President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

The "never went to public schools" argument is stupid. Here endeth the lesson.

 

Gosh. This is the first time anyone's raised this issue.

It's worth considering.

 

That's why the best players become the best coaches, right? And why pilots design airplanes

 

I know you feel this way. We've been over it. I know it's why you get testy when people criticize magazine pieces. (I'm not trying to make this personal - you've stated this expressly, during calm discussions.) And people wield it against @YankeeFan all the time, as if the audience for journalism is other journalists not ... readers like @YankeeFan.

Re: DeVos, I guess it's a data point. I guess. But I don't know how valuable of a data point it is. It's certainly not disqualifying. I covered Juan Uribe, who couldn't remember his agent's name. He knows "what it's like to play baseball," though. Not sure how valuable that is. Not sure I'd want him in a front-office role.

My wife is a second-grade public school teacher. I have no doubt she would be on your side of this. And I wouldn't argue that experience isn't valuable, particularly in certain circumstances - the notion that it isn't is what got us into the current mess in the first place. But going to Eastside High three decades ago? I'm not sold that it matters.

(I'm no DeVos fan. I just don't find this particular argument very convincing. FWIW, I attended public schools through 12th grade, then a private college, then a public university law school, then a private university law school.)

 

Holy fuck, this is a stupid argument. I'm literally trying to argue that some people know things better than other people.

You know what? Sometimes the best players do become the best coaches. Zinedine Zidane is a great example. Sometimes they don't. Wayne Gretzky is a great example. But every great coach understands the game better than the average ding dong, and every great coach has been involved in the game they coach since they were a child.

EDIT: This is a response to Rick, by the way. I was writing it before I saw Dick's response.

 

I have a feeling we're not actually talking about Betty Devos any more.

 

Message board arguments as a whole are stupid. And that's a lesson nobody here - myself included - ever remembers.

 

We're talking about everyone who thinks they are an expert in everything. It's a fairly obvious trend that I think is anti-wisdom and anti-expertise. I don't know why people presume they know as much as someone who obviously knows more, or that their opinion is as valid. I find it a really weird trait.

 

She wore $1,000 dresses to mentor a child who came to school hungry. She refused to park her car in the school's parking lot. She bought the girl's mom a car. At the conclusion she paid for the girl to go to a private school. She is the same combination of patronizing and ineffectual liberal do-gooders are often correctly accused of by the right.

 

To ensure quality journalism, the practice should be limited to graduates of journalism programs, who then pass an industry test, before being given their licence to practice.

Where'd you get your journalism degree @typefitter?

 

I don't think you're necessarily wrong that journalism should be a licensed profession. I learned on the job. I was probably given more responsibility early than I should have been. I can accept that.

I drink coffee. Should I tell you how to do your job? No, because you know far more about machines and how they work than I do. I wouldn't dream about telling you how to repair coffee machines or, further down the line, how to run a small business. Because I've done neither.