Robin

It is vital that the pay gap be addressed and I am glad that it is. Women earn only 72 cents per dollar that men earn for the same work simply because they are women. Corporations are more likely to hire men. Misogynists try to deny this reality. 

What is distressing is that although the wage gap is studied, it only focuses on the pay gap between two genders. It never addresses how much less pangender people earn than cis-gender women. It never studies how two-spirit people earn compared to cis-men. 

A study needs to be inclusive. 

I am a feminist, but I am not one who denies biological reality. I know that, on average, men are 5 inches taller than women and, on average, possess greater upper-body strength. What is not acknowledged is that scientists, mostly male, are doing almost nothing to close this gap. 

How much research money is allocated for getting women to grow to the same height as men? None! How much research money is granted for getting women to develop the same upper-body strength as men? None. 

Scientists are in it for themselves; they are not concerned with equality and are OK with furthering biological inequality. 

I don't understand. The Irish, especially the Catholics, were hated when they first started arriving en masse. They were considered poor, filthy, violent, ignorant, ultra-religious, clannish, unsophisticated, lazy, alcoholic, and subversive. Fast forward 150 years and there is not a lot of anti-Irish sentiment in the USA. Having a name like O'Connell or O'Rourke does not get you death threats, swastikas painted on your door, conspiracy theories, but if your name is Cohen, Katz, or Rosenberg, this is still distressingly common. 

What is going on? Why do only the most hardcore bigots today pick on the Irish, but anti-semitism is still all over the map? 

This happens at every single family gathering with my Republican relatives. I drop facts about Hitler and they get all defensive and stick up for him. I told my sister-in-law that when Hitler was 14 he impregnated his sister, the child was taken in by a local family, but died when she was 2 years old of TB. My sister-in-law flipped out and claimed that that was a lie. 

When I told my uncle that Hitler stated in Mein Kampf that Celtic people were inferior and that there was no place in Europe or anywhere in the civilized world for the Irish, Scots, and Welsh, he got angry and denied it. Another Hitler defender. 

My brother claimed that Hitler was decorated for bravery in WWI. This is a lie and I told him so. Hitler was medically ineligible for service in WWI, so how would he have gotten decorated? 

It's sad to see so many people defending Hitler. What is frightening is that these people vote, and guess who they voted for in 2016 and 2020. Take a wild guess? It's a sad state when Trump voters feel a need to stick up for Hitler. Birds of a feather. 

Two Trump supporters beat this man in a racist, homophobic attack. Of course, because they were Trump supporters, the administration turned a blind eye. Does anyone else think that President Biden will finally see to it that justice is served? 

Every woman in my district who had her head shaved after it was revealed she had voted/worked for/supported Trump is covering it up with cheap wigs that look so fake. You are not fooling anyone? Your baldness is a sign you supported a fascist and that is all yours to own now. Ashamed? You should be. 

This is ridiculous. These little Trumpet fascists now have their own echo chamber and now they can spread fake news. This site is a public danger. It needs to be shut down. Fake news is a huge danger and must be dealt with. Parler is fake news. 

This is what I am terrified of. If the little cheeto can't get his presidency he will drop out of sight, use his money to pay off some scientists with no morals and build a nuclear bomb. Come 2024 I can imagine him threatening to blow up the country unless he is put back in office.

How can we make sure that he does not develop weapons of mass destruction? 

For four years all I could think about or talk about was Drumpf. In my nightmares, in my waking hours I lived in constant fear of what this Hitler wannabe was going to do next, whether it was putting more kids in cages, invading more countries, taking away my right to choose, not letting Muslims enter the country, having cops shoot more Black people...and now he's leaving. I am overjoyed, but a little empty. 

Does anyone else feel like this? My family, before I cut them off, used to "joke" that I needed to take up a hobby like bird watching or fly fishing (totally ignoring that I don't murder animals); this really hurt because being socially aware is of extreme importance. But with this fascist out of the picture where should I focus my energy? 

 If you write nothing racist, sexist, or misogynous or transphobic on your social media or emails, you have an even score. For each hateful statement you write or "like," or fail to respond to, you get a point deducted.  If you don't attend positive growth seminars at work, you get points deducted. If you subscribe to hateful publications or websites, you lose points. 

These points get put into a database connected to your credit cards. If you have too many negatives you can't get a passport, can't get a loan, can't buy airline/bus/train tickets, etc. 

Maybe then you would wake up and realize how much being a hateful person hurts others. 

I don't see beauty in Baroque or Gothic architecture or in vintage cars or Rococco paintings. I see something created at a time when BIPOC were considered less than human, when white males brutalized women, when LGBTQIA had no rights. These are the first things I think about. Old art and architecture are not beautiful. They reflect the age in which they were created and that age was an ugly one. I sometimes wish all the old buildings in Europe could be torn down and replaced structures made in the modern era, a time when we have made some advancements. 

My next-door neighbors have a house with huge windows; everyone can see them during the daytime. The thing is the husband and wife have two children but everytime I see them in their house (I can't help seeing them, they literally live in a glass house!), they are never wearing masks, even when gathered together at dinner. 

I think this is unhealthy. What if one member of that family contracts Covid? Then they will transmit it to everyone in that house. In my house we wear masks, we eat at different times in different rooms. We care for one another. 

I see this and I just think that it is total child endangerement. I want to call the police. My neighbors are white, so they won't have to worry about getting shot over their skin color. 

Unfortunately a lot of cis-men prefer thin women. There is no form of conversion therapy to address this, but perhaps exposure to more women of size in fashion magazines and advertisements will change the beauty standard. 

I'm not. I hate no one. If I have to pay for everything with a debit card instead of cash, fine, I never buy racist propaganda; if the govt. tracks where I travel I am not going to Klan meetings or Trump rallies, so I have nothing to hide. People who hate and victimize others are the ones afraid of having the government know what they are up to. 

My maternal grandfather was born and raised in Madrid. His surname was Rodriguez. As a person of color who moved to the US, I am pretty certain that he endured a great deal of discrimination. The thing is nobody knows that I am part Spanish because I look totally white and have an Anglo last name. 

Should I be honest about my heritage or live a lie and profit off white privilege? 

It doesn't make any sense. You would think that if the Catholic church were serious about ending world poverty as they claim and bringing about social justice, they would want to ally with the group that is dedicated to ending poverty and helping bring about equality and social justice? 

Is it because the Catholic church is anti choice and anti-LGBTQIA and the communist party has always supported those ideologies? 

I work alongside a lot of Latinx people and they all speak Spanish, a language that was imposed upon them by colonial Spain, a nation of whites. I tell them that they should speak the languages that were spoken before the whites arrived. I have looked them up on Wikipedia. There is Nahuatl, Maya, Quiche, Quechua....they should be speaking those languages not one from Europe and a reminder of the racist legacy of colonialism. All I want to do is help the Latinx community. 

Think about it, you prize objects that were made at a time when people denied women the right to vote, when BIPOC were slaves; owning these objects makes me think you are just a little bit too nostalgic for that awful time. I don't decorate my home with Nazi regalia because I am not nostalgic for that horrible period, but I know many whites who do make their homes look like something out of the 19th century, a time when white supremacy was at its worst. Move with the times, cancel the past. 

Except in serious circumstances. I am serious. I have not been allowed to leave my state since the reconfinement and it does not bother me one bit. Most of the people in the neighboring states away from the coast are a bunch of ignorant, inbred racists anyway.

           What Covid and the necessary quarantine have shown the world is that air travel for pleasure is not necessary. Air travel should only be permitted for emergency visits if the person can prove that a family member is in hospital or if someone wishes to immigrate to the USA. 

             So, knock off the international air travel, stop being selfish, and make a positive mark on society instead. Use public ground transport with alternative fuel. 

The people of my grandparents' day used to be a mystery to me, but not any longer. They saw fascism rise and they went and fought it and won. We saw fascism come to our country in 2016, we resisted, we fought, and eventually we won. We have something in common, something to be proud of. Your grandchildren did not let you down, grandma and grandpa, we also stood up to fascism like you did.