What the hell is going on here?

[Brian Fein]

There's way too much serious, racist/political/religious/war crap going o n in these forums.

What have you people done with the REAL TDMMC readers?

[VidKid]

I think it's gonna snow in South Florida, cuz i completely agree.

[Brian Fein]

I think it's gonna snow in South Florida, cuz i completely agree.

I think a pig just flew by my office window...

[BeefStewert]

There's way too much serious, racist/political/religious/war crap going o n in these forums.

What have you people done with the REAL TDMMC readers?

Don't forget physics debates as well.

[Brian Fein]

Don't forget physics debates as well.

Heh - yeah, I almost forgot.

Way too intellectual around here lately.

[BeefStewert]

I think it is to balance the TDMMC girl competition, ASCII porn, and blowjob stories.

[jtex316]

BS.  There are never enough blowjob stories.

[JVides]

It's stimulating, in a not in the naughty place kind of way...

[Frimp]

I enjoy the debate.

Its nothing personal against anyone who may disagree with me.

[Dave Gray]

The debates anger me...because there is no debating.  They are bottom of the barrel arguments, where neither side gives.

I am so different than some people on this board.  If someone can't see that the American way of life is oppressive to other nations, what can I do?  ...what can I say?  It's so clear to me.  Now, I'd be able to discuss the different options on how to deal with this -- whether we should, etc.  ..but it never gets to that point.

There is so much blaming, and I just can't take it any more.

[JVides]

I am so different than some people on this board.  If someone can't see that the American way of life is oppressive to other nations, what can I do?  ...what can I say?  It's so clear to me

Whoa, Nellie...unless you've done some serious traveling and experienced what people in other nations live like, you are unqualified to make such statements.  I have traveled plenty, and lived among the "opressed", and, um, I'm not qualified to make or refute that statement.

I will say, however, that the American way of life includes a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and other "novelties" that have shaped the way countries changed over the past 200 years.  If you want to say that our rampant consumerism - an aspect of American like - is oppressive to other countries, you'd have a better argument.  I know the U.S. isn't without sin, but I will never believe it's the world's oppressor...

[Phishfan]

Dave, I think that is a pretty strong accusation. Do we do some things I don't agree with, yes. Do we do things I agree with, yes. Is our goal to oppress people, no. I'm not sure you can say we are the oppressors as a whole. Their dictators oppress them, their lack of schooling oppresses them, their religous leaders oppress them, and even the people who run the sweatshops oppress them.

Please explain how we oppress them.

[Brian Fein]

wow, you guys even turned my anti-debate thread into a debate.

Strong work.

[JVides]

Um, it wasn't my fault!!   

[Dave Gray]

I hope you guys don't take offense to this.  I'm not talking about anyone specifically.

Yes, I've done quite a bit of traveling, but more than that, I have friends who are a lot more involved than I am.  A good friend of mine (who's in National Geographic this month) goes to 3rd world countries more than once a year and comes back with lots of stories about how these people live.  Another guy gives pretty much all of his life to go to Nicaragua to help build schools and stuff.

I don't mean that we're evil -- I don't think we are.  But I think that we contribute to world poverty.  When we pay 75 cents an hour for a kid to make Nikes, and then sell them here for 150 bucks a pair, the spread of wealth is very screwed up.  It gives one side all the money and power to get things to go their way.  More than that, though, it creates a vicious cycle, where the people making Nikes start to depend on that 75 cents an hour to even survive.

We're not to blame as individuals, but we are part of a machine that is allowing this kind of stuff to happen.  ...we'd have to lose some of our wealth to spread it around the world, but it would make for a better planet.

My point is this:
If you don't see that this is how things are, that's fine -- but we're never going to be able to communicate and discuss this issue.