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from the reports-of-my-death-are-not-exaggerated dept.
The U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) released a new Vital Signs report on Thursday, 7 June, 2018.
In the press release about the new report, the CDC states that:
Suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state, according to the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans age 10 or older died by suicide. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death and is one of just three leading causes that are on the rise.
[...]
Researchers found that more than half of people who died by suicide did not have a known diagnosed mental health condition at the time of death. Relationship problems or loss, substance misuse; physical health problems; and job, money, legal or housing stress often contributed to risk for suicide. Firearms were the most common method of suicide used by those with and without a known diagnosed mental health condition.
Are any Soylentils contemplating suicide? Do you know anyone who has attempted or succeeded in taking their own life? Why do you think suicide rates are on the rise?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Friday June 08 2018, @07:19PM (44 children)
between the rising suicide rates and more frequent school shootings. School shootings have been going on for less than 20 years, now they're a weekly occurrence.
IMHO, something is changing. I don't know what, but look at our dysfunctional political system up and down the spectrum, suicides, school shootings, etc etc.
Or hell, it could just be the 24/7 news cycle we have today. Dammit Jim! I'm a software engineer, not a psychiatrist!
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday June 08 2018, @07:23PM (20 children)
IMHO, something is changing. I don't know what, but look at our dysfunctional political system up and down the spectrum, suicides, school shootings, etc etc.
Dammit Jim! I'm a software engineer, not a psychiatrist!
I'd like to point out that that's another thing that's completely different.
Star Trek used to be a highly optimistic, even utopian show about a team of likable and competent people working together to solve problems without being involved in completely unnecessary interpersonal conflict and drama.
Now it's a show about one completely unlikable character among a crew of sociopaths at each others' throats.
When you can't even trust Star Trek to paint a rosy picture of the future, you know that something is seriously wrong with society.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday June 08 2018, @07:44PM
So, should we blame Batman Begins for ushering in an era of dark shows, where the TV/stream doesn't compensate for the daily grind ?
I'll drop in FaceBook et al., for showing you how much better all your "friends" lives are, and amplifying conflicts (something fragile people don't need).
Add a sprinkle of flat wages for a couple decades, a pinch of rising costs and declining benefits, a teaspoon of global shittitude ... dang, where's my gun?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @08:27PM (6 children)
The problem is all legacy TV is like that. The problem isn't Trek.
Some of the problem is all boomers watched MASH or All in the Family, for example, but all organizations get weird and extremist as they implode and die, all. Think of any dying company you ever worked at, or dying industry, its always bonkers. So its novel that TV as it dies is going thru a major depressive event, but it doesn't really matter because practically no one as a percentage watches TV any more, no longer a cultural influence.
Another way of putting it is in the boomer 70s a show like MASH influenced culture by being watched. A show like ... anything on TV, how about Survivor, has little influence on culture but what little it does is from people talking about it, as almost no one watches TV anymore. Newspapers are like that too.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:19AM (5 children)
> A show like ... anything on TV, how about Survivor, has little influence on culture but what little it does is from people talking about it, as almost no one watches TV anymore.
I'd say it has had great impact over time. That shit has been smeared across the air waves for two decades now. It grinds people down. In addition to the laundry list bob_super posted above, some of the general shittitude looks as if it were directly out of the Survivor (tm) playbook. That show, like many others, are just templates to train small people how to gang up on, conspire against, and take down those with more skill or talent. At least in principle in generations past, a common way you could get ahead was through skill and hard work. Since the end of the millenium that no longer holds true and sucking up is not just one alternative it is the only option. Skill gets in the way of that because it takes time away from sucking up. Hard work gets in the way of that because it too takes time away from sucking up ... and back stabbing.
Take another series like Game of Thrones. It's just a collage of plotless violence, yet people eat that stuff up. They eat it up, digest it, and then put it into practice.
Hell, none of the shows are either fun or relaxing to watch. Most seem designed to greatly increase anxiety and stress. That's on top of the changes to the workplace which really are increasing anxiety and stress.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:33AM
It's just a mildly exaggerated fantasy about late Medieval Era societies, politics, and inevitable warfare. Which happens to be a collage of violence, though not necessarily without plot.
I think contrary to whoever kicked off this thread, that entertainment which contains depressing themes is more a sign of good times than bad. In bad times, people don't want to be reminded of that. You get a lot more feelgood entertainment.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:33AM (2 children)
Take another series like Game of Thrones. It's just a collage of plotless violence, yet people eat that stuff up. They eat it up, digest it, and then put it into practice.
Hey now, while I'm a bit Star Trek (but not Discovery) fan, I'm also a GoT fan.
The thing about GoT is that it basically shows human nature as it really is. The violence isn't "plotless", it's all part of a very complex story; that's why the show is so popular with people who don't even like TV much. It takes a lot of thought to keep all the different characters straight; it's an incredibly complex plot. The whole show is basically showing how stupid humans are because they're constantly fighting each other (mainly for power), even when there's a much larger threat to all of them. In the show, the "white walkers" are coming for the living, but no one believes it, and instead they're massacring each other in constant wars. This is somewhat like us in real life, constantly competing with and warring with each other, meanwhile we're all likely to suffer catastrophic effects from climate change and ecosystem destruction. But I'll agree, it's not relaxing to watch, but it was never meant to be. Were Ben-Hur or Lawrence of Arabia fun and relaxing to watch? How about All Quiet on the Western Front? Apocalypse Now?
(Score: 2) by zugedneb on Saturday June 09 2018, @11:24AM (1 child)
The problem is, the violence it shows was needed in times of need; a snapshot of a particular time, or slice of history...
It does not show a way out of it, and it is that way that is needed.
As it is, it programs the autopilot in people to think in ways they did not normally allow themselves.
Human nature is programmable, u know...
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 09 2018, @11:39AM
It does not show a way out of it, and it is that way that is needed.
What the heck are you talking about? The show isn't over yet, and the most recent season was all about Jon and Dany talking about building a better world together, because they realized just how screwed up their world was.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:40PM
Question: Just how many TV shows from the '50's '60's and '70's do you think were any more than senseless violence? Oh-kay, Star Trek. How many more can you name?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @08:53PM (11 children)
The world needs a quick infusion of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Cancel Family Guy and replace it with Ponies.
Uh oh... here it comes... people born with penises are REQUIRED to watch mindless fart jokes and people getting their guts blown out all over the sidewalk. Because.... because... penises!
It is actually interesting how TV was once used to channel common ethical beliefs. A larger problem is that ethics and morality have all but disappeared. If something is not expressly illegal then it is fair game. Part of it is probably fewer people believing that some magic sky being commands what is right and wrong, while there is no alternate to fill the void yet. Uh, do what is right because Princess Celestia commands it! :P
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @09:26PM (2 children)
Sorry, once they put wings on Twilight Sparkle, the show just wasn't the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:29PM
True enough. Between that and the new "castle" you could just about hear some corporate suit screaming "buy our new merch, bitches!"
But it has still been over all better than most other shows out there. Which says more about the other shows.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @12:56PM
Wings? Is that a euphemism for 'gay'?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @11:44PM
Delicious. Equine. Pussy. The only thing keeping me from taking my own life.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:01AM (5 children)
Without the grace of God, there is no hope for you. Or any of us. What you are seeing is the soul of the West shriveling up and dying. Without a new awakening, it will only get worse from here on out.
Enjoy your cartoons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:13AM
The thesis to The Decline of the West, (Spengler, 1918).
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:11PM (3 children)
Bzzt. God does not exist. And there is no magic afterlife. It is depressing, but that is reality. There are other, real, things that we can obtain hope from.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:29PM (2 children)
As much as I dislike the sky fairy worshipping you don't have any real proof on your side. Humanity doesn't even understand gravity let alone consciousness, so save your superiority complex for when you can actually prove something.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @06:30PM (1 child)
Sky fairy worshipers don't have any real proof on their side. So they will save their superiority complex for when they can actually prove something?
Right?
No?
Well, then.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @11:23PM
You are an automaton and cannot prove otherwise. I should have no more compulsion for or against you than a rock. Of course you could say I should because of evolution, selfish gene and all, but then there are 7+ billion homo sapiens and it's not a problem. The opposite actually.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:22AM
> Uh oh... here it comes... people born with penises are REQUIRED to watch mindless fart jokes and people getting their guts blown out all over the sidewalk. Because.... because... penises!
Violence against women is a crime, of course, no evidence needed. Bleat that mantra long enough and you internalize its corollary:
Violence against men is entertainment, LOL duh.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday June 08 2018, @08:08PM (5 children)
And as Anthony Bourdain [businessinsider.com] demonstrates, you can have what appears to be a perfect life but still suffer from depression bad enough to off yourself.
It's tempting to look only to external influences like poverty as the cause but there's clearly something else going on as well.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @08:11PM (2 children)
It's the fluoride in the water messing with our precious bodily fluids.
(Score: 1) by Atatsu on Friday June 08 2018, @09:57PM (1 child)
Idiot! It turns the frogs gay!
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday June 08 2018, @11:54PM
I still really want one of the InfoWars "Make Frogs Straight Again" hats.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday June 08 2018, @09:42PM
the link says he struggled with drug use. I didn't really watch him much, but what i saw was a drinker.
Maybe he didn't really like doing the show: maybe he just wasn't happy and should have quit and done something else?
Who knows. As i said, didn't watch him much: maybe 3 episodes.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:10PM
I'm technically in poverty, but think I have a pretty awesome life and have been able to do quite a bit with what little money that I do make. But then only 5% of Americans are financially literate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_literacy).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @08:13PM (5 children)
In an innumerate age, doing arithmetic like calculating ratios and percentages is an act of political rebellion. So, on with some Treason:
Death by suicide is about 1000 times more likely than death in a school shooting, even in the supposedly violent USA, so its an irrelevant rounding error as an actual cause of death.
There doesn't seem to be a safety crisis in school shootings WRT shooting deaths in that 99% of shooting deaths are happening outside school. So magically eliminating all school shootings would not reduce the shooting death rate by an appreciable amount. I live in a recreational state where a considerable number of people die every year in hunting accidents; nationwide, hunting kills more people than school shootings, although the ratio of dead hunters to dead deer remains somewhat biased.
Around 3 people are shot to death for every drowning. The fairly accurate stereotype of black people not knowing how to swim makes this ratio ... weird. You can drown proof a kid a lot easier and cheaper than magically eliminating all gun deaths, but at least in some cultures nobody bothers despite it being a hell of a lot more likely an inner city kid will drown than get shot. Note there's learn to swim as in my son participated in the 25M freestyle (I don't remember his time, but he was in the pack...) and then there's learn to swim as in not drown, and one is a little more time consuming and expensive than the other.
Even the propaganda about shooting doesn't matter, the average daytime CNN show only has about 4 times as many viewers as annual suicides and even as a joke I don't think anyone can make the claim that watching CNN has a 25% annual death rate.
In summary I'd say it sounds trendy and up-vote-y social media type of thing, but nah, after examining the numbers, I'm not seeing it.
As for a serious answer, I don't know when in my lifetime, but somehow the motor vehicle death rate has declined below suicide. I went to school with a kid who had childhood leukemia a type that was a death sentence just a couple decades before. I worked with a type-I diabetic, again, a century ago he'd be dead. We got a cure for everything except a lifetime of shitty diet, a lifetime of not exercising, and car accidents, so naturally suicide is now a major percentage of death. Well, not really a major percentage, since shitty diet kills about 20 times as many people per year, smoking is still killing a huge multiple of people in their younger old age, cars kill "about as many" people...
Now for some real argument, should we categorize "shitty diet" and "shitty exercise" and "shitty lifestyle" as legit suicide? Those people are voluntarily and intentionally killing themselves at a HUGE rate compared to the rare "sick in head" or microscopically rare "school shooting" incidents.
I mean, lets be serious, someone sucking on a cigarette isn't really all that different than someone sucking on a gun barrel...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @09:25PM
Ok, let's be serious. You're fucked in the head and one of the many people propagating the worst ideals found in the US.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Gaaark on Friday June 08 2018, @09:45PM
"I mean, lets be serious, someone sucking on a cigarette isn't really all that different than someone sucking on a gun barrel..."....and pulling the trigger REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY slowly.
FTFY! :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday June 08 2018, @10:31PM (1 child)
Can I be a numerate-nazi?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:12AM
Wrong ghetto. You can be a numerate-clansmen though.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday June 09 2018, @05:31AM
I once knew a man who consumed way too much Velveeta™ cheese, with the stated intention of dying from a heart attack. It worked, eventually. Most people who partake in these sorts of life choices don't have that intention, they're just accepting it as an unfortunate probabilistic side effect of their preferred poison. For a reasonable definition of suicide, intent matters.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Friday June 08 2018, @08:43PM (4 children)
Check your watch when you make that statement.
You will find that the approach of the end of the school year is when most of these occur. All boys. All of them doing poorly in school. During the rest of the year, only Christmas is problematic.
I doubt this has anything at all to do with politics, except perhaps in your twisted mind.
The trend has been there since 1999, when Clinton was president, all through Bush, all through Obama.
Way back in 2000, there was this idea of The War on Boys [theatlantic.com]. That theme is still running around in the press these days. [nytimes.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Joe Desertrat on Friday June 08 2018, @10:00PM (3 children)
Right after the start of Fox News and radio becoming completely reduced to satellite music and conservative talk. You can probably push it back a bit further to Newt Gingrich telling Clinton that no matter what he tried to accomplish it would be opposed, whether for the common good or not. There's a marketed divide in the US, and that sort of thing tends to create feelings of hopelessness and despair. Too many people are propagandized to be angry at the wrong things.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 09 2018, @07:00AM (2 children)
Oh for fuck sake, give it a rest.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday June 09 2018, @05:14PM (1 child)
Where and how is he wrong? If you feed people a steady diet of slow-burning horror they're going to go nuts.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @11:36PM
I've never watched fox news (never owned a television). There are a lot of other people who've never watched it either. The only person with a television that I know of believes that the government is building extermination camps for Mexicans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @11:12PM
https://www.thoughtco.com/nietzsche-and-nihilism-250454 [thoughtco.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by captain normal on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:15AM
Well there is this: Suicide rates have increased by 30~60 percent in states in the middle of the country that voted for the Republicans the last few elections (ie- the red states).
https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/infographic.html#graphic1 [cdc.gov]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:46AM (1 child)
You're equating two very different definitions of "school shooting". One is someone walking into a school and shooting a bunch of people. Another is a discharge of a firearm on or near school property for a variety of reasons - not even needing to cause injury in the process (with the school not even needing to be active).
We have a winner. If Jeb accidentally discharged his Kentucky rifle on school property 200 years ago, he'd be punished and that would be the end of the "school shooting". Now, it's faithfully recorded and later used to grossly exaggerate the risk of firearms and mass shootings. The "news cycle" is a key part keeping this hysteria going.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:01PM
Accidentally discharging a firearm is worthy of punishment. But, shooting on school property? I did it pretty regularly in my sophomore and junior high school years. Not during school hours, of course, but weekends, and summers, I was out in the forest with my .22. No one ever complained - it was just some kid shooting at something in the woods.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:28PM (1 child)
These kids needs some fucking Jesus.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @07:20PM
No, Jesus already fucked the kids. That is why they are suicidal now.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday June 08 2018, @07:19PM (35 children)
Seriously. I think that Tinder is is a large cause of increasing suicide rates.
Have any of you ever used Tinder/Bumble/CMB/whatever. It can be super depressing. Read my journals. It made me feel like shit. I feel much better now that I don't have time to use those apps.
But... you gotta play the game to win the prize.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 08 2018, @07:28PM (27 children)
I don't know about this. I don't see how it's any worse there than in the "old days": men still went after women way out of their league, and 80% of women chased after 20% of the men.
I suggest trying OKCupid instead. At least you can screen based on important compatibility factors there (religion, pets, body type, smoking, etc.), unlike those phone apps where you're mainly limited to age and distance.
Dating has always been hard I think.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snow on Friday June 08 2018, @07:39PM
I got most of my dates from OKC. That site has gone to shit though since they got bought by Match. I think it's still better than Tinder, but not by much.
Ya, you are probably right, dating has always been tough. Instead of one rejection that you had to really pump yourself up for, you now get 100 mini-rejections. Actually now that I think about it, the in-person rejections have been more of a relief. Ok, I was rejected, but at least I tried, and now I know.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @08:35PM (25 children)
I've been off the market for some decades now, but I get the impression from coworkers and family that now a days you can either be excruciatingly politically correct and blue pilled about male-female relations and end up very sad, totally confused, and probably a virgin incel, or you can be officially the victim of a two minutes hate by legacy society after taking the red pill about male-female relations although the result is you can have tons of fun and sex but be full of "bad think". Obviously either way kinda sucks either you're alone sad and confused, or a bad person.
I'm so freaking old that when I was single, we met in real life at bars. Lets not glorify the bad old days, that sucked ass although in a different way than today. A round of drinks for me and some girl cost more than my hourly wage when I was young, cops had nothing better to do that bust drunk drivers or generally mess with drunks people, drinking all the time and being drunk pretty much sucks, not to mention the anti-social behavior of some drunks.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Friday June 08 2018, @08:57PM (12 children)
In the end, Women get the men they prefer.
You want to know why there are so many "bad boys"? Ask the girls.
Antisocial assholes, who women know will eventually dump them, still hold a strong attraction for a very large percentage of women.
Women scream metoo, but they put themselves in these situation. They heard all the rumors. They still played the game.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @09:13PM
I don't think they "get" them, I think they might get fucked by them, but I don't think they "get" them.
Also, imagine being a guy who fucks women day in and out, and that is your life, it's fun for couple of years, but eventually you get your fill of women. All kinds, single, married, etc, you don't really care what their status is at the time. But then you think "man, maybe I should start a family" then you think about the commitment of it all, all the work that you will have to do and remember all the married or women in relationship you fucked and get really depressed. Because you will realize that these bitches ain't loyal.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday June 08 2018, @09:16PM (9 children)
Again, the local lesbian pops in to ask, how in the unholy hell are there 7.5+ billion of us if this is what you breeders think of one another?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Subsentient on Friday June 08 2018, @09:31PM (2 children)
Broken condoms, incorrectly taken birth control, bad pull out game, and in the third world, rape, no birth control, boredom, cultural expectations coupled with prohibited divorce.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:39AM (1 child)
your "third world" statement sounds a lot like the south. was that intentional?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:41AM
Probably not, but the South does resemble undeveloped nations in many ways.
Source: Born in and grew up in the South
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snow on Friday June 08 2018, @09:50PM (2 children)
Because our monkey brains are wired to want sex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:47AM (1 child)
FTFY. You crazy monkey, Snow! Try thinking like a Great Ape!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @12:49AM
http://www.snowmonkeyresorts.com/ [snowmonkeyresorts.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_macaque [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:52AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:27PM
Females born into muslim society don't always get a choice about how many children they have. Or if they want sex. Or who the father of the resulting child is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:09PM
Uhhhhhh - those aren't breeders voicing those attitudes. As for real life "breeding couples" - we all put up with each other. I ain't perfect, she ain't perfect, but we're committed to the family. THAT is what it's all about.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:20PM
A long (very long) time ago, I asked one of my best friends about this and she said "the roller coaster is exciting".
It's all I have to add.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bobthecimmerian on Friday June 08 2018, @09:58PM (8 children)
"Politically correct" is the bogey man and the monster under the bed for people who want to sound like mavericks. Give it up. A guy can be pro-feminist and pro-sex (with women) without selling his guns, giving up his favorite sports, canceling his gym membership, and trading in his truck or whatever the hell it is that's important to you. And there are women that are fine with one night stands, not every single one happens because a guy lied.
What you can't be is abusive or dishonest. And there's no 'deserve' in it - there might be some woman that you don't view as out of your league. Maybe you're thin and athletic and she's fat and ugly. That still doesn't mean she should be grateful to get you. You ask, sometimes they say no, end of story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:37AM (7 children)
Keep dreaming Skippy. You cannot be Alpha while putting pussy on a pedastal.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:14AM (5 children)
Has it occurred to you that maybe he's not interested in "being Alpha?" Personally, if I were straight he sounds like the kind of man I'd be looking for.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:28PM (4 children)
I'm taken, but thanks for the kind words. If you private message me, I can send you the address where you can mail a sympathy card to my wife. ;)
"Alpha male" crap annoys the hell out of me. Real power means you have nothing to prove. I'm not going to have more muscles or a bigger dick if I trade my minivan for a $55,000 pickup truck, or buy a motorcycle, or get tattoos. I can treat everyone as equals because first and foremost they are equals and second I don't feel threatened by anyone. I have my own insecurities and anxieties, but I don't make a laughable attempt to wallpaper over them by being a colossal asshole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:43PM
Around here you don't need trucks or tattoos, just a crusty beak and some moldy wings!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by acid andy on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:17PM (2 children)
Exactly this. Aside from the fact that's it an old-fashioned and fuzzy biological concept that applies in questionable amounts to the rest of the animal kingdom, let alone to modern humans, those who resort to repeatedly applying the term to themselves and others certainly seem to have a certain amount of insecurity. I always think understated power is the more attractive aesthetic
With regard to feminism and even putting women on pedestals, there are plenty of people that do that more through choice (be it ideological or sexual preference) rather than necessity. There's even the cliche of the powerful executive submitting to a dominatrix! Giving up power and showing respect for another requires a certain confidence and strength of character in itself as well. Being a brash, abusive asshole is easy.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday June 09 2018, @06:44PM (1 child)
I think putting someone on a pedestal has subtly different connotations compared to allowing yourself to be dominated or - if it's your fetish - abused by a woman. I think a pedestal tends to indicate unrealistic ideas about what women are and how their mind works, like they're special angelic beings or something. Which might seem harmless at worst, but I think any classifying of women as fundamentally different than men is risky. When your relationship goes sour, or you can't get a date, or the person you love desperately is callous or willfully cruel to you, I think it's too easy to develop a mass hatred or distrust or something for all women. But if you view each woman as human as each man, then you realize any particular female asshole or idiot means exactly as much for the whole sex as any particular male asshole or idiot means for the whole male sex.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday June 09 2018, @07:10PM
When you put it like that, I see the distinction but I'm not sure the AC that introduced the term does.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:22PM
No pedestal. Equal footing. That's all.
A lot of guys have a problem thinking women as some kind of "mysterious other". They think differently, their minds work in bizarre and alien ways, they have an indecipherable logic, whatever. It's an incorrect and more importantly counterproductive way to view the situation. Women eat, sleep, drink, shit, have hopes and dreams, have back pains and itches, get bored, get happy, get sad, just like men. Through upbringing or maybe innate tendencies they're more likely to be focused on social connections than most guys. And for some bizarre reason I'll never understand but am very thankful for most of them are attracted to the male body instead of the female body. They're not that different from us, and they're not impossible to understand.
And even a lot of women's supposed craziness is easy to understand if you look at it that way. "Lots of women are attracted to asshole alpha males." Yeah? Tell me how many hetero guys are turned off by the half-dressed tough girl biker chicks - not many. Confidence is sexy, for every guy that wants a girl who likes to be bossed around there's another guy who wants a woman who goes after what she wants, likes her looks and doesn't care what anyone else thinks, and won't take shit from anyone. "Women are hyper-sensitive about their looks." Ever have a wife or girlfriend tell you you're getting fat flabby? I guarantee you will want to cry, scream, or hit her (that doesn't mean it's okay to hit, just that it's the first thing to come to mind). "Women don't understand blue balls." Sure they do, they can be horny and frustrated too. But nobody ever owes anyone else sex, not even a spouse. If your significant other wants sex with you a lot less than you want sex with them, discuss it. If things don't change, end the relationship.
Don't put them on a pedestal, don't treat them like dogs. Just treat 'em like people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:12PM
How some you fooled some woman to stick around is beyond me. The only thing I can figure is that you're just another typical internet tough guy who spews his most vile shit online but in reality you're a total dip.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:36AM (1 child)
I've had people tell me to go to bars to meet women. The problem with this idea is that you're very likely to meet women who like to drink. I don't like to drink; I'd rather date women who don't drink at all, or at least very little.
I have an ex-wife who drank sometimes. It didn't bring out the best in her...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday June 09 2018, @08:49AM
I hear you... there is nothing in a bar that interests me. Nor a casino.
I see all these TV ads for these "vacation getaways", and I would be miserable there.
A National Parks pass and KOA pass is more down my alley.
My idea of a relaxing week is to go get in my old van and go somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, fish, camp, and just walk around, looking at interesting geological or botanical spots, not having another human around for miles. Just me and those I care about.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Friday June 08 2018, @09:49PM (3 children)
I think if i was single again (touch wood... HELLO, PENIS!), I'd probably just not use those apps and just go down to the local games shop or comic book store or something and try to find a nice geek girl/woman that way.
Those apps, i heard from my daughter, are as you say: DEPRESSING AS HELL.
I'd have to scope out the woman in person from afar to see if there looks to be some compatibility before making a move.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snow on Friday June 08 2018, @09:53PM (2 children)
Meet girls at the game shop? I hope you can roll a +65 charisma, +8300 luck, and +42 chad.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:52AM
When my wife and i went into one near us to buy, i think, Star Trek Catan, it was co-owned by a woman and there were young ladies there (i can imagine their games night would have some as well).
But they could all have been 'taken' women.... i dunno. Would have been weird asking them if they were single with my wife's foot up my arse, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Informative) by kazzie on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:13PM
I managed to find a wife at my university's engineering department. I didn't make a chad roll, but I must have had a crit on my luck roll.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @11:33PM
You've had sex, marriage, and a daughter. Incels don't even have the privilege of getting cucked like you did. Check your privilege!
(Score: 2) by esperto123 on Saturday June 09 2018, @12:30PM (1 child)
I don't know if tinder is a factor, altough I completely agree that using it is depressing, for different reasons than you, in my case it was just how completely incompentent I am at this game, every single time I installed it I almost hit to rock bottom (just the other day was thinking of giving another try but convinced myself it was not worth it).
But one "modern" thing is almost certain to be a huge contributor to this spike is social media in general, facebook, instagram, twitter and the like. You take a segment of the population that is already prone to depression and expose them to "perfect lives" of other people and to vicious harassment and you can get an explosive combination. Take as an example the suicide of August Ames, a 23 years old pornstar, that had history of depression, got into fights and harrassed by religious folks on twitter and after a bad one just decided she would not like to live anymore.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Monday June 11 2018, @02:51PM
My dating game is pretty bad too.
Try Coffee Meets Bagel. It's not nearly as depressing as Tinder/Bumble/etc. It might take a while to get anything out of it, but at least you don't feel like a complete worthless reject while still 'putting yourself out there'.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @07:36PM
two of them succeeded, third went on treatment for depression and didn't try again. one who succeeded had serious mental problems (hallucinations etc). this was not in the US.
personally, I felt lonely a lot when I was younger, but i don't think i ever seriously considered suicide. maybe I wasn't as lonely as I felt or smth.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Taibhsear on Friday June 08 2018, @07:38PM
*gestures wildly at state of the nation/world*
(Score: 2, Funny) by shrewdsheep on Friday June 08 2018, @07:47PM (8 children)
Shouldn't that be the next poll topic, then?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @08:22PM (7 children)
If that is a poll topic I'd like to know the percentage of visits from Tor exit nodes before that topic, during that topic, and after that topic. Also, the percentage of Tor exit nodes that vote "yes" vs the percent that vote "no" or any other options.
Seriously. Saying you're feeling suicidal is the fastest method I've seen for ending up deprived of your freedom. It's no wonder people don't want to talk about it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @09:07PM
Indeed. You'd almost have to be suicidal to admit that you're suicidal.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday June 08 2018, @09:09PM (2 children)
I would trust TMB not to rat me out to the authorities if I answered yes.
As a side note, I always pictured TMB to look like this, but with longer, less flat hair:
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/948254053892575233/gAs915B-_400x400.jpg [twimg.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Weasley on Friday June 08 2018, @10:20PM
He might even encourage some of us.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday June 09 2018, @05:54AM
I've always imagined him as Buzzard, from The Goon. [writeups.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NewNic on Friday June 08 2018, @09:38PM (2 children)
Even if you get your freedom back (released from hospital), your life will suck thereafter. Especially for the 2nd amendment enthusiasts.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @11:55PM
I refuse to even attend anger management classes, given the state that I live in. Therapy? Outright pass.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @01:05AM
Conservatives: Make as much pie as you want, or don't make it, whatever... it's yours if you bother.
Liberals: We will pool our pie. Everybody can eat as much as they want. Everybody ought to be good people who make pie for the community. Surely this will not disincentivize pie production...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by srobert on Friday June 08 2018, @07:50PM (6 children)
Religious people often believe that suicide is an immediate ticket to hell. Sometimes I think the world would be better off without religion. But in the absence of that fear, suicide may seem preferable to suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Friday June 08 2018, @09:01PM (3 children)
I don't know. Seems like Religion has sent an awful lot of people marching off to war.
Some religions are worse than others.
Wherever men can have multiple wives, you end up with an excess of males that have to be gotten rid of at least once a generation.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 08 2018, @11:29PM
> Wherever men can have multiple wives, you end up with an excess of males that have to be gotten rid of at least once a generation.
Monogamist Europe had wars every few years from the beginning of recorded history until very recently. In the book I'll never publish, one of the background elements is a war secretly by agreement with the next-door noble, because the bad summer means the upcoming low harvest will cause late winter hunger and therefore troubles (cynical, me?).
(Score: 2) by rcamera on Saturday June 09 2018, @01:44AM
marching off to war isn't suicide. especially for the more religious folks, who know that their deity will protect the "true believers" like themselves.
/* no comment */
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:05PM
The societies you're talking about are extremely oppressive in countless ways, yet you blame the ability for a man to have multiple wives for their issues? Laughable. Usually, women don't even have a choice in such societies. Polyamorous relationships are fine as long as they're consensual, and they could involve any number of men or women.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @09:10PM (1 child)
I thought this was hell. You mean it gets worse?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:01AM
If we so choose.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @07:54PM (19 children)
Oh gee I don't know why the youngest generation would want to kill themselves. Just look at 1990 vs today and tell me its worth trying.
Since 1990 the cost of a college degree has more than doubled (adjusted for inflation)
Since 1990 the average income for someone with a college degree (adjusted for inflation) has decreased by 2k/year
Since 1990 the average income for a high school grad is down significantly, after adjustment
Since 1990 the average expenditures of a family per year are up 27k, after adjustment
Since 1990 children in poverty in the US has gone up
Since 1990 rent has gone up by 60%, after adjustment
- https://www.statista.com [statista.com]
Can't buy a good used car because of cash for clunkers, so either buy new or use public transport. Want an entry level job with a degree? Hope you have that magical 5 years experience so you can start at 15/hour.
Thanks boomers for your NAFTA and your GATT and your wars and your endless entitlements that won't be there for anyone else. Boomers are the generation of "Fuck you! Got Mine!" as they wring every little bit of wealth they can out of their parents and grandparents and throw the remaining dry rag at the feet of those that come after. The cause of the suicides, nihilism, fascism, and marxism is boomers taking the great thing we had and pissing it away on hookers and blow.
Either the new generations will kill themselves off or survive to live on and put down in the history books what a shitty and worthless generation the boomers were.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by LVDOVICVS on Friday June 08 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)
Since 1990?
I came of age a decade earlier, during the Reagan administration. I remember a local news show talking about a new restaurant opening that was hiring 15 waiters and having 500 people show up to apply.
The problem is that somewhere along the line America became the land of greed. Why it should be acceptable for a small percentage of the population to own a vast proportion of the assets infuriates me. I can tolerate someone being a little better off, but the gross disparity between the wealthy and the poor is an obscenity.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @08:18PM
If, as a relatively poor dude, I could live a Star Trek standard of living, eh, don't care how much some rich dude has...
Thats the problem with economic decline. Increase the ratio by ten, as long as poor people double, who cares, that was the USA in 1890. Increase the ratio by ten while the economy halves at the bottom, welcome to the French Revolution...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @08:14PM
Idiot!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @08:22PM (8 children)
The boomers do suck, but most of your list is merely a result of too many people too few jobs means redefinition of the basic standard.
My grannie (Think WWII gen not boomer) worked in payroll, and the work isn't any harder now but magically you need a CPA and BS in accounting because of competition for too few jobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @08:29PM (3 children)
This is the rise of credentialism over competence and the credentials are expensive. There's currently more jobs than employees to fill them, many will be in the "gig economy" which is fine for would-be entrepreneurs or even those going the credentialed route.
(Score: 5, Informative) by VLM on Friday June 08 2018, @08:39PM (1 child)
Whenever I see propaganda along those lines, research indicates they're offering pay thats half whats required to live and do the job, half the going rate at competitors or similar jobs, or often both.
There's an incredible shortage of IT professionals... if you're willing to accept half what it costs to live (for example, in SV) or accept $10/hr in flyover land when McDonalds is paying $15. Now you want a fair days pay for a fair days work, thats simply not available anymore because medical insurance costs $30K/yr and every productive employee has to pay the salary of someone in the diversity department or whatever.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @09:03PM
So work gigs to fund setting up a company that isn't going to do that. It was normal in the 70s and 80s for people who went on to be successful to sleep on their friends couches, exactly because they couldn't afford living expenses while scratching an income and investing in their future. Both Apple and Google began in garages while Allen and Gates used university computers.
Diversity officers are part of a parasitic rent-seeking class, they create no wealth and detract value. A company that hires based on merit will out-compete those that do not and the gender and diversity studies credentialed assholes can go fuck themselves.
(Score: 2) by rcamera on Saturday June 09 2018, @02:14AM
3.8% unemployment (thanks for the early heads-up, realDonaldTrump). and that's real news. unlike the fake news of 4% that hussein obama's labor department published. of course, then there's the u6 [wikipedia.org] measurement [stlouisfed.org], which is probably a more meaningful measure of economic health than the u3 number the masses see in the headlines
and as for more jobs than (presumably "prospective") employees to fill them, it would help all parties if companies trying to hire were willing to train on the job, like a few decades ago. instead, we end up with unrealistic expectations and prerequisites before an application will even be viewed by a person, like the old "20+ years experience in S3", despite the fact it's only been around for 12 years
and thanks to the WWII-era holdover of employee-sponsored medical insurance, the gig-economy isn't really a viable option for anyone 26 or older or not living in mom's basement. i imagine that a good amount of difference between u5 and u6 can be accounted for by the "gig economy"
/* no comment */
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:31PM (3 children)
Your grannie was very likely literate. Now you can graduate high school without being able to read. Crap, a friend was showing me some resumes for a job opening she had. I think you can now graduate college without being able to write a coherent sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:51PM
Maybe they are on unemployment and really don't want the job? Deliberate sabotage unless they actually want the job?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:10PM (1 child)
So what's the point of the credentialism? It certainly has nothing to do with the quality of one's education. If you have to many applicants, just toss out some randomly.
Also, the US education system was always abysmal and designed to create rote memorization drones.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @11:54PM
Interesting. I have a friend from the soviet union telling me last week that the US education system is bad because it does not emphasize rote memorization like he had growing up. When I was young, I remember watching news shows on Japan and Korea and how their students would do hours of memorization of math tables every night. Including weekends.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @08:40PM
Wha, wha! Grumpy guy that is unmotivated or missed the boat, drunk at a frat party, is crying. Look around. You sure do have it hard. Look at the people this generation has made their heroes - it explains a lot.
(Score: 2) by Weasley on Friday June 08 2018, @10:27PM (2 children)
You're blaming the idiot masses? Why not blame the leaders who orchestrated the whole thing? The politicians and super rich.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @10:38PM (1 child)
Good point. Can't blame the 18.9% that voted for Perot. The people voted for the politicians who killed the unions. The people voted for the politicians that put in the trade deals that aided job exportation. The people voted for the politicians that provide H1Bs. The people voted for the politicians that accepted money from big business.
(Score: 2) by Weasley on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:09AM
All politicians do this stuff. The super rich own them. What are "the people" to do? Vote for nobody?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:36PM (2 children)
I'm not saying that you should kill yourself - but if you're going to do it, would you do it before you spend another decade whining? People get tired of that shit.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 09 2018, @03:55PM (1 child)
Spoken like a true asshole. You realize people get sick of your shit as well right? Self righteous egotisyical bullcrap gets very tiresome.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 09 2018, @04:19PM
The difference between you, and me, is that I don't give a damn if you get sick of my shit. And, I thank you for your respectful recognition. Yes, I'm a true asshole, not some fake asshole, like you see on television, or runs for public office. Thank you.
And, now, I'll get back to sifting the news for fake news and real news . . .