Am I to understand that a large company decided that donating to a charity that addresses a problem is better than donating to movie about the same problem?
Czarcasm, it’s already been opined that helping people with a problem is more constructive than trying to raise awareness of it. Not to say that trying to raise awareness is not constructive; just that a concrete effort to help people directly should be more effective.
Or was that question rhetorical?
and
two jokes for the price of one!!! or is it the other way around…
anyway, in icelandic b0rn means children…so i can be teased in many languages about my name…
there is some steriotypical behavior in this thread that scares me:
winos lying drunk…i am very glad you are sypathetic towards those less fortunate…
its the valitity of the speech that matters, not who made the speech
thank you for questioning your initial reaction
why? where did you come up with this mental image? how did you come up with this mental image…?
of course you base your assumptions on the knowledge your brain has, but no one is supposed to assume knowledge beforehand.
because saddam hussein invaded kuvaid some years ago doesnt mean he will do it again.
people voted bush in the last election, but that doesnt guarantee his election next time…
the possibility that past actions repeat themselves are certainly there but the do not in any way forecast what will happen in the future.
there is a relationship between the threads topic, my forewords to the OP and the OP itself. you can make a wild guess which part i play in the OP itself…the part of the “famous” actor or the producer “nobodies”…
bj0rn - …
I would like to thank you for making my morning surrealistic!
Thanks bJ0rn.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by bj0rn *
**
I volunteered for years to help those people, and now that I don’t have time, I donate money. And I have no illusions that that’s what some of 'em are. They can be rehabilitated, and I have vast compassion for the agony and struggle they go through when they choose to overcome their addiction/disease, but while they’re in the gutter (literally. In the gutter.) refusing or unable to accept help, I don’t see a reason to use euphamisms. What do you do help, Cuddles? Whine that people who are actually helping aren’t doing it in a bj0rn approved way?
**
Bullshit. You don’t post in a vacuum. Your previous history as a semi-psychotic gibbering lunatic will obviously color the perceptions of people responding to you. I know I’d have a completely different reaction to Esprix posting something that might be taken as homophobic than I would if, say, His4ever posted the same possibly suspect words.
In other words, Bosco, you wanna reform? You’ll have to overcome your trollish past to do it.
**
Because someone posted semi-hostile semi-trollish gibberish repeatedly in the past doesn’t mean they’ll do it again? Maybe not, but they’ll have to prove it first.
I’ll grant you that your past loutish behavior MAY have colored reactions to your OP, and maybe you are turning over a new leaf…hell, you didn’t even call Coldfire any names! That’s certainly a step in the right direction!
Fenris
uhm…sure, i could do more than work a full day and struggle through school…i live a very self-centered life (economically speaking) but i am fully aware of that and try my best to do what i can when i can to help anyone i can. and i know that calling people that need help “drunken winos” isnt helping!
trying to keep in touch with the OP…
how people (and companies) deal with their perception of others and express opinions based on those perceptions properly identifies their ability to deal with unusual circumstances.
(i know, blahblah blah…)
simply believing that the producers of the documentary are “fratboys” shouldnt be the basis of a decision to deny them of support. if belief is your only basis for decisions you are in danger of acting predudicely.
sigh…why is that? thats the way it works in professional sports, yes…you have to prove you are good enough to play on the team.
unfortunate, perhaps, that people do not have to pass a test to be allowed to think and talk?
well, you are calling me names…(cuddles…bosco) is that a step in the right direction?
i still fail to see in which way my previously “loudish” behavior colors what i had to say in the OP to this thread.
bj0rn - …
Huh. I did most of my volunteer work when I was in college. It’s since then that I haven’t had time.
And I think that your last statement is a telling difference in our philosophies. I think that sitting on your (not “yours” in specific) ass and not doing anything other than talking about the issue of “calling people (names)” is a whole lot less useful that going out and getting your hands dirty trying to help. When we’re talking about people who live on the street, who are caked in several inches of their own filth, who’s teeth have rotted out due to malnutrition, “winos” is a pretty damned accurate label. Would you prefer “individuals who have chosen an alternate alcohol-centered, soap-free lifestyle”? Euphamisms like that minimize the horror of their condition.
Making a Public Service Announcement style film about the horrors of bullying might make you feel good, but I’ll bet that the vast majority of it’s potential audience is already on the filmmaker’s side. It’s preaching to the choir and while it may make the filmmakers and filmgoers feel all warm and fuzzy about themselves, I think that the famous actor who’s actually going out and doing something tangible to help redress the problem is a hell of a lot more useful.
To butcher an old saying: Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Make a film about the emotional trauma to fish and man for the inhuman barbaric practice of fishing and the man dies of starvation.
(I know there’s an arguement to be made for the filmmakers reaching more people than the shelter will, but IMO rarely if ever do independant films reach a mass market audience, the self-selected sample of people who go out of their way (and they have to) to see independent films would tend to already agree with the filmmaker’s message and (again, IMO) no-one’s opinion was ever changed by a Public Service Announcement style film.)
**
**
You’re right and I was out of line with those comments. I apologize.
**
A) For the record, I used the word “loutish” not “loudish”.
B) Because, IMO, your past threads have been hostile to the members of the SDMB in general and to Coldfire in specific. I read your OP through the filter of your past posts. In retrospect, I disagree with your OP strongly, but it didn’t show the flameworthy things you’ve done in the past. In the future I’ll keep that in mind when I read your OPs. Fair enough?
Fenris
OK, after reading the context of this thread, I think I can put this in more rational terms…
Substitute teasing with wife battering. Somebody’s making a documentary about wife battering, and two corporations don’t sponsor it. One being Coca Cola, the other one a bank. Usually it’s because they don’t want to be associated with controversy because it could lead to less business.
OK, the part about the “famous” actor propping up the same cause and getting sponsorship from the aforementioned businesses compares to a TV celebrity with a big mouth and bleeding heart, who cries crocodile tears whenever it can increase ratings. Someone like say, Oprah Winfrey. Coca Cola and Megabank feel better about advertising on Oprah Winfrey than they do with upstart no-name documentary makers.
bj0rn thinks these ppl are hypocrites, which is understandable. He also got confused on what “hate speech” meant because his country isn’t as immersed in the Political Correctness paranoia as are others. He took it to mean that ANY disparaging remark is hate speech, despite the fact that this whole forum devoted to disparaging remarks.
OK, now that we understand the funny little foreigner better, please explain what “makes you feel like mr. john don’t it?” means.
Does bj0rn ever make sense?
Or am I the only one feeling completely fucking confused?
Guinastasia, you’re suffering from Greater-Than-10-Thousand-Post-Traumatic-Stress-Syndrome.
I was completely lost the first time around. But to test a small theory I had, I threw on a Bjork CD really loud for background while re-reading. Suddenly it’s much clearer!
I also have a name to call a new pastry I’ve been working on for X-mas… búnaðarbankinn.
I can’t stop giggling to myself. And I’m at work reading wire accounts of Wellstone’s death and the storming of the Russian theater.
Oh, fiddlesticks. Police hear it all the time when they pull someone over for at 2:30am for DUI. It goes like this:
“May I see your license and registration?”
“Búnaðarbankinn!”
I have absolutely NOTHNG to add to or comment on about this thread.
All I wanted to say is, I haven’t laughed out loud for MUCH too long. I’m grateful.
Thank you, Kal!!!
Quite agree, quite agree, too silly, far too silly…
He’s baaaack, and just in time for Halloween too.
perhaps i didnt make it clear enough…im working 8 hours a day AND going to school…
there you go again with those “mental images”…
so if it is…speaking your mind isnt always appropriate.
the audience would only be on the filmmakers if they knew what was accually going on. the filmmakers were associating bullying with suicides among kids, something that was not generally known and does make you think about bullying twice before dismissing it as someone elses problem.
upps, sorry…what does loutish mean anyway?
i dont know what coldfire has to say about that…but i hope he didnt take anything i said as hostile…we certainly had our share of wordthrowing…but i hope that was only for the cause of finding the truth (or whatever).
we have a saying here in iceland: “it makes a difference if its john or mr. john”
i guess the filmmakers wished they were mr. john but not the average john…
bj0rn - …bú = boo
Don’t mind bj0rn. He’s just miffed that Icelander Friðrik Þór Friðriksson let Canadian Sarah Polley steal all her scenes from the Icelanders in his film on einelti: “No Such Thing.”
OK, so far we have Fenris generously dontating to good works, such as breast cancer research, and Bj0rn generally supporting a higher level of financial alruism.
[blatent begging for a good cause] Coincidentally, my crew needs about $60,000 to make it to the Inaugural South Pacific Breast Cancer Regatta in New Zealand. Hint. Hint. Hint. Yes, we issue charitable receipts. Hint. Hint. Hint. [/blatent begging for a good cause]
I’ll put my money on “or whatever”, in this case. 