I was an adjunct lecturer for 25 years with CUNY. I can say that some students definitely don’t belong in college. They don’t have the interest and/or aptitude. But that isn’t to denigrate them. There should be more support for people who want to go into the trades or become a cook, a barber a mailman, a bartender, a home attendant, a doorman, a janitor etc. The people that do these jobs should be be paid a living wage, far more than many are getting now and they should be treated with respect for what they do. Why should a lawyer or teacher command more respect than the people who pick up our trash, or the EMTs who may save our lives.
Thanks for actually considering the substance of Adams’ “gaffe” and not just attacking his use of what’s a fairly universal term, whether or not said term can be interpreted (mostly in very bad faith) as hurtful or offensive.
People attacking him for his language, but not his point, are indicative of the wealthy, educated, classist “progressive” movement currently sucking the life out left politics. Adams was speaking empathetically for a working class in a moment that they’ve largely been ignored in the name of some “absolute safety” that will likely never be attained.
I agree that a larger social safety net for all people would be a good thing, but whenever someone starts calling out some pie-in-the-sky massive reforms needed to get there; reforms that there in nowhere close to the political capital to get to, and could take generations to achieve, it becomes a nasty obfuscation. His point that while-collar workers refusing to fulfill their place in the machinery of the actual economy we currently have (not a fantasy utopian economy that doesn’t exist) by refusing to return to pre-pandemic ways is addressing an emergency that’s happening to the poor and working poor right now, in real time.
Calling out Adams for his language, or pretending that achieving an egalitarian utopia is just another angry tweet away, perfectly illustrates the narcissism, the solipsism and the downwards class warfare of this current “progressive” movement, which is not aligned with actual left politics at all.
Policing language and behavior, demanding permanent Covid restrictions, and crying for “equity” from a $500,000.00 remote work Covid house, while leaving the rest of the world to experience accelerated laissez-faire social Darwinism, is the ultimate cruelty of our era.
"A child free from the guilt of ownership and the burden of economic competition will grow up with the will to do what needs doing and the capacity for joy in doing it. It is useless work that darkens the heart. The delight of the nursing mother, of the scholar, of the successful hunter, of the good cook, of the skillful maker, of anyone doing needed work and doing it well, - this durable joy is perhaps the deepest source of human affection and of sociality as a whole."
i do wish municipal politicians talked more about how the second-order effect of mass WFH are going to be dealt with instead of quixotically trying to get companies to come back to the office. a better social safety net is important ofc, but even in a world where that actually going to happen, i can’t see that being enough to fully replace the income that’s going to lost from the jobs and businesses that aren’t going to be able to make it through.
(sidenote, not super familiar with the city’s finances but this shift is probably also bad for city coffers right? i’m more familiar with what’s going in transit, and there it doesn’t seem like agencies have a great of what to do if the regular commuter ridership doesn’t come back when the federal money runs out. does the city have a plan b for if/when this return to the office push fails?)
Adams' point is a decent one. We (white collar workers) must be more considerate the kind of city we have if there a hollowing out of the jobs people used to perform in Manhattan (and even Brooklyn) if people are just ordering away on terrible home delivery apps. This is a great opportunity right now in making many of these newer jobs potentially better through unionization and better government regulations, so folks who aren't able to work from home, aren't forced into low pay work to buttress the city's gentrified middle class.
This is something Ramos is already a decent champion of, so hopefully progress can be made. Tourists will return (they did to some degree last summer...) and people will be back in the office (again more people are in offices than Jan 2021) but there are some real changes happening to the city that Adams/Hochul can address without simply whining that people aren't heading back to the office.
This was great. Adams’ point felt a lot like when Romney spoke of “binders full of women” which of course was widely mocked but was actually well-intended.
My thoughts exactly. Here, we have another example of the professional left zeroing in on words at the expense of substance.
I was an adjunct lecturer for 25 years with CUNY. I can say that some students definitely don’t belong in college. They don’t have the interest and/or aptitude. But that isn’t to denigrate them. There should be more support for people who want to go into the trades or become a cook, a barber a mailman, a bartender, a home attendant, a doorman, a janitor etc. The people that do these jobs should be be paid a living wage, far more than many are getting now and they should be treated with respect for what they do. Why should a lawyer or teacher command more respect than the people who pick up our trash, or the EMTs who may save our lives.
Thanks for actually considering the substance of Adams’ “gaffe” and not just attacking his use of what’s a fairly universal term, whether or not said term can be interpreted (mostly in very bad faith) as hurtful or offensive.
People attacking him for his language, but not his point, are indicative of the wealthy, educated, classist “progressive” movement currently sucking the life out left politics. Adams was speaking empathetically for a working class in a moment that they’ve largely been ignored in the name of some “absolute safety” that will likely never be attained.
I agree that a larger social safety net for all people would be a good thing, but whenever someone starts calling out some pie-in-the-sky massive reforms needed to get there; reforms that there in nowhere close to the political capital to get to, and could take generations to achieve, it becomes a nasty obfuscation. His point that while-collar workers refusing to fulfill their place in the machinery of the actual economy we currently have (not a fantasy utopian economy that doesn’t exist) by refusing to return to pre-pandemic ways is addressing an emergency that’s happening to the poor and working poor right now, in real time.
Calling out Adams for his language, or pretending that achieving an egalitarian utopia is just another angry tweet away, perfectly illustrates the narcissism, the solipsism and the downwards class warfare of this current “progressive” movement, which is not aligned with actual left politics at all.
Policing language and behavior, demanding permanent Covid restrictions, and crying for “equity” from a $500,000.00 remote work Covid house, while leaving the rest of the world to experience accelerated laissez-faire social Darwinism, is the ultimate cruelty of our era.
"A child free from the guilt of ownership and the burden of economic competition will grow up with the will to do what needs doing and the capacity for joy in doing it. It is useless work that darkens the heart. The delight of the nursing mother, of the scholar, of the successful hunter, of the good cook, of the skillful maker, of anyone doing needed work and doing it well, - this durable joy is perhaps the deepest source of human affection and of sociality as a whole."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
i do wish municipal politicians talked more about how the second-order effect of mass WFH are going to be dealt with instead of quixotically trying to get companies to come back to the office. a better social safety net is important ofc, but even in a world where that actually going to happen, i can’t see that being enough to fully replace the income that’s going to lost from the jobs and businesses that aren’t going to be able to make it through.
(sidenote, not super familiar with the city’s finances but this shift is probably also bad for city coffers right? i’m more familiar with what’s going in transit, and there it doesn’t seem like agencies have a great of what to do if the regular commuter ridership doesn’t come back when the federal money runs out. does the city have a plan b for if/when this return to the office push fails?)
This mfer saying he wants to retire to the Golan Heights is criticizing the academic minds of others. FOH.
Adams' point is a decent one. We (white collar workers) must be more considerate the kind of city we have if there a hollowing out of the jobs people used to perform in Manhattan (and even Brooklyn) if people are just ordering away on terrible home delivery apps. This is a great opportunity right now in making many of these newer jobs potentially better through unionization and better government regulations, so folks who aren't able to work from home, aren't forced into low pay work to buttress the city's gentrified middle class.
This is something Ramos is already a decent champion of, so hopefully progress can be made. Tourists will return (they did to some degree last summer...) and people will be back in the office (again more people are in offices than Jan 2021) but there are some real changes happening to the city that Adams/Hochul can address without simply whining that people aren't heading back to the office.
This was great. Adams’ point felt a lot like when Romney spoke of “binders full of women” which of course was widely mocked but was actually well-intended.