Another... You can't make this up...

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Originally Posted by berudd

No, I never said you were. And I agree with your perspective and I'd do the same. I guess to be more direct, people are bullying others into this sort of thing. Its not just the simple "go along with the crowd" thing. It's people feeling as if there are real repercussions if they don't support this type of idea. For example, I know a really bright kid. Also a big kid that has been playing showcase hockey for years. He's what you'd term a big strapping boy. Not a wimp or fearful at all. He did early college in high school to get a head start on that path. But since he has conservative views, he was singled out by other students and called a white supremacist. As a result, it totally turned him off the idea of going to college and pursue some of his dreams. That sort of verbal attack has become an acceptable practice if you don't support the current cause de jour. And making it even easier for them to do this, is that an effective argument no longer requires fact or logic. Feels and opinion are all that is needed.

I agree with you completely that people should stand by their convictions but that really is easier said than done. Even more so for younger people who have not yet lived enough life to build the experience necessary to spot all the BS. When a large body of their peers are telling them they are a racist if the don't agree with them its difficult to stand against it and some begin to doubt themselves and start to believe that maybe the accusers are right.

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We'll just have to agree to disagree. It may not be a popular or politically correct for me to say this, but if the kid let others derail his hopes and dreams, then that's on him. And if you don't have the guts to stand by your convictions then you're not really married to your convictions. No one ever said it was easy walking the road less traveled.

all of our crossing signs are yellow - to be honest, I did not know they came in white. I could not care less that they do.

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Originally Posted by berudd

To those that did the typical read the headline and ignore the article thing, the petition was fake. This was " an attempt to test how deep concerns about "offense" and "oppression" go at GW".

And to that point, it was a poorly designed "study" if you want to call it that. It ignores the fact that may people, and I am sure an even higher percentage of the focus population at a university, are going to be shamed in to signing it if they agree with it or not. They would be afraid that not agree would label them as a racist. So, it doesn't test how deep those concerns are but may have done a better job of showing how many people will agree with this stuff out of fear.

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Of course it was a fake petition.

What it unfortunately shows is a disproportionate number of the college students encountered seem to be lacking critical thinking skills.

And unfortunately, that trend seems to extend to a fair percentage of our population.

I do agree that we’ve become polarized to the point many people won’t express opinions because of the fear of being “labeled”. You see it every day, people in a discussion are silenced once someone throws the race card, gender card, sexual choice card, right wing card, left wing card, etc.....it’s sad.

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Originally Posted by berudd

I wish the fish bit as easily as you guys.

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Same here. I could have fresh fish the rest of my life.

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Originally Posted by smalljawguy

We'll just have to agree to disagree. It may not be a popular or politically correct for me to say this, but if the kid let others derail his hopes and dreams, then that's on him. And if you don't have the guts to stand by your convictions then you're not really married to your convictions. No one ever said it was easy walking the road less traveled.

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I fully understand your point. But look at it this way....I’m 58. I grew up in a generation where you took a stance. If you disagreed with someone, you’d talk it out. We had a handful of tv stations, and journalism was still “alive”.

Nowadays, the internet and social media has changed all of that. If a kid like the above mentioned hockey player offends someone who wants to retaliate, it’s easy to go on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc, label someone with an offensive term, then watch as that kid gets dogpiled by potentially thousands of people.

Look at the Covington high school kid who had the guy beating a drum/chanting in his face... when the picture came out he had journalists and celebrities wanting to dox him, some of them encouraging physical violence against him and his school.

Those journalists and celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers....instead of just having Johnny down the street mad at you, now you’re potentially harassed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Its a very real problem.

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Originally Posted by c rig

I fully understand your point. But look at it this way....I’m 58. I grew up in a generation where you took a stance. If you disagreed with someone, you’d talk it out. We had a handful of tv stations, and journalism was still “alive”.

Nowadays, the internet and social media has changed all of that. If a kid like the above mentioned hockey player offends someone who wants to retaliate, it’s easy to go on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc, label someone with an offensive term, then watch as that kid gets dogpiled by potentially thousands of people.

Look at the Covington high school kid who had the guy beating a drum/chanting in his face... when the picture came out he had journalists and celebrities wanting to dox him, some of them encouraging physical violence against him and his school.

Those journalists and celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers....instead of just having Johnny down the street mad at you, now you’re potentially harassed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Its a very real problem.

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All this is part of the reason kids should be limited in social media activities. Parents are there to steer their kids through adversity, which in the social media case is to turn it off completely with no replies. True friends will stand with you and help you get through it, the rest well, opinions are like...…...