The Glade 4.0

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... stpop_read

Just read this in the WSJ. Posted the link, and I think this line is so true:

"It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it."

So very true, in so many corners of this country.

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

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I am shocked. Shocked, I say, that someone would have such a reaction.

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

If I had kids, (which I don't), there's a lot of BS I would need to protect them from.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Like Jesus and racism?

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

They need not be protected from Racism, they need be taught not to be racist.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

That would depend almost entirely on whether you knew what "whistling past the graveyard" meant.

I, for one, am not forcing any cheer. Instead, I am with clear conscience making mock of the junk psychology and rather specious claims of the article, and your apparently wholehearted support for the same.

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I'm really not seeing how the statistics in the opening paragraphs support the argument the writer is making later on.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

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.

I'd point out the leap in logic on thinking a poll about economic issues can be extrapolated in its responses to other cultural issues. "Going in the wrong direction" is a very vague and subjective question, and so is "many Americans". If 1 million Americans believe something it is only 1/3 of 1% of the population but could still be described as "many".

I agree that some aspects of our culture are objectinable, but I don't spend any time bemoaning that. Part of the idea of this country is that "objectionable" is generally something we allow.



I don't think it's possible to respond to this without appearing sarcastic at best or flaming at worst.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Opinions can be vague and subjective. It's ok. May be right, may be wrong. Just something to think about, or reject out of hand for those who don't want to bother. Whatever.

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.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

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.

Government should not regulate broadcasts for content.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

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.

*sigh*

Actually, I'm agreeing with the sentiments expressed in the article, and the portion I quoted: "It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it."

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.

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

But, whatever.

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.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Thank you. Finally, someone with a reasonable reply.

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.

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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.

You freely admit that you're stating your opinion then tell Khroos he's wrong?

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.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

You're right, I should not have said he is wrong. He has expressed an opinion I disagree with. Mea culpa.

Actually, she spelled out the social compromise quite clearly in the linked article: "We don't care what you do in New York." Meaning, we don't care what you choose to do, but don't force it on us. Adam Lambert's escapades are but the latest in a line of breaches to that social compromise.