Posted on 12/30/2024 8:32:27 PM PST by SeekAndFind
My friend @JoshuaSteinman is dropping bombshells about H-1B visas, and I’ve got a story to add.
tl;dr – It’s a cultural problem.
I spent years in India, working directly for one of the country’s wealthiest individuals. He recruited me for my computer skills to lead some of the most ambitious, technically challenging projects ever attempted.
We broke world records and unlocked trillions in wealth. My boss? He now lives in a skyscraper in Mumbai.
Toward the end of the project, he told me his best engineers were leaving for Silicon Valley, lured by unbelievable salaries. So, on his recommendation, I packed up my family and moved to California.
Here’s where it gets weird: I was (at least for short periods of rime) chief of that massive project, with ultimate responsibility. But guys several rungs below me - men way less qualified for any job - were getting H-1B visas and landing incredible salaries in tech.
I got turned down for every tech job I applied for.
Looking back, here’s why:
1.I told the truth. The foreign visa applicants? Many claimed to work in different departments or roles to fit the narrative. I admitted I worked on oil & gas projects. That’s considered “dirty” and “irrelevant” in tech. http://2.My school wasn’t on “the list.” I graduated from @MaritimeCollege —what @stevenujifusa calls “the Harvard of Maritime.” Highest attrition rate in the country. 185 credits. Classes like spherical geometry. But it’s a state school in The Bronx.
Tech doesn’t care. They rely on lists of “approved” “Ivy Plus” schools, as @bhorowitz admits in The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
But there’s more to it. It’s a cultural problem.
American applicants are at a disadvantage because we’re too easy to vet.
•Work for an Indian oil company? Don’t mention it on your resume.
•Work for a Chinese communist spy agency? Just leave it out.
•Wrong degree? Ask the school to reword your transcript or reframe it as a minor.
As an American, it’s incredibly difficult to lie. HR WILL call my references and confirms every detail of my background.
But for foreign applicants? That’s a lot harder to verify, so they get a pass.
And beneath it all? “Tech culture.”
Read any book about the industry, and you’ll find a near-religious obsession with maintaining “culture.” It’s a startup mantra: hard work, positivity, willingness to take risks.
But the dirty secret? “Tech culture” also harbors disdain for: •“Dirty” industries like oil & gas. •Christian values or Republican politics. •Anything less than an Ivy League education.
This isn’t just about H-1Bs. It’s about arrogance baked into an industry that weeds out Americans for not fitting their mold.
I’m not surprised that zero of Josh’s friends from the Trump administration got hired in tech, even at the highest levels.
If you’re a foreign conservative? They’ll hire you because it doesn’t code against “tech culture.” (E.g. I have several ultra conservative very religious Hindu friends who don’t have this problem) But if you’re an American who doesn’t fit their narrative? They’ll weed you out.
It’s time to talk about the serious cultural problem in tech—and how it’s harming American workers.
Tech has serious biases. They either need to toss them out and hire the best candidates or figure out how to properly vet foreigners who don’t fit their BS culture.
P.S. I did find a way around this BS. Start a company yourself m. I did and raised over $6M for one company.
How did I do it? I dropped any mention of my religion, politics, oil drilling experience and state school education from my capital raising meetings. Worked like a charm.
As an American it’s literally easier to get million dollar checks than a middle level job at Facebook or Apple.
Watch this:
People hated slavery for moral reasons. That’s why the first abolitionists were found in the churches.
Jefferson himself claimed that some Northerners had also objected to his proposed anti-slavery section of the Declaration, though he didn't identify them by name or state.
So, several points to make here:
So you are suggesting old injustices should be ignored?
I tend to be an absolutist. We should not meekly accept a situation created by someone ignoring constitutional law and doing whatever they want simply because they have power.
Wait. Isn't that your *EXACT POINT* regarding how the 14th amendment is misinterpreted to allow all the nonsense?
You are saying the creative "interpretation" of the 14th to allow "gay marriage", anchor babies, abortion and banning prayers in school is a "lie".
Why isn't the creation of the 14th also a lie?
An absolutist reading of the Constitutional Amendment process does not allow the Federal government to control states and *FORCE* them to vote for things their people do not want.
If you complain about people misusing the US Constitution, does not what they did to create the 14th amendment also fall into the category of misusing the constitution and lying about it's meaning?
Heh. These words from the guy who says he thinks thinks that a slavery amendment after a war not fought over prayer in schools would authorize ending prayer in schools.
Stop putting your words in my mouth. I absolutely reject the idea that those things come out of the 14th amendment, but I recognize that the courts *SAY* the 14th amendment created those ridiculous results.
*NONE* of us agree with using the 14th amendment to create any of those results, but we recognize that the courts who created them, claim it was the 14th amendment which gave them the power to do so.
Why do you keep trying to accuse us of supporting ideas we don't support?
A small minority of people hated slavery for moral reasons. The rest hated it because they hated labor competition and because they hated black people.
But we have been told all our lives that people only hated slavery because they saw it as immoral, when in fact the truth is that the vast majority didn't care about that. They hated it for economic and racial reasons, not because they cared about the slaves.
They had mouthed a bunch of formalities and passed a bunch of laws that said they would abolish it at some point in the future.
I tend to be an absolutist, and I don't consider stating intentions to be the same thing as doing the deed.
My measure of the abolition of slavery is that it no longer exists in any form within a state that has abolished it.
This is of course not true for the vast majority of States that "abolished it" in the 1790 era. I think Pennsylvania still had slaves on the census in the 1840s. I know some of the states did.
My point here is that even in 1776, and especially by 1787, many leading Americans, North and South, took slavery very seriously and were doing what they could to abolish it wherever possible.
I think there is a lot of truth in this. Even George Washington himself, in his later years decided he wanted to abolish it, and he often pondered how it might be accomplished.
But did most people oppose it because they thought it was wrong, or did they oppose it because they didn't want white men to have to compete with slaves for paying jobs? Did they oppose it because they didn't want "colored" living among them?
When you go back and look at it, there is indeed written evidence that some people opposed it because they thought it was immoral, but there is also a lot of evidence that the majority opposed it for economic and racial reasons.
There are all sorts of people who said they wanted to keep the territories for white people, meaning they simply didn't want any black people in them. I think Lincoln said this too.
The various "black codes" in the various Northern states indicate that the populations were primarily driven by hatred, not love.
Not at all. I'm the one who points out that the British Empire forced slavery upon the United States, by vetoing our pre-U.S.-colonial laws that would've started the process, remember?
(all of this paragraph is irrelevant to the discussion but it adds context)But I don't support Britain paying reparations to African Americans. Old injustices are just that. Old. The new injustice is The 1619 Project. So this information about British vetos becomes very valuable then. The U.S. is actually a victim in the slavery arena. We have the text of the vetos to prove it.
In any case back to the 14th if there's something that needs to be fixed, then let's fix it.
"We should not meekly accept a situation created by someone ignoring constitutional law and doing whatever they want simply because they have power.
Wait. Isn't that your *EXACT POINT* regarding how the 14th amendment is misinterpreted to allow all the nonsense?"
No, it's not the exact point. There is no misinterpretation. There is only a lie. Progressives are liars first and foremost. Let me explain something to you. There's two rules to follow here. Only two are required:
First. Progressives are liars.
Second. If you ever have any doubts whatsoever, refer back to rule number 1.
On some topic related to black people specifically, we can talk misinterpretation. On some topic like prayer in schools no. The Civil War was not fought over prayer in schools. Am I still lecturing you Civil War guy that the Civil War was not fought over prayer in schools?
"Why isn't the creation of the 14th also a lie?"
A fair question. Problem is, the civil war is over. All we can do now is fix the amendment or repeal it. Complaining to me isn't getting it fixed one or the other.
"*NONE* of us agree with using the 14th amendment to create any of those results, but we recognize that the courts who created them, claim it was the 14th amendment which gave them the power to do so."
Given the construct of this sentence I'm not putting words into your mouth. You own them. That sentence should have contained the word lie, but it did not. So I'm not putting any single word whatsoever in your mouth. You're doing it very deftly all on your own.
You keep doing this. Very, very consistent. You say the courts are using it, you say the courts are claiming it. But never once, ever, do you say the claim is a lie. That trust is never broken. If I missed it I apologize, but I cannot say I have ever seen that trust broken.
You are completely stuck on being wedded to the idea that yes, this has to come from the 14th. For whatever reason, you're unwilling to entertain that perhaps progressive lies stand alone.
"Why do you keep trying to accuse us of supporting ideas we don't support?"
See post 137 or 136. https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4287265/posts?page=137#137 Note the difference between the two. BTW, my word is belief not support.
You know what, I can't believe I missed this initially.
I'm going to do this the aggressive way.
The one word I do want to put into your mouth is "lie" and I cannot possibly get it there.
At this point, the word "lie" won't be there, you trust the progressives too too much. So relax, I can't put any words in your mouth. Just as it's not in the slavery amendment's power to do abortion things since the war wasn't fought over slavery, its not in my power to put words into your mouth.
Think about that one for a while.
First. Progressives are liars.
So the people who collected all those ratifications from the Southern states were just liars when they said it was all legitimate?
Well yes. Therefore the 14th was never a legitimate amendment from the beginning. It never received actual ratification votes, but the liars said it did, and we've been dealing with the consequence of it being passed fraudulently ever since.
The Civil War was not fought over prayer in schools. Am I still lecturing you Civil War guy that the Civil War was not fought over prayer in schools?
You are lecturing your own straw man, because none of us suggested that it was.
A fair question. Problem is, the civil war is over. All we can do now is fix the amendment or repeal it. Complaining to me isn't getting it fixed one or the other.
I'm not trying to fix it, I recognize that wrong will never be corrected, but I am trying to get people to recognize that the passage of the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th amendments were an abuse of the US Constitution amendment process.
The people who perpetrated this violation of our constitution are all long dead, and the culture has become so firmly ingrained with what they did that it is simply not possible to undo it.
But it would be good to see that people comprehend that the liberals have been lying about the constitution since at least the 1860s.
Given the construct of this sentence I'm not putting words into your mouth. You own them. That sentence should have contained the word lie, but it did not.
The courts do not believe they lie. Whether *WE* believe it is irrelevant to the fact *THEY* have the power to lie and impose that lie on us, and calling them liars might make us feel better, but it won't change anything about what they declared the 14th amendment requires.
And the bad wording and overreach of the 14th amendment bears some blame itself.
Have you ever heard of the "Incorporation doctrine"? That is the main way they abuse all sorts of states rights, such as forcing Abortion and Gay Marriage down our throats.
According to them, the "incorporation doctrine" requires that all prohibitions against the Federal government must also apply to the states. Therefore if it is illegal for the Federal government to recognize an official religion, it is illegal for a state to do so as well.
Of course this is nonsense, but a fair reading of the 14th makes it a reasonable interpretation that they can do this.
The 14th was a horribly written amendment that tried to do too much and was too vague in important points.
Had it been written better, they would have had more difficulty making things up by using it.
I am beginning to think you have some sort of screw loose. I've said "lie" many times. You seem to think that just because *YOU* declare what the courts did a "lie", that they will accept your view and change their ways.
Yes, we all know they are "LYING." The point is, if the amendment hadn't been written by a dyslexic first grader, it would be a lot harder for the courts to "LIE" about it, and get away with it.
Why are you stuck on that word "lie"? Nobody disagrees with you about it, but you keep claiming we do.
Like I said, you are coming across as having a screw loose.
Look. With all due respect, I didn’t read your post. I read all the rest of them, just not this time. Mainly because I have nothing else for this song that doesn’t end. I don’t want to keep seeing things tempting to me to reply, so that is purely on me.
You think that the 14th amendment enables things completely non-slavery/non black people related in modern court cases, and I think progressives do it purely on lies and gimmickry and just say whatever needs to be said to achieve some goal. We aren’t going to agree.
I’m sure we will discuss this again since we have discussed this before.
My final word on this is posts 136/137 for you or anybody who wants it.
The Civil War was not fought over prayer in schools and abortions. See posts 136/137 for more details.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4287265/posts?page=136#136
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4287265/posts?page=137#137
Comes now Brother Joe Jean-Pierre to argue rights and remedies provided in the founding documents were not available to southerners in 1860 (as they were to the original 13 slave states in 1776) because of something about the lack of women's rights.
Only one week into 2025 and Brother Joe Jean-Pierre has broken his resolution not to get caught spreading hooey.
Of course, I understand, that's what you wish it said, because that might support your pro-Confederate ideology.
And to support your argument, you can produce exactly one word, quoted from the Declaration: "should", which you interpret to mean "should not", and therefore nothing else the Declaration actually says matters to you, does it?
But outside your Lost Cause pro-Confederate fantasies, the actual declaration says something entirely different, the core of which is this:
And that's why the Confederacy was illegitimate from Day One of its conception, all your fantasies to the contrary notwithstanding.
These are the facts:
DiogenesLamp: "I think you are referring to spontaneous efforts by civilians to gain support for the Confederacy in states like Missouri and Kentucky, but i'm not sure.
If governments are supposed to be responsible for the irrational hot heads that cause problems, but who have no official backing, should we say John Brown and his wealthy Massachusetts backers started the Civil War?"
I'm referring to the following:
May 6, 1861, Confederate Declaration of War on the United States:
Confederates merely steal. General Sherman burning Atlanta was an act of pure barbarism
No, it does just the opposite -- the Declaration acknowledges that people do not change governments for "light and transient reasons", but insists that when "a long train of abuses and usurpations" leading towards "absolute Despotism", then "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government"
That's why your pro-Confederate fantasies have nothing whatever to do with historical reality.
It does say that, whether it supports "pro-confederate ideology" or not. I don't acknowledge the truth of things because it might support my view, I acknowledge the truth of things because they are true.
And to support your argument, you can produce exactly one word, quoted from the Declaration: "should", which you interpret to mean "should not", and therefore nothing else the Declaration actually says matters to you, does it?
I didn't create the English language, but in whatever language we use, the concept of "should", is not the concept of "Shall."
You keep trying to substitute "Shall", as in a command, for "should", which is a suggestion.
Either learn your English, or learn some honesty.
Obviously, if you believe that only "might makes right", then nothing else matters and all such debates are superfluous.
However, if we believe that our Founding Documents are important and valid, especially as regards the legal compact that binds us together as Americans, then we have to confess that words have meanings as intended by those who wrote them, first and foremost.
That's sort of what the word "conservative" means -- we're trying to preserve the best of our intellectual inheritance, which means we have to begin by acknowledging exactly what those words say and meant to our Founders.
So, what you did in your post #101 was concoct some nonsensical explanation from your own imagination, not related anything our Founders ever said or wrote down.
The truth of this matter remains as I've stated it: no Founder ever proposed or supported an unlimited "right of secession" at pleasure.
All saw that as simply:
Consider: several Founders signed both the 1776 Declaration and the 1787 Constitution, and others who signed one but not the other -- i.e., Washington & Adams -- fully supported both.
My point is, they did not think the two documents contradictory, and none of them ever suggested an unlimited "right of secession" at pleasure.
You are ignoring the fact that you can't pass amendments by pointing guns at people. The constitution was never intended to operate through coercion, but was intended to work through voluntary assent.
Occupation armies in states should automatically preclude their votes from being counted for any purpose of ratification. Under those conditions, they are merely puppets of the central government in DC, and will simply do as they are ordered.
That is dictatorial, and not at all how a Free Republic is supposed to work.
They walked up to the fort to see what was going on there in the middle of the night, and they were shot at by Union forces who had seized the abandoned fort in the darkness.
This is why the stuff you say can't be taken at face value. You always present it in a way that favors what you want people to believe rather than the objective truth.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.