(no subject)

I'm beginning to wish the folks who went into the tech field and invented all these gadgets? Had decided to become farmers instead.

Me: They keep laying folks off at the Tech firms, another one this morning.
Gabe: And it's not like they don't have the money - they are funneling millions into AI
Me: AI scares me. You'd think they would have learned something from all those sci-fi horror films..
Gabe: Me too - it's designed to do away with our jobs.
Me: Well, maybe it will all morph into Terminators and kill them?

I told this to mother.

Mother: What is AI?
ME: Artificial Intelligence.

In retrospect, I should have just said robots.

Mother felt the need to tell me about her new choir director.

Mother: She's an interesting person. She has had breast cancer and thyroid issues. Also when she was teaching in the inner city public schools in Lousiana, one of the students poisoned her and almost killed her.
ME: Wait, what? How?
Mother: She put rat poison in her coffee.
Me: Why?
Mother: The choir director had taken her cell phone away from her.
Me: Frigging hell. Did she pay?
Mother: Expelled, and community service. Taken off her record when she graduates. Inner City School.
Me: Sue the parent?
Mother: Inner City School District. Mother showed up for the kid. Most don't. Single Mom. Had zip to do with the mother. The kid is a sociopath.

I honestly think sometimes the world would be a better place if the cell phone had never been invented. Along with email. And Video chatting.
We do not need these headaches.

Mother goes on to tell me that they weren't allowed to teach the students about the Presidents, such as Washington and Jefferson - because it was considered politically incorrect.

Me: Can't they teach the bad along with the good?
Mother: No, because it might offend someone.

Peaky Blinders has an interesting statement.

Tommy Shelby to his sister Ada: "Since I've entered politics, I've learned that the line doesn't go out from the middle to the left and the right. It goes in a circle. I'll show you. You go far enough left, eventually you'll meet someone who has gone far enough right to get to the same place. National Socialism."

I've learned the same thing working in a state agency and with various people. The far left and the far right - both fall uneasily into fascism.
Fascism is when you want everyone to follow your rules, your values, etc, with no say or views of their own. Which is fine, as long as they are yours, and not in contradiction with your views, values, etc.