The Current Events Thread

[Exeres]

They might not know, but the information is available to everyone. Ignorance is becoming less acceptable these days.

[Lithium]

Well then you got people like high school kids who just don't give a daisies and do it with their buddies at parties or whatever

Then again I guess that goes under "What's wrong with this generation" kind of category

[Kamak]

Here's the thing though. There's so much that people need to be informed about in this day and age to not be ignorant that just telling people to educate themselves on matters can be a herculean task. When you have a sea of topics you need to educate yourself on, your time and energy can only go so far.

Add to this dubious sources where you have to worry about cover-ups, half truths, data fudging, and the like, it can be daunting to find something to believe in.

And, perhaps most importantly, people have to believe they need more information on a matter to look into it.

Some drug users may know that things are "dangerous" in drug cartels. They know it's dangerous. Do they really need to look up how dangerous it is when they're self-assured that it is indeed dangerous and looking it up will only prove that point?

The issue with this is that this person has no concept of the scale of how dangerous it is, and perhaps if they knew about it they wouldn't continue using the drugs because it reminds them of that.

However, to them, they're self-assured that they know, there's no reason for them to question or doubt their knowledge and conclusion.

The information being there is irrelevant if they don't have the willpower/reason to go find it.

[Lithium]

I agree, Kamak. Most of the information I get is either from class or Yahoo! since it's my homepage, but even then most of the time it's unimportant things like "WHOA Beyonce named her baby Blue what was she thinking". The internet, of course, is certainly hard to get reliable information from, but TV and newspaper can be just as bad (lolfoxnews)

As far as selling drugs go, we watch a documentary on that kind of thing once and most of the people said they started doing it simply because they needed cheddar and it was all they could think of. Granted, that's not to say it isn't a problem, but my mom was actually put right in the middle of one of these situations when she was my age because the roommate she lived with was a drug dealer herself. People used to go to her apartment looking for the roommate and almost beat her up several times when she wasn't there because they wanted the drugs so bad. She didn't do them herself, but she was put in the middle of it because of her roommate. Not sure if the seller was addicted herself, but going back to my point before I guess sometimes people feel it's the only choice they have in order to get enough cheddar to eat for the day

[Exeres]

Mitt Romney's victory speech in New Hampshire.

I don't expect anyone to read the whole thing, but it includes this gem:

I will insist on a military so powerful no one would think of challenging it.

Does he have any fucking idea how much we already spend on the military? Or what kind of enemy we've been fighting for the past ten years?

[Lithium]

So he's going to make America more American?

Alrighty then

[Exeres]

Republican motto: 'MURIKA.

[Stranaton]

Ok, republicans. We meet back up in 2016.

[Syobon]

I guess everyone who has ever bought a Nike product is now responsible for the death of thousands of children.

[Stranaton]

that's not disturbing, that's just weird.

[Lithium]

I guess everyone who has ever bought a Nike product is now responsible for the death of thousands of children.

What? Haven't heard this story yet

[Syobon]

I was talking about the absolutely horrid working conditions in the sweatshops. Here's a fun game about it.

[Lithium]

The fact that they would make a game out of it is certainly...interesting. But yes, that is certainly terrible

[Tall-Hatted Yanimae]

I guess everyone who has ever bought a Nike product is now responsible for the death of thousands of children.

Just like anyone who buys apple products are supporting sweat shops in China with workers as young as 8 to 15 handling dangerous equipment

There was a radio talk about it and it was....well, horrifying is the best way to put it. The guy who did the interviews and went over to China disguised as a businessman to see what goes on behind the scenes is usually a comedian.

They have underground unions since the only one accepted by their government works FOR the government and does fuck all for the workers. He interviewed multiple people who used to work for the sweatshops about their experience. One man has a destroyed hand that was smashed while working in an Apple I-pad factory. He got let go because he couldn't do anything anymore.

The most ironic thing? There are no apple products sold in China. The man never ever saw a completed I-Pad. The interviewer let the man see his own i-pad, which the man toyed around with using his destroyed hand.
He looked up and said "It's like magic."


It was heartbreaking to listen to.

[Lambeth]

I don't understand why they don't use robots to make ipads instead. Surely the cost of it could be outweighed by the fact you don't have to ship it halfway across the world.