brendala: (Default)
brendala ([personal profile] brendala) wrote2009-09-21 03:34 pm

Why go to college?

This video does a good job of demonstrating why I'm glad I was forced to quit college years ago...




...


His undercover videos are hilarious! My favorite part was the "History" professor who was totally ignorant about how the slave trade worked (5:55 in the video). And that Ben Franklin scene at the end was the best!

The only thing he didn't cover that I wish he had is the large and very vicious anti-semite contingent that plagues just about every liberal university on the planet. When I was in college, I was harassed whenever I wore my Star of David necklace or mentioned that I was Jewish. People I didn't even know would get in my face and scream "DO YOU CONDEMN APARTHEID ISREAL!? YOU SHOULD!!! AREN'T YOU ASHAMED OF WHAT 'YOUR PEOPLE' ARE DOING TO THE PALESTINIANS!? AREN'T YOU!? DON'T YOU HATE BUSH FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL!?". That was the pivot point that changed my political outlook around.

Oh well. Maybe he's saving that subject for another video.

[identity profile] ichiban-victory.livejournal.com 2009-09-21 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
My gosh, my brain hurts! I will never profess to knowing everything, but I would never act like I did, either. Seeing this makes me glad I'm not on a liberal campus - even if some students here have slapped me with that label. (They don't know what they're talking about.) Stupidity goes so many ways... (I actually am a Glenn Beck fan though, I'd be curious to read that book.)

I had no idea you were Jewish! That has to be really hard dealing with all the people who have no idea what they're even talking about. (Like the president of Iran declaring the Holocaust as being fake. IDIOT!) I really cannot make sense of it. If anything it only proves the validity of the Bible (or the Torah) since the Jewish people have always been and will always be God's chosen people, and it was made plain that God's people would be persecuted until the end of the world...and all that fun stuff. -_-

I'll admit I'm just LDS myself, but I've always had an affinity to Judaism. People forget that without it, there would be no Christianity! Know that not everyone is going to blame you for something that you should never have been blamed for. (Would that I could say the same for all LDS people...)

Lastly, the moment we as a country stop supporting Israel, I've a feeling that's when the world is truly doomed for destruction. What do all those countries gain by hate?!?

[identity profile] brendala.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
I can't wait to read it, too. The Arguing with Idiots segments on the radio are such a hoot! I can't believe he didn't turn them into a book sooner.


Back then, I wore the necklace mainly because it's pretty. I never intended to make any kind of religious/political "statement"!
I'm not extremely devout. But I'm thinking of changing that since it's so hard to find people my age who share my values (i.e. no alcohol, no "living in sin", conservative, etc). I've even visited some Christian and LDS churches just to check out the youth groups. ^_^;


The sad and ironic thing is that devout Christians and Mormons are the ones who are stuck with the "intolerant" label the most. I've met a few obnoxious self-described "Jesus Freaks" in my time; but none of them ever made me fear for my safety the way the brainwashed anti-Israel college kids did.

[identity profile] ichiban-victory.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
I never manage to catch Glenn Beck on the radio. To be honest, I never even knew of him until I started work at Disney since I would often catch his show on television in the break room. Back when he was on CNN... I always loved when I caught his show though. Shows like his are a breath of fresh air amongst the stupidity.

You probably are better off becoming more devout so you can find more people willing to commit to a clean life. I love all of my "non-member" friends, but it can be really hard being around people who don't understand that drinking, premarital sex, sin in general, none of it is good for you. Sure, it may seem fun, but I look at my group of friends back home and I do not find a one of them that is genuinely happy with their life. (And yet they refuse to acknowledge why!) Not to say my life is perfect, but if I were to die tomorrow I would have no regrets.

I hate that so much! I have had people accuse me of being intolerant just because I am religious. I've even had friends stop associating with me when they realized I was religious but nothing had changed between us! It's like they expect me to suddenly lash out and bite their heads off or something, not giving me the benefit of the doubt - not to mention years of tolerating their lifestyle decisions. -_- But I have encountered intolerant people within the church as well (specifically a classmate who accused another classmate and me of being liberals because we're both from "the Left Coast"), so no one is ever immune to the mass amounts of stupidity out there.

Brainwashed people are the worst though. I so love when they try to accuse me of being the brainwashed one! It's like they can't hear the stupidity spewing from their mouths...

[identity profile] brendala.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
I think you're right about becoming more devout. When I lived in the dorms in Denver, it was so difficult to hear the others say things like, "I NEED to get laid!" and "I'd KILL for some pot right now" and "Let's get wasted!". And listening to people stumble in drunk at 4AM and puke all over the communal bathrooms wasn't fun either. It would be nice to have a place I can go to meet people my age who don't behave like that.


As much as it shames me to admit this, I was one of those closed-minded people who believed religious people are intolerant back when I was a dumb teenager. It took that bad experience in college to open my eyes.


After Prop 8 (the California amendment banning gay marriage a second time) was passed, Mormon churches in California were subject to protests and threats of violence because one major LDS church here promoted it. My dorm mates in Denver went on and on about how awful "those religious bigots in California" are. But the statistics revealed that it was actually the Black and Latino voters who got prop 8 passed (those groups turned out in record numbers just to vote for Obama).
When I told my dorm mates about the statistics, they just said, "Yeah well...they voted that way because the Mormons spread lies about Prop 8 to those communities!" :P

[identity profile] ichiban-victory.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
Trust me, it goes both ways. It took my being neck deep with others of my religion to realize just how many close-minded religious people there are out there. I can more easily understand why people are quick to assume I would be that way, but at the same time I still hate it because people are willing to judge me without even knowing me. (And there are some things I still see in black and white, so in some ways I could be seen as intolerant and close-minded as well.)

My gosh, Proposition 8! I was still down in Florida during that, but a lot of the LDS kids down there were up in arms about it, including my roommate. (Straight out of Utah, she'd never known anything but life in Utah. Needless to say, she wasn't always fun to be around.) I could see it from both sides. I do agree that homosexual couples should be privy to the same benefits as heterosexual (MARRIED) couples, but I have to draw the line at calling both marriage. 'Marriage' is a touchy subject with me since the original meaning was a covenant between a man, a woman, and God. Modern days have done a great job of excluding God from marriage (which might be why marriages fail more often than not anymore), so to most people marriage doesn't mean what it should. If I had my way, no one would get to call civil unions 'marriage' unless they actually did wed in a religious institution with the original intent for marriage - regardless of sexual persuasion.

Anyway, I did meet a man from California during my off day playing in one of the parks. We got to talking about Proposition 8 (to be truthful, I was hoping to get an idea of what was happening in California) and I loved his response. He was telling me how he had LDS friends himself, so he understood why they were doing what they were doing, even if he himself didn't agree with it. Just because they differed on that stance didn't mean he was going to demonize them. I wish there were more people like him! (I'm kind of bitter about the whole thing though since after everything was said and done and people started targeting the LDS church, none of the other religions that had banded together with the LDS church seemed to do anything to deflect the hate.)

I'd be really curious to know about these 'lies'. If one cracks open the Bible and reads about things like Sodom and Gomorrah, people might better understand why so many religious groups are opposed to condoning homosexual behavior. It doesn't fit with current thoughts and attitudes, no, but it didn't at the time, either. And African-American and Hispanic people are not stupid! I've read more than a few news reports on Christians in Africa who are appalled at how the church they joined has accepted homosexuality. They didn't need "Mormon lies" to know what's right and wrong according to their religion. -_-

[identity profile] brendala.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
I was personally more annoyed by the Activist Judge issue surrounding prop 8 than the actual gay marriage issue. Last time Californians voted to define marriage as 'one man, one woman', a couple judges and mayors said "f%#k the voters" and got it overturned.

I was living in Colorado when most of the Prop 8 backlash happened; but I kept up with it by checking out the local paper online. And it was infuriating how the anti-prop 8 people either pretended the Black and Hispanic voting block wasn't a factor or treated those groups like brain dead sheep who were led astray by a slick LDS marketing campaign.
However, I think it happened that way simply because Mormons are easier targets. Those mostly white, affluent protesters sure as heck weren't going to march through Compton or threaten to blow up Black and Hispanic churches!

[identity profile] ichiban-victory.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
I feel bad for all the Californian conservatives... They have to be hurting a great deal more than the majority of Washington conservatives outside the Seattle/Olympia areas! o_O (Plus, you have all those crazy actors and actresses...)

Mormons are easy targets. Might as well sit us down next to Jewish people. -_- We even lost out on getting a possible presidential candidate who knew how to fix broken systems because, "OH NOES, HE'S NOT CHRISTIAN!", nevermind that, again, he knows how to fix broken systems. I still wonder what is wrong with people who will only vote for a president who is Christian. What about all the other people in this country?! (And yeah, easier to slap hate on what you perceive as a majority race instead of a minority - too bad the LDS church has people of all racial backgrounds as members!)

[identity profile] brendala.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
We don't have it quite as bad as you'd think. Aside from the wacky enclaves (LA, Hollywood, Berkley, San Francisco, etc) and the college towns; there are a fair amount of Conservatives here.

...unfortunately, Conservatives under the age of 40 aren't as easy to find as their middle-aged and elderly counterparts. :P

[identity profile] ichiban-victory.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, bot those enclaves give the rest of you a bad name. I'd be more eager to get in on the Hollywood scene if I didn't have to deal with it.

I know that one all too well. My friends all back home are liberal. They took great delight in tearing President Bush apart for the stupidest things, and while I didn't love the man, I couldn't agree with what people did to him. And now that we have Obama I'm not hearing much of anything (yet this feeling of dread in me grows). I'd still never call myself a conservative, but I cannot even begin to understand being liberal.

[identity profile] virus-x.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I remember when they tried that stuff on me. We had a big political science thing simulating a UN meeting (and accomplished just as much). The subject was the establishment of a 'nuclear free-zone' in the Middle East, like the one in Latin America. I, naturally, didn't agree with it, and they didn't like my reasons. During a break where the national representatives got-together to discuss before voting, plenty of guys tried that 'condemn the violence' thing on me, only to run away when I gave them a litany of instances of unprovoked violence against Israel.

Yeah, no likey.

Oh, and did I mention that school was in Dearborn, MI? Home of the largest Arab population, outside the Arab lands? (Not to mention a hotbed of anti-Israeli/anti-Republican/anti-Bush/anti-Conservative populist liberalism?)

I can't wait until I'm back in school to send them all running for cover, again.

It was really fun when I joined the Arab American activity club to debate the local imam.

Tell you about that, later. It was pretty funny.

[identity profile] brendala.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
Some of my friends in High School started a model UN club. We tried to take it seriously, but after the first week we were just using it to goof off. And the model UN club eventually turned into the anime club! And I believe the world would be a better place if that happened to the real UN! LOL

[identity profile] ayarane.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
...I gotta admit, that WOULD be hilarity.

also I like using these Etna icons way too much but that's something else entirely.

[identity profile] ayarane.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
Wow, this is like an extreme version of the Jaywalking segments. :P

Can't say I've encountered much in terms of anti-semitism though. I'm more inclined to just write people like those you describe off as jerks who are too easily incited and read waaaay too far into such things. >_>;

[identity profile] brendala.livejournal.com 2009-09-22 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
The wave of anti-semitism wouldn't be so scary if respected people like college professors, Jimmy Carter, most of Europe, and 98% of the UN didn't feel the same way as those stoned slackers in the video I posted.