Hey, there’s a Business Plan in there! I’d wear one!
Me too. 
It applies to the planet, but also to things that I have to deal with on a daily basis - like other people’s computers.
If Sarte was alive today, I believe he’d specify that “Hell is other people’s computers”.
There is a message implicit in both this thread’s title and the political viewpoint that its subject promotes that takes it out of MPSIMS neutrality (or what in this case is apparently supposed to be MPSIMS neutrality) and promotes a pro-environmentalist point of view. I think opposing viewpoints are perfectly appropriate.
This does not correlate. For one thing, engineering doesn’t fill a child’s mind with fear that we’re killing the world. Plus engineering is far too advanced technically for a child to be able to stand in front of “World Leaders” and speak to it intelligently, just like they couldn’t speak intelligently to the subjects to medicine or physics or economics. Anyone, however, can whinge about the the environment. Especially if they’ve been coached since infancy by a parent who is an accomplished proponent of environmentalism.
(Plus I don’t see you shutting down gleeful comments happy over the fact that she’s an environmental activist now.)
She was obviously a bright kid and not too many children her age could perform like that in front of an adult audience, but let’s not ignore both the indoctrination she experienced growing up and the fact that you are, by posting this thread, hoping at least to some degree to promote her message, thereby making it fair game for challenge.
Take it up with a Moderator.
Don’t deign to tell me what I hope. I was moved by her eloquence and the audience reaction, which I made note of in my OP. You don’t get to decide why I posted something.
You’ve been here long enough to know that if someone wants to take a discussion in a different direction than the OP intended, they generally start new threads in the appropriate forums. Feel free to take the linked video, go to Great Debates and say something to the effect of, “I don’t want to hijack the MPSIMS thread and would like to debate the content of this video further.” Be my guest. I don’t own the video rights.
No reason to. All I said was that your OP takes the thread out of what you seem to feel should be MPSIMS neurality; not out of the forum itself.
Plus you didn’t object to posts congratulating the fact that this little girl grew up to be an environmentalist. You don’t get to rule that a thread can only promote or allow comments on one side of an issue.
Although I often disagree with you vehemently on politics, I do have respect for your integrity. Do you deny that by posting your OP (and thread title) that you intended to promote at least to some degree her environmentalist message…if not intentionally, then at least in the back of your mind? IMO, the title alone with its capitalized “PLEASE stop breaking it” gives you away.
And do you deny that you have no quarrel with posters posting comments in favor of her view while at the same time trying to quash comments that question it?
It’s not a hijack if the post addresses the OP, which is what Huerta88’s post did. It would be a hijack if he wanted to debate her father’s credentials or environmentalism as a whole or something like that, but he was directly addressing comments made in your OP and the comments that followed. If the rules were as you are attempting to describe them, a person could just as easily post a video of a precocious young child arguing against the evils of homosexuality or Islam or feminism and no one would be allowed to challenge it. And I know that you not only know better than that but that you’d find the notion ridiculous.
I deny your allegations as to my motives, and that’s all the attention I’m going to give your post. If you have a problem with it, please take it up with a Moderator. If you choose not to take me at my word, and wish to “call me out”, take it to The Pit, where such allegations belong. Thank you.
I said I’d take you at your word. All I have a problem with is your attempt to quash disagreement with the sentiments expressed in your OP and in the comments that followed, which coincidentally is the part of my post that you have chosen not to “pay attention” to.
You forgot the little-known codicil to the Faber College bylaws/SDMB rules:
If someone posts sentimental glurge outside of GD with strong editorial comment on the substance of a non-substantive, largely content-free adolescent position(“Too bad our leaders haven’t taken heed of her powerful words.”), the only acceptable posts are (1) amen-chorouses and (2) possibly, backpedaling posts trying to say “oh, I wasn’t necessarily advocating for what she said, just impressed by how she said it.”
Growing up in the '70s, this commercial always made me cry. Very powerful. Too bad our rivers and streams are still so polluted and our leaders haven’t done more to clean up the filth.
Keep America Beautiful (Crying Indian)
Sentimental glurge, or serious subject for debate?
Hint: It’s freaking GLURGE. Get over your obsessive need to turn everything into a damn argument around here.
I’m sorry, Shayna, but I agree with SA and Huerta: this was thread, regardless of how you intended it, celebrates the message the girl is delivering as well as, if not more than, the delivery and the deliverer. I don’t see how you can ask that people restrict themselves to only praise of the message, regardless of the forum.
But since I’m not a mod, perhaps one will stop by and give a more weighty analysis than mine.
Sorry, Shayna, there’s no expectation that everyone has to agree with the OP even in MPSIMS.
I concur with Starving Artist’s analysis:
If someone does want to expand the parameters of the discussion, GD would be the appropriate place for it – but a discussion of who the girl is and what her background has to do with her appearance in the video is appropriate.
Just keep it civil, please, everyone (as you have done so so far – much appreciated).
twickster, MPSIMS moderator
[ol]
[li]You haven’t read the thread very well if you think I’ve asked anyone to “restrict themselves to only praise of the message.” [/li][li]I didn’t have any problem with Huerta88’s first post, since all he did was give his opinion about how the video came across to him. It certainly differed from how I reacted to it, and that was to be expected.[/li][li]I didn’t object to Cat Whisperer’s post that she’d be more impressed had the girl not been the child of a famous environmentalist. We exchanged posts on how that fact might have affected her presentation.[/li][li]Where I began to take issue was when people started treating it like a Great Debate and I asked that debates about the specific content be taken to a new thread.[/li][li]I don’t really care whether you agree or not. Report it to a Mod if you care that much.[/li][/ol]
If anyone wants to continue debating my purpose in posting this video or criticize how I’ve responded in it, I’ll just ask that this thread be closed. You people have been around here long enough to know that discussions about other posters belongs in The Pit.
No. I just didn’t want to be the first to say so.
Thank you.
The girl is a good public speaker, but her “message” is programmed, facile, and naive.
Thank you.
Hm . . . I know a factory in China that’ll make 'em for you, cheap!
And, as someone who sympathizes with the basic message of her oration, I admit to feeling a great deal of skepticism/cynicism towards almost any youth with a well-crafted political message. My first question is always, “what would I think if my governor were saying this?”
Wasn’t there some kid a few years back who was on the news for being a ‘talented’ Fox-type pundit? I looked at that and said, “there’s a kid with no original thoughts of his own who has learned to parrot the rhetoric of the grownups around him.” I’d say the same for this as well.
I’m in the not-impressed camp as well. She was well-spoken, and of course her message has a point, but the “what about OUR future?!”-bit just seemed too contrived.
It reminded me of Nobody’s Perfect, a frankly poorly-written book written by an amazing young man born without arms or legs. The guy himself is amazing; his writing (in Japanese; I haven’t read the English translation) is pedantic and tries to manipulate the reader into both feeling sorry for him AND admiring his amazing, upbeat look on life (with a heaping helping of 'my problems are nothing compared to this bloke’s!-guilt-tripping). But try to discuss that with anyone? Nooooo, it’s all “he’s amazing therefore his book/writing etc. is amazing.” End of discussion.
(see also: Randy Pausch. Now I’m really going to hell…)
I dunno…it just seems to be one of those cases where the messenger is set up to give the subject matter extra gravitas; how can you argue against a young kid? or a armless, legless hero? or a dying professor?
I missed this as I was composing my post, which pretty much simulposted with it. As you will note, I never suggested nor expected everyone had to agree with the OP. And a couple of us have expressed differing opinions about how the girl’s background influenced this video, all without issue. How anyone reading this thread could think I had an expectation of 100% agreement is a complete mystery to me.
Thank you for asking expanded debate be done in GD.
LOL!
I’d have a huge problem if my governor was suggesting that we send all our “extra” money to other countries. I suspect that’s probably a universal sentiment, regardless of political ideology.
That’s a valid point.
But I grew up watching those PSAs about pollution throughout my entire childhood. We were bombarded with that message. Woodsy Owl implored us, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.” I seem to recall Yogi Bear getting in on the action? And of course, there was the heart string-pulling “crying Indian” commercial. So I didn’t need an “environmentalist” father for it to be at the forefront of my consciousness.
Obviously the solutions would be potentially controversial, but she wasn’t offering any. Her primary message was, “If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it.” That’s what got me about this video. I can’t help but have the image pop up in my head, of the guy who has completely dismantled his old radio and has dozens or more parts strewn all around him, and no clue how to put it back together.
And like gaffa points out, it can be applied to a wide array of things, not just the environment. I’m still hoping he starts making and selling those shirts!
[quote=“Shayna, post:33, topic:573504”]
<snip>
[li]I didn’t object to Cat Whisperer’s post that she’d be more impressed had the girl not been the child of a famous environmentalist. We exchanged posts on how that fact might have affected her presentation.<snip>[/li][/QUOTE]
Yup. It’s hard to tell how much is her and how much is her father. If I’m coming across as sending a mixed message in this thread, it’s because I’m conflicted on people like her father in real life, too - I have immense respect for Dr. David Suzuki, and I also am exasperated by pie-in-the-sky people like him for wanting to do things that would have a horribly negative effect on my life (living in a province where our money comes from dirty oil sands).