Oh noes! The Apocalypse is coming! Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together ... mass hysteria!

It suddenly occurs to me that this sort of reaction is very similar to whistling while walking past a graveyard.

It is an opinion piece, that I (and I believe) and many Americans share. As stated, 55% of Americans believe the country is going in the wrong direction, and I do not believe that it is entirely economics causing that disatisfaction. IMO, it is change in our culture that is the underlying cause.

I don't know what circles you folks travel in, but opinion pieces like this seem to echo what I see and hear around me, and have for years now.

In 2007 only 28% of the people thought we were going in the *right* direction, and I am fairly certain those numbers trended down as the Bush administration ground down. Those numbers the author is wringing his hands over ironically represent a significant uptick in the country's optimism, not a crisis of culture.

It doesn't matter, Montegue, she's still right. Who knew that Adam Lambert was going to have an act that included simulated oral sex on broadcast tv? Say "change the channel' all you want, if you're not aware that something like that is going to be broadcast, it's like closing the barn door after the horse gets out. That is a cultural issue that has many folks uneasy at a minimum, and your tap-dancing on the Bush administration doesn't deflect it as much as you might like.

You are seriously arguing that everyone should be prevented from watching something because you or your children might see a few seconds of something objectionable before you can change the channel? And I thought it was liberals who got **** on for allegedly trying to raise their kids in sensory deprivation tanks.

Let's get this out of the way before this thread goes the way of irreconcilably stupid ...

The author of the opinion piece doesn't have the first clue as to what "culture" is.

I think it worked pretty much as it should have. ABC puts out a product, if the product offends people they wont indulge in it anymore. I wouldnt feel the need to protect my kid from Adam Lambert, but I definitely get that many parents wouldnt want their kid watching that ****. Same with 99% of the rest of the pop culture nonsense.

Attacking the messenger instead of addressing the message? That's beneath you, Khross.

But, whatever.

Since the message is predicated on a fallacious and horribly misinformed notion of culture and social hegemony, I have no need to address the senseless and unintelligent drivel that comprises it. Were it an intelligible and reasonably well written piece of prose, I might condone it with a more insightful commentary. However, as the author demonstrates no understanding or even recognition of the topic being engaged, I stand by my observation.

And I totally disagree with you, imo she makes valid points. She touches on what some people are feeling about the direction America is going, particularly the breaching of the social compromise. Sorry, but you are wrong on this one.

In any case, I think you're assuming an unspecified social compromise that may or may not exist, and assuming broad support from it based on the flimsy evidence of your associates and the author's questionable leap from economic to cultural dissatisaction. I doubt most of the poll respondants could really say what direcion the country is supposedly going in beyond vague complaining.