When I first read the title, a few days ago, I though it said “The home of my free ass.”
Actually, I think it would have made a more interesting topic.
I think you mean:
Since I got to have an all out trollfest and this thread subsequently turned into a chance for people to say what they wanted, I’ll run off crying like a 3 year old child.
That about sum it up, Sparky?
You can leave when you want. So don’t complain.
Oh, show some guts. You say who you think is trolling and why. The full list, seeing as a trollfest would require more than one.
Another day, another silly little person.
You, by your own admission (“Dude, if you thought I was fucking serious…nah, I give up”, which you were then unable to do).
Fenris, who still won’t tell me how the “And in a civilized country like America, you’d have the right to own guns with with to do it” statement is relevant at all, or what he meant by it.
Anthracite, who started talking about cities, which I don’t really care about (for the record I generally dislike cities, not just American ones; it’s not that I don’t want them to exist, I just don’t want to live there) and then backed up Fenris.
The various pointless and/or off-topic posts by Kantalooppi, photopat, wolfman, London_Calling, SkipMagic, wring and Road Rash don’t help either.
Whether or not this thread is closed, this is my last post to it unless something interesting is brought up, which seems to be a vain hope. I’m generally opposed to troll-feeding.
Priceguy I agree with you. I wish I had the guts to say that to my overbearing, hyper conservative dad - but um, no. I don’t need to be aggravated! lol.
Provided that protesters are not thowing up on me, blocking traffic and behaving themselves in a peaceful manner - I think they have every right to say whatever they like about the war.
Priceguy, you really are a whiney one aren’t you.
You might want to have a little think about the difference between trolling, and taking the piss out of a stupid OP. The 2 are somewhat different.
You’re the one who decided to slag on the US in your OP (“supposedly civilized”, “If you take away freedom of speech, what’s the point of this fabulous country you keep spouting off about”), all based on a wrong conclusion on a study. Then when you yourself seem to feel that your OP has no merit, instead of being an adult and having honor and retracting it, you do that wishy-washy “one in six” shit. That’s why I decided to call you on it. You were completely in the wrong, and weren’t adult enough to own up to it.
Then you later tried to claim you never brought up guns, and when that was shown to be compeltely disingenuous by your own clearly-posted words, you ignored it and pretend like it didn’t happen.
Now you’re claiming that I’m the one who started talking about cities, when you yourself were the one who brought them up first. Do you actually read what you write, or do you have a profound case of schizophrenia? Or are you channeling Nur Ab-Sal, Atlantean warrior King, when you write? Or maybe you’re channeling his schizophrenic brother, Prince D’um Ba’s? You do realize that he’ll never be allowed back from exile and near the throne…you’re wasting your time with him.
You see, unlike a conversation in real life, everything you spouted off still exists here! Yes, it’s true. Go back to page 1, and the scales will fall from your eyes. Everything you said is still there, so don’t put on airs like it’s not.
Those are not the behaviours of a person who had an honest beef or complaint. In short, your purpose here was to troll, and that’s being a jerk. I wouldn’t even have returned to this thread had you tried to pretend that you never mentioned “guns” in any context.
I wasn’t wrong. I still feel the same way about the people who oppose free speech. Yes, it’s a difference that there are 17% of them rather than 83%, but me getting the wrong information is not equal to me being wrong. What do you want, an apology for reading that newspaper that day?
I feel that people who oppose freedom of speech are morons. When they’re American I find them particularly vile because they should treasure freedom of speech, given the weight American culture places on it. Growing up in that culture and interpreting “freedom of speech” to mean “freedom to say what I want to say while silencing those so say what I don’t want to hear” is incredibly moronic.
**
For the third and hopefully final time: I mentioned shooting deaths in the USA because they’re a negative thing about the USA. Do we all agree that they are?
Then Fenris subtly accused me of wanting to ban guns (I think; he still hasn’t made it clear). When did I say that? If I object to overfishing of trout, is that the same as wanting to ban fishing rods? If I object to rape, do I want to ban penises?
I mentioned “to hell with the cities” in response to someone’s remark about nice scenery. You wanted a debate about American cities, which is very difficult for me since I’ve never been to one. I’ve never been to a city I liked though, because I generally don’t like cities. You want to claim that 95% of American cities look like Kansas City?
I said I never mentioned guns. I didn’t; I mentioned shooting deaths. Yes, obviously the two are connected, but I didn’t speak my opinion about guns per se, and I don’t see why they were brought up.
And one more thing: I did say “if this is true” twice in the original post. It wasn’t. Why do you still care?
Because of the nice scenery?
Never mind. When you took the time to explain things better I don’t see enough difference to pick at you any more or to bring any more unpleasantness to your weekend. I only “cared” enough to post again this morning because you accused me (in your response to Gary K.) of “trolling”, which I found seriously ironic.
my comment was neither pointless (since I had one) nor off topic (since it directly related to your comment preceeding it and your OP). It was, though, sarcastic in nature. But it was definately not pointless or off topic.
in case you need it spelled out more:
Mentioning shooting deaths in your OP and then trying to suggest later that you hadn’t brought up the topic of guns would be the problem that set my irony meter off. I coulda just posted :rolleyes: but, I prefer some degree of decorum.
I find my scenery fabulous, except for the superwallyworld 1/2 mile down the road.
Once more with feeling: I didn’t bring up the topic of guns, let alone gun control, which seems to be what Fenris was on about (although he adamantly refuses to clarify). Being opposed to people dying from shooting does not equal wanting to ban guns. For all you know, I could be a rabid pro-gun activist who just happens to object to his fellow human beings being shot to death in droves.
Compare and contrast:
with
Look, I don’t know you from Adam, and maybe we got off to a bad start. I apologise for ridiculing your op, and for continuing to wind you up in subsequent replies.
Perhaps though you might like to admit your criticisms of the US were unfounded, as other posters cites have shown.
Gary, I honestly and totally feel that bringing up shooting deaths is not the same as inviting a debate about guns. If I’m alone on this, then so be it.
I still feel that the amazingly high number of shooting deaths in the USA is a horrible thing. I do not believe that liberal gun laws are the sole cause, since other nations have laws as liberal and do not experience the same number of deaths. I don’t know what the cause is. I don’t think anyone does.
I still feel that Americans opposing freedom of speech is slightly worse than people of other nations opposing freedom of speech, since Americans tend to be very boastful about their country, partially on the basis of freedom of speech. I’ve never been to the USA myself; this is based on experiences with Americans via e-mail, this and other message boards, Usenet, anecdotes Pricegal told me from when she lived in the USA for a year, and conversations with Americans I’ve met in Europe.
The “five in six” number was almost certainly incorrect (I suppose it could be two separate studies, but I doubt it) as I’ve said, which invalidates the original post, since it was written with the “if this is true” disclaimer. If you still want the name of the newspaper I read it in, it was Metro. I tried to find the copy to see if I’d misread it, but I read it in my workplace and it has since been cleaned away. I think that Metro reversed the numbers, since I read the article a couple of times over not believing my eyes, but it’s also possible that I misread it.
I do not like patriotism or flagwaving, no matter which country it happens in. The Americans I have experiences with, as mentioned above, have tended to be both patriotic and flagwavers (with exceptions, of course), which bothers me, especially as many of them assume that everyone else feels the same way about the USA as they do. When Pricegal was there, two different guys offered to marry her so she would be able to stay. She’s Swedish, not a refugee from Afghanistan. But they assumed that no-one wouldn’t want to stay.
Yes, I’ve generalized a lot. Yes, I wrote in anger, mainly to spew venom. Yes, I did wrong in mentioning shooting deaths at all, since it was off-topic. My general sentiment, which is “people who oppose freedom of speech are moronic retards”, still holds true.
And let’s face it, every thread needs a mention of syringes. I kinda thought it was an unwritten rule on these boards.
I mean, really.
US has the most people in prison.
Interesting read:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/2925973.stm
I mean, even China has less people in prison, and no I don’t mean percentage wise.
"The US currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.
In China, which has a population of about 1.3 billion, there are more than 1.4 million inmates, according to Britain’s Home Office. The US has a population of 286 million.
Russia, which has a population of 144 million, has a prison population of about 920,000."
now, either the US is a breeding ground for criminals, and you truly have a LOT of them (which makes you wonder about educational values, job opportunities and such), or you jail people for next to no reason, which makes priceguy’s title quite correct.
Home of the free prison time
would be a more appropriate name