> From my point of view, this program is a losing proposition for any potential student.
Although I agree with your sentiment (formal education has a lot of flaws), a full-fledged degree potentially solves other problems than just improving your resume to get a better/higher paying job for engineers.
Family pressure, lack of confidence that comes with not having a formal CS undergraduate degree, or motivation and structure that comes from paying for a formal program could all contribute to someone choosing this path. A $10k, online masters program from GT seems like a good option for some people.
> His counterpoint to you, which I would say has some traction, would likely be that those thinkpiece writers are deploying constructs like "privilege" as a way to discredit the very real struggle of people in groups that don't fall under the accepted rubric of privileged and oppressed, for the very reason that their issues' existence is either ignored or defined out of the category of "systemic oppression."
This is a good point. Its tough when being candid about the struggles of one group discredits the struggle of another. Honesty is important, but not invalidating someone's hardship is also important.
I want to defend the "thinkpiece writers" a little bit.
I agree that you can't judge someone because they're part of Group X. Its impossible to know what struggles a person goes through. But, at least a few of the thinkpiece writers I've seen are commenting on how Group X uses their privilege to discredit the struggles Group Y or Z has experienced because of Group X.
Laughing "about how good people in Group X have it and how hilarious it is that they sometimes complain about their lives" is taking it too far, but I've seen something very similar to the above excerpt used to discredit the very real, systemic struggle of minorities. That makes me cringe. I'm in favor of being empathic to everyone's humanity and not discrediting anyone's struggle.
Are there any evangelical christians that have a critical assessment of this piece? I'm no longer a part of the church, but a few phrases strike me as strange ("An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty."; "The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization."; "Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.”) I'd be interested in hearing your opinion.