Thief13x on 12/9/2007 at 12:08
Quote Posted by Morte
And maybe you should be upset at Bush about the lack of bin Laden hunting, for wasting enormous amounts of resources on a completely unrelated war instead of putting them towards catching him. And withdrawing from Iraq, which is what the debate is currently raging about unless I'm mistaken, does not mean disengaging from the entirety of the Middle East.
who said I'm not upset with GB? just because I'm a republican doesn't mean I'm with the guy regardless, infact, he's pissed off alot of republicans recently.
they're calling 30k troops
home by summer 2008, you could argue that they will soon be redeployed to Afghanistan but seriously, what citizens are going to support that? I would bet that our congress won't. No one's rallying around finding Bin Laden, everyone just wants this 'horror' movie off their tv's, even though most people have never even been affected by the war beyond the Daily Show's oppinion of what we shoul do. It's all media hype, and it's extremely effective. No one supports the search for Bin Laden, it's just a fact, people assume we will never find him.
Vivian on 12/9/2007 at 12:13
Quote Posted by BR796164
Ok, for atheists : Australopithecus UGGH smashed the living shit out of Australopithecus ROGG. Poor ROGG. Who cares about him. There was no world wide web back then where other Australopithecuses would mourn about this sad occurence.
P/T boundary event, 96% of species wiped out in a flaming mess. Nemesis and the Oort cloud have yet to apologise.
Foubister on 12/9/2007 at 13:01
Quote Posted by scumble
Foubister, give it a rest. It's really not worth the effort.
Tried that already.
Quote Posted by Foubister
Perhaps we should all just have our moment of silence for the victims (those who wish to do so that is) and agree to disagree. I suppose it's like debating religion in a way. No one is going to convice the other that their point is the right one. And I suppose it's like religion in the sense that there might not be a "right" or "wrong" opinion.
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Way to make assumptions about me or my credentials. I don't need a degree in psychology to know that you "knowing" that you'd have committed suicide by now if you'd actually seen the attacks is abnormal to some extent. In fact I'll wager that no one else on the board would say the same.
Yeah actually you do need a dergee. It's not some simple subject that anyone can understand. Would you trust someone without an engineering degree to build something as complex as say the space shuttle? No, of course not. Even the "experts" don't know everything about how the human mind works so someone who is not and "expert" couldn't even scratch the surface.
SubJeff on 12/9/2007 at 13:07
But it's not like religion and your suicide comment is not open to interpretation.
Morte on 12/9/2007 at 13:07
Quote Posted by Thief13x
they're calling 30k troops
home by summer 2008, you could argue that they will soon be redeployed to Afghanistan but seriously, what citizens are going to support that? I would bet that our congress won't. No one's rallying around finding Bin Laden, everyone just wants this 'horror' movie off their tv's, even though most people have never even been affected by the war beyond the Daily Show's oppinion of what we shoul do. It's all media hype, and it's extremely effective. No one supports the search for Bin Laden, it's just a fact, people assume we will never find him.
What is media hype, exactly? Iraq going badly? People assuming bin Laden won't be caught? I won't argue on the second, it's a natural reaction to the constant waving of him and al-Queda around in justification of whatever, but I think you're going way overboard with saying nobody supports searching for him.
scumble on 12/9/2007 at 13:17
Quote Posted by Foubister
Tried that already.
Yes, but what you posted
after that didn't help. As I say, you've not posted in CommChat before so you have to be aware of what you're getting into here. It's a long way from the cuddly FM forum.
Quote Posted by mopgoblin
Now, if we're going to be counting deaths, we'll find that American society is a plentiful source of violence, death, and misery - each year, in the United States, there are around 15000 homicides, 30000 suicides, and 42000 deaths from motor vehicle accidents. In the six years since the attacks on the World Trade Centre, that's about 90000/180000/252000 deaths respectively - far more than the number that died in the towers and on the planes. Who would argue that these lives were of lesser value that those ended by the attacks? Why then are they not deserving of the same remembrance?
I've always thought about that in relation to foreign policy. Why do we put up with the "leaders" of our countries that we may or may not have elected messing about in foreign lands trying to save lives or improve them (oh the irony), when there isn't much evidence they're doing a terribly good job with the country they are supposed to be looking after. Although most of us aren't directly involved in the business of foreign intervention, there's still a vague idea that we can "help" developing peoples even though our example isn't that great, and most likely highly inappropriate to foreign cultures.
Foubister on 12/9/2007 at 13:40
Quote Posted by scumble
Yes, but what you posted
after that didn't help. As I say, you've not posted in CommChat before so you have to be aware of what you're getting into here. It's a long way from the cuddly FM forum.
Which was in response to Subjective Effect who wouldn't just let it die.
Yes I'm being reminded, quite vividly, of why I avoid CommChat. Some in there seem to just be itching for a fight. I realize now that I've only been feeding their hunger. Well, enough is enough. They can feed on each other for all I care. As far as I'm concerned, this thread is dead.
the_grip on 12/9/2007 at 13:43
Quote Posted by ercles
It is pretty depressing that it has come to the point that people are just becoming complacent about how shite media is nowadays. In the brief time I have spent in the US I never really found any tv news that could hold a light to the ABC here, or the CBC in canada. Both of which are obviousy government funded, the ABC still is ad-free. And both of which give excellent coverage of news on a broad spectrum of topics. I know its pretty old hat to point out how bad the American media is at reporting the news, but I seriously don't buy into the concept of "if people are buying it, we should be selling it". Although I realise that it is highly naiive and altruistic, I still believe that anyone who works in the media has a responsibility to try and educate the general public.
The only alternative to the concept of "if people are buying it, we should be selling it" is to enact a law to enforce certain standards. i can't imagine any situation that this would be possible under without violating freedom of speech and other rights, so i say let bygones be bygones. The law of demand will sort it out.
(Although i would reword what you stated - "if people are buying it, we should be selling it" actually should be "if people want to buy it at sustainable prices, then people will want to sell it at those prices").
Media anywhere is a business, not a service, and even government sponsored news will have some form of motives and agendas to accomplish a variety of particular gains. The only thing naive would be to believe that a particular media source is lacking in its own motives or agendas or is providing unbiased information because it is apparantly more tasteful, contains events that are seemingly less trite than the alternatives, or is government funded. What has happened is that such media has developed a more appealing face value, and the consumers find it thereby more valuable.
Folks ranging from the extreme Christian fundie right to the extreme liberal left all complain about media bias and the like. What they really mean is that what is presented does not suit them. If we lived under laws that enforced censorship and the like, then there would be a case that the media was constrained (both from an economics view and a moral view), but we aren't in such a situation.
That's why i think we don't have to get all shitty about it. Just switch the channel.
scumble on 12/9/2007 at 13:55
Quote Posted by Foubister
Yes I'm being reminded, quite vividly, of why I avoid CommChat. Some in there seem to just be itching for a fight. I realize now that I've only been feeding their hunger.
That's a rather one-sided view though. You've "fed" people only to the extent that you've offered an easy target. One can either learn from it or retreat.
Gingerbread Man on 12/9/2007 at 14:04
Quote Posted by Foubister
Yeah actually you do need a dergee. It's not some simple subject that anyone can understand. Would you trust someone without an engineering degree to build something as complex as say the space shuttle? No, of course not. Even the "experts" don't know everything about how the human mind works so someone who is not and "expert" couldn't even scratch the surface.
I have a psych degree and I agree with Subjective Effect's comment.
