Ok, so I have a serious question to pose.
Why are all arguments made with extreme parameters?
What I mean here is, why, when there are so many rational people out there, who can think for themselves and be sensible, do we all get our rage on when some extremist spouts a mouthful of idiocy into our hearing space? I am just as guilty of this as anyone else.
For example: Today I read a very well worded blog about being pro-abortion. My problem with it is that is was, in my opinion, a rather extreme argument. The statement it made was basically that being pro safe sex, was the same as being pro abortion. I disagree with this, and I will tell you why. Having safe sex, leads to less disease, less emotional fall out and less pregnancy. Now, before I go any further, let me define my terms (and you should all understand that I have made these definitions on my own, and that I do not follow them myself the way I should) Safe Sex, is sex between two consenting adults in a stable and long term relationship (preferably a marriage, but that is no guarantee these days). These two adults are only having sex with each other, are aware of their sexual health and are using the type of contraception that they are comfortable with. These two adults also understand that said contraception is not 100% effective and that there is a possibility that they will create a miniature human.
Yes, that was a long definition, but I wanted to be specific. Now here is my counter argument to the statement made by the blog. Not all sex leads to pregnancies, but all pregnancies lead to babies (even a miscarriage is a baby, it just died of natural causes).
Ok, I'm getting off track.
Moving on.
Extremists are generally loud, and in your face, and they get all their power from you responding to their drivel. So why do we keep giving them all the power?
We know that Westboro is a hate-filled extremist group, so why do we keep giving them press, instead of just quietly dealing with them?
I just don't get it. I myself am guilty of responding to an extreme argument, probably of even making one or two. But really, it makes no sense to argue this way since 90% of life is not lived in the extreme. Responding to an extreme point of view almost always forces you to take and extreme point of you yourself, which screws up your point and makes you sound just a bigoted as the guy you were so offended by.
So maybe we should try something new. Instead of responding, we ignore. Instead of yelling/rebutting, we act. We live our lives in a responisble way, we accept certain truths, we agree to disagree and we live in peace, showing tolerance and love and understanding. We learn patience, we do the research and make opinions based on fact as well as feeling. We embrace education, over extremism.
I dunno, I realize that it is asking a lot, although I'm not sure why asking for rational, peaceful behavior is such a hard thing.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Monday Rantday: Part 2: Let's all get offended.
URGH! I am so tired of people getiing all up their high horse over something that is supposed to be funny.
I follow the hilarious George Takei on Facebook, and today he has posted a quote from the movie Mary Poppins today. "Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they are rather stupid."- Mrs. Banks (although the post credits Mary Poppins)
Almost 2,000 comments later, this is no longer a funny throwback to a great movie, instead it is a attackfest about sexism, racism, and how things like this are not funny.
So here is my question.
WHY?
Why isn't it funny? Why does it always have to get ugly? When did absolutely EVERYONE turn into a bunch of oversensitive whiners? I mean seriously, I'm all for equal rights, but that doesn't mean I have to stop seeing the humor in life.
Men are stupid. Women are stupid. People, as a whole are stupid. If you don't believe me, just read the comments on anything Mr. Takei shares with his fans.
I really don't understand this whole mentality. Why is there always someone who has to turn a joke into an attack? A song lyric (out of context) into a political statement?
Here's my advice.
Chill the F out. Seriously. For real. Take a chill pill. Stop looking for everything to be about you. I promise, it's not. The majority of things you see and read have absolutely nothing to do with you or anyone you know. Yeah, sometimes these statements are made in hatred. But what better way to disprove them than by laughing at them? Why do we have to continue to support racism, sexism, ect. by giving this crap so much freaking attention?
Laugh it off people. Stop letting it get to you. There is a big difference in standing up for what you believe or doing what is right, and being a giant whiny-pants. Point in fact: NOBODY like a whiny-pants. In the same way that nobody likes a tattletale. In fact, I'd say snitches are probably the most hated group of people out there, and do you know what snitches are essentially doing when they go tell? That's right, they're whining. Be cry-baby whiners telling someone why what is happening or being said is wrong or unfair. Whining.
And all you people that just can't take joke, that just HAVE to be offended by everything, are just the same. A big group of whiners.
Get over it.
Learn when it is appropriate to be offended and to take a stance, and when to just recognize that something is funny, have a laugh and get on with your day.
I follow the hilarious George Takei on Facebook, and today he has posted a quote from the movie Mary Poppins today. "Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they are rather stupid."- Mrs. Banks (although the post credits Mary Poppins)
Almost 2,000 comments later, this is no longer a funny throwback to a great movie, instead it is a attackfest about sexism, racism, and how things like this are not funny.
So here is my question.
WHY?
Why isn't it funny? Why does it always have to get ugly? When did absolutely EVERYONE turn into a bunch of oversensitive whiners? I mean seriously, I'm all for equal rights, but that doesn't mean I have to stop seeing the humor in life.
Men are stupid. Women are stupid. People, as a whole are stupid. If you don't believe me, just read the comments on anything Mr. Takei shares with his fans.
I really don't understand this whole mentality. Why is there always someone who has to turn a joke into an attack? A song lyric (out of context) into a political statement?
Here's my advice.
Chill the F out. Seriously. For real. Take a chill pill. Stop looking for everything to be about you. I promise, it's not. The majority of things you see and read have absolutely nothing to do with you or anyone you know. Yeah, sometimes these statements are made in hatred. But what better way to disprove them than by laughing at them? Why do we have to continue to support racism, sexism, ect. by giving this crap so much freaking attention?
Laugh it off people. Stop letting it get to you. There is a big difference in standing up for what you believe or doing what is right, and being a giant whiny-pants. Point in fact: NOBODY like a whiny-pants. In the same way that nobody likes a tattletale. In fact, I'd say snitches are probably the most hated group of people out there, and do you know what snitches are essentially doing when they go tell? That's right, they're whining. Be cry-baby whiners telling someone why what is happening or being said is wrong or unfair. Whining.
And all you people that just can't take joke, that just HAVE to be offended by everything, are just the same. A big group of whiners.
Get over it.
Learn when it is appropriate to be offended and to take a stance, and when to just recognize that something is funny, have a laugh and get on with your day.
Monday Rantday: Misleading Movie Trailers.
*Warning, post contains spoilers*
There is nothing quite the same as that feeling you get when you see an awesome movie trailer. I'm not sure what it is about movies, but they are a special kind of magic. So, when you see an inspiring trailer and you get super excited and you call your friends, and you make your plans and then you go see it. There is nothing quite as irritating as the movie being nothing at all like it was portrayed.
Serioulsy, last night, I sat down to watch Bridge to Terabithia, the movie about two kids with crappy home lives, that get bullied at school and find a way to escape by going into a magical world where they are supreme rulers and everything is awesome. Oh wait, no it's not. Yeah there are two kids with crappy home lives that get bullied at school. Yeah they become friends and go to Terabithia, which is, in fact a run down tree house in the forest that is terrorized by birds and squirels. Oh yeah, and the girl dies. Like three quarters in, the girl dies. WTF? I thought this was supposed to be a happy kids movie? I didn't realize that I would be explaining death to my kids when it was over, or hugging them tightly while they cry their little eyes out. Yeah.
Then there is Adventureland. This movie had trailers that led you to believe there was another amazing Zombieland style comedy in the works. There would be tons of laugh lines and culture references and awkward moments. But the only thing it delivers, is awkward moments. It is not, in fact, a comedy, but a horribly poignant drama film about the complex nature of relationships and one guy who takes advantage of every damn girl he can, another guy with no idea how to get a girl, and kirsten stuart, looking like she always does. Oh, yeah and all those laughs you thought you had? They were stolen by the kid who always punches the other kid in the balls.
You also get movies like Coraline. The trailer promises a nightmare before christmas style childrens film, with a good lesson and some lovably creepy characters. But what you actually get is a strange otherworld with an evil "mom", a less than adventurous adventure, old woman in revealing clothes and a bunch of mice. Oh yeah, there is also a cat, but the cat has no interest in the mice, and a little boy, that if you read the book, does not even exist. This was such a disappointing film.
Another way that trailers can be misleading is by have stuff in them, that is in fact, NOT in the film. This makes me want to scream. There are so many examples of this that the ones that just flashed through your head are doing a much better job of showing themselves than I could.
Of course, this can also keep you from seeing a movie that is in fact, really good. Movies like The Fifth Element, which would have been awesome in theaters, looked pretty cheaply made and extremely cheesy, so I skipped it. The Road, staring Viggo, looked an action flick, which if you've read the book you know, it isn't. But I didn't go see it because according to the trailer they effed up the story.
Stupid Bad Movie Trailers.
There is nothing quite the same as that feeling you get when you see an awesome movie trailer. I'm not sure what it is about movies, but they are a special kind of magic. So, when you see an inspiring trailer and you get super excited and you call your friends, and you make your plans and then you go see it. There is nothing quite as irritating as the movie being nothing at all like it was portrayed.
Serioulsy, last night, I sat down to watch Bridge to Terabithia, the movie about two kids with crappy home lives, that get bullied at school and find a way to escape by going into a magical world where they are supreme rulers and everything is awesome. Oh wait, no it's not. Yeah there are two kids with crappy home lives that get bullied at school. Yeah they become friends and go to Terabithia, which is, in fact a run down tree house in the forest that is terrorized by birds and squirels. Oh yeah, and the girl dies. Like three quarters in, the girl dies. WTF? I thought this was supposed to be a happy kids movie? I didn't realize that I would be explaining death to my kids when it was over, or hugging them tightly while they cry their little eyes out. Yeah.
Then there is Adventureland. This movie had trailers that led you to believe there was another amazing Zombieland style comedy in the works. There would be tons of laugh lines and culture references and awkward moments. But the only thing it delivers, is awkward moments. It is not, in fact, a comedy, but a horribly poignant drama film about the complex nature of relationships and one guy who takes advantage of every damn girl he can, another guy with no idea how to get a girl, and kirsten stuart, looking like she always does. Oh, yeah and all those laughs you thought you had? They were stolen by the kid who always punches the other kid in the balls.
You also get movies like Coraline. The trailer promises a nightmare before christmas style childrens film, with a good lesson and some lovably creepy characters. But what you actually get is a strange otherworld with an evil "mom", a less than adventurous adventure, old woman in revealing clothes and a bunch of mice. Oh yeah, there is also a cat, but the cat has no interest in the mice, and a little boy, that if you read the book, does not even exist. This was such a disappointing film.
Another way that trailers can be misleading is by have stuff in them, that is in fact, NOT in the film. This makes me want to scream. There are so many examples of this that the ones that just flashed through your head are doing a much better job of showing themselves than I could.
Of course, this can also keep you from seeing a movie that is in fact, really good. Movies like The Fifth Element, which would have been awesome in theaters, looked pretty cheaply made and extremely cheesy, so I skipped it. The Road, staring Viggo, looked an action flick, which if you've read the book you know, it isn't. But I didn't go see it because according to the trailer they effed up the story.
Stupid Bad Movie Trailers.
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