Political/Off-Topic sticky chat thread (Scranton, Pittston: employment, purchase, colleges)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by MrKrabs

Well, that just ruined breakfast...

Good thing I only have time anymore to eat one meal per day! Indigestion isn't in my vocabulary!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by MermanMike

And SWB...as gay people living in a world where the collective psyche has been conditioned to fear what is unlike itself as a means of being more easily controlled by political forces, we have the added but wildly rewarding responsibility of off-setting the thought patterns of the unconscious collective psyche on a daily basis. That will be a burden we will know for the rest of our lives, but I, for one, am proud to add this to my to do list. Most people will never question what they are led to believe, and by their passivity are manifesting a dangerous world. Once you can lay down the drama that your society and it's religiosity has inflicted on you, you will gain a frequency that brings light wherever you go. Actually, this, in my view, was what Jesus was all about.

I by no means wish to encourage intolerant, hateful behavior through my own indifference, but Strateshooter expressed his opinions very effectively and respectfully. No matter how many rose-colored glasses I don, we'll still have racism/intolerance in NEPA. It's never going to go away. Just tonight at work I heard yet ANOTHER racial slur being made about African-Americans from someone who thought they were making a joke. If you think some of Strateshooter's comments were harsh, then you should poke your nose into the Politics & Other Controversies sometime; the hardcore Coulter-kissing, gay-bashing, "holier than thou" right-wingers on there will make you want to pull your hair out!

It's nice to imagine that preaching tolerance will have an effect on people, but I've already become far too jaded to ever foresee that happening, which is why I'm just resigned to the fact that PA will never legalize same-sex civil unions and to the fact that I'll lose every political race I'll ever run for in the future because my adversaries here in PA will sling mud at me for not having "traditional family values." Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and other figureheads of the Civil Rights Movement had little impact on our society, as we are now forty years later and racism is just as prevalent as ever. Forty years after the Gay Rights Movement of today we'll still be no nearer to equality than African-Americans are.

[MermanMike]

I don't think it's fair to say that MLK and Rosa Parks had little long term impact on the civil rights movement in this country. Don't forget, it wasn't long ago that schools were segregated, blacks rode on the back of the bus, separate fountains in malls, etc. We have come a long way in a short time. Change does not happen overnight. It is difficult for people to change their minds, but everyone can and will eventually do it. It is the only way we can safely move into the future, and everyone wants to move into the future. The two people you mention started something, but it is up to the rest of us to keep the momentum going.

There are many places in the US where no one cares if you are gay or straight, black or white, etc. There were not so many of those places 100 years ago. I think all the evidence points to...things are actually changing...people are opening their minds. But, no it doesn't happen over the course of a few years. When I lived in NYC, I lived a block away from Stonewall, I had close friends who lived through that time. Don't tell them things won't change. They changed things! And just a few decades later they have created one of the safest communities for gay people on the planet.

[nkotb]

Re: Hillary for President...
I don't think I can handle looking at that 'pursed lipped smirk' for the next 4 years !!!!

[CHS89]

You mean "The Janet"?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by CHS89

You mean "The Janet"?

It beats "The Franus."

[SteelCityRising]

I think the time has arrived where we all need to move our respective frustrations to this thread and this thread ALONE from now on! There is currently a thread with over 100 replies entitled something to the effect of "Why Do Miserable People Stay in NEPA?" and that has now erupted into a flame war amongst at least a half-dozen members, including myself. As someone who knows how depressing it feels to get banned, I don't want to see anyone else suffer that same fate.

This message namely applies to the following members who have been involved in that heated thread in one way, shape, or form, even if they didn't directly inflame emotions:

61scout80
Alexia319
cgraz1187
Chefkey
CHS89
coartist88 (whom has been feuding with weluvpa)
daveandpenny
DITC
formerdrunkenSP
GENO-777
greentown
KittensPurr (whom has been sparring with me)
lilangelbaby0099
loveinbloom
mathjak107
MermanMike
MrKrabs
nepanite (whom I especially have a few words to exchange with)
NYRangers 2008
okaydorothy
poconosmama
sues1
Suzer
SWB
TheHighHat
weluvpa (whom has been feuding with coartist88)
W-B proud

Wow! 27 members involved in one thread? That might just be a new sub-forum record! LOL!

We REALLY need to have an all-out slugfest in this thread; it's healthy to release these pent-up frustrations we all seem to have with one another. I know I'm opening myself up to scrutiny from about four people on that list at once, but so be it. Yac acknowledged that he'd be "loose" with this thread, so let it rip. The rest of this sub-forum has become very unsavory now because just about every thread that gets started disintegrates into a bickerfest. Let's just get this over and done with so we can stop scaring off potential new transplants with our pettiness.

I'll start:

KittensPurr: Please S-P-E-L-L O-U-T for me just what it is you take issue with in my replies in the other thread. I literally have read your replies to my replies several times, and the only things I garnered from that were totally unrelated to the topic at hand, which was why miserable people are staying here. You then went off on what seemed like a soap box of how we all need to feel sorry for people who have fallen on adverse times and about how those who haven't experienced them can't appreciate what it feels like to suffer. That's essentially it. I don't understand how that was applicable to myself, nor do I see any part of my reply that was ageist.

nepanite: I'm glad that you forwarded one of my messages to your co-workers for sh*ts and giggles. That's very well-intentioned of you. For your information I DO work 35 hours per week and attend college full-time, so you are way out-of-line by implying this area is in trouble if its own residents need to spend all their time on message boards for fun. In case you haven't noticed there is a definite dearth of young people in this area, so why not be happy that at least ONE is trying to improve the area's image while the other 99% are slamming it into the ground for its social recidivism.

[CHS89]

I had to respond to this. I've been ignoring you pretty sucessfully all week until now.

Originally Posted by SWB

This message namely applies to the following members who have been involved in that heated thread in one way, shape, or form, even if they didn't directly inflame emotions:

61scout80
Alexia319
cgraz1187
Chefkey
CHS89
coartist88 (whom has been feuding with weluvpa)
daveandpenny
DITC
formerdrunkenSP
GENO-777
greentown
KittensPurr (whom has been sparring with me)
lilangelbaby0099
loveinbloom
mathjak107
MermanMike
MrKrabs
nepanite (whom I especially have a few words to exchange with)
NYRangers 2008
okaydorothy
poconosmama
sues1
Suzer
SWB
TheHighHat
weluvpa (whom has been feuding with coartist88)
W-B proud

And maybe you need to stop being the damn babysitter. If you're so worried about being suspended or banned, then stop fueling the fire, pointing the finger of blame at everyone else, and making the thread about you. Again. Let the moderators do their job and maybe stop posting to that thread.

Posts in that thread:
SWB 18
mathjak107 12
Chefkey 11
weluvpa 10
coartist88 9
KittensPurr 9
MrKrabs 7
sues1 6
daveandpenny 6
61scout80 5
TheHighHat 5
lilangelbaby0099 3
W-B proud 2
MermanMike 2
CHS89 2
okaydorothy 1
DITC 1
poconosmama 1
Alexia319 1
Suzer 1
NYRangers 2008 1
GENO-777 1
greentown 1
nepanite 1
formerdrunkenSP 1
loveinbloom 1
cgraz1187 1

[SteelCityRising]

I didn't make that thread about me, KittensPurr did with her grandstanding about the suffering of the world, the adversities of others, the plight of the working poor, etc. and then dragging me into the fray by implying I was both ageist and/or elitist because I wasn't being sensitive enough about how others struggle through no fault of their own. My input into that thread started off on-topic, including some Census analysis to provide some insight into why our region can't attract many decent employers (to defend the region as a whole from the naysayers who blamed our difficulty in luring high-tech firms here on reasons other than the workforce skill levels), and then it eroded into the direction it did when I had to defend myself from someone who deemed it necessary to lecture me.

[weluvpa]

First off COARTIST and I were having a discussion and yes it was heated but guess what we are adults and we managed to handle it on our own.

The funny part of this thread and your post PAUL is that the thread on NEPA was doing fine until you chimed in with your rants about education and the world that you have yet to experience. The post were short and to the point until Kittenspurr came in and tried to set you straight.

Your a bright kid and thats obvious but you just have to realize that when you come in here and try to tell hard working adults that have raised families and built lives what they should and should not be doing or thinking you are going to aggrevate us. I have lived more in a year of my life then you have to this point in your entire life so what do you think your going to tell me that I haven't already seen or heard.