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Unpopular opinions

C'mon, let's get real: The United States as we know it won't last another 50 years.
 
RevDeac06 said:
Sure. First, some generalizations/opinions about Christmas:
-Christmas is a Christian holiday, not a gift-exchange holiday. We don't exchange gifts on any other feast during the Church Year, Christmas is the anomaly in that sense.
-Santa Claus (at least in the modern sense) was invented by department stores to sell stuff
-Black Friday and the "Christmas season" are marketing strategies to make money
-Christianity isn't about making money, and often this money making is done in very unhealthy ways (causing stress over buying gifts, stress over going into debt or not having money for gifts, gifts that are simply wasteful and will sit in a drawer until eventually sitting unused in a landfill, less the fair trade to create and ship these unnecessary gifts, etc.)
-The false equation that is operative in gift-giving is often "I can't tell you how I feel about you, so here, let me buy you some junk so you'll think that I give 2 cents about you."

So Operation Christmas Child is based on many of these issues. Furthermore, it's very much the "band-aid" approach to make us feel good, as in "Oh boy, I feel so good about filling that shoebox with basic toiletries and cheap toys. I'm so glad that I've done my part. Should I ask the question about why those kids don't have access to toothpaste or toys? Nah, that's not really in the holiday spirit."

It reeks of colonialism - here, let us rich Americans tell you poor Asians/Africans/South Americans what a happy Christmas looks like. Now, you're just going to get this little shoebox and my kids are going to think the Christmas tree vomited wrapping paper when they see all of their gifts under the tree, but you should be happy just received .05% of what my kids do. There's also the paternalism in thinking that we are the givers and "they" are the needy receivers.

Instead, I'd much rather develop a relationship with a community/school/village and find out how they celebrate Christmas in their local custom and then take part in that. And with that relationship, to care for them and learn from them. But that takes work. It's not a pre-packaged program to feel good about, so we don't do it.

I know that people who support Operation Christmas Child would disagree and be offended by this, but that's why it's my unpopular opinion.
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I'm telling on you 😉
Half of boone works at SP.
 
I feel you on all of that... I don't see your opinion as very unpopular, either. Just not conventional, and people would rather take the easy fix and do SOMETHING rather than nothing at all (I think that's how most folks justify it).
 
I mean most charity in reality is more about making yourself feel better than actual large benefits for whatever your charity of choice is.
 
The United States Constitution is poorly drafted and totally defective. The Bill of Rights and the concept of an independent judiciary are soundly implemented. But the poorly defined role of the executive branch and the defective structure of Congress has been a problem for many decades, and has never been worse than it is now. Our framers were so terrified of a sovereign monarch taking over in the colonies that they avoided the much more efficient parliamentary system for a mutant combination of the government of Ancient Rome, the British House of Commons, and whatever the hell the presidency is supposed to be. The Original US Constitution is a failed document. And it is basically impossible to amend in the modern political climate.
 
Brangus said:
The United States Constitution is poorly drafted and totally defective. The Bill of Rights and the concept of an independent judiciary are soundly implemented. But the poorly defined role of the executive branch and the defective structure of Congress has been a problem for many decades, and has never been worse than it is now. Our framers were so terrified of a sovereign monarch taking over in the colonies that they avoided the much more efficient parliamentary system for a mutant combination of the government of Ancient Rome, the British House of Commons, and whatever the hell the presidency is supposed to be. The Original US Constitution is a failed document. And it is basically impossible to amend in the modern political climate.
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Agreed (mostly). The Constitution has great ideals, but needs a major overhaul and there's no way that's going to happen.
 
asian poster mentions familiar fondness for dog meat?

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I've gotten so fed up with the whole "crafted" phase that I refuse to buy any product that uses any version of the word "craft" in any marketing material that I see. Hand-crafted, locally-crafted, artisan-crafted, craft my ass.

It has gotten to the point that when I see a Mazda ("can a car be crafted instead of produced") that I want to run the fucking POS off the road. It is a shitty car made on a shitty assembly line just like any other car but with an even shittier rotary engine (I have no idea if they still use those), no it isn't "crafted". Cocksuckers.
 
lbE08 said:
in line with chat thread banter: triscuits are too sharp (hurt your mouth in the same way Cap'n Crunch tears you up), make too many crumbs, and dry out your mouth. They're a bottom-tier cracker for me.
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Harshing on both Cap'n Crunch and Triscuits in the same post? I don't know how popular or unpopular in general those sentiments are, but I'm defs on the exact opposite end of that debate.
 
Binging watching shows is a stupid and ultimately makes them less enjoyable.
 
DistrictDeacon said:
Binging watching shows is a stupid and ultimately makes them less enjoyable.
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I agree with this as it pertains to certain shows. I'm rewatching Breaking Bad with my wife and we're watching 2-3 at a time, and I think not letting a show like that sit with you for a week takes something away. Watching it as it aired gave the opportunity to let it sink in and you think about what happened and what might happen. But BB is a top-5 all timer show.
 
It's good to see almost all of the recent entrants fully understand what this thread is about.
 
CDeacMan said:
I agree with this as it pertains to certain shows. I'm rewatching Breaking Bad with my wife and we're watching 2-3 at a time, and I think not letting a show like that sit with you for a week takes something away. Watching it as it aired gave the opportunity to let it sink in and you think about what happened and what might happen. But BB is a top-5 all timer show.
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I binged BB and addressed that issue by reading a review between episodes.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
what is the appropriate time between shows and why
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Three 30 minutes episodes or two 1 hour episodes at a time.

Any more than that and the details of the story start to blend together and get lost. Or you start to easily see the repetitive formula of the show. Neither is a positive.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
I've gotten so fed up with the whole "crafted" phase that I refuse to buy any product that uses any version of the word "craft" in any marketing material that I see. Hand-crafted, locally-crafted, artisan-crafted, craft my ass.

It has gotten to the point that when I see a Mazda ("can a car be crafted instead of produced") that I want to run the fucking POS off the road. It is a shitty car made on a shitty assembly line just like any other car but with an even shittier rotary engine (I have no idea if they still use those), no it isn't "crafted". Cocksuckers.
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I have to laugh when some bar full of mustachioed bozos in vests talks about their "craft cocktails". Every fucking cocktail is a craft cocktail unless it's dispensed out of a frozen machine.
 
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