Some of society's problems that concern you?

american politics is weird, at the moment it looks like it's gonna be a choice between someone that'll ruin the country through racism and someone that'll ruin the country through sexism.

I'm really concerned about the increasing violence by right extremists. (i live in Germany)

Lambda wrote

I'm really concerned about the increasing violence by right extremists. (i live in Germany)

That'd definitely be concerning; I hope nothing comes of it.

Lambda wrote

I'm really concerned about the increasing violence by right extremists. (i live in Germany)

tfw Merkel screwed up so bad

Vlad wrote

Lambda wrote

I'm really concerned about the increasing violence by right extremists. (i live in Germany)

tfw Merkel screwed up so bad

i still dont get why she's the time person of the year. (the 2015 one)

Western imperialism and globalized capitalism
inb4 "you couldn't have any of your favorite goods/services without capitalism!" lol

Not enough hentai is already enough of a problem in society...

On the Economic and Montary / Fiscal side:

Fractional reserve banking coupled with fiat currency is a pretty glaring one. The trillions of dollars in the dirvitoves market is another one that is troubling using methods like credit default swaps. 

On Foriegn policy:

Sending arms to foreign countries to fight proxy wars. NATO, and the Military Industrial Complex fighting wars for profit and nation building. Congress not having to vote on weather to go to war. Also the National Defense Authorization Act is really scary.

On Social Freedoms:

 SJW and pretty much anything that undermines the constitution.  Especially with all these trade agreements like TPP and the powers of the NSA.

*note sorry for the random capitalization of letters. I'm posting from a phone. The above was just my opinion.

Where do I start?

The day to day functioning of our society (in the U.S., specifically) is extremely dependent on readily available and cheap oil; without our assorted petrol products, things would rapidly grind to a halt.  Because of this, we're violating the sovereignty of other countries so that, at the end of the day, our fundamentally unsustainable way of life can stretch on for just a little bit longer.  No one in power or currently vying for such seems remotely concerned by said unsustainability—most of them seem to think, like everyone else, that oil will never ever run out.

Similarly, despite the widely-applauded international climate agreement reached by world leaders in the recent past—the applause and praise for which smells more like wishful thinking than anything else, to say nothing of the actual guidelines of the agreement itself—the coal and oil industries responsible for the carbon emissions are no less thoroughly entrenched in our government's policy-making apparatuses than before.  For that matter, even the most trivial of bills can scarcely scrape through our legislative branch due to the political polarization of our politicians; how in the world does anyone expect something as significant as regulations on big industries to make it through without being gutted?

That's making no mention of the hopelessly malformed electoral system in and of itself.  A potential politician has to be able to cough up millions of dollars to make any sort of serious attempt at a campaign, a sum nigh impossible to accumulate through the donations of constituents.  Thus, they must seek funding from the super-wealthy, which consequently means that they'll enact policies that said benefactors wish to see rather than those helpful to the citizens they allegedly represent—after all, that re-election campaign will rear its head a lot sooner than they think, and they wouldn't want to upset their source of funding and risk losing their cushy job.

We're slowly reverting back to working conditions comparable to the Gilded Age:  Employees being expected to work 50, 60, 70+ hours a week on a regular basis without appropriate compensation—and without any labor unions in most areas, strikes to improve conditions are functionally impossible; business owners accruing monumental sums of wealth while the bulk of their workers make less than living wages (and many of whom must work multiple such jobs just to make ends meet).  And that's just in the United States—I daresay I don't need to comment on the factories in East Asia where conditions are poor enough such that nets are placed outside of the building to keep workers from attempting suicide.

As has been mentioned several times already earlier in this thread, the so-called "social justice warriors" and outrage culture in general are often outright toxic.  These groups are so quick to crucify a person for said person's misdeeds and prejudices that they sometimes forget to check if that person ever said something offensive at all.  The careers and even the lives of these targeted individuals take a back seat to the personal vendettas and inflamed sense of justice of these "warriors"—you'd better hope that you don't touch the wrong person's nerve or cause a particularly sensitive misunderstanding, lest you find yourself out of a job, if not altogether ostracized by society.

I could go on, but this post has gotten long enough.

TL;DR:  Everything is terrible.

People think its okay to hate on muslims.
Pledge of alliance is a normal thing in schools.
Kids beauty pageants

Is it really wrong to hate a religious group that holds horribly backwards views about gays, women, and ppl of other religions?

suicid3Panda wrote

Is it really wrong to hate a religious group that holds horribly backwards views about gays, women, and ppl of other religions?

it's wrong to hate people that are part of the group but don't actually hold these views.

why do people hate pedophiles so much? it's hating someone who has a mental problem because they have a mental problem

nerd wrote

suicid3Panda wrote

Is it really wrong to hate a religious group that holds horribly backwards views about gays, women, and ppl of other religions?

it's wrong to hate people that are part of the group but don't actually hold these views.

---

why do people hate pedophiles so much? it's hating someone who has a mental problem because they have a mental problem

if youre part of the group that hold those views, you are supporting them. Also, show me a non american muslim/islamist that doesn't hold those views.

"Political correctness".
It's a method of controlling thought by exploiting shame with the goal of intimidating people who don't have the "correct" beliefs. It's exactly the kind of double speak Orwell warned people about. 
People view it as an annoyance without realizing how harmful it actually is.

Edit: Didn't want to double post

nerd wrote

why do people hate pedophiles so much? it's hating someone who has a mental problem because they have a mental problem

Children are incredibly easy to manipulate, so people see any sexual contact between a child and an adult as fundamentally exploitative. The thought that someone  else might trick your child into sex gets emotions flaring. I can't really explain why it's so extreme, but that's at least the basis of it.

tn5421 wrote

The american public education system is a fundamental betrayal of The American Dream and only a small portion of the country seems to realise there is even a problem.

I might be late to the party but as an American who completely fell through the cracks of public education...

THIS

Education in the United States is a complete farce and there's dozens of complicated and interconnected issues as to why.  The US is failing it's youth.

I could rant forever but I probably shouldn't, don't want to come off as an asshole, you guys seem to have a pretty chill community.

abh wrote

Capitalism, hedonism, environmental collapse, anti-intellectualism, identity politics(left and right), and governments taking over the internet. Lots of things to stress about.

Can agree with all of these with a caveat, I don't think capitalism is automatically a negative, though if left unchecked it will most certainly run amok, however that's not to say a free market doesn't have it's place when sensibly regulated.

Hedonism?
I'm not sure what you mean, materialism perhaps?
I am the confuse.

Paradox K.S.C. wrote

abh wrote

Capitalism, hedonism, environmental collapse, anti-intellectualism, identity politics(left and right), and governments taking over the internet. Lots of things to stress about.

Can agree with all of these with a caveat, I don't think capitalism is automatically a negative, though if left unchecked it will most certainly run amok, however that's not to say a free market doesn't have it's place when sensibly regulated.

Hedonism?
I'm not sure what you mean, materialism perhaps?
I am the confuse.

>Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important intrinsic good. A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

I honestly don't see anything wrong with that.

malmon73 wrote

Paradox K.S.C. wrote

abh wrote

Capitalism, hedonism, environmental collapse, anti-intellectualism, identity politics(left and right), and governments taking over the internet. Lots of things to stress about.

Can agree with all of these with a caveat, I don't think capitalism is automatically a negative, though if left unchecked it will most certainly run amok, however that's not to say a free market doesn't have it's place when sensibly regulated.

Hedonism?
I'm not sure what you mean, materialism perhaps?
I am the confuse.

>Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important intrinsic good. A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

I honestly don't see anything wrong with that.

Hedonism is fine so long as it's practiced in moderation. Of course, if someone lived a life defined by their adherence to this philosophy, they'd probably end up being a useless waste of space that actively rejects and ridicules the norms of the modern world in favor of crafting an existence that allows them to remain within their ever-shrinking comfort zone as long as possible. 

As for me, I'm kinda tired of how petty politics have been getting; at least in the US. Political polarization being what it is, you've got the Republicans constantly checking the Democrats and the Democrats constantly checking the Republicans, thus ensuring that nothing meaningful gets done. That is unless it pleases the lobbyists, in which case they're more than happy to collaborate in denouncing Net Neutrality, enacting incredibly intricate surveillance programs, and constantly advocating for loosened regulations. I mean we don't really need OSHA or the EPA, right? Corporation can take care of themselves, right?

And what of the far-left and far-right? Well, using tumblr and /pol/ as samples of both, respectively, they seem to be more concerned with identity politics and popular figureheads than anything else. Rather than strive for comprehensive social welfare programs, the far-left bickers endlessly about oppression and demonizes police officers. On the right, more concern is given to banishing immigrants and repealing regulations than building a strong economy and promoting national unity. All the while, the environment and climate change are either wholly ignored or ridiculed as pseudoscience.

I understand that people tend only to discuss those issues that are in vogue, but doesn't anyone know what they're supposed to be fighting for?

Backlash wrote

malmon73 wrote

Paradox K.S.C. wrote

abh wrote

Capitalism, hedonism, environmental collapse, anti-intellectualism, identity politics(left and right), and governments taking over the internet. Lots of things to stress about.

Can agree with all of these with a caveat, I don't think capitalism is automatically a negative, though if left unchecked it will most certainly run amok, however that's not to say a free market doesn't have it's place when sensibly regulated.

Hedonism?
I'm not sure what you mean, materialism perhaps?
I am the confuse.

>Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important intrinsic good. A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

I honestly don't see anything wrong with that.

Hedonism is fine so long as it's practiced in moderation. Of course, if someone lived a life defined by their adherence to this philosophy, they'd probably end up being a useless waste of space that actively rejects and ridicules the norms of the modern world in favor of crafting an existence that allows them to remain within their ever-shrinking comfort zone as long as possible. 

As for me, I'm kinda tired of how petty politics have been getting; at least in the US. Political polarization being what it is, you've got the Republicans constantly checking the Democrats and the Democrats constantly checking the Republicans, thus ensuring that nothing meaningful gets done. That is unless it pleases the lobbyists, in which case they're more than happy to collaborate in denouncing Net Neutrality, enacting incredibly intricate surveillance programs, and constantly advocating for loosened regulations. I mean we don't really need OSHA or the EPA, right? Corporation can take care of themselves, right?

And what of the far-left and far-right? Well, using tumblr and /pol/ as samples of both, respectively, they seem to be more concerned with identity politics and popular figureheads than anything else. Rather than strive for comprehensive social welfare programs, the far-left bickers endlessly about oppression and demonizes police officers. On the right, more concern is given to banishing immigrants and repealing regulations than building a strong economy and promoting national unity. All the while, the environment and climate change are either wholly ignored or ridiculed as pseudoscience.

I understand that people tend only to discuss those issues that are in vogue, but doesn't anyone know what they're supposed to be fighting for?

I wish you weren't so right...

Backlash wrote

malmon73 wrote

Paradox K.S.C. wrote

abh wrote

Capitalism, hedonism, environmental collapse, anti-intellectualism, identity politics(left and right), and governments taking over the internet. Lots of things to stress about.

Can agree with all of these with a caveat, I don't think capitalism is automatically a negative, though if left unchecked it will most certainly run amok, however that's not to say a free market doesn't have it's place when sensibly regulated.

Hedonism?
I'm not sure what you mean, materialism perhaps?
I am the confuse.

>Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important intrinsic good. A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

I honestly don't see anything wrong with that.

constantly advocating for loosened regulations. I mean we don't really need OSHA or the EPA, right? Corporation can take care of themselves, right?

Those aren't the kinds of regulations that are seen as being problematic. For instance, the reason the US has terrible ISPs is due in large part to the fact that there's a ton of regulations holding you back from even laying the first wire. 
http://www.wired.com/2013/07/we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-just-cable-companies-and-blame-local-government-for-dismal-broadband-competition/
This is also why Walmart wants to see minimum wage go up. They can afford to pay people doing no-skill labor the extra money, while smaller regional and local stores would be hurt or even put out of business. 
For a real world anecdote, my company was supposed to have already opened a new store in a nearby city, but we've apparently been having legal issues with Walmart, whom we have to pay to own the land anyway (???) because of some regulation Walmart managed to get passed in that city. We also were supposed to have repaired the parking lot at our distribution center for our semi-trailers, but the city is imposing new zoning standards which require stores to build terraces between the road and the parking lot, which would require an absurd amount of money compared to just repairing the parking lot itself, money which we currently don't have. I'm assuming the new rules were designed to make the city look less trashy, but all it's doing it making it so businesses put off repairing parking lots for as long as possible. 
You should also remember that the entire job of a lobbyist is to get new laws and regulations passed which helps the person/company/group they represent. 

https://fee.org/articles/regulatory-failure-by-the-numbers/
Here's a great article I found on how regulations can, have been, and often are bad.