Idle Thoughts, you are everything that's wrong with America

The BBQ Pit
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Spun off from this thread.

This has been gnawing at me for awhile, but I held off on making this thread because I don’t want to get the reputation of being a “big meanie,” but the truth is that I am so I might as well get it over with. Idle Thoughts, you piss the hell out of me.

You don’t have a job, citing bipolar disorder as the reason for your disability. Yet in this thread you say that you don’t even think that you are bipolar; you don’t take medication for it. I know bipolar people, some on disability, most not, and none of them show such casual disregard for their diagnosis as you do. My own father is bipolar and takes meds for it AND has a full-time job, and I’m sure he’s way worse off than you, mental health-wise. And when I think about all that man goes through, managing a severe illness while working a job that probably pays him LESS than you get from the government, it makes me sick to my stomach. I’m not saying there’s not mentally ill people who can’t work and do need government money, but those people are super-low functioning, certainly not people who can spend forty hours a week volunteering and don’t need meds to function.

You (along with a bunch of other pathetic males) complain about not having a girlfriend, completely missing the fact that to most women, your not working while not showing any/many obvious signs of your disability would be a major turnoff. Women don’t like human parasites any more than we like the ones that live in our digestive tracts. Also, starting a thread like that just reeks of loserhood. I guess I shouldn’t single you out on this though, as it seems that a third of the males on the SDMB start a “why can’t I get a girlfriend?” post on a weekly basis.

You start almost as many useless threads as Wesley Clark and most of them are TMI. That’s annoying too.

And lastly, the linked thread. There, you claim to not even know the difference between a socialist and a conservative, you say you don’t keep up with politics, yet “love your country.” Well, I guess I’d love my country too, if it rained money on me, but seriously dude! Don’t you see the hypocrisy in “loving your country” and then not learning anything about its current state? Your posts in that thread sum up everything that is wrong in our generation today–no wonder they refer to us as the entitlement generation. You feel you are entitled to money that you didn’t earn, then don’t bother learning where it comes from and don’t even care about keeping it. (You mentioned something about going back to being homeless if you lose your checks, yeah that’s a turn-on.) Don’t bother to keep informed, don’t bother voting, don’t think the president matters. Of course, you’re a (mostly) straight white male, so much of what goes on won’t ever affect you. Will you be affected if they overturn Roe v. Wade? Didn’t think so, unless you find that magical girlfriend who looks past your apathy and parasitism.

Idle Thoughts, you are the Homer Simpson to my Frank Grimes, and I hate you for it.

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Best metaphor ever.

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Remember what happened to Frank Grimes?

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You’ve got parasites in your digestive tract? Now that’s a turn on!

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I have to agree with the OP. Those linked threads, especially the “I Don’t Vote” thread, are pathetic! Idle Thoughts, if you have so much free time and like to read, … read up on the issues that affect this country (and you)! Step away from the Horror/Thriller stuff and delve into U.S. and World history and current events. Put that free time to use. You may get inspired and start using the wasted time in a more valuable way, say becoming politically active. But… stop whining and do something!

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Hiya, Grimey!

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Hope this isn’t too much of a highjack, but it would have never occured to me that being bipolar was even close to sufficient to receive diability. Don’t most folks with bipolarism take their meds and live their lives – complete with jobs, relationships, and responsibilities?

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would die a happy man if youcould prove that **Idle Thoughts ** has the intelligence of a six-year-old?

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What’s this? (reads sign) “Extremely High Voltage”? Well, I don’t need safety gloves, because I’m Homer Simp–

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Ohhh, Oooh, can I be Bart???

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No. You’re Flanders. Go sit down.

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Don’t want to hijack too much as the OP is quite accurate IMO.

Just out of interest. How much money would be rained down on him if he’s on disability?

My impression was that you wouldn’t be exactly swimming in money on state benefits in the US.

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I don’t put too much stock in (self?) diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder. It’s the trendy new condition for people who want a throwaway excuse for their state (ADD is so 90’s). I wouldn’t be suprised if there’s a few doctors out their getting kickbacks from the drug companies for diagnosing & prescribing for it either. I’m sure it really exists, but like ADD (or Social Anxiety Disorder before that) the ones who really have it aren’t shouting from the rooftops about it.

In and of itself “I can’t get any” threads aren’t too bad on the Dope, there’s a reasonable chance of receiving advice from a female. You want to see sad, go to any “tech site” where 99% of the forum critters are male and read the threads on that subject. No wonder the US needs immigration to keep it’s population growing.

Likewise, political apathy isn’t exactly unheard of in the younger set either. “Vote or Die”? Sorry Diddy, you did diddly. :smiley:

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Wow, this thread seems so incredibly mean spirited and inappropriately personal, but davenport, old boy, you’ve done it. You have presented an exceptionally clear and concise argument, and after reading your OP, I had to agree, yes, **Idle Thoughts does suck. As a human being. I feel dirty saying that.

Your last bit with Homer Simpson and Frank Grimes is brilliant.

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It’s true. davenportavenger may be cruel and mean, but he’s good at this.

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Thought I’d seen this recently.

davenportavenger isn’t a boy.

And you’re right, m’lady: Idle Thoughts REALLY needs to get less “idle”. And I really, really, REALLY wish the whole “self-diagnosis with mental disorder du jour instead of being honest and saying I’m a lazy fuck” thing would just go away. I’m so tired of hearing people say (in one form or another), “but I caaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn’t! I’m BIPOLAR / ADD / SAD / have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / <whatever excuse they feel like yanking out today>!”

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davenportavenger, you hit the nail on the head. Sadly, this world if full of leeching losers who add nearly nothing to society. It’s one thing to really need the help, it’s quite another to take the generosity because any job for which you are qualified is “beneath you.” To brag about your leachness on top of that is disgusting.

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I wandered in here thinking the OP was a rant about Americans with ADD.

I’ve had arguments with people like Idle Thoughts about voting before. First they ask why they should vote, and when you explain it to them, they smugly inform you why they have come to the conclusion that voting does nothing and you are not changing their minds. Well, hell. Why ask for opinions if you’re not open to changing yours?

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FWIW, Bipolar disorder really is pretty serious. I think most people lump it in with largely treatable standard depression. But it really is much more serious and far less treatable. Scale-wise it’s more along the lines of schitzophrenia or borderline personality disorder than depression or anxiety disorder.

Mania often leads to life-disrupting behavoir- like unbridled spending, extreme sexual behavoir, violence, cussing out your family or co-workers in a fit of uncontrolled irritability, just taking off somewhere without any money or a way back. And then there is the unique horror of the mixed episode, where you are very depressed and also manic. It’s like the mother of all panic attacks- your heart is racing, you are screaming and crying and you know you’re not going to be able to sleep for days and full of what feels like superhuman strenght. And you hate yourself and everything and just want to get out. The lethargy you feel in depression serves a very good purpose. It keeps you from fucking shit up.

Untreated, it will be a lifetime struggle, with each episode getting worse. 15% of bipolar people kill themselves. 20-50% attempt to. Treatment can help that to some degree, but it’s imperfect. The drugs we have for bipolar disorder are not the carefully targeted things we have for depression. We don’t even have a clear idea of what causes bipolar disorder. What we do have is a bunch of blunt hammers that seem to help- most with major life-altering side effects in many people. Med compliance is very low. First off, mania can sometimes be euphoric, and to someone with this disease, losing the euphoria is losing one of the only things that have gotten them through life. Many people feel blunted or hollow with medication. It does have a measurable effect on things like the quality of art produced by patients. Secondly, the side effects are pretty major. Lithium is still widely prescribed and has a list of side effects that reads like a list of every bad thing that can happen to a body. It’s big advantage is that it’s better than suicide, not that it leads to a regular life.

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Yeah, I know that. That’s why I’m doubting that IT is bipolar or that if he is it’s bad enough that he can’t work. Most people who have bipolar–especially if they’re not on medication–couldn’t keep it together long enough to work ten-plus hours a day volunteering at a hospital. And while I know this is merely anecdotal, most of the bipolar people I know aren’t apathetic about things like politics; on the contrary they are SUPER intense about them. He doesn’t have any of the signs of bipolar disorder as I understand them, but he does have symptoms of a much more common ailment, laziness.