How Many Controversial Subjects Can We Fit In One Post?

[Lazario]

WARNING: I am forced to create this thread, although a zillion members are bound to say they don't agree with it. And a half dozen moderators are about to lay their sword of wrath upon this. But I have been forced to make this thread and I want everyone to know WHY. Because people don't like my points of view. Oh no, I'm not pointing the finger at the mod's. I realize they feel like they have to cut down on fighting and whatnot. But users who start a post and expect that everyone replying will just NOD THEIR HEAD in perfect, harmonious agreement... This is OFF-TOPIC, and if we disagree, WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO VERBALISE IT. But I don't want poor castleinthesky's post to be shut down because of me...

GOD, what the hell happened to a person's passion for being THOUGHTFUL for other people????? It's met with nothing but APATHY, DISGUST, or CONTEMPT. I would rather when a person replies to my post, that they share their opinions whether they agree OR NOT.

And too many people always turn away from something they see as controversial... Why? There is obviously a lot to say or else I wouldn't be saying it! I'm the eternal messenger, so when I'm saying it - you know it needs to be said. Because when I'm finished talking, it's over really. I say these things BECAUSE I CARE! I don't do it for the sake of arguement. I say it because too many people don't freaking care!

So anyway, ENOUGH ABOUT ME.



Let's get to the MEAT.









Religion!

Religion is a mystery to most people who aren't a member of whatever church is in question. That's almost the way it should always be. But people break that wall, and use their religion to SPREAD HATRED and FEAR of people who otherwise are alright with God, really. These days, we don't listen to the preachers who teach their followers to spread love. We are in a society of anger and selfishness. Love is about giving. But every message we see now is about taking. And religion has adapted to that, by teaching it's believers to preach hatred, fear, IGNORANCE, over love. No one gives themselves, they just take, and God has become a very greedy and expensive illusion.

Community!

When a cop comes by people's houses to warn them (aw, the good old days) about killers or child molesters, or call them... Oh, wait, that doesn't happen anymore these days. You have the FEAR of things spread on the television but no GROUPS of people HELPING each other out or on the lookout for these things. Apathy = conservative behavior. Care about yourself only, and what you have to gain. And when you act for the sake of your children, act AFTER things happen. Oh, wait... when I just mentioned groups of people, maybe like Neighborhood Watch... were you scratching your head wondering what I was talking about? Nobody is organized anymore. The people who are organized are people who benefit from all Americans being in a state of paranoia. And how about the parents who act when there's still time... By teaching their daughters to be UNCOMFORTABLE with their bodies, pretending that girls don't have sexual desires of their own. Will this stop child molestation or rape? No. But it messes with girls' self esteem. Parents are always too late with boys, and boys are looked at as so much trouble, they let TV and stupid "guy" propaganda teach boys to hate girls or treat them like objects.

Anti-Social Behavior!

Not teaching boys that girls are equal to them leads to anti-social behavior, which makes boys into skilled manipulators. Manipulation is the key element in how boys rape girls. Some boys don't, but they grow up to be men who can with equal ease, molest children. Why don't parents know to stop these feelings before they become values - because they're afraid teaching boys to be sensitive toward girls will make them gay.

The Macho Disease!

Why do we have women's rights in the first place? You may be shocked to learn this, but women do not have the same rights as men. While they don't need the exact same rights as men do (they're different, we all accept this), men don't want to see women : 1) make as much or more money than they do and provide for themselves / 2) talk / 3) be assertive, loud, or aggressive. Men want to see women as weaker than them so that they can feel superior. But if women don't get to feel superior, why should anyone? Men think they control everything, but women have the power.

You Go, Girl!

Women hold all the power. Everything relies on women. And no matter what, men cannot escape that. They know it, and in addition to wanting women to feel inferior so they can accomplish something "they" can be proud of, they also want to feel superior because they fear the power of women. One of the reasons why the image of a woman is popularized as something dainty and/or fragile is because when women are made into this, men can go on operating as macho. Women need to see just how much they really have - they own the world. When a woman says she won't let people treat her badly, she's stronger than any football player. He might tackle her on the field, but SHE LIVES LONGER THAN HE because those she's know they have the power to live on. That's why men commit more crimes, they haven't had what women have to balance them out and control their thoughtless urges to be violent. When a woman is violent, she is protecting herself. Her natural instinct is to fight off predatoratory people. And if we want to be a stronger people, we should celebrate this, not fear or undermine it.

Politics and the Conservative Disease!

What a wonderful system conservative politics is : anti-disease prevention studies, women sacrifice more than men, sexuality is evil (unless it's heterosexual and male, which then is glorified as perfectly healthy), blacks are only useful if they're anti-gay and wear their pro-religious beliefs on their sleeves, housing is affordable only to upper-middle class couples with children, rob from the poor and give to the rich, charge the hell out of people by upping the gas prices (gee, I wonder who the oil billionaires voted for in 2004...), blame all the financial disparity of the middle class on people receiving welfare checks, demonize natural cures and praise prescription drugs when often holistic/natural cures are more potent, make higher education ultra-costly to lower and middle class students / cutting the budgets for student loans and affording more rights and privilages for private schools, distract people from the conservative social agenda by making conservatives out to be the only side that cares about ending terrorism / making people fear another country wants to infiltrate us (China, anyone?), The Patriot Act (need I say more), anti - every gay right needed. And what's not to love about conservative political analysts?! Business advice to RICH, PRIVILAGED people on how to get RICHER and take advantage of the middle class (which have become the new BUM race thanks to dirty conservative opportunists). And a bunch of self-righteous jerks who act all big and tough and claim to be "savage" or that their programs have "no spin". So smug, that they forget why most people enter politics - to help people.

The Future of Civil Rights Victories!

Where is the gay fight being won? On TV... If you want to see sensitivity toward and acceptance of gays, you have to watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on/or the Bravo network. Will & Grace. Boy Meets Boy. Why is there so much gay on TV??? Because television is where gay now exists. It's such a widely feared thing that nobody gets to talk about it in public now, it's FORCED onto TV. Where the gays are safely held, in the eyes of many censors. But the future of civil rights are about to be buried... Because though TV does so much for gays these days, offers so much gay stuff... It's a wasteland of brainwashing for everyone else. The image of blacks today is allowed to be stylistic (Puffy's bling obsession, Missy Elliot's technically advanced videos) but the image of black music is a joke. Words like "pimp" and "gangsta" have become so hip (because they're seen as something black) that whites want to copy it so they don't feel racist, that what pimps and gangsters really symbolize is being belittled. KIDS nowadays want to grow up to be rich like the few hundred rich black men on MTV and VH1 and they use these words with no meaning of what they really are saying.

Mafia Mobscene!

Wow, what a sad society we have when we're so obsessed with masculinity, that suddenly MURDEROUS, EVIL mafia figures are turned into heroes and their lifestyles are glamorized. Growing Up Gotti, The Sopranos, Analyze This and That, Road to Perdition... And with all this entertainment based on human greed and misery, I feel obligated to paint a portrait of the real people affected by these people made into entertainers on the movie & tv screens, the people you don't really see on TV : HARD-WORKING REAL people working in the town they lived in their whole lives- they go into business, get a store, then they're turning over their PROFITS for "protection" (aka - to keep these bastards from destroying their property and hunting their family members). Bribing people, and if most of these people don't do what the gang member is bribing them for - death / torture / threats to their family members / destruction of their homes/property. Countless other examples of actual people being bullied by these evil, selfish men... Nobody watching these movies for the toughness of them... is spending one minute thinking : hey, there are people involved here and they don't care about your image.

Image Obsession!

We can't ever seem to have a culture where at the same time : women can be 40 and sexy, and overweight people can live without everything they run into being a reminder of how fat they are and how worthless everyone thinks they are. Fat is the new gay in terms of FEAR for your personal safety if anyone knows you are. Though it's not something you can hide from, our values system has collectively changed (again) to where if a young person is just 10 pounds over "ACCEPTED" weight, the following can and does happen : they are removed from their parents' custody, schools are forced to institute a diet policy for said student labeled "special" in this way, and they are teased to (I said, the new gay) the point where kids are now killing themselves over this denied bit of self-esteem. Being overweight is not healthy, but all this fear of fat is generating another negative(!) - it's daring people to be fat and break the rules... Which is not healthy. To prove a person can be overweight and still be human, we are celebrating being fat (Monique's Fat Chance, Kirstie Alley's Fat Actress) - when we could just as easily be celebrating LIFE and living healthily. We are not supportive of overweight people like we should be; we don't help them. We criticize them - when that is THE LAST THING we should do. It's a combination of self-esteem issue and something NOBODY CAN CONTROL : metabolism. Not until, that is, we come up with MEDICATION FOR ALL instead of all this damn $20 a bottle weight-loss solution and all these stupid, unrealistic celebrity diet fads.

Get Drunk, Get Stoned!

Some people love to drink and for them, alcohol represents togetherness (a DEPRESSANT substance! / depression = anti-social!). Some people love to do drugs, for them it's a great way to relieve tension. These reasons for doing these substances are really designed to take this affect in a perfect world. However, we do not live in a perfect world. And the number of people killed in car crashes every year on account of drunk and high drivers, is enough to send a pretty clear message to people PAYING ATTENTION : you're considering your priorities over the lives of other people.

Culture of Children!

We as a society are starting to put SO MUCH stress on just having fun and not being responsible, that it's breeding a whole new brand of apathy. Our generation doesn't care about what's happening to people until it's happening to them - and by that time, IT'S TOO LATE to stand up for yourself. Because you didn't care about what is happening to you when it was happening to people you knew. Or to people you knew of. Many of these things I've discussed AFFECT US ALL!!! So don't look the other way now, it's too late for that. If you don't change your mind, you are going to feel the weight of oppression upon you.

The "A" Word!

Pro-lifers are some of the worst people on the face of the Earth. For the simple fact that : every single person is a pro-lifer, it goes with the being born thing. BREATHING is pro-life, and every living person breathes. And there are certain boundaries that we all accept. The reason we count peoples' birthdays as from the day they're DELIVERED by doctors outside of the mothers' womb, is because for some people (whom we need to protect, not neglect!!!) things change during a woman's pregnancy. Pro-lifers now take it upon themselves to focus on becoming involved in EVERY WOMAN'S PREGNANCY, forcing their moral / religious beliefs on people. When there are other factors to take into account. Who has to live with the effects of bearing a child? The mother. Who is responsible for the welfare of the child? The parents. WHO ASKED THE CHILD IF IT WANTED TO BE BORN??!!! Why is it too much to ask for people to really consider what is appropriate... Until the child is in that final trimester of the woman's pregnancy, it is simply WRONG to take the woman's right to abort the fetus away from her. It is now and will always be THE WORST CASE SCENARIO when doctors and politicians tell women what they are ALLOWED to do with their bodies based on their moral system!

A Life Worth Living!

More than ever before, we should all be focusing on anti-life where it is appropriate. It sounds heartless, but that character trait is becoming irrelevant. OVERPOPULATION is a humongous problem. The answer we currently seem to have? Pretend like it doesn't exist. WHAT?!!!

OVER 6 BILLION PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET, our natural resources are becoming endangered species!!! Yet people want to save the babies some mothers want to abort from being killed, because oh sweet moral outrage - that might mean that someday murder for murder's sake might become legalized. These people don't use logic, so we might as well assign this tag on it... If you want all babies to be born, why the hell are you against stem cell research to cure all these diseases? That's like saying, I'm going to save you from a fire because you have a right to life but if you are horribly burnt BUT we have a miracle cure to save you from a life as a walking crisp and it takes an unborn fetus... suddenly it becomes a national debate whether or not the person gets to live a REAL LIFE!!! Pro-life? No, how about pro - A LIFE WORTH LIVING.

No Hope for the Future!

The way things are now... life isn't worth living. Because there's no hope for the future. Everything from the 17 trillion dollar budget deficit, to the lack of an actual CHILD CARE SYSTEM left in this country, proves that there's no hope for anyone to live a real life anymore. How can people worry about saving an unborn child if being born is a sentence to a horrible life? WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST BE FAIR??? Because they're too busy being selfish!!!

[Paka]

No Hope for the Future!

The way things are now... life isn't worth living. Because there's no hope for the future. Everything from the 17 trillion dollar budget deficit, to the lack of an actual CHILD CARE SYSTEM left in this country, proves that there's no hope for anyone to live a real life anymore. How can people worry about saving an unborn child if being born is a sentence to a horrible life? WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST BE FAIR??? Because they're too busy being selfish!!!

Believe me, hon - our way of life will be coming <a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.com/">to an excruciating halt</a> very soon - likely within our lifetimes. Dunno why so many people don't sense it; or maybe they do, and they choose to take the blue pill...

Anyhoo, for a while I've been thinking of a "Serious Discourse" type of board to open up here - not to "relegate" life issues, but to give them a solid place where one knows they can chew the fat. I've wanted to bitch about a few things myself, but they would more than likely get lost in the fray of the catch-all board that is the Off-Topic. I mean, the UD forum needs a good overhaulin' in general, but that kind of a board would be a high priority, imo. It all depends on the admin, of course.

In the meantime, I'd like to venture a query as to why you have been behaving so belligerently of late. It almost seems as if UD acts as a punching bag for you; a good section of your posts are openly provoking and incendiary, and another good handful is laced with negative asides. Hehe - if you're coming here to try to shake people out of their stupor, I can assure you it won't work. Most people behave like the rabbits of Cowslip's Warren in Watership Down - they may have an inkling, or even an open understanding, of how fucked they are, yet they tell those who ask questions to just "stop talking about it." Superfluous discussions about slipcovers will continue here despite your best efforts. Best I can advise for you to do is to look out for you, and your own if there are any. It's a grim bit of wisdom... but ultimately, realistically, that's all you can do.

Of course, that doesn't mean we can't argue about it until we're blue in the face on our way down!

[memnv]

Most people behave like the rabbits of Cowslip's Warren in Watership Down - they may have an inkling, or even an open understanding, of how fucked they are, yet they tell those who ask questions to just "stop talking about it."

What language, Paka I think you should give yourself a warning

[Just Myself]

I will response thusly-

Fuck warnings.

The way our country is headed-morality, violence, religious and political issues abound-scares me. Scares me so much I feel myself falling into a depression. Land of the free? Yeah, fuckin' right.

Count me in as one of the guys taking the blue pill and telling others to stop talking about.

[Escapay]

Mafia Mobscene!

Wow, what a sad society we have when we're so obsessed with masculinity, that suddenly MURDEROUS, EVIL mafia figures are turned into heroes and their lifestyles are glamorized. Growing Up Gotti, The Sopranos, Analyze This and That, Road to Perdition...

The soap opera fan in me is saying, "You forgot to mention General Hospital".

Anyways, I'd quip in something else, but you seemed to have said enough, Laz, so I'll let this be one debate I steer clear from simply because my words will get lost in the shuffle.

Escapay

[Loomis]

So anyway, ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

Why stop there? You've pretty much started a thread to vent your spleen and grandstand on a bunch of topics

Now, I'll be the first to say that there is sometimes a hasty cutting down of threads that are deemed controversial. I had a "falling out" (if you can even call it such a thing on a forum) based on this very issue.

I've come to realize, however, that we are not cutting threads short for having a difference of opinion. However, when the arguments become unproductive and resort to snipes to prove whatever point one was originally trying to make. You've presented a whole lot of your opinion here, most of it is designed to provoke and cause a debate/argument. That is good.

However, there are many existing threads that could accomodate all of these issues, and many of them have not been locked.

[Isidour]

I`ll take Laz word and ignore his posts, at least this time

[Lazario]

In the meantime, I'd like to venture a query as to why you have been behaving so belligerently of late. It almost seems as if UD acts as a punching bag for you; a good section of your posts are openly provoking and incendiary, and another good handful is laced with negative asides. Hehe - if you're coming here to try to shake people out of their stupor, I can assure you it won't work. Most people behave like the rabbits of Cowslip's Warren in Watership Down - they may have an inkling, or even an open understanding, of how fucked they are, yet they tell those who ask questions to just "stop talking about it." Superfluous discussions about slipcovers will continue here despite your best efforts.

I just love how everyone is coming up with theories about why I'm talking about any of these issues... I've made it plainly obvious why I'm talking about them - because I care. I care despite the fact that half the people who would listen think it's too late for it and the other half don't care at all.

I guess I also do it to spite all the people who are simply made uncomfortable by 'controversial' topics. They need to get over that. Because this is the way a lot of people are FORCED TO LIVE due to pressures put on them by such unquestioned and praised institutions as the churches, the conservative government, and male-dominated corporations who are spreading values that cripple people's lives for absurd reasons.

Just read it. If you don't agree - don't reply. Regardless of just how many people don't care, I'm still doing the productive thing. It should be enough to tell you where the negativity is really coming from - the people who would rather I not talk about this. It's not negative to aknowledge that bad things happen, it's positive to share feelings, and even yes, bitch.

So Isidour, make of this what you will... But don't spread your negativity towards me on my own post. Take it to a specially designed Lazario-bashing post, which I whole-heartedly support and give my permission for.

[castleinthesky]

Luke, I do believe that we should get the ability to block certain members if we want to. I want to have that block button!!

Lazaro, you are a dissilusioned person with a small biased sick mind.

[Alan]

Luke, I do believe that we should get the ability to block certain members if we want to. I want to have that block button!!

Lazaro, you are a dissilusioned person with a small biased sick mind.

They have a "ignore posts" on vBulletin that blocks out certain people's posts so you won't have to read them.

[castleinthesky]

Luke, I do believe that we should get the ability to block certain members if we want to. I want to have that block button!!

Lazaro, you are a dissilusioned person with a small biased sick mind.

They have a "ignore posts" on vBulletin that blocks out certain people's posts so you won't have to read them.

Yes, that's what I meant. Luke, you may want to look into getting them.

[AwallaceUNC]

They have a "ignore posts" on vBulletin that blocks out certain people's posts so you won't have to read them.

Yeah, but vBulletin sucks.

-Aaron

[Lazario]

Lazario, you are a dissilusioned person with a small biased sick mind.

Am I supposed to think that is cute?

[PatrickvD]

Paka's avater speaks a thousand words

[Lazario]

Well then, just remember something : Dead people can't feel frustration. And people are being senselessly murdered because of other people's discomfort. So, I'm not sorry for making other people uncomfortable. Just remember that you get to live, for now, and deal with it. Remember there are a lot of people less fortunate than you. And this post is all about those people being victimized for being different. Whether it's - female, gay, Jewish, black, fat, old, handicapped, or even young.

[castleinthesky]

Well then, just remember something : Dead people can't feel frustration. And people are being senselessly murdered because of other people's discomfort. So, I'm not sorry for making other people uncomfortable. Just remember that you get to live, for now, and deal with it. Remember there are a lot of people less fortunate than you. And this post is all about those people being victimized for being different. Whether it's - female, gay, Jewish, black, fat, old, handicapped, or even young.

Don't forget that you don't have to be any of those to be victimized. You can be male, heterosexual, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, other religions, White, Asian, Aboorginee, Biracial, underweight, have an ideal body weight, be non handicapped, have a certain ethnic background, and be a certain nationality.

[orestes.]

Women's rights/ women not treated equally...

I know it's still a major progblem and in some areas it's worse but I have to admit that for me it's something I ignore mostly because in my life and the people around me everyone seems equal gender-wise. I don't see it but I know it exists and it's a real shame since I find it inconcievable I guess you could say that some people don't see women as equals. I don't get it at all!

Depression=anti-social. Want to elaborate? Maybe I just don't fully get that.

[memnv]

Luke, I do believe that we should get the ability to block certain members if we want to. I want to have that block button!!

Lazaro, you are a dissilusioned person with a small biased sick mind.

They have a "ignore posts" on vBulletin that blocks out certain people's posts so you won't have to read them.

I think this would be a great idea having a block button, but then again if you blocked someone out they could be bad mouthing you and you would not know

[Luke]

I don't think we need a forum feature to ignore a member when we ourselves can. Such a request only comes from a negative atmosphere that has been unfortunately created in Off-Topic. One forum member has been suspended for two weeks and let's hope that from this point forward through his return, we can all keep discussions much more civil and productive than they've been in the past 24 hours.

[Siren]

I tend to agree about no ignore button. Its called "self control". If someone annoys you or makes you angry, be the more mature, bigger man and move on. Even if it bothers you. By starting or continuing a fight, you aren't be a positive active member. Its one thing to states one's beliefs, another to start trouble or fight for the sake of fighting. Why do you need an ignore button? Use a little self control and stop reading those people's posts. It's that easy. Frankly, I saw this thread, rolled my eyes, read it, rolled my eyes again, shook my head, and then went to another thread that was actually FUN. Isn't that what were all here for?