keyser_soze

Bitch. Old my ass.

Sakpo

Cynical-Chick,

Are you going to respond to the post by livius drusus? She's raised some important points that you ought to address.

ju'iblex

thankyou liv for saying what i half-wanted to. It's a pity the other half of me couldn't give a rats arse

GunnerJ

Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, I hearby announce my intention to face you in single combat to the death for the right to ask cynical-chick's hand in marraige.

Blake

I wouldn't hold my breath, Sakpo. I doubt she's capable of autodidacticism, so she'll need a few more years of formal education before she can even understand livius' post.

Sakpo

She's 18, right? So I was I a year ago, and I would've clearly understood livius's post.

Small, wavering voice: Am I right that your post is a bit of a joke though? I see a joke in it, but I'm not sure it's intentional or not.

Farren

Christ almighty people do you all have to pounce on the woman like this? Reminds me of one of my earlier posts on the board where Dr Rick tore me a new one over my "straw men, non-sequitars and ad hominems".

I looked back at that old thread recently and could understand why, but given a chance to present the same case, I'd take the same standpoint now. I'd just be a lot more careful to keep the line straight.

Most people are accustomed to expressing their views in a conversational style and having others respond in kind. Its fairly peculiar to this board to demand a high degree of accuracy and substantiation of any vaguely controversial topics. It takes a while to get used to the shift.

I know you can chew through cast iron pots with those jaws, but can there are other more tasty morsels for a pack of hyenas around here.



[edited cos I meant morsels not mortals]

Division By Zero

Regarding the "victim mentality," if I understand you correctly, I think you're looking at it a bit backwards. I don't think people hear "bad childhood" and immediately envision the "high school dropout with five kids" individual, who should not be held accountable for anything she might do wrong. Rather, I think people tend to see a person like this, or say, a criminal, and then blame the person's problems and wrongdoings on a bad childhood, whether they had one or not. (There was a radio interview with some guy who was arrested for murder a while back; the interviewer said "You must have had a bad childhood, right?" To which the convict replied, "No, I had a very comfortable and loving childhood.") Although this odd psychological shifting of blame seems to occur often in the media, I'd say the justice system still holds them accountable for their actions.

I agree with what you said earlier that society in general tends to stereotype people by their age and gender- I am constantly having people tell me, in so many words, that I should conform better to their standards of social behavior (which seem to be identical with everyone who tells me to do so). I resent that- people need to realize that I am who I am, and I'm not going to change just to be more like them. However, I really don't see the societal pressure you mentioned for "those of us who grew up in less than stellar homes [to] play the victim."

Welcome.

livius drusus

Sorry Farren, but Cynical-Chick made a point of declaiming just how capable she is of following the conversations on this board. If she's going to talk the talk, all the while deriding the perceived inadequacies of her peers and specifically setting herself above some vaguely articulated societal norm for her age bracket, then as far as I am concerned she should be prepared to walk the walk.

There is no pack of hyenas here. Several people have expressed approval of her incohate notions and two have proposed marriage. She is hardly under assault and I see no reason to patronize her by dumbing myself down or playing the Socratic nanny.

Farren

LOL!

If you don't mind, I'm going to squirrel away that phrase in my lexical granary.