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A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

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Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#11

Post by asdfman123 »

tareqak wrote: post #4
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

More people need to learn that if you leave your bubbles and talk to people, you'll find that they are actually indeed people too, and not caricatures you read about on outrage-bait new articles.

I’ve mentioned an idea to a friend of mine: a sort of welfare/basic income program where people are paid to talk to others. There is no restriction as to the topic as long as the other person consents to having the conversation: it can be as mundane talking about the weather. My reasoning behind it was just to get people who otherwise would not talk to each other to do so to actively reinforce my observation that eve…

Nah, I don't think many people would get much out of socializing if you made it mandatory to keep receiving their income.

I would like to see just less dependence on cars, but I have no way of foisting that on people either.

You could be like me and grow up a weird liberal in a red state, but that will give you a complex and I don't recommend it.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#13

Post by runjake »

mistrial9 wrote: post #8
gbronner wrote: post #5

The Yale Directed Studies program is no joke -- it tends to attract the most motivated humanities students and to have incredible amounts of work and reading. Impressive that he's taking it, but he's also seeing a somewhat more serious class of students who, by extension, are less likely to be snowflakes.

> snowflakes what does that mean ?

Read the article where he describes the meaning? It's a reference from the book/movie, Fight Club.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang)#Unique_or_sp...

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#14

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

mistrial9 wrote: post #8
gbronner wrote: post #5

The Yale Directed Studies program is no joke -- it tends to attract the most motivated humanities students and to have incredible amounts of work and reading. Impressive that he's taking it, but he's also seeing a somewhat more serious class of students who, by extension, are less likely to be snowflakes.

> snowflakes what does that mean ?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang)

The "Other Uses" section is interesting; I didn't know about its (now historical) use by abolitionists in a different meaning.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#15

Post by lordleft »

Studying with veterans is an incredible experience. I'm lucky that my school (Columbia) has a very large undergraduate vet population. It adds a dimension of experiential diversity that many colleges fail to capture, and makes real what are normally distant and easy to abstract away geopolitical decisions, like deploying troops in Afghanistan. I hope more universities follow Yale and Columbia in creating spaces for returning serviceman to integrate into collegiate life - it's good for all of us.

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#16

Post by philwelch »

tareqak wrote: post #4
asdfman123 wrote: post #2

More people need to learn that if you leave your bubbles and talk to people, you'll find that they are actually indeed people too, and not caricatures you read about on outrage-bait new articles.

I’ve mentioned an idea to a friend of mine: a sort of welfare/basic income program where people are paid to talk to others. There is no restriction as to the topic as long as the other person consents to having the conversation: it can be as mundane talking about the weather. My reasoning behind it was just to get people who otherwise would not talk to each other to do so to actively reinforce my observation that eve…

This is the social value that we used to get from churches, fraternal organizations, bowling leagues, block parties....

Re: A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52

#17

Post by asdfman123 »

gbronner wrote: post #5

The Yale Directed Studies program is no joke -- it tends to attract the most motivated humanities students and to have incredible amounts of work and reading. Impressive that he's taking it, but he's also seeing a somewhat more serious class of students who, by extension, are less likely to be snowflakes.

Are you sure that relationship holds true?

I've talked to more ordinary college students and they're pretty reasonable, normal people too.

Perhaps what's more likely is a tiny fraction of toxic people who use the social justice toolbox illegitimately are amplified disproportionately.

The world has always had toxic annoying people. There's always been that lady at church that pretends to be into Jesus but secretly just likes to dominate and bully others. Most people you meet though are pretty reasonable and nice.

Try to see the humanity in people who aren't like you.

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