5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questions

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5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questions

Postby AdricDePsycho » Tue May 19, 2015 3:31 pm

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-helpful-a ... questions/

Uh...I don't know what to make of this. I'm a bit in the middle, but leaning towards "did not like".
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby DamianaRaven » Tue May 19, 2015 3:35 pm

Well, you're not cussin' and throwing chairs - that's always a good sign.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby KleinerKiller » Tue May 19, 2015 3:36 pm

It's the usual "Wong on society" fare. Not great, and certainly relying on more than a few bad generalizations and assumptions, but not as purely horrible as some of the other things Cracked has been hosting.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue May 19, 2015 3:41 pm

This one's a "skim to the comments" job.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby subotai » Tue May 19, 2015 3:50 pm

I have to say, I thought it was awful, full of personal beliefs and pseudo theories masquerading as 'facts'. Not to mention the spectacular whiff of American Exceptionalism off it.

I thought Cracked had moved off from this kind of stuff, but I guess when Pargin wants to write it, they just have to clench and let him

The comments on Cracked really don't do the writers any favours, we all know the spite goes too far, but the breathless enthusiasm is no better.
Every article can be argued with, but there's two types of commenter Im seeing more of, the "Amazing, I can't argue with that" and "you'd have to be bigoted not to agree". With the second type creating and reinforcing the first.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby AdricDePsycho » Tue May 19, 2015 4:41 pm

DamianaRaven wrote:Well, you're not cussin' and throwing chairs - that's always a good sign.

I'm trying not to after Cher joined us. I don't want to let my anger take hold. Now I have to...*gulp*...provide genuine criticism.
The horror...
But in all seriousness, I overall couldn't understand this article. It felt weird...like Wong's other articles. I can't place what it is about his style, but something about it just screams out that I'm not gonna like it. But I don't know exactly what.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby DamianaRaven » Tue May 19, 2015 4:51 pm

I especially liked #2 - "Why Do I Get Blamed For Things My Grandparents Did?" The snow analogy was downright clever. We can say all sorts of things about Wong, but you'll never hear me dispute his impressive intelligence.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby thatindianguy » Tue May 19, 2015 4:51 pm

Having skimmed this thing, I can't believe i'm about to say this, but boy am i glad that dust storm knocked out my power as the sky turned black so i couldn't read and comment on this today.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby sunglasses » Tue May 19, 2015 4:56 pm

"We Didn't Start The Fire," that shit-awful Billy Joel song in which he unconvincingly insists over and over that he didn't cause the apocalypse?


I'm upset and cannot continue to read this. I thought the song was very cleverly tongue in cheek.

Edit: In all seriousness, I don't mind the article. While some of his stuff can be a bit preachy, overall, I've enjoyed his writing. Plus, Hamlet the mini-pig.

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Last edited by sunglasses on Tue May 19, 2015 6:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby MisterKrinkle » Tue May 19, 2015 5:33 pm

I think this article made me realize why his writing feels off to me. It feels like he's grandstanding, or something similar. Don't get me wrong he's a very good writer, but he's making these broad discourses on societal issues like he's enlightening us, but he's not saying anything new. I find myself thinking "Well no shit" quite a lot. I don't know, different strokes for different folks I suppose.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby AdricDePsycho » Tue May 19, 2015 5:38 pm

Wong is a good writer (I mean come on, he's a New York Times Bestseller for a reason), but like I said, there's this element to his style I can't stand. Maybe it's how he comes off as a bit hard edged and forceful with his opinion, I don't know. Can someone help me out with this?

And We Didn't Start the Fire is, to me, like an Ed Wood movie: it sucks, and that's why it's awesome. Plus, I have to give an honorable mention to Joel being able to remember all the damn lyrics.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby Kate » Tue May 19, 2015 5:56 pm

I also liked the snow analogy, and a few other things. I liked that he pointed out that humanity is winning (it is), that we are the products of the people who came before us and who are around us (we are), and that it's a good thing that things are getting easier because that's the goal (it is).

However, this one was a miss for me. It feeds into the tribalism. First of all, individuals are people. A leaf is not a tree, but no one is making the argument that a person is a society. A leaf is a leaf, a person is a person. This is just how people work, they influence each other and help shape each other. That's how life works.

Secondly, it seems like he's trying to argue that Joe Schmoe might be living in a studio apartment scraping by just to afford rent and peanut butter but Jolene Schmoe would have to be out on the street turning tricks if she were in that situation because men inherently have an advantage by not having the same disadvantages. Really, men probably have fewer disadvantages than women, but men have some unique disadvantages as well and denying those isn't helpful and is bound to breed resentment. Saying "Your guys are winning!" is just silly; anyone whose goal is Team White Guy in general is not going to be convinced by this stuff and anyone whose goal is fairness and equality is going to be like "I'm not on a team..."

It's also not useful to deny that in some cases, the phrase "privilege" is used as blame, not responsibility. It's used as an insult and used to entirely invalidate someone's input. This might be a misuse of the term, but it's a common one.

I guess my biggest problem is, he takes it for granted that these are the solutions that will lead to evening the playing field. Like, yes, I know all this...I still think that having a history month for everything is groan-inducing and we should instead be figuring out a way to make every month black history month, and women's history month, and hispanic history month. The reply to "Well every other month is white history month" should be "And that's fucking ridiculous, let's change all the other months."

So yeah, I totally agree with him that we all have a responsibility to make this society better, but I really haven't found many bitter men who disagree with that sentiment. What they don't understand is how the proposed solutions and how pointing fingers at white men will accomplish that. And I have to say, in some cases I don't either.

Also, all you haters can suck on lemons, We Didn't Start The Fire is an awesome song.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby thatindianguy » Tue May 19, 2015 6:15 pm

I think some other people in this thread have hit the nail on the head. His stuff isn't even entirely wrong it's just that he's so ... grandstanding that unless you're 100% in agreement it's had to not be turned off.

Plus between this and some of his older works it almost seems like his writings suggest that insdividuals simply do not matter. Which is creepy as shit to say the least.
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby DamianaRaven » Tue May 19, 2015 6:20 pm

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
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Re: 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questi

Postby sunglasses » Tue May 19, 2015 6:22 pm



Edit: Damn it, Raven! Beat me to it.
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