# Are there still any "elephant in the room" issues in society? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005 "2019-03-12T15:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005/41 "2019-03-14T00:21:22Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > They are banned for running for President and even though they never would, it seems oddly prejudiced to not allow them to. You consider this an elephant? I’m sure that out of 300m or so native born citizens a few good candidates for president can be found… that Americans seem incapable of doing so won’t be improved much by allowing non-native born people intro that pool. Sent from my SM-N910U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005/42 "2019-03-14T01:04:54Z")
The intelligence of non-human animals and the moral implications of this. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005/43 "2019-03-14T01:18:26Z")
We’re going to easily overshoot a 4C increase in ocean temperature this century and it’s going to be an indescribable fucking nightmare. It’s going to kill most of our children and we’re not going to do a thing about it because change is so goshdarned hard, and anyway, shouldn’t those other guys change before we do? The most likely best-case scenario for preserving anything like the ecosystem we have now is if we have a nuclear war that kills a fifth of humanity, though optimistically there might be a killer virus that we don’t know about. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005/44 "2019-03-14T02:23:09Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > I don’t disagree, but I would substitute “20th century” for 1990s, and the 20th century is easily seen as the result of colonialism and imperialism that predates the USA. The past is a clusterfuck and history is partially rational analysis of trends, partially rationalization of chaos. > [@Asuka](#): > > Well I mean pretty much all the problems of today can be blamed on the British going colony crazy in the 1800’s and early 1900’s and deliberately broke apart stable areas so they could get colonies. The land-grab after the fall of the Ottoman Empire is one of the biggest examples. Yeah, sure, history is a continuum and blah blah blah…The 90s were when a lot of us here, and a lot of the people still running the various western governments, were actually alive and making decisions. It was also a time where we could have had a real effect. The US was the Lone Superpower, and the entire Eastern Block was looking for help to fix things. We could have done something different. We didn’t. Sure, go ahead and blame Queen Victoria, but we have some blame too, and it’s that part that no one wants to talk about. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005/45 "2019-03-14T13:32:12Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Since it has to be said: There’s a (Republican) elephant in the (Oval Office) room and nobody seems to know how it got there. That would be the [horse loose in the hospital](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtfBcTvcilo). ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005/46 "2019-03-14T17:20:03Z")
Beyond deficits and pension shortfalls, there’s the meta-elephant of a world order that requires perpetual growth on a planet that has limited resources. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-still-any-elephant-in-the-room-issues-in-society/831005.md?page=2)