I think that there’s a tendency online to attempt to gaslight certain ideas into reality and it creates a tension because they are wrong but it can be unwise to call them out.
Don't worry, it's not robbing you of the the evenings and weekends, which "maybe you like", it's a fun new challenging opportunity. Have you had a chance to panic yet on Saturday morning at 3 AM? Would you like to? It's such a thrill.
What's been everyone's experiences/takes/opinions, specifically with not doing Hackathons? My org is moving them to quarterly-we used to have one yearly-I skipped the last one, probably going to skip the next one but I wonder how long that's going to last before someone in management sticks a head up and asks why I'm not participating (a question for which I have an answer ready to go)
(edit: and by "hackathon" because I realize there's a bit of room for ambiguity, I mean internal corporate Hackathons where the company "allows" dev teams to take a "break" from "regular" work in order to ideate and build new features and functionality that--if their idea gets chosen--becomes "regular" work in and of itself. It's those kinds of hackathons I've started removing myself from)
Although they said it was a "paid volunteer" (which I don't think is what a volunteer is) so maybe it was really good - time and a half at least I'd hope.
Outside of a few issues there isn’t much influence, unless you’re in the church. One nice thing about Mormons is that at least outside of a missionary context abroad, they take “no” for an answer with grace. I wouldn’t want to join their club, but I like them as neighbors. Their cooking can be a little uninspiring, but the hospitality and friendliness is world class. SLC is also a gorgeous part of the world, if you like to hike or climb it’s one of the best. The city itself is also not exclusively Mormon, although it’s not NYC levels or diverse either. I’d recommend a visit to see if you like it.
"The Liquor laws of Utah regulate the selling and purchasing of alcohol in the United States state of Utah and are some of the most restrictive in the United States."
Yep, if you’re a big drinker Utah can be a little rough, although personally when I was there on business I never had a problem. From my perspective as a non-religious person and a non-Christian I also don’t find Mormonism any stranger than other sects of Christianity either, but again if they make you uncomfortable Utah is to be avoided as a place to live. As for the last point, I suppose it could be for some very broad definitions of equality.
To call that ranking an "equality" survey is misleading. It measures average salary, executive positions, political office, and educational attainment. But that proves nothing on whether women are treated equally or given equal rights or are treated fairly in the workplace.
The fact is, many, many LDS women choose to be full time mothers and homemakers. There are much fewer women in the workforce because of this. LDS women are much less likely to work full time and they choose not to take on demanding positions because it has been their dream to raise a family and be with their kids. This also results in many choosing to do less schooling. If your dream is to raise a family, getting your master's degree is probably not going to be necessary for that. Especially if you are already started on that family before you finish your undergrad.
In other words, using the criteria of this survey, the only way to make women more "equal" in Utah, would be to force them to do things they don't want to do.
Now, there might be issues in the workplace where women are not treated well or where they are paid less for the same job (to a worse degree than the rest of the U.S.) but nothing in that survey indicates that.
My point in referencing isn't to judge whether the situation is good, bad, or indifferent.
And it may well be that women there are making these choices freely--I'm not in any position to judge.
But the point is that the culture in Utah is driven in large measure by the significant Mormon influence. Indeed, women may well be choosing to stay home because of that Mormon influence.
All fine and good--if that's what people want to do, more power to them--I'm not going to judge.
But this culture does seep out into the broader Utah culture, and denying that (as the post I was originally responding to does), is making an error.
If more women would prefer to stay home and raise children, does that mean they are not equal? I do not think so. They are doing the more noble thing. And apparently, a much higher percentage of women than men, want to stay home.
Sure. It's all about you and what works for you. No need to spend a nanosecond wondering how you impact the fabric of society by your choices.
(She says as she sits here wondering if anyone will get the irony of a rebuttal saying, in essence, "I'm not callously mistreating anyone! I was only thinking about me, me, me, me, me when I made this decision! I gave others no thought At All, thus my behavior couldn't possibly be negatively impacting them!")
Generally speaking, we see poor people going to rich countries as trying to take advantage. This is one reason Trump wants to build a wall.
But wealthy folks going to poor countries typically don't see themselves in similar terms at all. They typically feel superior to the people they live among and feel like they are clearly and unquestionably adding value and should be appreciated, obviously.
I did some research for a piece I wrote about a massacre of Native Americans that is little known. Natives hunted, fished, etc and lived lightly on the land. They were a mobile people. They had campsites they routinely used, but no permanent settlements.
Trappers and fur traders were the first to show up. They weren't that different from the natives. The natives were tolerant and welcoming, figuring there were plenty of resources to go around.
Then settlers came. The natives still saw no problem. They welcomed them.
But settlers built fences and homes and claimed land. Once they staked out a parcel of land, they saw the natives as tresspassers.
The early settlers took the best parcels. Soon, the natives were extremely restricted in where they could hunt and gather and were consigned to the least productive tracts.
Looking back on it, in order to protect themselves, the natives really should have murdered every trapper and settler as they showed up. They shouldn't have saved the settlers at Plymouth.
The Europeans coming here did not see themselves as theives taking the lands of the peoples who already lived here. The natives had traditional areas and an alien culture. The Europeans saw only open, undeveloped land free for the taking.
As the settlements grew, the natives became increasingly impoverished and we're soon begging for food from the settlers. The American response was to send in the military and massacre them. They were viewed as behaving badly, as troublemakers, as theives, as lazy, as unproductive.
The real theives were the oblivious settlers who did not see themselves as having taken anything from the natives.
People from developed countries routinely go into less developed areas, improve their own lives at the expense of the existing locals and then frame it like the locals are uneducated, stupid, unambitious, etc. They typically fail to acknowledge that they victimized them.
It's not quite that simple. The reality is that a hunter-gatherer lifestyle requires large amounts of land to support every individual. So tribespeople that live that way often have fairly brutal practices for limiting populations. Agriculture supports larger populations on the same amount of land and modern agriculture even more so.
Life expectancy is also generally higher in developed countries for various reasons. Quality of life can also be higher, though it isn't necessarily evenly higher.
But those gains frequently come at the expense of doing terrible things to local natives, natives who often helped the intruders initially survive at all. And this is how we repay their kindness.
My mother is an immigrant. I would love to spend some time in another country again before I die. But I'm not comfortable pretending that locals should just be thrilled I'm there, bringing my money and superior ways with me and so forth.
