who gets the worst deal? [[Poll]]

[Vedius Pollio]

I hope the discussion is more fruitful than the poll (which is difficult to design).

[WangyJohn]

Lumping paedophiles with other fetisists is waving a mighy broad brush...

Anyway, surprisingly enough, I voted Drug Users, not the Proletariat. Drug addiction should be seen as a medical condition, not as a crime, and casual use shouldn't be seen as either. This coming from someone who doesn't even drink alcohol or smoke.

[Evilpika]

I would definitely agree with Wangy that drug users get it pretty bad, to the point that the way that the system handles it creates criminals (Who else here has felt the urge to try smoking pot after a particularly insulting or outrageous PSA?).

[Aeridus]

It just baffles me that marijuana is still so prosecuted even after reputable studies show it to be harmless compared to alcohol and tobacco. Apparently it doesn't even cause people to lack tons of energy.

[Vedius Pollio]

I think it's also bad that people who don't fit into these categories get mistreated because of ignorance or suspicion:

* for instance, a lot of straight people get bullied simply because they have odd mannerisms that might be considered "queer". (I, for one. Nobody I grew up with entirely believed that I was into girls.)

* and, of course, needles can be hard to find, thanks to dumb stereotypes. (Picture my mother, a doctor in her 50s, with permed hair, a fur coat, an upper-class Australian accent, and a nauseating green handbag, getting told by a paranoid pharmacist: "You won't find any needles here !")

Other thing I despise about conservatives is their obsession with children:

*There is very little evidence that child brothels exist in Thailand in any significant number, but that doesn't stop Western activists from pretending that large numbers of children are being trafficked as sex slaves (which only creates stigmas against the global sex industry and puts it further out of the public eye).

* The fact that an urban legend will spread like wildfire if it involves something nasty happening to a child (like the halloween poisoned candy legend).

* The whole "evil dealers are selling to children" or "evil addicts are putting syringes in ball pits". Hell, when I was in primary school, my mother (who is more streetwise than average) warned me about dealers selling to children.

* The fact that it's impossible to get public money spent on any social problem (AIDS, etc.) unless children are thought to be affected by it.

All I can say is that I like women a lot, but I despise the heterosexual ideology, with its child-focus. I hate walking into a household and seeing brainless parents worshipping their babies and basically acting like mindless drones with their Baby Mozart tapes and child rearing manuals and other idiocy. Sensitive suburban parents aren't even sub-human in my eyes. They're sub-bovine. As repulsive as pedophilia is, I think that a person who rapes a child is nowhere near as fucked as someone who coochie-coos it repetitively and fills their house with useless pieces of plastic (and repeats every "alert" about the latest danger to their children). Whatever happened to the arachnoid mentality of eating one's children callously? Why do crimes suddenly become heinous when children are involved? Children aren't special. THEY'RE MADE OF THE SAME FLESH AND BLOOD AS WE ARE.

Peter Lorre had the right idea.

[Lulujayne]

*There is very little evidence that child brothels exist in Thailand in any significant number, but that doesn't stop Western activists from pretending that large numbers of children are being trafficked as sex slaves (which only creates stigmas against the global sex industry and puts it further out of the public eye).

Trafficking of adult and teenage women is, however, a horrific problem. It's repugnant. I've been offered a few jobs in the past which were to " swap boarding cards then escort person x from airport y to airport z." It all seemed kind of innocent until you figure out it's fucking people trafficking.


Also, M is a brilliant film.

[Xero]

I'm scared
I agree with VP
0_0

[Halo299]

Depending on the day other week i could have very easily voted for just about any of those. But today has been an argue with Christians day, so i picked atheists.

The only one i really could not see voting for is drug users. seriously, they could round all of them up, put them in concentration camps and then bury them all in a mass grave and i simply would not care. It is just not something that affects my life in anyway way that allows me to have any sympathy, empathy, or pity for them.

-halo

[WangyJohn]

with their Baby Mozart tapes and child rearing manuals and other idiocy.

Good news, the book Freakonomics discusses parenthood in one chapter, and concludes from mathematical proof that most things that parents do don't really affect the kids development at all, baby Mozart tapes are about as usefull as blasting Beatles, Death Metal (allthough, the loud voices might scare them) or techno,

Also, halo, what the hell? You support genoside just because it doesn't affect you?

[ManaUser]

Actually, I would have to say children are more marginalized than any of the catagories on your list. Funny how they can be obsessed over and discounted at the same time, but they are.

[Vedius Pollio]

Depending on the day other week i could have very easily voted for just about any of those. But today has been an argue with Christians day, so i picked atheists.

The only one i really could not see voting for is drug users. seriously, they could round all of them up, put them in concentration camps and then bury them all in a mass grave and i simply would not care. It is just not something that affects my life in anyway way that allows me to have any sympathy, empathy, or pity for them.

-halo

So you would feel no shame at all if Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Belushi, Sid Vicious, Janis Joplin, Brett Whiteley, Lulu (et al) were all sent to Birkenau by some populist Republican cousin-fucker?

You. Degenerate. Suburban. Fucktard.

(Sorry, please dispute my opinion if you disagree with it. )


EDIT: I think I'll revise my question to make you even more uncomfortable, Halo:

So you would feel no shame at all if Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Belushi, Sid Vicious, Janis Joplin, Brett Whiteley, Lulu (et al) were all sent to Birkenau by Sarah Palin?

[Vedius Pollio]

The poll results are becoming interesting:

On this forum, atheists, mentally ill people, drug users, and pedophiles have the highest rankings as far as marginalised people go. (In uni, however, the people that are always getting mentioned are "people of colour", queers, and women.)

It's odd that nobody has voted for people of colour or for women.

[WangyJohn]

It's odd that nobody has voted for people of colour or for women.

Once again, I cite Freakonomics, while women and blacks in the US aren't completely equal, discimination against them has been made unfashionable, the feminist and civil rights movement were sucesfull on that front. Hispanics and Old People, on the other hand are free game.

[Churba]

So you would feel no shame at all if Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Belushi, Sid Vicious, Janis Joplin, Brett Whiteley, Lulu (et al) were all sent to Birkenau by Sarah Palin?

And some of your fellow ghastlyites.

[Lulujayne]

Wait, what? I'm going to Birkenau?! At least give me the chance to raise my middle finger salute to whoever the fuck is sending me there.

[Xero]

Wait, what? I'm going to Birkenau?! At least give me the chance to raise my middle finger salute to whoever the fuck is sending me there.

all hail emperor halo

[Lulujayne]

You're totally not riding any of my dinos, Mister Meathook :p

[Churba]

Wait, what? I'm going to Birkenau?! At least give me the chance to raise my middle finger salute to whoever the fuck is sending me there.

Don't worry, love, You're in good company. You and me, kid, we'll take on the world. And if you wear your nice heels, I'll wear mine!

[Xero]

You're totally not riding any of my dinos, Mister Meathook :p

I guess you missed the sarcasm
-pet pet-

also I'd be in there too

[Vedius Pollio]

(Who else here has felt the urge to try smoking pot after a particularly insulting or outrageous PSA?)

Some of the most outrageous ones:

"I'm Snake!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acwo6OCB9kg

WTF? Pee Wee Herman?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agT2GVNQ ... re=related

(Fucking psychotic straight-edge bitch.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwu7L38g ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hZffVqO ... re=related

That woman is the biggest pushover ever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd1nCZQho-4

(Apparently, drug addicts all live in candle-lit garrets, like in La Boheme! And that doesn't look like an abused child. That looks like a spoilt child.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvaMIjVC ... re=related

Memento: The Anti-Drug Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xYakglS ... re=related