Longknife

I get the impression he's only seen them on wildlife documentaries being presented by Sir Nigel Thornberry.

That's as paranoid and as nonsensical as if I were to say "Russia is sabotaging the USA by funding the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church."

Oh and: I like how the one that's actually decent to listen to is the one that only gets posted as a link.

So how about them racial minorities and their mischievious escapades, eh guys?

Statistically, yes. The percentage of black people in societies with mixed races is always lower then their representation in jails and prisons. For example in US the black people are about 12-13% of population but over 40% of inmates population are black.I read a while ago that 85% of rapes i NYC are made by Black and Hispanic people. I recently saw what black people consider to be protesting...it looked very similar to burglary. But I digress.

Don't remember if I said this or not but, if I may.... I have a very love-hate relationship with Russians. I tutor English for money and where I live, every Russian female studies economics of some kind and needs business English. So yeah, I know quite a few and feel pretty familiar with the culture. I find it very telling that I have YET to encounter a Russian who knew jack-all about politics. I mean sometimes I'll get a German asking me what's wrong with US politics and I'm happy to voice my opinion on the matter. Likewise I ask the Russians and.......aaaaand they always answer something akin to "I don't really pay attention to politics, it's all rigged anyways." They don't believe their elections are genuine and thus don't bother. Despite this, Putin is very popular and - this may sound incredibly dumb - when I incline as to why he's popular, the most common answer is "he's so sexy." I also can tell you that oby's rant about how the Ukrainians are animals and liars or the like is nothing new to me. I once had a Russian try to explain that culturally, they joke about the Ukrainians and liken them to leeches and thieves. In short you've got a country where they've left a fox to guard the hen house. No one seems to be paying attention and what little there is kinda plays in nicely to the images they know. Ukraine is seen as deserving of this, Putin is seen as a strong leadership figure, etc etc. I also fear this might be why Putin is afraid to compromise or back down period (potentially) because it could be perceived as a sign of weakness and shatter his public approval. Another interesting little snippet: google for "From Russia with Hate." It's an interesting little documentary about the Neo-Nazi movements within Russia, and merely highlights that there is a strong nationalist subculture within Russia. That documentary is a little dated now, but I can guarantee the sentiments are alive and well; I have a friend from Krasnodar who became quite familiar with racism in Russia when she started dating her Nigerian boyfriend and had to deal with all sorts of crap because of it.

I for one just find it fascinating that everyone's all up in arms cause omg someone suggested those people might not be miserable victims of the state and might be quite happy and content people. Don't get me wrong, yes there are plenty of sex trafficking rings in parts of the world where it is tantamount to slavery, but there's also plenty of women who just think it sounds fun. I don't find it very productive to focus on the types we all agree are slavery in rougher parts of the world as those very same parts are likely to have all kinds of problems; the issue is not exclusive to sex work, it's exclusive to those rough areas. Here, let's do a poll: how many of you actually know a stripper or sex worker? I sure do. I know about....think just the two. Thought I knew a third but I think I'm just thinking of another friend who was propositioned to do so and declined. And no, I don't go looking to purchase these services and meet them that way; I knew these girls before they started stripping. Both of them? They just like sex, simple as that. The prospect sounded fun to them. My friend who turned it down? Didn't sound fun to her so she turned it down. Simple. And actually come to think of it I did know a third very briefly but lost contact to her. Again though, she just liked sex. There wasn't any pressure or abusive situation or anything, these were just girls that liked sex, and all three enjoyed the work. One I knew in high school and she went to do it ASAP, another thought it sounded like a fun idea to help pay for college tuition and the third I don't know that well, but I believe she just came across the work and enjoyed it. But yeah, I just find it so stupid to sit here and try to make an incredibly broad-strokes claim that all of them lack self esteem or are victims or wtf ever. There's simply no correlation and the only study I know of even suggests the opposite effect amongst porn stars (on average, of course).

Of course. Didn't mean to sound like I was saying only feminism can be guilty of it, but rather that a LOT of the drama currently surrounding feminism can be summed up as "someone cherry-picked a comment and then said a thing in which they judged and stereotyped an ENTIRE group," which of course is an absolute nonsense method. And that's exactly what's happening here. Dude I don't care if you've got a problem with the study I cited ("you" being barothmuk here, before there's any confusion) only having a sample size of 177. 1) Please name more than 177 porn stars. I'm a dude with a **** and I can't even name 177 pornstars 2) Even if you consider that study questionable, that does not validate your counter claim that porn stars lack self esteem. You've cherry picked ones that match your agenda and therefore omg everything you think about porn stars is automatically right and ITS TIME TO PULL NUMBERS OUT OF OUR ASS: "for every porn star success story there are THOUSANDS of failures!" THOUSANDS of porn stars with low self-esteem! An estimated 177,000 at least! Seriously, gtfo with that ****. I don't care what your cause is, you should learn to have an objective debate before you even try to get **** done or open your mouth.

Feminism: Cherry-pick information to match your agenda! Dude the point is there's NO CORRELATION between low self esteem and being a porn star. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist and it doesn't mean everyone will think omg best job ever. However in the study conducted, the AVERAGE porn star had self esteem exceeding the national average for a person. This doesn't mean every pornstar ever has self esteem made of indestructible iron, it means the accusations that the job is demeaning and only people with low self esteem would seek it out is absolute nonsense. FFS I think I recall one porn star who committed suicide a couple years back; of course those exist. But to state it's the norm and omg we need to rescue them from themselves or they dunno how to live happy lives or whatever? GTFO.

I'm trying to find that study that said that girls with high self esteem were least likely to identify as a feminist. I can't say I know of one of those, however, I do know that recent studies have shown that sex workers such as strippers, prostitutes and porn stars actually have incredibly high self-esteem and the stereotype of them having "daddy issues" or issues with being content with their body image are untrue. I would love to see that study that suggests strippers and escorts have high self-esteem and are proud of there jobs They have confidence in certain arenas as they know what motivates men but its not like they get on to a bus or meet someone in a line in a shopping mall when asked what they do for a living they proudly say "I have the most amazing and liberating job, I have sex with men for money" ... Haha, oh wow.This thread. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/porn-stars-higher-self-esteem_n_2192214.html http://realdoctorstu.com/2012/03/12/the-psychological-cost-of-being-a-stripper/ I got it half-right. Porn stars are the ones I read the study on, there are multiple little smaller stories saying there is no self-esteem correlation to stripping, good or bad, and prostitution gets the same "no correlation" speech with an asterisk mentioning that prostitution in various parts of the world can house women who feel forced or trapped within it by an economic situation or an addiction, and that sort of scenario can be connected to low self esteem; some specific prostitute situations yes, others (merely working as one or working normally in a country where it's legal or protected, or working as one to help pay university costs) are perfectly normal. Anyways, point was I doubt feminists would be quick to put porn stars and strippers on a pedestal as the face of feminism, and quite ironically they seem to be perfectly content with their lives and who they are with porn stars having above average satisfaction in life on multiple fronts. Slightly relevant, I could also find studies suggesting "feminism is the worst thing to happen to women" if you guys want. In a nutshell is simply shows a correlation between life satisfaction and depression in women taking a fall and rise respectively since the feminist movement began. Why? Well duh, because society began expecting more from them. Before they had it kinda easy on the work front but now a woman is expected to handle an equal portion of the work load with admitted prejudice on the job market (employers often admit to avoiding hiring women interested in having children for obvious reasons and I'd imagine this very same thing is what motivates others to pay women slightly lower. Not defending them here, mind you).

"Also, **** the escapist." What'd they do? I'm not super invested in this (or gaming journalism period) so I don't really check any of those sites regularly.

I'm trying to find that study that said that girls with high self esteem were least likely to identify as a feminist. I can't say I know of one of those, however, I do know that recent studies have shown that sex workers such as strippers, prostitutes and porn stars actually have incredibly high self-esteem and the stereotype of them having "daddy issues" or issues with being content with their body image are untrue.

It cost her €3 to wax him.

Are you implying you are in control of every feminist involved with the feminist side of the conflict? This may come as a suprise to you, but things on different on our end. I dunno the guy who said "lol go make a sandwhich woman before I rape you" nor do I have any way of finding out who he is. If you want I can send him a message on youtube politely asking him to stop, but that's about all I can do. That's just want Obsidian wants you to think. In truth, he's another one of those infamous Muscle wizards we've all been hearing so much about.

Holy **** this guy has zero posts but I'm looking at his post right now omfg I'm trippin' balls.

WTF? I'm not with you on pricing, because market capitalist guy. But being so ****ing greedy that they take OUT disabled sims to avoid 'offending' halfwits? Satan Makes Room For Parents Who Complained About Disabled TV Presenter Just to clarify, disabled sims never existed nor do I think EA ever considered them. What I said was that when there was a heated discussion on EA's forums between disabled customers and supporters vs. insensitive half-wits, EA took the easy way out and banned the minority vocal opinion, which just so happened to be the disabled people requesting disabled sims. The "please add disabled sims" camp did nothing wrong and merely requested to see disabled Sims in a future Sims title, which the majority of the forum reacted to with disapproval by saying "why would anyone want to play a worthless and depressing sim that takes 5 hours just to make it to the toilet seat." I was there, I promise you I was the only one from the few disabled sims supporters who was using swear words and threatening to break some necks; the others were all very polite and patient (though I fear that's because some of them felt truly insulted or upset... :C ), so the ban was unwarranted. It was merely "conflict eh? Just get rid of the smallest group." In a nutshell, EA doesn't give a damn about individual customers because they know they've got more than enough to spare, nor do they give a damn about any sort of principle or morality and would apparently gladly support a vocal majority with terrible morals if it means more profit. ;P

ALL IM GUNNA SAY And don't take this super srs cause I wanna post something light-hearted before letting this go. There is such a thing as being TOO sensitive and considerate: <snip>

Lrn 2 ****ing comedy, seriously. You're misinterpreting a satirical joke aimed at the overzealous attitude of one group of feminists for a blatant attack on a message shown as a sign of respect. If you're incapable of distinguishing "show this message as a sign of respect when applicable please" from "show this message as a sign of respect at all times or you are heartless scum that's the source of all problems in society and I hope you die," then I have no idea what to tell you. Extremists can **** up anything. ANYTHING. FFS the teachings of Jesus Christ are largely about respect, and this may come as a surprise to you, but those very teachings are at the heart of THOUSANDS of deaths simply because some people perverted them into "ACCEPT THE WORD OF JESUS OR I'LL KILL YOU." It can happen anywhere. "ACCEPT GHANDI'S MESSAGE OF NON-VIOLENCE PEACE OR I'LL KILL YOU." If you don't see how we're focused on one group that IS misusing your respectful message, then I'm sorry but I find that incredibly short-sighted of you.

I'm not saying I'm EXPECTING people to post without warnings, nor that I EXPECT others to do so. EXPECTATIONS is exactly my problem with this. Warning or no warning, both are fine. It's when one side starts flipping their lids at the other for not handling something the way they deem "correct." We're innocently joking and mocking the trigger warnings because that's exactly the kind of attitude we've been seeing pop up; by no means do I think anyone in this thread would - for example - lash out at another forum member legitimately and innocently using the warnings. But what we're sick of is seeing these idealists who WILL lash out at those who don't use them. This is exactly why, as I said, I consider people like Anita and Silverstring to be harmful to their own cause. I can sense you're annoyed at how I'm more-or-less tossing every feminist or everyone who uses a trigger warning into the exact same category. Make no mistake, you can check my post history quite a ways back and see that's by no means my intent, but unfortunately that little group is THE most outspoken representation of those concepts to gamers, and they've done a jolly little job of treating all gamers like the gaming communities' loudest subset. Now it's got the effect that the loudest feminists are being addressed and lo and behold both sides are unhappy. All we can do is try and realize who is addressing what subset of which group and try to react appropriately, but those loud extremists will still be there. :/ If only we had put a trigger warning on our comedy... :C

It's not the trigger warnings themselves that are problematic. Those are, in and of themselves, 5 second warnings. The problem is that as we've seen, some of the very people who would think to write them are also the very people who would start acting irrationally aggressive and hateful because someone ELSE didn't think to write them. Just because someone didn't write them doesn't make them a criminal that deserves punishment or poor treatment. They may lack foresight, they may disagree with you on how to deal with trauma, they may have a philosophy of never censoring the truth of a situation or the reality while merely reporting facts, they may not even recognize a potential trigger in what they're saying. The concept itself is fine. When the concept ceases to be a nice courtesy and becomes something that's EXPECTED in the sense that certain individuals flip **** and cause more drama if someone forgets to write one? GTFO. In a nutshell: I am becoming convinced putting Anita Sarkeesian in a room and asking her to study and/or explain Nietzsche or Hegel would be exceedingly entertaining, because she and people like her seem unaware those two or people who follow their style of philosophies exist, or consider those philosophies to be absolutely 100% wrong and evil.

Oh I know people can and do fall through the cracks. I also know of some people who will lie to people in order to get them out of their customer window or off the phone... I like the think, though, that there are systems to try and keep people from falling through the cracks as much as possible. Yeah. I mean, I'm a cynical little bastard, but I think you're not doing yourself any favors to expect the worst of people. That's why I didn't like blaming it all on stupid underqualified bureaucrats. It's not that your government is absolute **** and doesn't give a damn about you, it's just that sadly it can be very difficult - if not impossible - to cater to every possible case. The government is trying to do good and provide public services and has to govern each individual to some extent. It has to balance efficiency with quality to actually get stuff done, and when a law doesn't exist addressing your specific case...? Well, it sucks. By no means though is that a reason to march out on the street and go try and topple democracy as we know it. The government is trying, the lawmakers are trying, the bureaucrats are just doing their jobs. It's just a reality that there's always progress to be made. Best "solution" I can think of is that perhaps it should be made protocol that bureaucrats write up any scenarios they consider to not truly be "solved" and send those lists to governers and lawmakers periodically. That might at least highlight some common cases that have yet to be addressed and could use better guidelines. I mean like in my case, I probably fall through the cracks fairly often because there AREN'T German-American dual citizens representing me in government. In actuality though, German-American is a highly common dual citizen type and I wouldn't be surprised if a decent amount of us with complaints existed.

OMFG I GOT AN IDEA Let's just put a Trigger Warning in front of every single game ever. Then they might all go away. C:

While this is a considerate intention, I ultimately find the whole thing rather....stupid. Why? Well the fact of the matter is it's unreasonable to expect the world to know about your personalized trauma. I was horrendously depressed about three years ago due to circumstances I bet no one could POSSIBLY expect, nor do I expect people to know how to avoid reminding me of that time. It would be unreasonable of me to expect people to cater to this; no, instead? Instead that was a time of my life where my depression was literally crippling, to the point where just going outside was difficult. I need to be able to cope with that moment and get over it. I need to be able to look at that time in my life and say "yes that was traumatic but I have to live on and keep going," because depression is this sort of cycle where it feeds itself; if you give in to one portion of the cycle you can fall into the whole thing all over again. So while yes, let's say I know someone who was raped, yes I should be courteous and avoid bringing up anything rape-related around her, but at the same time, the reality is people DO report on it, people DO include it in art, people DO use the word liberally when goofing around in various ways, and if she cannot handle that, that itself is a problem. I'm sorry for what she went through, but she needs to be able to move on to an extent. Trust me, I know how heartless that sounds and by no means is moving on easy. If I had the attitude of "just stop crying and move on already," by all means, punch me in the mouth. But no, I'm saying that for as hard as it is or as insensitive claims of "you need to be able to move on," there is a sense of truth to it in the sense that you'll cease to be functional if you let one trauma haunt you all your life. You need to move on, for YOUR sake. It takes time for sure, but it needs to happen. Overall, you will NOT convince all of humanity to provide "trigger warnings!!!" It's just not happening. A trigger is inevitable, so the only way to handle it is to face them and LEARN to handle them. Yes, friends and family, be courteous and avoid triggering your loved ones. But strangers on the internet...? There's a reason feminism is so unpopular. The unpopularity is exactly due to things like this. Hell, you know what I associate feminists with? The ****ing Spanish Inquisition, because if you don't believe their moral code they'll order you to get it, kill you or torture you. Make no mistake, idealists are generally kind hearted, but extremist idealists? Omfg now there's a group of people that can get a lot of **** started. I would MUCH prefer a bunch of traumatized people learn to face reality and learn to cope with their trauma (however difficult that may be) to having a bunch of ****tard crusaders running around punishing anyone they deem not sensitive enough.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Don't get too excited. I'd also choose German police over American police any day of the week. And while I enjoy American culture more (more relaxed, more fun-loving, no one will ****ing flip **** and have an aneurism because you dared not follow a rule or not follow protocol to the letter for two seconds of your life), I consider Germany far more comfortable to live in from a governance standpoint for a multitude of reasons. (easier living costs in various forms, including health care, smoother functioning public services aside from bureaucracies, more income equality across the board) I've got criticisms for both, really.

But as a disabled dual citizen who switched countries and had limited contact to a parent alongside little to no support, with both parents not having citizenship in one of my two countries and therefore being incredibly difficult to contact for formal papers, all topped off with the fact that Germany can be rather snobby on many things (do NOT come here looking for work without a university degree. I **** you not, they made me study english at the university before letting me study to be an english teacher, citing "you do not have any GERMAN diploma or degree that you speak fluent english and have studied it extensively;" sitting in classes where I learned **** all while paying €700 per semester? NOT fun)... Those of us that fall through the cracks do exist, and jesus christ are bureaucracies unkind to us. I could make a list of ways bureaucracies can screw me over, but I don't wanna bore you all.