The U.S. Culture(s) thread

Yeah, stuff like the racism and sexism isn't just an issue with SV's executives. That Google Memo wasn't written by an executive, after all.

Double post for different topic:

San Franciscans raise $46,000 to stop homeless shelter in wealthy area

Yes, a bunch of assholes are trying to raise $100k to sue the city of San Francisco to stop a homeless shelter from being built in their area to keep their property values high. The mayor of San Francisco is notably upset by this.

A rival Gofundme was set up in support of the shelter, and got $5000 from Gofundme itself.

Using crowdfunding to stop a homeless shelter from being built in order to keep property values high — this is peak Silicon Valley here.

Edited by M84 on Mar 30th 2019 at 3:30:52 AM

Not a just-Silicon Valley thing, unfortunately - I recall that Orange County or some area there has seen protests against shelters and there were some complaints about people from the Grenfell Tower in London depressing house prices.

It's the crowdfunding element that makes this bit of NIMBY bullshit so...Silicon Valley.

Edited by M84 on Mar 29th 2019 at 4:09:48 PM

Didn’t Newsom used to be the mayor of San Fran? Can’t imagine that he’s going to be terribly pleased by this. He apparently has a record for being almost recklessly progressive for both good and bad.

This boils my blood. In New Mexico, community mental health and community probation and parole saved money over tossing people in jail.

By community, I mean programs where people who had the issue that could (or did) make them homeless were allowed both treatment and case management with the goal of keeping them off the streets. Granted the parole program became more bureaucratic after to parolees committed a murder, but they didn't stop the program.

Full disclosure - I used to work for one of the programs and knew people who worked for the parole program.

Community programs were so popular that even the GOP state senators and one of our federal congress critters made videos praising the program (and whoring for votes too). IMHO:One of the reasons Gary Johnson is behind drug law reform (instead of building more prisons^note His company Big J had built some NM prisons) is that our data crossed the governor's desk frequently.

So the city that was center of the "Summer Of Love" has no room for the homeless? I call BS.

San Francisco is notorious for rich NIMBY's. City zoning laws and neighborhood councils keep go out of their way to organize and protest to stop cheaper housing and apartments from being built because the wealthy home owners don't want their property value lowered or for their scenic views to be blocked.

It's got so bad there's a whole counter organization to fight back against the NIMBY's. Cheekily called YIMBY, "Yes, In My Back Yard."

Edited by Parable on Mar 31st 2019 at 5:59:03 AM

A lot of the NIMBY faction grew out of the bad things that happened in The '50s, The '60s and The '70s, mostly the environment. The Deader Than Disco section used to link to the book "the gallery of regrettable food" - a tome on the crap and filth the American diet used to have.

But in The '80s and The '90s, something happended. Legit concerns about the environment and health morphed into crazy conspiracy theories. The government or big business was going to irradiate your food, UPC symbols were "the mark of the beast", and other things Snopes.com had debunked over the years. When RFID chips were first developed, the fringe was all "AH HA!" and used them as the MacGuffin for every crack pot theory you could think of (most replacing the UPC conspiracy with RIFD chips).

The punchline is that the scare over GMO's and the "vaccines cause autism" crowd is the Spiritual Successor to the aging hippies who printed flyers at your local library about irradiated food and that right wing aunt who sent you the "FWD: 666 in the Bar COde" emails.

Only now the crazy ones now had Facebook and Pinterest.

• Instagram removes 'likes' from the social media app - forcing users to focus on photos and videos rather than how popular posts are
  • tl;dr - in Australia, Instagram users can't see the likes of a photo or video, only the account holder can see those.
  • per the article "The same rule is also in place in Canada, Japan, Ireland, Italy, Brazil, and New Zealand - but not yet in the UK or US."

This will cause CHAOS when they do this in the US. I predict that it's to make the "Influencer" Deader Than Disco.

When you hear of adventures in human stupidity or entitlement in the US that are not Florida-man, it's some cretin that claims to be an "influencer" or is doing it "for the 'gram".

I predict that hiding likes will cause the Instagram "economy" to collapse - it will force a lot of the "models" to Pateron (ask your UK friends about Belle Delphone and bathwater).

There is a HUGE subculture in the US of Instagram "models" and "influencers" that I think that the management of Instagram views as an Old Shame.

Get some popcorn when this happens, this will be good.

Edited by TairaMai on Jul 17th 2019 at 7:53:23 PM

Please, please let this happen in the USA. Influencer culture needs to go away asap.

But is there a source besides the Daily Mail?

Edited by M84 on Jul 17th 2019 at 10:28:40 PM

• Instagram removes the like count for your own good - stuff.co.nz.
  • Yes this is in Australia and New Zealand
• Instagram hides number of 'likes' from users in Australian trial- the Guardian.

More details - the likes will still be seen by businesses and other creators who use Instagram. So if someone says they have "100K likes" - only those businesses that use Instagram can see it and see the stats.

The rest of us can't see it (it helps that most of us don't care).

Yes that would torpedo the "I'm an influencer with 200K likes! Give me free stuff random business that may not even use social media!"

What is the point of influences anyways? just scamming businesses or getting an easy road to celebrity?

Easy road to celebrity (thought you can say that you need to be a celebrity first), it can help you to get money via donations to Patreon.

Youtube and similars have changed the nature of fame. Now literally everyone has the potential to be famous, and unlike with the "regular" famous, there nothing stopping them

Edited by KazuyaProta on Jul 17th 2019 at 10:12:57 AM

Here's a Cracked article amusingly titled "6 Stories That Prove Instagram Influencers Are The Worst"

The writer describes Instagram culture as "lifestyle porn". So far I have yet to find a more fitting description.

Edited by M84 on Jul 17th 2019 at 11:17:22 PM

I've never really been on Instagram, so I'm genuinely curious, how much worse is it than a certain subset of Youtubers (think the Paul bros)?

It's hard to say. It's comparing (rotten) apples and oranges.

Ah, I see. I just thought of it because I think the idea is good and could be used for other platforms with a like/view system too.

• Reddit thread on IG bloggers asking for free stuff

• Instagram’s Wannabe-Stars Are Driving Luxury Hotels Crazy-the Atlantic.

• This ice cream truck owner is sick of influencers, and now he's doing something about it - CNN.com
  • tl;dr - the truck's owners charge double for people who claim to be influencers.

It's the wannabes who crave freebies that drive most people crazy. The article in the Atlantic talks about legit social media promotions.

Edited by TairaMai on Jul 18th 2019 at 12:10:34 AM

Wanted to ask about this: The Future of the City Is Childless. And if the thesis is correct, the political and economic consequences are all kinds of bad.

Uh, weird. Especially how Suburbs are apparently the only form to how a family can raise a children (my friends hate the idea of suburbs)

Like, that's right. People can't just said "INMIGRANTS COME HERE" and solve the depopulation issues caused by city density. The good thing is that we finally realized that overpopulation isn't the issue

Edited by KazuyaProta on Jul 19th 2019 at 8:23:38 AM

It's a symptom of the larger affordable housing crisis. Landlords make more money renting to a smaller population of better off tenants, so they gentrify their properties, increasing rents and pushing out lower income families. A nation-wide reform of local zoning laws is in order.

A possible interim solution could be in annexing suburbs so that city councils have more land to play with in getting affordable housing built. Speaking locally, one of the sticking points is that Boston is expected to build all of the affordable housing while its neighboring suburbs do everything they can to not carry their weight.

Sadly, in most metropolitan areas suburbs have more voters and money than the city they are next to...

• https://reason.com/2019/06/18/is-america-finally-waking-up-to-its-government-created-housing-crisis/

• https://reason.com/2019/07/15/heads-up-california-sydney-has-figured-out-how-to-get-the-rents-down/

Demand exceeds the supply of affordable housing because:

1) Demographic shifts have stymied access to affordable housing

2) Affordable housing policy favors homeowners over renters

3) Rising costs of labor and materials mean affordable housing is expensive to build

4) Affordable housing suffers from a national “not in my backyard” problem

5) Affordable housing is a transportation issue, too (lack of reliable transportation is preventing renters from accessing something they can afford)

Rising mortgages and construction costs are pricing low income families out of the market. There is no single, obvious solution.