Devildoc
Verified Military
The self identity thread.
- Thread starter Diamondback 2/2
- Start date
Sitting here at work trying not to break out in laughter...holy shit!!
I got ahold of a JC Penny catalog when I was about 4 or 5.
If you can get people to believe something as fundamentally and transparently wrong that men are women and women are men, you can get them to believe anything.
If you can convince them to physically mutilate themselves, or worse their children, in support of what comes down to a political ideology, you can get them to do anything.
If you make it OK for them to hate a group of people, they will do so with a passion.
If you demonstrate that resistance to current social fads, popular politics, or even violence will be met with extreme social, economic, and even physical cost, there will be few who resist.
If you can persuade people to believe that everything is "socially constructed" and there is no fundamental truth, only "my truth" as an individual, then there is no way to sustain the kinds of institutions and social ties that make our heterogenous, melting pot of a society work.
^That's kind of where we are in America right now.
If you can convince them to physically mutilate themselves, or worse their children, in support of what comes down to a political ideology, you can get them to do anything.
If you make it OK for them to hate a group of people, they will do so with a passion.
If you demonstrate that resistance to current social fads, popular politics, or even violence will be met with extreme social, economic, and even physical cost, there will be few who resist.
If you can persuade people to believe that everything is "socially constructed" and there is no fundamental truth, only "my truth" as an individual, then there is no way to sustain the kinds of institutions and social ties that make our heterogenous, melting pot of a society work.
^That's kind of where we are in America right now.
Topkick
Verified Military
We need to fix the media. That alone would affect other institutions such as the education system. Problem is that the media works for the government. That wasn't supposed to happen.
^I look forward to having episodes of people like Tucker etc. to view on Twitter or whatever when that kicks off. Not that I'm a fan of him specifically but I listen to Stern and Megyn Kelly on Sirius now and someday when I have more time I'm going to watch/listen to more.
I think about half of "us" tune the MSM out anyhow, there's just a vocal minority out there fruiting everything up. I mean look at the Bud Light thing. Holy shit, Kid Rock and a few others got them running around like their pants are on fire. I would have never even known had they not put that on blast for a few days. I don't drink Bud Lite or listen to KR... Weekly sales are down 23.6% from this time last year.
Yahoo Finance: Bud Lite Sales 1st week of May
I think about half of "us" tune the MSM out anyhow, there's just a vocal minority out there fruiting everything up. I mean look at the Bud Light thing. Holy shit, Kid Rock and a few others got them running around like their pants are on fire. I would have never even known had they not put that on blast for a few days. I don't drink Bud Lite or listen to KR... Weekly sales are down 23.6% from this time last year.
Yahoo Finance: Bud Lite Sales 1st week of May
Topkick
Verified Military
How many teachers or professors get their information from CNN and then go talk to their students the next day about current events? Answer...from first hand experience...a lot.
My 9 year olds grade 4 class has some pop culture news bullshit put on every morning so the teacher gets some extra quiet time. Thankfully my daughter's ADHD keeps her from paying attention to half of it. She laughs and tells me it's boring, so she reads one of her books.
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^Yeah, but how many of us don't listen to our teachers and professors? 
The BS definitely is a problem, and the media does run almost all of the BS. Think about how together America was post 9-11 for a few months. It didn't take too long for all that to fall apart and back to war is immoral and stupid.
A ton of people get indoctrinated as liberal, and there's been a balance leaning liberal in the U.S. for a long time, but when it comes time to pay the bill, and the bill always comes due, those same people turn conservative real quick.
The BS definitely is a problem, and the media does run almost all of the BS. Think about how together America was post 9-11 for a few months. It didn't take too long for all that to fall apart and back to war is immoral and stupid.
A ton of people get indoctrinated as liberal, and there's been a balance leaning liberal in the U.S. for a long time, but when it comes time to pay the bill, and the bill always comes due, those same people turn conservative real quick.
Topkick
Verified Military
Yep. I actually got into a few heated discussions with professors for spewing BS @ university, but I was a 40 year old crusty recently retired Sr NCO and couldn't keep my fucking mouth shut. Fortunately, it didn't hurt my GPA too much.^Yeah, but how many of us don't listen to our teachers and professors?
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Devildoc
Verified Military
^Yeah, but how many of us don't listen to our teachers and professors?
The BS definitely is a problem, and the media does run almost all of the BS. Think about how together America was post 9-11 for a few months. It didn't take too long for all that to fall apart and back to war is immoral and stupid.
A ton of people get indoctrinated as liberal, and there's been a balance leaning liberal in the U.S. for a long time, but when it comes time to pay the bill, and the bill always comes due, those same people turn conservative real quick.
My experiences are dated, and nothing like what's going on now. I don't think I had a single professor who tried to indoc us one way, or the other, and we knew exactly where they stood. From what I recall if you could present a cogent argument to back up your belief they pretty much would leave you alone even if they disagreed 100%.
I had one prof of black history in America (I was the only honky in a class of 30-something), he would often be the 'devil's advocate' because he knew I wasn't going to say shit in that class, and he and I had some great conversations after class even though he was a pretty much Malcolm X acolyte (pre-departure from NoI, not from when he was cool).
I accidentally ended up with a minor in sociology (funny story....), almost all of those profs were LBGQT before LBGQT was a thing, and we knew where we all stood vis-a-vis politics.
Box
Verified SOF
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In 2023 aMErikuh, you no longer need a vagina to be a woman - all you need is some lipstick and a twitter feed.
...and the lipstick is really only to help make your statement
Topkick
Verified Military
I had some great Profs too. But those were mostly in my Kinesiology specific courses. Gen Ed profs, especially history, were usually slobbering all over the Kennedy's, Clintons and Obama and absolutely despised Reagan. I recognize Reagan's faults, but I also greatly appreciate Reagan's strengths and always spoke my mind when the bashing started. Felt my classmates needed to hear both sides and were not getting it from the educators.
Topkick
Verified Military
180 from what I experienced. I remember one incident where my Professor was completely bashing capitalism and I provided a personal example of what is good about capitalism and he shut me down by saying "we are not going to have this discussion"
Devildoc
Verified Military
My first degree was poli sci (1991), so had a lot of different poli sci and history profs. We had some liberal ones; we had some conservative ones, too. Funny enough, there was a husband-wife combo in the poli sci department, he was super liberal, she was staunchly conservative. They were also a bit older, around 60 at the time. We'd argue in class about this or that, but it was never personal or attacking.
Many years later when I was trying to get into nursing school they advised me to take some easy classes to prop my GPA to be more competitive, so I took a butt-load of sociology courses. Every single one of those profs were definitely liberal. We argued, but it was always amicable enough. I never had any experiences like what we're seeing now.
Devildoc
Verified Military
Sorry you had that experience. Yeah, that type of thing never happened to me.
Topkick
Verified Military
Attending college in middle age, and after serving your entire life in the military, presents a different challenge than it does right after high school (I did both) You go in with life experience and you are much more set in your ways. I found it difficult to keep an open mind, but I did learn a lot about myself and I am a better person.
Devildoc
Verified Military
Yep. College first time at 18-22 (BA, poli sci). Grad school at 25-28 (MA, policy). College again 32-35 (BSN). Second masters at 48-51. Before, during, and after my service.
I didn't keep an open mind much, but I did keep a closed mouth. Eyes on the prize and all.
Edited to say, I am done. No more college for me. Well, maybe the post-masters certificate in disaster management, but no doctoral degree.
Topkick
Verified Military
Yeah, it doesn't really help if you push back other than maybe to present another side of a subject to younger students. That was always my intent. I actually enjoyed learning and the diploma was secondary. I did have a few classmates quietly commend me after class, so maybe it made a small impact.
ETA I enjoyed college. To be clear, my confrontations with the professors were only occasional. I hope it doesn't sound like I went to class each day looking for a fight. Lol.
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