Are people today softer

[Guest MrRant]

Do you think that the people living today are bigger weaklings than our grandparents etc?

 

WWII had heavy casualties and they sucked it up and made it through it. (Note: You should thank any WWII veteran you meet for) and today we can't get past one death on our side before people holler that we should pull out.

[Guest DawnBTVS]

Thank the media, etc. for making us wusses. God forbid the world we live in suddenly becomes R rated rather then PG rated as it is now

[Guest ShooterJay]

Yes.

 

I blame the school system. Really. Notice how gym classes aren't competitve anymore, and that there are a lot of non-competitve "trust" exercises, stuff like that. Nobody is being pushed to their limits anymore.

 

Also- lawyers. One punch or slap is "assault" now, which I find ridiculous. Fighting is often a necessary evil, and the incredibly strict laws have well, wussified the general populace. (Note I'm talking man vs. man here, not domestic incidents)

 

As far as war goes, yeah, it's the most horrible invention of man, and diplomacy should always be attempted first and have it used as a last resort. But when you're dealing with unreasonable people, war is the only way to do what needs to be done, know what I mean?

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

We are unquestionably softer now, and I don't endorse any kind of return to the hard-assed environment of years past (not to mention how difficult it would be after 50+ years of our culture as we know it today) but it makes weeding out the nuts easier.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Definatly. We're raising a nation of pussies that teaches kids to run to a teacher if there's trouble instead of sticking up for yourself.

 

You can't even lay as much as a fart on anyone without getting sued now.

[Guest MrRant]

We are unquestionably softer now, and I don't endorse any kind of return to the hard-assed environment of years past (not to mention how difficult it would be after 50+ years of our culture as we know it today) but it makes weeding out the nuts easier.

But don't you think you should raise a kid to know when to defend himself? We are raising are kids in a enviroment of tell someone else if a bully is picking on them so that they can give the kid a warning.... and then another... and another instead of standing up for themselves and popping the bully one so that that he knows what the deal is. Of course if your kid does that he/she will be suspended and the bully may get detention at the most.

 

When I was in elementary/middle school and you got in a fight you had a meeting with the principle. But you got it out of your system and it was pretty much over with.

 

Now you get in a fight and you are expelled.

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

To an extent, I agree with the fight analogy. However, it's also a much more effective means to discourage fighting than saying, "Well, you're gonna have to go talk to the principal!"

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I got into a lot of fights in elementary school to defend myself. My dad told me to fight back if someone's fucking with me...but by the time I got to high school you could sue anyone for anything, so you had to be careful.

 

If I have a son (and one day I hope to) he's not going to be a little pussy, this I vow.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

I've been saying we're all too big of pussies for a while now. In 7th grade I got a couple of detentions because I tackled a kid who was taking a swing at me. He got an office detention (which, back then, meant eating lunch in the principal's office).

 

And the whole mentality that "violence solves nothing" is flawed. Bully A picks on Person A. Person A has had enough of Bully A's shit, and decks Bully A in the face. Bully A knows not to fuck with Person A again. Honestly, I think it's the fact that we've become so big of pussies that has lead to school shootings. A one-on-one fair fight should be encouraged if two people have a problem that will more than likely end in fisticuffs, with people around to make sure that neither person goes too far. Once you've traded blows with a person you can't stand, you actually begin to respect them to a degree.

 

But yeah, people really need to just lighten up when it comes to two kids that want to duke it out hand-to-hand. And gym class should bring back dodgeball, and pickle, and tackle football, and wrestling, and other sports/games where competition, many times physical, is encouraged. After a few minutes of beaming kids with large rubber balls, you'd be surprised just how fine you feel if you've had a rough day.

[Guest Kingpk]

Blame the invasion of Political Correctness and parents who either can't raise a kid properly or just won't.

[Guest Midnight Express83]

Well, two things come to mind....

 

1: Tyler shrink you sig, it is fucking annoying reading threads you are with the text all fucked up.

 

2: Fighting at a young age gets it out of your system. But fighting is stupid. People need to just need to cool off and most problems younger go a way.

 

A good way to do it to have both kids just stay away from each other for a few hours, get home, go behind one of the kids houses and let it get out of their system. Not worth getting in trouble for it.

 

But when you get older, a fight in some cities could get you stabbed/shot. So it is best not to go that route. It wouldn't be a problem if some assholes didn't try to get the world to fight them. Another way to solve it when older, don't let people's words get to you. You can feel better knowing you made the other person look like the ass.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Please don't count me off as any kind of racist or anything, the arab kid in my story was a bastard, this is just how this went down.

 

This was about 10th grade. And day after day this arab kid who played for the football team kept picking on one of those quiet kids. You know, the kind you shouldn't fuck with cause they're the ones who go nuts and shoot up the school.

 

And this went on for about a week or so, just the start of the school year. Any little thing the arab kid could to to fuck with him, flick him in the ears, talk shit. And the teacher was a meathead who couldn't have cared less, he knew what was going on.

 

So that Friday after a week of this the weird broody kid waited outside the door for the other guy to come out of the class and when he did he punched him in the gut and then kicked him full blast in the face.

 

And of course the kid that was getting bullied got suspended and the asshole jock (who failed a few classes and got to play games anyway) got jack shit for what he did.

 

And this guy was an asshole to everyone, I got in a shoving match with him over a seat in the library just cause he thought he could do anything he wanted.

 

End result...you should be allowed to beat the piss out of anyone that fucks with you like that.

 

and P.S. leave the quiet ones alone...they're not talking to you for a reason.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Well do you deserved to be suspened for getting your ass kicked?

 

I couldn't stand kids like that. Thankfully my school wasn't bad after 8th grade. Be grateful he used his fist, and not a weapon.

[Guest SP-1]

It hits men the hardest. As boys our natural energy is now defined as being too hyper and we're drugged to subdue us. We're taught that if that bully keeps screwing with you not to hit back, etc.

 

And sadly, alot of my fellow Christians are advocates of some of it. It's sad. Alot of people are surprised that I, as a Christian, would tell my son that if some kid hits him to knock him back. God made Adam in the wilderness and then set him in the Garden. From the beginning we were supposed to be rugged.

 

Sorry, got off on a rant there. Yes, our children are being taught to be pussies. It's sad. Not my kid though.

[Guest Vyce]

Yes, we are too fucking weak. Say what you will about the men of the 40 / 50s, they had a lot of problems, but they had goddamn balls of steel.

 

I don't ever plan to have kids, but in the unfortunate event that I do, I wouldn't teach them any of this politically correct let's-all-be-happy-shiny-people-and-the-world-will-be-just-peachy-keen bullshit.

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

There is some validity to complaining about the extent of our political correctness, but there's also a reason why this stuff occurs. We should limit it, but eliminating it breeds the nonsensible notion that every boy who doesn't drink motor oil and fracture some bully's skull is a homosexual. Believe it or not, attacking the problem at its root -- the aggressive, violent tendancies of the schoolyard and whatnot -- is a better solution than alienating the ones who choose not to engage in that type of activity.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Yes. I too would trace it back to childhood, I can't really explain it though as I really didn't socialize with kids much my own age. I didn't fight back because I've always been short and my bullies have always been a good deal bigger than me. Also, I bruise incredibly easily (enough that the other kids at school were shocked when I let them lay some soft ones and see what happens).

 

I've also been several years behind the maturity curve so....

 

 

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I have difficulty putting my finger on just WHERE this occurs because I'm part of the problem.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I'd say we're definitely "softer," but we're also healthier and living longer, and more prosperously. Gone are the days of trudging behind the mule in the fields, and swinging a pick in a filthy mine. Good riddance to them. As far as the schoolyard situation goes, I didn't take any shit from older kids. I got in trouble now and again, but I ALWAYS, as in 100% of the time, felt better about defending my pride by myself rather than being a squealer.

[Guest spiny norman]

School shootings aren't because people are being "wussified" and softer. Because this huge wussification process is occuring all over the world, yet the school shootings are mainly occuring in America. Perhaps the school shootings are in fact because of other problems with society than people being too soft.

 

And I don't think that people are really being encouraged to being softer. When I was younger I always backed down from fights because fighting honestly is nothing. Sure, the guy may never be a prick to you anymore. But it hardly gives you any self-satisfaction. You can't credit yourself after breaking some guy's nose to have used any semblance to intelligence.

 

Maybe physically we don't show our strength as often. Emotionally we are still encouraged to be as "strong" (ie. suck up any problems and be a man!) which is really quite weak anyhow. Mentally we are by far stronger. So I would say that men are, as a whole, stronger.

 

Women were not counted in that because they are still as strong/weak (depending on your perspective) as ever because the men still expect this from them.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

And I don't think that people are really being encouraged to being softer. When I was younger I always backed down from fights because fighting honestly is nothing. Sure, the guy may never be a prick to you anymore. But it hardly gives you any self-satisfaction. You can't credit yourself after breaking some guy's nose to have used any semblance to intelligence.

 

Hogwash. You beat a meathead at their own game. And you say there's no self-satisfaction after having someone pick a fight, then kicking their ass?

 

...Have you ever gotten in a fight?

[Guest Walter Sobzak]

Kicking someone's ass is a great feeling. Every man (and woman for that matter) should do it at least once. We started getting softer when we stopped punching each other in the face and started talking about why we wanted to punch each other in the face. You say it's not fists anymore, but guns? That's another indication of how soft we've gotten. Anybody who goes into his school always does it for the same reasons: not popular/picked on/ didn't fit in/ wasn't getting any/blah blah blah. Fuck you. Here's a radical idea: suck it up. Work hard and get back at them with your own success later in life, and in the meantime, you'll probably be able to "fit in" just fine with all the other miserable assholes who feel the same way you do.

 

Also, I blame emo.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

I fully agree that lawsuits can become ridiculous in the hands of the whiny, and agree that snitching someone out to a higher authority instead of solving the problem on your own is a dumb method, but some of the solutions I'm seeing here boil down to "beat some asses!" Do we really need to *expand* our machismo bullshit posturing?

[Guest SP-1]

There's definitely a time for talking through things, making sense of something and working your way through it.

 

But sometimes punching someone in the f'ing face is called for. Especially if they swing first.

[Guest ShooterJay]

Do we really need to *expand* our machismo bullshit posturing?

Speaking of macho bullshit posturing, the funniest example I saw of it was at a frat party a month or so ago. Two guys outside started screaming obscenities at each other, with the usual threatening to "kick your fucking ass, pussy!", etc. There's about 8 guys on both sides "holding them back," and one of them starts to walk away, more insults, they come back, repeat. There's about 20 MINUTES of this with nobody hitting anybody.

 

Finally the cops broke it up because of a noise complaint.

[Guest SP-1]

Yeah Jay, shit like that is retarded on many levels. I hate "poser" fights. If there's a legit reason to knock somebody's jaw out of alignment, that's one thing. Getting pissed off because some guy bumped into you walking by? Retarded.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I've always been able to talk my way out of any potentially violent situation, without squealing, and I live in the South. I think that if I was able to do it here of all places, people can resort to peaceful actions elsewhere.

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

God dammit, another post no-sold due to machoism. Let's have a real discussion instead of "WE SHULD SOCK EM IN DA MOUTH, HEHEHE" shall we?

 

Does anyone actually believe that the old "beat the fuck out of everyone who steps to you" culture is a good thing? Seriously, we used to live in a culture that prided men on their machoism and encouraged them to have no feelings and simply engage in fightin' and playin'. As much as you wanna say that we were "tougher" back then, how are we better off by living in a society which thinks that those who choose not to fight and play sports are somewhat less than a man? That's an absurd notion, and going back to the days of everyone beating up everyone else is absolutely stupid.

[Guest SP-1]

On the contrary. I think males who try to fight everytime you turn around are severely lacking in true manhood. They're posing. Horribly. But there is a time and a place for it. If there's a guy breaking in my house and I have a wife and a kid upstairs, I'm going to knock the shit out of him the second I'm close enough.

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

That shouldn't even be a part of the argument, SP. That much is obvious. So is the fact that you should fight back when being pummelled, but you guys are advocating a pissing contest where anyone who gets picked on in the slightest degree should fight the guy in order to prove his dick is big. That's pretty fucking stupid, IMO.

[Guest BDC]

I find myself to be a damn funny case. Here I am now, a pretty big guy (6'3, 220) who didn't get this way until college.

 

Also, now, I'm extremely well-versed in terms of unarmed combat. Name a style and I've probably studied it. Half the pricks that messed with me in high school and back would be scared to death of me now, and the other half I would take great pleasure in knocking the hell out of them.

 

One time I did almost lose it. My dad was in a car wreck when I was four, and I was in the backseat. A full grown thoroughbred tried to leap the car and came down on the roof right above him. What happens when one moron tries to make fun of it? My brain shut down and I came one ace from caving his windpipe. Yeah, I was a quiet one and I would have smiled doing it.