His recent postings since leaving Berkeley, and the run up to it, have seemed ruderless and not well argued or articulated.
Whatever the reasons, I find he's out of touch with reality. Yes, his messaging on wealth inequality and exploitation are sound. But he's still playing checkers when the world has moved onto chess.
Quite. I fear what this loss of empathy will mean for humanity.
I'll bite and share my experience. There is absolutely an issue. I've had applications for bank accounts denied, two people on hiring committees tell me I don't belong here, a grant application simply withdrawn, another (confirmed insider knowledge) threw any application despite a valid work permit with any hint of US on the application into the trash. I have so many people ask me why I'm here, how I'm here, when I'm leaving. In professional settings and social. My partner, a entrepreneur, for the first time ever is having government entities stonewall her and representatives tell her off when she does any paperwork. She was in tears one day as she called to get some advice on a regulation and was told her business didn't deserve advice. People. Are. Cruel. There is very little empathy left, and honestly, I get it. It's not right, but I understand.
I want to integrate but there is absolutely an informal unwelcome mat being put in front of the door to Europe, and Canada.
I won't be responding to posts as I am likely to get brigaded and trolled for writing the above. Americans wanting to get to safety, leave gun violence and fascism behind, and build a better world, are simply not welcome or have many barriers in place that didn't exist before.
As a US researcher (social sciences) who left, I warned my EU colleagues not to go to our big conferences. They were floored. Many thought it wasn't that bad, but the selling point that worked is, "do you want to risk being on the wrong side of an unaccountable border agent who hates how you look?" A gulag, literally a fucking gulag in a foreign country, could await. Its not worth the risk.
However, context. What I dont appreciate about these articles is that they assume a broad ban on the US because of morals, ethics, national pride, or solidarity. Nope. It's risk. Hubris and prestige of a career trump all other things. That simple. These same researchers still go to Hungary and Turkey. Its really discouraging to me as a critical theorist.
I took some time off from the job hunt. I needed that and had a lovely holiday break.
"You'd think military officials would be delighted to find a contractor that isn't trying to stiff them raw."
That elicited a sensible chuckle.
This is my opinion alone. From trying hard to connect to resources. I've learned that elite actors like Mr. Reich, Ralph Nader, and others of similar ilk simply aren't effective anymore. Their voices don't carry. They are out of touch with reality. They are not effective in bringing meaningful change. I surmise they don't truly grasp the reality of connecting with struggling Americans anymore. Their hearts and minds are in the right place, still, but they have not effectively evolved their work to the modern world. Nor have they transferred their work, advocacy, and knowledge to a new generation of activists.
A video from Berkley about wealth inequality is great. However, it does not go far enough. It pains me to say this, but Mr. Reich is just one of many tabletop activisits who publish, print, and stream advice and profit from it. We need less of that. We need more actionable items, resource and network sharing, and out on the streets work in this moment.
Highway Companion.
Its not Tom Petty's finest. Noted. But that doesn't matter for me. I was going through alot at the time. I came back from tour 2 in Afghanistan, was struggling to cope with what I'd been through and just lost. I would get in my wrangler, take the doors and top off, and just drive. For hours. The album had released for about a year but times were so messesld up for me that I missed releases or concerts for most music I used to listen to. I was just checked out from the things I loved. So one day when I saw this at the PX I grabbed it. It just hit me at the right time.
It was the only thing I'd play on those drives. Things got better for me and this was the album that was part of that experience. First to recognizing the ills I'd been a part of. Then to healing and buddhism. To trying to be a better human, accepting my past, and building a now that was beyond my self. 20 years later, I still use this when I'm needing to reconnect with the world and myself. Now it's while I am biking or walking, but its the mood and the lack of a destination that make the setting. It really and truly lived up to its name for me, a highway companion on l the freeway that is my life.
You know, this makes sense. You are right.
I'm not a sudo apt master. I don't know shit about terminal or making Linux do stuff beyond wanting to point and click. Yes, it can run a sea worthy version of Photoshop.
Let me break it down. I use a program called Lutris, installed from the software manager. Its technically a game launcher to collect all your games in one convenient area, letting me launch steam, gog, etc from one library. I install plenty of windows programs and obscure ones if I need them for my research. MaxQDA, SPSS for instance.
There are few, if any, normal day-to-day use cases where Windows is better. Gaming, thanks to Proton, is not a problem. Drivers? Got those too. But what about x software? There's a less bloated FOSS or low cost version out there.
Just go for it.
The issue I have with the responses are that forking or running lite browsers is not a solution but a work around. A work around that requires vigilance in the rapidly changing tech space. Most people can't do that. It won't result in systematic change that we need to stop enshitification. I'm not downplaying your work and a counter movement, far from it, but its simply not enough without more resources to stop the deluge of nonsense.
I dont have answers, and there are too many challenges to count to list here. From politics to how business schools teach. So we are stuck with a domineering overlord with both the resources to make it all look simple and fluid and to make the work of innovators increasingly difficult.
If i were to return to the US, this is place I'd go and that is the industry I'd try to get into.