My unpopular opinion: threads like this are useless, because the longer it goes on, the more exponentially likely it is that it’ll become a haven for a bunch of people who just want to express their racist/sexist/asshole beliefs and feel smugly self-righteous about being a racist/sexist/asshole. 
- You want to smoke a little weed after school? That’s fine. I don’t care. Your body, your choice.
And if someday you end up selling blow-jobs in back alleys to support a hard drug addiction? That’s also fine. I still won’t care. Your body, your choice. The consequences are your responsibility.
- I think you should be able to terminate a pregnancy for any reason you see fit, up to and including the ninth month.
But . . .
You should carefully study sonograms and fetus-in-a-jar before making the final decision. Freedom is not for the squeamish. It is for those who understand the consequences of their choices.
And don’t hide behind weaselly euphemisms like “right to choose”. It’s not a right, it’s a power. An assertion that the parent’s interests are more important than the child’s interests. It is an act of dominance, and it is dishonest to pretend otherwise.
- Ideally, sex should be a private matter, between consenting adults, and nobody else’s business.
But . . .
If you and your partner start fighting, and the police have to step in, your sex life will affect every taxpayer in the county.
If social workers take an interest in your household, your sex life will affect every taxpayer in the state.
If you get treated for VD, or have an abortion, at a government-subsidized clinic, your sex life will affect every taxpayer in the state. (And probably the country, once Obamacare gets in gear.)
If you have a child on welfare, your sex life affects every taxpayer in the country, probably for the next two decades.
Privacy is for people who clean up their own messes. If you don’t want Mrs. Grundy to get judgemental about your sex life, you should not ask her to pay higher taxes to feed your bastards and treat your clap.
- Freedom is not for weaklings. It requires self-discipline, to think before you act, and to make an effort to make good decisions.
If you want the freedom to enjoy the benefits of good decisions, you should have the discipline to face the consequences of bad decisions. To expect society to rescue you from your own choices is rank hypocrisy.
If you want the government to protect you from every thing that can possibly go wrong, then you should just get it over with, and vote fascist, because that’s where you will end up anyway.
Drone strikes as conducted by the US military over the last few years are war crimes, which means President Obama is a war criminal and should be standing trial in the Hague for it. Dubya of course should already have been hung by the neck until dead by the Hague Court for his role in the invasion of Iraq. Tony Blair, definitely an accomplice.
OK, for the purposes of those things, proving an intended victim should be enough.
The basic premise of my belief is that the state should not have the authority to lock people up unless they have harmed, or tried to harm, someone else or the property of someone else. In other words, I believe that the right to be left the hell alone should be a nearly absolute right; I’m sick of people being locked in cages over stuff nobody should even give a shit about!
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Given that humanity is a social species, introverts are defective humans. Some people think introversion is necessary because it’s a trade off linked with intelligence or focused analysis. Yet plenty of scientists and inventors are extroverts. So that’s just a bunch of self serving platitudes to justify maladaptive attitudes.
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Most stereotypes are true, or at least true enough to be a useful heuristic.
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White people are kinda ugly. It’s a good thing the biological imperative is so strong or we’re just high status due to wealth, because white men in particular are downright* fugly*. With our sun sensitive splotchy pink skin covered in hair we’re basically tall mole rats.
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Men are inherently violent power seekers. Civilization, such as it is, has mostly been concerned with dampening this behavior.
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Democracy is a secular religion. Its chief advantages are quelling dissent and letting the plebs blame each other for the ills of the nation instead of the actual rulers.
I like the ideas here for filtering out the stupid and ignorant so they can’t vote. Like the society is a house of cards poised to collapse if people start “voting wrong.” That’d be like requiring someone to pass a food history class to use a buffet. It’s all warmed over crap someone else is offering up, don’t sweat it so much.
(1) There is a relationship between race and IQ
(2) Pressuring fat people to lose weight is actually a kindness to them
(3) Affirmative action needs to end
(4) Private institutions should be allowed to discriminate however they like
(5) Conservatives are boorish simpletons
(6) Liberals are naive and don’t understand how things work
(7) Most sports are inane and boring/pointless to watch
(8) Women don’t usually look so good past age 25 or so
(9) America needs a more refined, high culture
(10) All STEM people have autism
If you rail against psychiatric intervention, or involuntary holds, or forced medication, you probably desperately need it. You are destructive to society, harmful to your families, and probably a giant asshole, and fucking nuts. And if it traumatized you forever, get over it. That might recall seeking help.
Unfortunately, people cannot be helped until they’re willing to change who they are and become entirely new people. Most people will never accept that they aren’t the perfect, God-given creation of the universe and might be damaged product.
Like rape and sexual assault, child abuse is much more prevalent in our society than we comprehend.
Parents are perfectly capable of hating their children.
Sports are cathartic and can provide spiritual benefits, even for spectators.
People are generally kind. Not decent, maybe, but kind.
Dean Martin was a better singer than Frank Sinatra.
Homosexuals in the USA 50 years ago could truthfully claim to be oppressed, and so could homosexuals in present-day in Saudi Arabia, but homosexuals in present day America are extremely privileged. They’re wealthier than others, on average, and benefit from a galaxy of programs designed just for them, while the media always portrays them as better than everyone else. The gay rights “movement” is really just professional whining for money, which is not surprising, since its tactics are copied from countless other left-wing groups that are also professional paid whiners.
Many government programs that claim to help the poor really don’t. I’m thinking of things like Head Start, CDBGs, and HUD. The Democratic politicians and liberal media types who run around insisting that cuts to these program will hurt the poor are well aware that these programs don’t help the poor. Countless studies have proved that these programs don’t help the poor. Anyone who believes that these things help the poor is regarded by the Democrats as a useful idiot.
Hitler was evil, but not as evil as Stalin and Mao. Hitler was roughly equal to Lenin and Trotsky on the scale of evilness. People who do or did support communism are worse than neo-Nazis.
Cats suck.
Does that have anything to do with babies in their cribs?
It’s interesting that you should say this; I found a comment in a volume of Great Cities of the World, San Francisco, by Geoffrrey Moorhouse and the Editors of Time-Life Books, published in 1979, in the chapter “The Tradition of Nonconformity”:
“This is not to say that everyone in town regards gays equally. There is a batallion of “cops for Christ” in the San Francisco Police Department who do not like the present trend. The Latins of the Mission District–close to the Noe Valley where many gays live–[south of downtown; one of the California Missions, Mission Dolores, is here] are not enamoured of homosexual ways. Blacks may be heard complaining that they have been squeezed out of some residential areas by the subtle pressure of superior homosexual wealth. Homosexuals themselves will concede that one reason why so many of the buildings they move into become showplaces of careful restoration and thoughtful improvement is because, as one gay told me, ‘we have much greater disposable income than other people’–by which he meant that gays do not often have children.” --pp.126-27.
Color me cynical, but somehow I sense that there are people outside the gay community who have ulterior motives and are exploiting the community for their own financial gain. :mad:
4th trimester abortions should be legal. Better to kill the kid when it still doesn’t know what’s going on than being raised by people who don’t want it.
Also, Canadian bacon is the best bacon.
I wonder if I could trouble you to list (let’s see, how many makes a galaxy – fifty?) seven of these programs.
Professional wrestling is a seriously misunderstood and underestimated art form. (I agree with the OP).
I’m okay with the designated hitter rule.
I like cats better than dogs. (But it’s impossible not to love the Samoyeds my landlords own!)
I think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Assisted suicide should be legal under any circumstances. The only prerequisite should be a written statement from the person stating that this is their decision alone, that they were not pressured to make this decision, and that they understand that the process is irreversible.
Active euthanasia (as opposed to allowing someone to die by withholding nutrition and medication) should be legal under many circumstances. It should be legal to euthanize a person who is in a persistent vegetative or comatose state, if that person is, for all practical purposes, never going to regain a basic awareness of their surroundings. It should also be legal to euthanize an infant with birth defects such that there is no possibility of survival beyond a couple of years.
Polygamous marriage, regardless of gender, should be legal.
People who commit crimes that are predatory in nature (I’m thinking sexual assault, premeditated non-sexual assault, most forms of con artistry) should be locked up and kept there. Predators can’t be rehabilitated, and this is the best way to protect the rest of us.
I’m assuming he’s referring to the many activist and community organizations that exist.
People who raise their children to be religious are guilty of child abuse.
People who have more than two children are guilty of societal abuse.
Food
I don’t like bacon enough to order it on anything but rare occasions. I certainly don’t think it’s the best thing that could ever be.
I prefer the taste of peppermint to that of chocolate.
Law
I think Holocaust denial should be illegal in the United States.
I support the death penalty for rape.
I support abortion rights, but I think there should be some kind of cap on them. If you’re aborting, say, one baby a year for six years, that is way too much.
Interpersonal Relations
I am incensed at anyone who looks down on me because I still live at home at age 31.
International Relations
I believe Turkey ought to get its goddamn bee out of its bonnet and finally admit that the Armenian genocide took place!
I believe China ought to let Taiwan become its own independent nation if the Taiwanese decide to go that route.
I believe Israel has a fundamental right to exist, but I disagree with the extreme actions they feel they have to take in service of that goal.
I believe that the average American citizen needs to take a greater interest in humanitarian causes around the world. “We send our thoughts and prayers.” Helpful, but also SEND YOUR MONEY!
Religion
I feel very strongly in the existence of God, and while I’m all for debates, I get really annoyed when people try to “convert” me to agnosticism. Hey, I don’t assume you’re stupid or a bad person because you’re not a believer; kindly pay me the same courtesy.
Sports
I want my sports teams’ rivals to play well, but only when my team is also playing well, so I can have that sense of satisfaction when we beat them.
I am sick to death of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin getting so many damn commercials when the Clippers haven’t really accomplished anything.
I am absolutely convinced that David Stern rigged the 1985 NBA Draft so that Patrick Ewing would get selected by the New York Knicks! He thumbed the envelope. Watch the bloody footage if you don’t believe me.
I think baseball is nearly perfect the way it is (absent some possible expansion of replays), and any attempts to speed up the game will only detract from it. However, I believe that playoff games should start earlier, so that young people will be able to watch them!
I believe the Hampton Roads, Virginia area should have a major-league sports team. (I live there, however, so I fullly admit to being biased).
I believe New York, Los Angeles and God, especially Boston sports fans right now, have an obnoxious sense of entitlement. The Red Sox, in particular, are in denial that they have become the New York Yankees. (I will, at the same time, admit to being occasionally obnoxious about “small-market bias”).
I believe that Los Angeles doesn’t need a professional football team. That’s the price of having two NBA teams, two MLB teams (kinda), and an NHL team. Not to mention NFL teams in San Diego, San Francisco and Oakland. You don’t have an NFL team? Cry me a river.
And I’m sick to death of other NFL teams using the “We’ll move to Los Angeles if you don’t buy us a new stadium” card. No, you won’t.
Video Games
I am pretty damn frustrated by the seven-year life cycle of video game systems. I only bought a 360 three years ago, and now you want me to pluck down $500 for a next-gen system? And I can’t even play my 360 games on the XBox One?! Man, SCREW that.
(NBA 2K14 is awfully damn pretty, though).
I believe the NBA Live series is fundamentally broken and EA just needs to not fuckin’ make any more. Ever. (I doubt this is an unpopular opinion, though).
I believe new video games should retail for no greater than $49.99 under any circumstances.
Are any of these unpopular? I would think that they are majority opinions in the U.S., or at very least held by a very large minority. Anyway, I hope so!