OT More Than You Wanted To Know

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- and so are the comments posted on the blog about the article.

Regards, Tom.

Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker

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Reply to
Tom Watson
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>> Interesting - and so are the comments posted on the blog about the > article. You gotta love the "wired world" ... instead of being on the cusp of an age of enlightenment, we're actually drowning in a sea of ignorance, based on the phenomenon that the more "facts" available from which to draw wrong conclusions, the more wrong conclusions there are available as "facts".

... and sick puppies abound.

Reply to
Swingman

Talk about thought provoking.

This is kinda of a hot bed subject with me. These kids stand for pretty much everything I find distasteful; lack of respect for their fellow man, lack of manners, lack of personal substance, and worse just loving starting trouble at other's expense.

But where do these kids come from? This is what normally gets me in trouble with my comrades. They are the children and grandchildren or our generation, right? So how did these kids and grandkids wind up with such a pathetic mindset? Who didn't do their job as parents?

It is an easy cop to say "well, my kids aren't that way" and see it as an aberration. Yet how many parents are surprised by the "trouble" their kids seem to find themselves in? Grandparents seem even more bewildered as to why the just a couple of generations down the kids are not only meaner to each other, but mean just for the fun of it to people they don't even know.

Where did this last two generations of kids get their values? No one seems to know and no one wants to claim them. All they know is THEIR kids and grandkids aren't that way.

Yet more and more, as the ugly side of internet anonymity is uncovered and makes itself more well known, we see even the "parents" (note the now famous suicide of the girl from cyberbullying) getting involved in this nasty, mean spirited behavior.

As with forums and newgroups, anonymity seems to generate a radioactive field that creates giant egos, big mouths, and the need to be the baddest guy on the group. And the know it alls... wow. It doesn't matter the subject of interest or the venue, they are their in droves with the cliques in place.

For a bored kid with nothing to do (I can hear the scratchy, raspy voices saying "Why in my day, we had three summer jobs as opposed to the two full time jobs we had during the school year") this is a target rich environment. They can come over here and announce they are a woodworker with thirty years experience in woodworking, and they always love HD and their products, Norm is better than Krenov, brad nails rule, you should always paint cherry, declare any position on any political topic, etc, and ghen go to do something else for a few hours.

When they come back, they have to be gleeful. All the chest thumping here from the guys "that have been doing something for 30 years so don't tell me" and "I was in the same city at the time so I am an expert on that", or "everyone knows this is the correct way to think except you (a variant of 'you can't be stupid enough to believe what you just typed')". This is not as bad as other venues, but it does get ugly very quickly. Tempers flare, nasty things are said, boundaries of respect for the opinions of others are crossed.

Yet in my mind, I see some keyboard badass (middle aged or better, thinning gray hair, glasses, kids that don't listen to him, a wife that has travails of her own so no time for his, out-of-shape-but- working-on-it-I-can-still-kick-your-ass, kinda guy bragging to his kids how he had to use his vast intellectual knowledge to put some wiseguy in their place. Right proud of himself for launching a tirade against someone that may have more trouble typing than he would admit, making it harder still to express himself.

But all that is important to our keyboard cowboy is that he bested that "idiot", he followed the herd mentality of like minded thinking and just for a moment was the head of the pack. He was popular! As the kids say, "he owned that MF!".

Yup. Sitting there typing this, I'd even bet that 16 year old snot in the picture didn't buy his computer... someone gave to him; he didn't buy it himself. So where o where does someone think he picked up his attitude and cowardly way of trouble making and lack of respect for others? What example was set for that young idiot to follow that lead him to believe that in ANY way his behavior is/was acceptable. Who could have set that bad example?

Of course, no one we know, no one we are related to, and ditto the exculpatory language for any of our friends.

I have no kids, as nature took a different course for me. So it is odd for me to see and talk to my friends that have kids and grandkids that cannot figure out one whit of why the progeny act a certain way (they damn sure didn't learn that here!) or to listen to the laments of the grandfathers that have grandkids in their early teens now. Many of these folks that are my friends and co-workers now are good guys in late middle age. But I sure wouldn't have wanted any of them for a father.

But yet, no one seems to have a clue how all the bad behavior starts or how it became so prevalent.

Hmmm.... just thinking out loud here.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Thought provoking indeed. Rebellious punks will always BE rebellious punks. It's a phase most kids try on for size. They fart

*giggles*..the big difference is that now they fart into a megaphone called the internet. It's the same shit, only louder with a MUCH wider audience.

Then there is that ol' fashioned one-up-man-ship.

more later.

Reply to
Robatoy

Two excesses, both allowed by, and promoted by, parents: excess and self-esteem. An excess of material things, because the parents both work and don't have time to otherwise pay attention; self-esteem from the simple fact of being born in the U.S., too often to parents who can provide the material things, but have no knowledge, personal or otherwise, about discipline and hugs as rewards for actually doing something pleasant, constructive or useful.

Parental guidance is lacking, the load is transferred to schools, and then the parents bitch about the schools being lousy because little Sally and Willy spend their time doing things other than learning their subjects...like the good, little church-going girl around here who was disciplined, if you can call it that, for giving a boy a BJ in the hallway of the high school, while the other kids were in class. 15 years old. She claimed he threatened her, but three weeks later was caught doing the same thing, to another boy, behind her church. Overall, she got three days' detention from the school and a scolding from her parents who also chastised the schools for not providing appropriate guidance...probably wanted the kid taught to do her work in the janitor's closet.

Add to it all the fact that the lack of any realistic punishment is encouragement both for that child and for others.

Reply to
Charlie Self

"Robatoy" wrote

... the bucks are bigger!

Reply to
Swingman

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