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When did I insult you besides when I decimated your argument? When I called you crazy? You're proposing that we ban images of queen size beds lest the childrens get any kind of bad ideas. I'm not trying to be mean, but that's ing nuts.
That is true. I certainly have more access to information than any generation previous me.
Maybe both my and Manny's blanket statements are incorrect. Maybe in many ways the world is a better place. But I still don't think that in every sense the world is a better place.
When did I insult you besides when I decimated your argument? When I called you crazy? You're proposing that we ban images of queen size beds lest the childrens get any kind of bad ideas. I'm not trying to be mean, but that's ing nuts.
I think you underestimate the amount or degree of violence in the ages before us. Even within the last 100 years. Back in the day the media would report crimes but they rarely would go into such detail as they do now. The picture isn't painted as vividly as it is today. Shock sells.
But that is part of what I was trying to say. We today tolerate the media reporting as we do.
If we refused to buy into their sensationalism and graphic reporting, would the media revert back to the old way of reporting?
Personally I liked the 80's better than now. The 80's were kick ass!
Humans feed off of destruction and drama. Nothing will change. I'm simply saying the media satisfying the publics hunger is what gives us or you the perception of it being a more violent world when % wise it probably isn't.
I didn't propose anything. I was just pointing out trends and changes that I personally find disturbing.
I was explaining my viewpoint to Manny, answering his question.
I was not engaging you in debate which is why I find it humorous that you felt the need to decimate my argument.
Why not just chime in with your own point of view? Why go on the offensive against me?
And please don't use profanity when posting to me.
That is a valid point and I agree with it.
I also think that in general humans are more accepting and less particular than they were even just a few generations back. In the context of my original post ( the long one), I do not view it as a good thing.
"modern woman" wouldn't be so sensitive.
good god..shut the up. stay in the politics section..this isn't about Obama..this is about a tragedy.says the birther.
poor thing. trying to make it sound as if you're pure as the driven snow.
That is true. It was not a proposal.
But, forgive me for thinking it crazy that you find the televised depiction of queen size beds to be a disturbing trend.
edit: especially in the context of our species violent history.
I did. Line by line. It wasn't an offensive. I'm not pissed. It's just, you left a lot of room for response, no?Why not just chime in with your own point of view?
Yeah..because you know a lot about me, considering the only thing I've ever talked about with you is Obama...and we disagree on the case. If you look at all my political arguments, I don't like the guy at all, but at the same time, I will support him because he's my president. I didn't know repubs and demos had to be on sides..I thought we were on one side, but apparently some people disagree with that.
Bali just annihilated angel_luv. Oh the humanity. That was hard to watch.
Who's birdwalking now.
The fact of the matter Veronica is that technology has nothing to do with the fact that today humanity is less violent than at any point in its past. Its not an opinion but a well do ented fact. Today the quality of life shared by humans as a whole is superior to every generation that has come before.
Fewer people die today from disease, fewer people go hungry, fewer people are killed in acts of violence
I highly doubt we see more violence today than those in the past and I know for a fact we're a lot less desensitized. I don't believe you understand the utter despair and horrors this world has seen in the past. Can you imagine living in the time of the Roman Empire and going to watch men fight to the death at the coliseum? Can you imagine the watching a loved one die from something as mundane as a tooth infection? Can you imagine the life of someone born with a defect in those times?I believe we as a nation and a world have become de-sensitized ( sp?) in a lot of ways to the horror that goes on around us.
Now, imagine all of those things being normal. Imagine the the normalcy of being in a warzone where you may die at any moment and the normalcy of a life expectancy not in the 70s, 60s but the 30s and 20s?
I don't agree with this at all, but even if it were true that doesn't mean yesterday's violence was less prevalent or less shocking.Violent crimes, things like school shootings and terrorist attacks, are no longer things that are out of the ordinary.
When they happen people feel sad but, sadly, people are no longer surprised.
I don't agree with this statement at all. But even if I did, once again, abortions are not new. They have been around for as long as pregnancies have been around.There are people who have multiple abortions, simply because they can.
The number of executions is FAR smaller than it was in our pasts. The number of murders are far lower than in our past.There are the murders that occur on yearly basis. And add to that death toll all the death row executions that take place.
Sure, executions are not as blood and guts messy as they once were but still it is the end of human life.
I have heard the lethal injection described as an "easy way to die". If you study the process, you know it is anything but.
I think you should understand that I'm not arguing we live in some sort of utopia, but rather that this we are and have been improving because our pasts are just that bad.
No one is saying crime is gone. Of course there are still horrible events that happen everyday in our world. However, is there less of it today than in the past? Yes.Every evening news segment seems to report at least one malicious crim against an individual or animal- and that is just our local news.
In the past entertainment at times consisted of killing others. I already pointed out the Roman Coliseum as an example. In any event, entertainment on TV is not actual violence. If given the choice between fictional violence on TV and actual violence I know which I will pick.In general, I think people are not as conscientious ( sp?) as they once used to be about what they watch, what they say, and how they behave.
Take for example Matlock and Murder she wrote ( murder mystery shows my grandma used to watch) and compare it with today's way more graphic shows like CSI and Law and Order.
Violent images are a lot more accepted today than they were fifty years ago.
I think your mistake is confusing that humanity does not live up to your ideals at the moment with whether or not we're better off than we've ever been.In the same way, there are commercials on during primetime like the ones for male enhancement drugs that were never on so early when I was a kid.
Cartoons never had vulgarities in them when I was a kid like Family Guy does today.
The way people walk around swearing- that is something that simply was not done by most people in my grandparents generation.
People use to temper their language at the very least when women were present. Now no one blinks when women curse. In fact, a lot of people find it to be funny.
Consider also the graphic sex scenes in movies. On television shows in my grandparents era, husbands and wives slept in different beds.
There are people who claim to be bi-sexual in order to be trendy. Reality television allows people to become famous for acting badly.
And people everywhere feel it is okay to be mean to each other on a daily basis and call it entertainment.
When I first joined this forum, it was a rare thing when someone was mean to someone. Now it happens in every thread and usually for no reason at all.
I can't even recommend the site anymore because I am afraid of what someone's kid might read on here and that is really sad to me.
While I think its obvious that you see a lot of room for improvement in the world that does not change the fact that humanity has come a long way. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Update:
Police: Gunman caught after killing 1 in Orlando
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer Mike Schneider, Associated Press Writer – 12 mins ago ORLANDO, Fla. – A gunman opened fire Friday in the offices of an engineering firm where he was let go more than two years ago, authorities said, killing one person and injuring five others.
Jason Rodriguez, 40, surrendered about three hours later, after officers saw him through the window of his mother's home and asked him to come outside, Orlando Police Chief Val Demings said.
Asked by a reporter outside the police station why he did it, he replied: "Because they left me to rot."
Demings said Rodriguez brought a handgun to the firm in a downtown office tower where he once worked as an engineer, but investigators are not sure what his motive was.
"This is a tragedy, no doubt about it, especially on the heels of the tragedy in Fort Hood that is on our minds," Demings said. "I'm just glad we don't have any more fatalities or any more injuries than we currently have."
Charles W. Price, an attorney who represented Rodriguez in a bankruptcy case, declined to comment.
Camille Previlon told The Associated Press her uncle, engineer Guy Lungenbel, was shot in the back and was able to talk but had not said much about the shooting.
"He is stable," she said. "He's just hurting real bad in the back."
Everyone who was shot was in the offices of Reynolds Smith & Hill, on the eighth floor. The five survivors were in stable condition, Demings said.
Company spokesman Mike Bernos said Rodriguez was an entry-level engineer who was fired in June 2007 after working there for a year.
"His performance wasn't up to our standards, so we terminated him," Bernos said. There had been no contact between the company and Rodriguez since then.
After the lunchtime shooting, people streamed out of the Legion Place building and some said they had barricaded themselves inside their offices while the gunman was on the loose.
Gerry Gilgo, who works on the floor where the shooting occurred, told The Associated Press she was meeting a co-worker at the elevators for lunch.
"She yelled, 'There are gunshots! There are gunshots! Get back in your office,'" Gilgo said.
Will Halpern, an attorney on the building's 17th floor, was among the last group to be evacuated. He said the lobby was filled with about 20 officers in SWAT gear, carrying assault weapons, ready to search.
Interstate 4 was closed in both directions through downtown and nearby schools were locked down until the alleged gunman was caught.
Rows of ambulances lined up outside the building as police snipers took up positions around the building and officers on foot and horseback searched the area.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_orlando_office_shooting
there is only one place for birthers.
stop pretending, it's embarrassing.
Manny do you seriously think that the media coverage and all its glory has little to nothing to do with the perception that we live in a more violent world.
Unless I misunderstood you.
where the does this "birther" thing come from? Because I said he didn't show his birth certificate before he was elected? He didn't. And what the am I pretending? God some people on this board are ing idiots. If you don't agree with their political views, you're automatically ignorant, and they act like they know you or something. I've never met you, clambake, and thankfully, I probably never will. You don't know me. You know nothing about me, so quit acting like you do.
No way of reporting will change the way the world actually is or actually was. The information on what happens is out there which is different than in the past but what is most important is the actual acts, not the reporting.
The world is what it is and why should we be afraid to acknowledge that? We can attempt to close our eyes or hide the darkest parts of it but that doesn't change the fact that they are there.
A few notes:
I don't think this happens as often as your pastor says it does. Are there women who have used abortion as a form of birth control? Of course there are. It would be foolish and disingenuous of me to deny that fact. But it's silly to assume that is standard practice, and more than a little insulting to the millions of women who have faced such an agonizing decision because they knew it would be the best and most responsible choice in the long run.
You shouldn't mistake the sensationalized, "if it bleeds, it leads" practice of the media for an actual increase in crime. Either its intensity, or its frequency. Violent crimes, school shootings, terrorist attacks... none of these have ever been out of the ordinary. Especially if you look at this on a global scale, which, per your comment that "the world is a terrible place anymore," I'm assuming we are.
Since there is no way to prove that any of the examples above are in any way tied to an increase in actual violence, this would appear to refer only to your sense of morals and values. In that case, your comment that "the world is a terrible place anymore" would be more accurately expressed as "the world is a slightly less comfortable place for me, personally, than it used to be."
Cartoons aimed at children still don't have vulgarities. "Family Guy" is aimed at adults, so in order to be fair you would have to compare it to other animation that was aimed at adults. The Warner Brothers cartoons of the 1930s and 40s didn't have any vulgarities, so I suppose you would have a point there. They were, however, chock full of blatant racism -- getting blown up apparently turns you into a pickaninny, in case you didn't know -- so maybe have to call that one a push.
Yes. Yes it was. It may not have been done by your grandparents specifically, but people have been cursing a blue streak for probably as long as language has existed.
Who finds it funny when women curse?
And, again, this may be an assault on your personal sense of decency and decorum, but isn't really tied to a tangible decline in civilization as a whole. In fact, considering that the supposedly chivalrous at ude that protects women from foul language is rooted in numerous sexist ideals about how we can't or shouldn't be trusted with such information, one could argue that women swearing is, in it's own little way, a sign of progress.
Yes. The denial of sexuality has really done us a lot of good. Especially we girls. It's good and safe for us to grow up unaware of, or even ashamed of, our sexuality, our bodies, and how they work.
I'm not sure what these two statements have to do with each other. Well, actually, I have an inkling, but I wouldn't want to respond defensively for no reason.
I've made several comments in the past about the ways in which I think the internet has specifically changed the way people interact. I think that the anonymity of message boards and social networking sites have made it possible for people to be cruel and confrontational in a way that they would not be in person. For that reason, I cannot entirely disagree that this forum, as well as any internet forum, is rather quick to get petty and hostile and mean. Nor can I disagree that it has likely gotten worse over time.
Where I do disagree, however, is in the suggestion that people being mean to each other for the purpose of entertainment is somehow a new or fresh idea. That is simply untrue. People are assholes. People have always been assholes. People will continue to be assholes. Whether it's a bully on the playground trying to look tough or Bugs Bunny making fun of the Japanese as a piece of nationalist propaganda, there is a tremendous amount of power in ridicule and there always has been.
Based on the things you have written over the years, it is no secret that you grew up in an incredibly sheltered environment. You can't make the mistake of thinking that things are getting worse just because your shelter is being penetrated. The world has always been out there.
Last edited by CuckingFunt; 11-06-2009 at 03:44 PM.
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