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The United States withdraws from UNESCO

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Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#161
post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

> These are seemingly smart people.

They _are_ smart people. There's more to the differences in perspective than "lib smart, maga stupid".

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#162
post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

[flagged]

It's different perspectives, I've come to learn.

The people I know who support this regime do so because they feel completely left out (they're low income so I'm not sure that applies to software developers).

When there's nothing for you why wouldn't you want to just burn it all down? Then you can build a more "fair" system.

Please note that I do not agree with literally anything current admin does, this is just the perspective I hear often.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#164
post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

[flagged]

Intelligence also shouldn't be assumed to cross between disciplines either.

Being able to code isn't the end-all-be-all skillset the industry likes to pretend it is.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#165
post #89

This seems to be a political back and forth (beginning with the admittance of palestine in the past)... (from wikipedia) U.S. (and Israel) left UNESCO in 2018, but the United States rejoined in 2023. I presume U.S. has left again now in 2025. [edit: kind of surprised this hasn't been flagged, but sadly indicative of HN's bias.]

Trump was president in 2018, if you’ve forgotten.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#166

I really hope the next president will be able to undo this fucking mess... otherwise the US is probably never going to catch back up to what it used to be. Voters made a terrible mistake.

It will never happen. It is easier to cut budget than to raise it. It is easier to cut taxes than it is to raise them on the rich.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being good at math or engineering doesn't make you good at empathy, sociology, politics or any number of other functions.

Agreed, however, people with a good education _usually_ learn think intelligently about a variety of problems. By which I mean, they understand how to fact check sources, how to think critically about information presented to them, and how to validate their own assumptions. Edit: removing a sentence that came across as offensive.

> Agreed, however, people with a good education _usually_ learn think intelligently about a variety of problems.

Depends on the problem you're trying to solve.

Perhaps it's "how can I get more for myself?" versus "how I improve the lives of humanity?".

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#169
post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

[flagged]

I pursue material wealth because it provides for my family, my lifestyle, and allows me to support causes I like. But even if I was poor I would be content because family and friends are truly what matter.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#170
post #40

And it’s wild to think that more than 1/3 of the devs I’ve met in my life support this admin. These are seemingly smart people. The past 10 years or so made me realize I don’t know anything about human nature or intellect. Edit: I am in no way saying conservatism is bad and liberalism is good. I have my values in both.

The online space (Reddit, HN, others) is so deeply embedded with groupthink that people have lost the ability to see other points of view or debate topics of interest. To me it's very clear why the government is leaving UNESCO (and over time the UN at large). The UN is dysfunctional and does not work. It used to be a source of soft power for the States, but hasn't been so for the better part of this century. Meanwhil…

Why is the US the only country in the world denying Israeli crimes in Gaza?

That's how I know the UN no longer matters.

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