WTF is wrong with people?

[art vandelay]

While I don't dispute that it's not good to immediately assume that the people in the article consider themselves to be "good Christians," I think that the current political climate is very conducive to incidents like the one in the article. I'm not big on arguments about "normalization," but I find it entirely possible that the results of an election can validate people's beliefs and encourage them to act on them.

EDIT: Concerning civility, I think society may be more civil than ever. I think that some people who complain about "political correctness" are just complaining about civility, which is a completely different thing. Violence and racism were sure as hell more commonplace in prior generations than in my generation. People also have to be more careful than ever about their actions because of social media. You could very much argue that our current president won because his supporters perceive him as a refreshing response to political correctness. IMO, those people are wrong, and mistaking civility for political correctness.

[Birdwatcher]

I don't pretend to know a damn thing

Your statements describes a self-fulfilling prophecy where you predict a known truth to come true then identify you own self-serving cause. When in fact civility has been in the decline for a long time. I happen to think that with the popularity of social media where it permits someone to be critical without being face to face leads to the decrease in civility. Also social media allows false truths and outright lies to be portrayed as facts so if you want to believe something to can find supporting evidence.

To identify the current political climate as the cause and not the result is not seeing the real problem and therefore never finding any real solutions. We don't really know if there is an increase in these types of behaviors or just with the access to video and social media we get to see more. Regardless this country is full of an overwhelming majority of good non-bigoted people who get dismissed because they are not the cause or root of anger. Here is just one report on civility from 2010?

https://www.webershandwick.com/uploa...plications.pdf

I just ask myself what is truly moral, and don't think that hatred and divisiveness fit into the concept of civility, and I agree that there are many more moral people out there than not. Trouble is, the angry hateful ones have become far more vocal about it. You noted civility has been heading south since 2010, you mean the year the tea party was born? You can believe what you want, but my opinion is that if you follow or support immoral people, then you are complicit in their immorality. I was raised to believe that being Christian is about love and is always against hate. So how is the current level of hatred and anger justified by those who also claim they are Christian?

[rdog5]

I just ask myself what is truly moral, and don't think that hatred and divisiveness fit into the concept of civility, and I agree that there are many more moral people out there than not. Trouble is, the angry hateful ones have become far more vocal about it. You noted civility has been heading south since 2010, you mean the year the tea party was born? You can believe what you want, but my opinion is that if you follow or support immoral people, then you are complicit in their immorality. I was raised to believe that being Christian is about love and is always against hate. So how is the current level of hatred and anger justified by those who also claim they are Christian?

i think civility is negatively impacted our inability to maneuver social media which unfortunately is a typical growing pain any time society is faced with such a large societal influence. Balancing our basic freedoms with the overall good for society is a very difficult task. Couple that with people who maintain naive beliefs and continue to support those beliefs through their own onservations and supporting articles and civility will suffer. We all have those peer groups who believe the stupid shit they see from far left or far roght articles. My whole point here was to show that the blaming of Religion, the current President or past president is an oversimplification of the issues. Although this administration is doing little to restore civility meanwhile also maintaining positives in significant areas thus reinforces his followers.

[Cheesesteak]

Fear and stupidity seem to be universal these days. I think they wiggled in when civility slipped out through the back door.

Unfortunately those two things seem to go hand-in-hand...if you were smarter, you'd realize most folks are pretty similar and have far more in common than not. Ignorant people just see differences and get scared or worse, angry.

[BirdBrawn]

It's a sad state of affairs

When I was in Paris I felt bad about not knowing a little French. Of course, everyone there spoke English, and most of them did it fairly well.

People here want their freedom, without qualification. They just don't want anyone that has different priorities to have the same afforded them. That kind of thinking sucks.

[TerpEagle]

Hey, there are a lot of people out there who are just suffering from economic anxiety.

[Drama Queen]

Can we all relax a little. Robert De Niro got a pipe bomb for goodness sake.

[IronEagle]

Many much worse things have happened since I started this thread. Very discouraging.

[Maniac]

Many much worse things have happened since I started this thread. Very discouraging.

Very Trump.

[Mt Iggle]

Jeez Maniac - Everything isn't "Very Trump". Although a lot of things are.
This Pittsburg deal - very sad. But Trump now causes anti-semitism?
I agree with IE. Something is wrong with people. Maybe that's why I just hide out in the woods and be quiet. I have zero experience with social media, being 9 miles from a cell signal, so what do I know about people now with social media.
I guess, now being retired and not having to go to town anymore, I'll just continue to
enjoy living in the Natural world, and let humans do what they do.
That is all, and sorry to have bothered you with my thoughts.
I am sorry I missed you all at the gate last week. I miss experiencing this, and wish you all well. Wentz had better get a winning attitude pretty fast. Go Eagles!

[Maniac]

Jeez Maniac - Everything isn't "Very Trump". Although a lot of things are.
This Pittsburg deal - very sad. But Trump now causes anti-semitism?

Get a fucking clue. I doubt he liked Jews but his killing spree was set off by the "caravan" that Trump won't shut up about. A thousand refugees who pose no threat and will never get into this country. And let's not forget the idiot pipe bomber targeting all Trump's favorite targets. Trump is a fucking menace who has no place in our government. Maybe when he gets somebody you know killed, you'll start paying attention.

Bowers said that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a humanitarian aid nonprofit group that provides assistance to refugees, brought immigrants to the United States to do violence against others.

“Screw your optics, I'm going in," he wrote.

Bowers frequently posted about the “migrant caravan,” a group of several thousand refugees walking to the U.S.-Mexico border from Honduras to seek asylum. Preventing refugees in the caravan from entering the U.S. has been a major talking point among both right-wing commentators and President Donald Trump, who has spoken about it in recent pre-midterm election stump speeches.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...aravan-n925256

[Mt Iggle]

Jezz again Maniac! I like all of the people I see anymore, and they say 62% of them voted for Trump ( I didn't, I can't vote for R's or D's anymore and so always vote Libertarian).
"somebody you know killed" -? Come on.

[Maniac]

I like all of the people I see anymore, and 62% of them voted for Trump ( I didn't, I can't vote for R's or D's anymore and so always vote Libertarian).
"somebody you know killed" -? Come on.

You mean you know eight people and five voted for Trump?

I'm sure nobody you know got killed in Pittsburgh today. Congrats.