Lurker > SSj4Wingzero

PowerMan5000000 posted...

I think it caused McDs to drop the super size choice

And...has that impacted obesity rates? Not really. In fact, obesity has gone *up* since Spurlock's movie - can't really call it a documentary if it doesn't actually document events that happened

"States get to choose how to run elections for federal offices" is one of those aspects of our constitution that just makes no damn sense whatsoever

Jaguar34 posted...

But as a documentary it's still pretty good even though it didn't meet academic standards

I feel like it was a good idea done well that illustrated an issue in society that needed to be talked about.

It's true he may have had other health issues but the movie was good enough to watch and affect society in a positive way.

Isn't good that enough?

How exactly did the movie affect society in a positive way?

Did obesity rates decrease as a result of the movie?

Are Americans healthier today than they were before the movie was released?

Did he show people anything that they didn't know beforehand?

I'd argue that the answer to all of those questions is "no", because it's not like people thought fast food was a healthy treat before his movie came out.

I've watched the NBA for most of my life. I'm not a *diehard* fan of basketball in general (just the Knicks), but I'm pretty familiar with most of the players who have been mainstays across the league.

I have never heard of Royce White and legitimately did not know he was an NBA player.

So I went and looked him up.

This fucker literally played in THREE NBA games. He played a grand total of 8 minutes and 55 seconds in the NBA. He attempted 1 field goal and missed it. He committed 2 personal fouls. His career NBA statistics are:

-0-1 FGA/FGM, 0% FG%, 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, and 2 fouls.

"Fame as a basketball player"? Lmfao.

And the thing is, he never actually appeared in a game for the Houston Rockets

Agreed. What makes bullying hard is we want to give the bully chances to reform, but at the same time, that usually just makes life harder for the other students. There's a reason why teachers and administrators in schools spend the majority of their time dealing with a very very small minority of students that make life difficult for everyone because they're unpleasant and oftentimes have parents who are unpleasant, and we still haven't figured out a solution on how to deal with them effectively. I oftentimes question the usefulness of trying to teach trigonometry to kids who have absolutely no interest in learning the material, but hey, what do I know? I just teach it.

The Dark Night

Prismsblade posted...

The Data doesn't mean much if the reality for most simply isnt reflecting it.

Indeed. The main takeaway seems to be that we should start measuring economic prosperity differently.

Purple_Cheetah posted...

Forgot about it, but there was also this totally random time a number of years later, that this guy approached me and apologized how he treated me. Even now I don't even remember if he even did anything, but mighta been the kid that almost stabbed me with a pencil.

It does warm my heart to hear about people who do genuinely change their ways. Sadly, research has shown it's not particularly common.

Schools have a hard time dealing with bullying because it's really hard to acknowledge the simple truth that some people are pieces of shit and will always be pieces of shit.

We might not be in a recession, but I think the average American is starting to realize that "we're not in a recession because companies are making more money than ever" does not translate to good quality of life.

For decades we've chugged along while letting serious structural problems fester. It's just that things that were smaller problems (monopolies and oligopolies controlling every industry and driving up prices) in the 90s became worse and worse, and our government, rather than implementing real progressive taxation to balance out the economy, has basically bought into supply-side economics bullshit even though it's been proven to *NOT WORK* in every single country it's ever been implemented. And while yes, this is probably more of a Republican problem, you do have enough Democrats who have bought into this crap to the point where it's not leaving Washington anytime soon, and that's a problem.

It is exceedingly hard to find a motive for anything Republicans do other than "We're horrible people and we enjoy being horrible."

SC: "Let me spend decades chasing clout by going to high-priced donor events and schmoozing with politicians and business people"

Also SC: "Leave us alone!"

Purple_Cheetah posted...

Without my doing or desire, 3 of my bullies died not too long after, and the one lying teacher and principal (they were married, so a total conflict of interest) lost everything they and their families owned in a single hurricane.

Good riddance to those folks. It is certainly possible for bullies to reform, but it is not particularly common, and adult bullies are people that the world is generally better off without.

Fenriswolf posted...

American Evangelicals are less Christians and more Christian nationalists who wants a theocracy. They actually defend greed by justifying everything as "God's will", thus the televangelist who spends millions on a private jet and megachurch? It's okay, just God's will.

They don't even *really* want a theocracy, because a theocracy under the words of Jesus would mean that rich people have to sell their possessions, and we all know they don't actually want that.

It's all about pro-rich conservatism clothed with a few mentions of "God" here or there (noticeably devoid of any actual scripture or theology).

"Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin." Deuteronomy 24:14-15.

The people who invoke God and scripture in conservative causes should try and read the damn book every once in a while.

LonelyStoner posted...

Its really no wonder fewer and fewer people are going for teaching jobs. Fuck the parents. They taught the bully how to bully and should be held accountable instead of the administration rolling over and showing their bellies.

And it's not all parents, which is the worst thing. But the small few of them ruin it for everyone. School is supposed to be a place where you enjoy yourself, learn some stuff, and figure out who you are, but we go so far out of our way to cater to the bottom 10%.

ROBANN_88 posted...

I was bullied as a kid, and the only advice i got was "just ignore them, and they will get bored. They just want to get a reaction, so don't do anything"

Ignoring them may do something when it comes to just verbal bullying, but obviously not physical bullying. This idea that if you're punched in the face you're just supposed to "ignore it" is inhumane.

Most previous research about bullies is just wrong. We used to think that bullies had low self-esteem and bullied other people to feel better about themselves, but in reality, most bullies are like Donald Trump - entitled pieces of shit who think their shit doesn't stink.

ai123 posted...

Physical bullying is actually the easiest to deal with. There will usually be evidence, witnesses, and policy can be clear. The more insidious and, in many ways more harmful, bullying takes place verbally and on social media where it is largely hidden from teachers and parents. And what can a teacher do about an out of school hours facebook post anyway? Taking the victim off social media isn't the answer either, as it just further isolates them from the social operations of their peers (as well as punishing them rather than the bullies).

Even when it comes to verbal bullying and teasing, what can you do?

You can yell at the bully and tell him to stop, but the harmful words were already said.

You can try to discipline the bully, but how? Most schools won't do it because the bullies have parents who are also bullies and will complain and try to get you fired. What consequence could you dole out for verbal bullying? There really isn't much you can do, which is the problem. The best thing schools can do is try to separate students, but that doesn't really solve the problem, it's just a minor fix.

Necronmon posted...

Yah, I don't think schools have yet to really figured out how to get a grasp on Cyber Bullying other then smacking down any outright thing they can see.

In my town next year schools are starting to do a process where they will now be able to see what every student is doing on there computer at all times...while creeping into authoritative plans...seems to be the only way to stop it if they insist on having computers be just about for everything now...I guess as long as its only the school PC's then its not to intrusive.

Phones just shouldn't be allowed in schools period. It's so detrimental to students' health and well-being.

I mean, if you want to push for the Ten Commandments to be put up in schools...maybe you shouldn't simultaneously support a Presidential candidate who breaks like, half of them?

LonelyStoner posted...

Teachers should definitely be given more power to intervene in these shitty circumstances. I cant say that, in that position, I would be able to ignore such behavior. Teachers arent cut off from telling other teachers that one shitty kid and his friends are bullying another kid who did nothing to them. There are an embarrassing amount of teachers who dont care about the kids they are supposed to be teaching.

Most teachers care. It's just...what can you do?

A group of kids is bullying a student. You can report it to the administration, but what will the administration do? Nothing, probably. Odds are, the administration will blame the teacher for not being able to control the bullies. The administration is scared to death of the parents of the bullies, and that's the truth.

And as a teacher, if you know that reporting something will just result in you (i.e. the teacher doing their job!) having a target on your back for daring to report something and giving more work to the administration, then, well, sometimes you devolve into self-preservation and keep your mouth shut. School administrations spend the majority of their time worried about keeping *that parent* happy.

CRON posted...

My mother's been working in a well-funded district for years where you'd expect there to be no problems, yet they're facing the same issues as schools nationwide. I consistently hear the most insane stories you can imagine. Students are borderline illiterate, can't communicate, and are outrageously disrespectful towards their peers and staff alike. Teachers have to walk on eggshells during conferences or behavioral meetings because parents lose their minds at the simple thought of their children not being viewed as anything other than a well-behaved genius.

I work in one of these school districts as well, and I deal with this bullshit everyday. The worst of the worst students get away with damn near *everything*, and there are no actual consequences because shitty kids usually have shitty parents who are are litigious people who will sue the school and the school will cave.

Well, no, they don't cave. They instead push it back on the teacher and blame the teacher for not handling it.

As to kids thinking they're geniuses...grade inflation is a real thing. Teachers nationwide rarely give out grades lower than C's because parents will bitch to the administrators and the administrators blame the teachers for "not doing enough to support the student", which is why there is a nationwide phenomenon called "B-flation", which is basically "We give you a B so that you leave us alone."

Test scores nationwide are dismal because students don't actually *know* anything, and because teachers are overworked and tired of not having support, most teachers just inflate grades to that parents and administrators leave them alone. You can read an article about it here. The article blames schools and teachers, but conveniently leaves out the fact that the main reason schools and teachers inflate grades is because parents are assholes.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/15/us/child-progress-beyond-grades/index.html

Necronmon posted...

I been a substitute teacher since 2017 and I seen a lot. There are two kinds of bully's...at least in the most basic level, those who hurt others because they are hurt, and those who think they can do whatever they want, because there parents make them feel that way.

These days parents give hell for any single thing, these days kids can break things and not be punished out of fear of the parents...these days there has to be direct violence and threats before ANY thing is done and sometimes that's STILL not enough because they are so afraid of being sued.

I saw one kid outright brag because his dad was a cop and his mom was a lawyer that he could speed through town and just flash a badge and he would not be charged.

There are many problems but a big problem is that so many parents outright think them and there kids are superior to everyone around them. When so many parents feel kids don't have to be held accountable for there grades or behavior school becomes just a day care where the elite come first, the others dead last.

As a teacher, you have my gratitude, respect, and if I had the money, I'd donate you some of my salary. You don't get thanked enough for what you do, and it is a shame that most schools don't budget for substitutes. Then they panic when they can't find people to cover classes.

Everything you say is 100% on point. School is suppose to *fix* the problems with society. Instead, it exacerbates them - shitty entitled kids go through school getting whatever they want, and they do, and they grow up to be assholes. It starts early.

The problem nowadays is that schools don't actually discipline awful students.

Teachers don't actually have the power to actually discipline students in a meaningful way. The most a teacher can do is write it up to the administration, and then the administration will do one of two things:

-Cave when the bully's parents call and threaten to sue the school
-Blame it on the teacher for not being able to handle the bully (with what consequence?) and then take administrative action against the teacher

Kids who are assholes have all the power because school administrations rarely stand up to those dipshit kids, and the consequence is that kids who get picked on can't really be helped in any way.

That's pretty nuts that you can glitch the game like that. It's amazing, because although people have figured out so many wacky exploits with this game, I still remember playing it and having a great time!

Yeah there are some crazy glitches in Gen 1 of Pokemon. I seem to recall a speedrunner who found some weird exploit glitch where you can get yourself into the Hall of Fame and "beat the game" in like, 10 minutes, or something weird like that.

Gen 1 of Pokemon also didn't really tell you what half the moves did. I still remember putting Dragon Rage on Gyarados thinking it was some ultra-powerful move and then wondering why it was doing no damage (it was, after all, the only Dragon-type move in the game). Then of course I find out through subsequent generations (I think Gen 3 was the first gen where they started describing the moves to you) that it did fixed damage, essentially meaning that it got weaker as enemies got stronger, lmfao.