Cynique

Really? This wasn't true during The Depression which ended in the 1940s when WW II began and bolstered the economy. And this business about living the America dream sure wasn't true about black folks living on one salary. Most black women did work outside the home if they wanted all of these amenities you mentioned. They toiled as maids and in factories or on civil service jobs if they didn't have a profession. Plus, home loans weren't that easy to secure because banks discriminated against blacks. Vacations? The black version of a summer vacation was driving down south - or up north to visit relatives. 2 cars? Not on one salary. Things did gradually get better after the civil rights movement around the '70s. Life was different from today and various scenarios came into play among the masses, depending where they lived. But progress brought with it a new set of problems, more stressful ones. When people became more affluent they wanted to give their kids all of the advantages they as parents never had. Unfortunately, this idea spawned a generation of pampered brats who grew up with a sense of entitlement and inflated self esteem. Once they went out into the real world, the frustration began and as computerization dehumanized things the problems expanded. Maybe the tide will turn when the offspring of today's phone junkies grow up, decide to reject their parents' lifestyles and get back to basics, detaching themselves from hand-held devices and abandoning social media. Who knows? Perhaps modern society will simply implode, return to square one and get it right this time.

In my world, i am not around people who are shackled to their phones. I don't hang out with young folks, and the older ones I come in contact with are not obsessed with their phones. My grandchildren put their phones down long enough to update me on everything going on in their lives when they drop in for visits. That's pretty much the same with my kids. I don't know what they do elsewhere but I'm sure they are typical in their phone habits. So, as a senior citizen, i am not someone to testify about peoples' obsessions with their phones. Everybody says this is a terrible thing but i think this situation is the inevitable consequence of advancing technology. Maybe this generation wouldn't be so eager to escape into the cyber universe of social media if the real world was a better place. And i'm still not convinced that people are totally clueless about the misleading hype of news reporting. They just don't care. They blow it off. They prefer exhilaration and instant gratification to the alternative of drab disciplined ordinary lives. They don't want bread, they want cake. They don't want water, they want sparkling champagne. Fake news amuses them. When they get old, then they become more sensible and discerning. Such is life.

Uh-uh. Your teenie-weenie is tailor-made for whipping out in public, not to mention your lewd mentality.

The same reason when a track star breaks the record for the 100 yard dash. It deserves special attention. Chicagoland today is literally a ghost town. Shut down. Frozen stiff. OHare and Midway airports at a stand still, the polar bears at Brookfield Zoo have disappeared from view. No Postal, UPS FedEx deliveries. all schools closed just to name a few of the services and businesses and public offices that are all shut down. People know this because the TV stations are making these interesting facts known. It figures that you would try to down play the situation because if an event doesn't register with your frozen brain, you think it should be ignored. If Farrakhan came outside and saw his shadow, you would pee on yourself and beg him to look at how extraordinary your frozen urine looks. None. Everybody is free to ignore what's going on in the world around them and content themselves with focusing on whatever else scares them shitless.

@NubianFellowMay i ask how old you are?

The same reason people who have never flown in a plane, are interested when a plane crashes. It's out of the ordinary. It's news. People like the ones you describe, those who don't care about such things get what they deserve if the choose to connect themselves with places that disperse noteworthy events. Who's any more of a fear monger than people like you who are constantly bombarding others with warnings about the dire circumstances of being brainwashed.

Every local news program has a weather forecast, rain or shine. People tune to their favorite news channels routinely every day and watch this segment. Even if this wasn't the case, extraordinary weather is "news" so why wouldn't it be covered?? You guys are so quick to remind me that everybody is not like me. You also might consider that everybody isn't like you, either. Many are able to survive adequately without being in a constant state of suspicion and paranoia, ever on the lookout for sinister forces tracking your every move in order to control your mind - something you know about because you are "in the know". Wooooo. Maybe you ought to learn how to tune out what you don't want to hear on the news, - like people with average intelligence do. You apparently aren't doing it because you are too busy listening to what you don't want to hear.

What is to be gained by the media misleading people about the weather?? When it comes to weather, we live in the moment.

Reality doesn't have to be an object; it can be an intangible fact that is deduced from mathematics. Perception is an impression that originates in the mind's eye. IMO.

@Pioneer1Don't sweat it. 😀

Puleeze. You're the last person in the world who comes to my mind when i think of education. You still can't figure out that it's "etc", not "ect" or spell common words correctly, an indication of how disoriented your bird brain is. Good thing nobody takes you seriously.

Yep, Chicagoland is in the depths of a deep freeze. Brrrr. For Millennials it's the coldest weather they've ever experienced.

@DelFetuses are not considered people but they are legally recognized in certain cases as persons after the first trimester of a pregnancy. And, like Troy says, Catholics specifically and many other religious folks believe life begins at conception; others don't.

@NubianFellowOK, we cool. 😗 @DelI was a wife, but i aint never worn one. 🤤

No, a man dresssed as a magician appearing on a stage is performing a trick. If everybody in the audience perceives this, then this is really happening. 🤩

Does one 6-month pregnant woman plus another 6-month pregnant woman equal 4 persons? 😮

@Troy I guess you missed this paragraph that appeared in my response to you in the "black woman are beautiful" thread. I wrote: "Excuse me, while I go look out the window at the pure snow that is inundating my environment as the temperatures plunge into record-breaking sub-zero degrees. They're talking about it on the TV, brainwashing the dumb audience with subliminal suggestions in order to make them think they need shovels." 😝

Perception is real, whether what you perceive is accurate has to involve a consensus of other witnesses. The Wizard of Oz came out in 1939 at the end of The Depression, and it doesn't turn into technicolor until Dorothy wakes up in OZ where the tornado has blown her. The movie starts out in sepia color. I saw the first release of it in 1939 when i was a little girl.

I am a little miffed that you would request an explanation for something that is so obvious. In spite of your opinion, head wraps are not my thing. I wouldn't be caught dead wearing one. They are what's comical to me. The wigs i wear replicate the way i wore my natural hair. But since i am now old and retired i don't spend a lot of time or money fussing with my hair and i take the easy way out. I am well aware of your fixation on the significance of black women wearing their hair natural in order to make a defiant statement to the white world but, as previously mentioned, i don't relate to Afro-centrism and feel no obligation to do so. To me, it's a superficial affectation. I prefer to debate white folks when it comes to black grievances, not parade around showing off my frizzy tresses expecting them to be be filled with respect. And , yes, rejecting natural hair is, indeed, about going with the flow - of manageable hair as opposed battling unruly kinks. If that offends you, sorry. I do me, because i am who i am; my own individual. Below are pictures of me in wigs. The color of my hair is now gray which is as natural, as i get. And if the way i look in my wigs offends you, well so be it.

So i was brainwashed into buying a wig whose convenience has been well worth the purchase. Gullible me. Well, you are the one who decided to use a phone as an example. Choose your examples better and don't depend upon me to read your mind. I was speaking about this panel. Until Chevdove joined in, everybody who discussed and agreed upon this subject was a guy except me. And nobody said the subject wasn't important. But it is worth noting that no one came up with a viable solution. Just redundant conversation between people commiserating with each other. And i ask you, when has brainwashing not existed? It is interchangeable with exploitation, indoctrination, and propaganda. We are just being subjected to a version of it that is aligned with the times. Brainwashing is a consequence of living in a capitalistic consumer society. And i'm sure you will agree that it will be the source of our doom! But continue the dialogue. Since it's such a effective tool, maybe this brain trust can come up with a way to brainwash the people who are brainwashing the masses. Whatever. Excuse me, while I go look out the window at the pure snow that is inundating my environment as the temperatures plunge into record-breaking sub zero degrees. They're talking about it on the TV, brainwashing the dumb audience with subliminal suggestions in order to make them think they need shovels. 😬 I am leaving this discussion in Chevdove's hands. She is doing a good job of giving it a woman's perspective.

Does brainwashing always exploit people? if they are seduced into buying something which brings them a lot of enjoyment and fulfillment, how bad is that? Does anybody have to be brainwashed into buying a convenience like a phone? Who is brainwashing the person when they can't part with the phone? Simple explanations for complicated problems don't always jibe. Talk is cheap. When all this gaseous garrulousness dissipates, what remains? A group of guys in agreement, brainwashed by each other's rhetoric with no way to make things different Do i care? Umm, not really. Gotta go wash the over abundant crop of hair blooming on my head. My granddaughter is coming to corn row it so the wig that saves me time and money and that i was undoubtedly brainwashed into buying, will fit better when i go out into the world. Okaaaay? 😜

@Pioneer1Well, you certainly set a fine example. Being a fool is the only thing you excel at, - except for suckling milk out of Neely Fuller's nipples.

Sez you, - the well known authority on nothing, using your personal definitions to try and prove your point; as usual

Well, obviously that's because i disagreed with his revering instead of shattering a long held belief about black hair as opposed to his discrediting religion's sacro-sanc status, something i agree with. Actually, "iconoclasm" works better as an adjective, as in "iconoclastic"; iconoclasm as a noun is what an iconoclastic person embraces when they shatter sacrosanct things. i don't think anybody, including me, completely practices iconoclasm. We all have certain conventional tenets we don't attack. @NubianFellow Well, if this conversation isn't about hair, i couldn't tell it by reading all of your posts wherein you obsess and rhapsodize ad infinitum about the glory of African hair, your effusive praise accompanied by pictures to illustrate your point, while I'm the one who is asking what's the big deal about hair. Yet you and Troy insists this discussion is really about the masses being dominated and manipulated by America's powerful one-percenters. So what else is new? That's the name of the game in a capitalistic system. Corporations and the media sell happiness and escapism and people buy this because it improves the quality of their mundane lives. You lament that a little black girl wants to grow up and look like a white fairy princess. Why wouldn't she when fairy princesses are better off than African queens in this country? You can't fix all the ills of this world. But you can adjust and adapt. And it's not like Black people in America don't have a heritage that embraces their tenure in this country. Their creative women figured out ways to tame their hard-to-manage hair, and hairdressers with their straightening combs and curling irons and beauty shops hold a fond place in black culture. Madame C.J. Walker amassed a fortune catering to her black sisters. Furthermore, there are still a lot of things about themselves that black woman won't change or emulate. They've still got attitude and confidence to spare. Actually black people in general don't really worship and revere white folks; they just envy all the advantages that they have. It's presumptuous to think they are all bamboozled and brain washed. They're surviving and are not totally ignorant or lacking in self-esteem. But i guess it's imperative to claim this when beating your breast on top of a soap box. None of this, however, detracts from your being a good guy. That permeates your words. @TroyPerms and weaves damaging the hair is probably why extensions and wigs are replacing them. Extensions are what are used to implement braided styles which are very popular, and wigs nowadays are so perfected, replete with hair lines and parts that look so natural you can't tell they aren't real. (And, don't fool yourself, natural hair requires a lot of care and attention and products to maintain. )

.....wanna try me? @Pioneer1If you kept me in check, you would silence me, not spur me to keep disputing you.