Americans Have Shifted Dramatically on What Values Matter Most

I would argue that not including the citizenship question is racist. It makes logical sense to include it, to do otherwise is to manipulate the results based on race.

> He wanted to scare Latinos into not filling out the census and put it writing.

Again, I say this as a minority. It doesn't feel great to be used as a pawn. As a citizen I would have absolutely no problem answering that question. Many, many Latinos would also be ok with it, so putting words in their mouth is an example of racism coming from the Left.

Well, the current administration abandoned this effort after the memos were leaked because they knew this argument wouldn't hold up in court. And it no way holds up here. You choose to willfully ignore the fact that the genesis of this question by the GOP was explicitly to keep Latinos on the sidelines.

> Again, I say this as a minority.

Asserting your identity as if that adds credence to your argument while ignoring the simple fact that it's illogical doesn't help you in any way. It doesn't matter what you look like or where you're from, you're argument is still illogical.

> Many, many Latinos would also be ok with it, so putting words in their mouth is an example of racism coming from the Left.

You literally just put words in the mouths of Latinos at the beginning of that sentence only to accuse the left of doing so. The census in its current form doesn't have any questions designed to keep minority members of the community from participating, can you provide a reason why the census in its current form is racist?

I actually had given up on the idea of children as we had fertility issues, and I figured I was okay enough without them, but my wife was adamant so we spent everything we had to get our two little boys. Literally I'm 40 with no retirement, but I have two boys 2 and 8 months old.

Before I was kind of iffy on children, but I would not trade being a dad for anything... It's an amazing experience and has opened my heart, treated a lot of depression issues, and helped me become a better person overall. There is love and beauty and inspiration without deity and religion. I'm in awe of the universe and science and all we know about it but all we still don't.

It just makes me appreciate the fact more that someday I'll die, makes me want to appreciate every moment because as far as we know we're the only intelligent species, and I'm lucky enough to be born here in this day with the technology we have, have a family I adore.

As for patriotism, I used to be patriotic back around 2001 when everyone was 'coming together' because 9/11. But I lost that after I got more and more in politics and see only those with big business interests at heart every get anywhere. Issues that affect the masses don't matter to anyone on top. America's done some horrible things like nuking and poisoning their own citizens and covering it all up.

My wife's lost two grandparents to downwinder's which is basically cancer caused by being too close to nuclear fallout. Back in the 50's they just were asked to come out and bring their families and have a picnic and watch the bombs fall.

The idea of America a democratic nation with we the people for the people as it's motto would be amazing, but that hasn't happened yet, and I don't see it happening for a very long time.

Insofar as bigotry is proposed as a cause for something—a way you're suggesting a person or group thinks about the world, that leads them to the actions they choose—then I would suggest that such modelling only works to the degree that said behavior doesn't have a clear game-theoretic justification.

Or, less-flowery: if making some particular choice would help you win—in fact, would help anyone win—then that choice probably wasn't motivated by racism.

Or, by analogy: if an AI with no understanding of humans but a perfect understanding of strategy would do it, it's probably not racist.

Stoicism teaches that we all will die, and true death is when we're forgotten, but more than that we need to only worry about the things we can change, or the things we have 'some' control over, but stop worrying about stuff we have zero control over. Another teaching is that if you focus on the fact that you're just worm food, for a few minutes every day you can learn to appreciate the small time you have hear.

Given, when I was in the grips of depression I shared your nihilism about forming bonds, and I'm still an introvert, and I used to be religious (Mormon), now I'm agnostic, though I think there's a 5-10% chance of an afterlife (our mind is just energy right?), I do not think a supreme being exists --especially a narcissist who demands fealty and worship.

Trust me if you ever do settle down and have children, it'll change you. Also -- you learn that even without an afterlife there is still so much beauty and inspiration in this world to appreciate. Think about it, you've been given a gift. As far as we know we're the only intelligence in the entire universe. If that is true then only you and those of us born human on this rock will ever know what intelligence is like. We're the only ones ever to understand science, and build technological achievements. Only we can appreciate the beauty of a space, or a sunset, or the love of family.

Without those experiences then yeah there's nothing holding us here, and why wait till you die of natural causes? I thought about that a lot when I was depressed, and losing my religion, then I had my children and wanted to get better for them so I got help and learned to enjoy the beauty of life regardless of what happens after.