Less melanin tends to promote staying in the shade. Staying in the shade keeps one cooler. This in turn leads to a calmer demeanor and fewer violent episodes.
Environmental determinism was huge in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. People from the tropics were supposed to be too impulsive and violent due to the hotter temperatures. People from the far north, like inuits and laplanders, were lazy and unintellectual because of the cold. Middle latitudes of Europe and Asia were just right.
Against my better judgement, I have some things to say on the matter of social injustice. I am going to point out a couple of things in the realm of the broad concept of social injustice, so give me a little latitude if what I want to say doesn't fit neatly into the current topic. Thanks. What I have to say goes deeper than just the Kaepernick protests over police abusing power, so think broad picture. I respect anyone's right to protest in any peaceful manner they chose. This is part of living in a free society. I support their right to do so even if I find their actions extremely offensive. Freedom does not afford me the right to not encounter things I find offensive. It does, however, afford me the right to express my belief that anyone disrespecting the very symbol of the freedom they are exercising is an utter piece of shit deserving of any ridicule they encounter (looking at you too Westboro Baptist). That's my opinion and my right to feel that way. I own it and will make no apologies for it. From my observation, we have become a society that finds offense in all things. And we're all too eager to try to take away other people's rights to save us all from the apparently life destroying experience known as being offended. Bullshit. Every generation is perceived to be less than the generation that preceded them by that older generation. That's as reliable as the sun rising in the east. So knowing that, I still say that Millennials are the most thin skinned easily offended group of people I've ever encountered. They would find offense in a picture with 2 newborns sleeping next to a cute fuzzy kitten. They rival the speed of light with their quickness to deem things they do not understand (You can bet they think they understand more than anyone) as some kind of injustice that must be addressed by them. Here's the rub. Most of them want someone else to do that fighting for them. They are too lazy to do the heavy lifting themselves. They have been coddled by their parents, given trophies even for finishing last in all things, told by their families that they deserve all their heart's desires. I understand wanting your kids to have the best that life has to offer. What I will never understand is why so many parents think that coddling their kids, sheltering them from any consequences, instilling the notion that the world owes them everything just because they are alive and possibly most important convincing them that the world gives a shit about what they think or their feelings are. The issue that recently occurred on a Yale campus is a prime example of what the result of parents treating their kids in the way I just described truly is. Supposed adult students lost their shit and demanded the resignation of (and received) a husband and wife that held high positions on the campus. Somehow they found deep racial insensitivity in an email that basically questioned another email from the university about insensitive Halloween costumes. Yes folks. Halloween costumes. Apparently an email was sent out reminding students to not dress up in any controversial/insensitive costumes. The wife of the previously mentioned officials sent out a response that basically asked if it was best for the university (big brother in this case) to be dictating an issue that adult students were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. She mused at the thought that the students needed a higher authority to step in and dictate social norms and how sad it was that many felt that was necessary. You guessed it. Students went bats hit crazy over that response, There is video out there of a mob of students screaming at this woman's husband over the deal. The gentleman tried his best to listen and address each student he heard from. He tried to have a civil conversation about the issue. The spoiled millennials with grossly overestimated self-value were having none of that. They demanded he apologize for something that needed no apology. They screamed, stomped, cried just like one would expect from the "everyone gets a trophy" generation. Look it up on Youtube. You'll see what I mean. Oh, and it was all about race...... The second issue I just saw today was also a Youtube video from Amherst College. A seemingly intelligent well-spoken white male student posed a question about white privilege and what should be done to correct its ill-gotten gains. I'll just post a link to the video and let you form your own opinions. Based off my previous stance stated in this post, you can guess mine. [youtube]tN9bu6CP318#t=814.64230273[/youtube] No one with half of a brain will argue with the fact that some really bad things have happened to folks throughout history based solely on race, religion, gender, etc. It has. But like the professor at Amherst said, we have 2 courses of action, 1. guarantee equal protection under the law or 2. attempt a correction of history. The second solution is just as preposterous as it is impossible, especially given the hyper-sensitive nature of the millennials who would probably be the ones determining how a corrective system would work. Just like the professor said, any corrective action would require an authoritative entity (presumably gov't) to step in and remove individuals' property to be used as reparations. That in itself is an affront to the very freedom these millennial crybabies are claiming they desperately want for the minorities for which they feel it their duty to make amends. In summation, I would like to say that coddling your children is perhaps the most egregious disservice a parent can do to their kids. While I agree that all lives are important, simply being able to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide doesn't automatically make you special. Everyone doesn't deserve a trophy. Only winners do. Want a trophy? Go work harder for it. I have learned an exponential amount more through my experiences in my life with failure than I have life's successes. Failure is not always a bad thing. In fact, it is essential to becoming an adult that positively contributes to society. Don't be afraid to let your kids fail. You won't always be there to pick up the pieces for them when, not if, they do. We don't have the right to not be offended. And when we want an authoritative entity to ensure that we aren't by taking anything away from others, we spit in the face of the very freedom and justice we THINK we are preserving. If something is that important to you, lead the way in making change happen with conviction and action. Don't think it is "someone else's" job to bring about the change that YOU seek. It isn't. No one gives a shit about what you (I) think despite your (my) experiences on Twitter and Facebook. The sooner we all realize that, the better off we will be. The world doesn't owe anyone shit. In fact, we each owe the world our best so we can make this a better place in which to live for us all, our children and our children's children. Whatever happened to some of the greatest words ever spoken? Remember, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."? I hope we remember those words, but I fear that we do not. A look at our society and too many young people today, whether it be those that are lightning fast to cry social injustice but want others to fix it for them crowd or the I'm not gonna work. I'm drawing a check from the gov't like momma & daddy crowd, plainly tells us we've ****ed up and ****ed up badly in teaching the generations that have come after us what it means, what the costs really are to live in the greatest, most free society the world has EVER known. /end JayVols rant. Everyone have a great day, and GO VOLS!
Things are being conflated here. The police brutality protests ARE about getting equal protection and justice under the law.
I don't disagree with the message, but to me the characteristics of millennials that are a result of excessive coddling and the PC movement to ban anything that could offend someone are not perfectly interconnected(not saying you said that, just my thoughts). I just don't buy that notion. The group of people promoting the idea of respecting "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" aren't just millennials. And I'll say this so I don't get flogged, I'm perfectly aware that there are a great many criticisms of millenials that are not only legitimate but also deserving of criticism. Inability to take criticism, reluctance to see the value or necessity of grunt work, hatred of general business norms, etc, etc. With that being said, the picture painted on TV and Facebook of millenials at Missouri and liberal arts schools is not reality. Those people are outliers. Missouri's student body of millenials is pissed that a few jackasses have done legitimate harm to their school and its future. Maybe I'm biased because I've gone to one incredibly conservative school and another that's not far behind, but every classroom or lecture hall I've ever been in would have laughed at those people you see on the news who find sidewalks offensive because they force poor people to watch rich people drive by.
Why have they allowed this to happen? Speak to their wanting/allowing someone else do the work for them?
Okay. I agree that there is no way to correct all the wrongs of history. I'm just not sure how prominent that idea really is, or how deeply tied it is with millennials. I will say the speaker in that video was an ass who completely manufactured the position of the student and then argued that manufactured position. The student said he saw a social safety net as a way to allow everyone a chance to thrive, regardless of past wrongs. The speaker said he was advocating going into people's homes and taking their things, and that he was a hypocrite for not dropping out of college since he didn't deserve it. Huge disconnect there, but I have heard it said here too. I'm not sure how the speaker was able to be certain as to what that student did or did not deserve, when he was the one who brought up the concept of taking things away from people, said it was impossible to do so fairly, and then accused the student of wanting that. The speaker was overpaid, whatever he was paid. That's the only thing I can determine with certainty.
Because we have a thing called freedom of expression, and the media tends to popularize the most controversial ones.
Millennials are people's bogeymen. It's groupthink. If a young person says something outlandish, they're a millennial. Otherwise, they're never identified by generation, just their age. As you say, it's a small minority who go on about safe places, micro-aggressions, etc, and they are being incited and led people of other generations. I've been around a lot of schools and I'm a liberal, and my observations are the same as yours.
Because of who consumers are, and the desire we all have for confirmation bias? I don't know, just spit-balling. Young people don't watch the news, don't read many news stories, don't facebook much, etc. Older people do, and they eat up anything slamming young people for whatever reason. Always been that way.
I see it daily. I am only talking about what I see with my own eyes. I'm not manufacturing anything, and being a Democrat, I think that pretty much rules me out of the groupthink pigeonhole you're putting it in. Are there awesome kids out there? Absolutely. There are also an increasing number of those that have an unjustified sense of entitlement that the world owes them something. When my own observations start to gel with what I read from others, it's not a stretch to think that what I am seeing is not some anomaly or nefarious plot against today's youth. I've dedicated my life to helping young people, but I can't and won't do everything for them.
It's not my intention to question what you see everyday, that's just an overly broad thing that's hard to pin down. There's a perfectly reasonable argument that boomers are worse than millenials as far as an unjustified sense of entitlement goes. Like you or anybody else, all I've got is what I see and what I read. And I don't see what it is people my age seem to think we are entitled to. What is it we seem to think the world owes us?
I'd like to know as well. I just see an increase in the victim mentality. Hell, we all are victims of something, but if a person sees themselves as a victim, that's all that person will ever be. Folks can either move forward constructively or let it consume and define them. Have you looked up the video about the Yale incident I talked about first? If not, please do so. If you can seriously watch the reactions of those individuals and tell me that they weren't seeking to be victims of a non-issue and that their reaction and behavior to that non-issue was not ridiculous, I'll just agree that the chasm between how we see these things is too wide to bridge and wish you the best in this matter.
I watched it. Yeah, it's ridiculous, but those kids are still outliers. I would buy the notion that the way parents of millenials parented helped create more of these candy ass losers but again, they're far from the norm. It doesn't help that institutions cower in fear of Twitter mobs either. Props to the guy at U of Chicago that told all the freshman to f**k right off with their safe spaces and trigger warnings. I know the news may make it seem that way, but those kids aren't going to take over the world. The biggest problem here is that we give these people a voice.
