Teenagers Are Being Led Astray

mac0s9user said:

I was more referring to the radicals. I am sure there are plenty of good people in Iraq. I cant understand though why they dont make a stand as people and say enough.
I am christian and to be honest there are a lot of radical christians who scare the *insert word here* out of me.

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Unfortunately, such behavior is an intrinsic nature of religion. When you are taught that "one way" is THE right way, and everything else is wrong, you tend to dig your heals in and view everyone else as an outside of the right path. In other words either a heretic, non believer, or infidel. We see this mentality both with Islam and Christianity. Hence the crusades, the concept of conversion by the sword adopted by early Islam, the inquisition, and most everything that we see associated with today's concept of Jihad. "Convert to our way of thinking or die... that is the path to righteousness".

Really... is this what our religious icons taught us????

Exactly! Thats why I don't get a long with most christians. I have seen countless christians bash atheists and muslims. It's ridiculous.

I do like the way the entire middle east is being lumped together in some of these posts...
The iraqi, iranian, [insert arab country here] people and governments weren't the ones who attacked the US.
Sure - they have a lot of hateful preachers, but you would think the US has enough experience with religious nuts of its own to distinguish between a nut and a dangerous movement.

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At what point did I say it was the governments that attacked us? I said it was Islamic extremist that are preaching their hatred of the U.S. that is the problem. Perhaps I did not make that clear in my previous post. The corrupt governments in the middle east (I don't believe all the governments in the middle east are corrupt by the way) are the enablers for the extremists by keeping their people in poverty and denying them basic human rights. This allows the extremists a large recruiting base to get the people that will attack the U.S. and it's allies. Now in Iran it is the Ayatollah who has the real power and the President is little more than his puppet.

What Wolfsbane said was spot on.

But furthermore, the issue that is really fuelling Al Qaeda (apart from the US presence in Iraq) is Israel and Palestine.

If the US could get the two parties there to come to a peace, and ensure that the Palestinian State is a success, that would really take the wind out of Al Qaeda's sails.

It is also worth noting that Al Qaeda in Irag is mainly made up of foreign fanatics, that have flocked to Afghanistan and Irag specifically to kill westerners and what they see as non righteous Muslims.

From what I read, Afgans and Iragis are fed up with these foreign fighters, whose only motivation is to kill and become Martyrs.

And on a personal level, this has effected me, I was one tube train away from being killed or injured when British born fanatics set of suicide bombs in London. If I had decided to buy a magazine that day, I would have been in the tunnel at Edgware Road when one of the bombs went off.

milessthomas said:

It just amazed me that this is what they thought. These kids, their opinions of topics, do matter. These are the future voters! If they are choosing a conclusion without researching the facts for themselves (such as taking their own parents beliefs) they aren't growing to decide for themselves.

They are taking whatever media source or parent tells them and repeating it.

It made me wonder whether the future generation is capable of making independent decisions based on their own research and reasoning. Because what is a belief if you don't know all of the background behind said belief?

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Well, I surely am not going to spend a Friday afternoon researching politics so I can tell another generation what I believe in so they can sleep easy knowing.
Maybe we aren't capable of making decisions, but should we be expected at the ages of 14-16 to be thinking about voting 4 years from now? Should we be preparing to make these choices about something that started before we were even born?

Should we?

I think it's natural to automatically believe what ones parents believe, but up to a certain point in their life when they can find their own voice. It just takes longer for some.
If someone looks up to their parents and thinks they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, naturally they're going to believe anything and everything their parents do. Then they get out there and realize that Mommy and Daddy weren't everything and so they find other ways.

We're sorry the times have made most of us really shady.

Now that I think about it, when I look around my school it really scares me that one day my peers will be running the world.


We're doomed. DOOMED I TELL YOU.
Kidding.
Or am I?

baggss said:

This happens all the time and it is part of growing up. Eventually they will figure out what they believe and go from there. This also show quite well how out of touch with what is going on in the world at large many can become. This is a product of the self centered society we live in. Too may people, not just kids, are more interested in their iPod, MySpace, American Idol, Brittany Spears, GTA IV, Scientology and so on to care what is happening on the other side of the globe. It is also becoming VERY hard to find independent unbiased reporting. You have to look beyond CNN, FOX, Yahoo, MSNBC and the BBC to find what is really going on out there. It takes time and an attention span longer than the length of the current song playing on your iPod. Too many people don't have the patience for it.

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I think you mean Facebook. Myspace was so last year. ;D

But I like that post.

Tanner31593 said:

Well, I surely am not going to spend a Friday afternoon researching politics so I can tell another generation what I believe in so they can sleep easy knowing.
Maybe we aren't capable of making decisions, but should we be expected at the ages of 14-16 to be thinking about voting 4 years from now? Should we be preparing to make these choices about something that started before we were even born?

Should we? ...

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Yes, Tanner, I believe 14-16 year olds should be thinking about politics, not necessarily voting but politics. At 14-16 years old you are capable of making decisions about how you feel about issues, and should be building on that responsibility to make decisions in the future that are going to affect the rest of your lives. If you start coming up with ideas based on the media you have available to you at 18, right before you go to your first election, your not basing your decision off of knowledge and responsibility learned over time. Issues and standpoints on things change over time.

I think everyone has a responsibility to be knowledgeable in every aspect of life, even before the government says you should be able to vote on that opinion.

Besides why should 14-16 year olds all fit a stereotype of being more consumed with myspace/facebook/friends etc. than the issues at hand in the world?

I'm 14 and my friends will make fun of me for watching the news, isn't that horrible? The unintelligence, uncaring, and just flat out stupidity of a lot of the people of my generation really saddens me. All I here from my peers is, "I don't give a PENNY" and "whatever PULL MY FINGER WITH it"...

That's strange they would think that it's about 9/11 bombing when the all news channels clearly call it Operation Iraqi Freedom.

So, as near as I can tell, it's about freeing Iraqi's from something or other.

Am I right?

The Vindicat3d said:

I'm 14 and my friends will make fun of me for watching the news, isn't that horrible? The unintelligence, uncaring, and just flat out stupidity of a lot of the people of my generation really saddens me. All I here from my peers is, "I don't give a <removed>"...

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That explains a lot.....

Wolfsbane's post, while interesting, sounds like it came right off the Ron Paul Web site. No offense intended to Mr Paul's fans.

The Vindicat3d said:

I'm 14 and my friends will make fun of me for watching the news, isn't that horrible? The unintelligence, uncaring, and just flat out stupidity of a lot of the people of my generation really saddens me. All I here from my peers is, "I don't give a <removed>"...

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I dont know if you want to call it, your generation, or whatever. I mean, when have ANY kids really cared at all? Things are not any different from what they always have been. 40 years ago, it was all the same. Kids cared about stupid stuff and having fun, adults talked about issues that they believed where ruining the world. Same thing, different setting. Just because kids have iPods now, dont mean the children of the past cared about more than swimming in the local river or whatever. Im sure the kids in The Sandlot were not really thinking about fiscal policy. And in 40 years, your going to be talking about how the new group of kids is a horrible generation. How they spend more time worring about their flying zPods and theirspace.future rather then the world around them. Or how mars is getting bombed and how nobody cares. And you will tell them dumb stories, "when I was a kid, we had computers that had a mouse, and we had a crazy thing called the internet, not this fancy virtual space teleporter crap that you kids have nowadays or [insert futuristic thing here]" I really dont think that the younger generation is any stupider or less caring then any other. They are 14. When did ANY 14 year old really care about politics or the world. There are very few exceptions. They will come around.

hondagus87 said:

Does anyone think we invaded Iraq maybe because Sadaam tried to assassinate the first President Bush? The attacks on the trade towers and the hatred towards the middle east kinda gave President Bush an excuse to invade Iraq. I am a veteran who was lucky enough to spend 6 years in Korea instead of going to Iraq but all my friends did go. I will probably get negative feedback for this but isn't invading a country an act of terrorism? Also, don't we praise our founding fathers as heros for fighting the British control of early America? To the Iraqi people we are a foreign country trying to have control over their country and they are doing what our founding fathers did back then. Now the ways they are doing it are wrong, but our revolutionary army used gorilla warfare as well.

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Honestly, no. I don't think someone in that office, despite his/her political agenda, would invade another country for personal reasons. I know a lot of you have bought into the "hate Bush" mentality but he really isn't all that much different that his predecessors. Was invading Iraq a mistake? Time will tell. Did we enter Iraq under false pretenses? There were obviously no WMDs, at least not in a quantity that would pose a serious threat to anyone. Did Bush lie? No. His statements were based on the data he had which, as time went on, was discovered to be faulty. Lying is a deliberate act. Take, for example, when Clinton said he hadn't had any relations with Monica. That was a deliberately misleading statement ... a lie. Giving out false information based on information you believed to be true is not lying. It's just embarrassing.

Do you really believe invading a country is a terrorist act? Or that our war for independence was waged using gorilla tactics? Please, say it ain't so!

And please don't label me a right-winger. I don't agree with either party 100%.

Did he lie? No. Did he "Cherry Pick" among the contradictory data provided? Most certainly. Intelligence is never perfect and one can use tidbits here and there to prove ones case even if the preponderance of the whole argues otherwise. Sadly, this is most likely what was done. Has it been done before? Most certainly. Will it be done again? Yep.

Did anyone mention, going back to the OP, that the people who were in the planes that hit the towers were saudi arabian?

Nope. Good to know though. Haven't seen you on in quite a while.

On another note I think what Clinton isnt great but its still not nearly as bad as taking a country to war over something that doesnt exist

I'd like to think some kids do care. We went out and had a protest march and school walkouts over the war.

And now at the grand old age of 19 I've just given up. Doesn't really matter what I think is right or wrong. I didn't vote because I didn't have anybody to vote for. All the parties look the same to me now, and once we've voted them in there's not a lot we can do about what wars they want to go into. Until we get them out, vote in someone new, and the whole thing happens again.

I don't think our government cares any more. The British people took to the streets, and it means nothing and changes less.

Forget it all. I'm losing my human rights now, and there's nothing I can do about. If I start speaking out and protesting there's nothing to stop me being held without trial, without evidence under terrorist offences.

I'm just going to live my life as best I can.

skaheadpunk said:

I'd like to think some kids do care. We went out and had a protest march and school walkouts over the war.

And now at the grand old age of 19 I've just given up. Doesn't really matter what I think is right or wrong. I didn't vote because I didn't have anybody to vote for. All the parties look the same to me now, and once we've voted them in there's not a lot we can do about what wars they want to go into. Until we get them out, vote in someone new, and the whole thing happens again.

I don't think our government cares any more. The British people took to the streets, and it means nothing and changes less.

Forget it all. I'm losing my human rights now, and there's nothing I can do about. If I start speaking out and protesting there's nothing to stop me being held without trial, without evidence under terrorist offences.

I'm just going to live my life as best I can.

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Ever seen the Movie "V for Vendetta"? Seemed far out, but is it?

CWA's got the bold print

I gave up on voting here in the states because it just seems like every candidate has some corporation backing them (oil, and health insurance companies). They get more and more corrupt as time goes on.And they say they aren't backed by groups but how can I tell if they're honest or not? I just want universal health care.

baggss said:

Ever seen the Movie "V for Vendetta"? Seemed far out, but is it?

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I watched that and Who Killed the Electric Car back to back. Talk about about fiction becoming reality. It's scary.

mac0s9user said:

I just want universal health care.

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Hmmmm. No thanks.