Have people become too politically "aware"?

5

561design

Member
 Woodstock,Ga
So I've had quite the unsettling experience lately. It started about a month ago when I was playing TF2. On one of the servers derrogatory terms were being thrown left and right. More than one user were saying these words and for the most part it was accepted. What concerned me was that it was voice of young teenagers. When I was that young I don't remember any of my friends being that hateful of another race of people. In this case it was quite a few different races invovled.

Tonight, seems to have topped it off though. Recently I've joined a new guild on WoW. Within this guild of 120 members. A majority of them are family members. There are aunts, uncles, dads, moms and kids that make up this guild. Pretty safe huh?

Well, I was running an instance with this girl and a few other teenagers. Her mother is in the same guild and was in the same chat channel on vent. Some of the kids were asking off if they had vetran's day off. Well this girl didn't have this day off and the following conversation insued.

Her mother said that the only days her daughter gets off of school are for "j*** and n******". She also went on to say that they even get off Kawanza n****** appreciation day. Well one of the kids was jewish, took offense to the first remark and told the mother he was jewish. This kid didn't sound any older than say 14 and sounded quite offended hearing a remark like that come from an adult. The mother appologizied and toned down her remarks.

But damn... Does the internet create a safety blanket for those to express themselves about how they REALLY feel?

I spoke with the mother about what she said and how it had affected the other kid. She apologizied for her actions but I really doubt she was sincere about it. It's just dissappointing to see people filled with so much hate, especially when there are other things wrong in the world they could be passionate about.
 
Yeah I play WoW also, I've only had something like this happen once though. But yeah, I think the net does create a safety blanket for people. Can't believe the only school holidays though are for those folk....who knew :P On a side note I didn't find out until High School that Mardi Gras is in fact NOT a national holiday
 
I may be wrong on this but...

In my mind it all traces back to the 60's and 70's flower children whom later became parents and failed to teach their kids right from wrong and lets them "make their own mind up about things". The problem lies in the process of determining for oneself the difference between right and wrong and subsequently learning that choosing the right thing is always the better option. This is a very, very time consuming process that requires a substantial amount of bad experiences and many times, as history can tell us, can take many many generations to achieve. Learning from our parents the difference between right and wrong is a much more efficient manner of developing young minds that are equipped to function efficiently in today's society and become productive members of such.

A good way to describe this phonemenon is to relate it to advancing technology. If we were to teach kids Cobol and Basic and then let them develop from there without providing guidance as to where technology has progressed from there, it would take them just as long as it took us to get back to the level of advancement we are at today. It's the re-inventing the wheel sort of thing that happens in companies all the time that is simply a waste of time and resources. The problem today is that parents aren't even teaching (metaphorically) their kids Cobol and Basic coding, so the kids are left to "discover" it on their own, and in the process repeat all the mistakes that we did centuries ago.

Advancing societies is much like advancing technology and we need to instill the basics in order to be able to continually build upon the existing state. Without it, we digress.

P.S. And now I must start working on my 1000th post!!! :D
 
flyboyaj, you make some very good points and really explains IMHO why individuals will say and do things on the interent that they would not do in person for the most part.

Looking forward to post 1,000... :thumbsup:
 
LOL - Is this how you guys are when you're playing world of warcraft (i'm not cool enough for the abbreviation)
http://www.stansdad.com/season10/episode8/
 
Veruca said:
LOL - Is this how you guys are when you're playing world of warcraft (i'm not cool enough for the abbreviation)
http://www.stansdad.com/season10/episode8/
Click to expand...

LOL that's why I can't make it to any gtg's. :roll:
 
It's all starting to make sense.

My brother plays a lot. He is like 35 and lost his job a while back but had saved a good bit up to that point (a gene I didn't get). Needless to say, he still hasn't gotten another job and it has been like a year. My mom is so worried about him, she thinks he's sitting around all day at home depressed. I keep trying to tell her that he isn't sad he's playing world of warcraft, the days are just flying by for him. LOL
 
I'm no where near that bad. However, video games have become heavily ingrained in society. In South Korea whole industries thrive off of it. There are even "professional" gamers over there WITH groupies. This subculture has grown to the point where it does influence the real world. Although, I am curious as to how racial slurs and derogatory statements are allowed and even encouraged online. This is dealing with both children and adults online. It's apparent they feel pretty strongly about their views and I can imagine how they react in real life. It's almost like you get a peek at how people really are behind closed doors.

The topic irritates me because I've had to mentor at risk kids in the past. Both skins and gang members. They originate from influences within their community, social groupings and parents. It's just a waste to see kids drawn into these issues so young.
 
Well as far as the game there is a profanity filter. But it's not good and super easy to turn off. Besides you can always change stuff around so it gets past the filter. I wouldn't say they are encouraged though.

Oh and yes that WoW episode is exactly like us during a raid. Especially once they start fighting the older guy. I hate admitting it, but yeah we do sound like that.
 
I haven't experienced any racial issues like that. My husband got mad at me one night while I was playing worms on xbox because I told some kid to shut the f up - a low point in my gaming career. LOL I get a lot of sexist comments when I play. Seems like everyone wants to take the girl out first. I don't get it.
 
I will echo AJ on this one..excellent post, and I concur completely..is it me, or did you just get a little philosophical on us?! :poke:
 
Veruca, it's a macho behavior that boys and many uneducated men exhibit quite often. Those who view, or whom were taught to view, women as a "weaker" sex will often prey on women because they think it is an easy "kill". It's the hunter/gatherer instinct - go for the easy ones first, then consider the more difficult challenges. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but I've had a couple drinks and my mind isn't up to the challenge of writing another dissertation at the moment.
 
Some guys like getting beat by girls though....not me, but hey different strokes for different folks.
Of course it is a well known fact that guys don't loose to girls, we let ya'll win.....
:exitright:
 
... insert appropriate emoticon below:

Pig_dances_2.gif
 
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