I think making up lists and fretting about what “they” are doing is itself wussy.
Why should anyone care if some kids get corrected in blue ink, or don’t get Valentine’s cards? I think preferring red ink and Valentines’ cards sounds pretty suspect.
Black ink and not expressing platonic love among schoolchildren via Spongebob sound like much more manly things, don’t they?
Dodge Ball, Suicide, Smear the Queer, Crack the Whip… gone, all gone… 
Did you know the Boy Scouts were invented because there was a great fear in the early 1900s that kids were becoming too wussy. So they invented a program to teach boys the great skills that they thought would anti-wussify them, like how to build a campfire, how to put up a tent, how to whittle, etc.
The fear that our children are weak is an old one.
Having read the OP and not the rest of the thread, I have to say he hasn’t provided evidence that americans are turning into wussies. He’s provided evidence that they’re turning into morons. There is a difference.
The OP is just a big nasty silly who deserves a good slap!
I still have my baseball trophies from the 7y.o. leagues. They’re actually sitting out on my trophy/award shelf, right along side my various military awards and chess trophies, which by comparison, actually took some effort and determination to earn. Those trophies didn’t wussify me. They filled me with pride then, and with nostalgia now. If anything, they toughened me up.
Perhaps you should consider the trophies not as making a child feel special, but instead as making them feel like badasses. Then maybe you’d understand why they won’t wussify kids.
I wonder if it’s just you saying they have “metal”. I bet the other coaches are saying they have a lot of “mettle”.
I really have no idea what you are “on about” or the so-called points of others on this thread who ageee with you.
But more to the point, I’m going to recommend against this kind of thread. Not only isn’t anything like this even remotely factual and objective, it only serves to generate more negativity.
And, maybe it’s beside the point, but it happens that I was already having a bad day.
[spoiler]Happy April 1st!
(I had an early start on the gags shortly after 8 pm EDT, at an authentic British pub down the street, because one of their clocks is set 4 hours ahead of EDT, making it “April” already, and the wait staff appreciated my creativity, but that’s for a MPSMS thread. 
)
I agree with much of what you said (I only wish, though, they had deleted dodgeball before my high school years!) and some of the examples wouldn’t have just surprised people coming of age just a few decades ago, they would have been completely dumbfounded by them.
***- Numero Uno Wussie-American! ***[/spoiler]
It seems to me that these types of complaints, and they seem to come up with great frequency, aren’t built around the idea that we are turning into wussies so much as they are a fear or dismay that we are losing the ability to really let some kids know how much they do suck.
I mean, as llcoolbj77 pointed out, participation awards are generally limited to little kids in rec leagues. Same with Valentine’s cards - I don’t remember doing them after fourth grade or so.
It just seems odd to me how bent out of shape some people get about generally losing the chance to emphasize to a 9 year old that he or she sucks.
Rest assured people - life will provide plenty of opportunities for people who are not good at things to get the message loud and clear. We aren’t suffering any as a society by not taking every advantage to make sure crap kids feel it as much as possible.
Wussies prepare. Real men rush in headlong without regard for the consequences.
I thought the public always thought they were douchebags? I mean unless you were another banker or a golddigger.
I grew up near there. In all fairness, we thought Trumbull were a “bunch of fags” since I was in grade school. This mearly confirms it.
Probably because they spent so much more time teaching spelling.
I wish I had some red ink.
I think there are many valid points as to why Americans are becoming wussies in this article. It isn’t any one persons fault. Like another poster said she has to pass every student regardless if they do the work well or not. I think new technology may play a role too in being an electronic babysitter.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/71422/is_america_spoiled.html?cat=9
Did you notice she was talking about a school in China?
Believe it or not, I couldn’t find a better word to suit my point. The definition fit my mood precisely - ‘a person regarded as weak, ineffectual, overly sensitive, etc.; a wimp’
I meant that they should take … a break … and USE the … brake …dang. :smack:
or this:
“The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its
warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by
fools.”
-Thucydides
Oh, I did assume it was a global phenomena, I just didn’t want to make any claims that it was based on my inexperience with other cultures.
Especially when changing your oil is about the messiest job you can attempt, and the mechanic virtually without fail will have a hydraulic lift or similar arrangement allowing easy and comfortable access under the car. Also, you have to recycle the old oil if you do it yourself.
Your premise reminds me of an anecdote I read about one of the first automobile owners in L.A. He decided to drive out to some nearby destination, like Pasadena or Santa Monica. Naturally the car broke down en route. When the mechanic learned that he’d been planning a 30-mile drive, he said, “Well, what did you expect of machinery anyhow?” No doubt about it, the early cars broke down early and often.
From old movies one definitely gets the idea that chauffeurs could do a lot of their own maintenance and repair work, which I imagine isn’t any more the case today than it is for people who drive themselves.
I was in ES from 1964 to 1969. I was nearsighted and uncoordinated so I didn’t do well at most team sports, and I didn’t like them. But dodgeball was one game I liked and was pretty good at. The game could be fast, but it wasn’t rough, probably because the red playground balls that were common in grade schools at the time were pretty soft to begin with.
Did you actually play Crack The Whip? I thought that went out around 1930. My father remembered playing it as a kid; he said everyone wanted to be the kid on the end.
Aside from the word sounding immature, I thought it was funny that you were calling people wimps while using a word favored by wimps. It’s the version of pussy used by people who are trying not to offend. Doesn’t affect the discussion, but it amused me.
Probably a good thing anyway. The repercussions of a fistfight, however valid and genuine the argument between the fighters is, are much more severe than they were generations ago. In the old movie Boys Town, Pee-Wee has a fight with the new arrival at the end, everyone else just laughs it off, and they end up being the best of friends. But it’s not like that any longer. IMO the problem isn’t that fighting isn’t allowed anymore, but that a truly suitable replacement hasn’t been devised. Just walking away and smouldering with anger for days or weeks isn’t violent, but neither does it provide the chance to stick up for yourself, and neither does it resolve the argument.