Where'd all the normal people go?

[JLittle44]

Some days you really wonder if the world has stopped spinning. Over the last few years, many of you have shared stories of crazy human behavior that has personally affected you. I don't even want to remember some of the more notable news stories that have been posted; everything from tragic to ludicrous.

Within the past 7 days, I've been exposed to some crazy sh!t. A girl I know; her mother is dying slowly and painfully. She's understandably upset. After a few beers she's laying down her life story that includes several incidents of rape including by her step dad when she was at an early age. I could do nothing but listen to her. There is no comment or advice that can be offered to comfort anyone that has lived and experienced her tradgedy. Even now I wish anything I could say would make her feel better.

A guy I know (fishing buddy and dad's long-time friend) married a woman he met on one of those dating sites. All his friends quickly came to the understanding that she is a raving lunatic. While he was in Irag doing contract work, she quit work and spent his money. He had his sister put in control of a bank account so that an allowance could be given to his wife, and his sister would make sure the mortgage got paid. He ended up having to sue his sister to get access to his money. The latest little jewel is that his soon-to-be ex wife found out where his storage unit was located, somehow broke in and gave all his belongings away to her family members. Additionally she smashed all the pictures of his kids.

An older lady I'm acquainted with is having problems with her grandson. After a divorce, the daughter and her son moved in with her. The son is 9yrs old and going through some severe psychological problems. He's on several medications, one of which he had a reaction to that led him to randomly run away from his mother across an eight lane freeway and lock himself in the restroom of a Whataburger joint. Cars swerving and the whole bit. The kid refuses to go to school (hes runaway from school several times) and has repeatedly threatened to kill himself and others. During a moment of lucidity, he asked his mother to put him in the hospital because he didn't like feeling this way.

Listening to the local news every morning this year has me distraught. There is one murder, rape, burglary, explosion, fire, and car crash after another. I no longer allow myself to start the day with local or any other news. It's just to tragic to endure before a first cup of coffee.

So, I have a question for the older members of this board. In your opinion, have things always been this way? Ya'll, I'm from a town with only one stoplight. Even through the college years, I don't remember the world being this messed up. Are we simply exposed to more of the things that have always been, or are things really getting worse? The frequency with which I'm bombarded with insanity has me questioning my own.

[Bill McIntyre]

Its always been this way. Its just not as well hidden now.

There is a bumper sticker that pretty much sums it up.

"Life sucks, and then you die." :)

[Marcus]

Definitely stop watching the news which pumps every tragic story from around the US into your ears...sounds like a brief string of lunacy though.

[Bill McIntyre]

Marcus is right. I just listen to NPR, and that doesn't focus on all the little local tragedies. And then my TV News is the Jim Lehrer News Hour on PBS, and for the same reason.

[bgbill]

Just listen to Rish Limbaugh, he will tell you eveything you need to know.

[DIVERTOM]

Unfortunatly about 80% of the population could be on the Jerry Springer
show.

[Ironhed]

I agree the media relishes the bad stories of crazy stuff happening but I think it is alot worse now than it was 50 yrs ago. The world is so desensitized from tv and movies and now the internet. I feel our kids are alot more disrespectful than they used to be too. drugs have alot to do with all the problems you see on the news and they are definitely getting worse and worse.

[Gradyman]

Definitely stop watching the news which pumps every tragic story from around the US into your ears...sounds like a brief string of lunacy though.


That's great advice for you Jlittle...I don't know where you stand spiritually, but in your situations prayer has afforded me much peace and wisdom to deal with things of that type...the type where there is no easy "fix". Take them one step at a time and don't look at the whole picture if it's too overwhelming.

[elCajuna Grande]

ever since Cain slayed Able...

[inletsurf]

So, I have a question for the older members of this board. In your opinion, have things always been this way? Ya'll, I'm from a town with only one stoplight. Even through the college years, I don't remember the world being this messed up. Are we simply exposed to more of the things that have always been, or are things really getting worse? The frequency with which I'm bombarded with insanity has me questioning my own.


I have often wondered this myself, and the best I have come up with is this:

As we are younger, we are often sheltered from noticing this type of stuff around us, or we just don't care. Think about how young minds (under 10) processed the 9/11 attacks. Too much, too emotional, too horrific for youngsters to focus and think about. As we get older, we are more attached and aware of our surroundings. We realize our vulnerabilities, and ultimately our eventual demise. We strive to protect ourselves and be more aware. And sometimes, unfortunately, bad events with people we actually know, coincide and then really capture our attention. Its as if we notice the negative more when we're already being exposed to one at the same time. For lack of a better analogy, but an opposite, its like people getting married. When we are young we dont' notice/care about it much, as we get older (twenties) everyone we know is getting married, and we notice that. Sometimes several people we know are getting married in the same weekend. And then after that, people like me figure out what marriage is get burned and don't really care to notice anymore :D Point is, whether negative events in news, or positive marriages: its always happened, it will always happen with higher frequency because of ever increasing population. As far as the negative, the only thing we can do to improve is help our fellow man and spread positivety whenever it counts. Something I wish I knew how to do better.

Its human nature at our age to know exactly what is happening in the world, to better understand where we are all going in life. However, I agree with what has already been stated, the media is a huge source of negativity, and unfortunately they thrive and profit on as much negativity they can pump into our minds, using our human nature as control.

[bgbill]

I think things are getting worse, what was once shocking is now acceptable, also with the way news and the internet is, you hear about everything that is bad out there.

[Nate Baker]

Man, some tough personal stories there.

As for the media thing, you're absolutely right. As someone with a degree in media manipulation I'll offer my own rant.

Remember the old expression: "Dog bites man, not news. Man bites dog, now THAT'S news." If it's on the news, particularly local news, it is by definition not representative of real life, and is usually, really, unimportant. Nobody tunes in to watch someone else's life. We tune in to be shocked, outraged, appalled, frightened, grossed out, etc.

Any commercial talk radio personality's (Limbaugh, Franken, et. al.) first order of business is to get people worked up. Listeners, and especially callers want controversy. Accuracy and context are not priorities.

News is not education. It's entertainment. We tell ourselves we're "staying informed", like we're doing something good and consciencious. But, 99% of it is superficial and repetitive, and it's neither important (if it was, we wouldn't need a whole new batch the very next day) nor accurate. How many times have you read somethng in the general media about subject you know a lot about and you find yourself wondering where the hell they got their information?

Watch out for 24 hour news outlets (Fox, CNN, etc.). They occasionally air something of import, but mostly they're trying to fill time (and advertising), and will say anything if they think you'll watch.

Limit your exposure to news. Most news stories are a rehash of yeterday's stories with a different angle, and they consist of a little actual reporting and a lot of "what this means", which is really making predictions. And none of them has a crystal ball. But it's cheaper to get some bozo on camera to make a prediction or offer an opinion than it is to ferret out hard facts.

O.k., I'm done now.

Edit: Maybe I'm not done. Good post Inlet. Also, remember that every clown with a cell phone or a point & shoot camera can shoot video and sell it to a news outlet. More bad stuff gets reported now. I doubt the world is any crazier than it used to be, we just see it all now.

[Bill McIntyre]

I agree the media relishes the bad stories of crazy stuff happening but I think it is alot worse now than it was 50 yrs ago.

I was 17 years old 50 years ago. Believe me, people were at least as screwed up then as they are now. There was just as much child abuse, incest, wife beating, alcoholism, etc. as there is now. And of course there was vicious segregation and discrimination and we thought it was just normal. There was just no TV to tell you about it.

Well OK, we did have a black and white TV, but there were one or two local channels to watch, and they weren't gathering information real time from all over the country so that a kid in St. Pete, FL could instantly know about some kid raping his mother in Boise. And of course there was no internet so that we could instantly find out about anything bad happening anywhere in the world.

Much more recently than 50 years ago, people were being murdered for just trying to help blacks register to vote.

As an old fart, I'm supposed to say that it was better in the good old days, but I just don't think its true. We may have more of some specific problems such as drugs, but we don't have more problems, just different ones.

[bgbill]

I was 17 years old 50 years ago. Believe me, people were at least as screwed up then as they are now. There was just as much child abuse, incest, wife beating, alcoholism, etc. as there is now. And of course there was vicious segregation and discrimination and we thought it was just normal. There was just no TV to tell you about it.


How many moms drowned 5 of their kids back then?

How many moms strapped their 2 sons in a mini van and rolled it into a lake and claimed the niggers jacked her?

How many moms put their 1 month old in a microwave?

How many kids were having kids at the prom, and killed the baby and went back dancing?

How many school shootings did thay have back then?

How many people were killing people and eating them?

[SEATUX]

I'm w/bgbill on this one. Life was simpler back then, and we did have radio and papers, this shit just wasnt happening then like it is today. And "GOD" forbid if someone today gets caught disicliplining a kid , the way we were discliplined,

[Bill McIntyre]

Bret,

The only one I can answer for sure is the one about putting a kid in a microwave.

No one did that.

[GRIM REEFER]

I think it's getting worse, The slope is getting steeper.

I'm feeling kinda ill. I was just visiting with my dad and mom, Dad was watching the news. They were talking about the woman who put her three week old child in the microwave. They had an expert on there talking about how long it would take to kill a child in a microwave. :mad:
How the hell can a person just sit there and talk about something like that, I was floored.
I don't know what bothers me more, The fact that this world is so screwed up, Or seeing these people on the news being able to talk about these things with no emotion whatever.
I had to think about Jack Johnson's The news/Natural mystic music song

[Nate Baker]

How many moms drowned 5 of their kids back then?

How many moms strapped their 2 sons in a mini van and rolled it into a lake and claimed the niggers jacked her?

How many moms put their 1 month old in a microwave?

How many kids were having kids at the prom, and killed the baby and went back dancing?

How many school shootings did thay have back then?

How many people were killing people and eating them?


If it wasn't on the news, it didn't happen. Brilliant! :rolleyes:

[bgbill]

If it wasn't on the news, it didn't happen. :rolleyes:

How about pulling up some stories from the time frame Billy Mac was talking about, that come close to what I posted. :rolleyes: :cone:

[Nate Baker]

How about pulling up some stories from the time frame Billy Mac was talking about, that come close to what I posted. :rolleyes: :cone:

I see we agree...

[Nate Baker]

How about pulling up some stories from the time frame Billy Mac was talking about, that come close to what I posted. :rolleyes: :cone:

Here's one anyway.

It's from the opinion section of USA Today.com, October 5th of this year.

"It's popular to believe these sorts of attacks are unique to our violent and media-saturated age, but that's not true, either.

The worst school attack in U.S. history occurred in 1927, when a farmer angry about school taxes blew up a school in Bath, Mich., killing 45. In 1959, a man trying to enroll his son into a Houston elementary school detonated a suitcase filled with dynamite, killing six."

[DIVERTOM]

Things were normal then came the long hair hippy fags! Men started
dressing and grooming like broads. The women seen this and started acting
like men. There was no more clear cut lines between men and woman like
tens of thousands of years demanded. You could not survive otherwise.
Now here in USA we are rich enough to afford this life style but don't feel
secure as our time is coming to sit "in the barrel".

[Screen Name]

I have often wondered this myself, and the best I have come up with is this:

As we are younger, we are often sheltered from noticing this type of stuff around us, or we just don't care. Think about how young minds (under 10) processed the 9/11 attacks. Too much, too emotional, too horrific for youngsters to focus and think about. As we get older, we are more attached and aware of our surroundings. We realize our vulnerabilities, and ultimately our eventual demise. We strive to protect ourselves and be more aware. And sometimes, unfortunately, bad events with people we actually know, coincide and then really capture our attention. Its as if we notice the negative more when we're already being exposed to one at the same time. For lack of a better analogy, but an opposite, its like people getting married. When we are young we dont' notice/care about it much, as we get older (twenties) everyone we know is getting married, and we notice that. Sometimes several people we know are getting married in the same weekend. And then after that, people like me figure out what marriage is get burned and don't really care to notice anymore :D Point is, whether negative events in news, or positive marriages: its always happened, it will always happen with higher frequency because of ever increasing population. As far as the negative, the only thing we can do to improve is help our fellow man and spread positivety whenever it counts. Something I wish I knew how to do better.

Its human nature at our age to know exactly what is happening in the world, to better understand where we are all going in life. However, I agree with what has already been stated, the media is a huge source of negativity, and unfortunately they thrive and profit on as much negativity they can pump into our minds, using our human nature as control.

Steeevvvveeeeee!

The more pot I smoke, the more sense this makes. :D

[Bill McIntyre]

Steinlager works well too.

[Megabeast]

The world has always been the same, difference being that now the world is brought to your home via tv/internet. Also, police are more effective now so that when some woman pushes her car w/ kids into the river, the cops can deduce whether or not she is lying, where 50 years ago, all they would have to go on is her word. I imagine if you wanted to commit any crime 50 years ago it would be alot easier (except white collar crime).

Quit watching the news and worrying about things you have no control over. The world is what you make it.

....ohh and be careful who you feel sorry for. It's a powerful tool that can be used against you.

[PatMyGreen]

There will continue to be new and more extreme acts of perversity that occur for the simple fact that there are now 2x as many people on the planet than Billy Mac's days as a 17 year old. There are more perverts and more alcoholics and more rapists than ever...... but only because there are more people. I doubt the percentages have changed significantly. That plus the shrinking of the world due to technology that has already been covered in this thread explains alot.

[mcjaret]

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her Mother 40 whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her Father 41!

And that was all over whether flush toilets were a waste of money.

After 5 secs of search:

1870 - 11 yr-old boy kills 2 younger boys in Boston.

1924 -- Bobby Franks, aged 14, murdered by Leopold and Loeb.

1932 -- Lindbergh kidnapping and murder

1947-1983 - Henry Lee Lucas kills between 3 and 600 women with his buddy Ottis Toole. They liked to have sex with the dead bodies and eat their kill, too.

1955 -- Emmett Till murdered.

1963-1965 - five children killed near Manchester England.

1964 - Convicted and released sex offender in California kidnaps 6 yr-old, chews off his penis and leaves him to die in a car trunk in the desert.

1969 - Charles Manson and his family have a go at fame.

1975 - Lesley Molseed, aged 10, stabbed 12 times in England.

1978 - Lawrence Singleton convicted fo raping a teen-aged girl and chopping her arms off with an axe. Ten years after his parole he killed a prostitute in Florida.

1978-1991 - Jeff Dahmer has an eating disorder.

1979-1981 - Atlanta child murders (approx 24 victimis).

1981 - Adam Walsh disappears with his head being found 120 miles away.

1983 - Dianne Downs shoots her 3 children and brings them to a hospital claiming a "bushy-haired stranger" did it.

1987 - 6 yr-old Teresa Cormack raped and murdered.

1987 - 6 yr-old Lisa Steinberg beaten to death by her father.

1988 - 10 yr-old Judith Barsi and her mother killed by father.

In 1973, a couple of months after I moved away, the woman who lived in the duplex across from my previous residence killed and beheaded her two little daughters. I didn't know her well, but still remember those 2 babies playing and laughing on the sidewalk.

I also remember reports in mid-70's in California of a recently released pedophile (2x loser) who kidnapped, raped and murdered a 4 yr-old mexican boy. Killed him because witnesses had got him in trouble in the past.

Thus, I agree with Bill (gasp!!!!) that people are just as screwed up as they always have been, but we hear every detail worldwide now where that didn't happen in the past. May be some copycat effect, but people are still people. Nasty creatures.

[inletsurf]

Don't forget Gacy, he was a real sicko.

[Slackr]

Things were normal then came the long hair hippy fags! Men started
dressing and grooming like broads. The women seen this and started acting
like men. There was no more clear cut lines between men and woman like
tens of thousands of years demanded. You could not survive otherwise.
Now here in USA we are rich enough to afford this life style but don't feel
secure as our time is coming to sit "in the barrel".
When I was growing up my friends dad blamed the Beatles for how screwed up the world had become. Damn mop top haircuts. :D

[aaron proffitt]

Steinlager works well too.


So does modeling glue and/or gold spray paint.