Leftism

2115 readers

1 users here now

Our goal is to be the one stop shop for leftism here at lemmy.world! We welcome anyone with beliefs ranging from SocDemocracy to Anarchism to post, discuss, and interact with our community. We are a democratic community, and as such, welcome metaposts that seek to amend the rules through consensus. Post articles, videos, questions, analysis and more. As long as it's leftist, it's welcome here!

Rules:

Absolutely no fascism, right wing extremism, genocide denial, etc.
Unconditional support of authoritarians will not be tolerated
Good faith discussion about ideologies is encouraged, but no sectarianism
No brocialism/sexism
No ableism
No TERFs/ anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric
No racism
No trolling
No insults, dunking, or personal attacks
No posting of misinformation, disinformation, or fake news
Mods have final say

Posting Expectations:

Comics/memes/shitposts/propaganda are only allowed on weekends
Try to avoid liberalism unless discussing electoral politics. Even then, try to focus on tactical agreement towards leftist goals
Only one meta post seeking consensus per person per day
Posts about a particular ideology are ok, but remember the rules above
Remember that there is no “right way” to implement leftist theory. This rule does not prevent academic criticism.
Try to avoid extremely sensitive topics unless approaching them with appropriate care for intersectionality. Use your best judgement, and be prepared to provide respectable sources when having these discussions. Wikipedia is not an acceptable source in these cases.
Post titles must be meaningful and relevant, except on weekends

Sister Communities:

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Solarpunk memes [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1197

There is no such thing as "unskilled labor" (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

231 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (3 children)

If you honestly think you can man the cash register at McDonald's competently with the same level and scope of training required to say design an RF frontend for cell signals or maybe remove someone's Appendix, then you're insane or lying to yourself.

"Unskilled" or now "low skilled" is a defined term. It doesn't mean a goldfish can do it, and it doesn't mean it isn't important. It means that any reasonable human with a modicum of training can do the job well enough to produce valued output.

At my service jobs, I'd usually get an hour or two of training per area, and be watched for a few days or a week. Then let loose and that's it. The guys I know that design those RF frontends not only have 4-8 years of physics and math intensive academia, but then work under senior designers for 10+ years learning and designing before leading their own project.

If you swap the Goodburger employee with the RF Designer, the designer will learn to sling burgers. The burger dude will accomplish nothing of value and probably be a net negative.

Nobody is saying anything of importance or requirement or paying wages. Taking a defined term and weaponizing it for a side cause makes anyone that knows what it actually means, roll their eyes and ignore the message you're trying to convey. And in this case, it's mostly unskilled workers trying to sound important to highly skilled workers. This means your intended audience is tuning the message out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Take an RF designer and have them man the till at McDonald's with the day or two of training that most of these places do. See how they fare. I'm an EMT. Peoples lives literally depend on my skills. I was a roofer and a taco bell manager before that. I struggled more and was far more stressed at taco bell and I'd rather die than go back to working fast food.

People aren't weaponizing the term. They're already weaponized against the working class. The meme is calling that out. Just because that term has a specific definition doesn't mean that's how it's used in the broader public. Years of propaganda went into cultivating a certain image and association with that term. You hopping in and saying "that's not what that means!!!1!!" isn't going to change that.

The only people that give a shit about your definition are economists and even they aren't immune to the propaganda that's proliferated since before they were kids to foster a negative stereotype around that term. Instead of being a contrarian butthole, why don't you take the time to understand class struggle? You're not helping anyone or anything with this inane bullshit

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Not wanting to do something because you have better options does not mean that almost anyone can do it.

Unskilled labor is hard labor. Nothing about it is emotionally easy or less taxing on your body. But you can be taught to do it in a couple hours, hence, requires no hard skills.

There are soft skills that make people better at working a register than others - but the difference is really at the margins.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Take an RF designer and have them man the till at McDonald's with the day or two of training that most of these places do. See how they fare. I'm an EMT. Peoples lives literally depend on my skills.

I'd guess the answer would be "be slow at checking people out and be super stressed, but be a net productivity boost to the team".

Meanwhile, if you made him an EMT with no prior training he'd either just be shadowing an actual EMT and at best be a go-fer, or he'd kill someone. He'd likely be a net negative for a while.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

"Anything is possible if you put your mind to it."
— Dr. Jack Ripper