Are We a Nation of Pussies?

[CrufflerSteve]

As long as its election time and everybody's grumpy I'll add to it.

Since I work in broadcast we have TV's everywhere. They've been going nuts today about a couple of packages with explosives found on planes. It's the bloody end of the world! In the same time period how many people totalled themselves in cars, bath tubs and other things?

I have a friend who's a Brit. People are talking about kid's names there but what about their government? They have really serious debt and they are going to pay it. Services slashed, taxes raised. I know people here don't like taxes but we have some pretty expensive wars going and everybody wants to cut stuff they don't get. The Brits also barely blinked when they had terrorists blow up their subways.

Has this nation become a bunch of whiners and losers? I make my money off TV but I'm thinking about getting rid of mine at home.

Steve

[theGinsue]

To answer the question in the subject line: Yes, we are.

To answer the question in the last line: Yes, we have.

I don't quite get the references to the Brits and the tax thing, but regarding the subject line and what it implies, I think it all has to do with the attitude of not feeling the need to be inconvenienced and offended. We don't want to accept that their are bad people out there that would rather blow us up that know we even exist.

So yeah, we are.

[hip55]

When the majority of a population believe what they see, hear & read from a controlled media, they will fail to see what is really happening around them.

MTN3s2iVKKI

[Birddog1911]

I partially agree. Though, I contribute all of the news crap to the reality of 24 hour news; they have to drive censationalism and beat stories into the ground to achieve ratings.

[KevDen2005]

I partially agree. Though, I contribute all of the news crap to the reality of 24 hour news; they have to drive censationalism and beat stories into the ground to achieve ratings.


I get all my news on here, is that bad?![Stooge]

[Birddog1911]

Hell no, I get a lot of mine here, too!

[Marlin]

I just watch the food channel, The old movie channel, History International and the Military Channel most of the time anyway..

[StagLefty]

My name is StagLefty and I'm addicted to political ads and mute the actual news. [ROFL1]

[BigMat]

I get all my news on here, is that bad?![Stooge]

I know, Boulder canyon burning! no idea

[mx'r]

My name is StagLefty and I'm addicted to political ads and mute the actual news. [ROFL1]

[LOL]

[Irving]

Only reason I knew about Boulder was because I was driving to it.


I think we are a nation of pussies, including myself. Look at France. Everyone always makes fun of France and calls them pussies. France is currently tearing itself apart with riots and strikes over the unemployment wage going up 2 years. I've heard all the stories of people from here working over there and complaining about how lazy everyone is, not showing up till 10:30am, going to lunch for 2 hours at 11:00am, leaving by 3:30pm blah blah blah.

From what I understand, the unemployment age has been written into law for the past 60 years, in what I'm under the impression is the equivalent to the Constitution. If the US government decided to axe one of the Amendments, the US would EXPLODE! But only in the media and on the internet. Sure you'd see/hear of a bunch of tough guys loading ammo and sleeping with their guns and stuff, but no one would actually do anything. Riot or even risk their job by striking? No way.

[sniper7]

I don't watch the beam I watch very little tv and usually it is just for background noise or something to do while I eat

[KevDen2005]

I know, Boulder canyon burning! no idea


Same here. And I am really glad that some of us on here actually watch the news/read the news and post on here or I would have no idea what was going on.

[Chase723]

From a majority perspective I would have to say, currently, yes. We've pretty much legislated our own castration and created a societal environment which only tolerates drum circles and Kumbaya. Look at the recent firing of Juan Williams from NPR. It forsakens the strong and beholdens the weak. In certain ways it's an American trait. We always try to stand up for the little guy and do what's noble. We're kind, generous, compassionate, charitable people. However, we really screwed up and essentially delegated the role of upholding that notion to the government, instead of enforcing those values within our own communities and self regulating. As a result we have a government that obligates itself to protecting the minority at the expense of the majority. And, therefore, we've created a society where it's become politically incorrect to think for yourself, stand up for what you believe in, or voice what's simply true because you would probably be called a bigot, a hate monger, or somehow charged with assault and thrown in jail.

A lot of this has to do with large scale media sensationalism about violence and crap that absolutely doesn't matter. If you turned on your television and watched the news you would think that if you walked outside right now you'd probably get shot, chopped up and set on fire! It's freaking ridiculous. It creates this mentality of living in constant fear and doing whatever the nanny state wants you to. Even legitimate violence for the sake of good (say a police officer shooting some dangerous lunatic, a person who in self defense kills someone else, soldiers who kill a group of Taliban) is often portrayed in a negative light-the cop shot someone who was mentally ill, the guy killed a black/brown/green/yellow/purple teenager, the "freedom fighters" were the fathers of 50 children. Nevermind the fact that the guy the cop shot was running around threatening people with a knife/gun or trying to rape somebody or set a house on fire, or that the teenager was carjacking the victim at gunpoint or tried to beat and rob them, or that the Taliban were launching attacks on the American soldiers with RPGs etc and cutting peoples heads off.

That being said, I think that a HUGE dichotomy exists in America, and it started during the Vietnam era. You have the group of people who were all about peace, love, and dope and then proceeded to spit on soldiers and the group of people who instead of getting drafted went and signed up to go to Vietnam. Unfortunately, the latter was by far the minority, and thus the free love hippie folk set the stage to influence politics and public policy for the worse. This is exactly contrary to what happened in WWI and WWII. Pretty much every single male of fighting age, or in many cases not, did everything they could to answer the call of the world to destroy fascism. And, looking back at those folks, look who and what came out of it. The greatest generation ever.

Fortunately, I think that with the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the extreme discontent with our current administration, that a lot of people are beginning to see "the light". There is a whole generation of young determined people who've gone through and experienced real conflict for the sake of America, just like our forefathers, and they will lead us into the future. I personally think that because of their willing sacrifice that they have a deeply vested interest in our nation and we will see a lot less tolerance for Kumbaya bull crap that marginalizes normal, average, everyday Americans. If you've ever read the books On Killing or Lone Survivor you know exactly what and who I am talking about. We warriors were, for quite awhile, a dying breed but I'm hopeful that that will no longer be the case. It's a tragedy that for a long time the most noble and honorable station that a person could assume had such a negative connotation in so many vocal peoples eyes. Going forward, the horizons look good...so long as we can manage to protect American CITIZENS from the agenda of the current Obama administration...

[theGinsue]

I love your words Chase (awesome insight), but please, for readability sake, separate into paragraphs.

[oinco]

lol-KevDen2005

warning- heavy ranting to follow

Our nation has gone so far into pussy-dom I would bet the farm we will not return. Ever. I don't think anyone needs to reread more than about 200 pages of Ayn Rands' Atlas Shrugged to see the exactitudes of parallels.
Understanding you put food on your table through the media-no offense. I encourage everyone I know to put their money where their mouth is and vote with the dollar. Not watching what is being sold as the "news" is a message sent.

I take a perhaps offbeat stand that "modern media" is one of the most offensive tools for terrorism. Manipulated "news" has spawned or hidden so many deadly political/ military/social actions it would be easier to count the ones that were not.
When so many seemingly intelligent people suck on the flashy blue nipple for their world views and ongoing education as a sole and accurate information source, much less any other less-analytical subset of our species, the destiny for sheeple is easy to see.
The current plague of campaign spots is pure gravy of evidence- I have yet to see an ad that was not either misquoted or taken out of context to an extreme to appeal to an emotion not an intelligent decision. I believe this is done because it works.

From Eve and the apple to Obama and change....humans want to believe that there can be a pleasurable or beneficial action without consequence or cost. Our luxurious standard of living easily clouds a divergent thought process.

[BigMat]

lol-KevDen2005
Manipulated "news" has spawned or hidden so many deadly political/ military/social actions it would be easier to count the ones that were not.

This reminds me, I wish I took down the details when I read this..

I studied Arabic in college, and I read Al Jazeera for practice as they had a great Arabic to English feature so I could check my self. Long story short there was a story about a group of Marines who went in to a town and got trounced by some insurgents. I was really amazed by this so switched to CNN (I was in college, I knew no better!) and the story was the Marines went in and trounced the insurgents. Same day, same town, totally different story. So for the sake of experimenting I went to BBC, Same day, same town, same Marines, but the insurgents weren't there?

Who's honest, probably none of 'em.

Its sad how much people get manipulated and its real hard to determine who to trust. I've had trouble with it ever sense. Went from "informed college student" too big for my own britches to realizing that I had been lied to for years and I knew diddly.

[CrufflerSteve]

Sorry for my venting that started this. I could be more articulate if I worked on it but its late now. Usually I just read news and sample from all over the place. If something doesn't piss me off a few times a week I'm not working at. I like to challenge my beliefs.

Today (Friday) I had to spend the day actually watching TV getting some new equipment ready. I even had to turn up the volume to make sure it was actually audible. Going through CNN, Fox and others had me raving. Selling ignorance, fear, anger and all sorts of crap, no logic, total low signal to noise ratio. Not talking about things but around them.

That anybody could take that seriously was kind of disturbing. I think I respect people more who get their info from this forum.

Night all,

Steve

[Byte Stryke]

I studied Arabic in college, and I read Al Jazeera for practice as they had a great Arabic to English feature so I could check my self. Long story short there was a story about a group of Marines who went in to a town and got trounced by some insurgents. I was really amazed by this so switched to CNN (I was in college, I knew no better!) and the story was the Marines went in and trounced the insurgents. Same day, same town, totally different story. So for the sake of experimenting I went to BBC, Same day, same town, same Marines, but the insurgents weren't there?

Who's honest, probably none of 'em.


OMFG you mean that the Simpson's are not REAL!?
My world is officially over and I am taking everyone with me.


http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/sportsbeacon/homer-simpson-gun.jpg

Seriously though, having spent allot of time internationally I find it interesting that its not always a cultural issue or even a religious issue as much as it is a political one.
"What can we FEAR the public into doing for us with this?"
I have seen the SAME publication, Kuwaiti times, say one thing in English and something else entirely in Arabic. The same can be said for many of the other international/Multi Lingual media publications such as Al-Jazeera, SAT1 and BBC.
One might even use the differences between NBC and Fox News to highlight this.
but in the end its all about "How can we spin this?"

A certain "package" prominently displayed on the news today comes to mind.

I wont even do links...
.UKs are saying they were all dud trials
some .orgs are saying they were Duds, some say they were live bombs and the Democrats have saved the free world and democracy as we know it
some .Coms are saying the same and it goes on and on...

My point is:
Hey Look! Something Shiny! right before the election.

If anyone asks, the Democratic party just single-handedly saved the free world from the "bogeymen" that Bush created!

Just ask MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39911024/ns/us_news-security/

Just be sure to say "we made them Inert" and in case it ever gets out that this was just a distraction... everyone be Vague with "Appeared to be" "presumably" and "reportedly". this way we can deny any culpability in this shit if and when it hits the fan.

[BadShot]

Yeah what you guys said..

[Byte Stryke]

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/Printerbomb.grid-4x2.JPG


This seemingly harmless printer was found to contain a "professional" explosive device, according to Dubai Police. Please allow me to translate:

This seemingly harmless printer was found to have a complicated device that the Egyptian and Syrian security guards we hired to be police in Dubai couldn't identify. It might have been the Network card... we aren't sure.






[ROFL1]

[OneGuy67]

To answer the question in the subject line: Yes, we are.

To answer the question in the last line: Yes, we have.


Yup. Totally agree.