Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo — Page 159

It is just that he can’t be accused of breaking his promise to release his tax returns when the audit is over, if the audit is not yet finished.

TV’s Frink said:

Well, the Maddow show was pretty lame any way you slice it.

Pretty frustrating honestly. I mean, it is a piece of a puzzle, but it doesn’t really tell us anything. The hoopla around it makes the whole venture seem like total bullshit. Now they’re going to say “look there isn’t anything bad there,” when the fact is that there wasn’t anything there to be able to determine if there was anything bad there.

The only interesting thing to come out of the whole thing was the White House response.

moviefreakedmind said:
Now this is an example of not separating between cultures and governments. It’d be like saying that having an asshole for a dictator is part of North Korean culture (although the cult-like devotion to him is part of the culture).

So if you live in the United States, particularly in low-income or middle class areas where the average enlisted personnel are drawn from, you would be familiar with the slavish patriotism many of these people and their families possess. The kids are targeted by military recruiters or family members or peers when they are teenagers, then the mindset is cultivated into early adulthood. Some of them believe it’s a noble idea to go over to a foreign country and shoot some “sand people”, or whatever racist epithet is dujour for the day. Their family members are proud that their sons and daughters are “serving their country” and “defending our freedom”, which are high ideals of course, but seldom or never is it brought up that they may simply be used pawns in a global game of kleptocracy. At best, their child is just a cog in a wheel that brings death and destruction and mayhem to all those backwards people you so eagerly criticize, while enriching a small number of politicians and businessmen in the process, and at worst, some of those soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines are actually doing very bad things to innocent civilians in those far away lands.

The culture of war is endemic in the United States. It is in our DNA, considering we evolved from the people who got off the boat and started slaughtering the natives and stealing their land. You might want to consider this part of American history, from a few hundred years ago, up until what we currently do throughout the Middle East, before you continue with your indefensible position.

moviefreakedmind said:
What pornographic companies advertise to youth? As for violence, if you’re talking about violence in media, I don’t care about that at all; there’s no evidence that it is harmful at all.

The ubiquity of porn particularly in the internet age and the ease of its accessibility to youth (and everyone) is the problem. We have an existential porn problem in our western culture, there’s no question about it. On its face, there isn’t anything wrong with adults indulging in a little erotic material, and it’s important for humans to have healthy sex lives. However, without checks and balances, over-indulgence can lead to serious psychological and physical maladies. There is empirical evidence that increased pornography use has lead to sexual dysfunction in a growing number of men. Studies have shown that boys and girls exposed to pornography have very unhealthy views of what constitutes normal sex. There are now record amounts of women who are spending insane amounts of money on things like labiaplasty because they have become addicted to watching pornography, and suddenly don’t think their bits are as attractive as a porn star’s. Meanwhile, when you read a stat that labiaplasties are up 100% in the last two years and it’s suddenly a billion dollar industry, remember those first world problems and compare them to the starvation and disease that often runs rampant in those backward countries you were just complaining about.

moviefreakedmind said:
I doubt that most of the cultures I’ve alluded to have better education systems. Maybe they value education more than in the US, which is certainly good, but I’m still in favor of a lesser education system than widespread acceptance of religious extremism or female genital mutilation. I suspect that you probably are too.

A lot of the things you are complaining about are endemic to poor, politically unstable countries. In many of those countries, their political instability can be traced by to actions taken by western governments. Take Iran, for example. Was a progressive, westernized nation. The British and Americans kicked out its government and installed a puppet regime in order to expropriate all of the oil out of the country cheaply. After a couple decades of repression and theft, they revolted and put a bunch of religious nutcases in charge.

Look at Cuba. Looted by the Mafia and multinationals until Castro came to power. Could have still been an ally but American business interests who wanted back in the country said no, so they turned to the USSR. They then lived in extreme poverty for decades because of American sanctions that were a direct result of, once again, western business interests wanting to loot the country.

Look at most of the poor countries in Africa. Or Central America. And on and on.

There seems to be a common thing here…

NeverarGreat said:

Yeah, if Trump did leak this anodyne part of his return himself, then Maddow played right into his hand.

I mean, I don’t usually like to feed into the “mastermind Trump playing 4D chess manipulating and distracting people” narrative, but this really couldn’t have gone better for him. I don’t really think it’s what happened, but it’s certainly possible this is his admin’s doing.

I don’t think they are that smart. And the Paul Ryan’s and Mitch McConnell’s of the world aren’t really on their side either.

Alderaan said:

moviefreakedmind said:
What pornographic companies advertise to youth? As for violence, if you’re talking about violence in media, I don’t care about that at all; there’s no evidence that it is harmful at all.

The ubiquity of porn particularly in the internet age and the ease of its accessibility to youth (and everyone) is the problem. We have an existential porn problem in our western culture, there’s no question about it. On its face, there isn’t anything wrong with adults indulging in a little erotic material, and it’s important for humans to have healthy sex lives. However, without checks and balances, over-indulgence can lead to serious psychological and physical maladies. There is empirical evidence that increased pornography use has lead to sexual dysfunction in a growing number of men. Studies have shown that boys and girls exposed to pornography have very unhealthy views of what constitutes normal sex. There are now record amounts of women who are spending insane amounts of money on things like labiaplasty because they have become addicted to watching pornography, and suddenly don’t think their bits are as attractive as a porn star’s. Meanwhile, when you read a stat that labiaplasties are up 100% in the last two years and it’s suddenly a billion dollar industry, remember those first world problems and compare them to the starvation and disease that often runs rampant in those backward countries you were just complaining about.

Yes, what America needs is to regress it’s views on sex and porn even further.

Jeebus said:

Alderaan said:

moviefreakedmind said:
What pornographic companies advertise to youth? As for violence, if you’re talking about violence in media, I don’t care about that at all; there’s no evidence that it is harmful at all.

The ubiquity of porn particularly in the internet age and the ease of its accessibility to youth (and everyone) is the problem. We have an existential porn problem in our western culture, there’s no question about it. On its face, there isn’t anything wrong with adults indulging in a little erotic material, and it’s important for humans to have healthy sex lives. However, without checks and balances, over-indulgence can lead to serious psychological and physical maladies. There is empirical evidence that increased pornography use has lead to sexual dysfunction in a growing number of men. Studies have shown that boys and girls exposed to pornography have very unhealthy views of what constitutes normal sex. There are now record amounts of women who are spending insane amounts of money on things like labiaplasty because they have become addicted to watching pornography, and suddenly don’t think their bits are as attractive as a porn star’s. Meanwhile, when you read a stat that labiaplasties are up 100% in the last two years and it’s suddenly a billion dollar industry, remember those first world problems and compare them to the starvation and disease that often runs rampant in those backward countries you were just complaining about.

Yes, what America needs is to regress it’s views on sex and porn even further.

I actually think Alderaan is onto something there, it’s at least worth thinking about.

Handman said:

Jeebus said:

Alderaan said:

moviefreakedmind said:
What pornographic companies advertise to youth? As for violence, if you’re talking about violence in media, I don’t care about that at all; there’s no evidence that it is harmful at all.

The ubiquity of porn particularly in the internet age and the ease of its accessibility to youth (and everyone) is the problem. We have an existential porn problem in our western culture, there’s no question about it. On its face, there isn’t anything wrong with adults indulging in a little erotic material, and it’s important for humans to have healthy sex lives. However, without checks and balances, over-indulgence can lead to serious psychological and physical maladies. There is empirical evidence that increased pornography use has lead to sexual dysfunction in a growing number of men. Studies have shown that boys and girls exposed to pornography have very unhealthy views of what constitutes normal sex. There are now record amounts of women who are spending insane amounts of money on things like labiaplasty because they have become addicted to watching pornography, and suddenly don’t think their bits are as attractive as a porn star’s. Meanwhile, when you read a stat that labiaplasties are up 100% in the last two years and it’s suddenly a billion dollar industry, remember those first world problems and compare them to the starvation and disease that often runs rampant in those backward countries you were just complaining about.

Yes, what America needs is to regress it’s views on sex and porn even further.

I actually think Alderaan is onto something there, it’s at least worth thinking about.

I don’t think those problems are the fault of porn, they’re the fault of America’s “unenlightened” view of sex. European countries don’t have this problem as far as I know, and they have porn as well.

Edit: When it comes to Labiaplasties, the problem is international, my mistake. But even then, I’m not sure that it’s a problem, how is it any different than plastic surgery? People will feel like they can be better with or without porn. Porn isn’t causing self-esteem issues any more than the rest of media.

Alderaan said:

I don’t think they are that smart. And the Paul Ryan’s and Mitch McConnell’s of the world aren’t really on their side either.

I don’t think so either.

Jeebus said:
I don’t think those problems are the fault of porn, they’re the fault of America’s “unenlightened” view of sex.

A recently published study of 434 adult males has linked extensive use of pornography to sexual dysfunction. The research, conducted in Europe…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-weiss/understanding-porninduced_b_11668932.html

From the UK:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/700371/erectile-dysfunction-porn-sex

You’re right, overindulgence of pornography can be harmful, but overindulgence of anything can be harmful. You imply that checks and balances are needed, but what would those be? Should we limit peoples’ ability to watch porn? Where would this interference stop? Do we limit peoples’ ability to eat, to ensure that they don’t hurt themselves?

Perhaps people would be more open to getting help for their addictions if the subject of their addiction were less taboo.

Shame and guilt are wonderful checks and balances. If you overindulge and eat too much, you get fat, and then it’s much harder to find an attractive mate, or even breath normally.

I’m saying this after I just ate a bunch of oreos and could stand to do some sit-ups, of course.

Alderaan said:

Shame and guilt are wonderful checks and balances.

You’re gonna shame people out of an addiction?

Jeebus said:

Alderaan said:

Shame and guilt are wonderful checks and balances.

You’re gonna shame people out of an addiction?

Preventative medicine? You know you don’t have to wait for someone to become obese or addicted to drugs or pornography before you try and promote healthy life habits.

Alderaan said:

Jeebus said:

Alderaan said:

Shame and guilt are wonderful checks and balances.

You’re gonna shame people out of an addiction?

Preventative medicine? You know you don’t have to wait for someone to become obese or addicted to drugs or pornography before you try and promote healthy life habits.

Shame will make the problem worse for the already addicted, and won’t deter the not-yet addicted.

Just look at drugs, there’s a huge social stigma against drugs. Some of it is based in fact, but a lot of it is just misinformation. Either way, people continue to do drugs.

Alderaan said:

Jeebus said:

Alderaan said:

Shame and guilt are wonderful checks and balances.

You’re gonna shame people out of an addiction?

Preventative medicine? You know you don’t have to wait for someone to become obese or addicted to drugs or pornography before you try and promote healthy life habits.

This is essentially saying that people should be shamed for any indulgence at all in porn, fatty foods, or drugs, right? There is such a thing as moderation.

That’s not what I said at all.

We’re #7!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwLWNXFH2rg

corellian77 said:

moviefreakedmind said:

I can’t think of any other culture that I’d rather live in.

How about the cultures of countries 1 through 6?

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-full-list

Woohoo! Canada is #2!