To what extent do you care? (Also, what country are you in? The closer you are geographically and politically the more relevant it becomes.) Do you hear the news and think, “Hm, I hope that Egypt is able to reform quickly and without too much internal conflict,” and then just go about your day? That’s about where I stand. What else am I supposed to do?
Civil wars, violent political uprisings, starvation, disease, natural disasters, etc. are all terrible things, and they are happening every day. It’s sad to think about such things, but where then does my caring about them take me? What happens? Nothing. Until you actually set out to do something about it, I’d hesitate to say you care about it (not you specifically, I don’t know anything about you).
Also, people under 35 who smoke. For a good 20-25 years we’ve known smoking is pretty horrible. There’s no reason you should be doing it, other than the fact you’re white trash or trying to be “rebellious”.
This comment puzzles me: Do you hear the news and think, “Hm, I hope that Egypt is able to reform quickly and without too much internal conflict,” and then just go about your day? That’s about where I stand. What else am I supposed to do?
Pretty much, yes, but I check in a few times a day to see what’s going on there. That, to me, is caring. Just because you aren’t able to do anything, or much, personally, doesn’t mean you don’t care.
I’m interested in almost everything that happens everywhere, but maybe I’m an exception. Still, what happens in Egypt does affect us directly here in the US. One reason is that we pay them to use the Suez Canal. Will the new government honor deals such as that one made during the Mubarak administration? How will the new Egyptian government affect the rest of the Middle East? I mean, we are involved militarily to some extent or another in quite a few countries there. It does affect us here in the United States.
Nitpick: it’s been much longer than that. Anti-tobacco efforts have been as starkly gruesome as anything in the world for my entire lifetime. The first Surgeon General report was in 1964, and warning labels have been mandated since 1969.
People who chew or trim their finger-nails all the way down to the quick. It looks wrong. I shouldn’t judge people on it, because there’s lots of food or medical related professions that I would not want people to have long nails, but it looks so uncomfortable. Nails are there to protect your fingertips, people! Don’t throw away protection!
I am suspect of people who choose* not to own pets. Walking into an apartment without a cat or dog or some creature is like walking into an apartment without a refrigerator.
*That’s choose. If you live in the dorms or with your folks or your significant other has severe allergies to every animal ever to walk/crawl/swim/fly upon the work… fine. I suppose. But you should still express a longing to own a pet, even if you know it cannot be realistically fulfilled.
I’m not too crazy about religious people, ESPECIALLY Christians. I know we all have our own belief systems, but once the crazy talk starts, I just automatically put them into the category of “totally confused and easily manipulated”.
I have an acquaintance who not only doesn’t watch the news, she doesn’t watch the local news on tv (or tv at all as a matter of fact and never heard of True Blood or Fringe), and doesn’t read the newspaper (reading anything on a computer is off the boards completely). She doesn’t know that, oh, the library is only open part time 5 days a week now, the SPCA is so overwhelmed that she won’t be able to just drop off those stray animals hanging around her trailer, that several businesses have gone under, including her favorite restaurant. She is a real dumb ass, frankly. Nice person, but I can’t help it, I am prejudiced against dumb asses (and they don’t live under a rock, either) who are surprised the hair salon burned down, the bridge washed out last week, school is closed due to a water main break…you know, basic stuff. “When did the airport stop letting you take the kids in to watch the planes land and take off???”
I’ll agree with the one about people who have no idea what is going on in the world. You don’t have to spend hours each day, pouring over newspapers, but sheesh… turn on the news in the morning while you get ready for work, or in the car during your commute. Stop acting so surprised when it rains or snows.
People who wear their watches with the face turned to the inside of their wrist.
People with facial piercings.
People who order steak well-done.
People who have itty-bitty little yappy dogs.
People with tons of stickers on their car. One or two, having to do with your profession or hobby, that’s fine. Three dozen, covering everything from your political beliefs, religious beliefs and your kid’s sports teams to professional sports, vacation spots, cartoon characters, pithy little sayings and the memorial type stickers? Yeah, I’ll judge you.
Any man who drinks wine is a pussy and doesn’t deserve to have his dna propagate into the future.
Anyone who reads a book in public is a pretentious asshole who is only trying to pretend to be intellectual and is an attention whore and needs an immediate beating about the head.
Anyone who walks around with a blue tooth device in their ear should be shot on site.
Athiests are mentally retarded and need to shipped off to Antarctica to live with their intellectual equals the penguins.
I see your point. My issue was that it’s something of an afterthought in my everyday life, regardless of its obvious significance. I suppose acknowledging that significance qualifies as caring, but it doesn’t keep me up at night.
Oh, that reminds me. I generally assume that people who misspell words on the Internet are morons. Your browser didn’t underline that word with a red squiggly line just to make it pretty for you.
Crafter Man, I have to agree with you on a lot of those things, although I’m guilty of some of them (cough-MA in English-cough-Japanese car-cough). I definitely look down on people who like rap/hip-hop music (um, “music”).
