Hasan Piker is the “It Guy” in the left-wing media right now, and although he’s not a deep thinker or insightful person, a clip from one of his recent rants caught my attention:
Read Atlas Shrugged. Despite the freaky sexual fantasies that Rand engaged in and injected into her writing, it is all there. The novel is reality, or reality is the novel. Producers, looters and moochers. Those are the three political actors...the only three. And only one deserves prominence and high status. Only one should ever be in power but checked by the other two.
I couldn’t agree more. I just listened to Atlas Shrugged on Audible. Between reading and listening, at least 6 or 7 times. One of my favorite books of all time. Still waiting for someone to make the movie that gives it justice.
I have, Frank, several times, and it is one of my all-time favorites. In the 1992 Signet paperback from pages 609 to 620 is the story of the 20th century motorcar company, and what happens when you put the takers in charge of the makers. It is so powerful that it might stick with others like it did with us. Any time I hear people talk about "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need," I flash back to these pages! Ayn Rand wrote a brilliant and easy to relate to synopsis of what it does to the people involved, and how they end up hating each other and tearing at each other. Powerful and insightful, well worth your time, even at 1074 small type pages.
The difference also is that she seriously examined it, not just pandered to people with slogans and bumper stickers. Ayn Rand was the intellectual opposite of Bernie Sanders; as far as the east is from the west. Bernie is a moron and a thief, and his continued re-election tells me a lot about the people from Vermont i.e. I would speculate that the majority of Vermonters must be morons as well. Of course the same has to be said about Californians, which is why we can never let the coastals have unchecked power.
Only producers/makers should have the privilege of voting, and holding high government office. The takers enjoy tearing down capitalism and producers because all of them are living off the government/taxpayer teat, produce nothing but whiny bellyaching, and the loudmouths of that group, like Bernie Sanders for example, have the gall to claim how moral they are while giving away, or taking other peoples money. His hypocrisy, along with those like him, makes me sick.🤢
The producers and makers are the ones actually getting things done and create jobs that improve life for everyone involved.
The takers just want to sit back and do nothing while living on the money taken from the producers. They justify this by believing the producers got rich taking money from others. They do not grasp that an employee needs to add a greater value to the business than what they earn from the job. It becomes a win-win situation and the business can grow and provide even more jobs.
I am not fond of Jeff Bezo or Elon Musk for many reasons but they have earned their billions working the grueling hours it takes to build innovative companies that do things. better than ever before. They have greatly improved the lives of more people than the government ever could.
What you are saying is beyond argument. The left has no argument, only feelings, poisoned by envy and a deep well of malicious intent fueled by resentment.
Since my planned reference to Ayn Rand was already taken, I leave you with the perfect description of Piker, Sanders and the left by P. j. O’Rourke:
““At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.”
The death of a country begins when the takers realize they can vote other takers into office that promise to increase their "take" of the makers. It's a spiral once started can't be stopped. Our government was designed for a moral people and is unsuited for the takers.
If hard work were the key, I would be a billionaire. I spent nearly 20 years in college earning advanced degrees in the biological sciences. I was following my dream and passion as my teachers and college professors taught me. When it was time to get a job, the job I trained for was no longer available due to funding cuts. I learned I was sold a bill of lies by those that profited off my dreams. I kept professors in a job and the university got free labor in exchange for tuition and a monthly check that kept me at poverty level.
I had watched the start of science research turning to the progressive narrative that has been fully embraced today. Now, you do research to sell the current narrative. If the facts and data get in the way, you just tweek the data, redesign the methods, and do whatever it takes to get the desired results.
That is when I changed directions and became a high school science teacher. It paid the bills, gave me more time with my family, and I was doing something that was important and valuable. The pay was not the greatest, but my wife and I made enough to live comfortably on two teacher's salaries. My mother was an RN and she taught me that if you are a professional, there are times you do not get a lunch break, or have to stay after work to get things done because of an emergency situation.
I was raised the old school way. You do your job to the best of your ability.
I have had a few parents feel that I was doing a poor job and I invited them to spend a week in class with their student so they could tell me how I could be better. Most did not last past the first class period. The common remark was they could never do the job and wondered how I was able to do so much in a limited time and have the patience to just not go off on the students that did not want to be there but I still had to let them be in class making life miserable for everyone.
Today was my last day and I am retired from teaching. I went to a gathering of retired teachers from the school I spent most of my time in. They put this on for the newly retired teachers.
I realized how much education has changed in the 24 years I have been teaching. When I first started, about 75% of the teachers had either a Master's or PhD in the subject they taught, not in education. Dr. Jill Biden's doctorate is in education and she did far less work to earn it than I or any other person does to earn a Master's in Science. Make that a Ph.D in science and the work load is easily double that of the average public school teacher in the past.
At that time I was teaching in a school with a student population commonly found in urban or even inner-city schools. Our students constantly lead the other 3 high schools on state testing scores. We set high standards and stuck to them. Students had to earn their grades. If they disrupted other students, we could send them to in-school suspension. Do that enough, and many decided they had to adhere to the class rules at least to the minimum level that let them stay in class to be around their peers. In-school suspension was boring. They had to sit quietly in a cubicle and could not interact with any other student.
I watched these older teachers slowly retire and be replaced with young teachers that came out of education programs pushing the woke agenda. They lowered the standards, raised grades for students that did not a good home life, or do anything to promote equity.
As student behavior deteriorated, these teachers and administrators blamed the hard core teachers because we were not equitable, we expected all students to meet the same standards without considering how tough their life was outside of school.
I finally left that school for another in the district that had a better administrative team and expected all students to behave and to be held to high standards. I had 4 years to work in a well run school with high expectations for all. I retired a couple of years earlier than I wished to because the entire district has gone woke and the district office is forcing the DEI agenda on the entire district because it will help all students. No, it protects some over others. Everything is geared towards the lowest common denominator so the middle and high level kids are completely ignored. We are to teach based on group identity.
I spoke with a special education teacher that I worked with for many years at my old site. She said I was one of the last teachers that made the extra effort to keep my kids with IEPs on track. I did not water down my expectations, I worked with them to show them how they could do well in school. We worked to the goal of special education, get the students to the point where they no longer need the program. I had many students each year that exited special education and were very successful. I pushed self-worth, not self-esteem. Once these kids got a taste of success, they would strive. Nothing motivates one than being successful and knowing you can do it even if you have a few setbacks. The setbacks just show you what does not work.
Today, no teacher of her special education students will work with these students. They say it is not their job and they are not paid to stay after school food thr the meetings. Once a week, I would meet with the special education teacher and hand her the work her students needed to complete. On Monday, the students were given their packet of work to make-up and had to do those assignments. It would take a couple of hours to gather up the missing assignments for each student and then discuss the needs of each one to stay on track. Yes, I was not paid for the hours I did this. This was outside of contract hours. but I did it out of a sense of professional duty. I could usually get at least 80% to pass. The ones that did not pass were the same ones that refused to make any attempt to learn.
The new teachers just leave 15 minutes after the end of the day because they have better things to do. I just turned 64 and I have a heart issue and other health issues and these new teachers cannot keep up with me in all I do in a day. I am hardly ever in my chair at my desk. That is for afterschool work. I am constantly roaming the room helping students and working to keep them on track. The new teachers prefer to put everything online and they can relax at their desks because they have no moral obligation to help students. They are not paid enough to do that.
This is why I know raising teacher's salaries will not improve our public schools. The majority of good teachers have left the classroom because they can find jobs earning more money with far less stress.
So all that is left are the takers. They cannot find a well paying job that they can hold. So they eventually realize they can go through a teaching internship, often for free because the school sponsors them because they need credentialed teachers. Then they have an easy life just babysitting kids all day. They have the attitude of don't bother me and I will not bother you. Everyone will get a passing grade.
The only way to fix a government run system that has fallen to such low levels is to completely tear it down and start over. It is time to let the private sector do the job. They can set and enforce standards. They can attract the best of the best with higher pay while setting expectations. Teachers who do not meet those expectations can be let go.
I firmly believe that if we took all the money we spend on public education today and give it to the private sector to develop and run schools that actually teach kids while maintaining oversight to prevent fraud, we will end up with a top notch education system that does the job better and cheaper than government ever can. I would gladly give up tenure to work in such a school because I can do my job without most of the BS public school teachers have to endure today.
Read Atlas Shrugged. Despite the freaky sexual fantasies that Rand engaged in and injected into her writing, it is all there. The novel is reality, or reality is the novel. Producers, looters and moochers. Those are the three political actors...the only three. And only one deserves prominence and high status. Only one should ever be in power but checked by the other two.
And the one is not looters and moochers.
I couldn’t agree more. I just listened to Atlas Shrugged on Audible. Between reading and listening, at least 6 or 7 times. One of my favorite books of all time. Still waiting for someone to make the movie that gives it justice.
I have, Frank, several times, and it is one of my all-time favorites. In the 1992 Signet paperback from pages 609 to 620 is the story of the 20th century motorcar company, and what happens when you put the takers in charge of the makers. It is so powerful that it might stick with others like it did with us. Any time I hear people talk about "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need," I flash back to these pages! Ayn Rand wrote a brilliant and easy to relate to synopsis of what it does to the people involved, and how they end up hating each other and tearing at each other. Powerful and insightful, well worth your time, even at 1074 small type pages.
And Rand saw the evils of communism first hand so she's more credible than a college professor or community organizer!
The difference also is that she seriously examined it, not just pandered to people with slogans and bumper stickers. Ayn Rand was the intellectual opposite of Bernie Sanders; as far as the east is from the west. Bernie is a moron and a thief, and his continued re-election tells me a lot about the people from Vermont i.e. I would speculate that the majority of Vermonters must be morons as well. Of course the same has to be said about Californians, which is why we can never let the coastals have unchecked power.
Exactly!
Only producers/makers should have the privilege of voting, and holding high government office. The takers enjoy tearing down capitalism and producers because all of them are living off the government/taxpayer teat, produce nothing but whiny bellyaching, and the loudmouths of that group, like Bernie Sanders for example, have the gall to claim how moral they are while giving away, or taking other peoples money. His hypocrisy, along with those like him, makes me sick.🤢
The producers and makers are the ones actually getting things done and create jobs that improve life for everyone involved.
The takers just want to sit back and do nothing while living on the money taken from the producers. They justify this by believing the producers got rich taking money from others. They do not grasp that an employee needs to add a greater value to the business than what they earn from the job. It becomes a win-win situation and the business can grow and provide even more jobs.
I am not fond of Jeff Bezo or Elon Musk for many reasons but they have earned their billions working the grueling hours it takes to build innovative companies that do things. better than ever before. They have greatly improved the lives of more people than the government ever could.
What you are saying is beyond argument. The left has no argument, only feelings, poisoned by envy and a deep well of malicious intent fueled by resentment.
Since my planned reference to Ayn Rand was already taken, I leave you with the perfect description of Piker, Sanders and the left by P. j. O’Rourke:
““At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.”
The death of a country begins when the takers realize they can vote other takers into office that promise to increase their "take" of the makers. It's a spiral once started can't be stopped. Our government was designed for a moral people and is unsuited for the takers.
If hard work were the key, I would be a billionaire. I spent nearly 20 years in college earning advanced degrees in the biological sciences. I was following my dream and passion as my teachers and college professors taught me. When it was time to get a job, the job I trained for was no longer available due to funding cuts. I learned I was sold a bill of lies by those that profited off my dreams. I kept professors in a job and the university got free labor in exchange for tuition and a monthly check that kept me at poverty level.
I had watched the start of science research turning to the progressive narrative that has been fully embraced today. Now, you do research to sell the current narrative. If the facts and data get in the way, you just tweek the data, redesign the methods, and do whatever it takes to get the desired results.
That is when I changed directions and became a high school science teacher. It paid the bills, gave me more time with my family, and I was doing something that was important and valuable. The pay was not the greatest, but my wife and I made enough to live comfortably on two teacher's salaries. My mother was an RN and she taught me that if you are a professional, there are times you do not get a lunch break, or have to stay after work to get things done because of an emergency situation.
I was raised the old school way. You do your job to the best of your ability.
I have had a few parents feel that I was doing a poor job and I invited them to spend a week in class with their student so they could tell me how I could be better. Most did not last past the first class period. The common remark was they could never do the job and wondered how I was able to do so much in a limited time and have the patience to just not go off on the students that did not want to be there but I still had to let them be in class making life miserable for everyone.
Today was my last day and I am retired from teaching. I went to a gathering of retired teachers from the school I spent most of my time in. They put this on for the newly retired teachers.
I realized how much education has changed in the 24 years I have been teaching. When I first started, about 75% of the teachers had either a Master's or PhD in the subject they taught, not in education. Dr. Jill Biden's doctorate is in education and she did far less work to earn it than I or any other person does to earn a Master's in Science. Make that a Ph.D in science and the work load is easily double that of the average public school teacher in the past.
At that time I was teaching in a school with a student population commonly found in urban or even inner-city schools. Our students constantly lead the other 3 high schools on state testing scores. We set high standards and stuck to them. Students had to earn their grades. If they disrupted other students, we could send them to in-school suspension. Do that enough, and many decided they had to adhere to the class rules at least to the minimum level that let them stay in class to be around their peers. In-school suspension was boring. They had to sit quietly in a cubicle and could not interact with any other student.
I watched these older teachers slowly retire and be replaced with young teachers that came out of education programs pushing the woke agenda. They lowered the standards, raised grades for students that did not a good home life, or do anything to promote equity.
As student behavior deteriorated, these teachers and administrators blamed the hard core teachers because we were not equitable, we expected all students to meet the same standards without considering how tough their life was outside of school.
I finally left that school for another in the district that had a better administrative team and expected all students to behave and to be held to high standards. I had 4 years to work in a well run school with high expectations for all. I retired a couple of years earlier than I wished to because the entire district has gone woke and the district office is forcing the DEI agenda on the entire district because it will help all students. No, it protects some over others. Everything is geared towards the lowest common denominator so the middle and high level kids are completely ignored. We are to teach based on group identity.
I spoke with a special education teacher that I worked with for many years at my old site. She said I was one of the last teachers that made the extra effort to keep my kids with IEPs on track. I did not water down my expectations, I worked with them to show them how they could do well in school. We worked to the goal of special education, get the students to the point where they no longer need the program. I had many students each year that exited special education and were very successful. I pushed self-worth, not self-esteem. Once these kids got a taste of success, they would strive. Nothing motivates one than being successful and knowing you can do it even if you have a few setbacks. The setbacks just show you what does not work.
Today, no teacher of her special education students will work with these students. They say it is not their job and they are not paid to stay after school food thr the meetings. Once a week, I would meet with the special education teacher and hand her the work her students needed to complete. On Monday, the students were given their packet of work to make-up and had to do those assignments. It would take a couple of hours to gather up the missing assignments for each student and then discuss the needs of each one to stay on track. Yes, I was not paid for the hours I did this. This was outside of contract hours. but I did it out of a sense of professional duty. I could usually get at least 80% to pass. The ones that did not pass were the same ones that refused to make any attempt to learn.
The new teachers just leave 15 minutes after the end of the day because they have better things to do. I just turned 64 and I have a heart issue and other health issues and these new teachers cannot keep up with me in all I do in a day. I am hardly ever in my chair at my desk. That is for afterschool work. I am constantly roaming the room helping students and working to keep them on track. The new teachers prefer to put everything online and they can relax at their desks because they have no moral obligation to help students. They are not paid enough to do that.
This is why I know raising teacher's salaries will not improve our public schools. The majority of good teachers have left the classroom because they can find jobs earning more money with far less stress.
So all that is left are the takers. They cannot find a well paying job that they can hold. So they eventually realize they can go through a teaching internship, often for free because the school sponsors them because they need credentialed teachers. Then they have an easy life just babysitting kids all day. They have the attitude of don't bother me and I will not bother you. Everyone will get a passing grade.
The only way to fix a government run system that has fallen to such low levels is to completely tear it down and start over. It is time to let the private sector do the job. They can set and enforce standards. They can attract the best of the best with higher pay while setting expectations. Teachers who do not meet those expectations can be let go.
I firmly believe that if we took all the money we spend on public education today and give it to the private sector to develop and run schools that actually teach kids while maintaining oversight to prevent fraud, we will end up with a top notch education system that does the job better and cheaper than government ever can. I would gladly give up tenure to work in such a school because I can do my job without most of the BS public school teachers have to endure today.