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Marco Rogers Profile picture
@polotek
Feb 8, 2022 • 13 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
This is a weird conversation. I get why people are having it, but I'm having a hard time with it. And I think it's mostly because my own politics have shifted a lot and no longer align with most mainstream thinking.
If I understand things right (I may not), the issue is half of the graduate degrees from American Universities go to international students. People view this as a problem. Presumably because that talent is not staying in the US to participate in our economy. I think I get that.
I think I'm having a hard time with it for 2 reasons.

1) In a bunch of other areas of economics, people keep saying that everything is globalized now, and that's a good thing.

2) I don't view education as a national asset that we should be guarding jealously.
I’m not misunderstanding the point Aaron made. And I’m not disagreeing with him. I understand it’s not easy for international students to stay here after post-grad work. I’m responding to the general discourse and not Aaron specifically. (Discourse is more than just disagreeing)
I agree that companies developed in the US has a different impact on our economy than companies developed abroad. I don’t think anyone is successfully reasoning about the second order effects. I think the way these policies interact isn’t entirely based in reason.
I mean this country can’t even manage policy that avoids creeping fascism and authoritarian coups. Whenever people suggest that American policy seeks a grounding in reason, it makes me laugh.
Where I get confused is when people talk about making it easier for immigrants to stay here based on their assumed economic value. While we have a completely different conversation about immigrants who don’t have PhDs.
Okay, the thing that was bothering me just crystalized. We can talk about immigration policy and there are many things that can be improved there. But the piece that is missing is the conversation here at home. What I see is Americans devaluing college. And post-grad especially.
The conversation I see among Americans is how to break into lucrative fields without "wasting" money on expensive college degrees. So I'm not sure how to reconcile that with the convo about how not keeping enough immigrants with degrees here is impacting the US.
I don't think this is missing from the discourse. I think it's central to the discourse. It explains exactly why policymakers want to educate international students but not let them stay. Because we make money that way while also satisfying our xenophobia.
So let me ask folks a question to try to get at this in a more direct way.

You're saying we should value international students with post-grad degrees more highly. Fine. But are you also giving Americans the advice that they should go get post-grad degrees?
Very few people attempted to answer this question. And I know y'all read it. I'm not sure what to make of that.
Jeff has some worthwhile thoughts on what the calculus sounds like among Americans.

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More from @polotek

Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jun 2, 2023
I really is about time to wrap it up here. It's not gonna get better. Twitter is not coming back.
I'm getting serious about finding a new home online. Nothing else has been particularly appealing to me so far.
I can post my own bullshit anywhere. And I'm not all that concerned with who shows up to follow it. I do want more community though. I wanna be where people are. People express themselves on Twitter in a specific way that I've found gives me energy and inspiration.
Read 6 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jun 2, 2023
I have a lot of feelings about being labeled gifted as a child. My story feels a little different though. I never wanted gold stars, and I still don’t care about “accomplishments” the way other people do. This came up recently in a way that I’m still processing.
I often tell people that I identify with Gen-X more than millennial. (Even though people insist on putting me the latter category based on my birth date). For me it’s the messages I internalized growing up. Gen-Xers were “slackers”. Not living up to their potential. That’s me.
Then @operaqueenie hit me with a bomb not too long ago. I used to try to identify as a “loner”. A person who was reluctant to lead but also resistant to being a follower. But loner didn’t feel right either. Instead my wife says that I insist on personal agency above all else.
Read 8 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jun 1, 2023
I keep hearing people say this. And I believe it. But maybe I just don't use Google the way other people do. It seems fine to me. What kind of searches are bad?
I also wonder if some people are having very different experiences depending on their personal algorithm. Google has been learning about how I search, and what I'm looking for, for a long time now. Maybe it's just dialed in for me?
It never felt like magic to me. Nor do I want it to be. I still look at the results and use my judgment to decide if they're any good. That's not meant to sound judgmental. But expecting tech to feel like magic can only lead to disappointment.
Read 14 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
May 31, 2023
I'm glad to see you're engaging with the material. Even if it hasn't quite hit home yet. We don't have a lot of practice with actually examining Whiteness. It can feel uncomfortable at first. I'm happy to answer any questions you have as long as they're honest and not asinine.
I've been trying to examine Whiteness for a long time. It's always interesting to see how so many white people are so deeply opposed to doing so.
The infographic in the OP requires context. We shouldn't get stuck in simplistic ways of looking at this. The idea isn't "only white people have these traits". The idea is "Whiteness uses these traits to create a culture around their own superiority".
Read 10 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Apr 10, 2023
Holy shit. I used to work with this woman.

I'll repeat that.

I used to work in the same office with this white woman who is thinking "I wish we could go back to vigilante groups that could just go around hanging people."
If you can't be bothered to read the screenshots, this is the highlight: She's scared. As a white woman, she's scared all the time. And instead of examining where that comes from, she wants there to be institutions dedicated to roaming around doing violence on her behalf.
We didn't work closely together. I can't say anything about what kind of person she was. I try to stay out of white women's way at work. Just as a rule for survival. I have so many stories of how I've broken that rule and regretted it.
Read 8 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Mar 20, 2023
Small personal life update. Since being laid off, I've been dusting off technical skills and spending more time typing. It has been a journey of finding out how long I can be at the computer each day.
I was having a hard time as a remote-only manager. The sheer amount of hours staring at zoom screen was too much for me. But I used to be able to of uninterrupted time coding. I enjoyed it a lot too.
I've realized a few things during this journey though. I wouldn't actually spend all my time with hands on keyboard. Coding for me included all of activities around thinking, planning, and researching as well as actually producing the code.
Read 8 tweets

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