What's Wrong with America?

Sophia's neck of the woods (pun intended), this is where you should head for any meet-and-greet you'd like to partake in, as well for any discussion that isn't related to role-playing. Have fun, go crazy - but keep your nose clean.
Post Reply
User avatar
Karl the Mad
 

Posts: 1260
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:27 am
Location: Oregon

What's Wrong with America?

Post by Karl the Mad »

Well, among other things...

Debra Reed, President and CEO of Sempra Energy, will be collecting a 3.17-million dollar bonus.

Why is this a bad thing? Sempra Energy is the parent company of SoCal Gas, which was in charge of the Aliso Canyon natural gas facility. Which experienced a gas leak of unprecedented size and scope last year; only last month was it finally capped.

You might know it better as the Porter Ranch Disaster.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik ... story.html
User avatar
IamLEAM1983
Site Admin
 

Posts: 3707
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:54 am
Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: What's Wrong with America?

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Unchecked corporate policies and the shareholders still racking up a fat bonus?

Corruption's everywhere, Karl. You're stuck with Big Business, I'm stuck with a nepotist government that flip-flops twice a week on issues it used to consider as being pivotal (as is usually the case during Quebec's election periods) and that can't decide between pleasing the people, pleasing Big Business, or pleasing Big Business by instigating draconian budget cuts while raising pay grades for physicians and top-tier civil servants.

Because somehow, Quebec's physicians weren't "on the same playing field" as the rest of Canada's practitioners. We're talking people who routinely rack in well over a hundred thousand bucks a year, if not more if they double down on the private sector. As yes, Quebec's healthcare system works both ways as of the last decade: you can still have your life-threatening or life-supporting expenses covered by the State if you're a registered citizen, but that comes with an engorged medical administration and monstrous waiting lines. You can also whip out your Visa and pay for your yearly visits to a GP, if you're so inclined. It's faster and generally more efficient, but prices aren't regulated. Private clinics are all over the place in terms of their price ranges, even if they offer the same basic services.

Forget America - there's something wrong with Western society in all its forms, period. The only thing I'm proud of on a local basis is the anti-corruption task force we put into place - which ironically bit the hand that created it. My former PM's had his aide involved fraudulent expense claims, and he denied anything having to do with this during the last investigative commission we put together, two years ago.

So while I empathize, I can't say American examples of injustice differ from what I read in the local papers.

My grandmother had a saying: where there's humans, there's human bullshit. "Human Bullshit" was her odd, but mostly à-propos way of referring to examples of dishonesty or general injustice.
User avatar
Karl the Mad
 

Posts: 1260
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:27 am
Location: Oregon

Re: What's Wrong with America?

Post by Karl the Mad »

What else is wrong with America? Well, not just America this time.

Terrorism in Gaming
User avatar
IamLEAM1983
Site Admin
 

Posts: 3707
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:54 am
Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: What's Wrong with America?

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Again - not surprised. 

Consider geeks. We're folks that were raised thinking we were intellectual misfits and were fed entertainment that pushes a certain idea of courtship that has more to do with wacky shenanigans than any serious attempt at presenting a desirable personality for any member of the fairer sex. We're set up to fail, and our presented course to avoid failing involves ignoring social mores; in the weird promise that She's going to find you so wacky, so spontaneous, so true-to-life, that She's going to abandon her jock friend and go for you.

In short, anything goes. We're geeks, we're allowed our quirks, aren't we? Or so the problematic elements in any facet of geek culture seem to think, at least. Hey, you absolutely didn't want to creep out that kid with that uber-sexist Warhammer 40K reference; it just happened! The way She looked at you, spoke to you - she wanted it!

Any closed society runs the risk of fostering preconceived notions like this, and it's not just a question of sexism or abuse towards women. I've suffered my fair share of abuse too, because the neckbeards at the local hobby shop didn't think I fit whatever "serious gamer" physical traits are required to be able to enter open games and tournaments. A lot of geeks forget there's such a thing as the "entry phase", in which you haven't found your exact franchise or hobby, the one thing you're good at and in which you'll specialize - and assume anyone who shows up to buy Magic cards knows the ins and outs of the latest roster. You're out buying Warhammer miniatures? Surely you must have read the Eisenhorn Trilogy, right? You've dabbled in the Star Wars Expanded Universe? You've obviously read the Thrawn Trilogy, right?

That gives us the GamerGaters and the idiots accusing cosplayers of being "fake geeks" - the morons who think it's a closed gentleman's club in which all of the tropes we used to stick to football jocks are now stuck to clanmates, guildmates or D&D campaign collaborators. South Park's "He Who Has No Life" isn't just a caricature; there's folks in the geek populace that have honestly seen so little, lived so poorly that all they've got is their baggage of preconceived notions and their echo chamber-reinforced sense of entitlement.

Geeks are their own worst enemy, and that's something few people will ever acknowledge.
Post Reply