Jr. High kids (and teens in general) are the most worthless human beings on the Earth

The BBQ Pit
1

So there I was sitting in the theater with Tars Tarkas and a mutual friend of ours, waiting to see Drumline. This group of 7-8 jr. high girls sits down in front of us. A particularly talkative girl turns around and says hello, then chats friendly (just about 98% of the talking on her end) for about a minute. Then, out of the frickin’ blue, she looks at us and asks “so, are any of you gay?” Mind…breaking down…with bewilderment. This chick knew us for a total of 60 seconds or so, and she asks that?

Why, you ask? Because she thinks we might be a gay threesome? Oh no. She was just getting that out of the way, making sure none of us were gay, so she could launch into a minute long speech about how much she doesn’t like gay people. Now this girl was not bright. She was not well-spoken, she did not appear to have some religious motivation or any sort of organized and well-formulated idea on the subject. She was the typical jr. high school girl, ditzy airhead to the core, whether of her own nature or through socialization. She just wanted to tell us how much she didn’t like gay people. Considering her mannerisms and readily apparent lack of general intelligence, this was quite possibly the most complex thought in her reportoire of topics.

And why precisely did she feel the need to say this loudly, enabling everyone in the small discount theater (which was packed) to hear her opinions? And what the heck made her think we would be interested? Does the adolescent girl have some stupid drive that makes it exciting to talk to guys in their 20’s about sexuality, like they’re getting away with something? Can someone not just inform them that they sound like morons?

It’s been awhile since I was around jr. high school kids. I had almost forgotten what a waste of oxygen they are. Another thread proposes that the rise of racist posts coincides with the time when teenagers are on break from school. Looks like a good hypothesis to me. From some girl getting a kick out of loudly discussing her opinions on sexuality and “ickiness”, to some guy trying to look manly in front of his pals by lavishing insults on the most opportune target, this is a segment of society that needs to be locked away somewhere until they know how to frickin’ behave themselves.

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Yes, racists are bad, but making blanket statements comdemning young people* are just dandy.

There are intolerant jerks of all categories. This just happens to be the one that most recently pissed you off (and rightfully so).

And a nitpick, there’s only a small overlap between jr. high kids and teenagers. Most people (at least, around here) turn 13 somewhere during 8th or 9th grades.

*-(Yes, I realize hyperbole was used in the OP.)

3

Damn, the title of this thread is so off the mark that I thought it was a reaction to someone else saying that until I opened it.

Rex you say that you’re in your 20’s so Jr. High wasn’t that long ago for you. Think back, think long and hard, remember how insecure you were then? Remember how your body and mind were changing, your hormones were raging, and you felt like you would just do anything to fit in?

Homophobia is extremely common in the 12-15 year old crowd. Luckily it goes away once kids hormones settle down and they begin to feel more secure about themselves. I’m not saying it’s right or that we should pat them on the head and say “oh what a cute litle homophobe!” but they do change. Trust me, they do change. Cut them a little slack.

The best thing you could do in your situation is tell them that it’s not cool to hate on people because honestly, they’ve probably never had anyone tell them that before and they’ll be so embarassed to hear it that they’ll shut right up. Hopefully they will even take it to heart and rethink their views on the matter.

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As a 17 year old, and a blunt one of that, my repsonse would’ve been “Hey! Beat it!” with a menacing enough scowl.

That or I would’ve broken out with a lisp strong enough to get spittle in her hair.

Either one would’ve gotten the desired effect.

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That’s interesting, I had a pretty horrible time during the movie Drumline as well due to some idiotic high school girls who screeched, giggled and made nonsensical comments throught the entire movie. I really enjoyed the part where they all put their feet on the chairs in front of them and kicked violently, that was fun!

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I am in absolute agreeance with you RexDart. Teenagers are indeed a waste of valuable oxygen, and they deserve to be locked in a small cell until they learn some fundamental human niceties.
I don’t give a toss whether they are entitled to basic rights or not. This current generation of teenagers are more disrespectful, more slothful and more self-obsessed than ANY in human history. I’m sure there are some exceptions, but I haven’t encountered any in the last four years or so. :rolleyes:

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I blame Carson Daily and MTV’s TRL.

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My 16 year old daughter said she would have informed her of her bisexualness and then kissed her to shut her up.

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People have been saying shit like that for how many thousands of years now? If it was true, and every generation was worse than the one before, we’d have a bunch of Junior Hitlers running around murdering anything that moves.

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Did she really make a minute-long speech, or did she merely ask, “Are any of you guys gay?” Be honest now. If she did talk for an entire minute, tell us what her precise words were.

Um, no, beg to differ with ya, Rex, in a really huge like, 100% way–but as a parent of a both a Teen Female and a Pre-Teen Female, I’m here to tell you that the Straight Dope is that the sole purpose of her question and/or speech was to demonstrate to the other girls how Kewl and Outrageous she was. That’s all. You said it yourself.

Yep, that’s an extremely accurate description of the one girl in any given group of 7 or 8 junior high school girls who may be relied upon to do something Wild And Crazy, like turn around and ask the group of guys behind them at the movies if one of them is gay.

Lemme take a wild guess here–as soon as she said it, there was a shocked gasp from the rest of the girls, and then a few giggles, and then a storm of whispering, yes?

Uh huh.

Well, yeah, absolutely, if she sees a chance to show off for her peer group, in a reasonably safe way, and you guys must have looked pretty harmless, not like Bikers or Drunks or–horrors!–Fathers, so she felt safe saying it.

If it had been a group of Junior High School males sitting in front of a group of twenty-something females, and one of the boys had turned around and asked the ladies, “Hey, are any of you gals, like, lezzies?” would you have the same sense that it had been an anti-gay remark? Or would you have realized, correctly, that it was just a Dumbass Junior High school kid showing off for his friends?

Sorry to defuse your rant. But I agree that it was a dumbass thing for her to say–Ted Bundy looked like a really nice guy, too.

And, Cisco?

Um, cite? As the parent of three teens, I am here to tell you that 12-to-15-year-olds barely comprehend what “gay” means, let alone have homophobia be “common” among them.

Are you 12-to-15-years old? If not, do you have kids? How old are they? How much time do you actually spend during the week interacting with 12-to-15-year-olds? Are you a Scout leader or teacher or something?

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And I just came her to say that the OP is totally wrong.

I’ve taught history at the college level. If I gained nothing from that experience I learned that college Freshman and the most worthless humans.

But that could just be me.

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Well, being a part time leader of a high school youth group, and also being in my early 20’s… I think I can jump in here…

You are right… 12-13 year olds barely comprehend what it is to be gay… but from what I have seen… most of them all have the idea that it is bad… or different… homophobia is very common among that age group… not that they know what it means… but most equate the word gay with bad.

when they start to get older… maybe around 15… they know exactly what it is to be gay… and still have bad feelings about it because they always heard that it was bad or different.
as they go through high school, they hear about it all of the time… they are taught tolerance… some of them get it… and some of them don’t…

to say that 15 year olds barely comprehend what it is to be gay is wrong… Not only can I remember gays being a topic in health class when I was in 7th and 8th grade… We have help discussions about homosexuality with kids from ages 14-18… and they all knew about the topic and all had opinions…

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and as for the topic of this thread…

If you can’t deal with rowdy kids… then who can you deal with really???

you have to put them in their place and yell at them… give them a few good comebacks… they will shut up eventually…
get a manager and have them kickced out…

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Duck Duck Goose, you know I love and respect you dearly, but I have to say that the most homophobic enviroment I have ever been in was a middle school I substituted at all last spring. I have never heard the word “faggot” used so much in my life: if a boy wanted to be really insulting he would refer to another boy as “she” or “her”. It about drove me insane.

Now then, addressing the OP, yes, middle school age kids are the most incredibly selfish, self-obsessed, stupidest, loudest, meanest people on earth. However, they get better. They grow out of it. Empathy is an abstract thinking skill, and it’s one that some middle-school age kids are still learning: some get it faster than others, in the same way that some can learn algebra at 13 and others can’t with all the help in the world, but pick it up fine at 15. Vicious 18 year olds worry me far more, because I tend to worry that if they haven’t “goten it” by then, there’sa good chance they will never get it at all.

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Had my sisters and their families over yesterday. One of them commented how her HS fresh daughter and her friends amused themselves by going downtown with a videocamera, asking nonsensical questions of strangers, and filming their responses/reactions. She said they were doing nothing wrong. I said the kid was being rude, using other people for her own enjoyment, and that being rude IS wrong.

I’m 42. When I was a kid, we largely wanted to stay under the radar of adults. I have long been bemused at what I perceive as a widespread belief that children’s rights/wants/preferences/entertainment are equal to those of adults. Sorry, but they aren’t.

That OP kid in the theater was being rude - imposing upon other people’s privacy and interfering with their enjoyment of the show. Not unprecedented behavior by a teen, but it should be noted with disapproval.

On the gay issue - my HS fresh daughter’s best friend came out in 7th grade. She (and my daughter who is straight) immediately lost nearly all of their friends. Three years later, things seem to be improving.

And I have gotten really tired of the number of times I have seen fit to tell kids that calling something gay is not an insult.

I can imagine things were similar when I was young. The word “faggot” was certainly in my youthful vocabulary. But I had hoped things would be better these days.

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FTR, in the thread in which I speculated that the rise in racist posts coincides with the school vacation period, nowhere did I state, imply, or insinuate that all teenagers are to blame.

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I think that most of the Jr. High kids I’ve run into are quite obnoxious, although I have to remember that I was once like that. Not rude, really, but really boisterous, trying to be cool, etc.

My nephew, however, is the total opposite of that. He’s 12 and in 7th grade and the most well adjusted kid I’ve ever seen. He has all A’s* in school, is taking his SATs through a program at Johns Hopkins University (due to very high marks on a standardized test) to see how he will fare when he takes them for real, he’s very respectful to his parents and his aunts and uncles, and has a great sense of humor. His parents are the best at “burns” you’d ever meet and he’s picking up some of that scathing humor.

I would bet most of the obnoxious kids you encounter will grow out of it by their 20s.

In the early 80s (when I was 12), we were calling each other “faggots” before we really knew what the word meant.

*[sub]I know there isn’t supposed to be an apostrophe there, but without it, it looks like the word, “as” with a capital “A”.[/sub]

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Don’t watch the evening news much, do you? :rolleyes:

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In such an open-minded message board, it surprises me how many people have prejudices and generalizations about age. Just like adults, each teen or pre-teen is different. Yes, many kids in junior high and high school are immature. But calling them the most worthless human beings on Earth is uncalled for. The girl from the OP is an idiot, or immature, or showing off, but she is only one girl. Making generalizations about every teen based on one person is extremely unfair.

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I do, and I see lots more adults murdering stuff than kids. :rolleyes: yourself.

Azure, I agree completely. As a former teenager, I thank you.