EDITED TO ADD: Photographs of where children sleep around the world.
And this is basically why I just tune out most of the social dwarin/capitalist crap I hear. Don't get me wrong, I actually like some of the ideas of capitalism, in terms of logistics (resource management) but the "philosophy" behind it is utter crap given the actuality of the world.
All Excuses and justifications; no apologiesAt some point, there simply is a massive divide in wealth especially on a global scale and everyone is faced with this eventually. People deal with this in different ways and the "capitalism as a philosophy" is probably the worst way. Basically, it makes a false appeal to "merit" namely that the speaker has it and other people don't and this is why everyone is where they are with what they have: they deserve it.... It presupposes perfect fairness in an utterly unfair universe. This is especially true in an all too Hobbesian world where life is short and brutal.... Thus, while capitalism may be an effective tool if properly regulated by a government, it is merely the lesser of evils not the ideal (Screw you Ayn Rand).
Concerning the real knowledge of the world and its inequality people typically have three reactions. They either don't know, ignore it, or justify it. This justification is based on the laughable assumption that life is somehow fair that the speaker "earned" what they have and "others" didn't but could if they weren't lazy.... This allows us to both praise ourselves and scorn others, our two favorite pastimes, justifying the state of the world with no personal blame while assigning plenty of blame. Do I even have to say that opportunities to earn aren't equal or even close. The 7 year old working in a granite quarry instead of going to school illustrates this nicely but I suppose that kid is "lucky" to have a job instead of outright starving. Meanwhile I've seen homeless people eating out of trash cans not 5 feet away from morons at bus or train stations complaining about how their Ipad is good but "needs to be better...."
The causes of being GLBT:The most impressive thing I've heard on topic, from a straight guy no less, "Who gives a shit? I don't care and it's not like it's wrong...."
Who cares and why does it matter given that it isn't wrong? You've basically got three camps "it's a choice, a social construct, or biological," and each has its own dangers. The problem of saying "it's a choice" is that people say it's the "wrong choice," and people need to be "convinced" of this. The problem with saying it is biological or a social construct is that this still leads to people saying it is wrong and trying to "cure" "the condition." Ultimately, GLBT people aren't hurting anyone, who cares why they are that way and isn't it telling that rather than just chill out and be more accepting, we're going to try to study this. Let's waste enormous amounts of time changing it in complex ways instead of just choosing to be ok with it...?
If it is a "choice," then that just opens up the door for all kinds of "persuasion" up to and including torture, clearly a bad result. Also, putting aside the fact that straight people can't choose to be gay anymore than gay people can choose to be straight, it is a lovely way to blame GLBT people for existing as such.
"Cure" is just as bad an idea as "persuasion" and this comes from the theory that its socially constructed or biological. This implies that there are factors we can understand and alter to "prevent" people from being gay and it isn't that far of a leap for most people to say we "should" do this. Again, let's consider tampering with someone else's genetics or upbringing before we consider simply adjusting our attitudes.... [sigh]
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Topic: Chill and Relaxed Progressive Irritation and Annoyance Thread (Read 878110 times)