What has happened to us?

[historian]

Once we were willing to brave the wildnerness to carve out a life for themselves. If something needed to be done it was done and so on.
But today? We are whiners, terrified of eating this that and the other becuase well get all kinds of diseases; we obsess about our appearnace and go to fitness centers when all we need is a sensible diet and to walk more and drive less etc...
But the worse thing is (and its funny but sad) how people are manipulated by ads. Remember Oprah not wanting to eat burgers anymore? Well, as a result the cows enjoyed a longer life span cuase no one wanted to eat burgers. Severalyears it was announced that oatmeal cured or prevented stomach cancer - sales of oatmeal went through the roof till it was proven to be a false claim.
Now we are destroying the very pleasure of eating - fat free, cholesterol free, lipid free, taste free .....argggggggghhhhh why not simply buy an empty can and sniff it?
And of course the political correctness nonsnense - pardon me but if someone is blind he is NOT impaired - he is blind. Someone who has been in a wheelchair for years becuase of a degenerative nerve disease is NOT developmentally challenged - hs is crippled becuase of a terrible disease.
Well you get the idea.
And please, dont any be offended - i know that in thid day and age everything said is analyzed for offense and senstitivies etc...

[bambo53]

1. Amen

Thank you

[Comadreja]

2. Everything changes

"Once we were willing to brave the wildnerness to carve out a life for themselves. If something needed to be done it was done and so on."
In case you hadn't noticed, there is no more wilderness to be carved up. In those days, buffalo, deer, and other wild game were eaten. How many of us can afford to hunt our own meat nowadays? Instead we have a meat "industry," that will feed animal waste and all kids of drugs to the livestock to increase production.
As for PC talk, blame the lawyers, politicians, and insurance industries for forcing us to load the language in order to get needed benefits from a demented health care industry.

[MrBenchley]

5. It seems to be some sort of tragedy for our poster

that cows lived a few months more than he felt they ought to due to Oprah pointing out a few facts....

[waterman]

3. A double whammy - population and technology...

The integrety of our species (at least in the western world ) has been watered down by our own cultural absurdities. Too much mental anguish with too little physical demand on our bodies. Too much fascination with the lives of others and too little with our own. Higher population densities create less value for human lives and less respect for the individual. Corporate and institutional insensitivities contribute to a downgrading of physical and mental health in the populace.

[MrBenchley]

4. Gee perhaps

most of us realized that it was offensive to call people "cripples" or "gimps"...and started calling those folks who did on it.

[historian]

6. just a moment

notice i didnt use derogatory names such as gimp - i used a perfectly normal word which describes the plight of someone. I dont agree with insults but then i think its silly to hide behind words in order to avoid reality, which is really what we are doing.

[Bridget Burke]

7. I believe that "cripple" is considered offensive.....

Because it's used in phrases such as "moral cripple". There can be excesses of propriety, but it's polite to call people by the name they select, not the one you prefer.

The glorious age of the frontier is closed because the land has mostly been stolen from those who were here before us.

Some of us try to be careful with what we eat because the suppliers spend more money paying politicians to "deregulate" than using careful & humane practices to raise the food.

[Bunny]

22. You are right.

What's wrong with calling people by the name they select, rather than the one you like?

I work with people with disabilities. Believe me, they know what "retard" means. They know what "tard", "feeb", "cripple", etc. mean. They know it's not flattering, and they are hurt by it.

To the OP: Is your need to thumb your nose at PC so great that you must hurt others, most of whom had no control over the circumstances of their disability? Are you so lazy that you cannot learn and/or use new terminology in order to accord others some basic human dignity?

If you are truly that selfish, I hope that you never experience their world. At least not in this life, anyway.

[MrBenchley]

12. Gee, neither of those used to be offensive

to "normal" folks, just to those people who were stigmatized for something beyond their control.

"its silly to hide behind words in order to avoid reality"
Get a clue. The reality is that some people don't want to think before they open their thoughtless yaps....and there's nothing wrong in stopping that.

[Hammie]

13. The topic is ugly.

What ever pretty word or phrase you can think up to describe it will eventually aquire the ugliness of the thing described. The continual coining of new phrases is a fool's errand. Like a drug addict's attempts to escape reallity, it never works for long and the language becomes increasingly unable to function, assuming of course that you consider the function of language to be the accurate and precise communication of ideas between individuals.


IBTL

[Ripley]

8. Oops. I thought this was about something else.

I thought this thread would be about DU. Why is it that almost every single thread in here is about Gay Marriage and Mel's pet movie project?

It looks exactly like mainstream media in here (well, as far as topics go.) Why are so many progressives eating the tainted cookies or Kool-aid or whatever and letting the media guide our concerns?

Gay marriage and Mel's movie will be non-issues by the election. While they may be great topics to discuss, does GD really need hundreds of threads thrashing over the same arguments?

Not to infringe upon anyone's free speech or anything. Just an observation.

So to Historian...your point about manipulation by ads and TV is correct.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

9. Non-issues. Wrong. SURVIVAL OF WESTERN CIV! I'm posting this everywhere.

The whipping up of the old anti-semitic memes is cover for a very real and documented campaign to make this country a Hitlerian Theocracy fueled by fundamentalist passion.
'THE CHOSEN FEW' IS BEING MORPHED INTO 'THE MASTER RACE'
THE SAME WAY 'GET OSAMA' WAS MORPHED INTO 'GET SADDAM'!!

We are living in the closing minutes of a culture war that the American Taliban is winning. 'Might Makes Right' is WINNING over 'The Rule of Law. 'I've decided to post this synopsis in all my thread responses:

Georgie's brain is much worse than you think and he's being used for terrible purposes. Here's a British clinical psychologist's researched analysis of the boy king. He interviewed Georgie's family, friends and such and determined that he was abused as a child and developed an 'authoritarian personality,' the root of fascism! Read it and weep for him and us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html
(So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?)-CLICK

And this personality is being exploited to further the creation of a Hitlerian Theocracy called ‘Dominionism’, which has been going on in this country for the last thirty years. Read it and wonder what the hell we're in for next now that Eugenics is domestic policy and Imperialism is foreign policy.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5160.shtml
(God Bless America, The Constitution is Dead)-CLICK

If you'd like to read the full speech of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia back in the dark ages of January 2002 when he said that 'democracy interferes with the Divine Right of Kings and he's doing something about it,' read this and wonder what century we're living in and just what that Constitution was for, anyway.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/scalia.htm
(God's Justice and Ours)-CLICK

How can they get away with it when everyone seems to be pissed off at Georgie and we're supposed to be able to vote the bastard out of our White House? By fixing the electronic voting machines for 'the House.' Read this and decide which country to escape to this fall when Georgie is reinstalled to finish the job he was sent to do-eliminate democracy totally, create a police state, and conquer the world.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
(Diebold, Electonic Voting, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)-CLICK

LATE BREAKING NEWS-FEB. 26 2004
Right now the Dominionists are introducing legislation to replace 'The People' as the authority in our democracy’s Constitution with ‘God’ in a bill called ‘The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004,’ exactly the opposite of what it really is. The legalities of the Christian Theocracy are being used to destroy our laws as if by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

This is not a test! It is absolutely real and happening right now while the media are busy covering gay marriage and Mel Gibson’s bloody crucifixion porn film, ‘The Passion of the Christ.’

“…on February 11 , 2004 Dominionist leaders in congress made their move; they introduced a bill in both houses called The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004. Among the sponsors of the bill are Rep. Robert Aderholt (Alabama), Rep. Michael Pence (Indiana), Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Sen. Zell Miller (Georgia), Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).

The House version is H.R. 3799 and the Senate version is S. 2082. The bill limits the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts to hear cases involving “expressions of religious faith by elected or appointed officials.”

Although the claim by its sponsors appears to be that the intention is to prevent the courts from hearing cases involving the Ten Commandments or a Nativity Scene in a public setting from being reviewed, the law is drawn broadly and expressly includes the acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law by an official in his capacity of executing his office.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0402/S00172.htm
(The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004)-CLICK

[Ripley]

11. You don't have to yell.

I said they would be non-issues by the election. Do you really think someone in the voting booth will decide between Kerry (if he's the nominee) and Smirky because of Gay Marriage? (Kerry is against it, too.) Or Mel's pet movie project? (Hmm, Kerry had a Jewish grandfather I believe, but Smirky seems to love protecting Israel. Which is the more Jew-lover?...note...this is hypothetical voter's opinion, not mine) The very minuscule number of people who would make their decision based on either of those two issues nine months from now are not ever in a million years voting Dem anyway.

As far as your point about the Taliban-style takeover "closing minutes." I agree there are dangerous signs of it. But let me know when American Jews are rounded up or are kept from earning a living or have their synagogues torched in the manner that black churches have suffered as recently as last year.

Do you remember the books about Future Shock? Well, we're living in the extremely unsettled times foretold...ethics, morals, "competing" religions and religion vs. secularism are all happening with great speed in our globalized world thanks to technology which brings it all so close together.

I say choose your fights and Mel's pet project is not worthy. And Gay Marriage...much to the fundies horror, Smirky has probably brought about a situation where Gay Marriage won't be upheld, but Civil Unions will. In every state.

[Heyo]

10. Amen bro...

I'm with ya...

We've turned into a nation of wusses.

(some of us anyway)

Great post.

Heyo

[SaddenedDem]

14. I'm sorry, but on this you are completely wrong

Now we are destroying the very pleasure of eating - fat free, cholesterol free, lipid free, taste free .....argggggggghhhhh why not simply buy an empty can and sniff it?

Healthy food, cooked properly, is very tasty AND healthy.

What we MUST return to is home cooked meals, with attention paid to all those additivies which are killing us all.

Our family has severely changed our diet since a family member had a heart attack 6 months ago and we're all healthier for it.

Fat free, cholesterol free, lipid free does not have to be TASTE free.

Of course, that means you have to dedicate more than 7 minutes of your life preparing your meal, too.

[Cleita]

15. Er, Oprah might find that not eating hamburgers might be better

for her health, not to mention the health of the cows.

[artistforpeace]

16. I still don't get the PC backlash.....

I don’t get why people take such offense now to “PC”. It’s like people feel rights are being taken away if they have to say a different word, or that people are now sugar coating, blah blah. Wow that almost sounds like a fear of change....hmmm….that’s sounds like a familiar plight of another group of people I know. In the past 5-7 years I’ve see more and more “progressives” and liberals out there shouting “PC” to anything they don’t like. “I’m sick of this PC bullsh*t”, is something I hear all the time now from people I once thought rational. I don’t get it. It’s really not that hard. Treat people with respect and if they want to change words, (but Artistforpeace, why do I have to change, I’m a good person?), just respect it.

Here’s the thing, once people get in the attitude that they are sick of “PC” language, I often see them start to question other things. For example, I hear things like these statements below all the time now from progressive minded people:

1. Why should the Cleveland Indians change their mascot, I mean I’m not offended by the term “Fighting Irish”, plus Chief Wahoo is part of “our” heritage (I’m an Indians fan BTW).

2. I should be allowed to say, “That’s so gay, or you’re so gay” to my friends, we’re just playing around, right?

3. It’s only those “PC” people that get their panties in a wad (of course some won’t even get “panties in a wad” is derogatory against woman’s sexual freedom).

4. I'm being gypped (yet another one that most people don't even know is derogatory, you know those thieving gypsies) by having to change how I relate to people through language.

5. People get all in a fuss about everything now right? We need to just toughen up and stop being such pansies (again machismo term).

I believe one of the key events that started the democrats down this long trail of constantly being whipped by the republicans, is when the backlash against “PC” began. Instead of sticking to our guns, progressives started to question it as well…funny thing is all the people I know questioning “PC” are white middle class males…go figure. I’m youngish white middle-class male and I have absolutely no issue with "PC". It’s really not hard, just something call respect. It's that simple.

So why all the fuss? I mean language doesn’t hurt anybody? Bottom line: It’s called changing perceptions! "PC" is NOT trying to “comfort” to select group, it's trying to change perceptions of the masses, that's when REAL change happens. But I fear most progressives have forgotten this because they are afraid to sit and think about their own issues(dare I say prejudices) that need changing.

[Iris]

24. or how about this from John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel:

"Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern's show blew right through it," John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, said in a news release. "It was vulgar, offensive, and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency."

In other words, enough is enough when the white men in power say it is enough. Who cares if you insult "blacks" and "chicks"? It only really matters when something is insulting to the common decency (of white men).



Here's the link where I got the quote.

http://www.salon.com/ent/wire/2004/02/26/stern/index.html

[sendero]

17. Everybody....

... everybody wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die.

[drdigi420]

18. i dont want to go to heaven

which is good, since it doesnt exist

[sendero]

19. Nor do I believe in heaven...

... it is a metaphorical statement about the absurdity of heaven. If people really believed in it why would they cling to life as they do?

[Malva Zebrina]

20. argggggggghhhhh why not simply buy an empty can and sniff it?

that is actually very funny.

Having lived this long, I think I am capable of analyzing all of the food trends we have been subjected to

I have come to the conclusion that all of thos recommendations and food trends are the work of the lobbyists for the food and agriculture industry. So I pay none of it mind.

Actually, no one knows this terrible secret--an orange is better for you than a glass of orange juice. Yet we have been bombarded by the orange juice thing. Who really needs orange juice really. HOw did the people survive here in the frozen north, without orange juice? And they did. What they died from was bacterial and viral diseases and childbirth, not from what they ate or did not eat. Thet ate seasonally.

And sugar in everything is just plain indulgence and an unhealthy indulgence.

and there is more.

[brokensymmetry]

21. A lack of fleas.

There's a little story, quite possibly false, but illustrative nonetheless.

It seems that researchers took two populations of dogs. One group had all their fleas removed - the other didn't. The dogs without fleas quickly became psychotic, whereas those with fleas had something that occupied their attention and so continued scratching happily and remained well adjusted.

Because we face fewer dangers, and death is less likely, tiny risks loom large in our attention. If we faced real risk of being bludgeoned to death by roving bands of marauders, we wouldn't worry nearly as much about getting a germ from an un-sterile kitchen counter.

Because we enjoy an abundance of food, we erect artificial barriers. If getting enough food to live was a problem for us, a french fry would be something to be looked forward to instead of feared.

The same paradigm applies to political correctness. If people had to focus on the basics, the tender little niceties would drop by the wayside.

I believe that the future is likely to be much more challenging than the past has been; so the problems you mention will, in due time, go away.

[opihimoimoi]

23. What has happened is we got caught in an evolutioinary vortex

Its a filtering process, a gleaning of the chaff.

We become in the long term are participants of a contest, who can sell their story better.

That Party will survive. Who can bullshit the best.

Because at this point, we are still unbable to disacern bullshit from Truth. We all know what happens to systems built on BS don we? Thus we live by poor BS odds. But we know but we don't, the forces out there stiull goes with BS and that is the crux of the problemo.

[Iris]

25. or you could call it "self-actualization" or "being evolved"

When you don't have to worry about basic survival, you have time to develop you rmind, which can lead to some pretty positive change in human behavior.