Rant section

was this a good idea?

  • yes.

  • no.

  • eh, kinda like-hate.

  • dont know.

  • dont care.


Results are only viewable after voting.
Yeah, I see what you're saying. I'm just wondering how we would reform that, because all this racism right now in the States is truly terrifying.
 
From what I can tell, the main way to reform that would be to remove this 'qualified immunity' thing. There is zero reason that a police officer arrested for breaking the law shouldn't be treated like anyone else would be in said situation, and be at risk of going to prison for a long time if they overstep acceptable boundaries.

There should be also be a nationwide certification process for police officers rather than leaving up to each town/state, and said process should focus heavily on de escalating arguments rather than using force. I remember hearing that a US police officer only needs to pass a few week course or process, whereas the UK version is something like 3-5 years worth of education.

Reducing how militarised they are would help too. Stop police departments buying equipment from the military, discourage veterans from becoming pollice officers, ban the use of any vehicles or equipment designed for a war zone.

Trying to make sure they're from the communities they represent could help as well. Police officers (and all emergency forces staff) should be locals who like and work in the area, not people from outside commuting in. Encourage the old fashioned beat cop setup too, as in walking a route around town rather than just driving and responding to calls.

Anyone who breaks the law in the course of their duties should also be struck off the minute they're found guilty. Actually, not just struck off. Outright banned from ever becoming a police officer anywhere else in the country. Being convicted of assaullt, murder, theft, etc should basically mean a scarlet letter that bars you from the service. To be honest, might also be better if certain other fields had the same thing. Doctors and lawyers get struck off/have their license revoked when they're found guilty of severe misconduct, so I think police officers and teachers should face the same thing.

Finally, while I hate to say this, perhaps it might be best to have the job applications/officer training process explicitly test for racist/sexist/classist/whatever attitudes, and consider rescinding the application if they come up. I have no idea how you'd test for this, but there should be some way to identify potential firebrands/liability risks/possible brutality culprits in the training process and block their hiring there and then.
 
Okay, apologies for saying this, since I try to avoid being too political here.

But... I think some people need to understand why countries have a police force.

Because in recent times, I've seen a few... somewhat extreme reactions to certain events, with some people outright saying they should abolish the police entirely.

And I get it. I really do get the logic here. The situation in many places is pretty damn bad, and there's a lot of corruption and brutality in the police, especially in the United States. Way too many of them get away with crimes that a civilian would go to prison for years for, way too many of them are racist, and far too few of them know how to handle a protest or criticism without resulting to mindness, needless violence for the sake of it.

So we definitely need reform there, and we need a lot of it.

However, that doesn't mean we can have a society without one altogether. A society without a police force (or any form of law enforcement) wil quickly turn into a dystopian nightmare of the type that'll make the recent protests look like a peaceful day at the park.

Don't believe me?

Go check out how things are doing in certain parts of South America. Or the middle east. Or Africa.

Many places there are basically war zones due to a non existent, poorly funded or utterly outgunned police force. Without the police, they end up overrun and controlled by organised crime, with results far worse than police brutality in the states could ever be. If no one keeps crime in check, the role of the police will end up taken up by organised crime (cartels, mafia, yazuka, triads, etc), street gangs, vigilantes or mobs, with no interest at all in reasonable force, innocence until proven guilty, human rights, etc.

Or alternatively, they end up going martial law and calling in the army to deal with things, which is probably not much better.

So no. You really do not want to literally abolish the police/law enforcement. They need a lot of reform for sure, and that reform might involve hiring new police to replace pretty much all the old ones to try and root out systemic corruption or what not, but you need some sort of law enforcement none the less.

Of course the abolishment of police and military force is an utterly ridiculous idea, not to mention a very dangerous one at that. It will solve absolutely nothing, and only allows for more violence.

Luckily though, virtually everyone rejects such extreme ideas; the only people that still believe in anarchy being a good thing are those Antifa ultra-left ""activists"", who are so extreme that even most leftists don't want to be associated with them. That's why I'm glad that Donald Trump announced to classify them as the plundering, ransacking, police car shitting (no, I'm not making this up) warmongering, rabble-rousing terrorist hate group they truly are.
 
Not to mention what some of these armed forces over here are doing to these protesters! Literally pushing them to the ground, making them bleed and injuring their eyes! What is happening?!
 
Not to mention what some of these armed forces over here are doing to these protesters! Literally pushing them to the ground, making them bleed and injuring their eyes! What is happening?!

Yeah, both the protesters and the riot forces alike behave like beasts. I hope this deranged orgy of violence will be over soon.
 
I know this is extremely minor, but my gosh am I tired of having every YouTube video I watch be flooded with "MaKe sUrE tO hIt tHaT beLl aNd sUbScRiBe!!". If people want to subscribe they don't need to be reminded, people aren't stupid. Some channels even show statistics that the majority of their viewers aren't subscribed when I don't even think the subscriber count is an accurate portrayal of how successful a channel is there. When you first enter the site, it shows you random videos (with subscribed stuff mixed in), which I assume is what most people watch, so of course it would make sense for not a lot of them to be subscribed since they probably just randomly came there. Plus, think of how many people have been subscribed to someone and totally forget about them, leading to "dead subscribers" as they are sometimes called, not to mention the big kids channels that are probably just all filled with bots anyways. It's just all a weird system.
 
I know this is extremely minor, but my gosh am I tired of having every YouTube video I watch be flooded with "MaKe sUrE tO hIt tHaT beLl aNd sUbScRiBe!!". If people want to subscribe they don't need to be reminded, people aren't stupid. Some channels even show statistics that the majority of their viewers aren't subscribed when I don't even think the subscriber count is an accurate portrayal of how successful a channel is there. When you first enter the site, it shows you random videos (with subscribed stuff mixed in), which I assume is what most people watch, so of course it would make sense for not a lot of them to be subscribed since they probably just randomly came there. Plus, think of how many people have been subscribed to someone and totally forget about them, leading to "dead subscribers" as they are sometimes called, not to mention the big kids channels that are probably just all filled with bots anyways. It's just all a weird system.
studies have shown that those dumbass "reminders" actually do increase the chances of a given viewer subscribing. Really it's the only thing that keeps me from outright despising those moments.
 
Yeah, unfortunately I've found it works better to actually tell people to subscribe or what not after every video.

That's also the reasoning behind those annoying 'please subscribe to my newsletter' popups on websites too.
 
Talking of YouTube, I'm getting sick of every video there seemingly being padded out to no end, likely for similar reasons. Like, a recent video I watched about Paper Mario talked about how many coins you needed to beat the game, but ended up spending about 25 minutes of a 30 minute video just recapping the entire game, plot spoilers and all.

I get why (advertising, engagement and promotional setups are better for longer videos), but damn it was clear the creator was just trying to fill out space without regard to whether the extra content was remotely relevant.
 
Talking of YouTube, I'm getting sick of every video there seemingly being padded out to no end, likely for similar reasons. Like, a recent video I watched about Paper Mario talked about how many coins you needed to beat the game, but ended up spending about 25 minutes of a 30 minute video just recapping the entire game, plot spoilers and all.

I get why (advertising, engagement and promotional setups are better for longer videos), but damn it was clear the creator was just trying to fill out space without regard to whether the extra content was remotely relevant.

Ugh, this annoys me to no end as well. Luckily, most channels that do this are at least decent enough to use some useful or interesting information as a time-filler, rather than outright talking for the sake of talking, but even then, I just prefer brief, to-the-point videos that simply stay true to the video's title.
 
Oh hey, got something else to rant about.

Chain messages online.

God I hate these things. It's like, every Discord server I go in has bullshit about some hacker taking over the accounts of people who befriend them or supposed 'raids' about to happen on all social media platforms for some reason or another.

And it makes me wonder... are people really this gulliable? Like seriously?

This is the kind of thing you mocked your grandparents for falling for in the olden days. They'd always be forwarding messages about Nigerian princes offering them their inheritance or Microsoft warning them about some virus on Windows or what not, and you'd always have to tell them that this was complete crap, and either a hoax or scam.

Yet now we've got generation Z falling for the exact same crap. Except you know, on Discord and Reddit instead of in email chain messages or on Facebook.

Would have thought technological literacy would have gotten better in the last few decades...
 
I haven’t been in a “ranty” (pardon the nonce word) mood for a time. Not because there’s nothing for me to rant about, since there are more than enough things that I can, and probably will, do a future rant about, given the current state of affairs of the world, but more because I had other things to mind. Anyway, for now I will keep it fairly shallow:

Despite generally liking neologisms (recently coined words or meanings to words), like Karen for example, I have a strong aversion to the word simp, or at the very least to how extremely loose the term has often come to be applied in recent times.

It used to be a term to describe guys and men who are overly devotious to a girl or woman to the point that they worship them as much as, or possibly even more than, misogynists dislike them. Hence the origin of the word as a shortening of simpleton, as these kind of people are often incapable of seeing the faults of their objects of obsession, i.e. the famous “love makes blind”.
But nowadays, the term is often used to describe almost any act towards a woman that is considered to be even a tiny bit above-averagely generous. Even things that used to be a completely normal social standard (and I’m not calling about standards of decades or even years ago, but just about things that were considered normal before this whole “simp” madness took off, about half a year ago or so) are now viewed as something that is strange or makes one look a weirdo by both men and women alike, although, interestingly, this whole “simp” thing per se seems to be an almost exclusively male phenomenon. I guess it has something to do with gender stereotypes or something like that (I don’t know, I’m not a sociologist), but I’m sure it has almost certainly something to do with how quickly people are offended these days, and how there are lots of snowflakes (Another neologism that I like) that will call anyone and everything sexist if it doesn’t confirm to their extremely strict standards.
Of course, being mostly an internet phenomenon, the whole thing is to be taken with a large dose of irony, and I’m very well aware of that. But sadly, as with almost any instance of irony, there are always people who still take it seriously, or mistake others for taking it seriously.
(Also see my post above this one, which is somewhat related to this.)

Anyway, I’m probably ranting about something that isn’t even worth ranting about, but just for the sake of having something to rant about, I will post this anyway, whether people may agree with it or not. I just hope this whole rant doesn’t make me look like some male Karen. But I don’t think it will.

TL;DR: The word simp has become a really crappy term.
 
I haven’t been in a “ranty” (pardon the nonce word) mood for a time. Not because there’s nothing for me to rant about, since there are more than enough things that I can, and probably will, do a future rant about, given the current state of affairs of the world, but more because I had other things to mind. Anyway, for now I will keep it fairly shallow:

Despite generally liking neologisms (recently coined words or meanings to words), like Karen for example, I have a strong aversion to the word simp, or at the very least to how extremely loose the term has often come to be applied in recent times.

It used to be a term to describe guys and men who are overly devotious to a girl or woman to the point that they worship them as much as, or possibly even more than, misogynists dislike them. Hence the origin of the word as a shortening of simpleton, as these kind of people are often incapable of seeing the faults of their objects of obsession, i.e. the famous “love makes blind”.
But nowadays, the term is often used to describe almost any act towards a woman that is considered to be even a tiny bit above-averagely generous. Even things that used to be a completely normal social standard (and I’m not calling about standards of decades or even years ago, but just about things that were considered normal before this whole “simp” madness took off, about half a year ago or so) are now viewed as something that is strange or makes one look a weirdo by both men and women alike, although, interestingly, this whole “simp” thing per se seems to be an almost exclusively male phenomenon. I guess it has something to do with gender stereotypes or something like that (I don’t know, I’m not a sociologist), but I’m sure it has almost certainly something to do with how quickly people are offended these days, and how there are lots of snowflakes (Another neologism that I like) that will call anyone and everything sexist if it doesn’t confirm to their extremely strict standards.
Of course, being mostly an internet phenomenon, the whole thing is to be taken with a large dose of irony, and I’m very well aware of that. But sadly, as with almost any instance of irony, there are always people who still take it seriously, or mistake others for taking it seriously.
(Also see my post above this one, which is somewhat related to this.)

Anyway, I’m probably ranting about something that isn’t even worth ranting about, but just for the sake of having something to rant about, I will post this anyway, whether people may agree with it or not. I just hope this whole rant doesn’t make me look like some male Karen. But I don’t think it will.

TL;DR: The word simp has become a really crappy term.
Yes yes, this has definitely trended this year! Karen is another term that has trended. With certain people, they will call you Karen if you have an opinion they don't like. It's funny because I read an argument earlier this year where both sides were calling each other Karen multiple times, and its supposed insult loses its meaning.
Same thing with simp. Yes there are people who joke about it. Yes there are people who will do literally anything for someone who doesn't even know them. However there are now people who will call someone a simp because they were nice to someone (mostly female). Ah yes, how dare someone display a kind gesture amongst an individual they care about? What a simp, am I right?
Simp and Karen are two buzzwords people use nowadays that quickly lose any meaning when used over and over.
 
Yes yes, this has definitely trended this year! Karen is another term that has trended. With certain people, they will call you Karen if you have an opinion they don't like. It's funny because I read an argument earlier this year where both sides were calling each other Karen multiple times, and its supposed insult loses its meaning.
Same thing with simp. Yes there are people who joke about it. Yes there are people who will do literally anything for someone who doesn't even know them. However there are now people who will call someone a simp because they were nice to someone (mostly female). Ah yes, how dare someone display a kind gesture amongst an individual they care about? What a simp, am I right?
Simp and Karen are two buzzwords people use nowadays that quickly lose any meaning when used over and over.

Indeed. When both parties accuse each other of being something, that something quickly loses any meaning, that's for sure.
And yes, the word Karen has lost some of its meaning too, but not as much as with simp, probably because of its narrower definition; a simp can be any male who "worships" a woman or thinks being nice=sex, whereas a Karen is a stereotypically behaving middle-aged woman who is notorious for complaining to employees, using racist slurs, viewing her childern as her literal property, etc.
It's because this that the term Karen isn't being abused as much as other neologisms, and probably also because almost anyone dislikes Karens, whereas simps aren't really hated (unless you're some extremely easily offened SJW, of course), but rather just considered a bit "clumsy", or, at the very worst, viewed as laughing stock.
 
This might be very cynical and controversial (not that it should matter), but I will say it anyway:

The people of the United States have once again delivered a terrible candidate to vote on for the next election, and his opponent isn't much better either. If I was an American and had voting rights, I don't think I would vote for either of them; Trump, while not as utterly bad as most media make him appear to be, has shown the world that he's, well, not doing a great job at being president. Yeah, he has done some really good things, but those are vastly overshadowed by his incompetence, massive ego, and near-constantly being the subject of one controversy and scandal after the other.
No, he's not a vile white supremacist or a whatever-phobe they nearly constantly accuse him of, and he's not "evil" either, no, he's just a bad president. Maybe not a bad businessman, but certainly a bad president.

But then, his only remaining opponent, Joe Biden, is not much better either. He's an old fool who constantly forgets people's names or gets even basic facts wrong (He once even thought he was battling Bush rather than Trump), does incredibly idiotic and self-destructive things like playing that one horrible song, Despacito, in front of an audience, which is already bad enough if it wasn't for the fact that he was facing a Latino crowd, says things like "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, you ain't black", and makes countless other blunders that, if they were made by Trump, would be on the frontpages of every mainsteam newspaper, but since Biden is happily backed by the media and big tech companies like Facebook and Google, where corruption of Biden is "preferably" not being published, you won't see such things anytime soon.
As I see it, both candidates are unworthy of being POTUS, but since Americans seem to have a thing for electing terrible candidates, there ain't much choice. I'm looking forward to see who's gonna screw up the USA, and by extension, the rest of the Western world, for the next four years.

(Don't be offended if you're American plz; this is just a rant, don't take any of this personally.)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top