The CEO of my husband's company sent an email over the weekend to say that ANY employee who currently resides in Texas will receive relocation assistance from the company if they want to leave TX, no questions asked. This will include financial assistance and guarantee of continued employment even if they move to a different sate. (The co. is based in Silicon Valley.)
@laura-f WOW. Just Wow. It is so gratifying to hear this. Thank you for letting us know.
There are various reports out today that Beto O’Rourke may run for governor of Texas against Greg Abbott in November 2022.
Does anyone have any insight into the energies surrounding his potential candidacy?
I think, rather than feel or intuit, that Beto will win. He will have a hard slog to get there but when he arrives, he will make a good governor.
One can only imagine that mothers across Texas will be outraged by Abbott's cavalier approach to their children's safety, as Lovendure's daughter's situation illustrates so vividly.
I am putting this in the Texas thread because it happened in Texas. but this is becoming a national trend.
A leading school district official says per new Texas state law that if there is a book being read in a classroom on the Holocaust, the teacher should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective. As if you can have an opposing view or teach an opposing view of the Holocaust. This is true for things like slavery and anti- racism as well. Teachers are very worried.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southlake-texas-holocaust-books-schools-rcna2965
No offence intended but sometimes I find America bizarre.
@matildagirl No offense taken. The actions of some in America might well seem bizarre to those on the outside. They seem that way to many of us who live here. My heart goes out to those teachers, and I’m frightened for the students. Nothing good about it………..
No offence intended but sometimes I find America bizarre.
That's because it is! ?
I'm would suspect that those supporting this classroom policy on offering opposing views on things such as the Holocaust (the history of racial relations too) are among the base that watches Fox News - which we know is terribly one-sided.
The FCC used to enforce a regulation called the "Fairness Doctrine" that required broadcast media to present controversial issues "in a manner that was honest, equitable, and balanced." This more or less required presenting contrasting views on subjects of public importance. It would apply to news outlets like Fox News and not the classroom. Unfortunately, the Fairness Doctrine seems to be no longer in effect as I feel it would tone down the extreme nature of many Fox "news" hosts and perhaps other extreme right-wing media. I think it would apply to television and radio with the internet still largely being a free-for-all.
I think if the other side wants opposing viewpoints on such things discussed in schools, they should be prepared to discuss opposing views on things they don't necessarily want discussed. Want to talk about Christianity - you've got to bring in other religions too (perhaps even a Satanist for an opposing view). Want to talk about marriage -- bring in folks in alternative non-marriage type relationships. Sharing opposing views can work both ways, and they have more things they want to sweep under the rug than we do.
None taken from me either. It IS bizarre here. We're definitely in one of the worse timelines in the multiverse.
I also have a theory. I think this whole part of this continent is essentially cursed due to the way(s) it was founded - i.e., through genocide, oppression, greed, and fundamentalism. I've discussed this with a couple of indigenous folx I know, and they nod in agreement whenever I bring it up.
If anyone's interested, pipe up and I'll post more on a more appropriate thread.
I agree the past shapes the future, be it war, genocide etc but I am wondering in the modern era, say from the 1900's when radio, movies, television and now social media aren't also playing a much bigger role in why there is so much unhappiness, extreme views, general nuttiness in the world.
Once upon a time you would have a passing thought, that dress doesn't suit her, and that was that. Now that passing thought is posted on line, then others pile on and hatred and hurt abound.
Stereotypes get re-enforced by movies, minorities don't see themselves portrayed unless it is as a servant, or lowly paid person or the bad guy in the movies and so on. History gets rewritten to suit a plot line, but it is believed by viewers as true. Envy because of the houses and cars that other countries may not have. All sorts of things like that.
We don't often realise how much our ideas are shaped by what we see portrayed on screen, news, TV, radio especially if they already match our own prejudices and help to reinforce them.
Look at the success of propaganda used by the Nazis in shaping Germany in the 1930's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_Nazi_Germany
Propaganda in Nazi Germany was the practice of state directed communication to promote German nationalism, the goals of the Nazi Party of Germany, and the party itself. The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany (1933–1945) was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policies.
Regards to all
Some articles that may be of interest.
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0195.xml
Extract from the article
By approaching the topic chronologically through the different “eras” of Hollywood filmmaking, the essay shows how the motion picture industry’s political concerns contributed to and were a product of changing cultural, social, and economic circumstances. At times, the overt politicization of Hollywood has caused intense controversy. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigation into the Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry during the 1940s and 1950s brought international attention to concerns about the political potential of motion picture propaganda and celebrity political activism. During the 1960s, movie stars became more active in grassroots movements and national politics. The following decade, as Hollywood movies were freed from the regulations of the Hays Code and the strict confines of studio system production regulations, films began to critique American foreign policy and advocate for liberal social and cultural change. By the 1980s, Ronald Reagan’s election to the presidency encouraged more scholars to study the deeper connections between the entertainment industry and politics, which had seemingly reached an apex with the actor-turned-politician taking the presidential oath of office on 20 January 1981. During Reagan’s administration, scholars further assessed how American film had transformed American culture and politics. Amidst Ronald Reagan’s use of stories and Hollywood imagery to advance domestic and international policies, historians also pursued archival research about the politics of such imagery and the meaning of silver-screen images and constructions of American identity through film. As the vast range of scholarship exposes, since the beginning of the motion picture industry, movies have played an extremely important, if frequently controversial, role in American political culture. Connections between Hollywood and the political arena have permeated the industry in a variety of ways since the early 20th century.
Extract from article
HOLLYWOOD SETS THE NARRATIVE FOR OUR COUNTRY AND THE WORLD
Movies create the cultural narratives that quietly control our society. The images and messages we see on-screen inform our understanding of the world, and critically, they tell us how we should show up as individuals. How should we behave? What’s acceptable for me? What’s not?
As it stands, our society’s greatest films hush the voices of 51% of the population, women, and marginalize the 39.5% of the country that is not white.
Extract from article
Between the 1940s and 2000s, commercial television had a profound and wide-ranging impact on American society and culture. It influenced the way that people think about such important social issues as race, gender, and class. It played an important role in the political process, particularly in shaping national election campaigns. TV programs and commercials have also been mentioned as major factors contributing to increased American materialism (a view that places more value on acquiring material possessions than on developing in other ways). Finally, television helped to spread American culture around the world.
Social Media
https://www.in-mind.org/article/selfie-esteem-the-relationship-between-body-dissatisfaction-and-social-media-in-adolescent?gclid=CjwKCAjwzaSLBhBJEiwAJSRokm_Lq_3b4zzW3qx6nNH973IwTeXfmdaxynPxVVYftjD91ctyfju9bRoCkdwQAvD_BwE
@matildagirl Very true. On the other hand, there is much that media can do to promote inclusiveness and positive behavior. William Shatner's recent trip into space reminds one of how radical it was for "Star Trek", in the 60's, to have a diverse cast that included a black woman acting as a bridge officer, and Japanese and Russian officers only 20 years after WWII and during the height of the cold war.
And today there are many more shows with diverse casts. Even commercials show a lot more diversity than they did even a few years ago. Mixed-race couples and families are portrayed, as are gay and lesbian people. I see these commercials and I wonder how they play in the deep red Midwest. I hope that instead of pissing people off, they desensitize them to such "shocking" scenarios and help them become more accepting.
As far as the glorification of materialism goes, I think we have a long way to go there. But I have noticed that on HGTV, for example, there has been some change, for example there has been a bit more emphasis on reusing what you have instead of totally trashing the old.
Anyhow, media is just a tool--- it can be used for good or for ill.
@matildagirl Thanks for those links.
People have this idyllic view of America from television and movies. It never existed. I was chatting with my aunt (she's in her early 90s) and lived through the 1950s some people are so eager to get back to. She has a different view having been there: only wealthy women and upper-middle-class were stay-at-home moms. Even then two incomes didn't go far in the postwar baby boom families. She worked her entire marriage, as did all her sisters and most friends. Many women whose husbands were disabled from the war were the sole breadwinners, and there were many of those. PSTD (or as it was called then, shell shock) was rampant and many dealt with it by using alcohol. When husbands (military or not) died, life insurance wasn't enough, even if they had it - and most working people didn't have it. She said domestic abuse was rampant, racism and sexism was everywhere. I don't think anyone sane really wants to go back to those times.