The general decline in standards today

[HudsonHawk]

What child wouldn't grow angry and overly rebellious if Dad and Mom raised hell and bashed him every time he looked at them wrong...and showed no love but rather mostly a disgust with their very existence..? That is an extreme. Completely different scenario than a balance of correcting but also showing love to a child.
HD

There is still the problem of perception of what is "correction" and what is "abuse". For example: with the recent issues of an NFL player taking a switch to his kid, there's been much discussion about whether or not a switching is appropriate. I got switchings all the time, I even had to go cut my own. Did I get cuts and welts on my legs that lasted a week? Of course, that was the point. If it stopped hurting an hour later, it was deemed ineffective. I got "preventative spankings". I'd get a spanking every morning before school, not because of what I had done, but because of what I might theorectically do. That said, did I feel loved? Yes I did, very much so, though love didn't stop the bleeding. So where was my upbringing on the scale? The bookends are often easy to identify, but there's an awful lot of middle ground that could go either way.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Only Kings were supposed to be divinely inspired.

Still, it's quite a leap in logic from "life is more complicated than a 60's sitcom" to "well, then you're obviously a British loyalist, and a Presbyterian to boot".

 

[Dennis Young]

Come now. You just posted about idyllic Mayberry and why can't we get along like that? I'm just asking for a little effort on your part to make a fascimile happen here.

We all know very well that Hippie bashing skirts the political ban already in place. The rules of the forum are being bent if not broken all the time with this subject. In spirit if not in fact. We all know that. Let's at least be frank.

And it is not just this thread that gets the Hippie bashing treatment, as you well know. If it was just here, you're right, it would be very easy to avoid if one was so inclined.

So to be clear, you are more invested in a subject that is not even topical to this forum than making this forum more enjoyable for everyone here with very little sacrifice on your part? Even for a finite, set time? That's really the position you want to take?

Wrong. This *is* the topic of discussion and you are trying to shut down debate. I happen to believe that the hippie / Woodstock generation developed a set of beliefs that are very prevalent today and are being passed on to college kids. I believe that the activists back then are in our govt now and these people are trying to force their doctrines on those of us who want to keep our traditional family values. I believe that the core problems we have today stem from those hippie activists of the 60s.
You don’t like that and so, rather than debate, you want to jump on this word ‘hippie’ and shut us down.

 

[DecoDame]

I am in!

Then I ask you directly too, mr. powers:

So to be clear, you are more invested in a subject that is not even topical to this forum than making this forum more enjoyable for everyone here with very little sacrifice on your part? Even for a finite, set time? That's really the position you want to take?

Is it?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I got "preventative spankings". I'd get a spanking every morning before school, not because of what I had done, but because of what I might theorectically do.

There you go. The crux of the problem. Really not so difficult to identify.

 

[Dennis Young]

Well...that's not good.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I got "preventative spankings". I'd get a spanking every morning before school, not because of what I had done, but because of what I might theorectically do.

There you go. The crux of the problem. Really not so difficult to identify.

I'm not sure what that means, other than you're saying it turned me into an insolent little SOB.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Come now. You just posted about idyllic Mayberry and why can't we get along like that? I'm just asking for a little effort on your part to make a fascimile happen here.

And that's the thing. THose of us who've been here a long time have gotten to know each other and, for the most part, even when we don't agree we respect each other. I know Bro. Powers and I are at the opposite extreme on a lot of issues, but I respect him and I believe he respects me, and I even think that he's a pretty decent sort of a guy who I'd be glad to have as a neighbor if he didn't mind living where it's cold. Same with Bro. Hudson, who'd be a lot of fun to see a ball game with, even if we don't agree on federal energy policy. Just because you disagree with someone's views on certain matters doesn't mean they're your mortal enemy.

This is where standards have fallen, and need to be raised. We live in a world where it's "LIEberals" versus "KKKonservatives," "wingnuts" versus "moonbats," WE versus THEY. If you aren't George Soros, you're the Koch Brothers. If you don't think kids should be whipped in school, you obviously must believe in letting children run wild without any kind of discipline. What in the holy hell ever happened to *nuance?* What ever happened to grown adults who can disagree and still, basically, like each other?

It'd be one thing if it were just the internet, or talk radio, or cable TV. But increasingly, people are confining their real-world friendships to those who agree with them in every way, building up these insulated little bubbles of The Way And The Truth, and refusing to accept that people can be sincere, decent, moral human beings even if they don't look at the world exactly as we ourselves do. If we can't even do it here, on a stupid Internet forum, what hope is there for the actual dirt-and-water world?

 

[DecoDame]

Wrong. This *is* the topic of discussion and you are trying to shut down debate. I happen to believe that the hippie / Woodstock generation developed a set of beliefs that are very prevalent today and are being passed on to college kids. I believe that the activists back then are in our govt now and these people are trying to force their doctrines on those of us who want to keep our traditional family values. I believe that the core problems we have today stem from those hippie activists of the 60s.
You don’t like that and so, rather than debate, you want to jump on this word ‘hippie’ and shut us down.

Yes, I registered your beliefs the first time.

I'm looking for a consensus on civility, is it important to you or not.

Hippie/Woodstock is universally understood to be a liberal influence on society. I'm "jumping on the use of hippie" because that's what's being used by you, in lieu of liberal. Again, be honest. And more importantly, I'm tired of seeing a group of people (American people, hell any group of people) be relentlessly held up for verbal abuse on a daily basis. It's tedious and not why any of us are allegedly here.

And again, if it were only (God, if it were only!) on this thread, I probably wouldn't be saying anything.

 

[DecoDame]

If we can't even do it here, on a stupid Internet forum, what hope is there for the actual dirt-and-water world?

Very little chance, I increasingly fear.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Still, it's quite a leap in logic from "life is more complicated than a 60's sitcom" to "well, then you're obviously a British loyalist, and a Presbyterian to boot".

Hey, watch that Loyalist stuff. You're talkin' 'bout my people there.

 

[jamespowers]

Still, it's quite a leap in logic from "life is more complicated than a 60's sitcom" to "well, then you're obviously a British loyalist, and a Presbyterian to boot".

Those two were actually at opposite ends of the spectrum. lol lol

 

[Dennis Young]

I’m sorry it bothers you, but I think the only reason it bothers you is because you don’t agree. That’s still no reason to try and censor others. I would suggest that its not very civil to try to shut down other people’s words. Yeah, I brought up hippies and rather than intelligently debate and show why my pov is wrong, you just want to censor James and myself.
And again, the topic of conversation in this thread is*the general decline of standards*. Not *lets all talk about how lovely this era was*. There are plenty of other threads that do that and I see you in them. That’s great. It was a great era!

 

[Atticus Finch]

I think that post # 5924 may well be the best post in the history of this forum.

AF

 

[DecoDame]

I’m sorry it bothers you, but I think the only reason it bothers you is because you don’t agree. That’s still no reason to try and censor others. I would suggest that its not very civil to try to shut down other people’s words. Yeah, I brought up hippies and rather than intelligently debate and show why my pov is wrong, you just want to censor James and myself.
And again, the topic of conversation in this thread is*the general decline of standards*. Not *lets all talk about how lovely this era was*. There are plenty of other threads that do that and I see you in them. That’s great. It was a great era!

You're still ignoring the fact that it's not just contained here, where it couldn't in the least stretch be considered topical. But thanks for your response.



Mr. JamesPowers would you like to give me the courtesy of a response?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I’m sorry it bothers you, but I think the only reason it bothers you is because you don’t agree. That’s still no reason to try and censor others. I would suggest that its not very civil to try to shut down other people’s words. Yeah, I brought up hippies and rather than intelligently debate and show why my pov is wrong, you just want to censor James and myself.

Actually, she did post a very eloquent refutation to your argument, one which a lot of us endorse. She isn't trying to censor you at all, because she isn't a Bartender. Which I am, by the way, and I haven't tried to censor you either. So let's lay off the martyr stuff, we've heard it all before, and it doesn't go around here.

What she is suggesting is that we ought to look at our own behavior here before we criticize others. "Removest thou the beam from thine own eye so that you might see better to remove the mote from your brother's." I don't think that's any kind of censorship, it's simply common decency, which is supposedly one of the things we all support.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

What am I missing?
I see it that Deco wants all discussion about 'hippies' shut down...and any reference to many of their possible principles seeping into society..well...discontinued...while Dennis is still trying to make his points about what he feels has led to 'The general decline'.
HD

 

[Bushman]

I think DecoDame is simply requesting that we try not to scapegoat a problem that clearly has many underlying causes.

 

[Dennis Young]

Actually, she did post a very eloquent refutation to your argument, one which a lot of us endorse. She isn't trying to censor you at all, because she isn't a Bartender. Which I am, by the way, and I haven't tried to censor you either. So let's lay off the martyr stuff, we've heard it all before, and it doesn't go around here.

What she is suggesting is that we ought to look at our own behavior here before we criticize others. "Removest thou the beam from thine own eye so that you might see better to remove the mote from your brother's." I don't think that's any kind of censorship, it's simply common decency, which is supposedly one of the things we all support.

PM headed your way...

 

[Dennis Young]

What am I missing?
I see it that Deco wants all discussion about 'hippies' shut down...and any reference to many of their possible principles seeping into society..well...discontinued...while Dennis is still trying to make his points about what he feels has led to 'The general decline'.
HD

Exactly. Thank you.