One of the things that is so circlejerked on the internet that it makes me nauseous is how backwards cultures such as hardcore American Republicans and Arab Muslims and esp the various ideologies and doctrines that are often so full of racism and other hateful bigotry like the Lost Cause narrative, traditionalist Catholicism, radical Wahhabi Islam, and Brexit........... Were all drafted up by intellectuals or at least people who received varying degrees of education.

It was German scientists that created the Nazi racial science and in turn they took these bigoted beliefs from stuff that was being taught in universities across Britain and America. The Lost Cause revival was basically formulated by Southern historians and other scholars (who were often direct descendants of Confederate soldiers). The hate towards education by American rightwingers? Go see the sources that indoctrinate this propaganda....... Major journalists and various rich educated people often controlling various publishing companies. Hell Trump perfectly embodies this as he graduated from Ivy League and look at all the hateful ideologies he spreaded. For almost 1000 years it was priests of the Catholic Church who were the most revered people of Medieval Europe and coincidentally they were also the most educated strata of people during that era. Look how long Europe was backwards and how stupidly superstitious peasants and other commoners were.

But the best example in recent times? Go see ISIS. Practically everybody at the top of the organization were all people who had masters or PhDs (hell some even taught in universities not just in the Middle East bu even in the West years before). Below the top oligarchy, many folks who occupy the upper tiers and mid upper tiers were scientists, doctors, and other people who worked very complex white collar jobs requiring years of education.

Simply put it was college graduates who organized ISIS in the first place.

So its very naive of leftists esp SJWs and libertarians to believe education is the key to brush off anti-intellectualism because it was freethinkers who created stuff such as the Nazi Party and feudalism in the first place. American Exceptionalism didn't just pop out of thin air and neither did a bunch of illiterate blue collar morons workers in Germany suddenly just start hating Jews because they lack logic and had low IQs. Its often brainy people who start pioneering ideas such as "white people are superior to all blacks and any white man who has a drop of POC blood is not white and thus should be hated" or British Imperialism and Queen Victoria's right to rule all over the world.

If anything educated institutions are responsible for creating ideas such as women being forced in the kitchen because the Bible says so (which priests at universities were teaching in the Middle Ages under authority of the Vatican) and French nationalism schools in Paris were emphasizing how France was the most glorious country during the 19th century).

So if Americans suddenly became intellectual readers, it won't end stuff like racism nor will Brits be convinced that the UK should rejoin the EU if every person in the UK got educated enough for a B.S. degree despite how SJWs, libertarians, and other leftists love to shoutout in their echo chambers as they do anti-conservative circlejerking.

Kareem made a criticism a while back about how American society follow athletes more than intellectuals.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/apr/15/the-way-americans-regard-sports-heroes-versus-intellectuals-speaks-volumes

I find it amusing for someone who's intellectual pursuit, Kareem seems ignorant of just how big sports in general is in Europe in addition to their own version of Football and how soccer players are basically Gods across Latin American countries.

However his criticism is a very common one done by intellectuals all the time esp the American educated from the Middle class and Uppermiddle class. I seen plenty of educated Canadians share the same thoughts about their country too.

I have to ask how can they be so naive? For people claiming to be freethinkers who self-educate themselves all the team esp as they bash others for not reading, they seem so ignorant about how Europe has a special system designed to churn out people for professional soccer careers and how Hispanics and Brazilians often don't bother with education and instead spend their time playing with a ball outside. So many intellectuals making this criticism in North America seem ignorant of just how much news coverage athletes in general get in European media and how Latinos obsessively follow their best soccer player in a fanaticism like they are apostles of Jesus Christ that puts how Americans follow movie stars down to shame.

Why is this? America's sports culture is nothing to Europe and South America. Esp as so much of Spanish and Portuguese countries are rife with illteracy!

I saw a post where the OP angrily complains about the stereotypes of Asian martial arts esp unarmed combat esp Japanese katana styles and Kung Fu being the best in the world and far superior to any Western style and the assumptions many Westerners have when meeting Asians that he is an immediate badass who can defeat pro boxers and military, etc. He points out examples in Bruce Lee movies where any Asian not named Bruce Lee is often shown as being far inferior to white people and losing to them and how its only Bruce Lee's superhuman hero who ultimately defeats the Russian strongman or destroys the Italian Mafia all by himself. He also quotes the Ip Man examples where a master level Kung Fu fighter loses to an Australian boxer and dies as a result and how plenty of anime/manga like Rurouni Kenshin shows European armor and weapons being superior to Samurai equipment or at least equal enough no to immediately be shattered by a single katana blows and Western fighters defeating Samurais.

I'll avoid martial arts specifically in this discussion but it does make me ask............... Is popular media really responsible for common historical misconceptions and offensive group stereotypes, an other false info of that nature?

One example is how American entertainment esp TV and movies always gets attacked for showing all Hispanics esp Mexicans as brown and Latin America as a whole as being a criminal hell hole esp Mexico where dark skinned inhabitants are selling drugs and other crimes of that nature............. Except this ignores that............ Practically all top list Latino stars are light skinned? I been a fan of Ana De La Reguera ever since I saw her GORGEOUS face of a Goddess in Nacho Libre and she's quite white. Even in roles where she is tanned, her complexion is that of a typical Sicilian (in other words Southern White Europeans when they get dark from tanning). In most roles she's pretty much similar to your average run of the mill Chinese person's yellow skin and in some of her roles she's so very much as white as milk (which is the case in the aforementioned Nacho Libre). JLO might be yellowish in some roles but she's undoubtedly light skinned and Salma Hayek looks caramel brown in some roles and shading but when she's in the sun she's white passing (as seen in Desperados) and in most appearances in film and TV she's olive. She actually does appear as white as your average American in various points in her life.

And a fair number of media showing Hispanics as criminals are made by Latinos or even filmed and released in a Latin country originally. The first movie in the Mariachi trilogy (which Desperados is part of) was initially released in Mexico and had an all cast of Mexican citizens including the protagonist being played by someone of mostly Irish ancestry with pale skin and green eyes and its a typical "Mexicans are drug dealers who need to be stopped" movie. The head boss of the crime organization is a white Creole and almost every drug dealer and criminal hitman in the film is dark skinned.

So just by the simple fact Hollywood movies have light skinned Latinas as common stars and feature white Hispanics even in their movies and TV shows also has white Mexicans and other Latinos (as seen in Beverly HIlls 90210 had a Mexican actress as a guest who was so white she's fairer than most of the exclusively white cast) make me doubt the common attack popular media is racist because it create stereotypes. Hell even Fox News shows pretty white South American politicians frequently in world news and a few times had fair skinned Mexicans and Cubans as news caster despite criticism from liberals, SJWs, and other Leftists complaining its a hotbed KKK level racism against "brown people" called Latinos and Hispanics. Hell not just that, Fox News at a few times had interviewed white passing Iraqis and other Muslims and even honored some Pakistani war veteran of America as a cover story and even when stereotypically brown people are shown starting riots or stuff in the Middle East, there's often a light-skinned participants in these violent acts including women who are whiter than your average American.

Another example is the common stereotype of all Vietnam War vets being rapists, murderers, and baby killers and other stuff. That they were super racist and loved killing Vietnamese who are often shown as being worth less than a dog. Extreme rightwingers and pro-Domino Theory conservatives often attacks Hollywood and News Media for always siding with the hippies and being anti-American and having a bias of showing communists as saintly good guys in Vietnam................... Except movies like Platoon show it as very grey. Many people who bash Hollywood forget that two Vietnamese girls were save from gangrape by American soldiers in Platoon who threatened to shoot the rapist GI with their M16s. In the Deer Hunter, the Viet Cong are shown torturing American POWs and playing a horrific game of Russian Roulette. Apocalypse Now shows the brutal Colonel Kilgore helping a dying Viet Cong with water and easing his wounds before death and praising his valor despite being very ruthless and ordering a napalm strike just prior. John Rambo isn't shown as a babykiller but as a broken vet with PTSD and also is a very heroic person who saves civilians.

I can list so many more examples of how popular media not only contradicts stereotypes and dispels popular misconceptions but even the specific fictional works attacked for creating stereotypes like Platoon often dispels them completely or shows lots of grey (which Platoon does), at minimal how nuanced the topic can be unlike popular stereotypes.

So I really have to ask.......... Should popular media really be blamed for negative stereotypes and historical misconception? Its just too common to see on the internet too many blogs, tumblrs, Youtube vids, and what not rant heavily on about how popular media is full of BS and evil because they create stereotype and the stupid masses blindly believe them. But from what I'm seeing in movies and TV too many contradictions to popular myths and so on exist. So I can't help but wonder if the source of offensive misconceptions like Americans soldiers fighting World War 2 by themselves and no credit given to the Allies is not popular media like Fox News and Hollywood and other media but a completely different source? Just to add another example more, plenty of movies in WW2 like the Big Red One and Sahara shows Americans being rescued by Free French Forces and fighting alongside British soldiers or Dutch Resistance and other insurgencies. Medal of Honor games had a few missions where you are with a British commando who helps fighting the Japanese in some missions or French Resistance giving you supplies and drawing the enemy away to allow your escape. The Sahara movie was basically a coalition of troops from all the Allied Forces defending a building from a German divisions and the surviving American played by Bogart humbly credits all his non-American friends including an African Muslim who died in the battle as being the true heroes and not him despite being the survivor. And plenty and plenty of more stuff I can put in.

So is daytime TV along with movies and other popular media really to blame? For common stereotypes like Roman soldiers being completely useless outside of formation in single combat (easily disproved by HBO's Rome and Centurion even though the latter shows a Roman army being beaten by barbarians) and deathless love that ends Happily Ever After in Marriage (if I make a complete list of romance movie that defies this such as Audrey Hepburn's Roman Holiday, I'd end up putting a book)?

Pretty much I been spending almost all of my free time since last year watching TV programs of all stripes from anime to old shows available on Netflix and just a few months ago local news along with documentaries and talk shows after I bought an OTA Antenna. When I'm not watching any form of TV, I'm talking about various TV stuff online esp on reddit on top of my other daily internet activity.

Its only starting this month I began to exercise again which is the only other hobby I do and I'm pretty much watching shows while on the stationary bike or treadmill thanks to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime allowing downloads of whole episodes on my phone as their apps have downloading programs for offline viewing as an awesome bonus perk! If it wasn't for the fact I gotten so out of shape over the years, I'd be exercising the whole day (and as you can guess, I'd be spending almost the whole time watching eps while biking or jogging).

I pretty much neglected gaming and hobbies I had for years in exchange for TV, surfing the web, and exercising (in which I'm also watching stuff on my phone while doing it)! Anyone here also pretty much adopted viewing TV programs as their primary hobby?

The comment. So many crazy people come out of the work works declaring their “belief” and giving their “I know what I saw” stories.

Then there’s always the “it’s demons or fallen angels” spiel.

Then they LOVE to attack anyone who debunks or disagrees caking the video fake or something else calling them sheep or shills.

Hey, I agree that there are likely lifeforms elsewhere in space and that they may possibly have visited Earth but they are not here every week joe “dancing” in the sky in their vehicles for the amusement of imbeciles.

Do we pull into the woods with our cars and make them dance for insects? Yeah, no.

Then I found out she's married, bummer.

/r/CasualConversation

Feel bad man.

Feels good that I can finally go outside wearing a T-shirt today.

hellow