but that's haaaaard.

Lighter topic: States that don't have a Whataburger (as per the Corpus Christi chain, not the hyphenated imposter) are not worth visiting. Discuss.

Then what states besides TX are there?

Exactly

It's not actually true education teaches you to be an employee. It does have a very regimented flair, but there's a move in higher ed to push entrepreneurship.

Mostly, if anything, education is becoming about in-culturing certain specific values granting status.

"High school dropout" is not something people say with pride.

Unless they are pretty successful already.

For contrast, say "Ivy league graduate" and suddenly you get lots of inquiries.

But most of what happens in education these days isn't independent thought.

college used to mean you either had connections, or a worth ethic and a high intellect. Then we decided EVERYONE needed to be a college grad and now its the new high school diploma.

But then what is High school for then and now?

Here's a list of places that are worth visiting

Oh wait.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Whataburgercounties2.2017.png

Although I think this is an old map. [Redacted] definitely has a whataburger.

HS diploma is useless now

College means nothing either because of the trades gap

So either work at McDonalds for 10 years and kill yourself or work in a trade for 10 and be upper-middle class

Or you get into STEM, spend 10 years studying, pay off a mountain of debt and then have a cool job that pays well and still end up upper middle class

and half of those majors have you sniffing corporate or government ass for funding just to be told what your report will be, and left with little to no funding for research that matters

Haha, full ride to a Christian private college for this lad though.

I got a STEM degree four years ago and I am 80% done paying off my student loans.

What did you go into, STEMlad?

Electrical Engineering but my paychecks have been in web development.

If you go into electrical engineering, chances are that you tend to make good life decisions

Yep, I am for the state paying for college tuition, but they first need to get ride of the pointless labral arts degrees, football teams, and resort style swimming pools.

They have swimming pools in schools where you are?

Dont know If I want to envy you.

Fuck it, I am envious

getting rid of sports teams, swimming pools, liberal arts degrees are all reasons people would endure paying for college. Although i guess this could be part of your argument, different options

Dont know, I also think sports has their place in academia, problem is, too much value is put into the,

ofc it does, as does music and dance etc

if i was going to argue for payed tuition i don't think i'd be attacking those things, most of those garner public interest and return income on their own. in this case that would go towards taxes to pay for colleges, but all the same

Sports has its place in academics but NCAA sports were the games are televised to the nation in a stadium on par with the NFL or NBA with the coaches making more then the College President seems to not add any academic advantages. I understand how it is used for recruitment. But I don't see how my school wining the Salsa bowl makes my bachelors more valuable.

true

i apologize, i forgot how screwed up college sports can be in that regard

No worries, I wanted to be the mascot guy.

Tim was asking if the Right is becoming more collectivist or if it was the people who are collectivist are moving right.

I think it's a bit of both. You've got people who have been attacked by social justice types forming up on the right. Some of these are, for example, ex-Bernie Bros who had experience in left-wing grassroots organizations and campaigns who are taking that practice and ideas with them. You've also got a young, angry right wing youth insurgency affiliated with Trump and is much more likely to try and find unity and community than the old establishment National Review Conservatives who just wanted a debate. Also, as Trump is a populist and the voting blocks are shifting (the UAW danced around endorsing Trump's tariffs--which would be a huge shift in political alignment) it's not unreasonable to expect the tactics to shift with them. Traditionally, the right had more money, but Hillary easily out-raised Trump and be all accounts Democrats now sit in all the rich districts and collect far more cash.

That said, the bigger (and much more important) factor is that the right has been getting attacked and marginalized in the semi-public sphere. You've got places where the right is a clear and discriminated minority (like college campuses, Silicon Valley and Hollywood). It should then serve as no surprise they have formed organizations in many ways analogous to various minority rights organizations or the secret socialist organizations of the 50s and early 60s. I strongly suspect the places with the strongest "right-solidarity" are also those where they are most silenced or harassed (and likely also the smallest minority). We all saw what happened when Damore spoke up on his own and there were definitely people who fundamentally agreed with him.

More to the point, the right is learning the power and influence of things like targeted, organized harassment actions (such as the boycotts on Hannity, Limbaugh, Breitbart or Ingraham). Much as the left went and formed The Center for American Progress and MSNBC in response to the successes of the right leaning organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute or CATO institute and Talk Radio in the 80s and 90s, the right is attempting to form it's own version of various left leaning culture war organizations.

I can say that just a couple years ago I thought there was no greater waste of time and resources than organized street protests. I also tended to feel that personally ignoring big culture war fights was the better long-term strategy. After seeing the left wage the culture war and the vast and sudden changes around 2013-2015 followed by the un-personing, violence and career harassment by the left after 2016, I've completely changed my tune. Organized protest is a show of force and solidarity. It's building commitment for the participants while promoting a culture and *forcing* a voice to be made. It's also organization practice for more significant campaigns. I strongly suspect the strongest "right-leaning solidarity" occurs in places like Seattle and Silicon Valley where they are the least powerful. And a lot of that is learning from the left, particularly the more extreme elements.

Collectivism is a cancer that needs to be removed before it kills the host.

The right trying to beat the control left by becoming the control left isn't a solution.