Mental Hygiene

Factual Questions
21

I was responding directly to the OP’s quote that made it seem like the wagon trains and railroads were running side by side. As the railroads pushed into the west they supplanted the wagon trains in the areas where they reached. Which is basically the same thing that you’re saying. Sorry if I was unclear.

My point was that you can’t contrast the hardy settlers in the wagon trains with the weaklings riding the railroads because the hardy settlers were ALSO riding the railroads if they went where they needed to go.

22

Duh … and replace “hardy” with “hearty” … . :smack:

23

Step back away and take no offense from a lablel which prompted you to be so automatic in judgement. Take a deep breath, This is not about cowboys, urban dwellers or rural conterparts.

It is about the risk taking based on a belief and how american society became rooted there and offers an explanation as to the deepening schism between risk takers and appeaser in the unfolding political drama.

I can not know or even guess what risks that a cowboy and a chiminey sweep take because I am neither nor can i judge if one or the other has greater or lessor contribution to a gene pool because they survived but it will be patently obvious if they believe in the dream of milk and honey, you can see it in thier eyes and the way they die on the battle field.

What will you risk based on a belief? You believe your right. Take a leap and acknowledge that life lessons can be learned from cowboys and chimney sweeps and you could be wrong and thats OK.

I am sorry that I drew you out. If this hurt and is not sensible then i will be made to disappear.

ps thank you for the input RE Happy Bunny. I am an ethnic group of one and you are an ethnic group of one and we are the targets of ridicule. How does that feel? Again I state flatly happy bunny is a bigot.

Glad to be of service.

24

Da’hell are you talking about?
:dubious:

25

Not Happy Bunny! :eek:

The South is not the reddest part when you break the voting down precinct by precinct. (Very short scroll to second map – 2004 Presidential Election results)

26

It is not red states and blue states. Look at the map. It is red rural and blue cities . It is morlocks and Eloi. It is risk takers and appeasers.

27

Gender is due to the in utero environment? Was I taught wrong about X and Y chromosomes?

28

I’m sure that gender is strongly correlated to biological sex, but what WhyNot probably meant is that there’s also an influence from the in-utero environment.

29

I’m having a hard time following your posts anyway, but this is particularly confusing.

Red=rural=cowboy=risk taker.

Blue=city=someone who settled in the first place they immigrated to=appeaser

Is this what you are saying? If so, it is wrong.

As Pochacco already said, Conservative or “red” politics mostly include a desire to return to the tried and true behaviors of yesteryear. In other words, Conservatives are generally not risk takers. Folks in rural area tend to be Conservative because they are often working jobs and living lifestyles that require more traditional behaviors, like being farmers, working with animals, or making their own clothing because the nearest shop is an hour’s drive away. The prevalence of Conservative ideals in rural areas is a product of environment, not genetics. It’s the politically blue areas that contain people who are willing to be risky.

So your theory, as near as I can understand it, is wrong.

30

Perhaps you’re an ethnic group of one if you’re the last surviving member of some isolated tribe, but as for me there are many other people who have a genetic background similar to mine.

Well, you’re wrong. A bigot judges someone by the ethnic group he belongs to rather than as an individual. Happy bunny hates everyone equally.

31

My understanding is that the whole settler business and the ‘good ole Wild West’ stuff is grossly exagerated.

A bit like the roast beef of ‘Merrie England’

  • that was shipped in from Argentina using refrigerated iron boats

Incidentally ‘cowboy’ was a derogatory name, the penny dreadfuls and Hollywood turned it round.

32

The terms of the discussion are YOURS. If you don’t want to talk about cowboys, don’t use that as your metaphor.

Perhaps rather than being so flowery and metaphorical you should be more blunt in your writing. It would help us understand what you’re trying to say.

Again, as we keep telling you, conservatives are not risk-takers, so your model is fundamentally flawed.

If you’re talking about Iraq and the War on Terror, a more accurate explanation would be to say that the 9-11 attacks led the conservatives who were in power to panic and over-react by launching an unnecessary war. Rather than live with the very small risk that Iraq posed to American security they sought (as risk-averse conservatives) to attempt to eliminate that tiny risk entirely.

This interpretation is borne out by Dick Cheney’s “1% Doctrine” – his philosophy that if there’s even a 1% chance that something bad might happen we must respond as though the danger was 100%. That’s not a risk-taking attitude! That’s a very conservative risk-averse attitude, and it comes directly from a man who hales from cowboy-heavy Wyoming.

Unfortunately for all of us, the Bush administration failed in their quest and only managed to increase the risk that Iraq poses to our national security … .

33

Sort of, but I also meant that gender and physical sex are only sort of linked. There’s a high enough percentage of inter, trans and “other” genders out there that just have people scratching their heads and going, “hmmmm, maybe this isn’t as simple as we once thought.”

An XX tends to be physically female and tends to have a gender identity of “woman”, but not always. Why? Something other than genetics is up here. We had a good chat about this awhile ago in a transgender thread, and some Doper is actually one of them thar experts in the field, and had a lot of good stuff about the difference between genetic and born-with-it-but-not-genetic traits (and a better name for it, too). I’ll see if I can dig up a link.

Is anyone else starting to wonder if the OP is a bot of some kind? The words seem like they should make more sense than they do. I’m intrigued, yet oddly repulsed.

34

The Search feature is seriously messed up right now. It says I’ve never posted anything other than in this thread about transgenders, transexuals or anything of the sort. We’ll let it go back to bed now and wake up refreshed in the morning before trying again.

35

Hello boys, the bot is back.
Originally Posted by pullet
Red=rural=cowboy=risk taker.
Blue=city=someone who settled in the first place they immigrated to=appeaser
Is this what you are saying? If so, it is wrong.
Let’s put a label to it
Red=rural=cowboy=risk taker
Blue=city=egalitarian=appeaser

Oh so not wrong. Allow me to instruct by similis.

rural, agrarian, storms, pests, disease uncontrollable natural order of life.
city, grided, conditioned, organized, dependent, controlled unnatural order of society.

risk the seed, storm distroys, plant again next year, risk the herd, disease destroys, rebuild.
appease the garbadge collector, garbadge gone, appease the soup nazi, full belly.

red, know nature, be prepared, self reliance, live by the Cowboy Code, and reap rewards.
blue, no nature, distrust people, use people, msilead people , be greedy, no code, and suffer catasrophy.

natural, unequal, what goes arround comes around, you reap what you sow.
unnatrual, equal, perfect society, unattainable, allways broken, allways needs fixing.

cowboy, go forward, see what there is to see,dream, happy, fullfilled.
egalitarian, pull back to equalize, don’t rock the boat, conform, jealousy, whats the point.

36

I think all of these are a Rorschach of your biases and impressions of worlds you don’t live in, possibly based on movies and books. I’ve lived in rural - really rural, no one for miles - urban and suburban and there are all these kinds of people in all these places. I’ve lived in red states and blue, and generally speaking find more distrust, conservatism and fear of the outside or unknown in the rural red areas, and more open minds and hearts, people who welcome you without forcing you to change to become one of them and diversity of thought, belief and action in urban blue areas. That’s why I currently live in Chicago.

I don’t think “broken” “unnatural” or “jealousy” are adjectives I’d use to describe urban living at all. Perhaps some specific slums or ghettos, but not my part of the city. And, whatever one may think of Chicago politics, they are doing everything they can think of to eradicate those areas and build better housing, more parks and prettier streets.

And there’s nothing “natural” about agro-business.

Don’t get me wrong, I love rural life. I miss it a lot. But I don’t miss the distrust and fear I saw at every town meeting or the hateful pamphlets and notes left on my car when I’d go into town for groceries.

37

Originally Posted by Pinocchio
Perhaps you’re an ethnic group of one if you’re the last surviving member of some isolated tribe, but as for me there are many other people who have a genetic background similar to mine.

ethnicity is cultural community and not genetic race. ie, Pollish and blonds and irish are communities. I am the first surviving member of my tribe.

Originally Posted by Pinocchio
Well, you’re wrong. A bigot judges someone by the ethnic group he belongs to rather than as an individual. Happy bunny hates everyone equally

Happy bunny can’t hate other happy bunnies because they are in the same happy bunny ethnic group. Well again by your own sophistry happy bunny is a bigot.

38

Natural selection played a very minor role, if any at all. Good, old-fashioned know-how likely played a much greater part in determining which settlers were successful and which weren’t.

And no, “know-how” isn’t genetic.

39

Originally Posted by whynot
I think all of these are a Rorschach of your biases and impressions of worlds you don’t live in, possibly based on movies and books.
I went to 18 schools in 12 years.
I have been to 49 states.
I have lived in four countries.
I have worked in two countries.
Places that i have truely experienced (took up residence) include:
arkansas 3 times
missouri 4 times
kansas
alberta
quebec
korea
texas 3 times
illinois 2 times
indiana
Louisiana
virginia
new jersey
conneticut
Pennsylvania
new zealand
Holland
california
colorado
arizona
my parents have truely experienced (took up residence) in
Iran
saudi arabia
united arab emmerents
south africa
purto rico
korea
canada
My mom was one of 13 sibling farming family.
my dad was one of 5 sibling farming family.
we have reunions of 200 plus family members regularily

family member career fields include:
cpa
civil engineer
air force bomber pilot
army field artillery (battle of the bulge)
douglas aircarft manager
california carpenters
california landlords
farmers
preacher
nurses
veternarian
army signal corp
factory workers
factory managers
insurance managers(victim of enron)
dental hygenist
university professor
poet
regular columnist for local newspaper

the family counts as its members
gay
alcoholic
epileptic
downs syndrom
Neurofibromatosis

I like chicago. i hate boston.
colorado was ok till the californians came.
texas was ok until i lived in midland home of the bush’s (could have just been pubesent problem though)
the french catholics, french Protestant, english catholic, and english Protestant school
systems of quebec was a good experience.
loved the friendliness of alberta and empathy during the kennedy assination.
loved the new zealander mixed race society
learned to play poker with the sons of missionaries
california was weired and getting wierder

why do you guys presume facts?
Often times the reaction of people is merely a reflection.

40

Comment (not so much an anwer): You may be interested in reading articles on the themes and influences of Manifest Destiny and its cultural effect on the territorial expansion of the U.S., and in particular, the expansion into the western territories.

Alas, the Wikipedia article I linked to is not very thorough, but in-depth theses on the subject are fasciniating with respect to the significant influence in on the “pioneering spirit” of the frontiersmen (and women).