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Fricken smile already and STFU!!! :p
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View this Thread in Original format
| Theresa |
IF YOU CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO READ THE ENTIRE THREAD, DO NOT POST! YOUR POST WILL MOST LIKELY BE COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC AND FRUSTERATINGLY REDUNDANT!!! THANK YOU :)
As many of you know, and for those of you who don't, I do not watch television.
For the most part, I am generally sheltered and out of the loop when it comes to current events. Many people disagree with my choice to do this, some think it makes me stupid or ignorant, and that is fine. You are allowed to believe whatever you'd like.
Personally, I feel it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It has been about 3 years that I have been consistently avoiding mass media, and I can honestly say that the difference in my level of happiness now vs. when I was in the know is extreme.
Anyway, with that said, you can make the assumption that I am NOT NOT NOT desensitized to things like war, death, etc. These things strike a strong reaction from me, often to what seems to be an unusual extreme to others who are regularly exposed to this kind of material.
This morning, on my way out for school, I passed an apartment with the daily newspaper sitting in front of the door. The headline read something like, "###### Canadians Dead!"
When I came home this afternoon, I accidentally came across an article in regards to the war in Israel.
This is a lot of exposure for me, so I started to think a lot about the news in general and how awful it really is. My roomie and I sparked a discussion, and with the topic on our minds, he decided to watch the news on TV to see what the mass population is being told.
Feeling frustrated with the negativity and the general stupidity of the human race, I decided to prove my own point and count how many times a negative word or phrase was said vs. positive things.
Immediately within the first 5 minutes, I had heard over 80 negative words and phrases, and only a mere 9 positive things (which most of the time were countered with something negative).
Quickly tiring of this, I decided to make a list of the actual words and phrases. This was what I got out of 10 mins. worth of the news:
Death
Military threats
Attack
Mass fatalities
Mass evacuation
Canadian escape - many want out!
Targeted by air strikes
Destroyed by missiles
Not happy w/ slow pace
Escalating crisis
Conflict
Attacks on Israel
Rejected cease-fire
Rockets fell
Canons failed
Symbol of battle
Braced for rockets
Shattered homes, bodies and nerves
"Must hit them hard in the head"
War
Kidnapped
Fury
Rally nation
Guerilla fighter
Civilian casualties
Public bitterness
Terror
Unjustified
Grieving
Meltdown
Seriously, this is only what I could catch, not to mention, many of these were repeated!
The masses are listening to these types of things on a daily basis, feeding their minds with negative images, thoughts and feelings. People in general are narcissistic and pessimistic; the depression rates are enormous, and suicides are common.
We're living in an ugly world with a lot of terrible things, and I think too much exposure to all of the unpleasant facets of our species is damaging to ourselves as a people. We are afraid and angry, and we are lashing out at each other. The anger and aggression being expressed by our culture is overwhelming. You can even witness it here on TA; people making personal attacks on others, attempting to hurt one another.
We’re becoming spiteful, and enjoy watching the suffering of others. How many of you can say you haven’t laughed at someone else’s misfortunes? Why do we revel others tragedies?
This isn't right.
After only 15 minutes of watching the news, I am feeling upset, angry, and defeated. It makes me lose all faith in humanity when I see little children being dragged out of destroyed homes; militia brutally shooting down innocent people. It’s sickening, and disheartening.
Open your eyes people. We are our own worst enemy, and we need to change this! We, the young people who will soon be the adults running this culture, need to fight against this garbage, and instead fight for what is right. Let’s not run this country as a bunch of war mongering, vengeful people. Let’s work together to make this place better for our children, and our children’s children. The only way we can make a difference is if we act, and what better time than now?
EDIT: Seeing as that last paragraph is so apparently misleading, I will explain a little. By acting, I mean this:
Stop being s, and be friendly every once in a while. Instead of giving in to your first desire to react negatively towards situations, try smiling, and saying something nice, or STFU.
Ever heard of the saying "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all"?
I suggest taking that into consideration sometimes.
We have enough people advocating anger, hate, and pessimism. We don't need to add to those overwhelming numbers.
Doing something nice each day to brighten someone else's day will not only make you feel good, it'll make them happy too. It's a win-win deal and like I said earlier, it's similar to the ripple affect. People who are in pleasant moods can rub off on each other.
This is something I follow religiously. I have made it a personal goal to try and make someone happy on a daily basis. A few days ago, a random woman on the street was walking by me, and I told her that I liked her dress. She said "thanks" and smiled. It might not have changed her life or anything, but I am sure it made her feel more confident and good about herself.
It's pretty fricken simple, but it seems to be beyond a lot of people. Maybe we're just so angry and caught up in the rush of life, we have lost sight of our rude, and nasty behaviours. All I am trying to do is remind people that too much negativity is a bad thing, and it wont break your damn faces if you smile! |
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| wizniz |
and youre going to make a difference...
not to say i dont completely agree w/ you. |
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| RapidFire |
| peace backwards is zidane....and chuck norris. |
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| lex400sc |
| for as far back as anyone can possibly see, people have always been killing each other. this is a perpetual state of nature that has never changed and never will... |
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| RapidFire |
| quote: | Originally posted by lex400sc
for as far back as anyone can possibly see, people have always been killing each other. this is a perpetual state that has never changed and never will... |
yep only now we have little things called WMD's which make it easier to kill in larger numbers. |
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| Theresa |
| quote: | Originally posted by lex400sc
for as far back as anyone can possibly see, people have always been killing each other. this is a perpetual state of nature that has never changed and never will... |
I disagree.
As much as I hate to say it, I think that we will eventually wipe out the majority of our population, and the remainder will instill the importance of peace which will follow through to a much more intelligent and advanced generation of people. |
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| Danny Ocean |
| quote: | Originally posted by Theresa
Gorilla fighter
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who was fighting gorillas? :stongue:
jk, it's guerilla by the way.
Well they say ignorance is bliss, and im sure it works for you. The things you hear about in the news are happening and you can't just shut them off. Sure, you can choose not to know about them, but they will continue to happen and affect many peoples lives.
How do you plan to act and make peace? posting this on the TA Chillout board is not really acting. You want to help?what kind of help would you be if you don't even have a clue about whats going on?
if you really wanted to help then maybe you should join the peace corps and go to africa to help out the less fortunate and do some humanitarian work.
in reality, i seriously doubt this world will ever find peace, it never has and it never will. We'll end up destroying ourselves sooner or later. The sooner you accept this the easier it will be when it happens. |
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| Rodrico |
What's wrong with you?
First of all, theres no such thing as "negative wording", those words you listed are just words. How can someone describe a war without using these words, may I ask? So why does it turn out that these words are what makes us more ignorant or evil as opposed to what the words are describing instead? Do you really think if we had no words to describe pain, misfortune, death, that we would be better off as a human race?
As misleading as your title is, the fact is your attack on the media has little to do with whats going on in Israel and Lebanon, and if the facts or truth pain your simple mind from seeing what is really going on in the real world, then you really are a waste of space on this Earth.
Words dont make people war against each other...land, religion, and oil do. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Theresa
As many of you know, and for those of you who don't, I do not watch television.
For the most part, I am generally sheltered and out of the loop when it comes to current events. Many people disagree with my choice to do this, some think it makes me stupid or ignorant, and that is fine. You are allowed to believe whatever you'd like.
Personally, I feel it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It has been about 3 years that I have been consistently avoiding mass media, and I can honestly say that the difference in my level of happiness now vs. when I was in the know is extreme.
Anyway, with that said, you can make the assumption that I am NOT NOT NOT desensitized to things like war, death, etc. These things strike a strong reaction from me, often to what seems to be an unusual extreme to others who are regularly exposed to this kind of material.
This morning, on my way out for school, I passed an apartment with the daily newspaper sitting in front of the door. The headline read something like, "###### Canadians Dead!"
When I came home this afternoon, I accidentally came across an article in regards to the war in Israel.
This is a lot of exposure for me, so I started to think a lot about the news in general and how awful it really is. My roomie and I sparked a discussion, and with the topic on our minds, he decided to watch the news on TV to see what the mass population is being told.
Feeling frustrated with the negativity and the general stupidity of the human race, I decided to prove my own point and count how many times a negative word or phrase was said vs. positive things.
Immediately within the first 5 minutes, I had heard over 80 negative words and phrases, and only a mere 9 positive things (which most of the time were countered with something negative).
Quickly tiring of this, I decided to make a list of the actual words and phrases. This was what I got out of 10 mins. worth of the news:
Death
Military threats
Attack
Mass fatalities
Mass evacuation
Canadian escape - many want out!
Targeted by air strikes
Destroyed by missiles
Not happy w/ slow pace
Escalating crisis
Conflict
Attacks on Israel
Rejected cease-fire
Rockets fell
Canons failed
Symbol of battle
Braced for rockets
Shattered homes, bodies and nerves
"Must hit them hard in the head"
War
Kidnapped
Fury
Rally nation
Guerilla fighter
Civilian casualties
Public bitterness
Terror
Unjustified
Grieving
Meltdown
Seriously, this is only what I could catch, not to mention, many of these were repeated!
The masses are listening to these types of things on a daily basis, feeding their minds with negative images, thoughts and feelings. People in general are narcissistic and pessimistic; the depression rates are enormous, and suicides are common.
We're living in an ugly world with a lot of terrible things, and I think too much exposure to all of the unpleasant facets of our species is damaging to ourselves as a people. We are afraid and angry, and we are lashing out at each other. The anger and aggression being expressed by our culture is overwhelming. You can even witness it here on TA; people making personal attacks on others, attempting to hurt one another.
We’re becoming spiteful, and enjoy watching the suffering of others. How many of you can say you haven’t laughed at someone else’s misfortunes? Why do we revel others tragedies?
This isn't right.
After only 15 minutes of watching the news, I am feeling upset, angry, and defeated. It makes me lose all faith in humanity when I see little children being dragged out of destroyed homes; militia brutally shooting down innocent people. It’s sickening, and disheartening.
Open your eyes people. We are our own worst enemy, and we need to change this! We, the young people who will soon be the adults running this culture, need to fight against this garbage, and instead fight for what is right. Let’s not run this country as a bunch of war mongering, vengeful people. Let’s work together to make this place better for our children, and our children’s children. The only way we can make a difference is if we act, and what better time than now? |
I appreciate the thought that went into this post, but I disagree with the idea that ignoring the news is a positive step. Yes, the media sucks (esp. in America). But it does reflect a general truth -- that bad things happen in the world. There's some sort of saying along the lines of you can't fight what you don't know. For me, I've chosen to study a lot of the things that are in the news these days in order to fight them some day. Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away in my opinion. Therefore knowing that 31,000 people die every month in the Congo due to ethnic violence, or that Bristol-Meyers Squibb has licensed a 3-in-1 AIDS pill for the US... but not Africa are important first steps in fighting injustice.
Just my two kroner. |
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| enferno |
| like . . peace man . . |
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| jdat |
Knowledge is the only way out for problem solvers.
What you're doing there is shutting yourself out to the outside world and making sure your little bubble remains intact and unpenetrable.
Good job on working so hard to stay so damn ignorant. 
In other words what I think you're doing is pretty damn selfish.
and Ps:
I am a news/media/press/whatever you wanna call it/ junkie and what I have learned over the years it is best to vary where you are getting your info from. Yeah it's still ugly but it helps you view the things in a broader light.
Now that I come to think of it and not to sound sexist ( you know I'm pro fem anyhow ;) ) what you are doing is totally predictable of females. The biggest consummers of newspapers etc tend to be men..... as to why it is like that I have no idea but it just is. |
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| Orbax |
im worked up about this too.
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zegzyooally |
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