Things that make you lose faith in the human race...

[shadzar]

Sock Puppets are alive? Next thing you will tell me Santa Claus is real.

Odd in a thread about losing faith in the human race, a known concept shows up as a user name and people don't think that concept is used as a troll, but gives the benefit of doubt...Maybe that means something happened to gain faith in humanity?

[PhoneLobster]

cite my cracked sense of humor

You are not funny.

If you think you are.

That is also not funny.

It, like you, are sad things.

[CatharzGodfoot]

cite my cracked sense of humor

You are not funny.

If you think you are.

That is also not funny.

It, like you, are sad things.

I think you fail to understand the concept of 'a sense of humor', Mr Lobster.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

My faith in humanity drops every time I see someone use any variation of this phrase:

"I see illegal immigrants..." and then mention them taking out hundreds, or getting welfare, or whatever thing pisses off a right-winger at the time.

Do people not know that even saying that makes you a bigot? It seems that every time certain people sees someone who speaks spanish they assume they're illegal.

To anyone who argues with me: You don't know if someone's an illegal by looking at them. It's relatively easy to work in America legally. (Now, NAFTA doesn't go both ways, it's almost impossible for me to get a job in Canada to give an example. Not sure about Mexico, never tried.)

[Koumei]

"But they will steal our jobs! Just the other day, I was CEO of an oil company, and an illegal immigrant ran up, held me at gunpoint and demanded I hand my job over to him!"

[Ganbare Gincun]

"But they will steal our jobs! Just the other day, I was CEO of an oil company, and an illegal immigrant ran up, held me at gunpoint and demanded I hand my job over to him!"

Funny thing is that the two people I know IRL that complain the most about illegal immigrants (well, aside from the Neo-Nazis) had no qualms about hiring some Mexicans to come in and do construction work on their houses. Republican Cognitive Dissonance in action, folks.

[CatharzGodfoot]

"But they will steal our jobs! Just the other day, I was CEO of an oil company, and an illegal immigrant ran up, held me at gunpoint and demanded I hand my job over to him!"

Funny thing is that the two people I know IRL that complain the most about illegal immigrants (well, aside from the Neo-Nazis) had no qualms about hiring some Mexicans to come in and do construction work on their houses. Republican Cognitive Dissonance in action, folks.

That might actually give some insight into the Republican psyche. Perhaps, just like gay marriage, it's a matter of 'if other people are doing it then I have to too'.

[shadzar]

That might actually give some insight into the Republican psyche. Perhaps, just like gay marriage, it's a matter of 'if other people are doing it then I have to too'.

Republicans are like lemmings then? I don't mean just a bunch of hairy smelly rodents, but one of them goes over a cliff and the others think they should just follow without thinking about it themselves. I would buy that.

[mean_liar]

That lemming thing is a myth.

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming

[shadzar]

I just wish republicans were too.

[Crissa]

What, exactly, is a myth about lemmings?

That doesn't say lemmings don't follow each other into deadly situations when migrating. It just says they don't commit suicide intentionally.

I don't remember the myth ever saying they did it intentionally.

-Crissa

[erik]

It has been stated that lemmings will follow one another over a cliff, even when it is apparent that to do so is suicide.

A Disney wildlife documentary gave life to this myth by filming a staged suicide event of lemmings jumping off a cliff... when in fact they were being tricked into their suicide dive by the camera crew. The narrator implies that lemmings go cliff diving every seven to ten years to alleviate overpopulation via suicide.

Lemmings do sometimes drown when spreading to new territory (not actually migrating, just moving away), but that's far from suicidal behavior.

[Crissa]

They still die when engaging in flock motion. I just haven't seen any myth that they kill themselves intentionally, merely accidentally.

-Crissa

[Sock Puppet]

You are not funny.

If you think you are.

That is also not funny.

It, like you, are sad things.

I am deeply, truly, and iredeemably sorry to have failed to meet your standards. Tell you what – when the hand-lettered invitation and pair of free tickets to the local stop on my stand-up comedy world tour arrives at your house in the mail, simply discard it.

And while we’re talking – I’ll admit (again) that “Sock Puppet” is a particularly jerktastic name to use, and it strongly encourages people to not take me seriously (hmmm, I wonder if, rage-rants notwithstanding, that was my intention all along?) But I’ve gotta ask, just what the rambling ring-tailed fuck is a “Phone Lobster”? I’ve wracked my brains to even come up with a reference you might be implying, but I got nothing. At best, it sounds like a non-sequitur, but it scans more like a drug-addled Alice-in-Wonderland-type pile of nonsense. If you could please give me a clue as to what the Hell that is supposed to mean, then maybe I’ll get a better idea about your sense of humor, and not fail so miserably the next time I ever try to amuse you.

(Shadz: Yup, the irony of a thread called Things That Make You Lose Faith in the Human Race is not lost on me, nor is the use of lemmings as a metaphor. You have warmed my little monkey heart.)

[Ganbare Gincun]

But I’ve gotta ask, just what the rambling ring-tailed fuck is a “Phone Lobster”? I’ve wracked my brains to even come up with a reference you might be implying, but I got nothing. At best, it sounds like a non-sequitur, but it scans more like a drug-addled Alice-in-Wonderland-type pile of nonsense. If you could please give me a clue as to what the Hell that is supposed to mean, then maybe I’ll get a better idea about your sense of humor, and not fail so miserably the next time I ever try to amuse you.

Wikipedia explains it all!

[Count Arioch the 28th]

They still die when engaging in flock motion. I just haven't seen any myth that they kill themselves intentionally, merely accidentally.

-Crissa

Really? I heard it all the time growing up. The rumor was that they committed mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs en masse.

[Crissa]

Really? I heard it all the time growing up. The rumor was that they committed mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs en masse.

...And apparently, while moving in flocks, they do die en masse to fjords and cliffs.

So where's the myth (aside from a photographer who made up a video he sold to Disney)?

-Crissa

[Koumei]

The myth is the one that I heard: that they intentionally do it just to lower population count. They will certainly follow each other to their doom, stupidly dying in clusters, but not out of any desire to put the community before themselves and become martyrs.

And apparently they don't have green hair, and don't require people to tell them to build bridges, use pick-axes, self-destruct etc.

[Kaelik]

Really? I heard it all the time growing up. The rumor was that they committed mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs en masse.

...And apparently, while moving in flocks, they do die en masse to fjords and cliffs.

So where's the myth?

Why are you steadfastedly determined to claim that accidental death is exactly the same in all ways as purposeful suicide for population control?

You don't see how me claiming that people in Africa intentionally starve themselves so that there is more food for people in other countries is both false and has implications that will lead people further off track?

Do you believe North Korean propaganda that says people don't eat because they don't want to be wasteful instead of because they are fucking poor?

[RobbyPants]

Really? I heard it all the time growing up. The rumor was that they committed mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs en masse.

...And apparently, while moving in flocks, they do die en masse to fjords and cliffs.

So where's the myth (aside from a photographer who made up a video he sold to Disney)?

-Crissa

I remember learning that the video was faked back in high school biology. The only reason I remember that is because the teacher jokingly described the video as being shot with "Walt Disney just off camera with a flame thrower, herding them to their death".

While not accurate, that picture certainly stuck with me

[schpeelah]

Well, they were herding them to their death. Lemmings are not more likely to fall off cliffs than any other animal.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Guys, forget it. Crissa's being purposefully obstinate again. She knows damn well there's a difference between suicide and accidental death, she's just being a dumb bitch. Ignore her.

[tzor]

Lots of herd animals can be tricked into running off of cliffs.

Some Native Americans were primarily big game hunters, migrating frequently to follow herds of bison or caribou. The Blackfoot and Sioux are two examples of big game hunting tribes. In tribes like these, large groups of Native Americans usually worked together to drive large animals into an ambush, a man-made pit, or over a cliff, sometimes setting controlled fires or building fences to cut off their escape.

Given this type of herd behavior (and people do it too, consider how many people trample other people to death when in panic) is common and exceptionally easy to trigger, I have to cide with Crissa here; this is really no example of "suicide" but an example of how herd behvior often has a really bad side.

Fortunately, the benefits of herd behavior tends to keep survival high 99.99% of the time. It's that 0.01% that's a real killer.

[mean_liar]

It does lead to things like this:

[shadzar]

And apparently they don't have green hair, and don't require people to tell them to build bridges, use pick-axes, self-destruct etc.

Weren't those doozers on Fragile Rock building things out of radishes?