Re: Whinning, What is it good for?

[Eric McCoy <emccoy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"I.L. Eberhart" <eberhart@domain.elided> wrote:

[age discrimination at BMW dealerships]

> As Michel said, statistics is statistics.

True.  But you could also take the statistics of, percentage-wise, how many
African-Americans are in jail, and support the assertion that all
A-Americans are criminals from birth.

Doesn't justify treating everyone as if they're a criminal.  Not in my
book, or, I suspect, yours.

> You can't beat 'em, but you can either join 'em or change 'em.
> You wanna make a difference, then start a program that improves the
> statistics.

A program?  I figure you mean "look young and behave responsibly," right? 
The point of this whole whine is that young folks simply don't have a
chance to prove that they *are* responsible.  Or, carried a little further,
that they get picked on more for being irresponsible (cops pulling over
kids, which happens to me so regularly it doesn't even surprise me any
more).

> Certainly you know some younger drivers that could benefit from your
> experience. Nope, it won't change the statistics overnight, but it's just
> like the old question, "How do you eat an elephant....one bite at a time".

More like eating a live elephant that, as you might expect, moves away
every time you try to take a bite.

> Either you're part of the solution, or your're part of the problem, or
> you're just a whiner.

True enough.

It's a bad issue.  Dealers potentially lose out big-time if they let every
kid who wants to take an M3 for a spin do so.  But in the process, they're
unfairly discriminating against young drivers who *are* responsible and
interested in purchasing the car.

I've gone to dealerships strictly to look at the cars before, and I
probably will again.  I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

> And as for comparing a younger driver being discriminated versus a Black
> driver being discriminated, you'd better learn to capitalize the "B" in
> Black. 

You may be right, but this is honestly the first time I've ever seen it. 
And I attend a liberal [arts] college, so I sorta figure I would've seen
it.  Well, you learn something new every day, I guess.

> If you're referring to the color of a car, it's "black", if you're
> referring to the African-American ethnic group, it'd better be "Black". You
> wouldn't type "Irish" with a lower-case "I", you wouldn't type "Hispanic"
> with a lower-case "H", you wouldn't type "Asian" with a lower-case "A", 

Presumably because "black" is a physical characteristic rather than an
ethnicity (or race, or past national affiliation).  I'm not White, I'm
white.  And this is just me, but I don't care if you do call me White, or
irish, or That Fucking Asshole On His Cell Phone In The BMW Doing 120 Down
The Highway Because He's Been Fucking Spoiled Since Birth.

> and
> if you would after knowing better, then you're just plain ignorant. 

Can't claim that - if you know better, you, by definition, are not
ignorant.  There you're just being stubborn, stupid, or something else
along those lines.

> If you
> do it without knowing it's a mistake, you should be forgiven. But now you
> know.

And knowing is half the battle.

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