The Dumbing Down of American Kids

[Der Alta]

I received an e-mail letter this morning from a client, about the Children in the American School system. It was of course, not correct and I responded with the correct version.

Now as good as this sounds, I’m here to debunk another falsehood. This little story has been accredited to Bill Gates, the book “Business @ the speed of thought”, and also Kurt Vonnegut. It’s been rumored it was a speech at college graduations, and at high school graduations.

This list is actually credited to Charles J. Sykes, author of the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add. (The list has appeared in newspapers, although not necessarily in this book.)

In the particular version I recieved this morning it has been edited. It seems the original list was longer and the writings were abit more explanatory. How ironic that a list about the dumbing down of American kids has itself, been dumbed down.

Another odd part is that Ann Landers has printed the first ten items (uncredited) multiple times in her column. You have to ask, why did she not print the last three?

Here it is, and may some of hte kids reading this site take heed. Of course, that's my disillusionment that they actually take the time to read it.

Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add.

• Rule No. 1: _ Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.
  
• Rule No. 2: _ The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain that it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)
  
• Rule No. 3: _ Sorry, you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.
  
• Rule No. 4: _ If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it.
  
• Rule No. 5: _ Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.
  
• Rule No. 6: _ It's not your parents' fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the boss of me," and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it's on your dime. Don't whine about it, or you'll sound like a baby boomer.
  
• Rule No. 7: _ Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.
  
• Rule No. 8: _ Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't. In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone's feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4.)
  
• Rule No. 9: _ Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we're at it, very few jobs are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)
  
• Rule No. 10: _ Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.
  
• Rule No. 11: _ Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.
  
• Rule No. 12: _ Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.
  
• Rule No. 13: _ You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.
  
• Rule No. 14: _ Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

AO

 

[milefile]

Another odd part is that Ann Landers has printed the first ten items (uncredited) multiple times in her column. You have to ask, why did she not print the last three?

The last three items don't really add anything to the message. But they don't take anything away either.

👍

We all learn it eventually, many of us the hard way.

 

[Rice Rocketeer]

Amen.

 

[MazKid]

I personally think that American kids are getting dumber because of peer pressure and the want to be unique and belong. They spend thier time and money buying overpriced clothes just because of the brand, buying countless CDs and listening to them excessively loud all the time, cussing because they lack the grammatical skills to express themselfs in an orderly fashion, talking about cars while not knowing anything beyond the name, skateboarding when you can go faster and safer on a bike, playing around with cell phone tunes because they can't decide which one sounds most annoying, the list goes on and on.

Why can't kids just get smart? Hell, I do it. I don't even need 90% of school for what I'm going to become. Whenever I want to learn something, I turn on the TV and watch one of the Discovery family of channels. I can learn more in an hour of TV than in a day of school. I also learn from the net, even from here(though distinguishing between the smart and dumb people here is annoying. There's 2 people that I rarely listen to, but they shall remain dougless and christiaanless. Err. ). Kids these days do not use logic. They also try to make everyone around them more stupid than they are by dissing them when they "know too much" about something.

Fortunately for me, I'm not one of em. Since around 3rd grade, at school, I've looked at other kids as just kids, and I look at them and think how above them I really am. I'll be sitting in class, and everyone starts laughing at eachother, and I just think "Why are they so immature? What fuels thier need to be and act like total morons?" I almost get disgusted that I have to be classed with them. Then they diss me for getting bad grades while my test grades are way up because I don't do homework. Why waste time doing homework if you can do perfectly fine on the test without studying? Then the teachers try to get me to do the homework because it will improve my grades. I'm sorry, I don't care at all about my overall grades in school. Any idiot can do all of the homework and get a B, so why should I do it? As long as I'm passing the class, I don't care. Kids come up to me and they will ask "what did you get in the class?" and I'll be like "A "C" " and then they burst into laughter and call me an idiot when I couldn't care less what my grade is as long as I get As and Bs on tests. Everyone thinks I should study for tests. "Ohh Ryan you've got a physics final tomarrow, why don't you study for an hour." Why would I want to do that? If I've listened in class and remember the stuff, then I will get a good grade on the final, and it will show that I don't need to cram info that I already know.

Then there's people that think I'm stupid because what I do and/or like. They are like "Why Mazda?" Then I explain that I'm just preparing for a Mazda related career. I either get a "Well Mazda's are s***!", "Why not Ferrari or Porsche?", "Why are you wasting your time on that?", but some people actually have the kindness and understanding to either say "Cool" or another complement. Even if they all said that I sucked, I wouldn't care. I believe in a concentrated education aimed at the career you want to have. Nothing wrong with that.

Ohh, and the thing about "flipping burgers"...I will never work at a food place. Never. First off, I don't eat a wide variety of foods. Also, I don't want to be responsible for the health of other people. I'd much rather work up at Fusz and be a porter(off topic...the porter for the Mazda/Subaru/Nissan(I think) buildings was fired the other day because he never showed up on Saturdays and evidently seriously offended a costomer. And he was a highschool Senior) and have the worst thing that could possibly happen be that while I'm washing a car I accidently scratch it. You can easily fix a scratch, you can't easily fix someone stricken with E-coli.

Ohh, and then I hear a lot of kids saying "My parent suck". I've never ever said that. I love my parents. After all, without them, I obviously wouldn't be here. And maybe it's just my parents, but they don't suck. Both of my parents are incredibly smart. My dad can dissassemble and reassymble an automatic trasmission in 5 hrs or less, and my mom keeps the household running and does amazing stuff even if she doesn't work. My parents have also been married for 27 years or so, happily. Not bragging or anything, but they are the best people in my life, as they should be. Kids are just hurting themselfs by saying horrible things about thier parents.

Maybe it's just me.

 

[rjensen11]

Originally posted by MazKid
I can learn more in an hour of TV than in a day of school.

Dude, that's what everyone in my European History class said, that we could learn more by just watching the History Channel, mostly because our teacher was an incompitent, idiotic, moronic, mindless woman with the most horrid sense of humor I've ever encountered, and yes, even worse than the dryest English teacher I've ever had....

Originally posted by MazKid
Then there's people that think I'm stupid because what I do and/or like. They are like "Why Mazda?" Then I explain that I'm just preparing for a Mazda related career. I either get a "Well Mazda's are s***!", "Why not Ferrari or Porsche?"....

Although you would have to admit it would be nice working for BMW and getting to use a RR occasionally...

Originally posted by MazKid
Ohh, and the thing about "flipping burgers"...I will never work at a food place. Never.

I've vowed never to work at McD's or BurgerKing. But hey, do you really have something against people that work at Brueggar's Bagles?

 

[milefile]

Originally posted by rjensen11
Dude, that's what everyone in my European History class said, that we could learn more by just watching the History Channel, mostly because our teacher was an incompitent, idiotic, moronic, mindless woman with the most horrid sense of humor I've ever encountered, and yes, even worse than the dryest English teacher I've ever had....

Can she spell?

 

[1X83Z]

Adults complain about kids a lot.

Haven't they (I refuse to accept the title 'adult') got something better to do?

 

[rjensen11]

Originally posted by milefile
Can she spell?

Nope, not at all.


And then she tried to explain how society's getting worse because the gap between the rich and poor is spreading. Then I mentioned inflation, meaning how the $ has less value now than it did 100 years ago, and that the standard of living is much higher now than it was 200 years ago(Sure, there are still people on the streets, but a much higher percentage of people have indoor plumbing, electricity, modes of transportation other than foot(e.g. bike, car, train, etc)

Please also note that I did not use i.e. People that use i.e. thinking it means "In example" are morons. The meaning of i.e. derives from its Latin roots, "id est", "which means".

 

[milefile]

Originally posted by rjensen11


Please also note that I did not use i.e. People that use i.e. thinking it means "In example" are morons. The meaning of i.e. derives from its Latin roots, "id est", "which means".

Duly noted.

 

[Giancarlo]

We all complain. It's human nature these days...

I may sound like i feel "superior" to other kids my age, but i don't often express those feelings, Alta. But i certainly know a lot of kids who probably do everything you described.

I think i'm getting too old too fast.

 

[the_cobbinator]

I'm gonna show this to my sister

 

[Tercel_driver]

It certainly depends where school did you go.

In my experience, an hour of the Discovery Channel will certainly teach me nothing compared to what teachers taught me.

 

[milefile]

The Discovery channel is great and all, but it is entertainment before education. The information and explanations provided are very general. To really understand things serious study is required.

 

[Red Eye Racer]

All so true,... yet, I believe that mass majority of teens that read it would be defensive. You flat-out have to be a working adult to fully comprehend that article, IMO.

Originally posted by Der Alta
Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

This is the one thing I dont agree with,... I'm, comparitively, an employable success at 25 years old, and I still have peircings, tattoo's, and occassionally colored hair..... for the exact reason the article states NOT to,... self expression,.. it certainly hasnt forced my IQ to drop,... I dont see how it's a good example of dumbing down.

 

[milefile]

Originally posted by Red Eye Racer
This is the one thing I dont agree with,... I'm, comparitively, an employable success at 25 years old, and I still have peircings, tattoo's, and occassionally colored hair..... for the exact reason the article states NOT to,... self expression,.. it certainly hasnt forced my IQ to drop,... I dont see how it's a good example of dumbing down.

What does it express?

 

[sn00pie]

Originally posted by milefile
What does it express?

Ouch.

And an awesome question.

"I like to express myself." will be followed-up by a nice "Express yourself how?" from now on. 👍

 

[Max Powers]

Originally posted by MazKid
I personally think that American kids are getting dumber because of peer pressure and the want to be unique and belong. They spend thier time and money buying overpriced clothes just because of the brand, and listening to them excessively loud all the time, cussing because they lack the grammatical skills to express themselfs in an orderly fashion, talking about cars while not knowing anything beyond the name, skateboarding when you can go faster and safer on a bike, playing around with cell phone tunes because they can't decide which one sounds most annoying, the list goes on and on.

Why can't kids just get smart? Hell, I do it. I don't even need 90% of school for what I'm going to become. Whenever I want to learn something, I turn on the TV and watch one of the Discovery family of channels. I can learn more in an hour of TV than in a day of school. I also learn from the net, even from here(though distinguishing between the smart and dumb people here is annoying. There's 2 people that I rarely listen to, but they shall remain dougless and christiaanless. Err. ). Kids these days do not use logic. They also try to make everyone around them more stupid than they are by dissing them when they "know too much" about something.

Fortunately for me, I'm not one of em. Since around 3rd grade, at school, I've looked at other kids as just kids, and I look at them and think how above them I really am. I'll be sitting in class, and everyone starts laughing at eachother, and I just think "Why are they so immature? What fuels thier need to be and act like total morons?" I almost get disgusted that I have to be classed with them. Then they diss me for getting bad grades while my test grades are way up because I don't do homework. Why waste time doing homework if you can do perfectly fine on the test without studying? Then the teachers try to get me to do the homework because it will improve my grades. I'm sorry, I don't care at all about my overall grades in school. Any idiot can do all of the homework and get a B, so why should I do it? As long as I'm passing the class, I don't care. Kids come up to me and they will ask "what did you get in the class?" and I'll be like "A "C" " and then they burst into laughter and call me an idiot when I couldn't care less what my grade is as long as I get As and Bs on tests. Everyone thinks I should study for tests. "Ohh Ryan you've got a physics final tomarrow, why don't you study for an hour." Why would I want to do that? If I've listened in class and remember the stuff, then I will get a good grade on the final, and it will show that I don't need to cram info that I already know.

Then there's people that think I'm stupid because what I do and/or like. They are like "Why Mazda?" Then I explain that I'm just preparing for a Mazda related career. I either get a "Well Mazda's are s***!", "Why not Ferrari or Porsche?", "Why are you wasting your time on that?", but some people actually have the kindness and understanding to either say "Cool" or another complement. Even if they all said that I sucked, I wouldn't care. I believe in a concentrated education aimed at the career you want to have. Nothing wrong with that.

Ohh, and the thing about "flipping burgers"...I will never work at a food place. Never. First off, I don't eat a wide variety of foods. Also, I don't want to be responsible for the health of other people. I'd much rather work up at Fusz and be a porter(off topic...the porter for the Mazda/Subaru/Nissan(I think) buildings was fired the other day because he never showed up on Saturdays and evidently seriously offended a costomer. And he was a highschool Senior) and have the worst thing that could possibly happen be that while I'm washing a car I accidently scratch it. You can easily fix a scratch, you can't easily fix someone stricken with E-coli.

Ohh, and then I hear a lot of kids saying "My parent suck". I've never ever said that. I love my parents. After all, without them, I obviously wouldn't be here. And maybe it's just my parents, but they don't suck. Both of my parents are incredibly smart. My dad can dissassemble and reassymble an automatic trasmission in 5 hrs or less, and my mom keeps the household running and does amazing stuff even if she doesn't work. My parents have also been married for 27 years or so, happily. Not bragging or anything, but they are the best people in my life, as they should be. Kids are just hurting themselfs by saying horrible things about thier parents.

Maybe it's just me.

You make some good points, but your "I'm above it all" attitude really bugs me. You pass off people as morons because they laugh and have fun in class, last time I checked there's nothing wrong with that. You also seem to be implying that the kids who do work hard to get good grades by doing their homework are somehow below you, I'd have to say you're dead wrong on that one. If they're calling you dumb for getting bad grades, and if doing homework to improve your grades is so easy, why not just do the damn homework and prove them wrong? Get off your high horse and look at it from everybody elses point of view. Some people like to have some fun in school, that automatically makes them idiots who are below you? They're enjoying the social aspect of high school, something you may be lacking.

Also, you don't want to work in the food industry because you don't want to be responsible for the health of other people? I might be wrong, but I believe I read in some other post that you want to be a mechanic or do something with cars, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you are also responsible for the health of people when you're doing that. What if you screw up the brakes of the car you're working on and because of that there is a fatal accident?

 

[Red Eye Racer]

Originally posted by milefile
What does it express?

To me? Individuallity.

Tattoo's = Personality traits

Piercings = Decorative

Colored Hair = For the same reason people dress different everyday,... purchase multiple frames for glasses,.... wear different shoes,.... basically,... for change.

Why is it so tough for some of you to understand self-expression? It's like your trying to force the world to be bland,... to allow fads not to exist,.. to deny artistic and creative minds a chance to have fun.

 

[Red Eye Racer]

Originally posted by sn00pie
Ouch.

And an awesome question.

"I like to express myself." will be followed-up by a nice "Express yourself how?" from now on. 👍

see above,............................ ouch?

 

[milefile]

Originally posted by Red Eye Racer
To me? Individuallity.

Tattoo's = Personality traits

Piercings = Decorative

Colored Hair = For the same reason people dress different everyday,... purchase multiple frames for glasses,.... wear different shoes,.... basically,... for change.

Why is it so tough for some of you to understand self-expression? It's like your trying to force the world to be bland,... to allow fads not to exist,.. to deny artistic and creative minds a chance to have fun.

I hope you realize I'm only questioning you because you throw it out there, so it's fair game.

I used to color my hair, had piercings, and still have three tatoos, all invisible while clothed (I had the foresight for that). But I haven't for a good six years now. One day I looked around and realized everybody I knew looked the smae. It had become a uniform. It had also become some kind of snobby symbol. People started judging those who didn't do those things as not individualistic. The tatoo/piercing joints advertise on TV during Friends re-runs. Everybody bought their clothes at Goodwill or The Alley, which grew from a seedy, urban neighborhood to every mall in the Chicagoland area.

So I don't see how it expresses individuality. All it expresses is that you like those things, and to many people that means this: That you are trying very hard to prove you are an individual to the point where you spend extra money on it, do things that limit you, and need to draw attention to yourself in an obvious way. You may intend to express what you state above, but what is received by whom you are expressing to may very well not be what you think. In the end this is all that matters.

I don't want blandness. And I obviously do understand the urge to decorate one's self. But it doesn't make you any more individual than the millions of others who do the exact same thing.

 

[MazKid]

Sublime, you haven't been in school with the kids at my school. And granted, I fully hate my school. Also, I'm not going to be a mechanic while in highschool, nor right after it. I'm going to go to Ranken and see where that puts me. Who knows, I might not even go that route, I could go to an engineering college and work for Mazda directly. The possibilities are numerous. I'm just saying that there's no way I'm going to work with food ever because I don't like most of the food out there and since I am car-inclined I'd rather do a car related job first because it will be more rewarding.

Ofcourse, if I worked at a Popeye's or Churches' chicken place, it would be rewarding...but they would fire me really quick when they notice the pounds and pounds of wings missing.

 

[Sage]

Maz, I know that you've been having a rough time with criticism lately, but I have to agree wholeheartedly with SublimeDood... while you make some good points, your above all attitude is a bit... disconcerting.

While I agree that some teachers put out worthless homework, I don't understand the point in not doing it-- Your boss might give you something worthless to do one day, but will you refuse to do it? And a lot of homework (not quantity, I'm speaking percentage-wise ) is genuinely helpful... especially in math, where you just cannot learn topics by listening to the teacher. You just can't.

Also, what's wrong with laughing? I laugh at stupid things in the classroom all the time... yet I presume most people don't think I'm immature.

I've known you for quite a long time-- about a year and a half at this point. And, having read your (rather drawn-out ) posts throughout that time period, I'm now realizing that I genuinely think you might want to take a step back and re-think your POV (point-of-view) of things... of people, of society, of the world around you. To be brutally honest, I think you have a rather one-tracked POV that is getting you nowhere fast. The "Mazda does everything perfect" ideal; the "I'm more mature than everybody else" ideal... It's been a red flag waving in my face for quite some time, yet I've never really evaluated it until now, and I truly think you need to do a 360 and change your outlook on life. Expand your horizons a bit... socialize with people in your school-- Don't be afraid to have a laugh and make friends, and don't be so quick to sweep everyone under the welcome mat. I'm not saying that you're an unhappy person-- But I am saying that you have so much unrealized potential that could be unlocked if you broadened your outlook on life, even just a little.

 

[MazKid]

First off, I have never ever stated that Mazda does everything right. They haven't.

When I'm at school I'm generally bummed out. I have friends, but they are rarely in my same classes. The laughing is fine by me, but some of these kids laugh as loud as they can and it's annoying. In my school there's a ton of annoying people either laughing or sneezing as loud as they can. I'd rather spend my boredom there in a quiet atmosphere, not one sounding like a bar of drunks. I do some homework, enough to pass every class(except Spanish...I'm changing my views and am going to take Japanese, even though it's harder, because I believe it will be something totally different from what everyone else does...and hey, since a lot of the electronics and automobiles around me are made in Japan, I'll beable to read Japanese mags and web sites. I already have 2 years of spanish(passed 1 year, screwed around on the next, which was a much more enjoyable thing to do then passing) and to graduate from my school you need 2 years of 1 language, so I'll be taking Japanese till the end), but I get burned out really really fast if it's not something that's interesting.

And about being bummed out at school...when I'm bummed out, the last thing I want to do is socialize. I just want to wither my way through it and get home.

There are times when I have fun at school. Most of which is in Tech, because I can screw around like the best of em, still finish all of the required work, and work on other things. Last semester I was in manufacturing tech. Basically wood shop, just a different name, and I took the same basic class before, under a different name. Becides finishing the required sign post and book case(stupid stuff that we didn't get to keep that was basically made because my school doesn't like buying things), I made a rotary engine clock(which I have posted pics of here), made 2 cat trees, and helped work on stuff for my teacher. I excel at hands on and interactive stuff, not reading(though I have 97% comprehension) and writing.

I'll try to do better this year.

And that ends another long winded post. I'm good at that too.

 

[rjensen11]

Originally posted by MazKid
Sublime, you haven't been in school with the kids at my school. And granted, I fully hate my school. Also, I'm not going to be a mechanic while in highschool, nor right after it. I'm going to go to Ranken and see where that puts me. Who knows, I might not even go that route, I could go to an engineering college and work for Mazda directly. The possibilities are numerous. I'm just saying that there's no way I'm going to work with food ever because I don't like most of the food out there and since I am car-inclined I'd rather do a car related job first because it will be more rewarding.

Ofcourse, if I worked at a Popeye's or Churches' chicken place, it would be rewarding...but they would fire me really quick when they notice the pounds and pounds of wings missing.

Dude, honestly, if you don't do homework, you won't get accepted to any decent engineering school. Why? Because your GPA, class rank, and the like will be too low.

.... and somehow you think you're being smart by not doing homework?

 

[Joey]

Originally posted by Sage
It's been a red flag waving in my face for quite some time, yet I've never really evaluated it until now, and I truly think you need to do a 360 and change your outlook on life.

If he did a 360, he'd end up going the same direction.

A direction, notably, in which I find myself more often than not, only my choice of such is based more solidly in arrogance and the general disappointment in humanity as a whole.

Popular culture, at its present time and in present state, sucks. What it sucks, I will leave to your imagination.

Originally posted by MazKid
(except Spanish...I'm changing my views and am going to take Japanese, even though it's harder, because I believe it will be something totally different from what everyone else does...

I had the same thoughts about taking German. Do you know why nobody else takes it? It's not necessarily because it's harder. It's why it's harder. It's harder...because the teacher is a 100% purebred idiot, in every conceivable sense of the word. In my case, the teacher lives 7.5 hours away and communicates through a TV and a phone. I use the term "communicates" lightly.

Originally posted by MazKid
...and hey, since a lot of the electronics and automobiles around me are made in Japan, I'll beable to read Japanese mags and web sites.

That would be the only thing I can think of that would make dealing with the braindead teacher worthwhile. If my high school still offered Japanese, I'd take it regardless of the cirriculum. Go for it.

 

[hanker]

yea

 

[sn00pie]

Originally posted by Joey
If he did a 360, he'd end up going the same direction.

A direction, notably, in which I find myself more often than not, only my choice of such is based more solidly in arrogance and the general disappointment in humanity as a whole.

That sounds incredibly pretentious -- apart from it not making sense, that is. You should stop seeing it as MazKid VS humanity, that's insane.

Popular culture, at its present time and in present state, sucks. What it sucks, I will leave to your imagination.

Book. Cover. You fill in the rest. --Giles

I'd say your perspective on this is seriously dented, and most likely you're just hanging with an unfortunate crowd as to the aspect.

Originally posted by hanker
yea

Hey idiot, make better posts.

 

[Joey]

Originally posted by sn00pie
That sounds incredibly pretentious -- apart from it not making sense, that is. You should stop seeing it as MazKid VS humanity, that's insane.

That's not what it is. I see it as me being force-fed lemmings' version of what is "good" and marketable. I don't like a lot of things, and have somehow chosen to pay more attention to those. Pretentious? Why, yes.

Originally posted by sn00pie
I'd say your perspective on this is seriously dented, and most likely you're just hanging with an unfortunate crowd as to the aspect.

Well, yeah, I gripe incessantly about popular culture, and there's really only maybe 80% that I can't stand.

 

[MazKid]

I just figure Japanese will suit me better than Spanish. Why should I learn Spanish if the reasons I would need to use it are people coming here? I think that anyone switching countries should be forced to take classes for the language of that country. There's no excuse not to understand the language of the country you are going into. So I say screw those people coming here from Mexico that can't speak any English...like I'd actually talk to any of em in Spanish anyway.

Japanese is super cool. There's also Latin, which is pretty useless and monotonous. My bro took that and did horrible.


edited because people might take it the wrong way.

 

[Josh]

Originally posted by MazKid
So I say screw those people coming here from Mexico...like I'd actually talk to any of em anyway.

Yeah! Screw NocturnalPS, screw Cano, and screw the rest of the freakin' Mexicans!

I can't believe you said that.