OT: End of the World Thread (This thread open only until Dec 21)

[elocomotive]

Is there room for a serious social commentary here since it is getting lost on the main board?

Serious social commentary... on the apocalypse? Uh oh, does 46 know some secret government thing?

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

on phone back in a few

 

[elocomotive]

I have to say it's super classy to start a thread on your favorite assault rifle in the Politics forum in the wake of what happened last week.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

OK, so Tigerbait made a thread asking how the hell we created all of these nutty folks. I had just gotten home from the gym and turned on TV and was flipping through my ususal channels and posted this:

Turn on Discovery or NatGeo.

Look at how they advertised the drug addict attack in Miami.

Look at our very own CDC putting out an official report on zombie outbreaks

TV shows like Dawn of the Dead, Doomsday Preppers. Mayan 21012, Nostradamus Effect

Gee I wonder why people are all neurotic.

Tubbs mentioned that he didn't think you can blame this on TV or video games to which I responded:

I would agree if it was not presented in a docu-drama sort of way. hell, as I said, it is on NatGeo and Discovery these days, with "experts" talking about end of days and zombies. For Christ's sake they just had a doctor on who attributed necrotizing fasciitis to a zombie outbreak. It's a tissue infection that has been around forever.

Then the damn CDC comes out with "official reports" on zombies.

75% of people are educated enough to see through it but some donkeys aren't.

We WHORE these topics in a quasi-serious way and people eat that shit up. Hell, we have a show ON preppers.

I wish that I could talk this theory through, but it makes sense to me and I am not sure if it gets across in text.

Basically, we sell doomsday and zombies in a quasi-serious manner and then wonder why people get all bat shit crazy. Add in easy access to guns.....

The majority of people get that it is fake, but nut jobs don't. When you add in quasi-experts and a serious background music and subtitles and graphs and charts and these nuts will eat it up!

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

BTW all of these shows show TONS OF GUNS!!!!

 

[elocomotive]

I've seen those docu-dramas before. They had one about the possible evolution of man into a mermaid. It was interesting, even scientifically plausible. But it never happened. And if you can't discern it, you might think it was real.

I don't think the FAULT is necessarily with TV, but people that are too dumb to figure it out. Though maybe they could have better disclaimers and you'd think channels like Nat. Geo and History would be more responsible in the way they deliver that information - make it clear it's not "real."

But I totally understand what you are saying. And this is why I don't go on the Politics or General Forum too much. There are some smart and funny people there, but a lot of dummies. And I personally can't get past all the dummies. Good on you if you can.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

There are some really good posters (Tigerbait being one) and that is why I respond. However it gets into a troll thread and I walk out.

 

[banditshcky11]

OK, so Tigerbait made a thread asking how the hell we created all of these nutty folks. I had just gotten home from the gym and turned on TV and was flipping through my ususal channels and posted this:



Tubbs mentioned that he didn't think you can blame this on TV or video games to which I responded:



I wish that I could talk this theory through, but it makes sense to me and I am not sure if it gets across in text.

Basically, we sell doomsday and zombies in a quasi-serious manner and then wonder why people get all bat shit crazy. Add in easy access to guns.....

The majority of people get that it is fake, but nut jobs don't. When you add in quasi-experts and a serious background music and subtitles and graphs and charts and these nuts will eat it up!

I choose to believe in a zombie outbreak solely because I have some really annoying neighbors who I think would look much better if a machete was parked in between their eyes. That said being a logical person I realize that murdering them is wrong and I shouldn't do, however if they just happened to be mindless flesh craving undead abominations... well then all bets are off

 

[elocomotive]

There are some really good posters (Tigerbait being one) and that is why I respond. However it gets into a troll thread and I walk out.

The ratio just isn't worth it for me.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

bed.

peace out homies!

 

[elocomotive]

Lata playa.

 

[forty_three]

OK, so Tigerbait made a thread asking how the hell we created all of these nutty folks. I had just gotten home from the gym and turned on TV and was flipping through my ususal channels and posted this:



Tubbs mentioned that he didn't think you can blame this on TV or video games to which I responded:



I wish that I could talk this theory through, but it makes sense to me and I am not sure if it gets across in text.

Basically, we sell doomsday and zombies in a quasi-serious manner and then wonder why people get all bat shit crazy. Add in easy access to guns.....

The majority of people get that it is fake, but nut jobs don't. When you add in quasi-experts and a serious background music and subtitles and graphs and charts and these nuts will eat it up!

I often struggle with putting the feeling into words too, 46. The most unsettling thing about my job is have to peer into the minds of some really unbalanced people. And reading their words, seeing the kinds of things that turn them on, it gets downright frightening sometimes. People can anonymously delve into their darkest fantasies and sometimes that goes places that no one should ever go. And they sometimes can't get back. Especially when most think the stuff is funny.

And when we have people with that distorted view and we convince them that every day there is a new reason to think they are going to die and there are no consequences.. well... Shit like Newtown or Aurora happens.

BTW all of these shows show TONS OF GUNS!!!!

Well, duh. Because guns solve everything. And more armed guards everywhere gun violence could happen will solve it all. And I am SURE all these good, red-blooded Americans would gladly double or triple their taxes to pay for all that extra protection and guns.

I've seen those docu-dramas before. They had one about the possible evolution of man into a mermaid. It was interesting, even scientifically plausible. But it never happened. And if you can't discern it, you might think it was real.

I don't think the FAULT is necessarily with TV, but people that are too dumb to figure it out. Though maybe they could have better disclaimers and you'd think channels like Nat. Geo and History would be more responsible in the way they deliver that information - make it clear it's not "real."

But I totally understand what you are saying. And this is why I don't go on the Politics or General Forum too much. There are some smart and funny people there, but a lot of dummies. And I personally can't get past all the dummies. Good on you if you can.

I avoid any politics forum like the plague. I'll stay over here and keep saying my peace and having people want to delete my posts.

I occasionally get really angry at TV, especially History Channel. Like last week, they had some guy who was on a quest to prove that Tut Anhk Amun was NOT the child of Amun Hotep IV and Nefertiti. Trying to say his father was Smenkhkare.

I wanted to punch the guy. What a moron.


Yes, this was during the day. I can't watch that channel in the evening.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

A book called dreams of millenium highlights the social hysteria/anxiety/paranoia that emerges around perceived "benchmark" dates (ie end of decades,centuries,etc but also around supposed predicted apocolypse dates)

Going bat shit crazy is a historical human response around these dates

 

[elocomotive]

I avoid any politics forum like the plague. I'll stay over here and keep saying my peace and having people want to delete my posts.

I occasionally get really angry at TV, especially History Channel. Like last week, they had some guy who was on a quest to prove that Tut Anhk Amun was NOT the child of Amun Hotep IV and Nefertiti. Trying to say his father was Smenkhkare.

I wanted to punch the guy. What a moron.

Yes, this was during the day. I can't watch that channel in the evening.

I like your posts, 43.

An example, this is the show I was talking about - Discovery Channel's "Mermaids: The Body Found." Check out the first few minutes (or the whole thing, it's damn entertaining and a cool idea.)

It's presented like it's a science show, but they have actors playing doctors that they say are from organizations. When I first saw the show, I was confused because it seemed so fetched, but they were putting people on as if they were doctors even ascribing them science organizations they worked for. And the whole show is cloaked in this 'the government doesn't want you to know' kinda stuff. The doctor you see in the first five minutes, they even created a Web page for him that looks like it's been seized by Homeland Security. Are the historical drawings fabricated as well? They don't even credit the actors to make it seem more real. That steps over a line to me.

It's ridiculous. And people watch this and believe it.

 

[SLY]

lol eloco, that show really fucked with me.

 

[mattola]

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Fuck that, who works on a Saturday?

 

[SLY]

I'm working this Saturday,

 

[SLY]

I'm gonna be one hungover mofo. I can't see Matt's pic though.

 

[mattola]

I'm gonna be one hungover mofo. I can't see Matt's pic though.

same one I put on facebook about Dec 21