The Cracked Thread

The federal government is considered an outside authority figure? That's interesting.

It's a consequence of the US being completely huge and broken up into more reasonably sized states. It's hard to think of an authority figure based on the other side of the continent as anything approaching local.

That's the critical point right there.

You would be amazed what is legal so long as you're willing to sign a waiver saying that you consent to having it done to you. Children under the age of 18 are in the legal custody of their parents and thus can have their parents sign those waivers for them.

edited 2nd Jun '15 9:44:55 AM by TobiasDrake

There are limitations to what parents can do with their children. If this isn't child abuse I don't know what it is.

@Gilphon: I dunno about calling it "manageable".

It's more an ingrained thing in our culture, considered a key future of our government. Just, fuck centralized government, fuck it as hard as possible.

Being from a state that not only refuses to ban this abusive bullshit but is actively in support of it, some vigilante really needs to track down every last senator who voted in favor and rip their balls off so their loathsome kind can never reproduce.

edited 3rd Jun '15 2:55:49 AM by Midna

It's a tricky line to follow. On one hand, you have things like requiring your children to get their vaccines. On the other side, you have people feeding their autistic children bleach in an effort to cure them. Somewhere in between, you have things like infant chiropractry which is only a little dangerous but carries no medical benefit whatsoever.

Supporting it? That's nuts. I get a few extremist groups doing it, but an entire state government in support? Being homophobic doesn't have to equate to utilizing child torture. Jeez.

For once, I get to be proud of my tiny state. I find it kind of crazy that stabbing kids with needles isn't just automatically illegal no matter what the circumstances are, though. If a parent doing it would be considered abuse, then a parent signing over the rights for someone else to do it shouldn't be any different.

It's easier for extremist movements like that to gain power in smaller governments. America is 50+ small governments held together by a gentleman's agreement.

@Psycho Babble It's stabbing kids with needles to avoid them contracting a horrible disease. It's not like they're doing it for fun. (I assume you're talking about vaccines). But yes that's the problem you have to let adults decide kid's medical decisions because having your teeth cleaned isn't exactly fun, and you have a cavity the experience might even be painful, but it tends to be kind of necessary. The issue is it can also be used to justify gay conversion therapy, or those desert camps for misbehaving kids.

edited 3rd Jun '15 9:37:42 AM by phantom1

There are people who honestly believe that homosexuality will get a child's soul condemned to Hell for all eternity. For those people, anything is justifiable if it means their child going to Heaven, because to those people, this life has no meaning; its sole purpose is to separate out the ones who ascend from the ones who descend, and if that means they have to torture their child to get him or her into an eternity of blissful paradise, that's worth it.

When a person truly believes that their eternal resting place is on the line, they'll do anything for it. That's the most horrific thing about this; that these parents are doing these terrible things to their child out of misguided love of all things. They honestly believe that their choices and their actions are just, and that if you try to help their child, YOU are the threat, YOU are the monster trying to drag their child into an eternity of torture.

edited 3rd Jun '15 9:44:15 AM by TobiasDrake

I'm talking about the article. One of the tortures had to do with needles.

I have to admit, your comment confused me at first...

EDIT: To be fair, though, I guess the people doing it view it identically. But in that case the entire point of the torments is specifically for the pain.

edited 3rd Jun '15 11:29:50 AM by Psychobabble6

I come from a strongly conservative Catholic background, and I've found that's the biggest issue. It's easy to think of homophobes as evil people. But the issue is that they have another viewpoint, another point of reference. To them, they're legitimately doing good. The way to progress is not to try and shame them or browbeating them to stop being bad and start being good, that's not how it works. The challenge is to get people to consider whether the assumptions they're basing their view on might be erroneous. Which is applicable to basically any issue, but I've gotten to see it a lot, personally.

There was an episode of Family Guy about that. Infant character Stewie made a friend whose parents were strongly conservative. When his mother Lois discovered the kid had cancer but could survive if he received treatment, she tried to make that point to the parents to no avail, so she resorted to abducting the child.

When this inevitably blew up in her face, the conflict was resolved by Lois learning to approach the issue from their perspective; the parents believed that if they prayed to God, he would cure the boy of cancer, but Lois argued that God works through man and that medical science is one of the tools he gave us, culminating in the Armor-Piercing Question, "What's the point of all that praying if you're just going to ignore his answer?"

edited 3rd Jun '15 12:33:32 PM by TobiasDrake

...

Since when did Family Guy get clever?

It happens a few times one in a while when Seth wants to be Anvilicious.

Well, more often the anviliciousness is even dumber than the norm, but yeah.

Also, you get alot of people of the same mind-set going ahead and moving in next to each other. Due to the more localized nature of the U.S. Government, like I said, those people are now the majority in a small enough area where that matters.

JF Sargent: 7 Insanely Dark Reality Shows We'd probably watch.

Ugh, this really pisses me off: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-online-dating-will-never-lead-to-love/

Because of the title. Not just because the title is intentionally inflammatory for clicks, but it also makes the writer of the article seem a lot more "bitter and spinster-y" than something like "6 Shocking Reasons Online Dating Is Harder Than Expected."

6 Mind-Blowing Reasons Why Online Dating is Shockingly Insane

With their increased focus on articles covering politics and tragedies, Cracked can't decide whether they wish to still be a "comedy" website, or clickbait tabloid journalism instead.

And most of their articles have a glaringly obvious left-wing bias (although I am NOT saying a right-wing bias would be any better).

edited 5th Jun '15 8:36:26 AM by AHI-3000

Or a center bias if you're anywhere but America.

Also the dating thing makes a very good point: dating online is fine and successful. Online dating sites is when things begin to fall apart.

Does anyone remember that one article that talked about the Homeowner Association denying that girl with cancer's request and those asshole New Hampshire politicians? I'd be very pleased if anyone remembered its name.