General Chat / Thanks a lot FCC

Yeah, good movie...

Still though, fuck the FCC. I want my boobies.

I thought you were gay...

This is sad, so very sad. Damn them to hell!!!

to Blitz-Sama:

"that is pathetic. it basically says you've accepted that life is an expense, and not an experience; that all our work should be channelled towards fleeting vanity, and meeting the status quo of a "me first" consumer culture. you remind me of the guy's wife from 'American Beauty.'"

when did i say anything to that extent at all?

i said people should go after the highest-quality they can afford, and they should. would you buy a refrigerator that doesn't keep food cold? or soap that makes you smell like crap? or music that sucks? no, of course not, and the same goes for fashion.

due to the nature of utilitarian products (such as fashion, or the fore-mentioned fields of electronics, and soap) the bigger brands are almost always the better brands. if people did make refrigerators that didn't keep food cold, or soap that makes you smell like crap, or clothes which make you look like crap, then they wouldn't be a "big-name" in the field.

finally, i acknowledged the fact that the better you look, the more likely you are to be accepted.

would you talk to someone who looked like a bum, and all you knew of them is that they looked like a bum? they might be kind, intelligent, and amazing people, but you wouldn't bother to find that out, you'd just assume they were mean, stupid, pathetic bums.

in fact, judging by your post, if you saw someone who looked like your ideal of a "consumer-whore" you probably wouldn't talk to them either, would you? you'd stereotype them as being pathetic "consumer-whores", and that they must be silly, sheepy drones, regardless of the truth.

looks do matter, as they form a persons first impression of you, and that is usually the impression which sticks.

it's very simple. the tv and radio airwaves are owned by the citizens of the USA, if by majority they find a show unacceptable then it is removed and precautions are set up so it dosen't happen again. We have cable for just that reason, it's a private medium thereby alowing broadcasters more freedom. Besides, if you want more Boobies then purchase Cinemax or HBO- it's not only entertainment, it's porn.

The problem is that this isn't the majority. This is a small minority who thinks they have the wisdom to decide the morals of a majority.

I find it funny that Americans think showing a tit on television is the end of the world, and then when you go just about everywhere else, they all think we're stupid.

we are stupid. But no one wants to addmit it so we will just slowly pull this world into our pit of never ending bullshit until we all kill each other over somthing small that starts a war.

Corky, I love you ( in a platonic RCT Disney type way of course)

to Blitz-Sama:

"that is pathetic. it basically says you've accepted that life is an expense, and not an experience; that all our work should be channelled towards fleeting vanity, and meeting the status quo of a "me first" consumer culture. you remind me of the guy's wife from 'American Beauty.'"

when did i say anything to that extent at all?

i said people should go after the highest-quality they can afford, and they should. would you buy a refrigerator that doesn't keep food cold? or soap that makes you smell like crap? or music that sucks? no, of course not, and the same goes for fashion.

due to the nature of utilitarian products (such as fashion, or the fore-mentioned fields of electronics, and soap) the bigger brands are almost always the better brands. if people did make refrigerators that didn't keep food cold, or soap that makes you smell like crap, or clothes which make you look like crap, then they wouldn't be a "big-name" in the field.

finally, i acknowledged the fact that the better you look, the more likely you are to be accepted.

would you talk to someone who looked like a bum, and all you knew of them is that they looked like a bum? they might be kind, intelligent, and amazing people, but you wouldn't bother to find that out, you'd just assume they were mean, stupid, pathetic bums.

in fact, judging by your post, if you saw someone who looked like your ideal of a "consumer-whore" you probably wouldn't talk to them either, would you? you'd stereotype them as being pathetic "consumer-whores", and that they must be silly, sheepy drones, regardless of the truth.

looks do matter, as they form a persons first impression of you, and that is usually the impression which sticks.

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Chauncy, very, VERY, well said.
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though i do agree with you chauncey, ed does make a good point. Just because society is the way it is, does that mean we must accept it? I mean who the hell needs 200 jeans? Thats just plain bullshit. They dont even hold up that long.
As for the "boobs" issue, i have heard that in Europe(our europeans surfers can confirm this), that they have absolutely no prob with sex. Their phone sex ads actually display the woman as naked...ie:free porn. Though they do have a problem with violence though if im not mistaken.
The thing is, the FCC has definitely gone out of line here. Howard Stern has been getting away with shit for years, and all of a sudden the FCC has this damn ephiphany and decides hes bad for the airwaves? Or OH NO!!! Janet Jackson's hidden nipple just popped out!!! Anyone remember Lil" Kim at the grammy's? Ummm same thing...but all of a sudden were having fucking brain aneurisms over this? Give me a break. Somebody with power got pissed off, plain and simple...

everything in this topic is one long, veiny quarrel featuring observers-of-the-obvious.

so here's more to it.. we're all individuals. but we fall under the influence. be it decadance or anti-decadance. establishment or otherwise. as far as i'm concerned, all of you fags are sheep that are on the slaughter-haus line.
go and get 200 dollar pants, conformist dumbfucks.
go start a Project Mayhem, you anti-conformity-conforming dumbfucks.
free thought died beside Plato.. so do what you think makes you happy, and stop this vain bitching. let's talk about music some more.

Free thought didn't die beside Plato. Or do you mean Socrates? Socrates was an individual who saw past the limited view of his culture. But even he was still bound in some ways by that culture. There were limits to what he could understand. If we go by his words (as written by Plato) than he still believed in Zeus. Free thought has always existed and will always exist. Everyone is capable of it and yet so few people actually try. Doing what you think makes you happy is exactly why people are such slaves to their culture. Because society gives you certain standards and goals and sets you off toward acheiving them. Sooner or later you have to stop for a minute and say "maybe these goals aren't really what I should be pursuing. maybe I can make my own goals". So long as you are concerned with only you and your problems and your day-to-day existence, you'll never escape the worldview of whatever culture raised you.

Are the airwaves owned by the citizens? If I had a say in it, 80% of the program that is on TV currently would not exist. And who are the citizens anyway? People have all sorts of different opinions and preferences. So is it the majority that decides everything? What if 51% of the population wants to watch Survivor re-runs and American Idol? Are the other 49% not citizens? Are they lesser citizens? Don't they have just as much right to their opinion?

Some people are of the opinion that sexuality should be shown in media. Is the puritanical attitude about sex actually helping the moral standard anyway? People are going to want sex. It's programmed into their biology. So if we pretend it doesn't exist, than how are we helping anyone? Would pornography be so popular if frank sexuality was just an everyday part of existence? It's repression is what it is. People need to be educated about the world. That includes sexuality. So when your 6 year old is watching TV and Janet Jackson's breast falls out and they ask "what's that Daddy?" do you need to make up some stupid Santa Claus story? Why not tell them the truth. See a million breasts and they become mundane right? They become <gasp> normal. Pornography is so popular in our society because sex is so repressed. Maybe it's the Judeo-Christian tradition which teaches people to be ashamed of their sexuality. Well it's nature everybody and your kids are gonna find out about it sooner or later. Would you rather they heard it from you or some sleazy porn producer who's just looking to make a buck? Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, the world wouldn't be such a bad place if we didn't hide knowledge of the world? If everything was just out in the open. If people were honest with each other and respected that other people are flawed and make mistakes and that's beautiful because it makes us all alike. We screw up and lie to cover it and hide from our friends what we think is ugly and they do the same thing to us. Why should everybody be miserable like that all the time?

You don't need to look at the world and say that it's hopelessly screwed up. It's easy to look back at history and say it's all just one big war. Sooner or later we'll all just blow each other up and that'll be the end of it. I think life is more valuable than that. Look at the pyramids and the great wall. Look at Hoover Dam and the Chunnel and heck even Millenium Force. People build this things. These are things to be proud of. Look at what humanity can accomplish. Why be ashamed of ourselves? Why call out to some higher power to save you? Is it really that wrong to believe in yourself? Is it really that wrong to look at the world in your own way and be happy and cherish life? Yeah we're stupid Alchemist. But we're also brilliant and resourceful and beautiful. You're only looking at one half of the picture.

cg, to answer your questions:
1) You're not going to convince me that consumerism is based in a utilitarian ideology. Are $200 pre stained, pre ripped, pro worn jeans any more useful than a $15 dollar pair of jeans from K-Mart? Maybe they're slightly better built but not enough to warrant the price. There's no logical reason for fashion. It's follow the leader. It's buying social status. Alright so we need refridgerators and soap that work but do we need 100 types of soap and refridgerators? And do we need half of the things we buy? Clothes which make you look like crap? According to who? Maybe I look just fine to me but Joan Rivers thinks I look like crap. Uh oh, I need to buy more "useful" clothes. Clothes are a status symbol. If you change society so that they no longer are, then presto, you don't need expenisve designer clothes anymore. It's as simple as that. And when you don't need designer clothes, you don't need to to work 40 hours a week plus overtime to afford them.
2)Would I talk to someone who looked like a bum or someone who looked like a consumer whore? Remember that show Average Joe how the woman picks the handsome guy because she thought "they had a connection?" Yeah right. She knew nothing about the guy other than she liked the way he looked. Expensive clothes and hair stylists and gyms and diets -- it's a whole economy built around making people feel inferior. If all of a sudden everyobody in America realized that a T-Shirt and Jeans is just as functional as any other clothes, they can cut their hair themself, they can jog around the neighborhood and eat vegetables instead of paying for personal trainers and diet books and all over the other silly things people do to fit in -- the whole economy would collapse in on itself. The society is based on people needing money and spending money and making money. It's not life, it's an ant colony. Everyone is a drone, a clone, a part of a system for which they fulfill a role that they aren't even aware of.

I'm not saying there are easy answers. People deserve to be individuals. We don't want some kind of utopian society where everybody looks and acts the same. That isn't life either. Sure bokti, being a nonconformist is a fad. It's "cool" to be different. It's "cool" to be pissed off. I'm not pissed off at society. I just think it's one big joke and I'm trying to tell people every chance I get that they're living in a snow globe. They're living in a world within a world. Look up - past your family and your friends nd your job, car, house, kids, religion, education - look past all of that and see that you are a person. You are alive. You can choose to do whatever you want with your life. Aren't there much bigger things out there then a lower mortgage payment, a promotion, and a nicer car? There's a possibility to touch your soul too, not just your nerves. The world is a beautiful place. Life is a beautiful thing. Make the most out of it. Take a breath of fresh air and realize that being an individual entitles you to find your own answers. There's no human being in history who did not start out just like you. You really can choose to be what you want to be.

though i do agree with you chauncey, ed does make a good point. Just because society is the way it is, does that mean we must accept it? I mean who the hell needs 200 jeans? Thats just plain bullshit. They dont even hold up that long.
As for the "boobs" issue, i have heard that in Europe(our europeans surfers can confirm this), that they have absolutely no prob with sex. Their phone sex ads actually display the woman as naked...ie:free porn. Though they do have a problem with violence though if im not mistaken.
The thing is, the FCC has definitely gone out of line here. Howard Stern has been getting away with shit for years, and all of a sudden the FCC has this damn ephiphany and decides hes bad for the airwaves? Or OH NO!!! Janet Jackson's hidden nipple just popped out!!! Anyone remember Lil" Kim at the grammy's? Ummm same thing...but all of a sudden were having fucking brain aneurisms over this? Give me a break. Somebody with power got pissed off, plain and simple...

What's even more shocking is that I absolutely agree with you for once. LOL

though i do agree with you chauncey, ed does make a good point. Just because society is the way it is, does that mean we must accept it? I mean who the hell needs 200 jeans? Thats just plain bullshit. They dont even hold up that long.
As for the "boobs" issue, i have heard that in Europe(our europeans surfers can confirm this), that they have absolutely no prob with sex. Their phone sex ads actually display the woman as naked...ie:free porn. Though they do have a problem with violence though if im not mistaken.
The thing is, the FCC has definitely gone out of line here. Howard Stern has been getting away with shit for years, and all of a sudden the FCC has this damn ephiphany and decides hes bad for the airwaves? Or OH NO!!! Janet Jackson's hidden nipple just popped out!!! Anyone remember Lil" Kim at the grammy's? Ummm same thing...but all of a sudden were having fucking brain aneurisms over this? Give me a break. Somebody with power got pissed off, plain and simple...

What's even more shocking is that I absolutely agree with you for once. LOL

scary isnt it?

I love this country's reasons for doing things...

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"America! We love you! How many people are proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of ours? The stripes and the stars for the rights that men have died for to protect
The women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold.
... or so we're told..."

Are the airwaves owned by the citizens? If I had a say in it, 80% of the program that is on TV currently would not exist. And who are the citizens anyway? People have all sorts of different opinions and preferences. So is it the majority that decides everything? What if 51% of the population wants to watch Survivor re-runs and American Idol? Are the other 49% not citizens? Are they lesser citizens? Don't they have just as much right to their opinion?

if 51% wants survivor and Idol then... oh wait those are both the highest rated television shows and guess what, they are advertising for Survivor 10 right now and Idol is in planning for a 4th season. The truth is what a majority does influences a majority influenced society.

also, if airwaves exsist in US airspace (which they do) then they are owned by the citizens which in turn empower thier governmental reps to make decisions in their place. So if you want all of this resolved then write your local congressman (and offer him some money )

actually idol and survivor got pushed by other stuff...

Does democracy mean that everyone has a voice or that the majority has a voice? Often times the principles of democracy are used to support a system which is closer to an aristocracy. And if the airwaves are in fact "owned" by the citizens than why am I not being payed a portion of the profits? What does this ownership imply? While TV networks are responsive to what people are watching, it isn't that they care about choice. It's that they won't make money unless people watch their shows. It's not motivated by ideals, it's motivated by profit. Networks are owned by corporations. What is TV anyway? What does it provide for society, for individuals? Does it teach us lessons? Does it bring us together? I don't even know.

And I don't need to write to a congressman to change TV. The power does not lie in the congressman, it lies in the people. The big lie is that representation actually does represent interests equally. Best case scenario is that a represntative stands up for the ideals of one faction in the population. Politicians want us to feel powerless. They want us to feel like we can't change things on our own. They like their offices and their fancy cars. We don't need a leader to show us the way. We need to stop listening to the lies and find the way ourselves.