Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
I just finished the research phase of a final paper on the Massacre at Wounded Knee, for those who don't know the massacre took place 29 December, 1890 and is considered the "last battle of the American Indian wars". Accounts very nut what is clear is that the U.S. 7th Cavalry under the command of Colonel James Forsyth murdered 150 to 300 Sioux indians, mostly women and children. Twenty congressional Medals of Honor, the United State's highest medal for valor in combat were awarded to 7th Cavalry troopers for participation in the "battle". Throw in the rest of the research I was working on that covered more of the Indian wars and I'm pretty much ready to resign from the human race in disgust. Especially because this stuff was glossed over in my U.S. History classes through out my primary education, I suppose no one likes thinking about the more sordid aspects of their past... but the mistreatment continues to this day with American Indian reservations largely being in conditions comparable to the third world. Again, something I knew... but processing it all at once.
I'm just done.
Any one else run into something like this mentally or morally? Some act of nation or species where you look at it and just quit for awhile?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/03/20 08:50:38
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long
Appearing as a guest at a big convention like MegaCon is a lot of fun, but it’s also exhausting. People always ask me if my arm or hand or wrist is tired near the end of a long day of signing, and I always tell them the truth: my body never gets tired; it’s my brain that is exhausted. Signing is so much more than, well, signing. It’s listening and engaging and sharing moments and meeting hundreds of people in a relatively short amount of time, doing my best to not rush people while understanding that the person in front of me and the person still waiting behind them may have been in that line for over an hour. It’s drawing out shy kids who are excited to meet me, but don’t know what to say. It’s handling people who can be a little strange — if harmless — who may not know when it’s really time for them to move on. It’s telling someone that I’m sorry, but I can’t sign that thing, or I can’t pose for that picture, or I’m really not going to go have beers with you because I don’t know you at all even though you think you know me.
I suppose I could make it less mentally taxing if I just sat there and didn’t make an effort to engage people or treat them like human beings (and there are some folks who do exactly that), but that’s not how I roll, and I will stop attending conventions before I become That Guy. That Guy has no perspective, no humility, no gratitude, and while I’ve met him a few times (there are a few people who act like fans at conventions are simply meatbags attached to wallets) I won’t ever be him.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because I was a fan at conventions long before I was a special guest, I know what it’s like to be on that side of the table, and it’s important to me to treat people the way I want to be treated. It’s also wonderful, because I get to meet remarkable and inspiring people, and share in the mutual joy we have for Doctor Who, Tabletop gaming, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Star Trek, beer, hockey, and silly Internet memes.
This weekend, I met dozens of people who told me that they were scientists, engineers, doctors, or programmers because they were inspired by Wesley Crusher. I met tons of women and a few men who told me that I was their first teenage crush. I met a lot of people, men and women, my age and younger, who thanked me for speaking out about depression and anxiety. I held a young woman’s hands while she cried because her anxiety was so intense and scary, and I promised her that she would be okay. I was moved by her bravery, and inspired by her courage. I met some families who were all geeking out about different things at the convention, from Star Trek to My Little Pony to LEGO to Star Wars, and happily sharing in each other’s joy. I was honored to be part of all of these experiences, and grateful to have them.
But there is one meeting that stands out, that moved me so much, I’ve been struggling to find the right words to recount it. On Saturday, a young woman walked up to my table with her husband and her two children. She handed me a typed letter and told me that she knew she wouldn’t be able to get through what she wanted to say to me, and would I please read it.
I unfolded it, and read her story. When she was a young girl, she had a serious complication due to her Lupus, and her doctors told her that she would never walk again. She had a photo of me, though, that she took with her to physical therapy every day, and the therapists would hold it up for her and encourage her to walk toward it — toward me — while she recovered. She made a promise to herself, she said, that she would walk again some day, and if I was ever in her town, she would walk up to meet me. At the end of her letter, she thanked me for being there, so she could *walk* to meet me.
I looked up at her through tears, and she looked back at me through her own. I stood up, walked around my table, and put about fifteen feet between us. I held my arms open, and asked her to walk over to me. She began to cry, and slowly, confidently closed the distance between us. I embraced her, and we stood there for a minute, surrounded by thousands of people who had no idea what was going on, and cried together.
“I’m so proud of you,” I said, quietly, “and I am so honored.”
We wiped the tears away, and I sat back down to sign a photo for her. I looked at her young children. “Your mom is remarkable,” I said, “and I know you don’t get it, because she’s, like your mom? But you have to trust me: she is.”
The kids nodded, and I could tell that they were a little freaked out by the emotion of the thing, even if they didn’t understand it. They looked at their father, who said, “Mommy’s okay. Mommy’s okay.” That made me tear up again. Mommy was okay, and she is a remarkable woman who defied the odds and her doctors, and *walked* up to meet me. I’m still overwhelmed when I think about what that means, and how I was part of it.
.. so.. you know, I think.. well hope more one supposes.. that things balance out in the end.
Hemingwayquotefromendofse7enhere
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
Now as i understand it the Medal of Honour is reserved for only the best of brave, luckiest of the foolhardy and brassiest of the ballsy and that a large majority are awarded posthumously. So how did 20 get awarded for "battling" mostly woman and children? Someone care to explain that to me?
KalashnikovMarine wrote: Any one else run into something like this mentally or morally? Some act of nation or species where you look at it and just quit for awhile?
Any time i am unfortunate enough to come across idiotic facebook screencaps. Also any that deal with "Like this x times and y happens" or may favourite "1 like = 1 respect/prayer/etc". They just gak me.
Gods help me if i'm ever stupid enough to scroll down to the comments section on a youtube video...... Just want to bang me head on the wall then.
I wish google didn't crash this phone's browser, because then I could link to some of the better things I've seen, like exoskeletons that enable people with spinal injuries to walk again (experimental stuff, or course), or enabling the blind to (kind-of) see again by hooking cameras up to their brains.
The world is a bright place today, and it only gets brighter. For all that horrible things still come to pass, for all the horrors that have unfolded in darker times, we still go forwards, and they become ever weaker and more distant. Forget the dead and tormented of ages past, and forget the murderers long since gone to their own graves. Look upon the triumphs of engineering and technology, the successes of medicine, and the marvel of engineering we're communicating with right now, and the darkness seems such a small and pitiful thing beside it all.
The Medal of Honor took on a bit of a differant meaning around the turn of the century, probably in large part to actions such as this.
It became a lot more selective, almost to the point where it's not being awarded in cases it should be. In the 1800's it's honor was certainly "abused".
The Indian Wars are a dark chapter of our nations history. Granted, every nation has it's dark chapters, and cultural genocide while apalling, is hardly a unique thing throughout history. I'd say, given that such actions were hardly frowned apon for so many thousands of years, be proud of humanity that in such a short time we've largely turned that kind of thinking on its head, and now recognize it's evil for what it is.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/03/20 11:55:32
I've long since given up hope for humanity as a species. Not so much for the number of cultural and racial genocides, but just the general douchebaggery that seems to go on in 'normal' life...
And that is why you hear people yelling FOR THE EMPEROR rather than FOR LOGICAL AND QUANTIFIABLE BASED DECISIONS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE MAJORITY!
Phototoxin wrote:Kids go in , they waste tonnes of money on marnus calgar and his landraider, the slaneshi-like GW revel at this lust and short term profit margin pleasure. Meanwhile father time and cunning lord tzeentch whisper 'our games are better AND cheaper' and then players leave for mantic and warmahordes.
daveNYC wrote:The Craftworld guys, who are such stick-in-the-muds that they manage to make the Ultramarines look like an Ibiza nightclub that spiked its Red Bull with LSD.
So many fethed up things in this world to choose from, and you chose hamster.
Prestor Jon wrote: Because children don't have any legal rights until they're adults. A minor is the responsiblity of the parent and has no legal rights except through his/her legal guardian or parent.
Yeah, I know there are much worse things out there, this is just the one that is most recently troubling my brain, it's not as much what, it's more why. I can understand that humans do bad things, it's trying to figure out why they do them that really wracks my brain (i.e. why did the person in question decide it was a good idea to try and kill a hamster by frying it alive...)
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to get much better at the 'real nasty' end. If you want something with a bit more substance, take for instance that the primary driver of technogical innovation is to improve the variety and efficiency of methods for killing each other, the only time we really excel at getting things done is when we need them to blow each other up e.g. the digital computer's primary focus of attention was for use in calculating ballistics equations for use in naval combat, blackpowder, atomic weaponry, lasers, the internet, robotics, the list goes on, but they have all seen rapid development in history because we realised they make it easier to kill each other.
The fact that a group of persons is perfectly willing to completely eradicate another group just because they have different invisible-being-in-the-sky beliefs., doesn't exactly help matters, or large-scale human greed (look up the nestle scandal involving powdered baby formula in impoverished parts of africa, or, I don't know, the catholic church spreading lies about condoms (and encouraging people to not use them) in HIV/AIDS ridden areas of Africa.
A little off-topic, but where abouts in south wales do you hail from MrDWhitey?
And that is why you hear people yelling FOR THE EMPEROR rather than FOR LOGICAL AND QUANTIFIABLE BASED DECISIONS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE MAJORITY!
Phototoxin wrote:Kids go in , they waste tonnes of money on marnus calgar and his landraider, the slaneshi-like GW revel at this lust and short term profit margin pleasure. Meanwhile father time and cunning lord tzeentch whisper 'our games are better AND cheaper' and then players leave for mantic and warmahordes.
daveNYC wrote:The Craftworld guys, who are such stick-in-the-muds that they manage to make the Ultramarines look like an Ibiza nightclub that spiked its Red Bull with LSD.
Evil has always been here and always will be. The day that as a species we just shrug our shoulders at the next horrible thing that happens instead of being outraged is the day we should all worry.
As the reaction by the overwhelming majority of right thinking people to things like the Ohio rape case show there is still hope for us.
We may get beaten down and bloodied, but we aren't broken. We just have to get up, dust ourselves off and get back to fighting the good fight.
The human species is living on borrowed time, it has expanded exponentially across the globe and it's demands on resources are vast. It is causing a mass extinction across the earth, one that will likely lead to it's own extinction or near enough. Soon enough we will be going to war over fresh water and living space. I hope I am dead and buried by the time this is upon us but we are hurtling towards it.
Since the human race will not alter it's behavior, I can only hope for a massive contagion to reduce our numbers before it gets to the wars that will decimate the earth further.
We had a bright, golden chance to be a custodian and to flourish along with the earth, to travel to other places and make them bloom. We are too flawed to enact that, we do not deserve it. Oblivion instead will consume us. I am sorry for the species that have and will go extinct due to us, I am glad to know that no matter the gak we unleash, there are deep sea vents and caves and other places where nature has placed arks for life, so that once we have passed away, they will return to blossom again.
When I moved to this country and heard 'legitimate' sources claiming climate change is a myth or doubtful, I was initially shocked and outraged, now I see them as enabling the elimination of humanity and I don't mind so very much. Perhaps the next species offered the chance will be better suited, show more wisdom and understand that they exist as part of the environment, not exclusive of it, this angry ape has failed and it's time is coming on.
Albatross wrote: If anyone wants me, I'll be drinking fizzy lager, listening to britpop and generally having FUN.
Yeesh. You guys make Kurt Cobain look like Rip Taylor.
This.
Except cider and some horrific kind of dubstep...
Dakka Bingo! By Ouze "You are the best at flying things"-Kanluwen
"Further proof that Purple is a fething brilliant super villain " -KingCracker
"Purp.. Im pretty sure I have a gun than can reach you...."-Nicorex
"That's not really an apocalypse. That's just Europe."-Grakmar
"almost as good as winning free cake at the tea drinking contest for an Englishman." -Reds8n
Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.
Equip, Reload. Do violence.
Watch for Gerry.
The second law of thermodynamics as I understand it.
In a closed system, all things tend towards entropy.
Given that the universe is a closed system with a finite amount of energy, everything everywhere will eventually die.
There is no getting out of this. Even inventing space travel will only delay the inevitable. Everything will end. This existence is pointless.
Given that everything is ultimately futile, I'll be at the bar.
Short term win is the best we can acheive
Its because ordinance is still a word.
However, firing ordinance at someone isn't nearly as threatening as firing ordnance at someone.
Ordinance is a local law, or bill, or other form of legislation.
Ordnance is high caliber explosives.
No 'I' in ordnance.
Don't drown the enemy in legislation, drown them in explosives.
Dakka Bingo! By Ouze "You are the best at flying things"-Kanluwen
"Further proof that Purple is a fething brilliant super villain " -KingCracker
"Purp.. Im pretty sure I have a gun than can reach you...."-Nicorex
"That's not really an apocalypse. That's just Europe."-Grakmar
"almost as good as winning free cake at the tea drinking contest for an Englishman." -Reds8n
Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.
Equip, Reload. Do violence.
Watch for Gerry.
Dreadclaw69 wrote: Evil has always been here and always will be. The day that as a species we just shrug our shoulders at the next horrible thing that happens instead of being outraged is the day we should all worry.
As the reaction by the overwhelming majority of right thinking people to things like the Ohio rape case show there is still hope for us.
We may get beaten down and bloodied, but we aren't broken. We just have to get up, dust ourselves off and get back to fighting the good fight.
This is appropriate:
\m/
Automatically Appended Next Post:
MeanGreenStompa wrote: The human species is living on borrowed time, it has expanded exponentially across the globe and it's demands on resources are vast. It is causing a mass extinction across the earth, one that will likely lead to it's own extinction or near enough. Soon enough we will be going to war over fresh water and living space. I hope I am dead and buried by the time this is upon us but we are hurtling towards it.
Since the human race will not alter it's behavior, I can only hope for a massive contagion to reduce our numbers before it gets to the wars that will decimate the earth further.
We had a bright, golden chance to be a custodian and to flourish along with the earth, to travel to other places and make them bloom. We are too flawed to enact that, we do not deserve it. Oblivion instead will consume us. I am sorry for the species that have and will go extinct due to us, I am glad to know that no matter the gak we unleash, there are deep sea vents and caves and other places where nature has placed arks for life, so that once we have passed away, they will return to blossom again.
When I moved to this country and heard 'legitimate' sources claiming climate change is a myth or doubtful, I was initially shocked and outraged, now I see them as enabling the elimination of humanity and I don't mind so very much. Perhaps the next species offered the chance will be better suited, show more wisdom and understand that they exist as part of the environment, not exclusive of it, this angry ape has failed and it's time is coming on.
o.O
You sound pretty depressing dude...
We 'Umies ain't going away anytime soon.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/03/20 15:32:25
No not really. I realize that there are good people out there still, and we are just seeing the bad. I think that if you loose your "Faith" in humanity, then you never had it in the firstplace.
Yeah, the Indian "Wars" (or the Native American Genocides) can be pretty unfun to learn about.
I have faith in Humanity, but recognize that we are all just people; and people do good and bad things all the time. People are amazing in that they can justify just about anything.
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing
I can't remember the name of the experiment - what was the experiment that Derren Brown re-created where people thought they were administering electric shocks to people?
It was to see how much they followed orders. They ended up thinking they were administering lethal amounts of electricity because someone in a white coat told them to.
Its because ordinance is still a word.
However, firing ordinance at someone isn't nearly as threatening as firing ordnance at someone.
Ordinance is a local law, or bill, or other form of legislation.
Ordnance is high caliber explosives.
No 'I' in ordnance.
Don't drown the enemy in legislation, drown them in explosives.
Then there's the video of drunks kicking seals, both adults & pups, down in San Diego. Sums up our species in a nutshell.
It's why I start with contempt and work my way up from there.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/03/20 17:01:02
Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about his religion. Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life. Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.
Lt. Rorke - Act of Valor
I can now be found on Facebook under the name of Wulfstan Design
It's absolutely horrific, it's the real result of the pressure elements in this country who've pushed to make abortion illegal, it's the result of a lack of affordable healthcare and it's the result of a lack of regulation.
It's absolutely horrific, it's the real result of the pressure elements in this country who've pushed to make abortion illegal, it's the result of a lack of affordable healthcare and it's the result of a lack of regulation.
See... I wonder if you & me differ on this.
On the one hand, you seem to place the blame on society and calls for more Government action in forms of regulation, taxes to support major social program (ie, healthcare). Because, why? Do you think these sorts of heinous events would stop?
On the other hand, I'm thinking that this Doctor chose to work where he was at, and chose to run his illegal outfit in this manner. He's the scum of this earth and should be publicly Drawn & Quarter'ed for all to see. Don't forget, just about everything he did was illegal already.
I had to do a report on the My Lai massacre once for school, a very long time ago. I was pretty bummed afterward. If you're not familiar with it, during the Vietnam War, there was an order for a unit to engage a village that was thought to hold Vietcong (enemy) sympathizers. As it turned out, there weren't any actual Vietcong, but there were a lot of elderly Vietnamese, women, and children there, many of whom started being slaughtered by American troops under (unlawful) orders. It was a horrible war crime. Most of the soldiers didn't actively participate in the massacre, but they didn't stop it either. It's not really their fault, it's just how we are.
But I think that's a good example at this point in the thread, because, even when humanity is darkest, sometimes our better angels do make an appearance. In this case, a helicopter scout saw what was going on, and called it in. He then evacuated many of the Vietnamese survivors, at gunpoint in some cases. His report got the massacre stopped, and then... well, then the Pentagon tried to cover it up, but that's not the point. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's pretty easy to get depressed when you read about this kind of stuff but you have to try to remember that for every for every Ernest Medina there's a Hugh Thompson, for every Frank Wuterich there's a Jason Dunham, and that those latter sorts of guys always win out in the end. Sometimes evil prevails, but never for very long - we're always trying to be better.
That's also how we are.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
It's absolutely horrific, it's the real result of the pressure elements in this country who've pushed to make abortion illegal, it's the result of a lack of affordable healthcare and it's the result of a lack of regulation.
See... I wonder if you & me differ on this.
On the one hand, you seem to place the blame on society and calls for more Government action in forms of regulation, taxes to support major social program (ie, healthcare). Because, why? Do you think these sorts of heinous events would stop?
On the other hand, I'm thinking that this Doctor chose to work where he was at, and chose to run his illegal outfit in this manner. He's the scum of this earth and should be publicly Drawn & Quarter'ed for all to see. Don't forget, just about everything he did was illegal already.
The US attitude towards termination is suppression, shaming and widely uses the label of murder. That sort of antagonism forces things to the back streets, to the kind of chopshop you see in this report.
Lobbying to close down termination clinics, stigma etc, followed by pressure to the budgeting for inspection and regulation, forces this sort of thing underground. Then, you end up with two types of facility, you have the high end charging a king's ransom and you have what everyone else has to use, the dark alleyway coathanger abortionist like this dirty bugger.
If the abortion clinic was a clean, respectable, inspected and regulated place, affordable as a service to the poor, you would not have this sort of abominable place cropping up.
Stigma, underfunding, lack of regulation. Those are the things that allow places like this to spread like mold. The more certain states put pressure on their abortion clinics to close, the more shaky handed failed veterinarians with coat hangers will be operating on poor women in crackhouses as the rich simply travel outstate or eventually, abroad. The religious right cannot stop abortions, they can simply force them underground and enable this sort of thing.
I don't think that there is much point with being disgusted with the species. Anyone who has even a casual knowledge of history knows that very bad things have been happening for millenia (that we know about) and they have doubtless been happening since long before Homo Sapiens even thought about leaving Africa. Human history is written in blood.
Humans are natural survivors who can also extremely tribal with a habit of dehumanising their opponents. Bad things can't fail to happen.
As we become more and more 'advanced' as a global society the incidence of very bad things starts to decline. They will still happen of course, especially the small scale very bad things perpetrated by individuals or small groups, but we (hopefully) won't be seeing any more genocides.
RegalPhantom wrote: If your fluff doesn't fit, change your fluff until it does
The prefect example of someone missing the point.
Do not underestimate the Squats. They survived for millenia cut off from the Imperium and assailed on all sides. Their determination and resilience is an example to us all.
-Leman Russ, Meditations on Imperial Command book XVI (AKA the RT era White Dwarf Commpendium).
Its just a shame that they couldn't fight off Andy Chambers.
Warzone Plog
It's absolutely horrific, it's the real result of the pressure elements in this country who've pushed to make abortion illegal, it's the result of a lack of affordable healthcare and it's the result of a lack of regulation.
See... I wonder if you & me differ on this.
On the one hand, you seem to place the blame on society and calls for more Government action in forms of regulation, taxes to support major social program (ie, healthcare). Because, why? Do you think these sorts of heinous events would stop?
On the other hand, I'm thinking that this Doctor chose to work where he was at, and chose to run his illegal outfit in this manner. He's the scum of this earth and should be publicly Drawn & Quarter'ed for all to see. Don't forget, just about everything he did was illegal already.
The US attitude towards termination is suppression, shaming and widely uses the label of murder. That sort of antagonism forces things to the back streets, to the kind of chopshop you see in this report.
Lobbying to close down termination clinics, stigma etc, followed by pressure to the budgeting for inspection and regulation, forces this sort of thing underground. Then, you end up with two types of facility, you have the high end charging a king's ransom and you have what everyone else has to use, the dark alleyway coathanger abortionist like this dirty bugger.
If the abortion clinic was a clean, respectable, inspected and regulated place, affordable as a service to the poor, you would not have this sort of abominable place cropping up.
Stigma, underfunding, lack of regulation. Those are the things that allow places like this to spread like mold. The more certain states put pressure on their abortion clinics to close, the more shaky handed failed veterinarians with coat hangers will be operating on poor women in crackhouses as the rich simply travel outstate or eventually, abroad. The religious right cannot stop abortions, they can simply force them underground and enable this sort of thing.
Yeah... that's a fair point.
I think ya'll would know that I really don't favor a government sponsor'ed abolition (because, that's even more governance).
Instead of perpetuating this stigma that you've clearly pointed out... those whom are avid pro-life ought to engage in adoption services, fund respectable orphanage, basically provide meaningful alternative to abortions.
That'll make every feel better about their species... just not mine, as I'm a Czarnian!
Just want to bang me head on the wall then.
" -KingCracker
5000pts 
6000pts 
3000pts
