@Zuljaras - A couple idiots on the news who don’t know history does not equate to “Americans”. We have generally the same ratio of idiots to non idiots as any other place, there’s just a lot of people here, so there’s a lot of idiots and non idiots.
@HobbitGamer - Thanks for cleaning that up, I was speed reading this morning to catch up and misrepresented the situation.
@bimmy-lee You are right! Sorry if I offended you or any other americans here
But by alarming stuff on the media I meant that some people there even think that incest is ok because it does not hurt others. I hope those people also fall in the same category as you described in your post.
@Zuljaras - No offense taken. Haha, I’m not too sure about the incest thing. I can’t say I hear of a great deal of that going on, but then again, it would probably be a more underground type of thing. Dark web type of stuff. I don’t think we have a disproportionate amount of attractive cousins to other countries, but who knows? I would guess the percentage of Americans who think incest is a victimless crime is similar to other countries.
@bimmy-lee It is just a media stuff. A person with a mic go along the beach street and ask people about such stuff. It was one of those as a liberal person questions.
It was quite funny until that point
One day I want to visit USA even if I dislike traveling so much. But it is so damn huge wirh so many things to see!
@Zuljaras The history East of Germany is very very very uncommonly known here, and it blurs into thinking of it as "The Russians". Not even the USSR - people tend to not even be familiar enough with the details of the history to separate "Russia" from "USSR/CCCP", let alone the separate allied countries not actually part of the USSR. People with family histories there have a somewhat better idea, of course, but mostly it's a region that only history nerds bother to know more about it. But yeah, if you were to compare notes with any random person here on what they perceive the regional history to be versus what it actually is, you'd step away thinking you'd landed on Mars. Odds are the impression the average person here would have even of the broad strokes of history on that side of the continent would seem like pure fiction! Granted, the history itself is a big reason for that, it was closed off for such a long time and the only details that came out were either propaganda for, propaganda against, or missionaries & charities and such trying to tell the tale of the mass suffering that would come back making people think that the inside of the "Eastern Block" circa 1985 was pretty much indistinguishable from Uganda or Somalia.
As for LA....yeah I believe that My impression is the average LA resident probably couldn't find LA on a map of LA. But those videos are kind of comedy videos. They find the stupidest looking people they can find, and edit videos to only show the most clueless. I mean we all know how those Califonians are, right @ThanosReXXX?
Seriously, though, American understanding of history is...lacking. It's not something prioritized in schools, and, unfortunately, not much unlike your days under the Communists, the schools tend to be more interested in instilling the "right" history. Not ironically, that, too, was a policy/program started by the Soviets themselves as part of their infiltration programs in the 60's (Khrushchev's infamous "you will wake up in a Communist country and wonder how it happened." speech/program.)
And also unironically, people here tend not to be familiar enough with history to be familiar with the fact that was a real set of programs that continue to affect us, designed to quietly conquer us, despite the fact that they weren't covert and were openly stated and announced, as an arrogant taunt.
But it's yielded a, we'll say, confused public. A public that has a skewed understanding of the events of the past 100 years. One that places Bulgaria somewhere between the nation of Nairobi and the continent of New Zealand, and provided a vague sense that it used to be Russia. And every four years, we see an Olympic weightlifter or wrestler that reminds us that, yes, such a place does in fact still exist.
@bimmy-lee I don't know, I'd say we have a greater than average share of idiots for a variety of reasons. A big part of that is that the schools most likely more closely resembles the schools Zul was used to pre-1990, where learning is less about learning and more about learning the right political truths.
Though just LA alone skews the results.... I like to think of "Cascadia" as a "labor camp for the criminally stupid."
@Zuljaras Well, if you visit any FE Fates thread here, I think you'll find NL contains the majority of incest sympathizers.... Fortunately it seems more prevalent from the UK members!
As others have said, “learning” in the sense of using the experiences and lessons of the past in order to inform the present is not broadly taught in public schools here in the US anymore. Critical thinking skills and examination of facts, the importance of open and honest debate (not argument), and showing a mutual respect for differing views are also not a facet of higher education.
The Information Age has given everyone a greater opportunity to access a wealth of knowledge, but without those skills I mentioned, it’s akin to being in the middle of the ocean without a desalination tool.
Point in fact, I don’t always agree with all of you, but I respect that we have discussions without resorting to the lowest common denominator of word wars. That’s why I like this particular thread 😁
#MudStrongs
Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr
@NEStalgia Oh I was born in 1988 so I did not know what is like to live under communist rule. And in our schools we were schooled in history pretty heavily. And there were articles in school about the fall of the communist party. I have no idea how is it now in communist countries but I guess it is bad.
Nowadays normal schools are troubled with how many different restrooms they need to fulfil every "need". At least that is what I see from the US news articles. Some "real" problems I guess
@Zuljaras I know. Commonly the two songs that come to mind when thinking about things like that are Madness by All That Remains and Handlebars by Flobots.
I agree with bimmy that our idiot vs. non-idiot ratio is about the same as everywhere else; the clueless people just make for a better story. Keep in mind that the US is a large country with many different regions, urban vs. rural differences, and a variety of cultures.
@bimmy-leeSmash Ultimate World Powers Tourney! I'd actually watch that. Though I'd prefer it to be of the friendly sort. XD
@NEStalgia Gotta scratch all those backs with some moolah!
@HobbitGamer Well said. I'm still working on those skills; it's part of a lifetime of learning. I don't expect everyone to agree with an opinion of mine, but I also recognize that's only on a single topic. One opinion does not define a person. The "We disagree on X, so that means you're part of group Y and must also think Z" mentality is highly toxic.
@Zuljaras - Yeah, the land mass is such that it would prohibit seeing everything. My suggestion would be to figure out what you want from a vacation like that, and what interests you most - big cities, coast line, mountainous, desert, etc - and focus on a specific region that offers more of what you’re looking for.
@NEStalgia - I’m sure it’s possible we do have a higher than average ratio of idiot to non idiot, though it probably comes down to what makes an idiot an idiot to each individual. To me it’s less about acquired knowledge, and more a genetic checkbox. I’ve known dumb smart people and smart dumb people. Seems like some people just have the idiot checkbox checked, and they’re then capable of reaching idiocy in the right circumstances. Or maybe that’s everyone.
@Tyranexx - Can you imagine the pay per view buy rates for a five vs five tournament for the right to be right?!? Five weight classes, five champions from each country. Round one... fight!
@Zuljaras Ahh, yeah, after the fact history would have been pretty complete! The infiltration of our schools, courts, government institutions, etc was very very directly affected by the Soviets, and unfortunately I fear we're, more than ever, living in the legacy of that still. Perhaps uniquely so, in the world. They called the early infiltrators into those institutions the "brick layers", I believe. They were to lay the foundations in education and legal policy that would eventually instill Soviet values into the mainstream when the children of the time (1960s) became adults. With the 60's radicals (hippies) they were partly successful. In their targeting of disenfranchised/minority groups at the time, being a huge catalyst in the 60's Civil Rights riots, they were more successful at the time, and the legacy of that indirectly continues today - the design to keep people fighting against each other in groups was a central part of their design. Lincoln's "A house divided can not stand" idea was taken to heart: Divide the house along every fault was the plan. The Communist legacy is more influential here than many people realize. But in the schools here....I suspect, if you're too young, your parents would be horrified by flashbacks of their own schools, were they to see it.
You're not wrong on the restrooms debate...that, unfortunately, isn't just media hyperbole. Not just that, but continued dividing of the house along every fault. Picking every disenfranchised group, inflating its presence, and inciting anger and division under the faux banner of 'equality' - focusing on that simply to divide every group from every group. Focusing on what's different even while bigger issues are common to all. Clearly someone's still using the old playbook. If the goal is no longer about having the US become a mirror of the USSR, than it begs the question as to what the goal actually is now. Or is it just division for the sake of division among the ambitious? Seems too organized for that.
@bimmy-lee I think it's directly connected to wealth. Generally I've found those that aren't wealthy to be quite intelligent and wise. The greater the amount of success and money one possesses seems to directly correlate to a complete lack of sense, intellect, or the ability to think at all beyond believing whatever you are presented. They may be very good at a particular skill. Engineering, finanace, law. But they're otherwise total drooling morons outside doing their one task. It's like a whole society of Rain Man clones.
I felt really disappointed and a bit angry after i happily got The Sims 3 Pets PS3 from Amazon, but.... The game was really unplayable due to installation bug issue i have encountered !
I have wasted for 4 hours just for keep trying to install the game but still no result.
Because of this, i have to delist The Sims 3 PS3 from my PS3 shopping list. 😔
The "We disagree on X, so that means you're part of group Y and must also think Z" mentality is highly toxic.
That reminds me of a psychology joke, which is from so long ago, that I'll potentially butcher it, but I'll try to remember as best I can, so you can get the gist of it, and you'll understand why your comment reminded me of it.
So, this guy, let's call him Jeff, decides after a long break from his college years, and several years of menial temp jobs and what not, that he wants to start studying again, to become something more and get a better life and so on.
After some browsing of online catalogs and such, Jeff decides on an entry level study in psychology. He is accepted and as such enters the course with a group of other re-entries, and lo and behold, the lessons actually make sense to him, and he gets good grades. One of the teachers is a bit of a metaphoric person though, probably because he wants to make it easier on all these belated students.
Anyways, the teacher paints a picture of how to profile people by successive questions and ultimately filtering down to control questions with the following example:
"Let's say you're in a nice, casual conversation, and you want to find out a bit more about the other person, without alarming them, or coming across as the Spanish inquisition. A good, casual opening might then be "say, just out of curiosity, do you own a fish tank?" If the answer would be yes, then the conclusion would obviously be that they like animals/pets, so a good follow up would be to ask if they like other kinds of pets, such as cats or dogs".
"Now, if the answer to that is also yes, then the logical conclusion would be that we're talking to a really nice and gentle person, if that wasn't already clear yet from our initial impression, which was the reason we got into a conversation with them in the first place, but confirmation is always good".
"So, you're now talking to a nice, gentle person who likes/loves animals, so the next step might be to find out if he/she is only an animal lover or if they also like children. After all, being gentle, animal loving people, might very well mean that they're also quite positive towards children".
Well, the lecture goes on for quite a bit, and Jeff is enthusiastically making notes, trying to remember it all. At the end of the class, the teacher suggests to his students to try and practice what they've now learned in a real life conversation.
So, armed with this new knowledge, and confident in his own skills, Jeff decides to go out to the park, because it's nice weather, and he'd obviously stand a good chance of meeting a lot of people there.
At some point, he sees a pretty lady sitting on a bench, and he casually sits down next to her, politely greets her, she greets back, and a conversation ensues, so he decides to go for it. But, as one would expect in these slightly more tense situations, his nerves get the better of him and his mind suddenly draws a blank, so he's starting to feel slightly panicked, but somehow still manages to maintain his outward composure. His mind is racing, but he also understands that he can't continue to blankly stare at her without saying anything coherent, so he decides to continue on as if nothing is wrong.
He looks at her with a friendly smile, and says: "So, do you happen to own a fish tank?", upon which she says: "No, I don't. Why'd you ask?" and then he blurts out: "Well, then you must surely hate children"...
@Anti-Matter The disc is probably scratched or otherwise disturbed. You could try and get the disc polished/resurfaced at a game shop, that will fix light scratching and/or blemishes, but if the disc is really bad, then you're basically screwed.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX
I saw a tiny scratch on the disc surface.
I think i need a cleaner to clean the disc first.
But if it still not helping.....
I will completely delist The Sims 3 from my PS3 since at the same time, on The Sims 3 console we couldn't make another neighbors and play with them as another Active family.
Oh, my The Sims 3 Pets PS3 was a used game.
It's been a long while but for lunch I had a poke bowl today. One of my favorite meals. There's a new place in town thats basically like chipotle where you customize your bowl with salmon tuna shrimp or chicken. Chose the spicy salmon (uncooked) with rice edamame ginger carrot pineapple seaweed and some house sauce. I can have another two or three for dinner if i had the chance to run back out for more.
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