BEAR on 4/3/2009 at 17:20
The thing that makes me the most sick is I understand exactly the emotion expressed by the OP (or poster of the OP's OP, whatever), and its complete fucking bullshit. My parents say that, their parents say that, and their parents said that. Guess what, everyone says that shit.
You know why? Because shit changes. We're used to shit, we don't want it to change, and it always does anyways. Our brains develop in one world, and die in another, and we're not fucking happy about it and we make sure everyone knows it by posting stupid self-rightous threads on internet forums (used to we'd sit at a barber shop and shoot the shit but those were the good ol days...aw fuck now I'm doing it too).
Get over it, the world is going on without you and me and everyone else so fucking chill and let it happen. Things for the most part have been getting better for a good while, you can't pick any time in history that would really have been better to live in, its an illusion and it doesn't help anyone. Feel free to rant about it if it makes you feel better but I'm going to bitch (because it feels so good) when you do.
Jason Moyer on 4/3/2009 at 17:35
Quote Posted by Renzatic
And before I get called a hypocrite, I got rid of everything but my business cell about 6 months ago. Best decision of my life. "But awwoooh mah gawwwdd, how do you txt", you may ask. I'll tell you. I DON'T!
I got rid of my cellphone when I realized I was basically paying for a service so that people I don't like can get in touch with me at inconvenient times for reasons I don't really give a shit about.
A cell phone would have been nice when I was 15 and racking up $300 long distance bills. Now (now as in, any time in the past 10 or so years), at a time when people I care about can actually get in touch with me via email/IM, not so much.
Kolya on 4/3/2009 at 17:39
What BEAR said. Also they should ban Barbie. I'm all for it.
Paz on 4/3/2009 at 17:40
Quote Posted by Matthew
It's not a law, it's a
proposed law. It relies on him getting the support of a majority of his state legislature to pass, which would mean they'd all have to be as crazy as he was.
So much of the stuff that gets passed around (and indeed reported as news - I've seen headlines on both tabloids and broadsheets* along these lines) is this kind of thing.
Some 'law' (ie not a law at all) which, yeah, is usually bonkers, but is also about twenty stages away from being anywhere close to legislation. Which is not to say that shitty laws never get passed, but it would be nice to have a little more precision with our language and our concerns.
Almost every single one of these SHOCK HORROR WHAT IS HAPPENING TO SOCIETY pieces can be debunked to pieces with a small amount of proper research or specific knowledge in the field. The problem is a lot of people either love believing them so don't even want them disproved, are too busy so they never get around to it (understandable) or don't have the necessary prior knowledge for a self-debunking (oo-err). Unfortunately this means the damage is done quite quickly, as the information starts being passed around as gospel in workplaces and across the internet in places like this - sometimes by people who just don't know any better and who are legitimately concerned by it, and sometimes by people who simply WANT to be concerned by it because they lap this shit up or have something to gain by more people falling for sloppy thinking.
Governments are doing some evil shit, but it's along the lines of torturing people and circumventing illegal arms sales legislation - not being a little heavy-handed with the health & safety code (slightly irritating as this can sometimes be.)
*there was one on The Guardian around New Year about OMG PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO VOTE ON PRISONER SENTENCES .. actual reality: some dude had suggested it for inclusion in a green paper which may then be looked at when deciding on criminal law somewhere down the line maybe possibly perhaps. So IF it even made it into the study and IF that study was then used as a basis for a new bill and IF that bill was actually passed .. then yes, stuff would happen. None of this was mentioned in the front page report though (you can figure it out if you know enough about boring government processes, however) and of course the chances of it actually happening were around zero, but hey, great story, pass it around your friends!
Yeah, here we go - (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/02/justice-respect-agenda-public) "Offenders face public vote on punishments" is completely misleading given the context of what follows. The article has some potentially worrying information in it, but the piece overall is poorly focused. Trying to give the impression that murderers would soon be appearing before some kind of Pop Idol style telephone vote was fucking weak.
Ulukai on 4/3/2009 at 17:45
Apparently, there's a proposed law that says all citizens must be followed around by Clowns and Random Dogs. Paz you are so fucked.
Paz on 4/3/2009 at 18:01
no . . . :(
june gloom on 4/3/2009 at 18:16
why are you guys having a pissing contest over an email forward from 1997
Kolya on 4/3/2009 at 18:17
Because we missed you.
june gloom on 4/3/2009 at 18:18
I'M NOT HERE TO BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY
Kolya on 4/3/2009 at 18:19
:(
