We already have all sorts of affirmative action in the college admissions process. For example, there's affirmative action for legacies. Was George W. Bush such a fantastic student in high school to justify getting into Yale? Of course not. He was a notoriously shitty student with mediocre SATs. But his dad and grandfather were Skull and Bones Men, with close ties to Yale royalty like William F. Buckley, and so Dubya would have had to have raped the Dean of Admission's poodle not to have his application accepted. There's also affirmative action to those whose families have made big donations. Was Donald Trump a compelling applicant? No. He was a discipline problem, who'd had to be sent to a special high school for the mentally defective children of the rich just to graduate. But, his father was a very wealthy man with the funds to buy buildings for any university willing to lower its standards for little Donnie, and that's what mattered.
There's also affirmative action based on geography. If you apply to, say, Harvard from a school in metro New York or Boston, you've got to be truly extraordinary to get in, because there's such a huge population of elite students in those areas, and Harvard doesn't want the class to be too heavily tilted towards people from those areas. Apply from a small town in the Midwest, on the other hand, and you've got a much better shot, since elite schools like to brag about having people from every state and background, and you might not be competing with too many to fill that niche.
Then there's the affirmative action for athletes. Anyone who thinks a star QB at Notre Dame, or power forward at Duke got in with coursework and SATs comparable to the class average is fooling herself. Those applications aren't even considered alongside the general population. They're considered against bare minimum academic standards.
What we're talking about here is another type of affirmative action. And there are two justifications for it. One is the "diversity" justification. Just as a university arguably wants to admit students from all around the country and the world, to create a student body that's diverse enough to enrich the educational experience for those who attend there, it should also want to admit students from different economic levels, so it's not just a collection of the children of the rich. And second is the notion that people who came from tougher economic backgrounds may actually have more raw academic talent, at a particular achievement level, than those who had their path paved with money. For example, if you have two kids with 1400 SATs, one of whom came from a family where she wasn't even made aware of the existence of SAT practice tests and guidebooks, and the other of whom came from a family that paid for two years of private SAT coaching before the test, which one is really the more likely to distinguish herself and her university if admitted?
Earl (05-17-2019)
What validated my victory wasn't my incidental mentioning of personal anecdotes, which was only of interest for anyone who might want to delve more into those details. Rather, my victory was validated when you engaged in your customary underwear-soiling admission of defeat, with the pathetic mewling of "so you say."
Since you're mentally deficient, there's no challenge in debating you, any more than there would be in debating a small child or an old man with advanced Alzheimer's. So, I've invented my own challenge: how quickly can I get you to realize you're so outclassed that you just cower behind "so you say." I've gotten quite good at it, as you know. But getting you to admit defeat that way in your very first statement in the thread is a new level of dominance for me. I'm going to have to think up a new game to keep it interesting.
Strange what some here believe to be "victories"....the explanations are priceless, though...
Well, when dealing with a deranged imbecile like Legion, the game has to be altered a bit. It's not like I can call it a victory merely because I made the stronger substantive points, since he has yet to make a substantive point in any thread. So, instead, I've had fun picking on him until he starts incoherently whimpering "so you say" and then I tally the win. It's not a particularly challenging sport, but it may be the best challenge he's able to offer.
I can reduce the OP to one three word sentence lol.
Money buys privilege.
Coup has started. First of many steps. Impeachment will follow ultimately~WB attorney Mark Zaid, January 2017
Stretch (05-17-2019)
Bookmarks