I am also a former Teamster who spent just shy of 20 years schlepping boxes for UPS. I am now taking classes to be a social worker.
What you are saying is at least partially true, they likely don’t understand, but it’s easy to forget just how young college kids are. The things that college kids don’t understand are legion, but they are there to learn, and I think that’s worth keeping in mind.
Y’all, we if we ever want to accomplish anything positive on the left we have to start thinking about our tactics. These sorts of left on left circlejerk firing squads don’t help anyone, anywhere, ever.
We have to be cognisant of who are our allies, and maybe more importantly, who are our potential allies. We can’t afford to alienate anyone potentially useful to achieving our end goals.
I understand the anger and the frustration.
I do.
But we have to learn to talk to people like this guy. Teach them don’t berate and lecture at them.
spent just shy of 20 years schlepping boxes for UPS
so, uh, how old were you when UPS hired you, again?
unless by “college leftist” you mean you went to college 20+ years ago and profess to have learned nothing about leftism since then… really just confused as to what you mean here
You see, thing is, not everyone has the privilege of being able to go to college right after highschool. I worked at UPS for 19 years while my partner went to college and we raised two kids.
I quit when they needed to move for them to complete a post doc. I could have either stayed behind to live alone for 2 years doing a job that payed well but was unfulfilling, or I could take the opportunity to find something new. I choose the latter.
We moved, I took a job at the art museum on the campus where my wife was working. A few months later the pandemic hit. I was privileged/lucky enough to get paid to stay at home the duration of lockdown. During that time, I got to think a lot about what was important to me and what I wanted to do with my life going forward. I didn’t want to go back to busting my as in the name of capital. Wrecking my body in the name of shareholder value. I wanted to do something rewarding, and in the service of others. That lead me to social work. So I went back to school in my 40’s working towards a masters in social work with a focus on community and labor organizing.
You have to open your mind to different paradigms my friend. Everybody path is different and going through life doing things the correct way is overrated.
“Profess to have learned nothing about leftism since the…” WTF are you talking about? really just confused as to what you mean here
“Profess to have learned nothing about leftism since the…” WTF are you talking about? really just confused as to what you mean here
I asked that question in good faith, so I’m going to assume you are as well.
Usually when people talk about “college leftists” they’re talking about people who are too young to know anything about the world but have opinions on it anyway. I assumed that, since you were talking about yourself in that manner, that you saw yourself that way. My apologies.
I am a white college leftist.
I am also a former Teamster who spent just shy of 20 years schlepping boxes for UPS. I am now taking classes to be a social worker.
What you are saying is at least partially true, they likely don’t understand, but it’s easy to forget just how young college kids are. The things that college kids don’t understand are legion, but they are there to learn, and I think that’s worth keeping in mind.
Y’all, we if we ever want to accomplish anything positive on the left we have to start thinking about our tactics. These sorts of left on left circlejerk firing squads don’t help anyone, anywhere, ever.
We have to be cognisant of who are our allies, and maybe more importantly, who are our potential allies. We can’t afford to alienate anyone potentially useful to achieving our end goals.
I understand the anger and the frustration.
I do.
But we have to learn to talk to people like this guy. Teach them don’t berate and lecture at them.
We have to save our vitriol for the real enemy.
so, uh, how old were you when UPS hired you, again?
unless by “college leftist” you mean you went to college 20+ years ago and profess to have learned nothing about leftism since then… really just confused as to what you mean here
You see, thing is, not everyone has the privilege of being able to go to college right after highschool. I worked at UPS for 19 years while my partner went to college and we raised two kids.
I quit when they needed to move for them to complete a post doc. I could have either stayed behind to live alone for 2 years doing a job that payed well but was unfulfilling, or I could take the opportunity to find something new. I choose the latter.
We moved, I took a job at the art museum on the campus where my wife was working. A few months later the pandemic hit. I was privileged/lucky enough to get paid to stay at home the duration of lockdown. During that time, I got to think a lot about what was important to me and what I wanted to do with my life going forward. I didn’t want to go back to busting my as in the name of capital. Wrecking my body in the name of shareholder value. I wanted to do something rewarding, and in the service of others. That lead me to social work. So I went back to school in my 40’s working towards a masters in social work with a focus on community and labor organizing.
You have to open your mind to different paradigms my friend. Everybody path is different and going through life doing things the correct way is overrated.
“Profess to have learned nothing about leftism since the…” WTF are you talking about? really just confused as to what you mean here
.
I asked that question in good faith, so I’m going to assume you are as well.
Usually when people talk about “college leftists” they’re talking about people who are too young to know anything about the world but have opinions on it anyway. I assumed that, since you were talking about yourself in that manner, that you saw yourself that way. My apologies.
Ah, I see.
Gotcha friend.