I asked my wife if she thought you sounded like a snowflake and she said yes. Let’s move on.

Snowflake? We're gonna need a new metaphor when global warming ends winter everywhere outside of the poles.

THERE, now I've done it.

Meh, it's been this way for decades. When I moved to Texas in the 90s people would get in your face if you dared to talk to someone in Spanish at a fast food restaurant, all manner of derogative words like "wetback" and others I won't repeat used casually in public, attitudes doing a 180 if they find out you are an immigrant or not religious, t-shirts with all kinds of offensive stuff on them, being told to my face to go home, etc. People have always had the potential to be nasty, this is nothing new.

Mike Judge is a modern day Nostradamus!

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I blame it on social media. IBTL

You have to remember that we as “pinball people” are likely sitting on the preferable side of the capitalist teeter totter. It’s easy to forget that many people are operating from an entirely different perspective.

The vast majority of people in the US are broke, unhealthy, uneducated, and angry. The ultra moneyed corporations that own the government, healthcare/ pharmaceutical, and defense industries also effectively own the media/ social networks, and have convinced these angry people that the “other” broke, sick, uneducated and angry people are responsible for all their problems. This “us vs them” ideology is purposely fed to the masses, because if everyone is busy fighting each other over pointless culture and political wars, they will be oblivious to the actual culprits sitting back, taking more control and taking it all it to the bank.

The American/western dream is likely crumbling before our eyes. I originally listed a bunch of statistics about the decline in life expectancy, wellness, access to education, housing and healthcare here, but you can look those numbers up if you don’t already know…

Through this manufactured ideology of an “other”, the general populace has simple outlets/ villains for their frustration. As things get worse and people feel more hopeless and helpless, that frustration gets louder and louder. That is what why you see so much more “aggressiveness/offensiveness ” today; you are seeing a very frustrated, angry, uneducated, unwell, and increasingly hopeless population.

Imagine a thief comes to town and steals from two neighbors, both are furious, and the thief goes and tells them that their neighbor is the one who stole from them. The two neighbors beat the shit out of each other while the thief walks to the next town to do it all over again.

You are not a snowflake. People have acted this way since the beginning of time, although it has become more acceptable since the great divider came to politics. Name calling and belittling is in fashion.

I always think about the intelligence of people who express themselves that way and give it the amount of consideration it deserves. Vulgar language doesn’t bother me much, it’s everywhere these days, it’s the idiots who are shooting up our schools, shopping centers, parades, etc. that are the real problem. I just wish they would use the first bullet on themselves.

There’s an irony in a guy who can’t spell “society” complaining that others don’t know English.

No not a snowflake just part of our society turning into shambles. In the 1940's,50's,60's,70's people had a moral/ethical compass often tied to religious beliefs. Then the 80's came and shit went out the window along with basic common decency/respect. Ignorance is now the mainstream way of life. The key is to find a pocket in society still somewhat normal and make the best of it.

Oops....exits room quietly.

100% , and it's both sides of the fence too. Believe, feel and live however you wish in this life, but do not force your shit upon others. This includes politics, religion and sexuality.

Thank you, and have a nice day.

There is always going to be folks not doing well doing behaviors that cap the ways towards a better life if they stand flat footed and make no changes for the better. For some reason these behaviors been more acceptable over the years by folks as long as it’s not in their back yard.

Interestingly there is a growing Elite group of educated or getting educated, pretty well off or family is pretty well off folks with not many problems they have seen or deal with head on. They “tend” to live away from and don’t go near Lower income neighborhoods with people having tough problems because they are living in a safe neighborhood likely by a city of some size away from the Southern Border.

A large group of these folks come up with views that raising certain levels or crime are acceptable, cops cause problems also, raising a child single parent is no big deal, legalizing drugs is fine, legalizing gambling is fine, we need to keep assisting those on welfare and even give them more, we need to let in and take care of folks crossing the border illegally, “a” just happens and it’s a right and a choice, we need to just give a failing school more money and that will solve the problem, saying the N word is acceptable if said by the correct person, tent camps in the street and parks are acceptable, groups are just taken advantage of and there is no way for them to control their own destiny because of this and that and this and that etc . They are willing to accept a lot of bad for some reason?

F@“K? No big deal.

But let’s face it - if their kids, spouse family members didn’t study or work hard, were poor, used drugs, said the N word even if they were the right color, gambled, had an “a”, were a single parent, were on welfare, or they lived in a lower income neighborhood with a bad schools with crime and drug dealers and/or right close to the border with a tent camp in a park their kids go play at then all their views above would go out the F’n window pretty quick.

F@*K heard in their home would be a big deal.

If their kid said “I can’t do what I want to do because I live in the US with a the long list of reasons why they can’t” the parents would have none of all that!

It’s good for them they haven’t had to deal with bad so far. Perhaps they should base their solutions on what they would do if their kids friends and family and communities were in those situations instead of a lot of tolerance, pity and “I care a lot they don’t” talk?

It’s a thing. But I may be off

Ok, so this will only work if you read it in a Jeff Foxworthy voice. "If you get mad at swearing, you might be a snowflake? If you get mad at swear words, on a car window, you might be a snowflake?"

Despite some of the obvious glaring current horrible issues we are facing, America is still the greatest country on earth for so many reasons. Yet so many folks that live here hate it, while the rest of the world tries to flood into the US.

Social media has just provided a loud voice to the ignorant and stupid people. . That’s ok, it’s called free speech. You are allowed to put full stupid on display in this country.

Mind your own business.

“Imagine a thief comes to town and steals from two neighbors, both are furious, and the thief goes and tells them that their neighbor is the one who stole from them. The two neighbors beat the shit out of each other while the thief walks to the next town to do it all over again.”

Like the 12 million illegal immigrants that have flooded into our country the past 3 yrs?

And take from our “broke” neighbors that need the help the most? Those folks aren’t liking it much and rightly so.

I can’t even pick which post to quote as the nagging woman.

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And I was worried this thread was gonna go off the rails!

Thank goodness Pinside has proven me wrong once again.

Somebody should put these folks in charge of a pinball company !

Over the past 10 years or so, Social Media has trained people into blurting out whatever random thought comes to mind semi anonymously. No one wants to know what you are thinking 24/7. Its created the mob mentality, making everyone more shallow, selfish, neurotic, stressed and angry not to mention the attention spans of goldfish. Everyone wants instant gratification without working for it.

A true Trojan horse - Tik Tok in China is limited to 40 mins if your underage and more educational. In the US you get the latest "Challenge" or "Viral" garbage video of the day. When asking kids in China what do they want to be when they grow up they said "An Astronaut." In the US they said "Influencer". The AI and analytics invite anger and conflict promoting those posts. "Troll farms" - buildings of people in Russia/China that are creating fake accounts, memes, videos etc. to influence Americans.

14 hours and running. Done before lunchtime unfortunately

No way, Tranquilize is a good polite Canadian. Actually surprised he hasn't apologized yet.....

Why is this on a pinball site?

The fact that it is posted here makes you “snowflakey”.

The bumper stickers are low class.

its about to be a shit show for sure

Because the off topic forum exists?

Yes, exactly. That’s a perfect example of misguided anger and frustration. Aka. Not being able to see the forest for the trees. With this issue, you see a lot of loud and angry Americans lashing out against the simple and immediate “other” without taking a step back and contemplating the corporatist, military, and US government’s hands in destabilizing the global south that has led to the political and economic conditions that those people are fleeing today.

So the simple minded angry American gets mad at the Guatemalan farmers who are fleeing to the US after being pushed off their land, instead of the giant agro-industries that are pushing them off in order to produce industrial sugar and biofuels. Or anger at the Guatemalans who have fled the long civil war that was started when the US backed a coup against the democratically elected president Jacobo Árbenz in order to impose a northern sympathetic dictator, and which led to the death of over 200,000 natives there.

Or anger with the El Salvadorian who is fleeing their country that is also trapped in a cycle of violence that can be traced back to a civil conflict in which the US was a protagonist, training and funding rightwing death squads in the name of fighting communism.

Or frustration with the Farmers fleeing Honduras because the US government/ industrialists played a role in the military ousting the democratically elected reformist president Manuel Zelaya, so that agro-industry could violently remove the native farmers, all of which militarised the government and allowed organized crime to spread through the country’s institutions, causing the murder rate to soar and the country becoming the holder of the wonderful title of “most violent country in the world not actually at war”.

I could keep going.. but the point is: The Americans who are angry at the people you mention, are rightfully angry about the situation, but are directing that anger at the completely wrong people. Which is exactly what the people/ institutions that are actually responsible for the situation would prefer.