OK, here is my hand at starting a new meme. You can steal it, change it, give me credit, not give me credit. Who cares. OK:
List one (or more) solid positions/beliefs you hold that would likely offend/upset. You know, a “secret” belief that you usually choose to keep close. No I’m not doing this to get my fingers in your brain,
1. I think child molestation is no worse than sending your kids to sunday school.
(that is, the ‘evils’ of both equate in my mind)
I think that all mentally retarded people who are at or below a certain level of functioning should be sterilized so they cannot reproduce. Because people who cannot act as a parent in every sense of the word should not be able to create children.
I also believe there should be some sort of penalty for people who have more than, say, three children. Like an increase in taxes or something. There is absolutely no need to have more than three children (in fact, there is really no need to have even that many) and by doing so, people are irresponsibly contributing to overpopulation problems.
I’m not really sure how to answer this without getting into a huge political hate-filled debate, so I’m going to leave this unanswered.
well, in a nation of diverse people, right now we all have at least one thing in common. whether you are for are against you are a part of a nation that is at war.
and isn’t the universe shrinking anyway? languages are being lost and cultures molding into one another. but its pretty much been that way as long as there were even tribes of people. a stronger more dominant culture absorbs a weaker one. think of the advances made from even the Roman empire. In the moment its disturbing, but 100’s of years after the fact are the ramifications positive or negative?
its like abortion for me. personally i am against it, but i would not take the choice away from anyone else or impose my morality on someone else. i am anti-war, but wars will happen anyway and I just think there is a social mechanism behind it. its a shame its all masked in propaganda, but i’m not sure it was ever anything less. we’re just more efficient at propaganda in the modern age. ultimately the end results can be positive for a nation or for the world at large.
even in an anti-ware perspective, have you ever seen a war in which globally so many people were opposed to the war itself? even in that sense the war could be a stimulus for social change in industrialized nations.
Woudn’t that be an interesting discussion? (if it everyone felt safe enough to discuss it in an intellectual perspective?)
My problem with veganism is the line where one draws. (unfortunately I think objectively about these things).
that is If I draw the line at “animals” (i.e. not plants, bacteria, fungi, etc), what happens if a fly lands in my mouth?
That is why just the ‘pretty’ animals?
My real issue is that (to me) the idea of my empathy is kindomism: I am an animal, therefore I give preference to animals.
Why isn’t it worse to kill a plant than an animal? Because I have feelings and I (empathise) that animals have feelings?
That’s positive animal prejudice to me; I give preferencial treatment to objects I have a relationship with. I wouldn’t eat my cat AND I wouldn’t chop down the tree in the front yard for firewood.
Your cat and your tree, however… ;D J/K.
I am an Idiot, of course. I meant Missouri. MI is michigan, huh? Derp.
Yeah. Nuke the fuck out of Branson. (I keeed.)
I think the real debate (or at least the first debate) is whether it can be debated from an intellectual perspective. That is to say:
Debate #1: Is this an appropriate topic for intellectual debate? Or is prostitution so wrong that one shouldn’t even be mentioning its existence in polite company?
Debate #2: Is prositution something that should be legalized?
Not necessarily bleeding – I don’t really believe in free will. I feel each individual’s fate/lot is far more dependent on external contingency than mere choices made by said individual.
None shocking to me.
1. semi-agree
2. disagree in action, agree on concept
3. Absolutely agree
I think the idea of a “nation culture’ is a fairy-tale concept, like Santa Claus, God, and Love.
Just as not everything in Las Vegas is tawdry, not everything in Branson is right wing-affirming, etc. (I’m not putting this very well, but I think you get the point.) Speaking as a gay man who is left of center, I had a pretty good time on my trip to Branson.
Maybe that’s my real shocking/offensive statement: I had fun in Branson.
absolutely agree.
I add that some animals have been bred specifically so their natural tendancy is toward that behavior: this makes their existance outside human involvement troublesome for them.
There’s a big difference between people who do it for health reasons and people who do it for ethical reasons, and especially, the people who try to eradicate every last bit of animal product from their lives.
The most extreme would be people who would refuse medical treatment that may have been produced from animal products (does x-ray film have gelatin in it? refusing insulin that’s not genetically engineered?)
If you’ve eschewed meat and leather, you’ve done your part.
ah, another presupposition of mine.
1. I believe there exists no such thing that is “so wrong” as to be “off topic” for intellectual discussion. (that period is bold-face)
All Sacred Cows must be slaughtered.
Well, just don’t be in town when I nuke it.
Maybe people should not be forced to be sterilized, however the government should advocate the adoption of children born to unfit parents. Of course here we enter the area of the subjective, what constitutes an “unfit parent”, who decides?
for our nation, or for any nation? and you believe there are no defining actions or behavior patterns or identifying characteristics that would define one as “stereotypically american”… i.e. belief in a Christian god (some 70% or so I believe. maybe higher).
Actually, the Jains sometimes do follow the “fly in the mouth” prohibition, as well as eschewing root vegetables.
I’m not against killing animals for food or leather, although I am against cruelty in life or death. I’m for free-range raising of livestock, against artificial hormones, for quick slaughter of animals, and for using all parts of the animal to make useful products (which is why I’m for leather but against fur).
My food squicks are the same as yours – household pets (akin to cannibalism!), vermin, cannibalism, and predatory animals (herbivores were made for top-level predators to prey on, including man – you don’t eat bears, cougars, birds of prey, etc.)
mmmmmm, Sacred Beef.
It’s what’s for dinner.
Again, the Catholic services just zoomed over my head because of my lack of spirituality.
I tend to believe more in works than in faith or worship practices, and find the Catholic Church hierarchy (NOT the local organizations, and certainly not the laity) repugnant, with celibate officials dictating social and sexual policy, and great opulence in a world of poverty.
That’s what Libertatians keep telling me my position and theirs are.
Also why I hate the use of the terms Liberal and Conservative when one really means left/right, blue/red, Donkey/Elephant, etc.
Heh. I happen to like the great opulence in a world of poverty myself. If they were to wait until there are no poor to create anything of great opulence, it may never happen.
I’m sure my opinions are colored by my knowledge that music as it exists today wouldn’t be if it weren’t for the first two estates (so to speak) and their patronage.
+1 on the lack of good parenting.
And I agree with the sterilization in spirit, but once the government gets involved in reproductive rights, it is a slippery slope, (i.e. Roe v. Wade.)
I wouldn’t trust the current people in charge with deciding that one.
6. Alcohol and marijuana should be sold in private liquor stores (not state stores!) with appropriate taxes.
7. Gambling should be legal, with regulation so that games are fair and government getting a cut of income of casinos or gambling houses open to the general public.
8. Obscenity is a false legal construct. Depiction of sexual activity of any sort should be absolutely legal for people over the age of consent, so long as the depiction isn’t that of an actual crime or that of people under the age of consent.
9. I’m not a pacifist. I would have gladly served in WWII – might even have itched to kill Nazis. (But the veterans’ accounts in Stephen Ambrose’s Citizen Soldiers don’t make being an infantry or armored grunt seem very enjoyable.)
10. Deer should be shot on sight and the venison served to homeless and poor people. Deer destroy trees and gardens and run in front of cars.
If that vow were enforced, there would be a lot less divorce. I totally agree with you !!
6,7,8) AYE
9) AYE ++ Nuke the Bastards
10) no deer here- no opinion (I don’t like the taste of venison)
I can’t think of anything that’s really secret or shocking.
Mostly it’s stuff I WANT to believe, but can’t. Like, I want to believe there is an afterlife so people I love who die aren’t really gone. But I can’t.
I don’t think my belief is all that shocking or obscene, just unrealistic…though, from the reactions of alot of people who know how I feel, you’d think I’d said the most offensive thing in the world:
I believe that the monetary system should be revoked and money should become obsolete. Money does not fix problems, in fact, it often times creates more than should really be around.
Any nation. Stereotypes are lies we all believe. It may make them useful (as models) and seem true (God, “race,” red/blue states). I think these items are intellectual dead-ends. They may serve as a foundation to help perception and certain levels of understanding, but they are shaky foundations one should abandon when you have a better understanding.
I.e. The model is not reality. The problem comes when you see the problem with the model and you blame reality rather than the model.
Deer got no reason to live! 😉 j/k
Less divorce, but more unhappy people.
oh i totally agree
some parents just fucking suck and instead of admiting that they just hop their kids up on drugs to make them zombies i think ADD and ADHD is the most misdiagnosed things in ever
One thing money does do: It tells you what a culture really values (whether they admit it or not).
Side effect though.
I agree.
no problem i was just wondering
I think I’m viewing this in simpler terms probably. As an example of cultural recognition:
Say you are in London visiting. Do you believe that you could see someone and recognize them as American before recognizing an accent or before dialogue is exchanged (similar to recognizing someone on the street as homosexual)? There will still be keys to national origin. i.e. culture that present themselves.
Any lie we all believe in essence becomes truth, at least for the masses.
i think fat people are really disgusting and they can do something about it and they shouldnt be able to have handicap parking (i used to be really fat and i did something about it)
and old people make me feel sick
i also think food disorders are not disorders and if you want to throw up after eating a whole chocolate cake go ahead
oooh and condelezza rice is really the living dead have you seen her… zombie bitch
is that better
Yeah, I’m just taking a step back from it. I’m not saying the lies *don’t* become truth for many. I think it is the responsibility of one who can tell the difference to understand them as lies none the less.
I’m saying you can’t be fooled by your models, even though they (seem to) work.
I’m just saying that the phenomena of cultural identity is a artificial construct.
Semantics argument.
I think you can’t give credit to contingency. 😉
I guess that’s why I don’t support the troops. 😉
“Hey troops, yes, even you old crusty WWII guy — eat shit.”
I feel like we were better off in the days when “mental illness” was something to be ashamed of. Now that we all wave our problems in the air like a fucking whtie flag, we’ve passed the point of open, honest communication and stepped right into self-centered attention seeking.
Further, I believe that the internet panders to this type of attitude, and that the vast majority of lj users are socially stunted and desperately seeking attention from psuedo-friends. The primary problem I see with this is that the “friendships” you form on livejournal or similar internet sites rarely, if ever, survive any geniuine disagreement. Thus, if a “friend” on the internet has the GALL to point out the self-destructive or relentlessly idiotioc behavior you’re participating in, you are quick to declare that they “don’t understand you” and aren’t “supportive” and are just “trying to tear me down”
This further stunts the social skills.
Oops? Did I say that?
I thought of one. 99% percent of girls who say they are bisexual aren’t. They are just saying it to be cool/get guys.
Tangent to this, women who hate other women cannot be bisexual.
I hate people who reply to their own comment.
Yeah, that really pisse me off, too.
Wanker
I don’t see why females who hate other females can’t be bisexual.
Plenty of mysogynistic males are heterosexual.
Totally agree on the “Bi” just to be in.
Until it falls off…
I know, I struggle with that conundrum. Except I think mysongynists are really gay but they are unable to admit it.
1. I think Islam is a malignant cancer. (So are most organized religions, but they are are benign right now.)
2. I think gay and faggot are perfectly acceptable epithets for things that have nothing to do with sexual orientation. Those two words had meanings pre-dating their use as homophobic epithets, and they have uses today.
3. I think most Americans are ugly, unwashed, uneducated expansionist brutes. I think most of the rest of the world is more ugly, dirty, uneducated,expansionist and brutal than we are.
4. I am, (And by extension my family is) more important than you. If you do anything that threatens my life or well-being, I feel perfectly justified in ending yours.
5. I think metrosexual is a horrible term for a “renaissance man” who has been stripped of most of his masculine traits. Unfortunately, “renaissance man” wasn’t a very good term to start with. Come to think of it, “Gentleman” is a pretty crappy term as well.
6. I don’t accept the theory of evolution as fact. It sounds like as big a fairy tale as Genesis. Fortunately, I don’t have any religiously held beliefs that need a creation myth or lack thereof to function. So it doesn’t really matter to me, anyway.
7. I think everyone is pretentious and hypocritical except me.
I think some, (Perhaps even most,) of them certainly are. The others partake in “hate-fucking” women.
Of course, Men who hate other men could theoretically hate-fuck them. Prison Love.
You could argue that when sex stops being about love or getting off and starts being about domination or rape it no longer determines your orientation.
6) The theory of evolution and the fact of evolution are 2 separate things.
No one accepts the theory of evolution as fact. The fact of evolution is a fact. 😀