Don't be the guy that says, "And many more..." at the end of Happy Birthday. I hate that guy/girl. It just sounds wrong and if it was meant to be in the song, it would have somehow been included.
....or follows it up with the "How oooooold are you...." verse. You already owe Hallmark money for singing the song, no need to shit the bed furthermore.
I hate patriotism/nationalism. Like most things, 'hate' is too strong a word now that I'm mellowing in my 30's, and can generally let the things I actively hated in the past pass by my periphery. But every now and then, the hatred will surge. I hate it at its most base level: it undercuts the core of our humanity. No one even wants to acknowledge that these are made up, invisible lines. I realize at this point there's no chance we could just do away with them, from an organizational standpoint alone, but I think some recognition of the similarities between playground fights for the monkey bars and cross border conflicts would be healthy. The biggest thing that pisses me off about it -- echoing George Carlin, among others -- is how stupid and shortsighted it is to say "I'm proud to be (insert country here)." For starters, anything more than a little bit of pride, about anything, is bad. And whatever pride you do have should be for something you (or your children) actually had a hand in doing, not the fluke of where you happened to be born -- aka the thing you had the LEAST amount of choice in, out of all things in your life. And guess what -- every country has done some horribly fucked up shit at some point. You proud of that, too? Someone mentioned in this thread that they think 'Merica is "the best" country -- a hilarious and debatable sentiment, but something that many people take a step further, believing that it also makes them the best...just cuz. And that gets my rage boner throbbing. What people should say, and what I think most actually mean when they say they're proud to be from their country, is that they are GLAD to be from their country, as am I. Because the country I'm from happens to make life pretty fucking easy for the average citizen (and thankfully, Canadians in general aren't obnoxiously proud of their Canadian-ness, although provincial pride seems to pop up often). Beyond that, patriotism shouldn't be taken any more seriously than cheering for your hometown sports team, because it's the same fucking thing. Basically, if being born in your country is the thing you're most proud of in your life, your life sucks, and I'd rather not talk to you. Some lovely nationalism/patriotism quotes, if you care: Spoiler "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it." -Shaw "He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is." - Einstein “You hate America, don’t you?” She said. “That would be as silly as loving it,” I said. “It’s impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn’t interest me. It’s no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can’t think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I can’t believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to a human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will.” -Vonnegut
Well getting past the pompous nature of your entire diatribe, since you called me out, I made my comment cause I believe the combination of diversity of geography and people, as well as the relatively young nature of the country, and the basis of what the US was founded on makes it great. Now you can argue the last 10-20 years have diminished that and that its a different country now, but if it returned at all to its fundamentals, I'd defend my point. I also didn't call it 'Merica like some slack jawed moron cause that whole trend and phrase is a favorite of the same dumbasses I railed against in my post. And you have no choice about your ethnicity or background, but you absolutely have a choice about your nationality. People immigrate all the fucking time. But by all means, dont let me interrupt your superiority of thought.
I hate how the popular approach to dealing with the ineptitude of the latest generation coming of age is to coddle them. I read an article in an agriculture magazine that talked about "the millenials" and how we need to deal with them differently than we have with people in the past, because long story short, they don't respond to things the same way as we do. The article was basically saying that we have to be more delicate with them. Horse. Shit. These little fuckers are human beings just like me, and have the same dumb brain that I had in my late teens/early twenties. They need to work for what they have just like the rest of us did to get somewhere. I wasn't coddled when I started my career and I quickly learned that respect is earned and you don't move up in the ranks overnight. I'm not going to change the way I do things so everyone can tiptoe around some shitbird that can't handle the way the world works. If you can't take the heat, get the fuck out the kitchen. And get off my lawn.
I just got this via rep: Before anyone else crawls up my ass, a disclaimer: I'm only 33 years old. The generation I'm talking about are the people in their late teens/early twenties* right now. I don't give a shit about how they use technology, because I use it almost as much as they do, more if you count what I do for a living. There just seems to be a lot more of them now who want to get paid but don't want to have to work for it. These people have been around since the beginning of humans, but lately it seems like only about every tenth person looking for a job is worth a shit. And now we have people saying 'oh, it's just a generational thing, we just need to treat them differently", which is fucking stupid. *The whole generation isn't lazy, I have a 21-year-old working for me right now who is awesome.
So I repped Danger Boy about this and this is how he responds, very passive aggressive. If you're under 40, you can't bitch about kids these days. Just a fact. If you're 33 you're a borderline Millenial anyway, so you look dumb for that reason. Thirdly, every generation thinks the generation after it is fucking worthless, fact again. Anyone who uses generational stereotypes can't think for themselves, so they rely on these pop culture characteristics to justify their world views. I'm 28 so I don't know if I get included into your little rant but people don't ask to get treated differently, thats the work of the Gen X'ers and middle managers in HR. How about you don't use stereotypes, its a sign of mental weakness.
You're missing my point. In the last 3-5 years, it seems like a lot more young people feel entitled to a wage without having to work for it. It gets harder every year to find good, reliable young people who are willing to show up every day. I don't think the solution is to coddle them, which is what some people think, and it annoys me.
ANYWAY Another thing I can't stand that will come as no surprise to any of you are these worthless fuckface anti vaccination people. There has never been a bigger medical threat to the population than these people. They listen to actors and other various non science people who give completely false and uninformed opinions about things which they have no knowledge and then argue it like its the only thing they've ever learned. Try arguing back with them? And they just dig their heels in and double down on the stupid. Ignoring the dozens of journal articles that completely disprove any of the bullshit autism claims. We should just send then to a separate island and let them die all nice and secluded.
A friend of a friend works for Doritos. He had to attend some kind of continuing education thing to learn how to deal with Millenials, how to deal with their parents coming to interviews with them, and how to deal with issuing reprimands or corrective action in the workplace. Taking the 'old school' approach 'doesn't work' for these people, so the friend had to be taught how to employ them. Ridiculous.
To back up Shimmered's point my brother was talking about a very similar thing. It's not that they aren't high producers, or that they as a whole are awful. From what he was telling me, in his industry anyway, they are more inclined to want to give back, work with non-profits, and want to be a part of a company that shares those values. To be sure, that is not a bad thing. It seems that their focus is a bit different. All that said, people from 21 - 40 at work have a hard time not texting or making calls while they should be working and some of them have to be pushed to work hard. I'm not sure that is a generational thing but it does seem to be worse.
As someone who is considered a "millennial" and works with teenagers for 180 days a year, I feel confident in saying that the majority of us don't need to be handled with kid gloves. At least, not in the way I am thinking of it. Does the fact that I got trophies for participation and work towards goals that are more personally satisfying than fiscally responsible excuse me from understanding this argument? I am not being sarcastic with this question, it is something I genuinely want to understand. Also, if I got bad grades, my parents blamed me. The parents who blame the teacher because their kid is doing poorly in school are few and far between.
You don't expect to get something for nothing, so you don't fall into the group that I was talking about. Millenials (god, I hate that word) aren't all bad, but the bad ones should be handled just like anyone else who is a half-asser. If you're willing to do something that is satisfying even though you make less, more power to you. I actually admire people who do that.
Holy shit I hate these fuckers. What makes them so bad is that while they endanger other people by refusing to get vaccinated, they still benefit from the fact that other people aren't spreading disease to them because other people aren't idiots and get themselves/their children vaccinated.
I dislike how we celebrate major holidays by having sales and buying tons of shit. Reference that cartoon... What's left implicit is that the kid in the panel on the left has become the dad in the panel on the right. Baby boomers talking about millenials being entitled is basically their way of absolving responsibility for the behaviours they instilled in their own children.
What that cartoon says is that something went wrong. The principal at my daughter's school told me that "They don't fail kids anymore." That's the issue. We're raising idiots to think that they're smart when we should be telling them that they're idiots. And it's not fair to the kids who do well and work hard that charlatans and hacks get the same pass they do.
To continue the downward spiral that is this thread, take it back a step. The current generation in the primary/elementary/secondary school system are Gen Y (Millenials), who are the children of Gen X. Gen X are the children of the Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers are the children of the Depression, the Silent Generation. Depression era parents had NOTHING. If they were old enough at the time, they remember having everything and then losing it all and watching their own parents throwing themselves out of windows. So when it came to raising their own kids, they raised them to appreciate everything, usually on meager means. But once that war was over and the boys came home again, you had an entire workforce of heavy-drinking PTSD distant fathers and mothers who coddled their kids trying desperately to keep it all together. Baby Boomers, growing up with mothers who tried to shelter them, knew they didn't want their kids growing up weak and hidden from the realities of life, so when it came to raising their kids, they let them know a certain degree of hurt and pain and failure and independence. If you sucked in school, you'd fail. If you played in the playground, you'd probably skin your knee or end up with an elbow full of gravel. But the Gen X'ers were raised to be tougher, and raised with parents who, within reason, gave them anything they could. So, Gen X'ers were spoiled where the Baby Boomers couldn't be, but they were taught to respect that things could be broken and taken away. They were also taught to stand on their own two feet and be their own people. But the Gen X'ers didn't like that feeling of pain. So when it came to raising their kids, they sheltered them to the nth degree from things like failure and hurt. They stepped in to helicopter parent like crazy, because they were raised by parents who kept themselves more at a distance, and as a result, the Gen X'ers got it into their heads that, if you weren't hovering, you didn't care about your kid. As a result, there's a generation coming up right now that have everything given to them with no sense of its true value - and it's the fault of the Gen X'ers who raised them that way. The next generation, if we're lucky, will be raised by a smart bunch of Gen Y'ers who said "we were given too much and didn't know what it was really worth, so we'll teach them to value what they have, and we'll apply limits and rules and guidance, where our parents didn't". This isn't to say this is a hard and fast rule - there are always exceptions. But basically, each generation takes how it was raised, sees flaws, and applies "fixes" to how it raises its own children. Gen X just seems to have done a really extreme version of it.
I'm going to go against type here and state that, in my experience, most of the denigration of young people is unfounded. Oh they suck, like all people do. But I don't think they suck any more or less than preceding generations (I'm looking at you Greatest Bunch of Old People). I'm speaking from observations of a pretty large sample size - my kid, my friend’s kids, the kids in our neighborhood, all of the kids at my daughter’s school (3rd through 8). Here is what I’ve noticed: I'll start with what I agree with - the schools have become like a moving sidewalk - put kids on at one end, and they eventually come out the other, whether they've learned anything or not. In between, they are coddled, barely taught, and sheltered from the reality that not everyone is going to be an astronaut or the President. Some folks are just born to be garbage men or hair stylists. On the other hand: Fat kids- For all of the noise about how fat today's kids are, you'd think fatties would be rolling down the sidewalk of every street in America. If there are so many fat kids around here, they are doing a damn good job of hiding. My daughter's class has one fat kid (and one kid that could be termed chubby). And that same fat kid is the only fat kid in the neighborhood. We're talking a group of about 100 kids. One fat kid. This isn't any different than when I was growing up 40 years ago. The other grades in her school have about the same ratio. The Failure Awards - Yes, they all get trophies at the end of the sports season. But nowhere on the trophy does it say "First Place" or "Winner" or even "Thanks for Playing!". They only have the name of the kid, the sport and the year. They aren’t award trophies, these are mementos. These kids aren't stupid - they know when they win and lose, they keep track of the scores and standings, and they know who sucks and who doesn't. The idea that they all think they are winners is flat out asinine. These kids today have no respect - Of the hundreds of kids I know, I can count on one hand the number of them that are disrespectful to adults. Most of these kids are polite, engaging and courteous. Of course there are some kids who are just little assholes – but there are no more of them than there were back when I was a kid. Lazy and shiftless - The teenagers I know are employed at roughly the same proportions as when I was in high school. Nearly all of them are either employed or looking hard for jobs. Most of the traditional teenage jobs – cutting grass, flipping burgers, manning a cash register, babysitting – are now held by older people trying make retirement work, or by the underemployed, who year ago would have been doing factory work. The young folks we hire here out of college have, for the most part, been bright and hard working kids who need no special handling. Some of this may be attributed to the fact that we hire scientists and engineers, of course. tl;dr - Everyone sucks. But kids today don't suck any more than you did.
Okay okay okay. Holy shit. Does anyone in here regularly work with young people? Are around them on a daily basis? See how they act and basically live in and are a part of their world? I am, and I can say something pretty simple here: It is NOT that different. There is a reason 80s John Highes movies still resonate with kids I'm teaching in 2014, because at the end of the day they're not THAT different. A lot of the hyperbolic examples I'm seeing are very extreme examples. I can honestly say the following: In my year and a half teaching, I have met the parents of about 30 of my 200 or so students thus far, and most of them I met because not only am I a teacher but their football coach; and football parents are a bit more involved than parents of non athletes. I have never encountered a helicopter parent. In fact, I'd say the exact opposite. I cannot get a hold of some parents to save my life (or their kids' future, for that matter). They're the opposite of helicopter parents; they're absentee parents because they're constantly working. Yet, strangely, that isn't the millenial stereotype, so we don't hear about it. In fact, statistics show a lot of kids have two parents who work, now. It's awfully hard to be a helicopter parent when both parents work 40 hours a week. The biggest differences between these high school kids and my generation? Simple: --Instead of writing notes, they text in class. --Instead of calling each other names in front of me, they post it to FB/Twitter. I see shockingly few insults in class because they're not so dumb to do it right in front of me. --It takes them an hour to do the research that used to take me a day. --Cheating no longer involves "cheat sheets" so much as pictures of the test and answers on their phones. That's about it. You still have jocks, nerds, geeks, burn outs, and all the other cliques. Oh, but that is another difference; they're way more likely to be friends with kids from other groups. Ive seen jocks hang out with nerds, and I even have a few kids doing both football and band, which used to be unheard of. You can't take the loudest, craziest examples and extrapolate that to an entire population. In fact, THAT is what I hate, because it is so rampantly common now. Are you a republican? Congratulations, you hate anyone that isn't a white male, and want to take us back to the "good old days" of slavery and when women could legally get the shit kicked out of them for talking. Are you a democrat? Congratulations, you're a pussy who is offended by anything and everything and you believe that the government should buy crack for all the welfare moms and dads who have 22 kids they can't afford. Are you Muslim? Do I even have to do this example? Are you a millenial? Congrats, you're a self entitled twat with parents constantly by your side validating you and telling you how amazing you are despite the fact that you're getting five F's. Except when they're not, because the vast, vast majority are not. But because we only hear about the extreme cases, suddenly that shit applies to the entire group. TL;DR: stop attributing the flaws and traits of the loudest, most extreme parts of a group to the entire group. It's silly; and you'd be pissed if someone did it to you.