'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
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'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
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Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#2Meanwhile the Kochs have likely given around seven figures to ALEC[1], which has pushed aggressively for enhancing the laws[2] that Charles Koch is now, apparently, deeply opposed to.
Maybe it's a turn of heart, but I'm rather skeptical.
[1] https://www.thenation.com/article/alec-exposed-koch-connecti...
[2] https://www.thenation.com/article/hidden-history-alec-and-pr...
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#3I've gained a massive, massive respect for Mike Rowe over the past 5-10 years. He works to make the world a better place through education and understanding, and this post is a perfect example of this. Kudos to him for speaking out and standing his ground, rather than crumbling to nonsensical public pressure.
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#4"The truth is, progress only happens when people find common ground and build something on it."
Very wise words.
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#5This is a fluff piece trying to make an arch-conservative who is constantly pushing for deregulation and removal of environmental protections sound like a softy because he donated a bunch of money to Rowe's foundation. I have no doubt that the Koch brothers believe the agenda they push is for the best, but that's because they are self centered people.
If you dig below the surface of any of the seemingly not self interested stories told in this piece, they come from a place of total self interest. The Koch brothers employ former convicts because they know they can pay them low wages and work them hard in their factories because they're desperate for work. The Koch brothers push for deregulation of all industry, the hair braiding license is just a seemingly "common sense" deregulation story.
Mike Rowe has long been far too cozy for my comfort to large corporations and conservative politics in general. He throws Bill Maher in here to make himself sound "middle of the road" or like he has views across the spectrum, but in general Mr. Rowe tends to be on the conservative side of issues, which is why it's no surprise to me that he's buddies with the Koch brothers.
EDIT:
I should add that you can be a conservative and be a principled person who isn't selfish (obviously), but the Koch brothers are not that. You can also be a selfish liberal too, so I don't mean to imply that conservatives have a monopoly on being an asshole.
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#6Meanwhile the Kochs have likely given around seven figures to ALEC[1], which has pushed aggressively for enhancing the laws[2] that Charles Koch is now, apparently, deeply opposed to. Maybe it's a turn of heart, but I'm rather skeptical. [1] https://www.thenation.com/article/alec-exposed-koch-connecti... [2] https://www.thenation.com/article/hidden-history-alec-and-pr...
"ALEC has proven expertly capable of devising endless ways to help private corporations benefit from the country’s massive prison population."
Gross.
"That mass incarceration would create a huge captive workforce was anticipated long before the US prison population reached its peak—and at a time when the concept of “rehabilitation” was still considered part of the mission of prisons."
Are we finally admitting that that's no longer (never really was) a thing? Now maybe we can start to take responsibility for bolstering corporations that actively work to incarcerate people for profit?
How is this different than slavery? Oh, if they're paid $0.20/hr they're not slaves?
Edit: as pointed out below, the 13th Amendment says prisoners can be slaves. I hadn't considered it in that context.
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#7This is a fluff piece trying to make an arch-conservative who is constantly pushing for deregulation and removal of environmental protections sound like a softy because he donated a bunch of money to Rowe's foundation. I have no doubt that the Koch brothers believe the agenda they push is for the best, but that's because they are self centered people. If you dig below the surface of any of the seemingly not self inte…
I'm a liberal, but does it occur to you that your perception of this may be majorly colored by your own bias? If you had read a similar piece with conservatives replaced by progressives, who would feature in it? George Soros?
One can also say that your moral indignation is only surface-deep. For example:
"The Koch brothers employ former convicts because they know they can pay them low wages and work then hard in their factories because they're desperate for work."
First of all, they don't know when setting the initial salary who is a former convict and who isn't.
And secondly, what exactly are you proposing would be better for the former convicts than this? The ex-convicts choose to work there over the alternative employment options. It seems that their self-interest, such as it is, benefits the ex-convicts more than your non-existent alternative.
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#8This is a fluff piece trying to make an arch-conservative who is constantly pushing for deregulation and removal of environmental protections sound like a softy because he donated a bunch of money to Rowe's foundation. I have no doubt that the Koch brothers believe the agenda they push is for the best, but that's because they are self centered people. If you dig below the surface of any of the seemingly not self inte…
Everybody believes what they push for is for the best. You believe what you're pushing for is for the best too! That's what people do.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if the Koch brothers are evil incarnate or not, if Mike Rowe got them to dump a big pile of money into a good cause. You can both keep your opinion of the Koch brothers, without lowering your opinion of Mike Rowe. Because all he did was get someone with a lot of money to put a lot of money in a good place.
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#9This is a great little piece, and I'm glad I saw it, and I wouldn't have seen it at all had it not been at the top of HN (despite the fact that most of what Mike Rowe writes somehow lands in my Fb feed), and I even agree with I think something like 98% of what it says.
But it still feels like an almost textbook example of what shouldn't be on the front page of HN.
Something Mike Rowe writes about the importance of the skilled trades, how they work, what the market for those people is like? Sure!
But this piece is really just about politics and current events. In this case: politics I don't find very challenging (despite being a Democrat). But still: it's only interesting if you know who the Koch Brothers are and what their role in US politics tends to be.
It would be neat if when things like this came up and got stuck to the front page, they could be replaced with something more important the same person wrote. Here, for example: same form, same author, basically the same content, without the horse-race political hook:
Re: 'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Meets the Koch Brothers
#10This is a fluff piece trying to make an arch-conservative who is constantly pushing for deregulation and removal of environmental protections sound like a softy because he donated a bunch of money to Rowe's foundation. I have no doubt that the Koch brothers believe the agenda they push is for the best, but that's because they are self centered people. If you dig below the surface of any of the seemingly not self inte…
Everybody believes what they push for is for the best. You believe what you're pushing for is for the best too! That's what people do. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if the Koch brothers are evil incarnate or not, if Mike Rowe got them to dump a big pile of money into a good cause. You can both keep your opinion of the Koch brothers, without lowering your opinion of Mike Rowe. Because all he did…
>Everybody believes what they push for is for the best. You believe what you're pushing for is for the best too! That's what people do.
I don't understand. I've known people to say things such as, "we're not good people," or, "honestly, why would I care about that?" I knew someone who did an oil change in his truck on the top floor of a parking garage, and let the oil drain down the storm drain - I said, "are you aware how bad that is for the environment?" and he said "yea but why would I care about that? I don't care, it doesn't help me." But he knew it was wrong.
It seems like there are people who know the difference between right and wrong, and don't care. There are also people who don't know the difference between right and wrong, and do care. I wish all people knew the difference between right and wrong, and did care, but that's not my observation.