What Grinds Your Gears? :)

[snake]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

The prospect of constant presidential election campaigning crap for the next year and a half (and then some), now that some have to go and start throwing their hat in this soon. Makes me look forward to the TMNT sequel drama as a welcome distraction...

Because the future of your country doesn't mean anything, right?

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Metalwolf

Agh yeah, that's coming up isn't it

A year and a half of hyperbole, he said she said they did whatever.

Why don't they just get down to the basics like assume primate dominance postures, fling poo, and scream at each other while strutting around with giant rage boners?

It would accomplish the exact same thing.

We call that 24 Hour Cable News.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by snake

Because the future of your country doesn't mean anything, right?

Too young to know why the last few have been a bit maddening. And suppose if it keeps up your generation may not ever know any different.

It's not "it doesn't matter." It is that it would be nice if they wouldn't start up this soon.

[Metalwolf]

Originally Posted by snake

Because the future of your country doesn't mean anything, right?

It does, but the whole election stuff is little more then a joke nowadays, with most of the candidates more invested in pandering to the special interest lobbies that help fund elections or making the other guy look bad then doing anything genuine for the country. Democrats specialize in grievance stroking of 'special snowflake' identity groups and think big government is the solution to all life's problems, while Republicans kiss the rears of their rich corporate overlords while removing environment regulations left and right because it's 'better' for business.

It's hard to feel enthusiastic about voting when two parties still get the majority of votes while never failing to be un-abashed crap.

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

We call that 24 Hour Cable News.

I'm so glad I don't have TV

[BubblyShell22]

Yeah, voting is a waste of time and always has been. If they'd spend more time focusing on the things that matter instead of constantly throwing mud at their opponents or campaigning to certain people to gain their vote, things would be different. But they're all about the money and really don't care about anybody's needs. One of the reasons I just don't bother with it.

Also, my sister is at it again with the sh*t. I seriously can't wait for her to just die already.

[Jephael]

Originally Posted by senpai

I want to make TMNT review vids but I need to get my own place first. Too much crap that goes on in a four person household.

Hey I used to live with some wacky fellas in an apartment, but that never stopped me from making my videos! Heck, sometimes having people around was a benefit. I used to have a really funny audio clip of my one roommate saying "Jeff, your pizza's here!", though unfortunately I got rid of that video.

[pennydreadful]

In the immortal words of Emma Goldman, "If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal."

[ProactiveMan]

[Leo656]

I used to follow politics really closely, at one point it got kind of obsessive, but kinda gave up on it after I started wrestling. I went to a lot of promo seminars, where they teach you all these little tricks about how to make people buy what you're saying and get emotionally invested in it, even though the common sense part of your brain knows it's nonsense. Ways to manipulate people, little things that subliminally affect people in a way that makes them get on board with whatever you're saying. And oh, by the way, little ways to subtly smear the other guy and make people like you more instead.

When I started seeing politicians use, step by step and word for word, the exact same little "tricks", it was actually pretty funny. None of these people mean anything they say; they literally just cut wrestling promos against each other, except instead of drawing you into an event, they draw you into the polls, which are really more of a census than anything else. They just have them to get a broad-strokes snapshot of which way the winds are blowing. Nothing ever really gets *done* and nothing really ever changes, except taxes go up. So, eh.

Luckily for me, I barely get to even watch TV when it's on, so I almost never have to see any election or political ads.

[Prowler]

Politics are boring and politicians are all crappy an/or corrupt to some degree. Especially the most powerful ones. No one with so much power is a saint. And obviously all of them lie. And even if they're more idealistic when they're younger, they end up getting corrupted by power and also end up realizing life isn't easy and not everything can go as they please.

Voting? Well it's not useless, but either way, you're screwed. Don't think that things are that different in countries where there's tons of parties and several ones with seats in the parliament. It's always the same couple of parties that are in power as well, with the occasional smaller one attaching itself to one of the big ones and forming a coalition. That's a big flaw of representative democracy.

Young people(let's say between 16 and 22) discussing politics are hilarious. They think they know everything and have very extremist views. Now I'm not exactly old(I'm 24), but I'm way past radical thoughts and seeing crap in black and white. It's kinda amusing and embarrassing as well watching youngsters discuss politics so idealistically, as if they believe they're gonna change the world and that everyone who opposes their view is stupid or a tyrant. Sadly, many people don't change as adults and still clinging to their parties as if they were sports teams, always voting for it even if said party has a goat running for office. Man, and what about those old people who take politics too seriously? The grandfather of a friend of mine stopped going to a tavern on his street simply because he had an argument with the couple that owned it about politics. Turns out they voted for a party he didn't like. He was a right-winger and they were left-wingers, so he decided to simply stop going to the tavern

[ZariusTwo]

Chickening out of a wisdom tooth extraction. Very disappointing considering I had no problem getting the last one out. I think my rather fickle justification for it was that the last instance was an emergency session where it absolutely had to come out, and since then the ones I've been advised to have taken out have not caused me any immediate problems the last few weeks. I ended up saying "I'd rather wait for it to be a problem" and wasting everyone's time and energy.

[plastroncafe]

Major gear grinder:

People who don't get involved in politics whining about politics.

Bonus points go to people who benefit from the status quo telling people who don't that politics don't matter.
If you don't get your hands dirty, then you don't have the right to have me as an audience for your kvetching.

Stand up, or shut up.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Major gear grinder:

People who don't get involved in politics whining about politics.

Bonus points go to people who benefit from the status quo telling people who don't that politics don't matter.
If you don't get your hands dirty, then you don't have the right to have me as an audience for your kvetching.

Stand up, or shut up.

Getting involved in politics? Most people don't get involved directly in them other than voting. And I do vote. Isn't that good enough for me to criticize politicians?

[Leo656]

That position assumes the Powers-That-Be give a sh*t regardless, or even mean anything they say they believe in. They don't.

The entirety of their jobs depends on maintaining said "stus quo", because that's what keeps them rich. They are not about to go making any significant changes anytime soon. I mean yeah, stuff happens, when the tide of public opinion inevitably shifts, but that has everything to do with society and nothing to do with politicians.

Bottom line, anybody who needs a bazillion dollars of "donations" to go all over the country telling people what they're going to do once they get to sit in the Big Boy Chair, when they could just as easily put their nonsense on YouTube for free, isn't worth listening to in the first place. Funny thing about those "donations"... no matter what these politicians say they're gonna do, no matter which "side" they're on, somehow, whoever "donates" the most money gets their way.

I mean... it's like there's some kind of connection I can't quite put my finger on... some kind of intangible "cause-and-effect" relationship between the two...

Besides, why support any of them? Think about what it says about a person whose entire aspiration in life is to be a 1%'er. When someone says, "I want to be President", what they're saying is, "I aspire to be The Ruling Class. I want to have all of the money, all of the power, and get to make all the rules, but I don't have to play by them" That makes them terrible people by definition.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Getting involved in politics? Most people don't get involved directly in them other than voting. And I do vote. Isn't that good enough for me to criticize politicians?

I would consider voting to be a form of political involvement.

And I'm not saying that anyone can't b!tch, I'm just saying they don't get to b!tch to me if they don't get involved.

It's almost as if their words just...go unheard.
From speech to the incoherent buzzing of gnats.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

I would consider voting to be a form of political involvement.

And I'm not saying that anyone can't b!tch, I'm just saying they don't get to b!tch to me if they don't get involved.

It's almost as if their words just...go unheard.
From speech to the incoherent buzzing of gnats.

Well, abstention by default is a sing of you not giving a damn, but many people who abstain actually care, but they either don't trust politicians anymore or believe voting blank is worthless.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Well, abstention by default is a sing of you not giving a damn, but many people who abstain actually care, but they either don't trust politicians anymore or believe voting blank is worthless.

Abstention only counts if you cast a ballot "No Contest" or "No Confidence."
Wish more people actually did that, to be honest.

Elections are won by who got the most votes, not by how many people didn't show up to begin with.

Biases out:
I'm an election warden.
In a good election, that being a presidential one where the popular vote actually has the least amount of power, we'll get maybe...MAYBE 75% voter turn out.
Municipal elections, which affects people's day to day life, we're lucky to get 20%.

20% of people 18 years or older who are citizens and registered to vote show up.
That's pathetic.

[Leo656]

Is it okay if I just have a pathological hatred of just about anyone who wears a tie for a living?

I'm pretty sure I'm being heard by somebody, somewhere. I'm pretty persistent and obnoxious. I've had dinner and drinks with various members of various Chambers of Commerce and local mayors, if that's anything. It's gotten us out of a few traffic citations but that's about it.

[Cure]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Major gear grinder:

People who don't get involved in politics whining about politics.

Bonus points go to people who benefit from the status quo telling people who don't that politics don't matter.
If you don't get your hands dirty, then you don't have the right to have me as an audience for your kvetching.

Stand up, or shut up.

Yeah, exactly. As if it were so difficult to vote.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Is it okay if I just have a pathological hatred of just about anyone who wears a tie for a living?

I'm pretty sure I'm being heard by somebody, somewhere. I'm pretty persistent and obnoxious. I've had dinner and drinks with various members of various Chambers of Commerce and local mayors, if that's anything. It's gotten us out of a few traffic citations but that's about it.

Not everyone who wears a tie is powerful and rich. In fact, most aren't at all. Every man has to wear a suit and a tie at some point in their lives.