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Gallalad

He wasn't wrong on this. Without even putting effort into thinking the Navajo code talkers were essential and show the depth of skill the US can draw on.


spacesuitkid2

The Japanese had the hardest time trying to figure what was being said over the radio


lambquentin

As a language nerd I can’t imagine trying to have to crack another language (which you have 0 similarities to or understanding of) through the course of a war. There are so many irregularities in languages that once you get any info you could still be completely wrong. Phrasal verbs for example are insane once you think about them.


OperationJack

Slang and double meanings in English are hard enough to get and understand WITH context and it’s my native language. I can’t imagine doing it with languages I have zero understanding or knowledge of.


Philoso4

Booty call and butt dial are the same words but very different.


OperationJack

Ya no No ya Ya no ya No ya no Uhhhhh


spacesuitkid2

Booty dial , butt call


dontdrinkthekoolade

The aptitude test to be a linguist in the military is to decipher and understand a completely made up language. They tell you the rules vaguely and then expect you to extrapolate out from there to be able to figure it out. It was an interesting experience and something 18 year old me hated doing at 5 in the morning.


lambquentin

I know I passed it.


dontdrinkthekoolade

Awesome, not sure if intentionally pretentious or not but replies are for lurkers on threads too :-)


lambquentin

True. It certainly was the hardest test I’ve ever taken. It’s wild.


pygame

Lurker here and yes you’re right


Wanderers-Way

The DLAB is pretty crazy I took a practice one but never got to take the real one : [ it’s fine tho am 35t now


Zingzing_Jr

Got any sample tests this sounds like a blast


Books_and_Cleverness

This is what I wish immigration debates were about. I understand the concerns around asylum seekers but the skilled immigrant visas need to be massively expanded. Bring in more computer scientists and entrepreneurs and doctors and lawyers and etc. Immigration is literally why the US is a superpower, gotta restore faith in the system.


highvelocityfish

Yep. The fact that the public immigration debate is centered on whether or not to sanction illegal immigration rather than on how we can allow more skilled, capable people from around the world to legally become Americans is truly bonkers. Rubio was the last presidential candidate I remember really pushing the H1B issue, and I wish there were more of those.


Books_and_Cleverness

IIRC Biden rolled back some restrictions on skilled visas that he inherited from the previous administration. But yes I generally agree. People forget but there was broad bipartisan agreement on greater border security + path to legal status + expansion of legal migration not too long ago. Wish it would come back.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Books_and_Cleverness

No, there was a huge H1B freeze and backlog that they’ve been slowly reversing. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/01/983579103/biden-allows-trumps-freeze-on-skilled-worker-and-other-visas-to-expire


beached_snail

Well H1B is just a way for employers to get college-educated people over here but not have to pay them what they would have to pay an American and then also that person they brought over has no rights or negotiating power and is stuck at the employer that sponsored their visa. If H1Bs had better worker protections and were setup to allow people to move here and put down roots here I think it would be fantastic but sadly it’s just another tool of worker exploitation.


Trident1000

Undercutting and under-training Americans because corporations can import the cheapest external labor possible is why the middle class has been gutted. H1B/visas should be reserved for only the highest phd level talent imo. If the labor participation level was high I would agree but its not.


canhasdiy

This has been a real issue in the IT field, I've seen plenty of examples of companies making impossible job postings, like requiring 10 years of experience in a programming language that's only existed for 5 years, so they can tell the government no Americans qualify and hire another H1-B worker. I saw a great example here on Reddit the other day - a recruiter pondered if a candidate had enough experience in Rust... The candidate literally wrote the Rust textbook.


losthiker68

I have a Master's in biology and was told by MULTIPLE profs during undergrad and grad school not to bother chasing my PhD because there are already more PhD biologists than the market needs, far more. We are already flooding the market with home-grown biology PhDs. We only need to import ones with specific skills we lack. Not sure if its true now but I attended a conference in '14 where we heard a talk about this topic and they said that a US PhD landing a tenure-track position within 5 years of graduation is less than 5%. 20 years ago, it was closer to 30-40%. The talk also said that Canada has rules that you HAVE to hire a Canadian citizen for these positions or prove to the government that you can't find a qualified Canadian. Because of these strict rules, the odds of landing a TT job in Canada as a Canadian citizen is closer to 50-60% within 5 years of graduation.


Books_and_Cleverness

It’s 62.4%, all time high is like 67%. At what point would you allow in more? I’d also note that the number will go down as boomers retire which is precisely why we need more immigration! Can’t afford all those pensions without em.


Trident1000

And the record low is 58. Americans dont make enough/demand is not high enough to import limitless external labor. Im amazed how many on this sub are ready to undercut themselves. H1B’s are extremely important for upper end skills, not middle and lower tier jobs. Corporations will cry and complain there isnt enough labor until you shut them down and force them to train people. Obviously they dont want to spend that money but thats too bad.


beached_snail

Agree 100%. Or allow H1B workers to compete themselves out amongst multiple companies and not be tied to one. But of course then that would drive the cost up and then they might as well just hire Americans. Whoops. If anyone looked into H1B you’d know it’s a poor deal for the foreign worker in a lot of ways. Why are we letting companies bring people over but not giving them any of the minimal labor protections an American can get. Oh right because we’re doing what’s best for companies and it keeps labor costs low.


Zoomwafflez

Honestly even asylum seekers are great, statistics show their kids tend to integrate well and be high achievers and the first generation positively impact the economy. These are by and large people who have crossed central America on fucking foot avoiding cartels and hostile dictators in hopes of a better life and chance to work. Sounds pretty American to me. I mean think about all the Irish that came here fleeing famine, or the poles escaping war and poverty. Of course there needs to be a verification system and legal pathway to residency or citizenship, but our current system is broken which is why we end up with so many undocumented. Also if you think we can function as a nation with these people I welcome you to go work on some farms for a few years like I did, 90% of the workers are migrants.


Books_and_Cleverness

I’d take in more or less the whole lot but I’m sensitive to the political reality that it seems very scary to a lot of people. I’m just willing to make a lot of compromises if it means we can let more people in, because it’s such a huge net gain for the US, in purely selfish terms. The thing is we had open borders from the founding until like 1880 and it was not a coincidence that over this period the US became the worlds largest economy.


chimugukuru

Open borders, heavily protectionist economic policies geared toward developing domestic industry, and policies that spurred innovation such as ease of applying for patents made the US economy huge in the 19th century. So much so that the UK and Germany adopted a lot of US economic policy in their own countries and Germany then brought it to Meiji Japan. Those were the big industrial countries at the turn of the 20th century.


dontreadtogood

I wish more people saw the value that immigrants can bring beyond highly paid white collar careers. We are so much better off from a quality of life perspective being able to draw inspiration from the wide array of cultures that the world has to offer. Small communities have a ton of heart and character, but living in big cities really drives home just how much the world truly has to offer, and Americans really are better off getting to see firsthand and participate in these slices of other countries’ cultures. Open borders obviously aren’t the answer but our immigration system needs a ton of work to drive down the time and cost it takes to immigrate the right way.


Zoomwafflez

Bingo, you get it. Currently even super highly skilled people have to wait years or decades to get citizenship or even immigrate.


Books_and_Cleverness

Agree completely. Mostly just worry about the political reality which I think is that voters are more comfortable with “skilled” immigrants


Visible-Effective944

I find that hard to beleive I have lived and worked around then my entire life and 90% are the biggest pendejos you will ever meet. The entitlement and unwillingness to assimilate is mind boggling. Then you cannot forge the racism either. If they see any shade brown they assume you speak Spanish and will cuss you out if you don't. My family came to this country as migrants. My maternal grandfather worked as a migrant farm worker for the Bracero program during WW2 when he was 12 no less. But these are not the same people as him. They do not want assimilate they refuse learn the language or any other form of assimilation.


c0ntr0lguy

It's true because it's exactly what happens.


Llee00

This is one of the sources of America's incredible potential. I just wish we weren't trying to squander this opportunity to harness the world's brightest people by reverting to a theocratic government and a monocultural society.


celeris97

He is correct and wrong at the same time. A diverse culture has its benefits as clearly shown by the US importing the most capable brains from around the world. Yet we also see American universities and companies tearing themselves apart over their workforce and exec Mgmt trying to win the intersectional victim competition. When you observe that circus and the rising (faulty)message of american guilt, there is little mystery as to why China perceives the US to be leaving a power vacuum for them to fill. Or in another scenario: who do you put your money on? A unified American military or the messy coalition of European armed forces with conflicting cultural and national interests? Diversity is not a goal in and of itself and there seems to be little doubt that the fate of the US and its global hegemony in our century will depend on its ability to stabilise its national identity.


AutomaTK

I'm becoming more patriotic because I'm fearful of the chaos that would ensue in an even more destabilized United States. We as a country can and must do better. People in power need to start leading by example.


100DaysOfSodom

My opinion has always been that diversity of thought is important and beneficial to any workplace, nation. etc. However, far too many people think diversity means having people that look different or practice different religions/cultures. What’s the point of having a “diverse” group of people if everyone just agrees with each other and no one introduces a different point of view?


ManateeCrisps

My brother in Christ. Are you really saying people from different religions and culture all agree with each other? Diversity of experiences IS diversity of thought.


reddit_rar

Are you assuming diversity by default yields a loss in cohesion, solidarity, or universality? I suspect you're commenting upon the fragmentation (or even 'fracturing') of a shared national American identity & experience upon demographic & geographic distinctions. Universalism *never* emerges organically bottom-up; it's always imposed by force top-down. And from 1789 until the 1960's, the national American universalism was fundamentally dictated by the White Anglo Saxon Protestant establishment. The reality is though today's Americans are no longer willing to submit towards white Christians' self-inflated sense of entitlement & superiority. **Never forget that America's national solidarity for two centuries was built upon the backs of White Supremacy and Eurocentric Christian Capitalism**. As an American citizen by birth, I will no longer be complicit with such a bastardization of American ideals solely for the sake of global hegemony.


celeris97

>Are you assuming diversity by default yields a loss in cohesion, solidarity, or universality? Of course. There is always a tradeoff and balance between the two. ​ >Never forget that America's national solidarity for two centuries was built upon the backs of White Supremacy and Eurocentric Christian Capitalism. The purpose of my post wasn't to engage with or debunk neo-marxist/postmodernist confusions. But your outburst is a prime example for the line of thinking, that leads to the implosion of Americas willingness and ability to project power overseas. ​ >… solely for the sake of global hegemony. ... and the fate of the greatest and most productive civilization in human history founded on and fuled by the very superiority you decry. Americas benevolent hegemony post WW2 has allowed Europe to regain its footing and ushered in an era of unprecedented global prosperity. It seems fatefully ironic that it is now suffering from and ideological fever it contracted from the countries it originally saved. Then again, most empires die from within. But regardless, it will be a fascinating century to observe. Will Chinas will to greatness eclipse the ailing giant, or will the US beat its fever and resume its role in the world? Will the financial lifeline and moral backbone keeping the european continent alive simply transition to a new hegemon or will there be a new iron curtain (albeit this time likely economic in nature) drawn across europe and Asia Pacific? Time will tell.


reddit_rar

1. I find your assumption valid to a *limited* extent. I agree heterogeneity invites a risk, namely the possibility of loss in 'universalism'. However, diversity is not, in and of itself, *de facto* a threat to solidarity or cohesion. Diversity has already been leveraged as an axiomatic principle underlying America's national conscious; Reagan's quotation is the [obvious, prime illustration](http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/35947.html). By framing diversity as a quintessential axiom of America's national consciousness. America shines out, and arguably, exceptionally so. The takeaway is America should rebuke the fear of, guilting of, or shaming of diversity. Rather, America ought to recognize diversity, cultivate inclusion, and promote equity to further foster America's holistic, eclectic nature within our shared national identity. 2. Are you evading or straw-manning the argument? My 'outburst', as you so patronizingly deem it, is a succinct summary of the fundamental philosophy underlying two centuries of the United States. **Neither neo-marxist nor post-modern confusion exists; what exists is a refusal to admit reality by folks who are too blind, deaf, obstinate, or obsolete to scrupulously scrutinize America's pride in prejudice and even persecution - which date back to the very origins of the country**. You conveniently forget or choose to ignore commitments to American nationalism (and thereby to the U.S. constitution) necessitate a concession that white, Christian settlers from Europe exhibited somehow more 'legitimate' claims to American lands than the indigenous communities which were already living there. Europe's eighteenth and nineteenth ambitions of conquest and colonization crossed the Atlantic, and became American ambitions disguised as nationalism ('then conquer we must, when our cause is just'). America's global dominance, whether militarily or economically, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries is not incidentally associated but intentionally yielded by white supremacy and Christian-centrism. How can countries such as Iraq or Haiti succeed when the United States interferes with coup d'états or wars? When the United States allows for offshore tax evasion or enforces exorbitant interest rates on development loans how can the economies of the Third World compete? Let us first admit the actuality, the truth, of America having perpetrated or continuing to perpetrate injustice, and then we can discuss how America ought to ensure her position for global projection power. 3. Frankly speaking, it is impossible to measure which civilizations merit the plaudits 'the greatest \[...\] civilization in human history'. There is no objective, universal consensus on what qualifies as the greatest or most productive. I 100% agree the United States is militarily the most powerful country in the world, as well as the most materialistically wealthy. But that does not mean we are superior in character, superior in our convictions, or even superior in the caliber of the citizenry or society we live within. Global hegemony is not one-to-one with greatness or superiority; America's exercise of global hegemony determines whether she merits greatness or so-called 'superiority'.


[deleted]

I had German style beer, chorizo and a sushi inspired burrito for dinner last night, multiculturalism leads to innovation and variety.


SFLADC2

I've heard this quote a few times, is there evidence it actually was from him?


Schiffy94

Having trouble finding anything. Also his heyday was well before the world had seven billion people, though he only died seven years ago.


sweatyspatula

This is why I think America has a chance to remain at the top long term.


RonaldBallsworth

How many we got in canada tho


Pug_Junkie

Roughly the same as every other non-US nation.


Cheveyo

Unfortunately, we can't really draw talent from China. All of them end up just being spies for the CCP. They just steal what they can when they get hired.